Teacher Bios
Copper Persephone: I have been a practicing witch: doing ritual, performance and community organizing/activist work for over 20 years. I walk a spiritual path devoted to erotic and ecstatic communion with spirit in all of its faces and forms and is called to helping others to experience immanence through many roads including tantric practice and shamanic journey work. Facilitating workshops in leadership, personal growth, and mask making for many years – I began teaching Reclaiming classes in 2001 and at Witchcamps in 2003. My training is in Drama Therapy and I am particularly drawn to Shadow work and creating masks. I was a part of co-founding Earth Dancer which hosted classes, workshops and open rituals in the Santa Cruz mountains for many years. My daughter and I moved to Sebastopol, California in 2007 and are co-creating new extended family with the humans and the Mysterious Ones.
Diana Melisabee: I am healer, teacher, kitchen witch, midwife to the dying and lifelong student and I love creating ritual and magic. I have been a witch longer than I have had a name for it, finally connecting to others when I found the Reclaiming Community 9 years ago. My path is the path of the sacred hostess, both the shadow and the light sides, and food is a big part of my magick. Community is also important to me. I am a founding member of the Reclaiming Inspired Intentional Community group, working to create sustainable community that values magical activism, teaching, healing ourselves and the earth and clear compassionate communication. My professional training is in allopathic and traditional medicine including Chinese medicine, aromatherapy and shamanism.
Phoenix LeFae: Phoenix LeFae found herself on the path of the Witch many years ago. Since then she has worked with; Egyptian, Wiccan, Celtic, Eclectic, and Druidic systems. She believes that magick and ritual can transform lives, healing the Earth and the daughters and sons of the Earth. Her passion for women’s mysteries is folded into all her practices. Her love for the Gods, the Ancestors, and the Earth color all she does. Recently dedicated to the Goddess Brigid, Phoenix carries the fire of the forge, the healing of the well, and the song of inspiration always in her heart. Phoenix hopes to help foster a strong community with Reclaiming in the California North Bay.
STUDENT TEACHERS
Gwion: Grab a big cauldron. Toss in a healthy heap of pagan, a dash of priestess, a pinch of danger and a spoonful of sacred seeker. Mix it all together and what do you get? I haven't the foggiest clue either, but doesn't it sound worth finding out about? That's my essence. I am a Pagan. I'm a searcher. I crave the delicious elixir that the Goddess and God brew in their cauldrons. I push the limits of what is possible and what is expected. I run in the dense forest. I swim in the blue/black waters. I fly with my brother and sister Ravens. I burn myself to ashes in the fires of transformation. And then, return humbly to the cauldron once more to begin again.
Irisanya: Irisanya feels she’s always walked a spiritual path, finding the pagan community ten years ago, and Reclaiming three years ago. With a background in Native American spirituality, Shamanism, Buddhism, Wicca, and Witchcraft, she is a dreamer and a seeker, choosing to face fears daily as a part of her deeper practice of being a Witch. A writer, teacher, healer, and priestess, Irisanya honors the sacredness of spontaneity, imperfection, and words, spoken and unspoken. She is committed to guiding and witnessing others as they find their connection to Nature, to their inner knowing, and to each other. She is devoted to Iris, chasing her rainbows, and celebrating whenever the rain and sun begin their dance.
