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EARTHWEAVERS We are Earthweavers – mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, nieces, partner…family. We are six individuals, four generations of women who are pagan, yet share a diversity of belief. We walk the paths of Wicca, Qaballa, and Druid and seek to blend our beliefs, each into the other, to create our unified whole. Our lives are full and our interests are many – we paint, we dance, we pot, we bead, we sew, we draw, we drum, we knit, we cook, we sing…and we would ALWAYS sooner be outdoors than in! We are happiest camping or canoeing, or even sitting around a fire in one of our back yards. Several members of our family were involved in the original festival at Seashore State Park, which was sponsored by CUUPS (Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans) which then moved to New Quarter Park before it became the Gathering at Blackwater. Our intention now is to return to that original feeling of community and spirituality; and love and respect for the earth, our Mother. We work for, and give thanks, that all hearts, souls and spirits reawaken to the sacred connection of all things; that we are all uplifted in consciousness, awareness, thought, word and deed to care properly for ourselves, for one another, and for our Mother Earth and all her life.
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ALYSSA O'NEAL
Alyssa O'Neal, also known as Nyteamber, is a native of the Hampton Roads area. She spent most of her childhood roaming the local woods of Chesapeake where her love of animals and the forest led her to explore the magickal paths and the Fae. She is a follower of an Eclectic Path with Shamanic practices. She is a Reiki Master and uses crystals, tuning forks and crystal bowls in her healing practices. For the past 10 years she has volunteered at many festivals and events, as well as the Mystic Moon store in Norfolk. In these past years she has offered spiritual guidance to others via divination and healing work.
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CATHBADH Raised in the mountains of Southern Colorado by a family well grounded in their Scottish ethnicity, Cathbadh has been a practitioner of some form of Celtic inspired spirituality all his life. Coming to Virginia by way of the U.S. Navy gave him the unique opportunity to travel extensively throughout the Celtic world to places such as Scotland, Cornwall, Wales, Brittany, Nova Scotia and Galicia. Cathbadh remains deeply involved in the preservation of Celtic, Scottish and Gaelic Culture as a living entity through his close ties to the Scottish Society of Tidewater, the Tidewater Irish Society, the St. Andrews Society of Tidewater and the 76th MacDonald's Highlanders Historical Society. Additionally, Cathbadh is a 10-year Scottish Gaelic language learner; in 2003, together with his wife Marcey, he co-founded the Scots Gaelic Speakers Society of Tidewater where he teaches the Beginner Classes. His calling to a faith expressed through Gaelic culture culminated in the mid-1990s when Cathbadh met his lifelong friend and fellow Druid, Starrag Druiean Dubh, at a Norfolk, VA CUUPS meeting; together over the next decade they created and founded the Dalriadic Tradition, a Gaelic Druidic Tradition based on the ancient Irish Sagas and extensive research into Irish and Scottish Highland folk practices. Cathbadh's initial Druidic instruction and study was through the Fidh (Ovate) tradition as a Seer, Magician, Liturgist and in Brehon Law; in addition to being an accomplished Bodhran player! Having taken the vows of the Draoidh he is a devotee to the Warrior Goddess Sgathach and currently serves as an Ard t-Sagart (High Priest) to the independent grove, Tuatha na Doirachan. Click here for Workshops featuring Cathbadh
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DIRK WEAVER Dirk Weaver has been drumming and attending drum circles for over nine years in the Hampton Roads/ Virginia area. He is a member of Mystic Fire and The InChantors pagan choir. Dirk has always had a love for drumming and the energy a drum circle can facilitate. He hopes that through the Drum Circle Dynamics workshop, he can impart his philosophy to others in hopes that they can get the greatest possible experience from every drum circle they participate in. He teaches these workshops along side Sara B. The two of them have been drumming together for years and have attended many spiritual and non-spiritual drum circles together.
