2025: Embracing the Darkness

Special Guest

Tava Baird

Tava Baird has been a mentor in the Pagan community for over thirty-five years and is a Pagan author and folk artist. A Montessori classroom teacher and art instructor for over twenty years, she has a strong background in theatre arts and has been building theatre experiences for persons of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities for twenty years. She is a metaphysical educator who teaches art, history, and ritual classes in her area and mentors Pagans of all stripes on their journeys.

2025 Workshops

• Dark Divination: Black Mirrors, Tea Leaf Reading, and Scrying Jars.
  
  This introductory divination class will give participants experience using each of these divination methods and have the opportunity to share experiences as a group. Students will then use their newfound skills to bind and begin building a personal symbol dictionary for use in divination or dreamwork in their own practice.
  
• Our Lady of Ravens and Crows: Embracing The Morrigan
  
  The Morrigan embodies many concepts that our modern society warns us to turn away from, when in fact embracing her can make us much more whole. Join pagan author, artist, and poppet-maker Tava Baird as we discuss death, wildness, and appetite while creating and blessing a unique Morrigan-themed altar poppet for raising power and reaching goals. The instructor’s personal experiences in reaching out towards the dead in the name of The Morrigan will also be discussed, as well as her relationship with her spirit guide, Samael, who instructs her in her work.
  
• Spirit Guides: Reaching Into Your Shadows
  
  Often our guides can be difficult to hear, making us question if anyone is here with us to act as a guide. In this workshop we will discuss common obstacles to connecting with your guides, and conduct a guided meditation to help move those obstacles aside and reach towards the entities that are reaching towards us. The instructor’s experience with her spirit guide, Samael, will be discussed, as well as the concept of worth when dealing with the divine.

Event Theme

Embracing the Darkness

Join us in embracing the darkness for Hallowed Homecoming: a Samhain Retreat 2025.  Our ritual space will be seated firmly in the liminal to allow us to reach through the veil to both darkness and light. This weekend will provide a secluded spiritual space to explore the darker aspects of yourself and your spiritual practice, face any fears of this work, and seek balance within yourself.

Ritual Arc

Our opening ritual this year will take place in two parts. The first will occur when you arrive at the retreat: you will pass through a canopy marking the gateway into a liminal space between the darkness and the light. As you enter, we welcome you to set an intention for what you hope to learn, explore, confront, or share with others at this year’s retreat. The second part will take place Thursday evening, once most of us have entered, to consecrate this space and join in community within it.

The gateway to this liminal space will remain standing throughout the weekend. If you must leave and re-enter the site, we recommend that you go and return through the gateway. Before departing, take a moment to ground; before returning, pause to clear your mind and re-set your intention.

Our main ritual, on Saturday evening, will mark and celebrate the journey into darkness and the otherworld that occurs during the cycle of the seasons. It will incorporate elements of sound healing, theater, and traditional ritual practice while celebrating the multicultural magickal heritage and diversity of our group. Attendees will be invited to participate in a series of short experiences that will guide them to set down the stories they carry that no longer serve them and rewrite their connection to the divine for the upcoming year.

Our closing ritual will also take place in two parts. On Sunday morning, we will come together to celebrate what we have accomplished as a community and prepare ourselves to return to the mundane world. And as you depart, you will pass one last time through the liminal gateway, where you may find a few gifts to ease your journey home.