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FSG XXVIII Presenters
Travel, schedule, or budget constraints may cause this list to change.
Current as of 25 May 2013
Send Questions/Comments to the P-Team, please
The Academy Staff (Cheryl, Kitty, and Heidi, with advice from Lyric Dove) have put together a set of classes and activities that we hope will provide the next generation with both fun and learning.
Heidi, who has some 22 FSGs under her belt, was raised by two crazy hippies in the Pennsylvania countryside. She has been a professional nanny and childcare provider for more then 10 years, and worked with an interactive theater company geared towards children for almost 8 years.
Lyric Dove, a Blue Star priestess, thespian, singer, writer, geek girl, activist, philanthropist, and big cat devotee, has also been attending FSG since she was a small child. She misses all of you and hopes to see you next year.
Academy Opening Session
Academy Pool Time
Award Ceremony and Closing
Making Badge Books
Random Acts of Art
S'morey Tales
Bobbi and Kim: Bobbi S embraced paganism enthusiastically 22 years ago, at the same time she entered the counseling field. During this 22 year evolution, life has required her to dance many changes, and to learn the practice of acceptance. Bobbi has been clean and sober for 14 years and is active in her local recovery community. She maintains a private psychotherapy practice, works at the local homeless shelter, and lives with her partner in the mountains of Central Pennsylvania along with Gizzy the cat and all the wild critters.
Kim Waite-Williams is an eclectic Pagan and proud member of the Group W Bench. She's attended and facilitated sober space at gatherings for over 12 years. She lives happy, joyous, and free in Northern Virginia with her mate Chris and their critters.
Recovery Meetiing
Caroline Kenner is a Washington Witchdoctor, a shamanic healer trained mostly by Sandra Ingerman over the course of twelve years. Caroline lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she has an international healing practice and a two-year shamanic training program.
Caroline has received initiations and ceremonies in diverse spiritual traditions, including Wicca, La Regla De Ocha, often known as Cuban Santeria, and Tibetan Buddhism. She is one of the Usual Suspects in the Washington, DC/Baltimore Pagan community.
Caroline has both a Shamanic healing practice and a Shamanic school in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Crystal Healing with Affordable Stones
Caroline Kenner and Monika Lonely Coyote: My name is Monika Lonely Coyote, and I've worked in the Health & Human Services fields for over nine years. Professionally, I received my Master's Degree in Psychology back in 2005, and have worked with a wide range of people since then. Spiritually, I began to explore alternative healing practices in 2001, through ADF Druidry and my college's Pagan Student Association. I wanted to learn how to combine both traditional therapeutic sessions with the deeper, more profound, subtle, paradigm-shifting Spiritual Healings. I worked through numerous study programs, both online and during in-person group classes, and received my Reiki Teacher certification here at FSG in 2012! I was also an apprentice/student of Caroline Kenner's, and I joined the inaugural class of Gryphons Grove School of Shamanism and graduated from her 2 year program in April 2012. Although I have graduated from my formal Shamanic Training, I am always reading, always learning. I volunteer at Shamanic Healing Ceremonies during Special Events, and I am slowly expanding my private Spiritual Healing practice. I hope to always remain open to the Universe's little synchronicities (even the ones that have to hit me over the head as hard as two-by-fours)!
Singing Your Soul Home
Cheryl and Kitty: Cheryl has been a pagan for 30 years, and Kitty was born into the Pagan community. This year is the 20th since their first FSG together, and they want to bring some of what they've learned to the next generation.
Diwali Footprints
Making Wands
Pinwheel Prayer Wheels
Claire Sagewell is a Witch, Geek, Freak, Reiki Master, Teacher, Priestess, Minister, Counselor, Healer, Cook, Performer, Dreamer, Builder, Druid’s Wife, Cat Mommy, Detroit and Jersey, Music and Mayhem, Above and Below. Blessed Be.
