Presenter Bios
Lady Oxannamoon was born to be a teacher. When the Goddess dreamed her into existence, the lights of inspiration, transformation, and clear and gentle communication were set into the constellation of her soul. And after a lifetime of study and dedication to esoteric philosophies, psychology, hypnosis, music, dance, poetry, personal gnosis and the magickal arts, Lady Oxannamoon is uniquely able to awaken the guru, the magician, and the dancing Goddess still slumbering within each of us! She is not just a researcher and lecturer, but a great story teller - her love for the art of instruction is ever apparent and her talent with metaphor and analogy is unparalleled; elevating even the most arcane and difficult subject matter to a place of effortless assimilation and sheer enjoyment! As a dancer she is sublime, her gift with form and movement translating to the student - answering the sacred cry of every shackled spirit with gracious permission to embrace our goddess bodies and be BEAUTIFUL! Come and rekindle the light that is you...it all begins at The Inner Temple! ~
Rev. Angela has been teaching magickal philosophy and practice throughout the United States for more than a decade and is thrilled to be the newest faculty member of The International Metaphysical University.
Orion Foxwood was born with “the veil” (an Appalachian term for second sight), into the rural Shenandoah River Valley in 1963, where his world was rife with folklore, ghost stories, superstition and magical customs! His father was part Lakota Native and his mother was born in the slave quarters of a Virginia plantation called “The Hollingsworth Place”, where she was midwifed and spiritually fostered by a freed slave affectionately known as Miss Granny - it was this distinctive combination of elements that formed the foundations of Orion’s unique spirituality and magical practices. Orion is a Conjurer in Southern Root Doctoring Practices, A Traditional Witch, An Alexandrian Wiccan High Priest, An Elder and Mantle Carrier for an Old Religionist Craft Line, and a Faery Seer. He is a founding elder of the Foxwood Temple of the Old Religion, co-founder of the House of Brigh, and co-organizer for the Folk Magic Festival in New Orleans. For more than twenty years, Orion has lectured extensively on magical practice and spiritual development throughout the United States and abroad. He is the author of The Faery Teachings and The Tree of Enchantment, and the subject of three DVD sets published through Pendraig Publishing entitled “Intro to Faery Seership”, “Orion and the Goddess”, and "Intro to Southern Conjure." Orion also holds a masters degree in Human Services.
Griffin ap Ced is Witchfather and Virtue holder for the Ced Tradition. British born and bred, Griffin hails from an old Hertfordshire Village family, with a blood line mix of country yokel and Romany gypsy. The “Gifts” were passed onto him across the veil from his Great-GrandMother, who, having decided it was time to move on, drowned herself in a bucket a year before his birth. Nurtured in the Craft Arts at a young age by both his grandmother and mother, he studied spiritualism, healing and various occultist based arts in association with a British Traditional Craft House based in Essex, where he was initiated in 1975. Griffin escaped the soggy isles for the snowy climate of Norway, where he lived for a decade, studying the classic arts. After working in Africa, France, Canada and throughout the United States, Griffin finally settled in California, where he's been for the last twenty years.
Griffin has raised or grandfathered seven covens over the years. He has been the Magister of EarthHaven Coven, an occult-based Craft Temple, for the past 18 years. He has also taught public classes in British Traditional Craft and led rituals throughout the United States for over a decade. These days, he is often to be found drinking cups of tea at The Green Man in North Hollywood.
Tony Mierzwicki is the author of "Graeco-Egyptian Magick: Everyday Empowerment" and a forthcoming primer, reconstructing Classical Greek religion; he has also been a contributing writer to various anthologies and magazines. For more than twenty years, Tony has been presenting magickal workshops and recreating ancient rites throughout the United States and Australia, drawing on the practice of ceremonial magick that he began in 1990. At the University of Sydney, Tony Earned an MA, a BE and a BSc. He is on the Board of Directors of Cherry Hill Seminar. http://www.hermeticmagick.com/
Jo-Ann Byers-Mierzwicki began her journey into Magick in 1979, exploring her own family's traditions of mysticism and witchcraft. After practicing her familial tradition as a solitary for many years, she was initiated and coven trained in 2001 through The Wiccan Order of Bast. Jo-Ann was a dedicated student, and in 2006 received her Priesthood degree through The Hermetic Order of the Wiccan Mysteries. Both of these coven lines hail from the Druidic Craft of the Wise of America (DCWA), based in Long Beach, California, at the Eye of the Cat. The DCWA coven lineage emanates from the Druidic Craft of the Wise (DCW) in England. Jo-Ann has been co-facilitating Tony's workshops in Australia and the United States since 2004, and in 2010 she began working with Pendraig Publishing as a cover, interior layout, and design artist. Jo-Ann lives in Huntington Beach, California, with her husband, Tony, her daughter and their black Labrador, Anubis.
Julie James has had a long-standing love affair with the healing herbs, particularly those native to our region. After many years of formal study, apprenticeships to amazing healers, and hands-on work that ranges from medicine making to certification as a Master Gardener, she now leads the highly regarded Green Wisdom Herbal Studies group, an official Mountain Rose Herbs Affiliate. As the only person teaching Western Herbal Medicine in Southern California, Julie is a regular and highly anticipated presenter at the Los Angeles Pagan Pride Day celebration and was a contributing lecturer at The 2011 Claremont College Conference on Current Pagan Studies. Her classes in traditional herbalism, medicine-making techniques, and holistic nutrition are taught at The Green Man Store, Practical Magicka, the El Dorado Nature Center, and many other locations throughout the Southland. When she is not sharing her gifts, Julie enjoys being a mom and a traditional Morris Dancer.
