Beltane 2007 List of Presenters

Current as of 20 Apr 2007

Send Schedule Questions/Comments to the P-Team, please

Anita Wagner is a polyamory and sexual freedom activist, writer, spokesperson and educator. She is co-founder and past board member of Chesapeake Polyamory Network and is co-founder and former member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for 21^st Century Relationships/the Foundation of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. She currently serves as CPN's representative to the Coalition Council of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, and is a past member of NCSF's Board of Directors. She is also a founding member of the Greater Washington Area chapter of Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness.

Anita has appeared on television in interviews on polyamory in Washington, DC, and Baltimore, in newspaper articles, and has presented educational programs on polyamory at Dark Odyssey, Black Rose, Building Bridges, Free Spirit Beltane Gathering, Florida Poly Retreat and the Loving More® East Coast conferences. She authored articles on polyamory and bisexuality published in Loving More® Magazine and ITCR's Relating newsletter, respectively. As a polyamory skills educator, Anita is lovingly and passionately committed to helping others find the happiness they seek through responsible non-monogamy.
Avoid the Pitfalls/Reap the Rewards of Polyamorous Relationships

Aziza Azhar has had the pleasure of teaching beginning and intermediate belly dance for the last five years. Her classes are at Glen Echo Park in MD. Each semester, her students learn one of Aziza’s choreographies. Intermediate students learn dancing with finger cymbals and veils. Aziza also performs and teaches at private parties, especially women’s celebrations.
The Sensual Art of Belly Dance

Beth & Preston: Beth is a professional massage therapist and doula (childbirth assistant). Though relatively new to the BDSM community, she has a long history of using touch for relaxation and healing through massage, for assisting mothers through the birth process, for supporting infants in her water babies classes, and for working with animals in a wide variety of settings. After helping Preston through his issues with erectile dysfunction, she faced breast cancer surgery, chemo, radiation and long-term treatment on hormone suppressive drugs with Preston's support. Through all of this, they have mastered the art of a very satisfying sexuality that goes way beyond hormones. They have been presenters for Black Rose, Chesapeake Polyamory Network, and Club Fem as well as presenting at other FSA events. Her focus is on touching lives in ways that enhance and enrich. Preston brings balance and humor to Beth's presentations. A technical person by profession, he keeps Beth on focus. He made his 30-year marriage to an unhappy woman a study in what satisfies a woman. While it may not have succeeded with her, he has developed an incredibly sensitive approach to touching others.
101 Things To Do With a Limp Dick
Behold the Foot: Massage the Metatarsals and Fondle the Footsie
Play After the Pause: Menopausal Sexuality
Sensation for Fun, Sex and Scene

Cassandra Syndrome delivers an original and intelligent brand of dark, brooding hard rock driven by soaring female vocals, scathing guitars, and pounding drums. With lyrics born of social consciousness, Cassandra Syndrome creates a shadowed sound recalling that of Lacuna Coil and Tool.

With a high-energy presentation that ranges from melancholy contemplation to wild abandon, the music of Cassandra Syndrome will awaken your consciousness, touch your spirit and make your body quake with energy.
Concert

Christina "slavette" Parker, International slave 2002, has been a collared 24/7 slave since 1996 and has been owned by Master Todd since 2004. With her first Master, Christina was honored to receive the Pantheon of Leather Awards for Couple of the Year (2001) and Small Event of the Year for Together in Leather 2004. As part of her commitment to our community, Christina has served as Fundraising Director for the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF), served on the Board of Directors for CUFF, SSCN and Gnosis, and has been a founding member of four BDSM educational/support/social groups. Christina has given over 150 workshops across the US and in Canada. While she speaks on a variety of topics, her primary educational focus is on M/s, spirituality, and polyamorous relationships. Christina is the author of The Path of Service—Guideposts for Excellence, and her latest book, The Poly Workbook—Many Hearts, Many Loves, Many Possibilities is due to be finished in Spring 2007. The latest twist in Christina's spiritual path has led to her exploring life's joys with her elfmate/boyfriend, Fletcher.
Auto-Erotic Sex Magick in a Western Tradition Spiritual Path
Polyamorous Relationships: Emotional Edgeplay
SM: A Spiritual Toolbox

CoDE: The Circle of Dark Eros (CoDE) is an eclectic circle of pagans formed in 2002 in part based on a community need for a place to support adult pagans practicing spirituality in the path of Ordeal. CoDE's methods utilize ordeal-based (including, but not limited to binding and scourging) and related practices in pursuit of shamanic and spiritual goals. Prospective members must be 21 years of age or older.