Earthbound: Grounding in the Pagan and the Mundane World
David London discovered that he was a magician at the age of seven. In his over 20-year quest to understand just what that means, he had created five original theatrical magic productions, including Cerebral Sorcery, Art of Dreams, and The Imagination Show, as well authored eight manuscripts related to magic and illusion, including Daydreams, Borderland State, and Imagining the Imagination. David regularly performs his unique style of magic at theaters, museums, galleries, festivals, and private events, and has presented his shows, workshops and lectures in over 1/3 of the United States.
The Adventure to the Imagi Nation
It has been said that Del Tashlin is more of an experience than a person. There are a lot of labels on his box, like “Transgender,” “Disabled,” “Rock Star,” “Queer,” “Shaman,” “Hook Suspension Artist,” and “Trickster.” He is a council member of Tashrisketlin, a magical order and educational outreach group that provides information and experiences that connect people with the rhythms of the Earth and the Will of the Gods. Del is an Ordeal Master, specializing in creating rituals that push personal boundaries, whether they be physical, mental, emotional, or psychological. He embraces the concept of “taboo” as a powerful energy source; no matter what you consider to be “taboo,” he loves it and wants to share it with you. Del lives in suburban Maryland between Baltimore and DC. He has a bevy of poly lovers, and a shaman’s girl named Rave. You can read his thoughts on spirituality, sex, spirit work, and more at his blog, Sex, Gods, and Rock Stars. He can be reached at awesome.del at gmail dot com or found on FetLife as “Del.”
Rocky Horror Taught Me Sex Rituals
What Is Spirit Work?
Eri P has been a practicing Pagan for 14 years, and attending FSG for 3. She also really likes tacos. And tartans.
Travel Altars 101
Travel Altars 102
Eric S considers himself a Heathen philosopher. Eric follows a Norse path influenced by classical philosophy (especially the Greco-Roman moralists), pragmatism, and scholarship. He has always felt strongly tied to Heimdall, even when he didn't really realize why or what that meant. He is drawn to guardianship at many levels. More recently, he has begun to pursue rage and anger in Norse context from both spiritual and philosophical perspectives.
Modern Masculinity
Eve is (among other things) a Witch, a geek chick, one of FSA's usual suspects, Keeper of the Air Altar for FoV, and a member emerita of KIVA. She has training and experience in music, theater, software development, and ritual design (among other things). She makes her home in Brooklyn with her partners, their books, their kitchen toys, and their critters.
Group Om
Firesong, aka Eshu Akoni, is a priestess and Pathway initiate at the Universal Temple of Spirits, a Global Spirits pantheistic trance possession temple. This is her 20th anniversary at FSG. Called the “human iPod,” she is a traditional song mistress as well, and a professional teacher, an artist, and a root worker. Firesong conducts chant sessions, Global Spirits services, women’s rituals, and pours for the Starry Night Sweat Circle. She has recorded several teaching CDs of traditional chants and is the author of Global Spirits: Philosophies and Practices.
Global Spirits Trance Possession Rite for the Spirits of Many Paths
Parade of Many Spirits Decoration Session
Spirits and Spirits: Making Liqueurs
Firesong and LafingFrog: LafingFrog, also known as Cosette Blackmer, is a Reiki practitioner, and eclectic Goddess worshipper. She has helped develop and lead rituals for over 12 years. She speaks to stones and performs crystal healings. Cosette is currently active in her local Unitarian Universalist church where she leads worship services and rituals and teaches classes.
Women's Summer Solstice
Grove of the Other Gods is a New Jersey-based ADF grove—eclectic druid group. We've been active in the pagan community since 1990. Our rituals are open to all.
ADF Summer Solstice Ritual, Druid Style!
Running Workshops 101
As a young adult, Heather became fascinated with the embodiment of a spiritual lifestyle. She began attending retreats and programs on spirituality, and has embraced yoga as a form of self-expression. Through the practice of asana (postures) and meditation, she has gained a greater sense of self and loves to share her soul-journey with others. She currently teaches Teen Yoga in Vienna, Virginia. Along with teaching yoga, she recently completed a degree in Spirituality and Well-being, while additionally training with New Ventures West as an Integral Coach.
Yoga for Teens
Hillary J Gross is a freelance shaman helping to connect the pagan community with the divine. She’s been teaching at Free Spirit Gathering and other pagan venues for over five years, and she is a founding member of the neo-constructionist Grove of American Gods, based in central New Jersey.
