Swamp Mystics 2026 Festival Recap

Swamp Mystics is an annual spiritual gathering in Tallahassee, FL. This was my first time in attendance, but I’m back now and happy to report that it was fantastically fun! Here’s a little summary of some of the things that happened.

Yes, I say a “little” summary because we arrived late and left early. Although we were only there for part of the event, it was still a great time.

The event took place at the Sienna Lee Gardens—a 20-acre farm with a beautifully renovated house in the middle of the property. It’s nestled way back into the woods amongst several tall oak trees. There was just something about the place… it’s quiet! I think my ears felt different when I first got out of the car due to the lack of ambient human sounds around me. Suddenly, there was no traffic or generators. My footsteps sounded louder in the grass and I found myself speaking in a whisper.

The Sienna Lee Gardens has a fully functioning farm. I think they grow blueberries. Plus, this is me on a swing.

That’s right. Swinging life away on a comfy swing attached to a large branch from a very old tree. Thank you, tree.

There were also flowers. I can’t help but take pictures of flowers.

Not to mention a pool and a deck and two giant porches and stuff. Okay, I didn’t take any pictures of that, but rest assured it was all very nice.

There were workshops and rituals scheduled each day. Here’s a few highlights.

Wand-Making

Erich Brown gave an enchanting workshop titled “Crafting and Using a Magic Wand.” He started off by giving everyone a mysterious package wrapped in tie-dyed cloth, but instructed us to not open it until he had created sacred space.

Erich spent some time showing off his wand (which was beautiful, by the way) and discussing how it can be used in a ritual setting. He then demonstrated by creating sacred space.

And at that point, we were allowed to open the bags!

Inside the tie-dye cloth was a quartz point, a cotton ball, a piece of bamboo, some sage, and dittany of Crete. Some assembly was required, naturally, and the picture above shows my efforts on the finished product. He explained that the sage was for purification, but dittany of Crete had the power to make spirits reveal themselves. Depending on what function we wanted our wands to perform, we could stuff either herb (or both) into the hollow bamboo, then plug it up with cotton. He proceeded to bless some water for use in consecrating the wands and brought it around to each of us.

Personally, I rubbed the sage leaf around the outside of the bamboo, stuffed the quartz crystal in one end, put dittany of Crete in the other end, then plugged it all up with cotton. I used a few drops of the holy water for a little extra oomph.

If I understand correctly, Erich had harvested this bamboo himself, prepared it in some fashion, then left it to age in their temple. And the herbs he provided us were homegrown. The amount of work, love, and care that went into that whole process cannot be understated… and this alone already gives these wands the potential to be powerful magickal tools.

When the wands were done, he led us all in a few exercises: drawing pentagrams, visualizing colors, and raising elemental energies—all with the wand, of course!

The Conflagration of Roderick

As part of the prep work for his Introduction to Herbalism Class, Coby Michael scavenged around the nearby woods, gathering plant parts like vines, thorns, sticks, and moss. He then fashioned those things together in the form of a terrifying creature. I guess you could call it a poppet of sorts.

And this poppet was named: Roderick.

If you look at the picture (which I stole from Coby) there’s clearly a face. The eyes are some sort of mushrooms—and if you tapped them, they puffed out clouds of spores for added effect!

During the workshop, we were all given thorns, which we charged individually with a negative emotion—something we wanted to banish. Coby passed Roderick around the group and we stabbed him with our thorns.

Hold on, let me clarify that last statement. We stabbed Roderick with the thorns, not Coby. And if for some reason you’re only reading this section by itself, I’ll clarify further that Roderick was a bunch of plant parts and not an actual person. (We’re crazy, but we’re not that crazy. At least not publicly.)

Roderick was also a scapegoat. A sacrifice. A vessel for all our unwanted crap.

Yeah, screw you, Roderick!

At some point later on, Roderick was burned. Although we were not present for this final sacrificial act, I will forever refer to it as The Conflagration of Roderick. It has instantly become one of my favorite festival memories. And you know what? I feel great now.

Alembic Distillation

On Sunday, there was a distillation demonstration with a very large copper alembic. Erich and Alannah brought an ample amount of root beer plant (which grows in their back yard) so that it could be stuffed in the chamber and distilled. I absolutely love it when people use the things growing by their house!

So that’s what we did: distilled the root beer plant. And no, this is not how you make root beer, nor is it the plant from which root beer is made; however, if you rub the leaves, it smells a lot like sassafras… which is what we used to make root beer from.

Strangely enough, we don’t actually use sassafras to make root beer anymore because the FDA banned safrole—the main compound in sassafras oil—in 1960 after studies linked it to liver cancer. So now, root beer flavors are completely artificial.

Sorry, I don’t know how this became a tangent about root beer. The point is… uhh… we distilled stuff and it was pretty cool.

The leaves were pulled from the stalks, then stuffed into the alembic’s upper chamber. A thick paste of rye powder and water was used to seal any gaps in the assembly. While all of this was happening, Ulix VanBeber taught about Alchemy.

The basic idea is this: you fill the basin of the alembic with water. As the water boils, stream is released, which will travel over the plant material and extract the essence/oils. All of this goodness then travels down a long, slender pipe. A separate reservoir of ice water is continually pumped around the outside of the pipe, so the resulting temperature drop causes the steam to condense back into a liquid, which slowly drips out a small opening at the end of this entire process.

But a picture is worth a thousand words, right? And like many alchemical concepts, it makes a lot more sense when you see everything in action. The process described above technically makes a hydrosol. You can do other things if you use alcohol or something fermented. If you’d like more information on alchemy, or how things like Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury are represented in the process of distillation, please feel free to explore other articles around here.

Fluid Condensers

I was really pleased that alchemy and wand-making had been discussed prior to my workshop because those are areas that my presentations usually dive into. Instead of rehashing the basics, I think I was able to build on the fundamentals and connect the experiences to something more. It felt synergistic.

So that’s what I look like when I teach Fluid Condensers.

I got to sign a lot of books afterward, so I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it was a successful presentation.

Other Notes

I’m aware that there was a lot going on for which we were not present. Many other great workshops took place before we even arrived.

Oh, and there was really good food—like, home-cooked food that was prepared with love and attention. It was nice.

As an added benefit, I was also able to pick up a copy of Frater Barrabbas’s new book, Liber Artis Archaeomancy: Mastering the Angels of the Four Worlds (we kind of traded books, actually, which made me feel like a super legit author). And Selene obtained a divination salve from Aurora that smells absolutely divine.

Egress

On the way home, we stopped at Disney Springs. Tallahassee is a long drive, so that gave us a chance to take a break and stretch our legs.

We got some food and shared a Dole Whip. The food wasn’t worth talking about, but pineapple Dole Whips always hit the spot. You gotta get the swirl, though.

It rained and it poured the whole drive home. The roads were flooded and traffic was heavy. At one point, we drove through a thick wall of black smoke for about half a mile… it looked like a field was on fire next to the highway. Crazy drive, but we made it back!

And in case anyone needs this reminder, Jeses does love you.