Seraphina

Steeped in the magical riches of life from an early age, I continue to enjoy and treasure the powerful teachings of my pagan grandparents. Devoted to Artemis from the age of 12, each day brings new and liberating teachings in Knowing the Wild, claiming one's personal authority, delighting in sacred sexuality, and nurturing a mystical connection to plants and animals. I live on a beautiful island off the coast of Vancouver Canada; an island that is known as the isle of apples for having over 300 heirloom varieties of apples that grow abundantly and are central to many fabulous rituals in the local witches community. I feel passionate about witching the world awake through ancestral healing, practices of ecstatic joy, rubbing up against our edges and composting beliefs systems that do not serve us; and cultivating beauty and delight in the mundane world as an act of magical transformation.

Everyday I am humbled and awed by the elementals in my day job of practicing homeopathy, herbal medicine, and assisting new babies coming into the world. As I find myself returning year after year, I consider California Witchcamp my home camp, a place that I have met and continue to cultivate deep relationships and joy-filled community. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to expand my Witchcamp world and be welcomed to Winter camp. I am captivated by Idunna and Her Apples, and look forward to exploring Her teachings with each of you!

Copper Persephone

In 2004 Freyja called me to Winter Witchcamp and I have been walking a devotional path with both ever since. This camp is my spiritual home and I feel so grateful to be teaching here.

I have been a practicing witch: doing ritual, performance and community organizing/activist work for over 20 years. I walk a spiritual path devoted to erotic and ecstatic communion with spirit in all of its faces and forms and am called to helping others to experience immanence through many roads including tantric practice and shamanic journey work. I have been facilitating workshops in leadership and personal growth for many years as well as teaching Reclaiming classes since 2001 and at Witchcamps since 2003. Trained as a Drama Therapist, I am particularly drawn to Shadow work and creating masks.

Living in Boulder Creek, California for many years - I was a part of co-founding Earth Dancer Circle and Coven which hosted classes, workshops and open rituals. Now I am doing similar work in Sebastopol, California, connecting new extended family and clan webs with the humans and the mysterious ones.

Donald Engstrom-Reese

I describe myself as an artist, gardener, Heathen and Witch. I have been consciously involved with Mystery and the Spirit Peoples for over thirty years. My roots spring from the balance between the wild and the domestic, art, gardening, Queer Spirit, Hedge Witchery, runes, hiking, deep dreaming, shamanic visioning, cooking, clan-hold magics and the exploration of the sacred realms of sex and pleasure. I am committed to the building and nurturance of the emerging Cultures of Beauty, Balance and Delight. I suspect that it is high time that we choose to take on the continual acts of creation needed to build these sustainable ways of life. I know in my bones and blood, that we all have the power to bring these emerging cultures into our daily lives. I also know that we are all Shapers-with (Co-creators) of the Multiverse. I am no longer willing to wait for some nebulous future revolution to begin to live a life fully awake, aware and rooted in the Earth, embracing pleasure, love and wonder.

In short, after all of these years of spirit work, I only, truly know these two things;

Change is the only constant in the multiverse.
Love and compassion are central to everything.

Some of the Mysterious Ones that are part of my day to day life are Freya, Bridget, Idunna, and the Queer Gods: Purple God, Green God, Golden God and Singing Bear. One of my current understandings around the Mysterious Ones and the Ancestors, is that some of Them are members of my family, hearth-clan and tribe. Others are dear friends and allies. And some of Them are teachers from other clans, tribes and worlds, who come to teach me special lessons. My relationships with the Mysterious Ones become more rich and complicated the older I get, not unlike my relationships to the human beings with whom I interact on our Good Green Earth. I am coming to understand this as yet one more expression of

as above, so below,
as below, so above.

May we all dare to dwell in Beauty, Balance and Delight.
Bless the Bees.
Bless the Bears.
Bless the Apple Trees.

Dwynnwyn

Hailing from the rain forests of Canada's west coast, I am a wife and mother devoted to integrating my spiritual practice into my parenting, family life and work with young children. Enkindled by my families and communities, both dance and spiritual; I am fed by my creative connection to the Divine on a daily basis. My desire is to inspire people to find their joys and passions, to deepen their connection with the Goddess and to the sacred in their every day life. I love to laugh, sing, drum and belly dance and partake in all manners of mirthful revelry.

I have been actively involved in the Vancouver Reclaiming Community for around five years now in various manners; planning public rituals, priestessing rituals, co-teaching classes. I also enjoy being involved in starting up various local community building projects such as a fund raising craft market, public book circle and our Vancouver community website. I feel so blessed to have had the amazing experience of student teaching at my home British Columbia Witchcamp for the past few years, and it was because of my experiences with Freya at BC camp in 2006 that She lead me to Winter Witchamp. BCWC may be my home community, but Winter Witchcamp is my home away from home and it is both an honor and a gift to return to WWC this year as a student teacher on this talented team.

River Roberts

I have two memories of Winter Witchcamp that have been forever etched in my mind: a labyrinth of snow, icicles, and soft candlelight under a full moon, and one of the most welcoming and amazing communities I’ve had the good fortune to be in sacred space with. It’s been a few years, but I am absolutely thrilled to be returning to Winter Witchcamp. I’m a Nebraskan who transplanted herself to Chicago about eight years ago. Though I miss the Great Plains, I love urban living and the members of my local community. My teaching schedule keeps me on the road a great deal – most often as a staff member at Diana’s Grove, a retreat center in the Ozarks on land dedicated to personal work, community building, and professional training in an Earth-based spiritual context. (http://www.dianasgrove.com) I mentor members of the Grove’s leadership training programs in ritual arts, among other things. Ritual is my first love – particularly ritual that values community and a full-bodied connection with the divine. I’m a singer and drummer (primarily West African drums, but I’m an equal-opportunity percussionist.) I also am a professional tarot reader and tarot numerology geek. Don’t be surprised if you find me adding up the numbers on your license plate to find the archetypal meaning behind your Toyota. My other obsessions: astrology, writing, and New York Times crossword puzzles. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to reconnecting with the community I’ve been away from for far too long!

Matt Sweet

I am excited and grateful to be returning to teach at Winter Witchcamp again this year. I believe that magic is about creating and tending relationships--with other humans, other beings, ourselves, the land, and the Mysterious Ones. I look forward to building new relationships and strengthening old ones. I am passionate about ritual and other ecstatic arts, and my spiritual practice seeks to cultivate an on-going state of wonder. The rest of the year, I live near Detroit with my partner, two cats, three chickens and a small garden. I am a psychotherapist by trade, and I am blessed to be able to facilitate classes and create ritual with Trillium Reclaiming in Southeast Michigan. Personally, I like dark chocolate, black coffee, community building, afternoon naps, drumming, and mixed martial arts.