MYSTIC FIRE: An Interview with Liz and Cael Jacobs of Wilder Grove

In this episode, hosts Jennifer Taylor and Tava Baird welcome Liz Jacobs and Cael Jacobs from the 'Fertile Ground' episode to talk about their upcoming event, 'Mystic Fire,' happening in late November. The event features four distinctive paths (guided by Liz Jacobs, Cael Jacobs, Tava Baird, and Jenna Green) focusing on introspection, personal growth, and spiritual work in a small, intimate retreat setting in Madison, Virginia. The paths offer immersive experiences designed around attendees' individual interests and needs. The team also highlights various upcoming community events and Reiki classes. Additionally, Jenn performs an opening song, setting an inviting and spiritual atmosphere for the conversation. The episode emphasizes the value of Mystic Fire in providing a unique, deeply personalized spiritual experience.

MYSTIC FIRE Information and Registration: https://www.wildergrove.com/event-details/mystic-fire

Wilder Grove: https://www.wildergrove.com/

Jenn's Animal Reiki Class in October: https://www.willowridgereiki.com/

Tava's Events Page: https://www.tavabaird.com/calendar

Thank you joining us today, remember to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to keep up to date with your tribe.

Connect with your Hosts!

Tava Baird: tavabaird.com or https://darkflowerbooks.etsy.com.

Jennifer Taylor: Willow Ridge Reiki and Healing Arts https://www.willowridgereiki.com/

Transcript

Tava Baird: [00:00:00] hello, Jennifer Taylor. 

Jennifer Taylor: Hello Tava Baird. today we have really wonderful guests that you might remember from our fertile ground, episode. 

Tava Baird: Yes. We are super excited to welcome back two of our favorite people.

 you probably remember Liz and Cael, and they are back with us today to talk about a new venture that is coming in November that you all absolutely have to hear about. But we're gonna make you sit on the edge of your seat for just a brief moment so that we can set the space. I think we are, is it called the Red Lionsgate or the Lions Red Gate?

Have you all heard about this? Lionsgate. And I believe it is supposed to be a time of intense manifestation, and I don't know about you all, but things are manifesting faster than I can hold onto them. And [00:01:00] just before we got on the podcast, Jen had a. fire alarm manifest in her house.

So we really want to take a few minutes to, set our stage and have Jen sing for us. 

But before we do that, there are a couple of community events in our area that you might be interested in that are coming up. Okay.

 one is on September 21st, which is a Sunday afternoon from four to 6:00 PM inside the Haunted Blue Ball Inn, which I talk about all the time.

We are having the first meeting of the Dark Flower Collective, and it is an opportunity for people new to the Pagan path to come out here a half an hour lecture. And then spend some social time together. So if you have been learning your paganism mostly from books and [00:02:00] think, man, I, I would love to get a couple of questions answered and to meet some people in my area who are in the same place as their studies as I am, please jump onto Tavabaird.com. We are only charging $15 for this event to try to make it affordable for everybody, and that includes a donation to the blue ball in for its restoration. And the other couple of bucks go for ritual supplies and handouts. and then on October 31st, you've heard us talk about the Victorian cemetery, where I have been volunteering.

That night, October 31st, there is a class to benefit the cemetery inside the Victorian mausoleum, which does have a fireplace and it is called veil walking. And we will be doing some traditional so in practices and also making puppets to take out into the [00:03:00] cemetery to communicate with spirits. So if you'd like to support the cemetery and you don't have plans 

There's registration for that on to of bear.com. And then two days after that, I am back at the cemetery for our second death cafe from 10 to noon. And that is a free event open to everyone in the community. More information about Death Cafe,on the website as well.

So just wanted to put those out there in case you're looking for some fun educational events. and then comes Mystic Fire. So 

Jennifer Taylor: yeah. And I do want to just mention real quickly that if you are interested, if you have Reiki one and two and you are interested in taking animal reiki, I am offering an animal Reiki one and two on Saturdays in October.

I think it's all four Saturdays of October. And you can take it online with Zoom from anywhere in the world. And if there are any, participants that are local, we'll have one [00:04:00] practice day at an animal sanctuary where you'll get to be there in person and if not, you'll be able to still practice with those animals at a distance.

So there's still some space. If you want to go to my website, we'll put the links, down in the show notes. But I just wanted to let everybody know there's still time before the class starts in October. 

Tava Baird: I wanna do that, but I'm doing other stuff. Join us in not sleeping. Everybody come hang out with us and let us give you hugs in person.

So, all right, Jen, are you ready to do some singing? 