The Circle of Dark Eros was honored to produce and present the festival rituals for 2004's Free Spirit Gathering, and they are pleased to once again bring you the Exploratorium and FSA's Beltane Dungeon space.
Exploratorium
Play Party

Dianna is a writer and teacher who relishes every chance she gets to wander around half-dressed and dance at big fires.
6th Annual Best Butt (and more) Contest

Freeheart is a workshop facilitator, and founder of the Aliantha Community in northern Virginia. He conducts workshops on personal growth, body acceptance, goal buddies, and communication, and provides counseling for individuals and couples. For more information, please visit freeheart.net.
Introduction to Watersports
Super Safe Sex

Jennifer Cutting & Stephen Winick: Jennifer is an internationally known bandleader, composer, recording artist, performer, and record producer. A practical mystic, she is known for her visionary blending of tradition with innovation, and also for her ability to successfully launch her visions into the world. Jennifer first came to national attention as leader of British folk-rock band The New St. George, and then to international acclaim as founder and leader of Celtic rock band the Ocean Orchestra (featured artists at the Free Spirit Gathering in 2004 and 2005). Washington Area Music Association named her Musician of the Year and Songwriter of the Year, also awarding Album of the Year to her CD, OCEAN: Songs for the Night Sea Journey. She has produced and recorded with leading lights of folk and folk-rock such as Maddy Prior, Annie Haslam and Dave Mattacks. Stephen has his own bio.
Singing in the May!

Jeremiah - Tantric Shamanic Healers Group was ordained as a Minister of Spiritual Science in 1997 by Reverend Wayne Chenault, MSS, the founder and director of The Christ Light Church of North Carolina and initiated and trained as a Reiki Master/Teacher in 1998. Tantric Shamanic Healing has been part of his practice since January 2000. In addition to working with clients privately, Reverend Lindsay currently leads workshops in Reiki attunements, meditation, Spiritual Healing, Sacred Sexuality, Tantric Shamanic Healing and Journey's Awakening.
Exploring The Rosebud and Pelvic Cradle: Introduction
Exploring The Rosebud and Pelvic Cradle: Partner Practice Session
Sacred Body Integration: Introduction and Demonstration
Sacred Body Integration: Partner Healing Sessions

Julio Cortes is an energy healer/teacher and a martial arts instructor with extensive training in Holistic Counseling, Energy Work, Meditation, and Sacred Sexuality. He trained with Mantak Chia and has been practicing Healing Love techniques for over 10 years, teaching many how to enhance their health and love life since 1991. In addition to this, Julio works as an executive in a training company in New York, where he and his co-workers do transformational work at a worldwide level, teaching communication and negotiation to clients to create trust and openness in work environments. Julio is a man who lives to share the good stuff so that we can create a world where everyone wins!
Integrity in Poly Relationships

Kate has been involved in Scene activities for some time, and has been active in Black Rose in Washington, DC, for the past several years. Her eclectic path has covered diverse ground, and she enjoys educating folks about the varied and different ways to explore life through many kinds of play. Probably owing to early and repeated certification in American Red Cross safety courses, Kate's keen to provide knowledge and environment for folks to safely be as kinky as they please. Kate has been with the Circle of Dark Eros since its inception.
Healing and Hot Wax
You Want to Do What? or, BDSM 101

Ken Haslam, MD, 72, graduated from University of California, Berkeley, Cornell Medical College, and Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital in Anesthesiology. He is an ex sometime academic anesthesiologist specializing in medical instrumentation who, since retirement, has been living and teaching about Polyamory. He is a founding member and past Vice President of Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness, a board member of the Institute for 21^st Century Relationships and a board member of CARAS (Community-Academic Consortium for Research in Alternative Sexualities). In 2006, he established a Polyamory archive collection in the Kinsey Institute Library at Indiana University. His current interests are introducing Polyamory into the academic community and Polyamory history.

