76 Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard
Choosing your campsite and deciding just where
to pitch your tent involves several considerations.
First, you should pick a spot for your tent that is as
level as possible, with more level area nearby for a
campfire. If the slant of the ground is too steep, you’ll
wake up in the morning outside your tent! However,
if there is any chance of rain, you will want to pitch
your tent on enough of a gentle slope to provide wa-
ter drainage. In such case, you should also dig a small
drainage trench all around your tent, with a channel
leading away downhill. Another important thing to
consider is the other life forms in your camping area.
Learn to recognize poison ivy, poison oak, nettles,
brambles, thistle, cactus, and other nasty plants, and
avoid camping anywhere near them! Also, make sure
you are not pitching your tent on top of an ant colony—
especially (in some parts of the U.S.) fire ants.
Trees are important for shade, as the sun hitting
your tent in the morning will turn it into an oven. I
call that a “bake-awake” tent. Because you will most
likely be pitching your tent in the evening, make sure
that you note where the sun is setting, and realize that
it will be coming up in the opposite direction—the
East. This is the side where you want to make sure
there are plenty of shady trees. However, unless you
are camping somewhere there is no chance of rain or
heavy winds, you should not pitch your tent directly
under a tree, as leaves will continue to drip water for
a long time after a rain, and heavy branches can come
down in a windstorm.
Avoid large roots or rocky outcroppings in your
tent space. Before you pitch your tent, you’ll want to
carefully clear out all the rocks, pebbles, branches,
twigs, pinecones, and the like. Then lay down a large
plastic ground cloth to keep out moisture from under-
neath. And I recommend laying a little piece of car-
pet or Astroturf right in front of the tent door to wipe
your feet on before you come inside.
Never leave food outside your tent, even in ice
chests, as animals will get into it. I’ve seen raccoons,
wild pigs, and even ants utterly destroy the next
morning’s breakfast supplies—to say nothing of what
bears can do. Most animals will be deterred by keep-
ing your food inside your tent, but if you are camping
in bear country, you should hang it high in a bag at
the end of a long nylon rope suspended over an
overhanging branch some distance from your tent. Tie
the other end of the line to a lower branch, and you
can raise or lower your stash as needed.
When you break camp to leave, be sure to re-
store the area to the condition in which you found it.
Pick up and pack out any artificial debris—paper, cans,
bottles, etc.—even if it’s not yours. Except for
trampled grass, there should be no trace of your hav-
ing camped there. However, in some places it may be
okay to leave the fire-pit for the next campers; check
if there is a question.Lesson 5: Lesson/Task:
Building the Campfire
There is just no substitute for sitting around a camp-
fire late into the night with your closest friends. As I
said back in 1.III.3: “The Origin of Magick,” Fire was
our first Magick—and it always calls us back to the
Source. Because you’re in training to become a Wiz-
ard, you should learn how to build the campfire, as that
task tends to fall to the Wizard if there’s one around!Make the Firepit: First, choose your site well.
Make it in the open, with no tree branches hanging
overhead that could catch fire! There must be a 10’
diameter circle of clear space all around the fire,
scraped to dirt or sand, and free of anything burnable.
The size of the fire-pit, and the seating area around it,
will depend on how many people are included. In the
center of the area, hollow out a little depression, at
least two feet in diameter for the smallest one-person
fire (bigger as needed). Pile the dirt around the edges
to make a small crater. If there are any rocks in the
area, pile them into a wall around the fire-pit, pack-
ing the loose dirt into the spaces between them. If
there are no rocks, make the crater a little deeper, with
a higher dirt bank around it. The crater-shape of the
fire-pit will act as a lens to keep the flames and smoke
directed upwards, the way the parabolic mirror be-
hind the bulb of a flashlight focuses the beam.Build the Fire: Now go out and gather a suffi-
cient pile of dead wood (never cut or break off any
living wood for a fire!). Don’t bother with anything
green or rotten, as all you will get is smoke. You will
want resinous pine for the small kindling, and hard-
woods for the actual fuel. See the following for the
lore of different woods for fires. Break it into appro-
priate-sized lengths, and stack most of it outside the
fire circle, sorted by size, so you can easily select what
you need to burn. If you can’t break it easily under-
foot, it’s too green to burn. If there is any likelihood
of rain, cover your woodpile with a plastic tarp.
If the ground is very wet, you
should lay a floor of sticks, tree bark,
or stones. Then lay a bed of dry
leaves, pine needles, or (the very
best) dry birch bark from a dead
tree. This is your tinder. If every-
thing else is wet, split open a dead branch,
and you will find it dry on the inside. Slice
up a number of “feathers” with your knife,
leaving the shavings attached.
Cover the tinder with a little pile of small dry
sticks; pine is excellent. This is the kindling. Then,
having chosen your larger sticks carefully for burn-
ing qualities, place them in a “teepee” shape, starting- Nature.p65 76 1/14/2004, 3:33 PM