Jennifer Taylor: Yes.let's have a song and we will just bring in an opening to all of the divine guides of this work that we are all doing here together. And inviting Archangel Michael to sing through me and to sing us into a space of openhearted loving communication and to help [00:05:00] everyone to really be present and open to whatever is in their highest good to receive in this moment.

Tava Baird: 

Jennifer Taylor: [00:06:00] [00:07:00] Sunday, [00:08:00] Monday.

Tava Baird: Are you back? Woo. Good. Lordy girl. 

Jennifer Taylor: Yeah. I think, Michael must have decided to give things over to the, ancestors in preparation for more of the mystic fire kind of energy. As I was singing, I was like, this feels much more like mystic fire kind of energy than the typical Michael song. So, whew, there we go.

That'll clear and ignite some energy 

Tava Baird: and to tell you how,different and intense it was. Usually you sing and Samuel starts talking during the song, and I write down what he says, and this time he just said, beautiful. The Stones sing. I listen, and he just wanted to be quiet so he could hear, so I'm like.

Okay. you don't have anything to say. And all he said is, ah, all is good. Umla, the moment it is good. He just wanted to sit and listen to it. I dunno that that's 

Jennifer Taylor: happened before. Yeah. this is a [00:09:00] first. I feel like we say that a lot. 

Tava Baird: We have a lot of firsts. it's a beautiful life. So, all right on Mystic Fire.

So those of you, if you haven't heard our fertile ground gathering episode, because you are a person who bounces all over the 50 plus episodes now, you might wanna go back and listen to that and then pretty much every single episode since belting, because I think we talk about fertile ground gathering and almostevery episode a lot For sure.

It was literally life changing for us. And we have people reach out that I met there that I am now collaborating with on things who say it was a life changing experience for them, and that something opened at that gathering that allowed them to [00:10:00] connect to the divine in a way they never had been able to before.

And we have the two of you to thank for that because there would be no fertile ground and those opportunities would not have happened. there are people that I met for the very first time there, that I am now doing all kinds of events and, making all sorts of connections with, 

 you all set the stage for that. So when you announced that you had something new in the works, I know everybody in my local community just lit up. So would you mind telling us about Mystic Fire, what it is and how it came about? 

Liz Jacobs: Yeah, well we're both really excited about it, so we have plenty to say and I'll start, but I'm sure Cael has plenty to say too.

I'm Liz Jacobs and I have been the event directors, uh, of [00:11:00] fertile ground gatherings since it began in 20 2008. so it's been going on for a really long time. And yes, we are. The face of the event. But we have a huge team of people, well, not a huge team. We have a nice, long, large team of people who work so hard, ev e every year just to put the event on.

And so it is thanks to all of them who come year after year and dedicate time to, uh, to the event and devote, their life to it. they are the same people who will be on the team for Mystic Fire. so thank you for the shout out. It's definitely more than just the two of us putting it all together.

Um, mystic Fire is a so side of the year event. It's something that we've been talking about for a number of years. Um, and I'll let Cael talk a little bit more about that. But it is something that we've been. You know, sort of thinking about doing for the last several years and, uh, right after COVID and, uh, we, right after we get came back from [00:12:00] COVID, we really decided that it was something we needed to do.

Uh, it just felt like the community needed something else on the other side of the year, uh, from Beltane. And so we sort of started putting our feelers out there to figure out what was going on and what we were gonna do and how we wanted to do everything. And so, uh, we just, you know, just hit the ground running with it.

So you wanna share a little bit more? 

Cael Jacobs: Sure. So, fertile ground gathering, we started in 2008, which means it's 17 years old now, uh, which is amazing. with events like that, there's a learning curve. There's a growth curve where you start out and you're not sure exactly how the event's gonna go and what it's gonna be, but over the past few years.

Pretty much right before COVID, we settled into a groove of what the event really wanted to be. And, it was flowing very well. And of course, COVID happened and we had to take a hiatus for a few years, but we came back and, the event is still very strong and it is what it is. And what it [00:13:00] is is it's a spring festival.

It's a beginnings festival. It's a, we're going into the summer and we're going to be active and we're going to do all these things. You have so much that came out of your experience there. And that's great. It's wonderful. And that's what we've always wanted the event to be.

But what it doesn't have is a point of balance. Uh, what we wanted was a festival in the spring that would allow people to come out of the winter tor or come out of their shells. Do. The work, whatever the work is that they have over the summer. But then we wanted to have an autumn retreat where people could close the lid on the summer and turn inward and start doing the kind of internal personal work during the long dark of the winter, uh, and prepare themselves for that.

