The roots of the great Oak Tree, the Tree of Life, reach down into the deep and endless darkness of our Grandmother Earth. They stretch down, further and further, as they snake their way around the labyrinth of the Under World. The Great Oak's trunk climbs high as its limbs, branches and leaves reach ever upward into the open embrace of our Grandfather Sky, into the Upper World of Sun and Moon, into the realm of the Dragon.

During the times of the great Hippy Movement of the 1960's a revolution was taking place. In the eyes of many, this Cultural Revolution was unsuccessful as the energy that pushed the movement began to wane in the 1970's. Even so, a great shift had taken place – a shift in human consciousness. The free festival movement was born in the early 1970's that would lead to years of Free Festivals spearheaded by the Peace Convoy and centred on the sacred site of Stonehenge. The second stage of the sixties revolution was taking place as tribes united. The hippies, pagans, anarchists and ravers had joined forces in their claim over the ancient site of standing stones.

Whether publicly known or not this had created a new statement of intention. In centring the plight of the New Age Traveller on this most sacred of sites, an energetic vibration was created. The people wanted freedom of the land, freedom of speech and freedom to celebrate the ancient spirituality of this land, the earth mysteries of Albion.

The Free Festival movement and much of the Peace Convoy came to a brutal end in 1985 when riot police clashed with festival goers while on route to Stonehenge and the Summer Solstice celebrations. The Battle of the Beanfield was a black day in the history of Great Britain and her Government.

In this attempt to crush the alternative and counter-cultural element within the British public a new phenomenon had been seeded. The ‘Camp-Scene' was born in the form of the Glastonbury Music and Dance Camp, Earth Mysteries Camp and Living Astrology Camp, created by Palden Jenkins and Colin Harrison. These Camps were highly successful and peaked in 1986 at what would later be dubbed the ‘Chernobyl Camp'. These camps were primarily a way of getting large groups of people together in a situation where they could have a far more in-depth experience of the subjects offered. For many people, this offered a first chance to really experience subjects such as astrology, alternative healing, geomancy and dances of universal peace; and maybe more importantly, gave the first opportunity for these subjects to be publicly taught.

In the March of 1986, Palden Jenkins was called to a vision quest in the mountain valley of Cwm Pennant in Snowdonia, Wales. His intention was that of a re-envisioning. The Glastonbury Camps had done so much in the few years they'd been running, but so much more was needed. Stripped naked to render himself vulnerable under the pouring rain, crying his eyes out over the wonder and the bane of it all, Palden prayed deeply, offering himself up, asking for clues, pitifully shivering with a saturnine dilemma, with the sharp double edge of a choiceless choice.

In that most desperate of moments a vision came to Palden, a vision of the Oak Dragon. “Camps. Oak Dragon. Nationwide. Education, empowerment, initiation. Family and clan. Reach out to people. A university on the green Earth. From now until the 2020s. Oak Dragon project..."

Following this vision, Palden gathered together a circle of people whom he had told about the project and who were equally inspired. From Ros Briagha's home, Elfane, in West Wales, the acorn-egg of the Oak Dragon was to be nurtured until it hatched into the first Oak Dragon Camp. Elfane would come to be known as the Dragon's Nest.

This was to be the beginning of the Oak Dragon Camps. There were seven camps in the first season, which took place in 1987. It began with the Beltane Camp in West Penwith, the granite Atlantic toe in the far west of Cornwall, and the season peaked at the Harmonic Convergence Camp held at Nanteos, the valley of the nightingales near Aberystwyth – rumoured to be the final resting place of the Holy Grail.

Like the Glastonbury Camps before them, the intention was to take people into nature, to take them out of their comfort zone and to enter into a group process that would be facilitated through a variety of workshops, talking circles and group ceremonies. The difference however, was that these were not just outdoor educational camps; these were gatherings of the Oak Dragon.

That first season was both exceptionally successful and traumatic. Over one-and-a-half thousand people attended throughout the season, many of whom would never see the world in the same way again. From this time on it was only appropriate that the adoption of a Karmic Warning, ‘Oak Dragon May Change Your Life' should be made.

The anarchist, shaman and then ‘King of the Convoy', Sid Rawles, had sought refuge at the camps after the Battle of the Beanfield. Conflict quickly arose in the clashing ideologies of Sid and his followers and those of Palden and the camp co-ordinators. This eventually resulted in the first split and the birth of the ‘Rainbow Circle' Oak Dragon Clan.

