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Willow Polson was born in San Francisco in 1966, so some of that magic must have rubbed off during her childhood. After moving to the suburbs at age eight, she learned about vegetable gardens, fruit trees, embroidery and other crafts, fantasy novels, how to build forts with unwanted lumber in the back yard and, most importantly, about magical nights watching the full moon rise over the mountains, wondering what mysteries might still be in the world, hiding in the little forgotten places of nature.
As a teen she learned traditional Miwok Indian style basketry from Julia Parker in Yosemite Valley, following the native methods of gathering materials from the wild and cultural practices surrounding the disappearing art of traditional basketmaking. Later she became an Art major at San Francisco State University, with emphasis in Ethnic Arts (after switching from Anthropology), and was just beginning the path toward a teaching credential when fate made her take an off-ramp into a publishing company where she was a graphic artist and editor for ten years on a number of magazines.
As a stay-at-home mom after that, she decided to combine two things she knows intimately (Paganism and crafts) to create her first book, Witch Crafts, which has gone into multiple printings from Kensington Publishing. Sabbat Entertaining followed, then The Veil’s Edge, Pagan Rituals, and now her fifth book, published in September 2007 by Kensington, The Crafty Witch. She has taught numerous workshops and classes over the years, including at Pantheacon, Elderflower Womenspirit Festival, and various local Pagan Pride Day celebrations.
Willow is currently living on her 10-acre homestead in the mountains near Yosemite National Park with her husband and son, complete with wood heat, sheep for the wool which she spins, chickens, a large organic vegetable garden, and so on. She always has multiple creative projects going at any given time, whether focused on crafts or writing (or both).
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Azar has performed for the past 30 years throughout the United States and the Bahamas, as a featured magician, at Renaissance Faires and historical events, at comedy clubs and murder mystery shows, and as a historical magician at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. As a specialist in antiquarian magic, “William the Conjuror” entertains a wide variety of audiences in historical costume and shares his love of history, as well as his quick wit, bawdy humor (when encouraged), and master manipulative skill.
Bella Mahri and Sky Cat are HPS and HP of the L.S.G.S.C. (founded 1993) and the founders of the Earth Spirituality Education Center (ESE Center) in Lima, Ohio. This will be our 16th P.S.G., we haven't missed one since 1993. Bella (Mahri) will be ordained as a Circle minister at P.S.G. this year! All are welcome to come. Sky Cat is retired and Bella teaches engineering courses at an area college. Both have written articles for Circle magazine and have been involved in Paganism for more than 40 years each, eclectic and Celtic traditions. Facilitators of the Bast Cat Ritual and coordinators of the Candlelight Labyrinth and the Bast Shrine. Bast loves all cats. All cats love Bast! Meow!
Special thanks to our first elder, Sun Kat, - "Mr. Solar" bringer of solar power to the Earth Spirituality Education Center (ESE Center) and the Bast Shrine and all night L.S.G.S.C. guardian of the Candlelight Labyrinth. - Spiral In, Spiral Out!
Selena Fox is high priestess of Circle Sanctuary. She is one of America's best known Pagan elders and religious freedom activists, and is executive director of the Lady Liberty League. Founder of the Circle Craft tradition, Selena's approach to spirituality emphasizes Nature communion and blends together ancient and contemporary Pagan folkways, Wiccan traditions, multicultural shamanism, and transpersonal psychology. Selena is a clinical psychotherapist and spiritual counselor with a MS in counseling from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Selena and her work on behalf of the Craft and contemporary Pagan culture have been covered by various regional, national, and global media. She is active in efforts promoting multicultural understanding, interfaith dialogue, and global cooperation and is the first head of a Wiccan tradition to serve on the Assembly of Religious and Spiritual Leaders associated with the Parliament of the World's Religions. Selena's writings and photographs have been published in a variety of periodicals, anthologies, and other publications. She is author of Goddess Communion Rituals and Meditations and When Goddess is God: Pagans, Recovery, and Alcoholics Anonymous. She also has created several music and guided meditation tapes. She is founder of the quarterly journal, CIRCLE Magazine, and sourcebook, Circle Guide to Pagan Groups. Selena has traveled internationally in connection with her work. She has presented workshops and led rituals in many types of settings. She is founder and co-director of PSG.
Giving hails from a small pristine island in the Pacific Northwest where she lives in cooperative housing built with her own hands. For over 15 years she has been a member of Daughters of Gaia where she facilitates rituals and teaches. An ordained Priestess of Artemis in the Circle of Stellamaris, she has also taught and facilitated too many to count public rituals. Giving has
always embraced sacred dance as ritual, and is often seen dancing in the woods with a musician playing a simple flute, drum or guitar. Many know her by the name of Dancing Light, and much like her love of dance and her island home, she sees the sacred in nature and embraces the wonder of the Goddess in everything she does.