And so that's our goal for Mystic Fire, where Fertile Ground Gathering is a celebratory [00:14:00] opening up. Mystic Fire is an introspective, uh, turning inward, focusing on the work that's coming and, and really preparing ourselves so that we have stuff to do. Internal stuff over the time of the year when it's cold and wet and horrible and snowy and you're snowed in and you can't go anywhere and, and all of that kind of thing.

 so that's the goal with Mystic Fire and we think we have a really solid program, of different ways for people to, to explore that kind of internal working. 

Liz Jacobs: Yeah. And with Fertile Ground, we have one-off workshops. Some of them are longer than others, but they aren't following any particular track.

They're just one-off kinds of things. And people can pick and choose which workshops they want to attend throughout the event. on the balance side of that, for Mystic Fire, what we're doing instead is much more intensive work. So when people sign up for Mystic Fire, they're gonna sign up for one of four paths that is going to [00:15:00] take place throughout the entirety of the weekend.

And those paths are deep, intensive work. All being led by one facilitator, TVA's, one of them. Kayla and I are another two, and we have one more. Her name is Jenna Green, who will be running another path. And so the four of us will be having a group of people dedicated to that one path. And, the entire weekend we'll work with that.

And then as a supplement to that, we're going to have other activities that support that work, including a, a deeply personal introspective ritual. we haven't any done anything like that at in public, but we have been doing rituals like this at the Wilder Grove, where we, have people wander through the woods and lots of various activities that take place throughout, like visiting an ancestor altar and, talking to the old man in the middle of the woods and things like that, and so this is more of the feel that we're trying to go for with the ritual at Mystic Fire.

Tava Baird: So [00:16:00] excited, and I would, uh, this is really an opportunity. I, it's a form I've never seen before and it, maybe it's just,I go to a lot of gatherings and things and I love them, but this opportunity to go deeper, to spend dedicated time. On one avenue and, to, revisit it and continue progress throughout an entire weekend.

It just, as soon as I saw that you were doing this, I thought I will do anything to be part of this. I, I will go and take the trash out for them as long as it can be on the property. Then the place you are holding it is spell binding. Would you mind telling us a little bit about that? 

Liz Jacobs: Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, the location we're having, it is called the Seven Oaks Retreat Center, and it's in Madison County, Virginia or Madison, Virginia, which is, um, 

Cael Jacobs: it's about 45 minutes north [00:17:00] of Charlottesville.

And, uh. About two hours west southwest of dc Yeah, 

Liz Jacobs: so it is a, a space that was built in the seventies. a couple of people were dedicated to buying some property and building on it to create a retreat center so that they could facilitate the thing, the path that they were working on, which is what's called PATH working.

 and so that was something that they lovingly worked at for many, many, many years. And very recently they retired and sold the property and we weren't sure we were going to be able to use that space. but as it turned out, the IMCW, uh, which I don't ever remember the name of, of what that stands for, but the IMCW is a, Buddhist organization and they purchased the property and so they are holding the space.

As much love as the original owners had it, they're supporting this community [00:18:00] by maintaining the property just the way it was before. They'll be making some additions to it, but it's this beautiful space that has a, a gorgeous meeting space for meals, and they do all of the cooking there. Uh, and then there are individual little houses where people sleep.

And, um, there's a, there's lots and lots of, wooded acres that surround this space. So in total, I think there's like 40 acres of property including a river, and it is just a stunning space. I've attended several retreats there myself, and so I knew I wanted to bring the heart of my community into this space and share what I experienced there.

Uh, and so we're really, really grateful that we have the opportunity to run Mystic Fire there. 

Tava Baird: Goodness. Jen, you grew up near there, didn't you? 

Jennifer Taylor: I spent five years living there. Yeah. In Madison. I went to Madison County High School. that area is [00:19:00] absolutely beautiful. And especially that Rapid Ann area out there near the Rapid Ann River.

I was so excited to see that there was so much, river footage, Along it as well. I mean, that's just absolutely beautiful, beautiful country. 

Liz Jacobs: Yeah, it really is. 

 so when I was there, uh.

Before when it was still owned by the original owners, they had a big garden where they grew vegetables and then used those vegetables as part of the meals that they cook there. I think they're maintaining that as well. And so it's, it's just, I really love how much honor and sacredness there keeping by, by maintaining the space as it used to be.

Uh, so I'm just, that's all. I'm 

Tava Baird: just really excited about that. I mean, can you imagine the energy on that property of having had all of these people visited since the seventies and work on advancing themselves [00:20:00] spiritually and how incredible to bring the participants into that energy to continue that work?

Speaking of participants, Could you speak a little bit about how many people, are you accepting for that weekend? And how do they sign up?

And then I would love to talk to you about your paths a bit. Sure, sure. Do you wanna talk about that? 

