Wendy Alford is an artist blacksmith, associate of the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths, and owner of St. Mary’s Forge in Norfolk, England, which lies on the mystical Mary Ley Line. This ancient craft’s fascinating traditions and alchemic connections weave into Wendy’s appreciation of the seasonal cycles and celebration of celestial and Celtic fire festivals. Visit her online at stmarysforge.com.
Jenny Beale is the founder and director of Brigit’s Garden, a role that weaves together her passions for nature, education, and Celtic spirituality. She grew up on a farm in the south of England and has lived in the West of Ireland for many years. For more on Brigit’s Garden, see www.brigitsgarden.ie.
Sharon Blackie was raised on an imaginatively rich diet of Irish myth, poetry, and history. Her first novel was the critically acclaimed The Long Delirious Burning Blue. With her husband, she launched EarthLines magazine for writing about nature, place, and the environment. She lives in County Donegal, Ireland, where she is completing a nonfiction book about women, Celtic mythology, and the environment. Visit her website at www.reenchantingtheearth.com.
Joanna Powell Colbert is an artist, author, retreat host, and creatrix of the Gaian Tarot. She teaches e-courses and workshops on earth-centered spirituality, seasonal contemplative practices, creativity as a devotional path, the Divine Feminine, and using tarot as a tool for inner guidance and self-exploration. She leads Gaian Soul Retreats for women twice a year. Joanna lives on a small, magical island in the Salish Sea near Bellingham, Washington. Visit her online at www.gaiansoul.com. To go directly to her “Brigid’s Fire” painting, see www.gaiansoul.com/shop/art-prints/art-print-brigids-fire.
Jen Delyth creates original Celtic paintings and illustrations that explore the language of myth and symbol inspired by Celtic folklore and the spirit within nature. Drawing from ancient metaphors and integrating the visual motifs and language of Celtic patterning into original new designs, Jen finds the symmetry of form and symbol that expresses living archetypes. Her work reflects spiritual and philosophical roots which embody universal themes that reflect her love of nature and Celtic symbolism. Visit her online at www.celticartstudio.com.
Pat Fish has specialized in Celtic tattooing during a three-decade career, and delights in bringing the intricate knot works of the ancient Irish illuminated manuscripts and the patterns from the Pictish standing stones to life in skin. She owns a street studio in downtown Santa Barbara, California, where she tattoos clients from all over the world who are attracted by her unique understanding of the Celtic patterns. Visit her online at www.luckyfish.com and www.luckyfishart.com.
Selena Fox has a MS in Counseling from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and does spiritual counseling and psychotherapy in private practice. Selena has been senior minister of Circle Sanctuary since its founding in 1974, and in addition to serving Nature religion practitioners and groups, she is active in interfaith ministry, locally and globally. She is founder and executive director of the 200-acre Circle Sanctuary Nature Preserve and its Circle Cemetery, located near Barneveld in rural southwestern Wisconsin. Find her online at www.selenafox.com, www.circlesanctuary.org, and www.facebook.com/SelenaFoxUpdates.
Mara Freeman is the author of Grail Alchemy: Initiation in the Celtic Mystery Tradition (Destiny Books, 2014) and Kindling the Celtic Spirit (HarperSanFrancisco, 2001). She is the director of the Avalon Mystery School, a training program in the Arts of Sacred Magic. An astrologer, psychic, and psychologist, Mara has been teaching Celtic and Western sacred and magical traditions for over thirty years in the US and UK. She lives in Wales and can be found online at www.chalicecentre.net and www.celticspiritjourneys.com.
Erynn Rowan Laurie is a poet who has been a flamekeeper and a devotee of Brigid for over twenty years. She spent most of her life in the Pacific Northwest of the US and now resides in Trieste, Italy. Erynn writes on matters of poetry and Gaelic spirituality, and is one of the many people who contributed to the founding of the Celtic Reconstructionist polytheist movement. She is the author of Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom and other books; see more at her blog, Searching for Imbas, searchingforimbas.blogspot.it/p/erynns-publications.html.