Communicating With Deity I: Do You Hear What I Hear?
Communicating With Deity II: Exploring Your Outer God/dess
Hvbris is a performance troupe borne of the community at Free Spirit Gathering. Entertainers and instructors, we are an assorted band of fire freaks seeking to amuse with our wickedly creative antics. Based on the East Coast, and performing from Massachusetts to DC, we are bringing our questionable expertise to FSG once again. Why? To help you (yes, you) learn the art of poi spinning.
Poi 101: Intro to the Intro to Fire Spinning
Poi 102: Intro to Fire Spinning: Fun with Fire
Poi 201: Revenge of the Intro to Fire Spinning
Poi 301: Son of the Revenge of the Intro to Fire Spinning
Jaqui MacMillan found her passion for African drumming thirty years ago. Over a span of fifteen years, she studied privately with many African drum masters, including Babatunde Olatunji, Mamady Keita and at the Tam Tam Mandingue School in Washington, DC. She began sharing her joy of drumming with others by performing, teaching classes and facilitating community drum circles. Since 1993, Jaqui has taught thousands of students across the USA, both privately and through her Drum for Joy! workshops. Over the years, Jaqui has performed and recorded with some of the top names in the business and has an extensive discography, and WAMA awarded her the “World Music Instrumentalist Award” every year from 1995 through 2002. In 2006, Jaqui moved from Washington, DC to Westminster, MD where she created Magnolia House Arts, Crafts, & Music Studios. She currently teaches and is the director of The Drum For Joy! Orchestra.
Drum for Joy! I
Drum for Joy! II
Drum for Joy! Soloing
Joan and Mark: Joan is a Blue Star high priestess, who, among many things, is a mother, spouse, insurance professional (someone has to do it), hula dancer, former morris dancer, pub singer, flautist, martial artist, and Rennie. Joan has also been involved with the Boston Pagan Community for the last 11 years, participating in and occasionally leading public events and innumerable private events. She writes rites of passage for children and adults. Her regular activities include beading; crocheting; making candles, soaps, sachets, bath salts, oils, and bath bombs; decorating cakes; brewing mead; making yogurt and cheese; and baking artisan bread. Joan is endlessly fascinated with why people do what they do, in many areas of life.
Mark is a 3rd degree high priest in the Blue Star tradition. He is also a devoted father and an award-winning photographer.
Blue Star Litha
Joshua Tenpenny
Choosing Joy: Tools for Remedial Optimists
Morning Yoga
Kitsa is a fiber artist and aspiring writer who lives in Brooklyn with her partners, their assorted Canine- and Feline-Americans, musical instruments, and a great many books. She loves all things fiber-related; so much so that she is pursuing a graduate school program in textile conservation.
Sit-and-Knit
Leanne Pemburn has been on a Wiccan path since 1996. She is currently High Priestess of Keepers of the Holly Chalice, Water of Water, in the Circle of Pisces, and a third degree initiate of the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel. She is an artist, lover, ecstatic dancer and singer, critter mom, professional problem solver, and manifester of visions. With her dear life partner Mark, she stewards the most beautiful forest in the land, and keeps the sanctuary at Faerewood in the hills of northern Maryland.
Sweat Lodge Workshop
Lynn has facilitated many support groups for various different issues through her own path in therapy. As this is a peer support group, Lynn’s role is to keep things flowing so that all who wish to share have an opportunity to do so, and to make sure that everyone adheres to the rules and guidelines for the safety and comfort of all.
Touched by Fire
Lynn and Kat: Kat is a twenty-one year old who has been attending FSG for 4 years and volunteering each year. She is interested in bridging the gap between the younger generations and the community itself. Having started with creating and now running the FSA/FSG tumblr, she now hopes to further connect younger people in the community with right people and provide the right information so that they may become more involved with the community as a whole and eventually take the reins and become community leaders.
