The 2026 WinterStar Symposium
Presenters & Performers!
Workshops presented by:
Byron Ballard
H. Byron Ballard, BA, MFA, is a western NC native, teacher, folklorist, and writer. She has served as a featured speaker and teacher at Sacred Space Conference, Pagan Spirit Gathering, Southeast Wise Women’s Herbal Conference, Glastonbury Goddess Conference, Heartland, Starwood, Scottish Pagan Federation Conference, Hexfest and other gatherings. She is senior priestess and co-founder of Mother Grove Goddess Temple and the Coalition of Earth Religions/CERES, both in Asheville, NC.
Endarkenment: a Different Approach to Shadow Work
We expend much energy on the idea of enlightenment. But there is healing, wisdom and delight in the realm of Night: Endarkenment. It is a place to recharge your creativity and find your innermost self, as well as another technique for shadow work. There is a guided meditation, and journeys to uncomfortable places in this workshop as we explore grief, knowing and transformation. Sometimes our work or curiosity leads us to places we probably wouldn’t go if we thought about it but not all things in the dark are to be feared nor all things in the light trusted.
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Ian Corrigan
Ian Corrigan has been teaching, learning, singing and playing in the American Neopagan movement since 1976. Beginning by teaching Witchcraft, Magic & the Occult for the Kent State University Free School, he has decades of experience in a variety of occult, pagan and magical topics. Having received his 3rd degree initiation in Celtic Traditional Witchcraft in the early 80s, Ian has led eclectic study groups, a traditional Wiccan coven and a Druid Grove. He has been well known for decades at Pagan festivals as a bard, ritualist and teacher. For the past 30 years, Ian’s primary path has been Celtic polytheism and especially Neopagan Druidism. He has been a primary author and teacher in Ar nDraiocht Fein, having been recruited by Isaac Bonewits in the mid 80s. He is a founder of Stone Creed Grove, ADF’s oldest working congregation, and served as ADF’s first Chief Liturgist and first elected Vice Archdruid, as well as a short term as Archdruid. Ian worked with Isaac to develop the ritual forms used in ADF Druidry today, and was the developer and primary author of ADF’s Dedicant Path Pagan training program. While Druidry is Ian’s primary path, his magical and religious interests include Western Tradition magic and Hermetics, world polytheisms and tribal magical systems, Tarot, Runes and the history and development of our modern Pagan ways. Ian continues to teach Celtic Paganism, trance-work and magic at festivals and seminars.
​Pagan Theology... Thinking About This Stuff
Modern Pagan ways tend to focus on practical spirituality - meditation, ritual, tribal rites, etc. All spiritual paths have underlying assumptions and models (often called 'beliefs'). Western philosophy has invented useful categories for thinking about spiritual ideas. What do Pagans mean by 'worship'? What is a 'god' in a system without a ruling creator? How does the human spirit fit into a system that is reaching out to the Ancestors? This kind of discussion can help use clarify our own thinking, while facilitating conversation with non-Pagans.
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Jeff D'Angelo
Jeff has a Computer Engineering degree, been attending various festivals for years, such as Starwood since 2009 and been a solar camper since 2023. He enjoys sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm for the natural world, science and technology, among various other subjects.
Solar Camping Primer
Come learn some practical advice in electrifying your camp site with off grid solar without busting your budget.
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Phil Farber
Phil is the author of High Magick (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2020), Brain Magick (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2011), and other titles. His articles on magick and popular culture have appeared in Green Egg Magazine, The Journal of Hypnotism, Hypnosis Today, Mondo 2000, High Times, Paradigm Shift, Reality Sandwich and other unique publications and web sites. Phil is a Consulting Hypnotist, Hypnosis Instructor, and Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and maintains a private practice in New York’s Hudson Valley.
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Your Inner Pantheon
Recent discoveries in neuroscience suggest that the magical practices of invocation and evocation are based in naturally-occurring brain functions. In most forms of ritual magick, we learn to experience entities that come from tradition, from grimoires and established systems. What about the lesser-known entities, personal to our own lives, that arise or may be contacted through the interaction of our brains with the world? Learn a simple, powerful method to identify, access and explore your own personal pantheon, the conscious elements that contribute to your own existence. Featuring material from the new 2nd Edition of Brain Magick (Black Moon, 2026), Phil weaves threads of neuroscience, NLP and ritual magick to create a surprising and paradigm-shifting process.
