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Vermont Witchcamp 2025!

August 16th - 23rd

The Magick Garden Of Possibility:

Resilience and Community Care

With our many voices, ready hands and open hearts, we enter the garden, ready to deeply listen, share, and work together to tend and build on our personal and collective resilience. Together, we celebrate the soul of nature through our joyful rituals of love, pleasure, and care.

Many voices across the realms make a conversation.  Many hands make light work.  Many beings make a community.  This year’s theme and story delve deeply into the myriad ways we learn, grow, share our stories, and celebrate our community.  Join us as we add to our magickal toolboxes, build relationships with other beings, plant the seeds, and build our garden temples for a brighter, more vital world.  We are the ones we have been waiting for. Once upon a time…..

The Magick Garden Of Possibility

(Inspired by, and with many elements of the Kazakh tale “The Magic Garden of the Poor”, but with many original new bits)

Once upon a time, a time long ago, a time yet to come, there were two people who lived side by side. One of them was a farmer, for her land was rich and fertile and she grew and tended many crops. Her neighbor’s land was very rocky and the soil was poor. Because of this he raised sheep who seemed to thrive on the rugged grass and enjoy clambering over the rocky crests. The two neighbors were friends and they lived well side by side, exchanging herbs and vegetables for wool and cheese.

Time passed. One year a strange sickness swept through the shepherd’s flock and despite everything he could think of to heal them, they all died. After a time, he realized he could no longer afford to live on the land without the sheep to provide for him. With sadness he went to his neighbor and told her he was leaving. He would travel to the city and see if he could find work there, and if not at least he could perhaps beg on the streets where many wealthy people lived who might take pity on him.

The farmer was heartbroken to think of her dear friend leaving and possibly living on the streets. And so she said:

"You must not leave. I will give you half my land and you can become a farmer and we will farm side by side and continue on as friends and neighbors."

At first the shepherd refused. He could not let his friend give up so much for him. But she insisted, saying giving up on their friendship would be a far bigger sacrifice.

And so he stayed. And they divided the land and the sheepherder became a farmer and they lived happily side by side again for several years.

Then one day the shepherd-turned-farmer was digging in the field and he uncovered a chest full of gold. With great delight he ran to his friend’s house crying: 
"Look! Look! You are wealthy! See what I have found!"

When the farmer saw the gold she said:
"No my friend, it is you that is wealthy for it was on your land that you found the gold!"

The shepherd-turned-farmer replied:
"Yes but had you known there was gold on your land, surely you would not have given it away."

The two friends went back and forth and for the first time in their long friendship they began to quarrel. Finally the s-t-f said:
"We mustn’t continue to argue like this. Let us take the gold to the wise one in the village and see what they think we should do."

The farmer agreed and so the two neighbors took the gold to the village green where they found the wise one sitting with several of their students. They presented them with the situation. The wise one, seeing this as a great opportunity to test their students, turned to the four young people on the grass and asked what each would do.

The first student said immediately:
"The one who found the gold should keep it. Finder’s keepers."

The wise one began to frown. They looked at the second student.

The second student thought for a moment and then said:
"The farmer was generous enough to share her land with her neighbor so in good conscience the gold should be returned to her."

The wise one continued to frown and looked to the third student.

The third student pondered the situation for a time and then said: 
"All the land actually belongs to the Khan so the gold should be taken to the city and given to the crown."

The wise one really frowned at this response and turned to the fourth and youngest student.

Now, the youngest student was a girl who was not exactly unwelcome in the village but most of the villagers thought her somewhat odd. She wandered often in the woods talking to the trees and the animals, collecting flowers and mushrooms and strange mosses and stones. She was fond of singing without words and her voice was so lovely that the birds would fly down and join her with their trills and calls. She would leave gifts on folks’ porches when they were ill or feeling down, bouquets of wildflowers, fortifying mushrooms, pretty sparkly stones. Indeed she had an uncanny knack for knowing when someone might need just such a little pick me up. And she was always trying to tell a story: 
"Once upon a time there was a garden where anything would grow. A garden of possibility…" 

But the villagers were usually too busy or too disinterested to listen to the rest.

Sensing now, that this was an amazing opportunity for her dream, the youngest student said:
"I think we should plant a magick garden of possibility. We should use the gold to purchase land and seeds and tools and we should create this garden. It will be a place where those who are lost can come home to. A place where those who are lonely can come and find company. Where those who are grieving can come and find comfort. All manner of things will grow there and it will be a place of beauty and joy and sustenance and hope."

At this the wise one smiled broadly.

“What an idea!” They said. You shall take the gold and make this happen!

The two neighbors were delighted to place the gold in the young girl’s hands and be part of making this magical dream come to pass.

And so the youngest student set out with the gold toward the great city where she could purchase tools and seeds and all manner of things to make this dream of hers come to life and on the way she would look for a piece of land to purchase for the purpose of planting a Magick Garden of Possibility…

Come manifest this dream with us!
What story do you have to tell?
What seeds are you planting?
What skills are you seeking to learn or develop to bring with you into the wider world?
We have many Garden Paths to explore this year!

To discover more about this year’s path offerings and teachers, go to our
Path Offerings Page

To learn about this year’s approach to ritual facilitation and the arch of the week, go to our Ritual Facilitation Team Page

To register for camp, get started on our
Registration Page