Katrina Messenger is a poet, priestess, warrior and witch. Katrina is a full time Wiccan mystic and an ordained minister. In 1999, she founded Connect DC, a Wiccan based public ritual group that seeks to heal and transform the city of Washington DC through magic, mystery and celebration. In 2004, Katrina opened the Reflections Mystery School in order to offer a structured apprenticeship program plus continue to offer quality magickal instruction to the Washington Metro area and to the entire MidAtlantic region. In 2012, she incorporated the Order of Elemental Mystery (OEM) as a church in Washington, DC.  OEM, now the umbrella for both Connect DC, and Reflections, is located in Two Rivers Sanctuary — pagan owned land in the nation’s capital.

Katrina is a DC native with over fifty years of experience as a grassroots activist and community leader. She has taken on leadership roles in almost every group she has joined, including her election to the state presidency of Maryland NOW and later when she served eighteen months as the acting minister for the Sojourner Truth Congregation of Unitarian Universalists.

Katrina has studied mythology, esoteric sciences and human development for over thirty years. Katrina is a certified Archetypal and Dream Patterning Analyst.  She is the author of Elemental Psychology: Using Jungian Psychology and the Sacred Elements for Spiritual Development, Descent: A Journey for Women, and Dark Beauty. She has published articles in the Assisi Institute Journal, and the Reclaiming Quarterly. She contributed to the highly successful Twelve Wild Swans, and taught at Reclaiming witch camps from 1997 to 2003. She is an elder in her community and a recognized leader and teacher worldwide

BJ Swain is the author of Living Spirits: A Guide to Magic in a World of Spirits, Luminarium: A Grimoire of Cunning Conjuration, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions. He was a contributing editor for Heaven and Hell 2018: The Grimoire Issue, and has had essays published in the devotional anthology for Persephone, Queen of the Sacred Way, and the short story collection, Tales of the Darkening Year. He runs the website, The Unveiled Sky, the blog Glory of the Stars, and hosted the podcast, In the Company of Stars.

He has been practicing magic for over 30 years. In addition to practical work with magic, BJ focused his education on Classics but also took several courses covering magic, the paranormal, mysticism, and mythology as part of his academic studies. He was trained in a branch of the A∴A∴, a hereditary line of witchcraft, and the Order of the Celestial Academy in addition to his own independent studies and explorations of the occult and Paganism. BJ served as Deputy Master of an OTO body, a Priest in the Gnostic Catholic Church, and as the Bishop of Maryland for the Church of Light and Shadow.

He currently works with a small group of magicians who have completed the Abramelin working and who work to spread interest in more traditional magic and is organizing a Dionysian Mystery Tradition called New Orpheum. BJ was the 2019 recipient of the Black Crozier award, and his work has been nominated for other awards and repeatedly achieved top ten spots in Amazon category listings.

Raven Kaldera is a Northern Tradition shaman, herbalist, astrologer, polyamorous transgendered intersexual, homesteader, and founding member of the First Kingdom Church of Asphodel. He has been a practicing shaman for almost two decades now, and is an activist for everything he believes in.

He is the author of 45 books, including the Northern-Tradition Shamanism series, Myth Astrology, Pagan Astrology, Dealing With Deities: Practical Polytheistic Theology, and Hermaphrodeities:  The Transgender Spirituality Workbook.

‘Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.

Jennifer Bobbe began studying and practicing yoga and meditation in college while going through a major depression. She studied for the Unitarian-Universalist Ministry at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, but after completing the requirements and internship, chose to take another path. She concluded her M.A. in Religious Studies, with an emphasis in Asian Religions, at New York University in 1997. To contribute to her thesis on Tibetan death rituals, she began studying Tibetan language and meditation with Venerable Thupten Phuntsok of the Asian Classics Institute in New York in 1996. This led to her becoming a student and initiate of Geshe Michael Roach, Sermey Khensur Lobsang Tharchin, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Aurora Raven Dragonfly aka Julie Anne-The basis of my teaching is gleaned from over 36 years of practice based in Germanic, Dianic, Gardnerian and ultimately Reclaiming witchcraft. I have led and participated in many covens over the years; The Circle of the Rising Phoenix, Sacred Daughters of Her, and Reclaiming the Radiant Wild. I did a green witch intensive for a year with Susan Weed and have taught workshops at witch-camps, organized for VWC and was on the World Witch Council as a representative for VWC.

Around 12 years ago, I started writing short stories, poems, a play and eventually a novel which was published in 2020; “The Witches of Riegersburg”. Having been a voracious reader as child & teen, I always journaled. My sequel; “The Secret of hunter Mountain” was published in December 2025.

Maryalyce Merritt is the owner and operator of Akasha’s Journey. She walks her path in this life as a teacher and healer. She uses her psychic gifts to communicate with Spirit and convey messages with the utmost compassion and deliver them heart-to-heart. Akasha uses a variety of divination modalities for these messages, some of which include Tarot Cards, Healing Crystals, Angel Cards, Animal Medicine Cards, Ocean (Seashell) Oracle, i-Ching, and others. (She reads for dogs, too!) Akasha feels that although many clients come seeking information, they are actually seeking a path to wholeness, and as such, if she is guided to do so, she may incorporate other holistic healing modalities if it is for her client’s highest good.Maryalyce was raised with a great love for Spirit, and when she turned 19, her spiritual path became non-mainstream, yet so much more heart-felt. Part of her journey was sharpening her intuition as well as her gifts for healing and for teaching. It was at this age when she formally began offering divination using Medicine Cards, Tarot Cards, and Crystals. Somewhere in her journey, she realized that she also had the gift of mediumship. Maryalyce is an ordained Interfaith Minister & owns and operates Akasha’s Journey, LLC. She offers psychic readings, classes, and sessions in many different holistic healing modalities such as Reiki, IET, Crystal Healing, Tuning Fork Therapy, Herbalism, and others. In addition, Akasha is a Certified Dog Trainer and is also on the Board of Directors for the Harlem Valley Compassion Connection and Changing Times Changing Worlds.

Nikki Wardwell Sleath, MA is the founder and leader of the Society of Witchcraft and Old Magick, a large private occult training order located in central CT which has been running for ten years. She is directly descended from Samuel Wardwell, one of the folks hanged in Salem for witchcraft, and has designated her order as the Wardwell tradition of American Witchcraft in honor of him. Nikki is the author of The Goddess Seals, Dream Sorcery and You Might be a Witch, with more books forthcoming. Nikki is a full-time professional occultist and writer running a practice offering psychic, healing, magickal and shamanic services in addition to her teaching work. She is also a priestess of the Morrigan and a co-facilitator of the annual Morrigan’s Call Retreat. For more info or to contact Nikki, visit www.nikkiwardwellsleath.com.