Ninefold Festival

Learn about harvesting herbs and how to forage for them in a way that is respectful and ecologically sustainable. We will also discuss the most effective ways to dry and store herbs for future use. This keynote includes some discussion on endangered and at-risk herbs, as well as ways that we can support them.

Diana Byron has been on a Goddess path for over 20 years. She has been a member of the Sisterhood of Avalon since 2003 and serves on their Council of Nine as Healer Matron. Diana is a certified Kripalu yoga teacher, meditation coach, and herbalist. She offers classes at her studio, Dhyāna Yoga and Wellness in Putnam, Connecticut, as well as online. She specializes in facilitating empowering, transformational courses and retreats.

Website: http://www.DhyanaYogaAndWellness.com

Learn how to craft your own Appalachian-style besom/broom using the wild weeds harvested from your backyard. Mela will be using traditional broom sedge grass, but you may use any type of grass, herb or plant to make your own besom. The besom-making technique can be used for small altar besoms as well as large brooms for cleaning. During the ritualized crafting of our besoms, we will discuss all the ways that a hand-crafted besom can be used in your spiritual practice including during ritual and energetic cleansing. 

As a local wellness practitioner and pagan minister, Mela Borawski enjoys combining traditional folk magic crafts with spirituality and energy work. Through 3 Rays of Light, she offers holistic services centered on healing the mind, body, and spirit with a focus on the modality of hypnosis. She leads the local pagan nonprofit, Greenwild Spiritual Fellowship, and is the minister of Greenwild’s home church, Awen Grove Fellowship. She also serves as the Pagan Faith Representative on the Interfaith Partners of South Carolina board. Education, healing, growth, and personal sovereignty are at the forefront of everything she does, regardless of which lens she is looking through.

Website: https://www.3RaysofLight.org

Designed to help attendees connect more deeply with the Avalonian goddesses and sacred sites, “Scents of Avalon” focuses on using harvested herbs to create Avalon aligned incense. This workshop will cover the following: Learn how to select herbs for incense using stories from the Mabinogion as well as information about sacred Avalonian sites, Identify tools for finding herbs and oils that align with Avalonian goddesses based on their elemental correspondences and their medicinal and magickal uses, Create your own incenses and discover powerful ways to utilize your incense in your spiritual work and strengthen your connection with Avalon, and Take a journey via a guided meditation to connect with a plant ally that you can use to create your own Avalonian inspired incense blend. Attendees will receive recipes for existing Avalonian goddess incense blends that Robin has created.

The author of the forthcoming Llewellyn book “Dream Magick” as well as previously published “Persephone” and “Demeter” (Moon Books), Robin Corak has been a member of the Sisterhood of Avalon since 2002. She has presented at various local and national conferences including Ninefold Festival, Paganicon, the Water Priestess Confluence, and Mystical Minds. Robin is a certified Death Doula, Reiki Master, and skilled tarot reader and has been working effectively with oils and herbs for over 20 years. Prior to her retirement in 2024, Robin was the CEO of a large, social services non-profit in Washington state. Robin has been creating incense recipes for over 15 years.

Website: https://www.phoenixawenrising.com

Join Rachel as we connect to the Roman Goddess of the Harvest, Ceres, through the magic of movement and dance meditation. Ceres is a very early Italic Goddess of Agriculture, grain, fertility, and the seasonal cycles. Her name means “to create” and with her we will experience the dance of creation, using our body and movement to connect to the earth and the harvest both within and without. This workshop will be an opportunity to connect to your Self as sacred and to awaken within yourself the codes of abundance. You will discover how the greatest harvest lies within you and you will practice the art of receiving through dance. You will be invited to surrender and relax into trusting all that is and all that can be. Though Rachel will guide, advise, and facilitate this workshop, you will be encouraged to connect to and express your own unique movement and identity, therefore no prior dance experience is required and the workshop will be suitable for all fitness levels and abilities.

Rachel Roberts is a professional dance teacher with 18 years experience teaching, as well as a priestess and published author on Goddess Mythology. She has presented at many online conferences including ‘The Cauldron’, Witchcon, MoonCon, The Awakening, and Metamorphises. Rachel is trained in Inner Dance, Awakened Belly Dance, Elemental Dance, Belly Dance, and Hawai’ian Hula. Rachel is the creatrix of Wolf Woman Rising and the founder and principal teacher of Under the Dancing Tree School of Sacred Dance and Healing.

Website: https://www.wolfwomanrising.com

Let’s explore how to create a relationship with a tree in your landscape. In order to befriend them we need to be curious about who they are and how they live. They are ancient and connected to all. They provide food, medicine, shelter, shade, soil, oxygen, romance, and energetic cleansing to each of us and wildlife without being asked. Each is different and magical. So we’ll start by learning about a number of trees commonly found where you live. Once your curiosity is peaked, we’ll discuss the electromagnetic energies we share with the tree. Finally, we’ll learn and share ways of respectfully speaking with and listening to a tree through our feet and hearts. We’ll do a meditation to connect with a tree you know. Please bring your experiences of learning charms and wisdom from trees. There will be time to share. 