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Sara Mastros
Sara is the author of Introduction to Witchcraft: Thirteen Lessons in the Practice of Magic, The Sorcery of Solomon: A Guide to the 44 Planetary Pentacles of the Magician King, The Big Book of Magical Incense, and Orphic Hymns Grimoire. Recognized by her peers as a brilliant and original thinker, an engaging and inspiring teacher, a compelling and clever writer, and a generally decent human being, Sara spends a lot of time dreaming, thinking, enchanting, writing, and teaching about witchcraft, magic, and myth. But, her true passion is raising up an army of inspired, educated, empowered witches prepared to weave weird new ways of Being in a world that desperately needs us. Rise up! www.WitchLessons.com
​Battlefield Protection
from Sefer h'Razim
Sefer ha Razim (The Book of Secrets) is a Jewish goetic grimoire from late antiquity. In this workshop, we'll work with the Angels of the Seventh Heaven to create a battlefield protection amulet specifically designed for front-line protestors. No Hebrew knowledge is necessary. Please have a nice piece of clean paper or kosher parchment and a good black ink pen (ideally with a calligraphy nib) to hand when taking this class.
Christopher Penczak
Christopher is a modern Witch working in the Temple of Witchcraft tradition and community he helped co-found as a writer, teacher, and minister. His practice focuses on the intersection of Love, Will, and Wisdom as an ethos for today’s Witch, and focuses upon relationships with the plant realm, the patterns of astrology, traditional occultism, and the use of trance in the Craft. He is the author of many books, including the award winning Temple of Witchcraft series, The Plant Spirit Familiar, and The Mighty Dead, as well as the co-owner of Copper Cauldron Publishing. The Temple of Witchcraft offers in-person and online mystery school and seminary training based upon his teachings.
The Integrity of the Spiritual Immune System
Just as we have a physical immune system that must be supported through diet and exercise, we have a spiritual immune system that must be supported through energy and intention. Both are deeply connected and illness on a spiritual level can result in poor health on a physical level. In these challenging times, our spiritual immune system is challenged with psychic viruses, thoughtforms, polluted energy, toxic people, curses, hexes, and parasitic entities. Learn the parallels between our physical and spiritual immune system and how to support the integrity of your spiritual immune system with simple actions and remedies.
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​Wendy Raphael
Wendy is a Professional Artist, Festival Organizer, Sign Writer & Painter, Master of Ceremonial Hairwraps, Storyteller and a Solitary Eclectic Spiritualist. She has an art studio/workshop in NE Ohio where she loves tending to her magical garden. Funny and entertaining, she will inspire you to sketch journal regularly and manifest your dreams! Look for her silly signs and random art installations at festivals and events.
wendyraphael.com and facebook.com/studioraphael/
Deluxe Edition Sketch Journaling
Grab your sketchbook/journal and favorite pens, scissors, glue, exacto knife, colored pencils, and open your mind. We'll discuss tools, manifesting, Sketch and Burn, Pop Up Pages, Best Case Scenarios, ceremony, fancy folds, 150 page suggestions, magic, stories, and meditation while adding to the pages of your life. I encourage you to get out the fancy book you've been saving for a special occasion!
Tamrha Richardson
Tamrha has been a practicing witch for 26 years, is an ordained Priestess of Hekate through the Temple of the Hallowed Gods. Through the Indiana Dept of Corrections, she has volunteered in three state prisons since 2012 serving Pagan inmates, leading ritual and providing education. She specializes in public ritual, trance work, and magical herbalism. As a birthworker, Tamrha has served over 270 families as a doula and homebirth assistant, and now works as a Traditional Homebirth Companion services for sovereign mothers who do not wish to engage the technocratic birthing system. Skilled in clinical based aromatherapy, herbalism for women's health, nutritional support, placenta encapsulation and other postpartum services, Tamrha seeks to assist families through pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period with compassionate, trauma-informed care.
A Ritual in the Name of Freedom: Ancestor-Led Resistance and RevolutionTemple of the Hallowed Gods: This Resistance Ritual is our Temple's response to the current governmental regime that seeks to cause pain and suffering to its people. This work is quintessential to the Temple’s value of being a Magical Pillar of Community Support. This ritual's intention is to call upon those Spirits of resistance and revolution who made significant changes in their time, in hopes they support our efforts in these current days. The more people performing it, the more effective it is. The thread of similarity between all of those who perform this work is the intention to fight against the rising tide of governmental power, governmental abuse and focusing our willpower to dismantle oppressive forces whether corporeal or incorporeal.