Cael Jacobs: Sure. So, uh, we're limited by the space to 50 people. Um, we, we could actually have had more if we wanted to allow people to camp, but it's going to be in late November, and we didn't want to take the weather risk there so everybody who comes will have an actual bed in an actual building.

And, and that's what limits our participation for this time around. Um, and we're actually thrilled about that because it gives us the opportunity to really get down and, and focus with a small group of people. It's, it's very different when you're at a festival, like you said, with a couple hundred people, you know, you know the people, but you [00:21:00] have a really hard time connecting with individuals within, uh, the event here.

You know, if, if we have, uh, we have the four paths planned, and so if we have 50 people, the paths are not going to have more than 12 or maybe 15 people in them. Uh, and so. There'll be a, a very intimate kind of, uh, interaction between the, the person leading the path and the individuals who are following the path and participating in the path.

And, and we feel like that's very important because of the nature of the work. You know, you don't want to get into real soul bearing kind of stuff with 60 of your closest friends, that you've never met before. You, want to have a kind of a safe spiritual space where you can get to know people, you can get comfortable with 'em, and then you can do the work that you need to do, uh, in, in that quieter space.

Liz Jacobs: Yeah. So, we have a website dedicated to, it's very simple, mystic fire.org. there's a lot of information on there. I'm continually adding [00:22:00] new information onto the website. but you can register there. the process that we go through is we invite everyone to read all four of the paths and really sit with it for a while and figure out which one of them calls to them at this particular moment.

And then once they figured that out, uh, when we are, when they are registering, we ask them to list their choice of paths from first to fourth, and then to write a small paragraph explaining what draws them to their first choice at that particular moment. when we go through our annual.

Path work, whatever work we are doing, it shifts and changes. And it depends on, what's happening in our lives right now, what we're drawn to, what we have interest in, what the universe is speaking to us about. And so we recognize that these paths aren't gonna all fit for everyone.

And so what we want is to understand a little bit about what's drawing you to that path. And what that will do is that will help us to make sure that we're putting you in the right [00:23:00] space. we certainly get take into account that you're, that we wanna try and put as many people in their first choice as possible, but we also recognize that maybe we're seeing something a little different and we may put them in another path and we wanna make sure we understand.

What their interests are so that we can do that. the other thing that that paragraph does for us is to help us to dial down exactly what we're gonna do for rituals, because we're not planning the details of the rituals just yet. We wanna know who's coming. We wanna know what their interests are, what their depth of understanding is of themselves and of what they're going through right now, so that we can use that information to design and build the ritual.

Uh, the main ritual that will happen, as a result. So, it's really important to us to get to know the people who sign up, and we are very open to lots of questions. If they email us, they're, I will be there answering all of their questions. I know we've already been sent a few folks and Tava sent me [00:24:00] someone and, I'm very happy to answer all the questions.

 if you're not sure you understand exactly how this process works, it's new for everyone this year because we are doing it for the first time. But we have 17 years of experience in running events that are helping us to know how to put this together in a way that helps us to communicate well with the community and to support the community as, as best as possible.

Jennifer Taylor: I really love that, how individualized the entire process is. it's not like this is a set thing that we just do. with every group or that kind of thing. Obviously it's the first time, but the idea that you're really developing it and shaping it, it's a really organic process and that it's shaped around who is going to be there and those individuals and that unique group really informs everything.

And I love how open all of the structure and all of these things are to be able to [00:25:00] really adjust and meet all of that energy as it comes. 

Liz Jacobs: Absolutely. And another thing I didn't mention is that when we get those paragraphs from people, once we start assigning paths, we're gonna share those paragraphs with the facilitators of each path so they know who they're about to work with for an entire weekend.

So they know how to tailor the work that they're doing with their group based on all of these individuals and what they have said about what draws them to their path in particular. So it gives us teachers a really great opportunity to, fine tune the entirety of our path planning, to fit the people who are most interested in signing up for that path.

Awesome. 

Tava Baird: Mystic Fire really is a custom made. Spiritual experiencein that way. Mm-hmm. And that is so rare. And the other thing is,you all have been doing this for 17 [00:26:00] years. I don't know if many of our listeners realize that, but that is extremely rare. It is extremely rare.

 if you are coming to Mystic Fire, you are setting yourselves in the hands of a group that they are masters at this, they are leaders at this. And in the same way that sometimes,you might go on the website and say, oh, I really want that path. And then you get really attached to it.

Any of you out there who have ever done any form of divination, like say tarot? You know, sometimes there's the question you ask. And then there's the cards telling you what you really need to hear. Mm-hmm. And sometimes we will just keep saying, but that isn't the answer I wanted. And pulling cards over and over again.

 our collective divine nature says, Hey kid, you really need to listen. Be open. [00:27:00] What you are focused on is not the thing that is going to help you move forward. And so one of the things that I love, in that I'm one of the instructors, so being able to see who's coming really does help me tailor the experience.