This split took place at the end of the first season, and it was a tired and weary dragon that came home to the dragon's nest. The finances were in ruin, - owing the bank and more importantly, the VAT man, many thousands of pounds. It was an enormous effort to sort it all out. The most important step was to change the overdraft to a loan, which was done by giving the bank the deeds to Elfane, Ros Briagha's home. This meant that the loan had some security. It was now that the real Oak Dragon community spirit began to manifest, as a small core group gave selflessly of their time and energy in surviving the winter and getting another set of camps on the road for 1988. This core group had to try and recoup some money but more importantly try to keep the vision of the Oak Dragon alive.

As the finances slowly got resolved, so too did a coherent set of teachers and site crew emerge, ready to work through the season for the reward of being present at the camps. A new and much tougher approach to spending was instituted, and the 1988 season managed to happen, though with a smaller clientele. It was at this time that long-standing connections were made with young farmers who themselves believed in the new ethos of responsible farming and organic attitudes.

People such as Ronald Hutton, a professor of history at Bristol University, got involved too, bringing in the high quality of educational knowledge that seems so much a part of Oak Dragon. The chance came to put on camps such as “New Spiritual Traditions” where representatives of all the worlds major spiritual paths came along and shared their wisdom and practises with the campers and crew.

The next few years were a whirlwind of experiences and locations, as the Dragon flew around Britain, bringing its mystery to every site and camp. Britain's first green gathering, in 1990, had a very low attendance, but from it the veteran green campaigner Brig Oubridge got the inspiration to start his own Big Green Gathering, a major and growing influence in todays' green festival circuit. The crew became expert at outdoor living, and a number of them went on to found such influential communities as Brithdir Mawr in west Wales and Kingshill, above the site of Glastonbury Festival, which is also staffed by many Oak Dragoners.

Many of the techniques and teachers on today's new age scene came and went through the Oak Dragon Camps too, and though some found the Oak Dragon approach not to their taste, a positive outcome of this was that they went on to start their own style of camp, such as Welsh Dance Camp and the Unicorn camps, founded by James Burgess, one of Sufis' major teachers who is presently bringing Peace Dance to the East in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The first Peace Dance camp was given a site and facilities free of charge by Oak Dragon, as a gesture of support for this east-west initiative, in the days when the Cold War was still a reality.

Meanwhile the “Cold War” with Sid Rawles and the Rainbow Circle was ended, and it was accepted that “from the one comes forth the many” as the Tao teaches us. It is one of the most amazing things about Oak Dragon that it has stimulated the emergence of the present day Camp-Scene, as more and more folk felt empowered to start their own particular version of ‘education in a field'. As the years went by, the different subjects chosen as the theme for each camp changed in line with the developing interest in the New Age and its many related issues, and topics such as Healing, Music and Dance, and Earth Mysteries became ongoing favourites.

Another aspect of each camp was that both left and right brain activities were espoused, and ceremony and ritual played a key role, perhaps because Ros Briagha, the Managing Director, was a witch. She felt that part of the disconnection from Nature experienced by many people was due to the suppression of the pagan religions and the separation of Matter and Spirit. So there were many amazing rites at camps, where new ways were found to have powerful and inclusive forms of ceremony that put people in touch with eternal truths and understandings. Though these were often based on traditional pagan rituals, they were also very much created by the folk present, and were a wonderful melting pot of many different spiritual traditions.

One of the most unexpected offshoots of the camps came after the first camp at Honey Street, near Avebury. One of the campers was a man who claimed he had been told by Extraterrestrials that they would visit the camp. Though this did not actually happen, as far as we know, it was on this same farm that the first crop circle appeared the following year, and many more since. One of Oak Dragon's strengths has always been that the oddest folk can be heard here, and allowed to manifest their vision, and nowadays those visions do not seem so far out!

By 1994, it was obvious that the infrastructure of the camps was not satisfactory. The crew/camper divide had become a chasm, as fewer and fewer crew attended any workshops, and feelings of resentment at workloads grew. It was decided to hold a re-visioning camp, in May 94, and from this the concept of crewless camps emerged. This was also in part a response to the burgeoning camp scene, which had not helped the numbers attending Oak Dragon, and reduced the need for a large crew. It also was decided to not have a cafe any more, or a gate crew, or Wellbeing area, the alternative name for the sickbay! There continued to be a skeleton site crew, a devoted few who brought the equipment, or ‘tat' as it was known, to each site and put it up.

