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, Sirius Rising, Starwood, Scottish Pagan Federation Conference, Hexfest and other festivals and conferences. She serves as senior priestess and co-founder of Mother Grove Goddess Temple and the Coalition of Earth Religions/CERES, both in Asheville, NC. She podcasts about Appalachian folkways on “Wyrd Mountain Gals.”

Her essays are featured in several anthologies and she writes a regular column for SageWoman Magazine. Her books include “Staubs and Ditchwater” (2012), the companion volume “Asfidity and Mad-Stones” (2015) “Embracing Willendorf” (2017), “Earth Works: Ceremonies in Tower Time” (2018),“Roots, Branches, and Spirits: the Folkways and Witchery of Appalachia” from Llewellyn (Feb. 2021) and “Seasons of a Magical Life: a Pagan Path of Living” (Weiser, August 2021). Upcoming: “The Ragged Wound: Tending the Soul of Appalachia” (Smith Bridge Press), “Porch Food: a cookbook from Wyrd Mountain” and a musical adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Byron’s Blog – My Village Witch

Murphy Pizza  

Murphy Pizza, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist with a specialization in comparative religion. The last time she was a guest at SHF, she was still finishing her dissertation on the Twin Cities Pagan Community! From that, she wrote the book Paganistan: Contemporary Pagan Community in Minnesota’s Twin Cities (Ashgate, 2014), co-edited The Brill Handbook of Contemporary Paganism (2009), and contributed to Sacred Schisms (Cambridge, 2009) and Nordic New Religions (Brill 2015). She has also published and presented several articles in the realm of New Religious Movements. Her teaching and academic background includes anthropology, ethnic studies, art, humanities, religion, philosophy, social action, natural and social sciences, and research methods.

She is currently president of the Upper Midwest Section of the American Academy of Religion and active in planning their annual conference. Murphy has also been a practitioner of Pagan religions, world religions, and magical Occult traditions for nearly 30 years. She happily resides in the Twin Cities with her beloved community and has been slogging it as an adjunct professor at several schools there – a situation that may hopefully transform soon.

Murph’s Blog : Rose in the Retort

Aeona Silversong

I have been a practicing Witch and Pagan for over 45 years. I am an ordained Priestess in an eclectic religious organization Westernesste and now a retired Priestess in Church of All Worlds.I am currently studying the Blue Star Tradition and a member of the Sweet River Blue coven.

Part of my magical path led me to realms of Faerie. I was touched by the Fae at age 17 and they joined me on my life’s journey. I write magickal chants and songs to share with community. We are all One. Love to you…

Kelden Mercury

Kelden (Minnesota) has been practicing Traditional Witchcraft for more than a decade. His writing has appeared in The Witch’s Altar, The New Aradia: A Witch’s Handbook to Magical Resistance, and Modern Witch magazine. Additionally, Kelden is the cocreator of The Traditional Witch’s Deck and he authors a blog on the Patheos Pagan channel called By Athame and Stang.

Kelden on: Youtube Facebook , Patheos Blog , and Instagram: keldenmercury

Brian Henke

Brian Henke composes and performs his music like a painter putting images on canvas, a kind of sonic shaman, drawing his inspiration from Mother Earth and everything around him, which inspires the magical feeling of awe and peace of the compositions of this multi award winning virtuosic fingerstyle/harp guitarist/ singer songwriter.

His unique guitar style has been called everything from Folk to New Age to Neo-Classical to Pastoral or as Brian likes to call it “a big stewpot of everything, stirred up,simmered and served to taste.” His music appeals to anyone who likes their music lyrical, thought provoking and performed with virtuosity. Through it all is an undercurrent of spirituality and mysticism that Brian says is very much a part of the creative process.Brian Henke at Reverb Nation