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Denny Sargent
(aka: Aion 131, Hermeticusnath)
A Seattle author, artist and teacher whose extensive global travels and esoteric studies lead to numerous published books and several waiting to get done. Involved in many esoteric traditions such as The Craft, Paganism, Magick, Shinto and Tantra and now Neo-Animism. He has presented several rites and workshops at Winterstar and Starwood especially on Werewolf Magick (a Awooo!) and also on The Great God Pan with great joy and now is finishing the draft for his new book, Feral Magick about, of course, Neo-Animist and Spirit Animals. Ot was the Great Wolf Spirit, my mentor and guide, who led me into Werewolf Magick and now, the Heo-Animistic world of all the Spirit Animals! For more information about this feral madman and his works, blog and so on, including all the past presentations from Starwood, go to: werewolfmagick.com
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Erica Sodos
Magician, mentalist, speaker, emcee and educator Erica Sodos is a rare gem in her field, one of the few female mentalists globally. She has been captivating audiences for 35 years and has made over 6,000 appearances nationwide. From a challenging upbringing, she found solace in theater and creating mystical characters, eventually transitioning to magic. Erica's passion is where real magick meets performance magic. Her interactive performances, including her decade-long running Denver psychic show The Magic Within, combined mind-reading, memory powers, divination, and storytelling to empower audiences and encourage them to embrace their own magic. A versatile performer, and passionate advocate for animal rights, environmental and social justice, Erica’s transformative performances leave lasting inspiration for people of all ages. A lover of nature and all things unseen, she still performs as a wide array of mystical characters including elemental faeries and elves, while teaching magical lore and divination techniques to people of all ages.
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Charlene Suggs
As a community organizer, researcher and grassroots activist for over 30 years, Charlene Suggs has devoted the bulk of her life crafting transformative ways for people to share land, life and vision. She has decades of experience in founding businesses and ventures: corporate, non-profit, cooperatives, a Chamber of Commerce chapter and sole proprietorship. Charlene is the founding president of Wisteria Community, a worker-owned land-based venture in southern Ohio.
Living the Dream:
Creating Land-Based Community
While life in community is a utopian dream for many, the reality and process of forming sustainable community is not for the faint of heart! Why is community so difficult? Why does it matter in these times? What principles guide us as we build cooperative relationships on common ground? From her experience as founding president of a successful 30-year old community venture, Charlene will share practical considerations: initial formation process, stewardship, legal structures, organizational theory, economics, decision-making models, and other amazing real-life stories from Wisteria, a land-based community and event site in southern Ohio.
​Tom Swiss
Tom Swiss describes his spiritual path as "Zen Pagan Taoist Atheist Discordian", which usually baffles questioners enough to leave him alone. He is the author of the books "Punk Magick" and "Why Buddha Touched the Earth" and blogs as "The Zen Pagan" for the Patheos Pagan Channel. Tom has built a reputation as a lecturer on subjects spanning the gamut from acupressure to Zen and from self-defense to sexuality, drawing on his training and experience as an Asian Bodywork Therapist, karate teacher, poet, singer/songwriter, amateur philosopher and spiritual explorer, and professional computer geek. Find out more about his wacky adventures at www.infamous.net
How to Grow (up?)
Everyone is down for some personal growth (that's why you've tuned in to the Winterstar Symposium), but talk about "growing up" and we all start complaining about "adulting". It seems there are some contradictions in our ideas here! We're going to talk about the process of personal growth, using Robert Kegan's model from "The Evolving Self" as a framework, and see if we can find some hints about how to grow into more mature and enlightened interaction with the world without becoming stodgy old fuddy duddies.
Koshek Swaminathan
​The untimely death of his father in 2000 sparked a spiritual journey into the land of his ancestors. For seven years he traveled through the breadth of India, meeting spiritual teachers, wonder workers, charlatans, and priests from different traditions and religions. He became a student of Theosophy and gave talks at Headquarters Hall at the invitation of then TS international president Radha Burnier. Being born Brahmin, he had access to priests, ashrams, and the inner sanctums of ancient temples. He studied with Saint Thomas Christians , stayed with Sufis in New Delhi, and got initiated into kalachakra by the Dalai Lama. At the Himalayan mountain town of Badrinath, he followed an inner voice and walked through a barren snow covered land. It was there he met the world famous guru Sadhguru alone in a cave on the glacial base of the Neelkanth mountain and took a private one on one initiation. Swaminathan gave his first talk on “The Seven Levels of Intuition” twenty three years ago at The School of Wisdom at the the International Centre of the Theosophical Society by invitation of renowned Theosophist and clairvoyant Joy Mills. Mills was impressed and told him to develop this thesis further. For the last 23 yrs Koshek have talks at various Theosophical Society branches, Masonic lodges, pagan festivals, New Age gatherings, and yoga schools
Koshek has the goal of helping people discover states of consciousness that reaffirm and strengthen their intuition.
