Early in my witch studies, I was honored with a fantastical experience. Why is it when you begin looking in places you never looked before, you find such wonderful things? This is a story that has been shared throughout time and now it is my turn.

I was out in the woods early this summer trying to reacquaint myself with nature having lived in the city most of my life. I chose a nice comfortable spot in an area known as the Olde Way in a wonderful pagan nature sanctuary north of Kansas City called Camp Gaia. Unfortunately, the weather this particular weekend was promising to be a rough one with thunderstorms approaching rapidly. As I prepared to go to sleep one evening and gave all of my tent stakes an extra tap into the ground, I could hear the distant rumbling hurrying toward me.

The storm proved to be stronger than my tent and during what seemed the peak of the storm, my tent started to collapse. I rushed outside to save what I could, continually lamenting on my ill fate.

The storm was unusually loud and though, as I mentioned, I was not used to nature's sound, I would swear that I what I had originally thought of as only thunder was beginning to sound more like loud horses approaching. The night, and those things hidden within it, is something that I was still not very comfortable with and goose bumps and nervousness started to abound within me. Not knowing what to do, I decided to find a place to hide and a mighty oak tree nearby provided that spot. Peering from behind that place of refuge, a mist suddenly appeared in the field across from me and what seemed like a large white bison darted across in front of me. I was ready to quickly dismiss this vision as a figment of my imagination when suddenly several men on horseback appeared and stopped in the spot where I had seen the bison cross. One of them jumped from his horse and examined the ground, suddenly pointing in the direction in which I had seen the bison travel. Though the sight of these horsemen suddenly appearing was startling enough, a closer looked revealed that the horses did not have four-limbs as expected. Instead they had any number of limbs -- some having five to as many as eight. All of them had fiery red eyes, glowing hoofs, and manes that seemed to have a life of their own. The riders themselves were also unusual. They appeared to be native Indians with a few wearing long feather headdresses flowing down their backs. Most seemed to have wounds or missing arms or legs, but all had a deathly glow about them. After a few moments, they suddenly mounted their horses and rode off leaving me breathless in their departure.

It wasn’t until I got home and shared my experiences with my mentor did I learn that what I had seen was known around the world as The Wild Hunt. I may have been blessed to see some ancient ones from the Niudje tribe of Kansa Indians that used to live in the area and from which the State of Kansas and the Kansas River is now named. Unfortunately few of the tribe exists today due to epidemics and settlement -- their ancestors forever enjoying their ancient hunting grounds as spirits. I thanked my mentor for this information and quickly began planning on how I would honor these warriors when I return again soon to Camp Gaia.