CloudCatcher WitchCamp - Reclaiming Tradition Australia

Ever since I can remember I have identified as being magickal. I remember I was made to go to church with the neighbours when I was younger and thinking why on earth do people do this? I enjoyed the occasional story but even at 6 years old, I knew the church was not for me. It wasn't something I articulated, it was just something I felt.

So when I discovered a more magickal path when I was a teenager I felt like I had found Home. I had no guidance and did not really dedicate myself to learning more but it was always there and I always identified with being called a Witch. I kind of just stumbled along blindly, fumbling my way through the dark and learning what I could when I felt like it with no real passion or pursuance. I am what could be called a solitary practitioner. I'm not much of a rules person and I often find myself wanting to do things differently to the prescribed method, so solitary practice works best for me even if a part of me yearned for connection with a bigger body of like-souled energies. Yet I never actively sought it.

Then one day, I don't even remember how I found it but I stumbled upon CloudCatcher WitchCamp and I felt like something inside me had been ripped wide open. I felt like maybe I had found my home within a larger home. I try not to wonder why it took so long for the Reclaiming Tradition to enter into my field. I deeply believe in Divine Timing so I trust that I needed to become who I was before I found the Reclaiming Tradition but now I have found it and I fell in love.

I went to my first CloudCatcher WitchCamp in 2019. The theme was that of Ereshkigal and Innana, traversing the underworld and returning anew. I definitely returned anew. I didn't quite make it out of the underworld, I got stuck at the second last gate but it felt like that is the closest I have ever been, for I feel like I was born in the underworld, it is so familiar to me. I felt quite devastated that I didn't make it all the way out but on the flip side I felt grateful I got as far as I did. Even if I didn't make it through the last couple gates out of the underworld, I still came back to the Muggle World changed. It is impossible to go through a WitchCamp and come back unchanged. Transformation happens, whether it's subtle or not so subtle. I would have done it again in 2020 if not for COVID but alas.

This year, 2021, CloudCatcher has been offered online. I admit to being unsure how that might work or what that might look like and how potent it will be but even after the short little snippets I've experienced so far on Day One, I have no doubt it will be just as powerful as an in-person camp. Just as confronting. Just as challenging, for me. CloudCatcher WitchCamp 2021 has the theme of Iron into Pearl and the paths (essentially experiential teachings) are all core classes in the Reclaiming Tradition this year. The first one you must take is the Elementals Path, which I experienced in 2019 with two amazing teachers, Jarrah and Jack. I was familiar with a lot of what was taught but that is just the intellectual part, there is nothing that can adequately describe the spiritual, mental, emotional journey of going through the Elementals class. So I'm excited this camp to finally get to do the Iron Pentacle core class. I heard about it shortly after camp 2019 and immediately knew I had to do it. I expect it to be incredibly challenging, incredibly confronting and also incredibly transformative. I am both excited and trepidatious. I will be guided through the Iron Pentacle by Tracey Cathcart and SusanneRae. I'm so looking forward to learning from these humans!

I love the Reclaiming Tradition. It is so respectful and inclusive and honouring of the individual. So, for the first five days of this blog-a-thon for the month of April, I hope to be writing about the camp and my own personal journey as I traverse it. I hope you will witness me as I go along and challenge my conditioning, strengthen my boundaries, push beyond my comfort zone and stretch myself into a new way of being.

 So today, Day One, is about orienting ourselves to camp. It's about checking in, meeting each other, meeting the orgs, catching up with old friends if you have them, it's about coming together as a large collective of witches, stepping in between the worlds for 5 days and performing magic that changes all the worlds for the better, including ourselves. After dinner is our first camp ritual that creates a sacred container that we are held within for the entirety of camp. We create small sacred spaces within smaller groups and within the larger group throughout the camp but this first ritual is about creating the safe, sacred container to carry our collective energies through the entire camp. It comes with energies passed along from each camp that came before and at the end, we pass along the energy gathered amongst us at this camp to the next camp along the web of life. It is power and potent stuff.

At camp, we often have a number of altars set up in the Ritual Hall. However being online this year, we are each building our own personal altars to add to the collection of altars built. Here are some photos of my starting altar. It may very well grow throughout camp, change, the altar may alter as the energies weave and create new pathways, neural, energetic, physical. The altar, much like the individual, is a living thing.

If you would like to learn more about CloudCatcher WitchCamp or the other Reclaiming WitchCamps across the globe you can start at www.cloudcatcherwitchcamp.com.au and go from there.

In the first ritual, a potent question arose and I'd like to ask it of you now.

What is your deepest desire in this moment of your life?

Mine is connection. Connection to others, connection to the planet and most of all connection to myself. I would love to hear yours.