The woods have been Lauri Rockne’s safe place for 66 years. Lauri created a food forest and is a wildlife and land steward for a half mile of woods along a river, medicinal herbalist, local consulting naturalist, and meditation and herbalism teacher. She previously taught Communication to graduate, undergraduate, and business students at the University of Minnesota. At her local farmers market, Lauri sells potions made from the plants on her land, organic soap, and wildflower natives she starts from seed to help pollinators. She teaches herbalism at least once a season and spiritual classes upon request.

Website: https://laurirockne.com

What is more prolific and abundant than a Mischief of Mice? Nothing, except A Mischief of Magical Mice, connected to the divine Welsh entity Cigfa! We will craft between three and five mice in sacred space with the Goddess Cigfa’s blessing and energy. These mice will allow us to harness our dreams and goals, in physical form, to manifest and create abundance in our life. We will discuss the magical properties of the craft items, as well as the types of magic we will be accessing within this craft. So that everyone can be present within the craft process, the information discussed will be shared via PDF for future reading. This craft is EASY and can be shared with children too!

Michelle Skye is a Unicorn Healing® practitioner, Angel Healing® practitioner, Merfolk Healing Master-Healer-Teacher, a New Paradigm Master-Healer-Teacher, Shamanic healer, and a Usui Reiki II healer. She is also the author of three books focusing on the feminine divine: Goddess Alive, Goddess Afoot, and Goddess Aloud. She has written two children’s books: Harriet Tubman, Follow Your Star and Clara Barton, Angel of the Battlefield. She is passionate about empowering people to follow their own path, claim their power and voice, heal old wounds, and experience relaxation, joy, and grace. Michelle aspires to bring magic, peace, and love into the world every day.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/MichelleSkyeAuthor

Embark with me on a mystical journey as we craft a sacred poppet, a vessel infused with your essence and intention. Together, we will channel energy, weaving it through your being and into the manifestation of this enchanted tool. Within the confines of our workshop, this poppet will embody the evolving essence of your empowered self, a beacon of your ongoing transformation. This sacred creation serves multifaceted purposes, offering a tangible expression of your inner strength and resilience. As we imbue it with intention, it becomes a conduit for somatic exploration, guiding you through the labyrinth of resistance and stagnation. Like the ancient art of spinning, this ritual invites you to unravel layers of self, embracing the divine feminine within and expanding your consciousness with each twist of the thread.

As a Shamanic Medicine Wheel Coach and licensed Mental Health Counselor, Reiki Master, and Chopra-trained yoga/meditation instructor, Wendy Walker specializes in somatic integration and processing with the utilization of tools such as Spirit Dollies. Wendy embarked on an inward journey amidst profound loss and inspired by childhood braided dolls. The journey awakened a connection to ancestors and the Goddess within. Wendy envisioned merging this craft with energy flow, fostering healing and ethereal connections and this led to the creation of her Spirit Dolls.

Website: https://awarefull.com

Astrologer Lori Waters will instruct attendees how to make their own personal power waters to empower magical potions, elixirs, and tinctures. Lori will teach how to make sun, moon, and moon phase waters aligned with your birth chart and how and when to use your crafted waters to supercharge other herbal tinctures for personal and magical purposes. Lori will demonstrate and guide attendees step by step on how to use free online sites to determine the correct timing to craft these personal waters as timing is based on each individual’s astrological placements and natal moon phase. 

Lori Waters has been a member of the Sisterhood of Avalon since 2015. A lifelong student of astrology, Lori has a Professional Diploma of Astrology from Kepler College. A consulting astrologer since 2019, Lori also teaches Astrology Fundamentals II for Kepler College and beginning astrology in her local community. She serves as the Vice President of Membership for the Kepler Astrologer Toastmasters Club and is a professional member of the Organization of Professional Astrologers and the International Society of Astrological Research. She is also a Reiki Master, receiving her attunement in 2017.

Website: https://MamaLoveshine.com

There are no “stages of grief.” If grief has any shape, it’s a spiral. When loss happens, we may wonder many things: If we’re Witches, why couldn’t we prevent this loss?, and Are there any spells for closure? Grief can make us feel less Magickal…does that make us “bad Witches”? Grief changes us. Magick changes us. Because grief changes us, grief is its own Magick. 

Courtney Weber is a Witch, award-winning author, Tarot adviser, and influencer. She is the author of Brigid: History, Mystery, and Magick of the Celtic Goddess; Tarot for One: The Art of Reading for Yourself; The Morrigan: Celtic Goddess of Magick and Might; Hekate: Goddess of Witches and Sacred Tears: A Witch’s Guide To Grief (June, 2024). She is a co-host of “That Witch Life Podcast.” Courtney has been featured in Maxim, Huffington Post, Vice, and the Thom Hartmann Show.

Website: https://www.courtneyaweber.com