2026 Bios

 


Baz (he/him)

A trans, disabled witch, raised by Reclaiming parents (one of which being my co-facilitator, Ostara). Some of said raising included Reclaiming family camps, but I finally had the chance to come to SpiralHeart as an adult in 2023. Since then, I’ve worked to deepen and blend my own practice with my love of theatre-making and creative writing. With the body as a performer and a sacred being, I always appreciate the ability to use it to embody sacred experience. I’ve grown up on Piscataway and Susquehannock land (in what’s known as Glenwood, Maryland), and spent the past five years traveling between there and the Piscataway and Yaocomico land (in what’s known as St. Mary’s City, Maryland) as I’ve received a BA in the Performing Arts and continue my creative work. Parts of my future may be uncertain, but through my work as a storyteller I am working to craft my own narrative.

 


Blood (they/he)

I have been meddling with —er, deeply involved in— the Reclaiming tradition since the late 1990s — in rituals, core classes, Witchcamps, sometimes in the streets with the Pagan Cluster. What I’ve learned seems to boil down to this: make the next mistake. Make the next of many mistakes. Make our mistakes in solidarity with each other, because none of us can do it alone, because every one of us is necessary.

I am a white person in Reclaiming, trying to participate in the work of undoing white supremacy in Reclaiming and beyond Reclaiming. Trying to be accountable as I make the next mistake. In solidarity, and not alone.

 


BrightFlame (she/they)

BrightFlame writes, teaches, and makes magic for all forms of justice and a regenerative world. Part of and teaching in Reclaiming since the 1990s, she loves co-weaving the web of our evolving tradition. She has co-founded Reclaiming communities, offered core classes, taught and priestexed at many Witchcamps, and offered workshops with her own blend of magic. She’s thrilled that her novel THE WORKING, which embeds our kind of magic and activism, launched July 2024. Her growing body of solarpunk stories are featured in award-winning magazines and anthologies, most recently in Bright Green Futures. She’s a member of the Climate Fiction Writers League and co-founded the Center for Sustainable Futures at Columbia University that features her workshops and nonfiction. She lives on unceded Lenape land, Turtle Island. https://brightflame.com

 


Debbie (she/her)

Debbie, the triple Virgo, brings her whole self to each moment. A steady hand, a bright laugh, a tender heart. Debbie’s work in community is her legacy, and one she carries with authenticity and vulnerability. When not tending her various witchy spaces, she can be found being an absolute nerd (just ask her about her character sheet). A steadfast friend, a dancer, a witch.

 


earnest (they/them)

i began calling myself witch at age ten, 2 decades later i found Reclaiming. i also work with Prodea, a coven centered in the magic of the boreal forest. And with Barebones puppets, a community based arts organization creating public grief ritual and ancestor honorings. Amongst other things: i am an abolitionist, a queer, a death worker, a kitchen witch.

i live within Minnehaha watershed in Mni Sota Makoce. In recent days, i have experienced the strength of joining with neighbors in tending, rage, creativity, love and resistance to federal policing. Community care is where i practice. We are stronger when we practice together.

 


Ember (they/them)

Originally from Erie lands (Turtle Island), Ember has been a practicing Pagan Witch for over 20 years, and a Reclaiming Witch for 10. They’ve been creating online content about modern Paganism and Witchcraft since 2009 and have taught these subjects both in-person and online since approximately 2014. Ember started co-teaching in Reclaiming in 2021, and has been a Ritualist, Path Facilitator, Tech Witch, and Organizer at various Reclaiming Witchcamps since 2022. They have been a RAT or Path Facilitator for Spiralheart from 2022 on, and helped to organize Spiral Convergence in 2025 and 2026.

With a theatre arts background, Ember’s magic blends their love of story-telling, meaning-making, and creating ritual. Their personal work currently focuses on celebrating their journey and progress, reaching toward hope, and rebuilding their spiritual business work to a sustainable place, so they may continue to do their work in this world, and in all the worlds. Learn more about what Ember is up to at https://www.caramiawitch.com/

 


Forrestwoman (she/her)

Forrestwoman is a young Crone in her 60’s. She is also a mother, lover, friend, healer, activist, songwriter, treehugger, and Witch. She has been a Witch for 40 years, and a Reclaiming Witch for about 18 years. She feels most alive in the forest. Her super power is great love with boundaries. Her interests include ritual theater, ritual music, aspecting, tarot, and transforming the world by befriending her shadow self and helping others to do the same.

 


Jon (he/him)

Jon has been a high school literature teacher for the past two decades or so and an eclectic solitary practitioner of witchcraft for the past three decades. He has taught seminars on mythology and symbols at regional witchcraft shops. He attended his first SpiralHeart in 2015 and became a fan of Reclaiming’s ecstatic practice. He served as a SpiralHeart anchor for community meetings for five years, and is a key member of the Soundspinners. In his spare time he enjoys tabletop roleplaying games, strategy games, choral singing, and reading adventure stories.

 


Kenny (he/him)

My name is Kenny and I’ve been in Reclaiming for almost eight years. I have not been a RAT before but have worked closely with them when help and support was needed. Being a RAT is an edge for me that I’ve been wanting to work on for a long time and another way I can help community.