He is single but not alone, having more than one Significant Other in an intimate network. He cheats on his Poly partners by having an ongoing torrid affair with his live-aboard boat, plays the flute badly, and dabbles in BDSM as a "wuss" dom. He is a Unitarian Pagan camp-follower, spends too much time at the computer, and loves riding roller coasters. He drinks and smokes a little and his present goal in life is to be the first Unitarian burned at the stake by Unitarians for heresy.
Alfred C Kinsey and the Roots of Polyamory

Lydia has been attending Beltaine for several years now and is excited to be presenting for the first time. She has been pagan since her teenage years, and she is also an RN.
A Hand in the Bush
Polyamory Discussion
Thou Art Goddess

Marie teaches BDSM throughout the US & Canada. She is enjoying meeting new poly-pagans and enjoying meeting new friends wherever she travels. She is normally found with her wife of 9.5 years and their greyhound in the mountains of Virginia.
The History of Sex
Rituals and the History of Cuttings/Scarification

Michelle Zee is a trans, pagan and poly activist who has presented workshops at the Dark Odyssey, Free Spirit Beltane and Gathering festival, Loving More East, Poly Living, Building Bridges conferences, and at the Community for Spiritual Living. She has studied both Brad Blanton's Radical Honesty and Susan Campbell's Getting Real. Michelle is leading a 3-day workshop on Getting Real in West Virginia. Michelle is also known as Michael when she changes genders. She is out to most friends, neighbors and came out at work last year. Telling people is not always easy (though the more people I have told my 'secret' to the easier it gets). Most people either don't care or are accepting. Let's face it: if they don't like it, then it is their problem—and do I what to be with that kind of person anyway? No! For more information, visit Michelle online.
Better Sounds of Sex
Erotic Trance Dance for Release
Getting Real: Practicing Honesty in Sex and Relationships
Sandbox Exploration

Nyx is a pansexual, polyamorous switch with a genuine fetish for all things sharp, particularly if those sharp things are wits! In the early nineties, she was a founding member of MOB New England, the area's first and only group devoted to woman on woman BDSM. During her misspent youth, Nyx was active with Tufts University Sex Talk, a peer to peer education campaign advocating safer sexual practices, and THINK!, a campus date rape prevention group. She maintains current certifications in First Aid and CPR because it's the right thing to do. In her workday corporate drag, Nyx masquerades as a rocket scientist who lives a stereotypical suburban life with her oh-so-normal nuclear family of two partners and four cats.
Around the Edges
Canes and Caning (Interactive Playshop)
Percussion and Impact Play (Experiential Playshop)

Patricia & Mark: Mark Michaels (Swami Umeshanand Saraswati) and Patricia Johnson (Devi Veenanand) are co-authors of The Essence of Tantric Sexuality (Llewellyn Worldwide). A devoted married couple, they have been teaching Tantra and Kriya yoga together since 1999. Their teachings have been featured in several publications, including the Village Voice, Now Magazine, Jane, Rockstar and Breathe Magazine. Senior students of Dr. Jonn Mumford, Michaels and Johnson have been named lineage holders of the OM Kara Kriya® system for the Americas and Europe. Both have studied Bhakti Yoga with Bhagavan Das, Tantra with Dr. Rudy Ballentine, and have been featured in Dr. Judy Kuriansky's Idiot's Guide to Tantric Sex. They have an online course, The Fundamentals of Tantric Sexuality with students worldwide and teach in the New York Metro area. Visit their school online.
The Chakras and Sexuality
Pleasure as Spiritual Practice
The Tantric Erogenic Zones (Kama Marmas)