 I love that you are also looking at this. And in some of these cases you may see something that the person who's signing up doesn't see and go, you know what? This may be the experience that helps them. Break through to that new level of understanding or that new level of self-reflection that they didn't even know was possible.

 everything from soup to nuts on this is just incredible. 

Cael Jacobs: Thank you. It's, already begun too. People have already started signing up and putting in their paragraphs and some of the things that people have written are just so fundamentally profound that it's, yes, it's just amazing, knowing that somebody has put [00:28:00] this much thought into what it is that they want out of this event.

And so that, that's the point that creates balance for us because we want people who are putting a lot of themselves into the event because we're putting a lot of ourselves into the event, and we want that energetic give and take. We want, people who are deeply invested in coming to this event.

Because if somebody comes and they're like, yeah, I'm just gonna spend a weekend there, then you know, they'll get out of it, a few hundred dollars hole in their bank account. But if they actually are there to do the work, if they're there to be open to what their individual path leader has to say, and also to the ideas of the other people, within their paths, because it's not just about me and it's not just about you and Liz and Jenna, it's about the people who come together who all have the same goal.

And so probably somebody who's gonna be on the same path as you [00:29:00] are is gonna have something about that path that you haven't thought of. And it's important to, to be aware of that and be open to that. 

Liz Jacobs: Absolutely. Yeah. And I can speak from experience because this is not something that we came up with out of the blue.

This is actually a model that I have experienced personally, that has been happening for, this is their 40th year up in Massachusetts. There's an event called Twilight VEing that is near and dear to my heart because as a facilitator, someone who spends all year long. Putting on events and teaching and all those things.

I need to fill my own cup. And the way I do that is by attending Twilight Coing and it's a beautiful community up in the Berkshire Mountains and, and Massachusetts. And they run an event that is similar to this in terms of the separate paths and so forth. They call them clans. And there are very many more of them than there are at Mystic Fire, because they've been doing this for a very long time.

 they have teachers that dedicate [00:30:00] themselves to one particular track and they have 10 or 15 people in each of those tracks that follow this deep work. and then there's a very deep and personal ritual there as well. And so I felt very. Connected to that experience, and it has done so much for me over the past many years that I wanted to share that with more of a local community.

There are people who come from even Florida to go all the way up to Massachusetts every year. And so I'm not taking away anything from that event. it's marvelous, and I hope that they continue doing it for a very long time, because I personally need it, and I know a lot of the community folks need it too.

 we want to offer something similar to that. we have taken some cues and then changed things based on how we run things and how, what our experiences have been to turn mystic fire into something that has our stamp on it essentially. So it, it is certainly not something that came out of nowhere.

Tava Baird: I'm so glad you brought [00:31:00] that up because I had never heard of Twilight Coveting and I was at an event last week and several people mentioned to me that they were going there and I thought, oh, I have to Google this, you know? 

Liz Jacobs: Oh my 

Tava Baird: goodness. It's a 

Liz Jacobs: wonderful event and I recommend it, especially for those of us who teach other places and who, support communities in other PA places because this is a chance for them to fill their cup, to learn and grow and experience, things so that they can then have the fuel and the energy to continue doing that work.

Tava Baird: Yes. That is very important to have. 

Liz Jacobs: Absolutely. 

Tava Baird: Yeah. So would you, who wants to go first? Would you mind telling us about your particular class? So anybody who's driving to work right now listening to this can start going, Ooh, maybe that's the one I wanna do. 

Cael Jacobs: Sure. So I'll, I'll go ahead and go first. so [00:32:00] within our tradition, I am what we refer to as a speaker, and that means that I deal a lot in words and story and myth and legend and all of that kind of thing.

And over time, what I have come to realize is that each of us is a storyteller. Each of us is creating the story of our own life. one of the characters in my book, tales from the Wilder Forest is a young woman named Salamander who leaves everything her entire world. She leaves it behind, she walks away from it.

And she creates a future for herself that no one, not even her would've expected her to have. And so when we were coming up with the planning for this, I chose to call my path the salamanders path in reference to that. And what the salamanders path is, is a way of looking at your own future as a story that you [00:33:00] are writing.

And we're going to be looking at the, the writing of various authors from George Orwell to, oh gosh, now I've forgotten some of the other ones. San Brandon Sanderson. several different authors. Neil Stevenson is another one. Uh, looking at the way, People deal with the future.

