Unicorn Conscientious Camping

Best Family Vacation Destination

There is a real choice about whether you have to go to the trouble, expense and questionable ethics of flying abroad for your sunshine holiday this year. It is no longer a cheap and cheerful option to do the package tour to Majorca! I have to tell you of an amazing experience I had last summer. The ultimate theme park for awakening families, these events include so many different kinds of teaching and healing activity that it’s hard to know where to begin. They are week-long outdoor gatherings of all ages and types who enjoy singing, dancing, camping, fireside chats, yoga, astrology, meditation… in fact the list is endless; all is included.

Best Family Vacation Destination

On Unicorn Camps for all ages and types, there are many opportunities to meet kindred spirits and enjoy a basketful of activities like singing and dancing, to fireside chats, yoga and bender-making. Hot showers, plenty firewood, multi-marquees and climbing frame for the kids. As a social phenomenon, “camps” began in the 1980’s when festivals were popular and the unemployed were poor and numerous. Music drew the crowds, camping set the tone and freedom expressed itself through more than just colourful clothes – people wanted to participate and learn lots of interesting new things. The first camps were small weekend events with themes such as Celtic Lore, Astrology, Circle Dance – and these expanded quickly to become longer and bigger, with broader programmes geared more for switched-on families than turned-on hippies.

Best Family Vacation Destination

Children and teenagers are welcome and have their own programme of events. The camp atmosphere is safe, mellow and loving; in fact suitable for the occasional visits of a unicorn! Of the many early camp organizations, those that survived 20 years had to specialize and perfect their presentation. Oak Dragon with Earth Magic, Rainbow with a jamboree “anything goes” feeling and Unicorn appealing to singers and dancers with Natural Voice and Dances of Universal Peace as major offerings. Some camps celebrate their freedom by allowing drugs, while others (Unicorn for example) exclude drugs and alcohol and are largely vegetarian.

Best Family Vacation Destination

For many participants, these events form an important aspect of their personal and spiritual growth. There are always emotions to look at, and the process of healing and development requires this type of kind supportive help. Of course it’s not all fun and laughter. Living under canvas, working and cooking together with people you’re not used to can trigger difficult feelings, and these have to be dealt with consciously. It’s understood that for spiritually-minded people, these events are important processes of transformation, as aspect of their individual healing and personal development path. Unicorn is strong on its ethos – a package of principles and practises that evolved to keep things on track, mainly which cover issues to do with community living, ecology, psychology and spirituality.

Best Family Vacation Destination

One can see the whole deal of living in commuity with awareness as part of humanity's current vision. We all may try to follow the idea "think globally, act locally", and on camp this becomes a living culture. There are so many ways to express ones highest beliefs. On camp, each is respected and many are celebrated. There are meditations from Buddhism, Christianity and Sufism; there’s puja, there’s yoga: Hatha yoga, Karma yoga and even Astro yoga; there’s tea ceremony, Lammas ceremony, closing ceremony and Native American dance of life ceremony. Much of this occurs while the more somnambulant ones enjoy a well deserved lie-in.

Best Family Vacation Destination

To be true to a policy to live with planet Earth in mind, then ecology must surely persuade us to avoid burning dirty aeroplane fuel for our summer break. England is so wonderful in August, why travel anywhere else? To build the programme, the 20 year veteran organisers blend a mixture of experienced popular teachers with the spice of “fringe” that can be anything at all. This year it is to be facilitated using Open Space technology, an extraordinary modern method that squeezes the most satisfaction out of people and circumstance by allowing everyone the power to offer and the power to request. Teenagers have their own agenda and rhythms. They are welcome and respected and work diligently to try to explain to incorrigible adults how to create a brave new world where “bizarre” ideas and attitudes are seen as helpful and instructive.

Best Family Vacation Destination

Mostly it is the unexpected things, that happen when our plans don't work out, that brings the true joy. So many new understandings, new relationships, and new attitudes arise on Unicorn Camps! Why Unicorn? The image itself is rather fascinating in its width of relevance. It has been seen in various guises and places throughout the world – notably as the Ki-lin in China – and has similar symbolism to do with the essential life force or Chi. Early Christians used it to portray Christ and pagans revere it as an agency of healing, captured only by deception using a virgin. It is white, suggesting innocence and purity, and yet horse-like (or goat-like), which hints at passion and power. Known for its great beauty and sensitivity it has an aura of sacredness and mystery. Why Unicorn then? Because for the many long-term participants, a Unicorn Camp is at its best when the atmosphere is such that a Unicorn would feel happy to be there.

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