​Yoga and Magick
I want to give you a unique experience that will change your foundational assumptions of reality. There is a powerful yet simple magickal system that creates your reality and empowers your inner third eye. By learning a simple practice you will quickly see the practical benefits in your life almost immediately.
I take participants through five simple yogic practices that trigger and expand your magickal powers and experience non-physical reality. Why is it important to experience non- physical reality? Is such a thing possible? I'll show you that it is and that it is the key to all spiritual experiences.
Pragna is defined in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (a 2000-year-old text) as an inner knowledge that is higher than any knowledge obtained by reason or inference. The Sutras show how to acquire this siddhi (occult power) among others. Lakshanas (inner and occult meanings) lay hidden in the work.
In this system, the four chapters take on the following headings:
1. Intuition
2. Practice
3. Magick
4. The Great Work
I will reveal each of the sutras pertaining to this magickal system with easy yoga exercises along the way as we go on an amazing experiential journey of power and discovery.
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Jessi Thomas
Jessi is a social worker, an ecstatic dance facilitator, and an ordained priestess. She is the founder of Sacred Phoenix Sisterhood Circle, which is a women’s group based in Western PA that meets monthly for ceremonies, ecstatic dance, and fun community building events like tea parties, craft nights, foraging nature walks, and retreats. Besides social work, ecstatic dance, and religious studies, Priestess Jessi has also studied multiple forms of meditation, reiki, and other ancient healing practices. In addition to ecstatic dance ceremonies, she holds many other ceremonies that are open to the public including cacao ceremonies, water healing ceremonies, land healing ceremonies, women’s rage rituals, full moon ceremonies, new moon ceremonies, ancestor ceremonies, weddings, hand fastings, funerals and more. Priestess Jessi teaches workshops on multiple spiritual and metaphysical topics throughout western PA and eastern Ohio.
World Peace Ceremony
We will start with a candle ritual to call in peace for ourselves, our communities, and the world. Then a group reiki healing exercise where we would create a dome of healing light energy all over the Earth, then adding to that healing light energy dome some Meta mantras (it's a Buddhist loving-kindness meditation). Following that, a "Seeds of Peace" planting ritual, where we would all have some seeds and a little pot and some soil and some water and eggshells, we charge each item with peace and then plant the seed into the soil with intention. We charge the seeds with healing energy as we do a meditation visualization of a flower growing up through asphalt, to charge our peace seeds with the energy of resilience under the crushing weight of the heaviness of our world right now. A list of items to have on hand to fully participate ahead of time: candle, oil, herbs, seeds, soil, pot, etc) but folks can still add their energy to the ritual without having all the supplies on hand.
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Joy Wedmedyk
Joy Marie Wedmedyk has studied shamanism, mediumship, divination, and mysticism for over 55 years. She has extensively studied with traditional Elders from the Americas, Cuba and Africa. Initiated to Yemaya in Lucumi Orisha worship, she also received initiations in Native American and African Shamanic traditions. Joy is an accomplished Medium, Diviner and Shamanic practitioner.
www.midwestshamansconference.com/
Shamanic Divination and the Ancestral Web
This workshop explores the interrelationship of the ancestral web with the natural world and how they can manifest in divination systems. Teachings will be shared about both shamanic and practical tools, such as spatial relationships, divination boards or cloths, and different tool sets such as cards, stones, found objects and even the compass. Insights and examples will be shared and discussed. Crafting our own systems will bring structure, consistency and fresh insights into our current practices.
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Plus Performances by:
Frida and the Mann
fridaandthemann.com/
River
www.facebook.com/river.breitbach/
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Moonshroom
moonshroomband.com/home
Voodoo Funk
www.facebook.com/WORLDSFUNKIESTBAND/
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Changes and/or additions
will be posted here.
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