Summerland Festival: Workshop Descriptions and Presenter Bios

Activating the Chakras through Movement and Breath

Presenter: Shala Hill, LPCC

This workshop offers a brief introduction to the Chakra system as they apply to our daily lives, wellbeing, and relationships. Participants will then be guided through a series of movements and breathing exercises intended to awaken each Chakra. The workshop concludes with a guided visualization to integrate each Chakra as we move our attention up through the body.

Participants should wear comfortable or loose-fitting clothing, shoes suitable for dancing and walking, and bring a mat or blanket to lie on

Shala Hill, LPCC (she/her) is a licensed mental health counselor and shamanic practitioner from Southeastern Ohio. She has practiced shamanic journey for 13 years and also studies the chakra system, meditation, breathwork, archetypal imagery, and acupressure. Shala incorporates these approaches in her therapy practice, joining the movement of professional healers who are bringing ancient wisdoms into modern practice.

The Development of the Lay Leader

Presenter: Rachel Stevenson

Pagan leaders come from all different walks of life. Some hear the call to ministry and decide to serve the folk by ministering to their emotional, spiritual and mental well needs. Other leaders decide to not go the route of the minister and instead decide that their spiritual practice will consist of serving their community in other ways. By taking care of the everyday tasks of the community. Hosting board meetings, making agendas, scheduling rituals and offering their opinion about what direction the community should go in. This leadership needs to be supported  with continued education and learning about what it means to be a lay leader for  ADF and the wider pagan community.

This workshop will discuss what lay leadership looks like, how people can get involved in their local groves, what support ministers can give to their lay leaders and lastly, how lay leaders can support each other.

Rachel Stevenson (she/they) is the current secretary for the Mountain Ancestors Grove, headquartered in Longmont, Colorado. They are active in the larger pagan community. She is interested in developing leadership for current pagans and the next generation of pagan  leaders.

Environmental Identity: Resilience and Relationship as Druids of This Place

Presenter: Amy N Gorniak

This workshop will begin with an introduction to the concept of environmental identity, humans as organelles, and animist ways of knowing and relating with the multiplicity of environments that form our identity as a foundation for resilience. We will briefly review what environmental identity is, its correlates in attitudes, well-being, and behavior, and then move into experiential exercises to explore our sense of environmental identity. Exposure to explicit material related to climate change is likely as we consider how environmental identity intersects with values-direct action in our lives and a relationally situated pagan practice. Climate change related emotions are welcome in this space.

Amy (she/they) is an animist polytheist pagan Druid practicing in the tradition of ADF with Mountain Ancestors Grove. Their animism forms the foundation of her practice as a clinical psychologist and researcher who focuses on trauma, grief, and the impacts of climate change on well-being and individual and communal resilience.

Esoteric Mathematics of Tarot in Theory and Practice

Presenter: Holly D’Angelo

The American Adept Paul Foster Case called the Tarot “…a pictorial text-book of Ageless Wisdom.” Anyone who picks up any Tarot deck participates in the transmission of this Wisdom. The Tarot is the Holy Book of the Western Esoteric Tradition, and so much more than a collection of pretty pictures. At the heart of the Tarot’s power is – mathematics. Yes, that’s right, those dreaded numbers are responsible for the structure of every Tarot deck. Behind the artwork lies the eternal story of our relationship with the Universe, which must be told with the language of Nature. Through studying the numerical structure of Tarot, we’ll be able to shine other lights on other fields such as Astrology and Qabalah – all of which will help us with both our ability to read intuitively and our understanding of what the Tarot actually is. We’re going to throw in some practice with the cards in the midst of our theory, so please bring your Tarot decks to class.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their own Tarot decks, but we will have decks to loan out as well.