Puck & the Brewmaster: Puck (Martha) has been entranced by chocolate ever since her encounter with a Tobler Mocha bar at age 5. The Brewmaster (Steve) thinks that a chocolate stout is the pinnacle of beverages. They enjoy sampling chocolate together at every opportunity, as well as pairing it with a good red wine.
Sensual Chocolate Sampler

Robin Renée has been a member of Hands of Change Coven since Beltane 1998. She became a Priestess in the tradition in August 2004. She is a performing songwriter, meditation and bhakti yoga practitioner, and a freelance writer. Her CDs include In Progress, All Six Senses, and the latest, Live Devotion (Menage a Music, 2007). She has shared the stage with some of the West's best-loved kirtan singers, including Krishna Das, Wynne Paris, and Dave Stringer, and founded an online community for devotional chanting, Kirtan-o-Rama!. Her published spiritual essays include 'Merging Candles—From Dualism Into All' in the anthology Blessed Bi Spirit: Bisexual People of Faith (Continuum Press, 2000) and 'Coming Out Krishna,' (PanGaia Magazine #40, 2005). Visit her website.
The Art of Stillness
Exciting the Writer: Sexuality
Kirtan-o-Rama!
Many Loves, Many Gods: The Poly-Pagan Continuum

RopeBoy has been studying ropework since 1994. He's studied many different kinds of knotting and rituals, including Shibari, and has incorporated and developed them into an evolving, limitless experience that can only be quantified as a Rope Art. He's performed and given instruction over the years with many different groups and events from San Francisco to DC. His most recent performance was at DC Bound's SMB X, where last year he performed advanced techniques for 6 hours straight. He thrives to be a true enthusiast and an ever-evolving artist. Visit him online for more info.
Rope Bondage 101
Rope Bondage 201

Sacred Mark Sanctuary promotes and explores awareness of the interconnectedness between mind, body and spirit through the practices of body modification and art. We use indigenous, ancient and modern spiritual practices to assist individuals and communities in strengthening their relationships between mind, body and spirit so that they may grow in their spiritual beliefs.
Responsible Blood Play
Time and Again: An Exploration of Photography & Sexuality

Sarah Taub & Michael Rios: Michael Rios has been creating and living alternative lifestyles and personal growth experiences for 40 years; currently he lives at Chrysalis, an intentional community in Arlington, VA. His favorite social organization principles include guerrilla capitalism and responsible anarchy. He regularly organizes New Culture events aimed at creating a culture based on awareness, compassion and freedom rather than on fear and judgment (www.cfnc.us, www.nfnc.org). Sarah Taub has been studying human dynamics for years, through aikido, co-counseling, group facilitation, and the cognitive sciences. She recently left her safe Ivory Tower job to dive into social and political activism. Her current koan: only when you let go of urgency can you be truly effective. She also lives at Chrysalis.
Intimacy as a Spiritual Path
Intimate Exposure
Merry Meet! Jump-Starting Intimacy