Community Building for The Next Generation
Marc and Zenlizard
Meeting Trees: Nature Walk
Mark the Druid has been a practicing pagan since 1996, with a background in Celtic Wicca and Norse traditions. He has also been a member of the Order of Bards, Ovates, & Druids since 2004. His professional background is in the Geosciences at New Jersey City University, as well as conducting astronomy outreach with North Jersey Astronomical Group and David Levy’s Sharing the Sky Foundation.
Astronomy Observing Class
Morganna and BobCat: A solitary practitioner, Morganna has been a regular attendee of FSG since 1998 and has been a member of FSG’s coordination staff for several years. Having practiced the arts of magick and followed the pagan paths for over 18 years, she considers herself a seeker of wisdom and a student of the natural world. To that end, she obtained a BA in Comparative Religions at College of Charleston and studied in the Religious Studies Master’s program at University of South Carolina. She considers these workshops an extension of her search for new ways of understanding the divine and the universe through communication with her fellow seekers. In addition to co-hosting her workshops, Morganna is leading the main ritual team for FSG this year.
A new member of the FSG community, BobCat was raised in a pagan household, and so has been a practicing pagan for most of his life. He studied magick through martial arts under a sensei in California for 12 years before following a more solitary path. He has also led the Pagan worship services as an assistant to the Chaplain for his Army unit during two tours in Iraq and acts as an independent counselor and priest for pagan soldiers in his unit here at home. He is well versed in many magickal arts, including divination, such as tarot, runes and, cartomancy, but his true passion is energy work without formal ritualistic structure.
An' Ye Harm None: Magickal Ethics in the Modern World
Working Without a Net: Leaving Your Magickal Tools Behind
Raven Kaldera is a shaman, diviner, homesteader, transgender activist, prolific pagan author, and founder of the First Kingdom Church of Asphodel. His works include Dark Moon Rising: Pagan BDSM and the Ordeal Path; Hermaphrodeities: The Transgender Spirituality Workbook; MythAstrology; The Ethical Psychic Vampire; Pagan Polyamory; and the Northern-Tradition Shamanism Series, to name just a few. He lives and works on an organic pagan farm in Hubbardston, Mass., and can be found online at www.cauldronfarm.com and www.paganbdsm.com.
Joshua is a massage therapist, a Shiatsu practitioner, a yoga instructor, and in service to Raven Kaldera.
“‘Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.”
Gifts for the Divine: The Art of Making Offerings
Sex Magic in the Northern Tradition
Raven, Joshua, and Scott
Independent Pagan Publishing
Sam
Ojos de Dios (Yarn Mandalas)
Born in London, England, Satayana is a warm and gifted teacher who draws from nearly 30 years of experience in energy work, Reiki, and intuitive/holistic counseling. She has specialized in Reiki, a unique Japanese form of energy work, for over 26 of those years, is founder of Northeastern Pennsylvania's first and longest running Reiki School and co-op, and is certified through three lineages of Usui and Karuna Reiki. She holds the distinction of being contracted by hospitals to provide Reiki training to medical staff. Satayana uses her abilities and experience to demystify Reiki and teaches regularly at FSG and other pagan gatherings. She resides on 80 acres of woods and fields with her consort, Greenman, enjoying a sustainable and creative life together.
Reiki Level I Part 1: Introduction
Reiki Level I Part 2: Attunement/Self-Reiki
Reiki Level I Part 3: Practice/Share
Scott and Eric
The Philosopher and The Mystic: Approaching Spirituality from Different Angles
Scott Mohnkern has been a practicing Heathen for the last 13 years. He's an author of three books on runes and Heathenry, on the faculty of Cherry Hill Seminary, and is currently working on his fourth book, More Viking Ritual. He's been a presenter at FSG for over the last decade on a variety of topics.
Daily Blót
Ecumenical Sumbel: Closing
Ecumenical Sumbel: Opening
Making Your Own Rune Set
Rune Valdr: Healing and More with the Runes
Syndala recently completed the 200 hour RYT Yoga Teacher training as a way to incorporate physical practice into her spirituality. She has taught workshops on body acceptance, past lives, and chakras, and enjoys leading groups in guided meditation. She hopes to be able to present a workshop or two on these subjects at FSG in the near future.