Holly (she/her) began her magical career when she joined Silver Circle of Penn State, one of the oldest college Pagan clubs in the country. She studied and practiced several spiritual paths before finding her calling in the Golden Dawn tradition, and in 2007 received initiation into Ordo Stella Matutina, one of the offshoot orders of the original Golden Dawn. Since then, she has practiced and taught many topics in the Western Esoteric Tradition through her work with the OSM and in her private classes which she has been running for over 20 years.

Extending the Hand of Ghosti: Religious Literacy and Building Interfaith Connections

Presenter: C. Oleg Wildridge

We live in a diverse world with many forms of belief. In a continually divided country of so many forms of belief, it can feel like we are more atomized than ever. This workshops seeks to equip you with skills to help you connect across faith and belief traditions. This helps us build community and alliances with non-Pagan belief communities through religious literacy, addressing religious, spiritual, and secular belief dynamics, and making an action plan to begin the process of building those connections. Please join us for this opportunity to begin to build bridges across gaps of faith and belief in our communities.

C. Oleg Wildridge (he/him) is an ADF Druid with Hemlock Vales Protogrove and liturgist for Happy Valley Golden Wheel in State College, Penn. He is experienced in multiple hearth cultures as well as being a professional in diversity, equity, and inclusion especially in religious affairs and diversity of belief.

Interactive history of Crazy Wisdom Traditions

Presenter: Gwydion

Crazy wisdom asserts that a level of development can be achieved through behavior that appears highly unconventional. Such behavior is to jolt people into higher states of spirituality. While originally considered a Tibetan Buddhist concept many examples exist in western post-modern traditions.

Gwydion (he/him) is a self-destructive, passive-aggressive, man-child, discordian-chaos magician, absurdist hero, eclectic-creative, anarchist, slacker-genius, who loves bunnies.

Knot Your Average Meditation

Presenter: Alex

Gather together as we make friendship bracelets! Whether you’ve made hundreds of bracelets before or don’t know what embroidery floss is, we’ve got you covered. Enjoy creating awesome designs that you can wear or gift when completed, and learn the meditative effects that simple knot tying can provide.

Alex (he/him) is a lifetime Girl Scout who enjoys camping with awesome people, so of course he’d come back to Summerland for round two! With experience in over a decade of Girl Scout resident camp, several years of being a firefighter and EMT, and a deep inclination towards all things music, he’s always looking for the next skill to learn and adventure to begin.

Leaning Into the Liminal

Presenter: Julian Bell

Liminal spaces – those places not quite here nor there – are recognized as powerful in mythologies across the globe and throughout time. Mountains, shorelines, and crossroads are said to be places of magic and transformation. This workshop will explore the wisdom of the sacred in-between, both in myth and modern life, and consider its potential applications in ritual and other spiritual works. “Leaning Into the Liminal” will include a brief guided meditation and conclude with the opportunity to create a symbol or token to use in your own transformational work.

Jules Bell (they/them) lives in Norfolk, Virginia, with their husband and an ever-growing number of houseplants. They learned many of their ritual skills as a Girl Scout camp counselor. They spend their free time crafting, studying languages and religion, and reading speculative fiction.

Lessons of the Trees

Presenter: Kayla Blume

Standing tall for more years than you and I. Many humans have forgotten the ways of nature. The trees offer many lessons for all creation. This class will focus on what the trees offer to each individual. We will then have a meditation, where we will be given the chance to connect to your chosen tree. When ready, you may take your time for self reflection and choose to express in journaling or a drawing. Lastly, the class will end with a thanking of the trees.

Attendees are invited to bring a journal or other way to write and/or draw, but some materials will be provided for those who do not have any.

Kayla (she/her) is lover of all nature and an owner of many animals. At Summerland you will often find her coming back from a morning hike or sitting by the water.

