LoveLore and the Reclaiming Witches Team invite you to join us for a one-week-long journey (October 29th to November 4th, 2022) at a beautiful castle, with lake and Celtic mound in the Ardennes.

Let us be poor

in all but truth, and courage

handed down

by the old

spirits.

Let us be intimate with

ancestral ghosts

and music

of the undead.

The Mound

The Mound stands witness, as it has for two thousand years. It whispers to you; of healers and midwives, of fisherfolk and hunters, of  children and of their ancient ancestors, and  of buzzard and stork, of boar and owl, of  the ancient bear, of salmon, of deer, of wolf and fox. It whispers to you of stands of hazel and oak, of pine and birch, of deep waters and clear springs. It whispers of the old Gods and Goddesses, of the Fae, the Good Folk, the spirits and mysteries of this place. All these it has seen.

It whispers of offerings and sacrifice, of ecstasy and the slow wheeling of the stars at night. It whispers of festivals and giving thanks. It whispers of the white moon reflected in the water. It whispers of laughter and love, of music and firelight. It whispers of the sacred sap and of the bodies of the living which become the earth on which we stand. It whispers of the green leaves fluttering in the wind. 

And, it whispers of time turned again – of the now that repeats – again and again – the ongoing destruction of the wild things and of the land, and of the resistance to it. It whispers of a need and a yearning to understand this place, this earth, as sacred again. 

The Journey

You come here at the time of year when the veils between the reality of our consensual world and the other worlds that surround and interface with it, are thin. You come here at the time when it is easiest to make contact with the dead, with our ancestors and with otherworldly spirits.  You understand that this undertaking requires guidance and safety. You connect with the ancient ones of this place (deities once known to the Tribes in this area), and they agree to protect you and take you to meet the other spirits.

You are shown how to make offerings and sacrifices, you are shown how to connect with the non-human world – the world of the beasts, of the folk and of the mysteries and in the background the Mound continues to whisper:

‘There is a need for justice’.

Commemoration

It whispers ‘Remember! Listen! If you listen you can hear the voices. Remember those who went before. Remember the animals were once sacred to you, remember your relationship with the spirits, the folk and with the small mysteries. Remember the ancestors who were victims of injustice.

Connection

It whispers ‘Are you willing to understand yourself as part of the Earth? To connect with it? Will you connect with those gone before and those denied?

Collective

It asks you to join with others. ‘Will you raise your voices with them,’ celebrate with them, fight injustice with them? Will you help protect this world?

Compassion

It asks you to remember the suffering of those that went before and those that are struggling to survive, and the forgotten and abandoned.

Continuity

It asks you to realise that you too will be an ancestor and part of the very earth on which you walk. Understand this earthly connection. It asks that you, once again, celebrate, the turning of the wheel of the year, the turning of the seasons and sing the note of the Earth.

Your pact

Together we reject soulless profit as a motive for living, and the commercialisation that destroys the rainforest;  treats animals as factors of profit, or something to be hunted for sport; pollutes our air and waters. We seek something else – the sense of conjoined spirit, of community with living things and with the Earth. 

We can stick to the old paradigm, keep protesting in the same ways and hope for the best. Or we can acknowledge the crisis [and] embark on… a spiritual insurrection… a shift away from materialist theories of social change towards a spiritual understanding of revolution.

The Invitation

We invite you to open your consciousness via ritual and connection to experience deeper ways of seeing, being and doing.

There is a temple I know whose roof is made of sky.
On its ceiling are painted clouds and stars
And the rooms and corridors are made of leaves and branches;
Its doors are open to all people, day and night…

Will you come with me to that fountain now
And fill your cup of longing from this endless, untamed spring?