Jerrie Hildebrand has been affiliated with various national nature-centered and Pagan organizations since 1986. She currently works with the Our Freedom Collaborative, is the Assistant Director of Lady Liberty League and an ordained minister with Circle Sanctuary leading an interfaith women's collective in Massachusetts. Her work and path is tied with her love and passion of transformational thinking and processes. As an award-winning creative director with 30 years experience, she has a mastery in working as an artist, business woman, mother and priestess and walking between the worlds of each.
Kathryn Hinds is the author of more than thirty young-adult books on ancient, medieval, and early-modern cultures and the co-author of Magic of the Celtic Gods and Goddesses. She is also an award-winning poet, whose work has appeared in The Lyric, Mythic Passages, SageWoman, and other journals. Kathryn's interests include a range of Earth-based and mystical paths and practices, but her spiritual home lies within the realm of Celtic (particularly Welsh) mythology and tradition.
Rev. Paula Johnson is a 3rd degree Wiccan High Priestess from the Proteus branch of the Gardnerian tradition as well as an ordained minister for Circle Sanctuary. She is the Coordinator for Circle Sanctuary's Operation Circle Care, Pentacles for Pagan Troops and Circle's Coordinator for Campus Ministry. As Media Relations Liaison for Lady Liberty League, she was actively involved in the Pentacle Quest. In September 2006, she spoke about the Pentacle Quest at the World's Congress of Religions conference at McGill University in Montreal, Canada in her presentation, "A Pagan By Any Other Name: The Rhetoric of Nature Religion in the Media." In July 2007 Paula traveled to Arlington National Cemetary and participated in the dedication of the first headstone in US history to have a Christian cross on one side and a pentacle on the other. In November 2007 she presented her research on "Pagan Rights and the Internal Law of Public Administration" at the American Academy of Religions, Conference for Contemporary Pagan Studies. In March 2008, Paula participated in an interreligious pilgrimage to Haiti with Christian organization "Food for the Poor" and works with Catholic campus organization "The Neuman Club". Paula has a Master's Degree in Mass Communications and wrote her Masters Thesis on the role the media played in the Pentacle Quest. Paula is a religion writer and has contributed as a staff writer for Circle Magazine and other international publications.
Nels Linde of the Glenn Alexandrian tradition has been writing and producing large group and public ritual since 1988. He has been offering a community fire ritual at Samhain in NW Wisconsin for fifteen years (see http://www.hawkdancing.com/firerite.html). With his wife and partner Judy Olson-Linde, he has produced more than twenty rituals at The Sacred Harvest Festival (see http://harmonytribe.org/) and organized the Veterans' Pentacle Rights Ritual at the state capitol of Minnesota in February 2007.
Drake Spaeth, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist and is a program faculty member of both the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and Cherry Hill Seminary. He is also a shamanic practitioner, writer, and ordained minister of Circle Sanctuary specializing in support of military members and their families. A former active-duty Air Force officer, he has served as a consultant for the Armed Forces about issues pertinent to Paganism and engaged in interfaith dialogue work with military chaplains of different religious traditions. He is a former executive director of the Military Pagan Network (MPN) and was a delegate to the Parliament of the World's Religions in Barcelona, Spain. His interests span a wide variety of spiritual topics, such as Celtic spirituality and mythology, Existential/Humanistic/Transpersonal psychology, Jungian psychotherapy and psychospirituality, hypnotherapy, Taoism, Kundalini Yoga, divination, and the Western Mystery Tradition.
Julie Cuccia-Watts is a life long artist, the creator of three multicultural tarot decks: The Ancestral Path Tarot (1996), the Blue Moon Tarot (1998), and the Maat Tarot (2006). Julie is also the sole proprietor of New Moon Trading Co. Her interests include all things paranormal and metaphysical, which she blends with her interests in history, astrology, mythology and experimental archeology. Julie specializes in doing shamanic work at ancient sacred sites and painting dreams and visions for over 25 years.
Nora Cedarwind Young is a Certified Death Midwife, Green Burial Educator and End-of-Life Planning Activist/Educator. She is a Circle Minister, and High Priestess Circle of Stellamaris. Nora was the first Pagan Hospice Chaplain in Washington State and one of the first chaplains in the nation to specialize in Pagan Hospice needs. She has facilitated rituals and workshops at numerous gatherings. Previously a Pagan bookstore owner, her teaching includes Death Midwifery, Home Funerals, Eco-Spirituality, Songs and Chants for Pagan Children and various classes celebrating Goddess/Women's studies. Nora has twice presented at the International Women of Wisdom Conference and The Provender Alliance for Organic Education. As a dedicated Hospice volunteer and Chaplain, volunteers Prison Ministry and she has done hundreds of hours of advocacy work for Domestic Violence, Eco-Spirituality, social issues and numerous panels and media forums including area public schools. Nora co-facilitated with Dr. Marilyn Stoner and Selena Fox, an online End-of-Life Preferences Study for Wiccans, Pagans and Nature Spirituality Practitioners. Results were recently published in the Journal of Hospice Nursing and Palliative Care. Nora continues to serve both interfaith and intrafaith at her county hospital and assists individuals and families with home and family centered funerals through Ceremonies for Life's' Thresholds.