Morning Mindfulness: Not a Presentation

Presenter: Rev. Lauren Mart

This is a a pre-breakfast, bring-your-coffee/tea, before-breakfast not-a-workshop. Though it will be semi-guided, this is not a guided meditation journey, but a time for us to sit and connect with the present moment, wherever we are, however we are. Because there’s no place to go, nowhere to get to. We’re already in the greatest moment we will ever have – this one! We will sit for a time (30 mins maybe?) and practice our awarenessing muscles together before we go into a day of learning, fellowship, fun, and connection. Come as you are and please bring your coffee, as mindful sipping is part of the practice.

Rev. Lauren (she/her) joined ADF in 2012, after a rather eclectic, ten-year romp through the ranks of modern paganism. Ordained in April 2018, she serves as one of Mountain Ancestors’ virtual priests. Her personal religion is, at its core, about hospitality and reciprocity, and has elements that are experiential, ancestral, devotional, ecstatic, magical, animist, pagan, and polytheist. She has always sought to be The Druid of This Place, wherever she happens to be living, and she brings prayer and praxis from her rooted space in Texas out to the world – primarily through online ministry of various types. She has a weakness for bread and for fountain pens and in a previous life was almost definitely a hobbit.

Pagan PowerPoint Karaoke

Presenter: Mike Bierschenk

Have you ever done PowerPoint Karaoke? Part party game, part improv theatre, part theatre sports, the basic idea is: what if you had to give a presentation from a slide deck that you’d never seen before? Sure, for some folks this sounds like a complete nightmare, but for many of us this is really, really, *really* fun, and it’s always great to watch. So now we’re bringing the fun to Summerland. Before the festival starts, we invite any attendee to submit a five-to-ten slide presentation on a pagan topic of your choice (a deity, a practice, a tradition). And then during festival we’ll invite brave presenters to try their hand at telling us about a random topic — who knows what! And of course, everybody’s welcome to come and watch; the bigger the audience, the more hilarious the presentation.

Ready to submit a Karaoke Deck? See our Pagan PowerPoint Karaoke page for details and the submission form. (Please send by noon on Wednesday, August 14.)

We welcome presentations about any topic, so this one’s for adults only.

Mike Bierschenk (he/him) is the bard of Three Cranes Grove in Columbus, Ohio, and a two-time Wellspring Bardic Chair. He is a songwriter and a poet, with a background in the teaching of poetry, thanks to a Master in Fine Arts in Creative Writing / Poetry. He blogs somewhat diffidently at Cardinal & Locust, and you can hear some of his original music on Bandcamp. Outside of his work in ADF, Mike is a communications and technology specialist at The Ohio State University and a singer and arranger with the Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus.

Shadows and Secrets — writing your own Forbidden Book

Presenter: Ian Corrigan

From the earliest times we know magic has been linked with, and worked with the written word and the drawn symbol. Magic has been preserved with and transmitted through books, and books have played a part in practical work. The personal, often secret, book remains a powerful tool for modern Pagans. Ian will discuss the use of personal books and describe examples from the history of magic. He will explain the types and uses of several styles of book, including an approach that uses such a book as an active engine of spell craft.

Ian (he/him) is an old Druid from Cleveland, who brings both his wide knowledge of modern Paganism and occulture, and years of work with ADF ritual and custom.

Song Circle & Chant Share

Presenter: Rev. Jan Avende

Join Rev. Jan Avende for a song circle & chant share! Bardic works in paganism have a strong oral tradition, and as we come together it’s important to share these works so that they aren’t lost. Jan will begin by teaching a selection of their favorite pagan chants by rote, and providing lyrics. They will then open the workshop up for others to teach chants. Attendees who would like to teach a chant are encouraged to bring copies of lyrics to share.

Attendees are invited to come with lyrics and/or music to their favorite pagan chants.

Rev. Jan Avende (they/them) is an Initiate and Consecrated Priest of Ár nDraíocht Féin currently serving as the Vice Archdruid. Locally, they serve the Central Ohio pagan community out of Three Cranes Grove, ADF and work as a contracted chaplain at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. They are a talented Bard, Liturgist, and Spiritworker, with a passion for mentoring others, building resources for pagan families, and making the work that we do as pagans accessible for all. You can see more of their writing at hellenicdruid.com and support their work at patreon.com/skylark913.