Restorative/Yin Yoga
Yoga for Noobs and Boobs
The Wicked Isabelle, Amy and Shakti, are artists, entertainers and educators, based in Salem MA. Together they are The Wicked Isabelle, named for their grandmother, who was a show girl in the 1920s.They combine visual artistry, theater, dance, song, and silliness, and adore sharing their love of bellydance.
Bellydance for Teens
Bellydance: Fusion Essentials, From Head to Toe
Tina is a long time FSG fused glass teacher who likes to share her knowledge with fellow pagans. She has been making and teaching fused glass classes for 12 years now. She has attended FSG for at least 7 years and taught here for 6 years. She believe the pagan community deserves to craft our own talismans/amulets infusing our beliefs and creativity into wearable art.
Make Your Own Fused Glass Jewelry
Make Your Own Fused Glass Jewelry (Academy Session)
Tom Swiss describes his spiritual path as “Zen Pagan Taoist Atheist Discordian,” which usually baffles questioners enough to leave him alone. Over the past decade he has built a reputation as a lecturer on subjects spanning the gamut from acupressure to Zen and from self-defense to sexuality. Tom is an NCCAOM Diplomate in Asian Bodywork Therapy, a godan (fifth-degree black belt) in karate, a poet, a singer/songwriter, an amateur philosopher, and a professional computer geek. Tom has previously served as President of the Free Spirit Alliance, and his first book on Zen Pagan spirituality, Why Buddha Touched the Earth, will be published later this year by Megalithica Books. Find out more about his wacky adventures at www.infamous.net.
Cultivating and Controlling Sexual Energy
Self-defense as a Spiritual Practice
Wolfsong and Jonny: Sue, HPs of Portal of the Porcupine, has been involved with the pagan world for over 20 years and has presented musical and sensuality workshops at FSG and other pagan festivals. Working as an eclectic musical duo with Jon as “Wolfsong & Jonny” for the past few years, both she & Jon have had many previous musical incarnations before coming together romantically and musically in 2008. You may have seen/heard our lunchtime concerts at FSG in recent years. Look for our videos on YouTube under Wolfsong & Jonny. We're available for weddings and bar mitzvahs in your home town!
The Music of Us
YA Staff: This year's Teen Program staff, led by Lord Fairy Bottom Educifer, includes Stormlily, Shadow Dancer, and SkyWise StormWolf.
Stormlily is a 35-year-old mother of five beautiful children ranging in ages from 19 years to 2 months. She has been involved with the craft since she was 15, starting as a solitary witch; she is now a member of the Blue Ridge Mountain Clan Coven of the Mighty Oak. She considers herself an eclectic witch, wanting to learn as much as she can about as much as she can find. She believes that one never stops learning in this life, as there is so much that life and the Divine have to offer.
Shadow Dancer has been practicing Wicca since stumbling onto the path in 1987. She has been mostly a solitary, joining groups for open Sabbat rituals. Currently a member of Blue Ridge Mountain Clan under the leadership of Lord Fairy Bottom Educifer, she is rediscovering her path since moving from Erie, PA to the Harrisburg area. She has always loved learning and discovering new ideas, concepts, and facets of her chosen path. She shares her home with her husband and a small coven of cats.
Skywise Stormwolf has been interested in paganism for the past 18 years, and actively practicing for the past 15. Solitary for the majority of the time, he has worked with the coven of Brigid's Haven and ADF's Whispering Lake Grove in Erie, PA, and occasionally with White Stag in Forestville, NY. He's been a member of the Blue Ridge Mountain Clan and the Coven of the Mighty Oak in 2012. He describes his path as eclectic, as he seeks knowledge from various sources. His primary interests are weather magic and energy healing.
Casting Lots
Drum Circle for Teens
The Elements
Game Time
Let's Get Vulgar!
Making Friendship Bracelets
Making Magic: SpellCasting Basics
Meet the Pantheons
Moon Magic
Power Animals
Rohrschach Scrying
Sabbats
Silent Tea Ritual
Smudging
Teen Dance
Teen Meet and Greet
Teen Movie Night
Teen Pool Party
Teen Talk Time
Weather Magic