VGS 2025 SCHEDULE
IN PERSON  RETREAT EVENT


NOTE: YOU MUST PURCHASE A TICKET BY OUR DEADLINE IN ORDER TO ATTEND THE EVENT!
TICKETING DEADLINE ++ FRIDAY JULY 7th ++ 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!

** This schedule is fairly complete but there may be some changes in times and/or additions in the next month! 

Thursday July 17th, 2025
FULL SCHEDULE

3:00 – 4:30 pm – Event Check-In

3:00 – 5:30 pm – Vendors Open

6:00 – 7:00 pm – Dinner

7:00 – 7:30 pm – Break

7:30 – Opening Ceremony

9:00 – 10:00 pm – Meet and Greet/Ice Breaker Event

Friday July 18th 2025
FULL SCHEDULE & LECTURES

8:00 – 9:00 am – Breakfast

9:00 – 9:30 am – Break

9:30 – 10:30 am – Nay Noordmans – Call of the Nightfall Bloom: Datura Beyond Flying Ointments

10:30 – 11:00 am – Break/Vendors Open

11:00 – 12:00 pm – Jeremy Bechelli – Fields of Maleficium: The Impact of Witchcraft on Land and Crops in Historical Agrarian Societies

12:00 – 1:00 pm – Lunch

1:00 – 1:30 pm – Break//Vendors Open

1:30 – 2:30 pm – Katarina Pejovic – Where The Night-Children Dwell: Vampires in South-Eastern European Herbal Magic

 2:30 – 3:00 pm – Break/Vendors Open

3:00 – 5:00 pm -Workshop Session A(Vendors Open 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 – 8:30 Break

8:30 – 11:00 pm – Supernatural/Ghost Stories & S’mores at the fire pit

 

Friday July 18th, 2025
WORKSHOP SESSION A

WORKSHOP SESSION A 

3:00 – 5:00 pm

Jeremy Bechelli – From Hex to Harvest: A Maledictive and Magical Journey through Cursed Crops and Bewitched Fields

Katarina Pejovic – Two Eyes Watch Me in The Silver Dream: A Rite of Oneiric Protection Against Vampires and Night Hags

Nay Noordmans –  Enchanting the Water: Magical and Practical Applications for Flower Essences

 

Saturday July 19th, 2025
FULL SCHEDULE & LECTURES

8:00 – 9:00 am – Breakfast

9:00 – 9:30 am – Break

9:30 – 10:30 am – Melissa Madara – Compelling Magic in Botanical Charms

10:30 – 11:00 am – Break/Vendors Open

11:00 – 12:00 pm – James Dotson – Occult Aromatherapy

12:00 – 1:00 pm – Lunch

1:00 – 1:30 pm – Break/Vendors Open

1:30 – 2:30 pm – J.M. Hamade – Al-Ayn Al-Kohl : The Jinn, Blackened Botanicals, and the Evil Eye

 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 TBA

 

 

Saturday July 19th, 2025
WORKSHOP SESSION B

WORKSHOP SESSION B

3:00 – 4:30pm

J.M. Hamade – Distillation of the Pupil from the Eye: Practical Esoteric Explorations of the Evil Eye Talisman

James Dotson – THE DEVIL (XV) : COMPOSING A TAROT FRAGRANCE

Melissa Madara –  Techniques of the Honorable Harvest

Sunday July 20th, 2025
FULL SCHEDULE & LECTURES

8:00 – 9:00 am – Breakfast

9:00 – 9:30 am – Break

9:30 – 10:30 am –  Corinne Boyer ~ The Flora of the Witches’ Ointment- A History of Origins

10:30 – 11:00 am – Break/Vendors Open

11:00 – 12:00 pm – Kim Schwenk ~ The Earth is my Shoes, and Heaven is my Hat: Plant Magic of the Pennsylvania Dutch

12:00 – 1:00 pm – Lunch

1:00 – 1:30 pm – Break/Vendors Open

1:30 – 2:30 pm – Jesse Hathaway Diaz ~ On the Very Viscous: In Defense of the Material and Immaterial Magical Oil​

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

Corinne Boyer – Magical Salves and Oils- Historical Recipes and Practical Uses

Kim Schwenk – Zauber und Hexenhaus: Household Charms

Jesse Hathaway Diaz – By Slick, By Grease, By Fat and Sap: The Devil’s in the Details