Three Chieftains and Sovereignty: The Four Irish Treasures

Presenter: Leesa Kern

The Four Treasures of Ireland are associated with four deities of the Tuatha Dé Danann. This workshop will discuss each of the four and their place in the lore and in one modern ritual context.

Leesa Kern (she/her) has been a Pagan since 1993, a Druid since 2007. She has held many positions in ADF, including Non Officer Director, Preceptor of the Warriors Guild, Senior Druid of Three Cranes Grove. Currently she is the chief of the Order of the Crane. In her spiritual life she is working towards being a seer, a healer, and a warrior, as she believes these are all journeys, not destinations. In her mundane life she teaches sociology and criminology at a small liberal arts college, and believes that learning never stops.

Well of Wisdom Art Quilt Collage

Presenter: Jenni

Using the Well of Wisdom as our inspiration and subject, we will create art quilt collages (specifically using a raw-edged fused appliqué technique). Materials and tools will be provided, and there will be some discussion of design elements and planning, but mostly we’ll just be creating: cutting and laying out fused fabric pieces, fusing layers (using a hot iron), and adding stitched and painted embellishments. Finished project can be used in magical workings as access to the Well of Wisdom. Appropriate for ages 12 and up.

Participants may, if they choose, use their own needles, scissors, threads, and paints, though they will be provided.

Jenni (she/her) has served in a variety of capacities in ADF since 1995 and has since turned her talents towards the arts of sewing, quilting, knitting, and urban farming, all of which she approaches in step with Nature and the Sacred. Of all her skills, the one she values the most is that of bringing out the best in others, and she hopes that by sharing her knowledge and experience, she will inspire others to create their own spiritual tools and masterpieces.

Well-Being: An introduction for Pagans

Presenter: Amy N Gorniak

“Wellness,” “health,” “fitness,” “happiness” are all words we commonly use to label desired states of feeling about ourselves and our lives. They are also loaded words, with a lot of assumptions about who and what are valued by us, and how we are supposed to want to be. Well-being, in contrast, is a framework for understanding the fullness of our lives in ways that help us, and our communities, flourish. This will be an introduction to the psychology of well-being with an emphasis on identifying some of the perspectives and practices generally common among Pagans that can support us in fostering our own well-being. A process for assessing and accessing well-being in our own lives will be discussed along with some of the foundational concepts that can help us frame what “well-being” actually means outside of social mythologies and misunderstandings. Participants will hopefully leave with lenses and tools that support us in nourishing ourselves in how we engage with our own lives.

Amy N Gorniak (she/they) is an animist, Brigidine, and Druid whose roots run deep into the limestone caverns and cool waters of South Central Texas. She finds her spiritual home in Mountain Ancestors Grove, ADF where she is privileged to serve on the Board as Treasurer. Her practice weaves together the rich relationships with place and person that are the foundation of her paganism with her training as a doctor of psychology in service of her many communities.

Wild Food Foraging as an act of worship

Presenter: Corbin

We have been harvesting food from wild spaces way even before we even considered human, but as we are in the age of convenience, we have lost our connect to food and where it comes from. In this presentation I will talk about the do’s and don’t of harvest wild food and medicinal plants, and how to use foraging as worship. In my relationship with my god Pan I have learn to get out the house more often and ‘touch some grass’ this means in my practice I use foraging as way of worship the wild spaces, by exploring using my senses and living in the moment. With foraging and learning both the pragmatic and spiritual side of it, will hopefully inspire others to and celebrate the wild places and its gifts.

Corbin (he/him, xe/xym) is a local from Columbus and a long-time practitioner of animism and paganism. A member of Three Cranes, Corbin has been the the local trickster with a passion for wild spaces and community building. Corbin hopes one day to share this passion with his child back home.