So this year was my first “big” clan camp event. I got 1* my first year at clamp, a smaller affair with a few of our Ohio cousins, and we’ve had Sphinx-centric clamps since. Until this year, that is. This year, all that changed. All the clans, all the covens, five years apart, all together, all at once.
Never have I been amidst so many fantastic caring folks, around so much genuine love and mutual respect, and never have I felt so very much at home, within the larger Clan, of whom I’d only heard about and never even seen in a photo. Those who’ve been before have said that the winds have changed, and that there has been a lot of healing and renewal, and the road is clear for growth and kinship. It certainly feels that way to me. I met and connected online with many names with which I now have faces to match, and formed some hopefully enduring acquaintances and friendships. Only time will tell, of course, but I hope to keep in touch and renew the bonds in 2 or 4 years, at the next big’un.
I had a great chat with a great clan co-head from up north. We talked about how we’d gotten to where we are in the Clan and in life, the gods, the kids, the weather, the fire, all that. I shared a couple of uncertainties and lines of self-questioning I wrestle with, and was delightedly surprised to learn that, even though his path has taken a much different route than mine has, he has wrestled with many of the same issues, come out the other side, and his advice was maddeningly simple and spot-on: Talk to your facilitator or clan head, and talk to the gods. The thing most witches need to remember is after you talk, be silent and listen.
That’s the message I’m taking from my First Big Clan Camp. Talk, laugh, yell, rant, chant, shout, ask, sing, cry… but then be silent and listen. The best answers often come in soft voices at quiet times. So mote it be.
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