We are delighted to announce that the sixth DragonRise Witchcamp will take place from Wednesday 7th August to Sunday 11th August 2019 to be held at the glorious Druid-owned Wildways on the Borle – the site of our fifth camp, and for now our permanent home.

With a host of furious fancies
Whereof I am commander,
With a burning spear and a horse of air,
To the wilderness I wander.

Have you ever been an outsider? Have you ever wanted to be truly wild?

In a dream, a dark-blue-skinned woman appears, fierce, cunning, and wise. She whispers, “There is a place beyond this village, beyond the known. Some are driven there through injustices, some drawn by their very natures, and others still are called there by the more-than-human world. This place you might call the wild. It is both inside and outside of you”. You now remember the green bloods and the rocks and the stones and the rolling hills. Can you hear their call?

You run away into the wild green and the black. You know that the heath and the forest are full of terrors, and the meres and pools are inhabited by spirits – there are tree-people; the sylphs of air and undines of water, dryads and the ancestral dead; the shape-shifters; wights and marsh beings and some that simply look like mist – yet still you go. What makes you run? What are you afraid of? What are you running towards?

Feet stepping into the forest, you are far from alone in this landscape of spirits – some friend, some foe – and others still indifferent to the human- all very much alive. After a while you sense you are being followed. You try to hide but still something follows. Finally you call for help and then immediately a being appears. They ask a riddle and tell you to wait and think before answering. They will ask for the answer later. If you are wrong there will be a price. Can you trust them? You agree and, eventually, the being consents to be your Ally and a compact is made.

The Ally shows you; how to make talismans and fetishes; the songs of entry to the land; how to be stealthy as the wild ones are; how to make offerings to your ancestors; how to camouflage yourself and warns you to make sure you partake of no stranger’s hospitality (lest it bind you). The Ally explains the importance of cunning. They are your Guide and they take you to meet monsters, gods and spirits, shapeshifters and hags – some of the terrible beings of this place – and experience their mystery.

Later in the thick of the forest, emboldened by your journey, you will be taken by the Ally to meet the terrible Lord of the Greenwood, the Watcher in the Woods, the Leader of the Wild Hunt, the Hooded Man, Wild Edric – however you know him – and you are questioned by him.

And then, in the caves below the earth, meet Annis – Black Annis the terrible one, the slayer of men; the dark one on the edges of the fields; the dark one glimpsed in the smoke from the fire; the dark one moving like a shadow in the rain.  After all of any of these interactions, will you be an Outlaw for the Wild? Will you weave the thread of your life together with the Wild, with these Beings? Wolfs Head, Warlock, Witch, Outlaw, Forest or Cave Dweller or Something altogether different – you can now be Ally for others, refreshed and renewed in your connection with the living Earth and her Spirits. Give thanks to the Old Ones and Celebrate!

 

The Ally will ask you for the answer to a riddle….  Will you be ready?