 I'm gonna drop a word out there to, to let people chew on this one. we're going to be introducing the concept of quantum destiny. the way you can reach through the quantum reality and grab a hold of the destiny that your story should reach. And then writing the story so that you reach it.

So that is the point of salamanders path. 

Tava Baird: Amazing. If I wasn't teaching now, I want to take that too. I need to clone myself for mystic fire so that I can both. Walk with the people down my path and take yours. And Liz, I'm sure I'm gonna feel that way of [00:34:00] yours in a second too. 

Liz Jacobs: Yeah, absolutely.

So, I'm teaching what's called the Wilding path. as Cael is the speaker of our tradition, I am the shaman of our tradition. My world is all about the experience. About the cusp of things, about transformation. And so I'm gonna be leading people through, the opportunityto really see who they are, to really find themselves, recognize who they've always been from childhood forward, to allow themselves to release all of the shoulds in their life and to just really be themselves, live out loud.

And so we're gonna have a lot of experiential activities and opportunities to create and opportunities to slough off all of that nonsense and get a little wild, which is where I live. Yes. beyond that, we understand that being wild, being feral is fun for a minute, fun for a while, but could be [00:35:00] destructive, just like fire, right?

If you don't contain it, you're gonna have a problem. And so the rest of the time, we're going to spend a little time focusing on how to refine that, how to bring it back into ourselves in a healthy way, in a way that we can move forward without being reckless, without making choices that are going to negatively impact your life and those around you.

 bringing back the wise sect part of the wildness, uh, and connecting those dots so that we can move forward. And so, all of these paths are an opportunity for us to spend an intensive weekend. Beginning the work and then the rest of the winter is so that we can continue working on all of the things that we learned together through the beginning of this, these paths.

Jennifer Taylor: That's really beautiful. Thank you. I love that you're incorporating both [00:36:00] the, allowing yourself to really tap into your wildness and really connect with that and completely feel like what it feels like to let go of all of it. But then also how do we actually live, this way?

 we're not living, completely feral, needing to find that balance because I think there are a lot of things that help people to maybe. Trying to touch into that, but not how do we keep resonance with that wild self while still, maintaining a harmony with the culture that we live in, the aspects of our days, the responsibilities and all of those kinds of things, and finding that balance.

I think that's a really beautiful way that you have brought all of that together. It sounds just magnificent. Oh, thank you. I'm really excited. 

Tava Baird: do we wanna talk a little bit about Jenna? 

Liz Jacobs: Jenna. Jenna is a beautiful person. Her soul is so sweet and kind, and she is a singer. She has a beautiful voice. so [00:37:00] a lot of her work comes from that part of herself. Uh, she is teaching a path it's called the Sorcerer's Path, and it is a path of, self love and self, care so that, people on this path are gonna be focusing on ways to really put themselves first and make sure that they take care of themselves in a way where they could be useful.

filling your own cup, before giving away your energy. I'm sure she would tell it much better than I could, but essentially we're talking about self-care, spending an entire weekend giving yourself permission to take care of yourself.

Beautiful. 

Tava Baird: Yeah, people are going to be like, where'd Tava go? She's supposed to be leading us right now, and I'm gonna be eavesdropping on the beginning of everybody else's sessions. So thank you so much for speaking about JennaI've been following her work online and I mean, woo, [00:38:00] it's going to be a beautiful, beautiful experience.

 for my path, I am extremely grateful to be able to offer this because, this is some work that I have been doing personally a lot of my service to the community and a lot of my teaching in the community is centered around, people who are just starting on their path and introducing them to mentors or mentoring them myself.

But what I wanted to do was bring. The work that I've been personally doing to a space. I was really nervous that most, festival environments, if I roll in with what I want to do, they're gonna go, wow, that's different. That's intense. I will be leading the Lilith path. ifyou listen to the podcast, you know that Sam Iel and it is a big part of what I do.

 When I sat down to write my proposal for this [00:39:00] weekend, I remember I, I called Jen actually, and I said, I, I don't, I, how do I put this down in words? And she said, you're gonna do what you always do. You're gonna sit back and you're gonna ask Sam what it is that people need.

What can you give? And so I sat down and within, 30 minutes, it was all there. So if you've ever wanted a weekend Desi designed by a Lilith is probably in your future. the Lilith path is about is the idea that we very much live in a society based on the concept of, or that you're either with us or you're against us.

That you are part of the group or you are not. And that we end up with our heads filled with this or mentality and it sometimes it's other people putting that on us, but sometimes we start to repeat those things to ourself. [00:40:00] And in doing that, we start to disconnect ourselves from the concept of and of the fact that we are all community, we are all divine.