Ren Zatopek has been spirit taught from a young age and has been blessed as an adult to know many powerful teachers in this world as well! Rev. Ren blesses her community in turn as a clergyperson, spiritworker, healer, and ritualist. She is proud to be a temple keeper for The Inner Temple, to serve on the council of Raven's Cry Grove, ADF, and to be an apprentice with The House of Brigh. She is also a volunteer minister for juvenile correctional facilities in the area. Ren is a licensed bodyworker whose encyclopedic knowledge of anatomy and divine intuition combine to make a truly unique and unifying healing experience. She has developed a profound and poetic method for understanding the physical body through animist practices. Her technique is called The Hallowed Healer and in addition to teaching individuals and small groups she has begun a series of public classes at The Green Man Store. Please send an email to request information on her private practice or to join her mailing list. Ren is also a published sci-fi and fantasy writer, a student of the martial arts, and one of Tribe’s dancing and singing goddesses!
Cheryl Janecky learned from Mother Nature from the time she was a child, the art of living in ordinary and non-ordinary reality simultaneously. Through playing in the Creative Field of potentials, she discovered that nothing in ordinary reality could interfere with heart-felt Focus and Intention. Blessed with a magical childhood in rural Puget Sound, and many adventures manifesting abundance, she teaches the experience of shifting into non-ordinary reality as a practice. Why? Heart-resonance is the power of creation, the connection to Source and Tribal Soul. Cheryl has counseled and led people from disappointment, grief, fear and frustration into the ease and grace of creating a life of choice. Through Clan Grandmother Wisdom, shamanic journeying, soul memory work, clairvoyance, and wisdom teachings from many traditions, she's assisted thousands in releasing genetic or ancestral limits and trauma.
Cheryl is a published writer, editor, speaker, and teaches a variety of shamanic practices (over 35+ years). Her website, www.Quick-Good-Fortune.com, is a practical guide to end poverty, illness and ignorance. She offers a free 21-day home-study course and bi-weekly e-zine on living healthy, wealthy, and wise. On-going workshops focus on the Medicine Wheel, Tribal Soul, Solar Seasons, Ancient Wisdom teachings, newest sciences, and the Shamanic Beauty Way. The work is based on heart-centered wisdom and inspiration, and is a practice to live mindfully!
Jacqueline DuChateau came into paganism as most others do through a sense of curiosity and deep soul-longing as a child. Following a profound transformation with a healer, divinity finally introduced her to the community in 2006 and Jacqueline has been an avid seeker, student, and servant of the greater Los Angeles pagan community ever since. An eclectic witch, Jacqueline derives her teachings from primarily Nordic, Celtic and Egyptian magickal traditions. As a natural born empath and energy healer, Jacqueline embraces her healing arts as a certified Level II Reiki Practitioner. Drawing on her transformative life experiences, Jacqueline aligns her magickal lessons with a background in substance abuse counseling and the importance of shamanic shadow work. Jacqueline identifies the brilliant resonance of divinity within all people, and stands in this world as a guide for those who are bound by the darkest aspects of themselves. When participating in gatherings of our ‘spirit family’ she can be found spinning poi, offering shamanic prayers through drumming, or dancing to the rhythm of creation with Tribe.
Chai Benson, MS, MFTI is a Marriage and Family Therapy Intern in private practice in downtown Long Beach. She has a Masters of Science in Human Development and Family Studies and a Bachelors of Art in Psychology. Chai has organized and facilitated trainings on postpartum depression, filial play therapy, goal setting and keeping, solution focused brief therapy with couples and reflective facilitation of volunteering groups. She guides couples, families and children to expand solutions, strengths, exceptions and positivity on a healthy and satisfying path. She facilitates workshops and groups on anger channeling, couples massage and stress management for parents. Her other passions include: playing guitar, cooking, meditating, dancing around a lovely, pagan camp fire and yoga.
Jeanne “The Feather Lady” Delaney, also known as Lady-Lion has been called to Mother Nature in all of her forms since she was a child. Although raised in a traditional Christian household, the idea of a male Higher Power never felt quite right to her, so she fully embraced the Goddess and the Wiccan path almost twelve years ago. Now, along with her beloved canine companion, Odin’s Pride, it is the most important thing in her life! Lady-Lion has been designing and creating feather art for over 30 years, and the only thing she loves more than feather art is sharing the gift with others! Dream-catchers remain her favorite creation, but she also delights in masks, hatbands, earrings and hair pieces. Although Jeanne considers herself to be a solitary practitioner, she is considered a community treasure by the rest of us!
Hauk is known for being as diverse and fluid as the cold North Wind! SoCal's favorite pagan metal band has time and again defied being genre pigeon-holed as either an acoustic or an electric act. At Into the Gold, Hauk will once again be showcasing their acoustic side round the fire, but make no mistake - it is the primal pulse of Odinic fury that fuels Hauk's music!
Tribe From the dark, from the deep, from the ancient, sacred keeps, comes the primal pulse of drum and dance, and voices raised in jubilation: Tribe is here! The lovechild of Lady Oxannamoon and The Inner Temple, Tribe is Southern California's first all Pagan Bellydance and Drum Troupe! Tribe is calling you home - and we invite you to join us, as we let our inner gods and goddesses out to sing, dance, play, and embrace all the joys that this life affords us in an ecstatic celebration of life, love and community!! Awaken your divinity and revel with Tribe! ~
...Sing the Songs of Harvest Home!~