VGS 2025 SCHEDULE
IN PERSON RETREAT EVENT
CHECK BACK IN JANUARY FOR AN UPDATED SCHEDULE
SEE BELOW FOR AN EXAMPLE SCHEDULE OF WHAT TO EXPECT
NOTE: YOU MUST PURCHASE A TICKET BY OUR DEADLINE IN ORDER TO ATTEND THE EVENT!
TICKETING DEADLINE ++ FRIDAY JUNE 21st ++ at Midnight PST
EVENT LOCATION – GWINWOOD RETREAT CENTER – LACEY, WASHINGTON
If you haven’t purchased tickets to the event yet, click here to register and add on workshop intensives (if you wish). This is an all inclusive retreat. You may not show up for individual lectures or workshops. You must purchase a ticket to the event and hang out with all of us esoteric and occult plant lovers for the entire weekend! You won’t regret it! I promise!
Thursday June 27th, 2024
FULL SCHEDULE
3:00 – 4:30 pm – Event Check-In
3:00 – 4:30 pm – Vendors Open
5:00- Opening Ceremony
6:30 – 7:30 pm – Dinner
7:30 – 8:30 pm – Break
8:30 – 9:30 pm – Meet and Greet/Ice Breaker Event
Friday June 28th 2024
FULL SCHEDULE & LECTURES
8:00 – 9:00 am – Breakfast
9:00 – 9:30 am – Break
9:30 – 10:30 am – Gabriela Sarna Wiraszka – Between the Serpent and the Bird – The Wheel of the Year and Harvest Ceremonies in Polish Slavic Traditions
10:30 – 11:00 am – Break/Vendors Open
11:00 – 12:00 pm – Jeremy Bechelli – Fallen Fruit: The Devil in English Botanical Folklore of the Autumnal Harvests
12:00 – 1:00 pm – Lunch
1:00 – 1:30 pm – Break//Vendors Open
1:30 – 2:30 pm – Katarina Pejovic – The Great Garland of the King: Balkan Herbal Magic of St. George’s Day
2:30 – 3:00 pm – Break/Vendors Open
3:00 – 5:00 pm -Workshop Session A(Vendors Optional)
5:00 – 6:00 pm – Plant Walk **Free must sign up at Reg Booth (Limited Space)
6:00 – 7:00 pm – Dinner
7:00 – 9:00 pm – Workshop Session A1
9:00 – 9:30 pm – Break
9:30 – 11:00 pm – Supernatural/Ghost Stories at the fire pit
Friday June 28th, 2024
WORKSHOP SESSION A & A1
WORKSHOP SESSION A
3:00 – 5:00 pm
Katarina Pejovic – The Spear and the Sight: A Rite of Augury and Protection by Way of St. George and St. Vitus
Jeremy Bechelli – From Heaven to Hedgerow: A Phytognostic and Practical Experience with the Blackberry
WORKSHOP SESSION A1 7:00 – 9:00 pm Gabriela Sarna Wiraszka – Blood Kissed Oil and Wreath of Green – The Plants of John the Baptist and Kupala Night of the Slavic Summer Solstice
Saturday June 29th, 2024
FULL SCHEDULE & LECTURES
8:00 – 9:00 am – Breakfast
9:00 – 9:30 am – Break
9:30 – 10:30 am – Z Hudelot – Ghosts of the Forest
10:30 – 11:00 am – Break/Vendors Open
11:00 – 12:00 pm – Sean Croke – St Peter and the Keys to Heaven: The genus Trichocereus in Magical Practice
12:00 – 1:00 pm – Lunch
1:00 – 1:30 pm – Break/Vendors Open
1:30 – 2:30 pm – Phoebe Hildegard Finch – The Resurrection Plant – A Magico-Medicinal Overview of the “Rose of Jericho”
2:30 – 3:00 pm – Break/Vendors Open
3:00 – 4:30 pm – Workshop Session B – (Optional – Vendors Open)
4:30 – 5:00 pm – Break/Vendors Open
5:00 – 6:00 pm – Plant Walk **Free must sign up at Reg Booth (Limited Space)
6:30 – 7:30 pm – Dinner
7:30 – 9:30 pm – Break
9:30 – 11:30 pm – Social Event
Saturday June 29th, 2024
WORKSHOP SESSION B
WORKSHOP SESSION B
3:00 – 4:30pm
Phoebe Hildegard Finch: Resurrecting the Rose
Z Hudelot: Ghost Pipe Materia
Sean Croke: The Garden is the Kingdom of Heaven
Sunday June 30th, 2024
FULL SCHEDULE & LECTURES
8:00 – 9:00 am – Breakfast
9:00 – 9:30 am – Break
9:30 – 10:30 am – Jesse Hathaway Diaz~ Seeds of the Seance: The Plants of Spiritism from Victorian Supernatural Botany to Caribbean Creole Espiritismo
10:30 – 11:00 am – Break/Vendors Open
11:00 – 12:00 pm – David Simmons~ Botanical Daemons: Constructing Living Spirit Settlements and Fetish Work
12:00 – 1:00 pm – Lunch
1:00 – 1:30 pm – Break/Vendors Open
1:30 – 2:30 pm – Albert Björn Shiell~ 9 Natures Good and Bad – Icelandic Magical Herbalism
2:30 – 3:00 pm – Break/Vendors Open
3:30 – 6:00 pm -Workshop Session C (Optional – Vendors Open)
6:00 – 6:30 pm – Break/Vendors Open
6:30 – 7:30 pm – Dinner
7:30 – 9:30 pm: Break
9:30 – 11:00 pm – Symposium Toast/Reception
Sunday June 30th, 2024
WORKSHOP SESSION C
WORKSHOP SESSION C
3:00 – 6:00 pm
Jesse Hathaway Diaz – Aguas Floridas- Augmented Floral Waters in the Spiritist Traditions
David Simmons: Living Mandrake Spirit Settlements
Albert Bjorn Shiell: Icelandic Magical Staves in Herbalsim