2024 Workshop Presenters
Jane Sibley
Jane T. Sibley, Ph.D. (History, comparative religion) is a traditional Norse practitioner and a specialist in Norse folklore and runes. She has taught at many Pagan events for decades, including Rites of Spring, Feast of Lights, Twilight Covening, Fertile Ground Gathering, Ecumenicon, Changing Times-Changing Worlds ... the list goes on.
She is the author of “The Way of the Wise: Traditional Norwegian Folk and Magic Medicine”; “The Hammer of the Smith (novel)”; “Norse Mythology...according to Uncle Einar”; and "The Divine Thunderbolt: Missile of the Gods".
Visit Jane's Website.
Jenna Greene
Jenna Greene is an Emmy-nominated musician, healer, artist, and ritualist. Through uplifting songs, affirmations, energy work, and creating sacred space, she empowers people to find the divine within. Her great passion is to use her gifts to heal your “not good enoughs” – those wounded voices deep inside that hold you back from a joyful life. She intuitively taps into goddess archetypes, nature spirituality, and shamanism to nurture and inspire your path and purpose.
Visit Jenna's Website.
Cael Jacobs
Cael was born and raised in the Northern Virginia area. He took an interest in spiritual subjects early in high school, and his explorations led him from agnosticism, into evangelical Christianity, through an eventual crisis of faith, to where he is now: an animist, an elementalist, and an energy worker.
He is an author, a teacher, a storyteller, one of the co-founders of ShadowGrove, and Speaker for the ShadowGrove Tradition.
His illustrated collection of pagan origin myths and short stories, Tales from the Wilder Forest, was published in April 2014, and his book on meditative practice, Living a Life In Balance; An Elemental Journey of Self-Discovery, was published in February 2015. His writings have also appeared in Circle Magazine, Thought Notebook, and Corvus Review.
He has been a teacher and ritual leader at Fertile Ground Gathering since its inception in May 2008.
Visit Cael's Website.
Moine Michelle
Moine Michelle is a Poet-Seer in the Druidic tradition. She has studied Gàidhlig (language, culture, song, and tradition bearing) for over 25 years and has practiced poet-seership, divination, spirit-work, and Druidry for over a decade.
Sophia Kelly Shultz
Born and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs, Sophia Kelly Shultz grew up in a house where art was like breathing; creation could occur at any hour of the day or night, and the medium in which it manifested was never predetermined.
As a child, she was introduced to sketching, pen and ink drawing, colored pencils, and various types of paint; later, her best friend's mother, who also happened to be her 9th grade Home Economics teacher, taught her her first embroidery stitches. While a student at the University of Pennsylvania, she discovered a niche doing portraits of science fiction conference attendees in fantastic settings. Her almost simultaneous discovery of science fiction costuming and 1980s bridal beadwork, combined with inspiration from her needleworker college friend has inspired award-winning beadwork and embroidery, including her accidental crazy quilted robe, My History's Embrace, which was based on one of her paintings.
Art is also part of Sophia's spirituality, and she feels that empowering people to do art is among her callings. She also has a working relationship with chaos, via the Egyptian god Seth, who is in fact not the Devil (that's what they say on the all-knowing, all-seeing internet!)
She is the author and illustrator of three publications: The Stone Circle Oracle, The Promethean Oracle, and Seeking the Spirits of Palo Kimbisa (all published by Schiffer Publishing in Atglen, PA.)
Cheered on by David, the most tolerant husband in the world, she works in her attic studio, on the second floor, or in the living room of their 140-year-old house located in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, shared with an enormous rock collection, a young and enthusiastic English Springer Spaniel whose best friend is a spirit dog, and a very small, very bad cat.
Visit Sophia's Website.
Christa Hoeffler
Christa grew up practicing magic in the wooded foothills of Appalachia, where she nurtured an affinity for the Spirits of Place. Her personal, ecclectic tradition is one of practical folk magic, and in ritual space, she functions as a Stoic, specializing in centering, grounding, and shielding those around her. She has attended Fertile Ground Gathering almost every year since 2008, began working as staff in 2012, and has been part of it's team of ritual facilitators since 2017. You can almost always find her at the Registration Desk!
Jenny Brown
Jenny has been a practicing Pagan since 2006 and is an active member of Frederick Maryland CUUPS and initiate of the Coven of the Green Moon in Virginia. An American who worships primarily Welsh Gods, she has been a dedicant of Rhiannon since 2013. She lived in Wales from 2015-2016 and chaired the Bangor University Earth Religions Student Club while there, organizing a variety of 101-level Paganism classes, rituals, Pagan parties, and representing the club at university events. Each year she brings out the Mari Lwyd of Severn from Winter Solstice to New Year around the Maryland community, spreading blessings and knowledge of Welsh tradition by supporting charity events, museums, community rituals, and blessing local Pagan and metaphysical places of business with Welsh song. She is currently pursuing a masters in Celtic Studies from University of Wales Trinity Saint David and is undergoing Awenydd training to join the Urdd Derwyddon Môn (Anglesey Druid Order) headed by Kristoffer Hughes.
Visit Jenny's Website.
Alyssa Yeager
Alyssa is a board-certified music therapist and professional musician with over 20 years experience in these fields. She has released 7 full length albums of original music plus the meditation album, "Meditations for Geeks". She has made a hobby of many other arts, and has taken a deep dive into quilling as a craft and meditative practice. Alyssa's goal is always to create an engaging experience for the audience and workshop participants.