 


Marrow Nocturne (they/them)

A musician, sex worker alumni, make-up artist, feminist, and mother, Marrow is an anarchist witch based in New York, and walking many disparate paths. It is there, in the between, the liminal places that delineate an edge, that they believe the most potent magic lies. Medusa is their patron deity, and they are a devotee of late night fireside chats, the brilliance of carnivals, the silence of cemeteries, the cool clarity of starlight and the nuance of cognitive dissonance. A ritualist practicing and teaching in the Reclaiming tradition for over a decade, they are most drawn to work that forces us to examine our most jagged edges. Where there’s fear, there’s power.

Favorite topics include: sacred sound and medicinal self-expression, personal and cultural shadow work, Mono No Aware*, sex work, and the juxtaposition of science and spirituality.

*Mono No Aware: Japanese concept describing an appreciation for the impermanence of all things.

 


Ostara Hollyoak (she/they)

A witch since 1987 and a relic of the early years of MidAtlantic/SpiralHeart Reclaiming. After a hiatus while raising children, I returned to SpiralHeart camp in 2023 (with forays into some Reclaiming family camps in the interim).

I enjoy working with my hands and my mind and making meaning with story, symbol, and tradition. I delight in engaging with sacred space, sacred time, and Sacred Stuff; and hold up the importance of integrating sacred experience into, and through, our bodies.

Originally from the rural upper Midwest, I now live in the land of the Susquehannock and Piscataway peoples, in a place lately labeled Glenwood, Maryland. In past phases of my life, I worked in careers as a librarian, massage therapist and teacher, and stay-at-home mother.

 


Phlox (they/it)

Phlox is a witch whose personal practice is primarily built on their experiences in Reclaiming, working with Norse deities, and living in Appalachia. They enjoy making magic magic with gender and the history of their queer and trans ancestors.

They live with the land that is currently known as Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. The juncture of the three rivers has been home to many peoples before colonization, most recently it was stewarded by the Delaware, Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and Shawnee peoples. Phlox’s practice is deeply linked to tending to the land they live with as best as they are able.

 


Renee (she/her)

Renee has been a member of Spiralheart for about 10 years, when she first learned that the music she performed and loved so much can be a powerful conduit for meditation, magic and healing. A classically trained “Opera Heretic”, she is working on becoming what she calls a SoundWitch- a voice in the woods that others follow, only to find a community of others who help them ultimately find themselves.

 


River Raven (she/her)

River Raven has been part of the Reclaiming Witchcraft since 2021, and joined the Ohio Reclaiming Witchcraft community to start. Joining this tradition marked a deeply transformative chapter for her, offering an authentic and empowering space to explore ritual, magic, and community. Rooted in anti-racist values, equality, and a commitment to justice, this path has provided both grounding and expansion, enriching her personal practice through intention, creativity, and connection to cycles, symbols, and the everyday magic woven into ordinary life.

Outside of formal Reclaiming community spaces, River Raven finds joy in simple yet meaningful moments; time spent in nature (with minimal bugs), traveling to new places, pursuing spiritual growth, crafting and relaxing by candlelight, and sharing quiet evenings with her furry companions all serve as sources of restoration and inspiration. These experiences shape a personal practice that is both curious and comforting, balanced between reflection and exploration, as River Raven views life as the ongoing creation of spaces where curiosity is welcomed, connection is nurtured, and a quiet thread of magic is always present, whether discovered in a new landscape or within the familiar comfort of home.

 


Ryan (he/him)

The SpiralHeart Field Guide to witchcamp fauna classifies the Ryan as a mostly-sentient biped using he/him pronouns with a tendency to introspect, over-analyze and somehow see the humour (that’s Canadian for “humor”) as well as metaphorical resonance in the most muddling of life’s little mysteries. His habitat is lined with cookware and books. When spotted in the wild, he is often seen flitting to-or-from logistical chores, from which he appears to derive surprising amounts of enjoyment.

Although this creature is introverted by nature, he nonetheless takes great joy in sharing games, magic and laughter with other critters found in the SpiralHeart biome. When found in such company, the Ryan seeks to serve the good of his companions while simultaneously listening for the inner voice which shows the way onward. Longtime observers of this creature speculate that when you notice him the least is likely when he is most active.

 


Sandy (she/her)

Sandy has been a part of the Spiralheart Reclaiming Community for two years. Prior to that, she spent several years learning and making magic with BrightFlame and a small circle of friends. Upon retiring from teaching public high school art and theater arts for children (with a private group) in 2014, she felt called to expand her spiritual practice and began searching for and participating with various pagan groups in and around the Lehigh Valley. Prior to that, as a public school employee, she kept a low profile though she was first active in the late 1980’s.

Sandy is a published illustrator in the historical fiction genre. She also spent several years as a columnist for Easton’s Elucidator, and provided hand drawn house portraits for Easton’s Historical House Tour. She was a free-lance artist and writer for Crayola, and collaborated on several projects with ArtSkills.She was also published in School Arts Magazine and the Pennsylvania Arts Education Journal. She enjoys a variety of arts and crafts, though painting the natural world is her favorite activity. She spends a good amount of time camping, where she gathers inspiration for her work and her practice.