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DREMA BAKER Co-founder and board chairman of LISTEN Media, Inc. and co-founder, publisher and senior editor of If … Journal, Drema has been a practicing Wiccan since the mid-80’s and was high priestess of a private coven from 1991 through 2005. Currently, she is a member of an interfaith clergy group in Norfolk, contributes services to the steering committee for the annual interfaith One Love Music Festival in Virginia Beach, and has presented on the Virginia Wesleyan College Center for the Study of Religious Freedom Nexus panel, at the United Nations International Day of Peace in Norfolk, in several capacities at Old Dominion University and at other local universities and colleges. Drema also collaborates with other members of the Hampton Roads interfaith community on a variety of other projects. She has been blissfully married for 29 years, and lives in Southeast Virginia with her husband.
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DJ BEAR Bear Baker, also referred to as "Dancing Bear" during local events, is a former Navy Airdale, DOD Civil Engineer and 1/2 of a deliriously happy marriage of nearly 30 years. Having assembled an entourage of assorted entertainment equipment over the years, he is perhaps most well-known as the voice and sounds of the Annual Harvest Faire since its inception. He continues to lend his support to Pagan as well as other spiritual and community events throughout Hampton Roads. Currently retired, he enjoys writing, photography, audio & film productions and most of all music. Pictured in his home studio, his passion and sense of humor are obvious.
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DONNA SCHNEIDER Donna Schneider is a Hearthwitch, Wife, Mom, and Grandma. She is sometimes referred to as "the Braiding Lady" at festivals and other pagan events, but has also been known as the fixer of boo-boos, maker of cider, and "Mom" to an assorted cast of characters. You will most often find her in the company of a bear. He's the big furry guy that some folks call Grizzly, and others call Mark. Together they run WitchCrafts.
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ELAINE GORDON, Ph.D Elaine has grown herbs and studied the medicinal uses of plants extensively. She is curator of the Herb Garden at the Virginia Zoo. Her own garden contains abundant herbs and medicinal plants which she uses to mix up strange potions. She is a self described naturalist, herbalist, nutritionist, green witch and gardening addict. As a child of nature in the Pennsylvania forest, she began a long and ardent affair with the plant kingdom that grew into a solitary magical practice. A doctorate in cell biology augments her spiritual understanding of herbal secrets. CUUPS provided her first encounter with group energy followed by four years attendance at Reclaiming’s Spiralheart “Witch Camp” and 9 years with Seven Sisters coven.
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INCHANTORS The InChantors Pagan Choir was started and founded in 2003 by our director, Pamela Parker. Now, five years later, they are still going strong and loving it even more every year! The InChantors originated from Mystic Moon in Norfolk, Virginia and their voices ring out as the voice and spirit of Mystic Moon and the local Pagan community. This year the choir is being directed by Janie Carpenter and Dirk Weaver.
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JANIE CARPENTER Janie Carpenter is a Mama Bear, Granny Bear and an eclectic Pagan priestess with a deep interest in shamanism. She finds connection with spirit through singing and dancing in drum circles and, well, dancing at the Food Lion, too (much to the chagrin of her kids...although they swear they've become accustomed to the disco-dancing ....somewhat). She is also codirector, with Dirk Weaver, of the most awesome pagan choir, The InChantors. When not singing, dancing, or attending to the duties that put food on her table, she attempts to work toward Global Cooling and chases butterflies. PLEASE BRING MATS, TOWELS OR BLANKETS TO JANIE'S WORKSHOP - CHAIRS WON'T WORK!
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JENNIFER An artist and practicing Druid in the Hampton roads area, Jennifer is one of the founding members of Earthweavers. Folklore and mythology, particularly of the Celtic and Native American cultures, have been her focus for decades. Through her work she seeks to reintroduce these tales and traditions to anyone unfamiliar with them while keeping true to their integral meaning. A painter and maskmaker, she is loud, laughs a lot, and luckily enjoys a little rain while camping.
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SHAMAN FILLHART Shaman Fillhart is a native of Ohio, raised in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. He began practicing majick over twenty years ago, finding his path as a Dragon Sorcerer and interpreter for spirit along the way. Always inquisitive and insightful, Shaman began exploring divination through tarot at fifteen, eventually developing skills with a range of divinitory methods and tools, and now maintains a strong view of divination as a practical art; one created to help bring change and growth. Two decades of eclectic studies and journeys have led him to delve into everything from divination to spirit settling, counciling to the creation of majikal tools. Click here for workshops with Shaman Fillhart
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