Fall Plans for Spring Things

Blessings, Dear Friends and Family of Wolvenwold!!!

In these delightfully crispy cool fall months, when we are experiencing the magickal crackle of the hearth fires, planning family feasts, get togethers and holiday celebrations, my mind turns inward, and begins plotting and planning, as is usual for myself, and others at Wolvenwold this time of the year.

Today, my mind is on future workshops, weekend retreats and intensives coming up at Wolvenwold in the spring (or earlier) of 2012.  There will be so many fine and fun things for us to learn together; seminars on earth friendly building methods (cob, strawbale, cordwood, earthbags, and many more), permaculture in general, passive heating and cooling techniques, organic gardening, solar panel building, beekeeping, brewing, cooking, preserving, cob oven construction and bread making, tree house construction, musical interests, theatre, woodworking, and homestead arts and crafts (to include all SORTS of goodies, TBA real soon on our website!!!  For example, to tempt you... we’ll do things like these real soon: soapmaking, cheese making, beeswax creations, sewing, unique and cool clothing, upcycled and recycled crafts, ornaments, painting, drawing, children’s things, and so much, much more, and these will even begin as early as this fall, perhaps later this month, or as soon as we are ready for them), and oh, the possibilities from here are just endless!  Thus far, we have about six or seven weekend events in the process of being created.  Many more will come.  Education, hands on learning, teaching, and fellowship geared toward a better, greener future for all of us... THIS is the new future of Wolvenwold!

Already, we have quite a few capable hosts (and are seeking just a few more!) who are organizing and planning their weekends, working on schedules and web updates, gathering materials and getting things in order to share their knowledge with you.  It is time to learn how to be self-sustainable, good people!  What better place to do it, than on 166 acres of safe, sacred, peaceful and spiritual land?  Here, we will learn together under the sun, moon and stars, in harmony with Nature Herself, feel the breezes blowing through our minds and over our bodies as we learn new skills, and have a damn splendid time in the process.  We look forward to greeting our newest family members, and seeing olde ones return, for years and years to come!  Oh, yes, and of course we will also have musical entertainment at said workshops and weekends... after all, what is life, without music!!!

First up, we are going to be concentrating on getting the Earth Building workshops underway.  We have been talking about doing this for some time, but this is the year it is finally going to come to fruition.  As a suggestion, if you plan to be involved in one or all of these intensives, there is at least one book that you should get, and read, this fall/winter, to get yourselves prepared, excited, and in the right mindset.  We will be borrowing from the learning experience of the fine folks of the Cob Cottage Company, and will be using their amazing book, “The Hand Sculpted House; A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage” as a reference.  Within this book, there is also a fine list of other recommended reading materials, and they all come highly recommended from these proficient builders of earth homes.  (This group of cob builders is as fine, knowledgeable and experienced as they come.  They brought the art with them from Cornwall and Wales, after all!)  SO to begin with, if you are interested in coming out for a cob building workshop, to begin early next spring, this one book is definitely going to be your first prerequisite.  Not only does it contain within it, information on just about every single aspect of building with cob and building a cob home, but it also outlines advice and wonderful suggestions on how to begin to live simply, easily and more healthfully, and on less... whatever your current situation.  It is one of my very favorite books on cobbing, living, and on “earthbuilding” as an art form itself, and I must insist that you get a copy and start reading it as soon as possible.  (I have personally read it, re-read it, and am now beginning my third read of it, and that is how much I LOVE this book!)  I would suggest purchasing it from the good folks at the CCC directly, borrowing a copy, or you can also procure a copy from Amazon, in good used condition.  (And if you are one of those folks who absolutely has to have a new copy, please think about lending your copy to another after you have read it!)  I will also be announcing other book recommendations in the near future, and as fall and winter comes along.  Really, do read these books if you plan to learn the art.

And hey, if you do decide to get this book, and plan to become one of our cob/earthbuilding students, please let us know your thoughts here, after you have read it!

Onward from there, (and in tandem with it) we will be learning about various other earth friendly building techniques, and of course sharing in the fun of playing in that mud and earth together, or rather, “Mud Dancing.” (even in the moonlight!).  We will take that beautiful dance, hand in hand, spiral it around, and follow the motion of it along the earth’s rhythms into the forms of many of the other wondrous and beautiful things that we are going to learn, to create, to build and to behold, and appreciate together the finished efforts of which to fill our worlds and make them fuller and richer.  We are transient, as humans, though so very extraordinary, and the nature of our lives, our homes, our gifts to one another, and our very foods should also be so.  Together, we shall learn to build these simple, yet ever so beautiful worlds around, beyond, and within us.  And yet as fleeting as our lives are, we can still learn to create the most beautiful lives possible around us, and then hand down our own teachings and learnings to our next generations, so that they can share the fruits of the same labor, in their own unique ways.

I hope that you will join us in our journeys!

Stay tuned for updated website info, coming very soon on fall arts classes, winter wanderings, spring workshops, and summer seminars...

See you soon!

Blessed Be,

Beltana Spellsinger

Wolvenwold

www.wolvenwold.com

In the beginning there was dirt...

Earth... Soil... Clay, Sand and Stone... Rain, Fire, Wind, Spirit and Bone... These are a few of my favourite things.

I imagine an immense sign above my Earthcastle, one that says, Earth, Soil, Clay and Stone!  (Or something remotely more eloquent) announcing the magickal, mystical entryway into another world... My World... One where you can only imagine what size the strawberries are that currently grow on the roof... one where the storms can only be seen, but barely heard here, inside the dirt cave... one where I finally feel comfortable, solitudinous, alone, alive, and at home.

There is a crystal cave beneath the castle, one where viscous brews are ever fermenting, and where One could go and commune with the Queen of Fey herself... or explore a view of the Otherworlds via the touch of the loam walls.  It is peaceful here, peaceful, quiet, and mine.

This is the journey that I take through the Earthcastle... from the beginning... through the very planning, the dreaming, drawing and the building, and the way in which I will learn to share this amazing magick with the rest of the world, when the time comes.  My plans are for the Earthcastle itself, which is my home, where I live with my daughter and our gardens, the elusive wildlife that subtly surrounds us... the playhouse where we will play, the art studio where I will create and escape, the recording studio where I will release and work, the treehouse where we will play and laugh and listen to the rain, the bridge that will take us from one place to the next, the bread oven that will cook our grain, and all of the other things that we decide to build once we learn how to pat mud and earth into cakes that will become our walls. 

These walls will not keep things out, but let things in... our inner gardens will be our walls, and we will live more within them than inside them... be a part of them and breathe with them and become a part of the earth mother with them... as the vines crawl up, over, beneath and inside of us, permeating our very being... until the strength of their greenery becomes our bone, and the fragrance of their delicate and potent flowers becomes every bit of who we are.

This is the journey...

May you find a ray of light here and there, and enjoy the journey with us...

Blessings of Love, Light, and Darkness,

Beltana Spellsinger and Bela Czaba