Lady Mellysandra
Lady Mellysandra has been a practicing pagan and energy worker for more than 20 years. She is a Reiki Master, Registered Yoga Teacher and Certified Meditation Teacher Yoga. Over her life she has studied a variety of spiritual and healing pathworking from several pantheons including: tarot, runes, bone casting, chakras, meditation, herbal folk medicine, etc. She maintains a daily energetic and meditation practice to help her keep her energetic body clear of obstructions and stay connected to her inner light. Over the years, she has led rituals and taught a variety of classes for both public and private groups throughout Virginia, DC, West Virginia, and Maryland.
Ravynne
Ravynne, aka Valerie has been a lifelong native Virginia resident, raised in Northern Virginia. The first curiosity outside of the faith she'd been raised in happened in high school with a semester-long Comparative Religions elective class with an amazing teacher, and so the quest began. After witnessing a close family member's crisis of faith and their treatment by the church not long after taking that class, she started to delve deeper into the Pagan faiths and eventually dedicated herself as an eclectic witch in her early 20's. Since then, she has attended numerous festivals, workshops, classes and trainings by respected teachers and elders, including Twilight Covening, Rites of Spring, and Sacred Space Conference. She has received Death Midwifery certification, and would like to eventually expand her training to focus on this practice in the future as a resource to the larger Pagan community and their animal companions. Her path almost always involves Kitchen Witchery in some form, and now involves learning more about the Norse pantheon and spiritual traditions. She first attended ShadowGrove at the 2006 Beltane celebration, and hasn't left since. She has served on various forms of the inner planning council over the years, and is a founding member of the yearly Beltane retreat Fertile Ground Gathering where she runs the kitchen to feed everyone for the duration of the event. She was elected as clergy at Samhain in 2019, and is grateful to have more opportunity to serve ShadowGrove and the larger community however she can. She is a cook, an auntie, a crafter, a cat mom, a listener, a mentor, and a doer who is happiest when helping others to reach their goals.
Cellina Rhiannon
Cellina is a Registered Holistic Health Practitioner, Registered Metaphysician and co-owner of Spiral Journey Holistic Life Services LLC. Through her work as a holistic coach, energy healer and ordained priestess, Cellina has developed a deep connection with nature and believes that the earth provides a powerful source of healing energy that can be harnessed for spiritual growth. By integrating nature and holistic elements into her practice, she has been able to help her clients connect with their inner environment and develop a deeper understanding of their lives. The eclectic approach to her work is woven from a broad tapestry that includes in-depth training in modalities such as Holistic Coaching, Energy Healing, Reiki, Therapeutic Art, Sound Healing, Drum Circle Leadership Facilitation, Hypnosis, Crystal Healing, and Chakra Healing and Balancing. Cellina also loves weaving many creative practices into her work with others and expresses the Divine Feminine connection through guided imagery, sacred singing, GoddessCairns©, Ritual, Rites of Passage, Light Language, as well as Soul Code/Light Code Activations and more. She feels blessed and grateful for having been trained and guided by many harmonious teachers including shamans, energy healers, circle facilitators, Light Workers, ascension teachers, angelic teachers, Native American Elders, Wiccans, Druids, Asatruans and many more over the last 30 years. She has been guiding sacred circles for women and men drawn from both ancient and modern spiritual practices over 25 years. With extensive experience in managing spiritual events for over 20-years, she has also guided over 200 ceremonies and events. She brings love, light-heartedness, humor, compassion and creative inspiration to her work, truly believing we are all magnificent beings. She empowers people to feel safe to allow their innate spiritual nature to shine through, along with their beautiful weirdness, and live with vibrancy, passion, courage and strength.
Amie Tolmeo
Amie (she/her) always knew she was a Witch, she just didn't know about the rest of you until she got to college. Since then, she has been an active member of the Pagan and Witch communities in New Jersey: she managed a large metaphysical store, and later owned her own, is a Pagan and Non-denominational Wedding Officiant, organized South Jersey Pagan Pride day for 20 years running, and sits on the Board for PPP National. She has given workshops at multiple Pagan Pride Days, Fertile Ground, Ishtarfest, and the Hands of Change Annual Pagan Picnic. She is an Eclectic Pagan, a Kitchen Witch who calls herself a "social" Solitary, and enjoys learning from all spiritualities and branches of the occult. She adores the forests and beaches of Virginia and considers them to be hidden gems and spiritual chakras of the Earth.
Terry Wagner
Terry was born into a family of Italian “witches” – but they never would have called themselves that! She knew from an incredibly early age that the “things’ grandma and mom did were “special,” but until her teens had no idea of the WHYS and WHATS of it. Fast forward to 1999 when she discovered the greater Pagan community of NJ and met Amie. Life changed. Someone else understood all those little things her grandmother and mother did way back when! The die was cast at that moment, of both a varied and rich life within this sacred community, and of learning and loving so many paths. And of course, of a lifelong sisterhood with Amie! Terry has been the High Priestess of Druid Red Oak Grove, one of the second-generation founders of Garden State Pagan Alliance. A volunteer of South Jersey Pagan Pride, and owner of Wee Witches. Terry takes pride in being a hereditary Strega, being taught many of the traditions by her ancestors. She takes immense pride in honoring her ancestors and heritage. She is an eclectic Strega. Terry is anxious to share this fun journey with Amie to share the sacred, the fun, sometimes the silly, sometimes the mysterious of the many variations of La Vecchia Religione: Italian Witchcraft!