Selene & Bellavia & Arakeane: Selene: Namasté. I'm Selene. I Became a High Priestess in 1980. I have been a Starwood Elder for the past 3 years. My husband Arakeane and I have taught at FSG since the mid 1990s. I am the mother of two rambunctious teenagers, and pagan mentor to several others. I hold a B.A. in Psychology, and an M.B.A. in Management Information Systems. I have been exploring weaving, macrame, knotwork, jewelry-making, gemlore and herbalism as long as I can remember. I have 20 years' experience enjoying the exploration of alternative lifestyles. Arakeane and I have been involved in several successful long-term polyamorous relationships. Bellavia: I am Bellavia, a feminist artist. I learned that my work centers on my need to explore my identity and to assert my sense of sexuality. I have focused on allowing my creations to become part of a primordial search into my body, my identity and myself. I venture to search for an impure balance, a balance that becomes a tangible and emotional aura. I create works that embody emotions and dreams that give me a voice to confess who and what I am. Tapping into a collective conscious based on shared social experience to give different viewers the ability to understand each other's reaction becomes an end goal for my work. Viewers may not be in agreement with other reactions or may be diametrically opposed to them, but they are confronted with it, and pushed to accept, at the very least, its reality. Arakeane exploits the diversity of his religious, sexual, and spiritual background to bring a unique mix of talent to the pagan community. His Baptist, Methodist, Evangelical, Thalamic, and Mormon background from his early years intermingles with his vast experience in sadomasochism, liberal sexuality, and avant-garde spirituality tempered by his various Wiccan experiences and practices for the past 20 years. A Naval Officer, Engineer, Physicist, Computer Scientist, and Dungeon Master by trade, Arakeane interleaves his professional training into his quest for spiritual awareness and comprehension. The thrice sworn soul-mate of the High Priestess Selene, Arakeane has been in the public Pagan forum since the late 1980s. Most noted for his open work entwining diverse pagan practices with Wicca, Arakeane has been an embarrassment to fundamentalists from many Pagan traditions for well over a decade. A Distinguished Toastmaster, off-Broadway New York actor, trained in NLP, holistic healing, and a diverse set of other spiritual disciplines, Arakeane's spontaneous entertaining presentation style typically delights his audience. Even if you've taken a previous year's workshop, you're sure to be delighted with the continuous changes introduced, and Arakeane's ability to spiritually immerse you in the subject matter.
Bondage Without Restraint
Exchanging Power OTK
Magick Fingers

Shiva Mai integrates a wealth of knowledge and direct experience from 20 years of personal practice and professional experience and training in yoga, tantra, meditation, and numerous modalities of bodywork, breathwork, healing and transformation. He has been profoundly blessed by authentic tantric traditions sourced in India, and certified to teach tantric kriya yoga, meditation, breathwork and hatha yoga. This is complemented and grounded by additional leadership training in modern systems of transformation (Landmark Education, the Shalom Process, Embodied Sexuality), and graduate level work leading to a certification in Sexology.

His current focus is presenting a body of work called "Breathing Sacred Union". The core of this work is a tantric shamanic breathwork ceremony, and a tantric meditation called Tandava: the Dance of Shiva. Maichael also developed an eclectic style of bodywork for TMJ and balancing the throat chakra over 15 years of practice and research. This work opens the gate for a person to express their dharma, or life purpose, with ecstatic compassionate presence.

Maichael serves as a sensual shaman, and tantric priest. He facilitates deeply sensual bodywork, meditation, and other processes to welcome the full flow of life force and erotic energy in the body. His passion is to transmit the energy of sacred union and the ecstatic compassionate presence of love.
Introduction & Orientation for Tantric Maithuna Ritual
Sexual Shamanism: Tantric Breathwork and The Erotic Dance of Shiva
Tantric Maithuna Ritual: Making Love with God-dess

Sophia HeartSinger's extensive ritual experience began in 1984 at her first Pagan gathering. But her astrological experience goes back even further, to 1974. It now encompasses all three major Schools (Western, Hindu, and Chinese) in a kind of 'unified field theory.' With Lord SunGrail, she has been High Priestess of Rosewood since 1995. She has tons of musical theatre experience, having appeared with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Concert Artists of Baltimore, Young Victorian Theatre, and Municipal Opera. She has a Master's degree in Music History from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and another degree as a Certified Compensation Professional for her 'other hat' in the HR department at the Community College of Baltimore County. She is currently composing 'The Passion of Persephone,' an Alchemical rock opera. You can learn more at http://www.passionofpersephone.com.
Love on Venus's Terms

Stephen Winick is a folklorist, writer, and traditional folksinger. He studied medieval literature and comparative mythology at Columbia University in New York before earning his PhD in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania. An expert on folksongs and ballads, he has taught many courses at all levels, from high school to graduate school. Steve is also a well-known writer on folk music, with articles in Dirty Linen, Sing Out, Music Hound, All Music Guide, and other leading publications. As a singer, he has appeared frequently as a guest vocalist with Jennifer Cutting's Ocean Orchestra, and has recently joined the Ship's Company Chanteymen. He also sings traditional ballads in the old, unaccompanied style. Steve has studied and written about ancient Celtic religion, and was introduced to modern paganism as a visitor to New York's Magickal Childe shop during the 1980s and 90s. He is currently exploring both pagan spirituality and the Tarot.
Robin Hood, Lord of May