Everyone should be included. Right. And so this weekend with Lilith being, as Samuel calls her the mother of rebellion, mm-hmm. Is a walk down a path of saying, what are the parts of myself that I have demonized? What are the parts of myself that have been demonized by others? And how can I come to a place where I throw that off and walk outside the lines and say, I am perfect in my imperfect state.

I have never been left alone by the divine. I never will be left alone by the divine. But how can I step forward into this power and actually [00:41:00] use it to fuel practice and systems of magic in a new way that I've never done before? How can I be my authentic self and stop. Hitting myself over the head with restrictions about who everyone else thinks I'm supposed to be.

So if you at times have felt like you are isolated and you are living in a corner, if you've ever wanted to go out into the woods and just give a good scream from deep down in the belly and bury the parts of you, the things that other people have put on you to carry and that at times you keep picking up and carrying yourself, Lilith is ready to lead you.

So, 

Cael Jacobs: so if you're, if you're trying to abandon your students and come and eavesdrop on mine, I might not be there 'cause I might be over trying to eavesdrop on yours. 

Liz Jacobs: I think it's really fascinating because it wasn't our [00:42:00] intention, but obviously the universe had other plans. All of these paths are facets of one another.

Yes. they all have connected in ways that we did not intend. And I'm so thrilled about that because we're all talking about ways to really identify with who we are and embrace that and become part of that more c consciously more deliberately. And without making apologies, every single one of these paths is doing that.

 that's exactly the kind of thing we were hoping to achieve. And we, when we plan things like this, there is a huge piece of our planning process that is basically, let's just see where the universe takes us. Because if we try to plan too many things, if we try to put too many things in boxes, things are not going to fit right.

But if we go, okay, this is kind of the idea. And I will admit that I'm the driving force of that because I live my life that way. I tell [00:43:00] people often that I'm a recovering perfectionist, and that's because I've always, I used to always live a life where I had to have everything just so, and it was such a stressful experience.

It was difficult to always have these expectations that weren't met. And when I started to look at the universe in perspective of, okay, it didn't happen that way, but what did happen was pretty damn spectacular. You know, I started to really embrace that. And so now that's how my life is.

 because I am the director of these two events, that's how these events end up happening because at some point we're just like, well, let's just see what happens. And it always comes out much more spectacularly than we could have expected. So it's just a joy. 

Cael Jacobs: So one of the things that has become sort of an an in joke among the fertile ground gathering staff is we have a saying amongst ourselves, which is it will do it live. And that has happened so many times, [00:44:00] right before COVID, I think it was, uh, in 2019. Yep. It was 

Jennifer Taylor: 2019.

Cael Jacobs: 2019. We had an entire main ritual scheduled out we had been planning it for months and months and months and months, and we had a whole bunch of infrastructure planned with it, and a whole bunch of set up and a whole bunch of stuff and pageantry and amazing things. And all of it was predicated on it just not being a thunderstorm, right.

When that was supposed to happen. And then the universe was like, Nope. we're gonna have a thunderstorm. And so for the safety of our guests, we could not have all of this stuff because it was going to be out in the park in the woods, and it just wouldn't be safe for people. And so we literally had about 10 minutes, when we made the decision, our weather person came and said, this is no go.

We're not gonna be able to do this outside thing. It's just not gonna happen. And so the ritual team got together and 10 minutes before the ritual is supposed to start, we got together and we said, okay, [00:45:00] if it will do it live, what are the pieces that we have? What are the pieces that we can keep?

How do we put those together and create something new? And that was, I think, probably. One of the most profoundly impactful rituals that we had had to date at the event. Mm-hmm. Uh, and you know, it it, it led to, to one guy passed out on the floor with his kilt all disarranged and everything. So 

Liz Jacobs: not actually, but he, he, yeah.

Such ecstasy. Yeah. 

Cael Jacobs: and so it, that that's the kind of rolling with the punches thing that Fertile Ground has taught us. And that is why we want to approach things the way we do with Mystic Fire Absolutely. Is to incorporate not just what we plan, not just what we expect, but what is, here's the circumstance that is available to you.

What are you gonna do with it? and we find that thread actually goes through, like Liz was saying, all of the various paths, because, in my path, it's all about, well, what's the story been written to, up to this [00:46:00] point? Where do you go from here? with Liz's, it's about. The realities of our situation, the world that we have to fit into and the world that we don't have to fit into.

And with Jenna's it's about here are the things that I have to heal from, or I have to recognize or I have to care about myself. This is the ground rules. How do I approach that? And then with yours, you're talking about the realities of, these are the options, this or that, maybe this and that, but these are the options that I have and how do I put those together into a path?