This was a stimulus to the concept of site layout, which had always been an important feature of Oak Dragon, as various sacred ‘mandala' shapes were used as templates for the site design. The idea of getting folk to camp in small circles and share cooking together came out of this too, as did the sharing of essential tasks such as stoking the showers' fire and cleaning the toilets. It felt like a very positive step forward, making for a much more circle orientated, rather than pyramidal, camp structure.

One of the interesting things about Oak Dragon is that within a camp it has often had to work through major problems of the world, such as Hierarchy, worker/consumer issues, feminism, smoking, drugs and alcohol abuse, spiritual differences, and other important issues of the 21st century. This has been mainly facilitated by the use of ‘Pow-Wow', or Talking Stick Circles, where each person has their chance to speak their truth as the stick is passed around the circle, and everyone else has the chance to hear them. This idea was brought in by Palden as something he had learnt about in Sweden, where they have a process called Alting, where people can bring their issues before the tribe.

Pow-Wow is an incredible process, and could sometimes go on for many hours, as hot topics got fully explored. It often became necessary to arrange for someone halfway around to call for a ten-minute tea and pee break, so people didn't become too uncomfortable, or pass out from exhaustion. These were always gripping times though, and a wonderful way to make sure that all sides of an issue were aired. Often it became apparent how to resolve the problem or at least make sure it did not reoccur, and for many people this was a crucial part of their empowering process, where they could feel that their voice had been heard and responded to in some way.

An important book that came out around this time was The Road Less Travelled by Scott Peck, in which he postulated that there are five steps to real community. The first is the pleasant first meeting, where we are just happy to say hello, and talk of easy matters. This leads to what he called false community, where we get on despite our underlying problems. Then comes conflict, as these problems start to impinge on the group, and interpersonal differences become obvious. The next step has to be confrontation and resolution, where the solution and compromise necessary are found, thus allowing the final step of real community to commence.

In Oak Dragon, Pow-Wow has meant that these difficulties have been allowed out into the open, looked at honestly, and integrated into the group process. Although this has often been very painful, as each person has had to open their heart up to others, it has been instrumental in creating a very strong bond between those involved, lasting many years and bringing a closeness and sense of family not often found. In fact, the very tribe that Palden was told of in his vision so many years ago. As the children of those early years come to adulthood, they are the beneficiaries of this, feeling themselves part of a network of tribes that existed only as a dream for their parents.

One can only speculate on the question, “What is the Oak Dragon”. In our opinion, it is far more than just a name. Since the very beginnings of time, on every continent of this earth, where humanity has worshipped divinity, the serpent has been recognized and accepted as a god. From Africa's steaming jungle, to the icy wastes of northern Europe; from the Fertile Crescent, to the deserted outback of Australia, the serpent has been worshipped, feared and adored. Serpent mythology is arguably the most widespread mythology known to humankind. From the Rainbow Serpent of Australia to the snakes of the ‘Axis Mundi' or World Tree, the Serpent Beings have been at the centre of humanity's Mystery Traditions. In China the Dragon is given a position of pre-eminence and is central to their geomantic system of ‘Feng Shui', the science of understanding the Earth's ‘Dragon Lines'. The oldest flag of Europe is the Red Dragon of Wales, a symbol of power and magick.

This, however, is an Oaken Dragon. The Oak Tree is the national tree of both England and Wales and is a common symbol of strength, wisdom and endurance. In Celtic mythology it is the tree of doors, believed to be a gateway between the worlds, or a place where portals could be erected. Thor's Oak was a sacred tree of the Germanic Chatti tribe; its destruction marked the Christianisation of the heathen tribes by the Franks. In Classical mythology the oak was a symbol of Zeus and his sacred tree.

As was the case with the destruction of Thor's Oak, so too the death of the Dragons, at the hands of St. George and St. Michael, marked the shift from nature-based spirituality to patriarchal ‘churchianity'. In Europe the age of Dragon worship in Oak Grove temples was brought to a bloody end in the abolition of Europe's native Pagan religions, the onslaught of the Witch Hunts and death of the Ancient Mystery Schools.

As the blood of the Dragon was spilled and the Oak Tree crashed to the forest floor, the soul of this land went into hiding and an acorn-egg waiting to burst into life was buried in British soil. From small acorn-eggs grow large Oak Dragons. The Oak Dragon was never killed off in this land; it merely went into hiding, awaiting a time when it could once more take its rightful place. Now the Oak Dragon has been reborn and stands strong and proud as the first Mystery School of the New Aeon.

"Many thanks to Palden Jenkins for so kindly providing these photographs of the 1987 Oak Dragons Camps"