Steven Fenton didn't send us a bio.
Getting out of Debt: A Practical Guide

Suzann is a certified Cuddle Party facilitator since the beginning! She is also a holistic health educator and social science professor who loves to share information about auras and chakras. She has just completed a book on Every Day Intimacy, which combines developmental psychology, the ideas of Freud and Jung, with Eastern Tantric practices.
Cuddle Party

Tina Van Pelt - Fused Glass: I learned the art of fused glass at Vitrum Studios in Beltsville, Maryland, the premier East Coast warm glass studio. I have been making fused glass jewelry for about 5 years and selling and instructing others for the last two years out of my own studio, Profusions of Glass, where you can see some of my art. I work with American and Italian glass and I use silver, gold and copper leaf and wire in my work.
Fused Glass Jewelry: Pendants, Earrings, Worry-stones

Whittney Matlock, professional massage therapist, Pagan priest, healer and educator. Hearing the call of the Goddess in his teens, he has traveled an interesting path in his exploration of faith. In the early nineties he began a journey into the world of BDMS which has led him to use his experiences in magikal space to help others learn to heal through trust, touch and facing themselves in ordeal. Learning his crafts from the bottom up, he learned how to follow the ordeal path to personal power. Now a teacher in the BDSM community, he combines his experience of healing, faith and ordeal to offer insights into the many ways in which magik manifests itself around us in every aspect of life. A perennial presenter for Black Rose Society of DC and Club Crucible, he has shared his wit and knowledge with many of the VA and MD BDSM clubs. As co-founder and spiritual leader of Kindlers of the Sacred Rhythms, he explores and teaches about the ordeal path with the members of the coven. He and his lover are working on many projects to be of service to their community, from TV shows on alternative health for Fairfax Public Access, a podcast on meditation and the search for Spirit and, their ultimate goal, to create a fall healing retreat, Healing the Spirit, focusing on teaching people to use the healing power inside themselves to change their lives. When he presents, Whittney's classes are not for the faint of heart. He'll see to it that everyone gets involved. His charm and panache will captivate you, as he pulls you out of your chair and eggs you on to discover what's inside yourself. Take a chance, risk discovering parts of yourself that you lost track of, or, maybe, even find something in you which you never knew existed.
I Meant to Do That—The Art of Intention and Touch
Impact Play: The Slap that Tickles your Fancy
Is That a Chakra in Your Pocket or are You Just Happy to See Me?
Male Member
Why You Deserve an Ordeal

Ehe Wilddragon is the public face of the Covenant of the Evening Star, an eclectic Pagan group studying Sacred Sexuality and drawing inspiration, in part, from traditional Wiccan practices. Our approach is that of mystical polytheism, seeking the personal knowledge and conversation of our Gods and Goddesses. Sacred Sexuality covers a broad spectrum of activities, from erotic visualization of Goddesses and Gods to physically manifesting a Goddess or God for each other. Neither nudity nor touch is necessary to practice Sacred Sexuality, but both are common tools. If you have questions, visit Evening Star online or drop a note to covenevenstar at cox dot net.
Advanced Sexual Trancework
Beginning Sexual Trancework
Overcoming Homophobia (and Heterophobia)
The Ritual of the Quadishu
Sexual Bhakti

Zammis is a long-time FSA event attendee and kinkster. She's also an independent consultant with Temptations Parties, an arm of the Sinclair Institute, the leading provider of sex education DVDs and intimacy-enhancing toys. She has a theater degree and likes to do prop comedy for fun, education and to bring the world more orgasms.
Things That Go Buzz in the Night: Sex Toys 101