And so it looks like Mystic Fire is going to shape up to be one huge embodiment of do it live. 

Tava Baird: Yeah, absolutely. I love that there are four different paths, so people are going to come. And there's going to be, I think on all of our paths, a time period. People first get there, they need to break the ice.

They don't know anybody around that, or they only know certain people. They have maybe never worked [00:47:00] withthe person leading their path before. And so they look like they have a different flavor, but we're all going to end up in the same place. But it's the process of going there that will enable the people doing this work to experience the best way for them to start moving through these transitions and to start manifesting things.

But in the end, we're all gonna end up at the center of the circle together, no matter how we got there.when I can't sleep at night, I lay in bed now and go, let's just think about Mystic Fire. 

Liz Jacobs: That's much. And you know, as you were speaking, it occurs to me that you are right.

There are gonna be people who don't know each other or who don't, haven't seen each other in a long time. They don't really know what to expect because this is new to everybody, right? And so one of the things that I think is important is, uh, to think about this as a new experience that you don't have to know [00:48:00] everything about.

I really want to invite folks to show up with no expectations, to show up with open hearts and open minds so that they can experience what they are meant to experience so that they can come through here and not have to have all of the answers at right off the bat. And allow the flow to carry you through this experience so that it happens naturally and organically in a way that is going to fill your cup and is going to allow you.

To step forward into the winter work with a lot of tools and a lot of new hope and experience and understanding that you maybe didn't have before you came to Mystic 

Tava Baird: Fire. I'm looking forward to the conversations so much. I had, somebody was talking to me about Mystic Fire the other day and they said, oh, I'm going to, I'm gonna fill out the form and sign up.

 I would be really excited to [00:49:00] get to learn from you. And I said, here's the thing you have to remember. You're not just coming to learn from me. And imagine yourself in a group of 15 other people that have all taken different roads and they're all coming to talk to Lilith. Yeah.

 you may feel for the first time like, this is the path that I'm on. And suddenly there is a community of people who all took different ways to get there that are going to be talking meals and are gonna be sitting outside under the stars, having conversations in between the classes.

And they're going to be a ritual with you. You are like, the classes are going to be incredible, but the entire weekend is going to be you in your element. Mm-hmm. I can't wait for all the things I'm going to learn there, you know? Yeah. So you do. Absolutely. 

Liz Jacobs: Yeah. 

Tava Baird: we so appreciate you guys coming on and spending Absolutely.

Time with us. would you [00:50:00] mind saying again, how people can go to sign up just now that people have heard you talk about your paths? Yes. 

Liz Jacobs: So Mystic Fire happens on November 21st through 23rd, is it? 

Jennifer Taylor: Yep. 

Liz Jacobs: Yep. 21st through 23rd. I have dyslexia, so numbers don't mean anything to me. Okay. So Mystic Fire is November 21st through 23rd.

It happens at the Seven Oaks Retreat Center in Madison. If you want to register, you just go to mystic fire.org. It will throw you onto the homepage that has a lot of information. There's a tab for registration, uh, there are other tabs with more information. there's a contact form if you have any questions, 

Tava Baird: sense, and, uh, I know we all hope to see you as part of the big hole at Mystic Fire.

Liz Jacobs: Yes, we're very excited to see all of you. Thank you so much. Thank you. 

Jennifer Taylor: And I have been singing as, uh, someone had dubbed it in a reiki [00:51:00] share once, singing in my Heart the entire time and moving, like a song has been coming, just playing. I feel like I've just been infusing it with everything that everyone's been singing.

So for once I feel like I already know exactly because I've been singing it over and over the entire conversation, which is really interesting to me. 

Tava Baird: Well, now I wanna hear that. Oh my goodness. So I'll 

Jennifer Taylor: help to just kind of round out our conversation with the song that seems to be, uh, coming through specifically for this.

So 

Liz Jacobs: wonderful.

Jennifer Taylor: [00:52:00] [00:53:00] Um.

Tava Baird: My goodness. Jen, that was lovely. 

Jennifer Taylor: Thank you. Always, always. Thank you. 

Tava Baird: So thank you so much to our wonderful, wonderful guests today. thank you as always to everyone who tuned in to listen today.

We hope to see you at Mystic Fire On the edge between summer and winter, between darkness and light. And [00:54:00] mystic fire sounds very much to me, like a place for, a new seed to be planted and to burst forth. we tend to think of spring and summer as times of growth, but winter can be a time to balance and to do deep work as well.

So a time of 

Jennifer Taylor: germination, 

Tava Baird: germination, plant yourselves in November, people. So thank you so much to everybody for listening. We love having you on. we will be back with another episode next week. Until then, many blessings. Alright.