Ellen Lorenzi-Prince is an artist, poet, and priestess. She presents her inventive, experiential, and engaging approach to tarot in talks, workshops, and rituals throughout the United States, with venues that include the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, and the Q Center in Portland, Oregon, as well as conferences in San Francisco, Dallas, Philadelphia, and New York. Now living in the Pacific Northwest, Ellen’s primary focus is the creation of oracles to speak with the soul, the ancestors, and the gods. Visit her at darkgoddesstarot.com.
Margie McArthur has been a student of metaphysics, mysteries, and magic for nearly fifty years and a priestess of the Old Religion for almost forty of those years. She is an Archdruidess of the Druid Clan of Dana of the Fellowship of Isis. She is the author of WiccaCraft for Families (1994), The Wisdom of the Elements (1998), Faery Healing (2003), and Lady of the Sea (2014). For more information, visit her websites: www.brigidshearth.org, www.faeryhealing.com, and www.ladyofthesea.org.
Mael Brigde has an abiding interest in Brigit of Ireland and Celtic Paganism. Her group, the Daughters of the Flame, began tending Brigit’s fire on Imbolc 1993—the same day the Irish Brigidine Sisters rekindled her flame in Kildare—thus helping to initiate the modern Brigidine flame-tending movement. Mael Brigde maintains the blog Brigit’s Sparkling Flame. Her 75-page review of Brigit-related books, A Long Sip at the Well, is available as a free PDF at both website and blog. Visit her online at brigitssparklingflame.blogspot.com and www.obsidianmagazine.com/DaughtersoftheFlame.
Mickie Mueller is an artist, author, and Reiki Master who has worked with Brigid and other Celtic deities along her Pagan path of discovery. Mickie has honored Brigid in many forms, including ritual, artwork, jewelry design, and statuary design. She works, lives, and creates her magic at her enchanted home of Aelfheim in the rolling hills of the Missouri countryside with her husband Dan, teenage son, and two cats. Mickie’s goddess and other artwork can be found on her websites www.mickiemuellerart.com and www.etsy.com/shop/mickiemuellerstudio.
Domi O’Brien has been a priestess since 1968. From 1989 to 1996, she served on the MotherGrove of Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF) as Preceptor. Domi was ordained as a Third Circle Priestess of ADF and ran ADF Groves in Washington and New Hampshire. In 1996, her Grove elected to leave ADF and became Grove of the Golden Leaves of Druidic Association of North America. Domi teaches Irish for the Gaelic League of New England, and she guides and mentors students who want to learn the lore.
Rebecca Reeder has a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and Expressive Arts Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies and a certificate in Integrative Medicine from the Institute of Health and Healing. Her healing art incorporates dance, story, theater, song, and poetry. She is the co-founder of the Rooted Seeds Project and co-director of Celtic traditions at Saphichay, an organization dedicated to protecting and developing indigenous rights. Find her online at www.saphichay.org/celt.
Susan Smith is a nurse and a certified Reiki master/teacher in the Usui Shiki Ryoho tradition. She is a Celtic shamanic practitioner guided in her work by Brigid.
Ruth Temple has settled into sacred community with fiber artists and creative folk of all walks. A supportive member of local and international guilds, she has a deep appreciation for and delight in connecting those who teach traditional ways with spinning, braiding, weaving, and wearing wool with those who seek to learn, and expects to be somewhere in the middle of that continuum all her life. Her work and thoughts may be found at RTDStudio.com and at @RuTemple in various social media outlets.
Lisa Thiel is a visionary artist, ceremonial singer, and songwriter. She is a priestess of Brighid and Kuan Yin in the Fellowship of Isis and honors the old Celtic Wheel of the year. She is also an astrologer, tarot reader, and interpreter of dreams. Her songs of the goddess are being sung in circles around the world. Visit her online at www.sacreddream.com.
Marvelle Thompson is a retired teacher living in California. The beauty and magic found in nature’s cycles are a major influence in her life, from art and gardening to her spiritual practices. The book she co-created with Susan Kullmann, Blessed Are These Hands, is the fulfillment of a vow to honor the feminine face of the Holy. Marvelle connects strongly with Brigid’s voice. Visit her online at www.blessedarethesehands.com.