BrightHawk
BrightHawk is an inspired and inspiring story teller, djembe drummer, performer, teacher and playful spirit. Bright Hawk truly shows up for the participants and organizers of any festival she attends. She shares her expansive and playful spirit with the all night Fire Circle and drumming communities she is a part of.
In 1994 BrightHawk began performing with Mz. imani and Rhythm Alive! She has performed with Circle Skin and Bone, Sister Adsum, Jeff McBride, Abbi Spinner, and Billy Woods, to name a few. She has studied Abdoul Doumbia from Mali, for more than a decade and performs in benefits for the Mali Assistance Project. She currently lives in Boulder, Colorado.
BrightHawk has contributed greatly to the Fire Circle community over the years and it is with great pleasure to welcome her back to this area! Please take advantage of the opportunity to study with this woman of the drum.
Martha Joy Aft
Marthajoy Aft has been a student and teacher of Kabbalah for more than twenty years. She is a poet, healer, storyteller, and teacher of mysticism in Boston. Her 41-year marriage to Ken keeps her happily grounded. Marthajoy holds her M.A. from Brandeis University and previously worked as a consultant in education in Jewish and Catholic educational settings.
Sylvia Brallier
Sylvia Brallier is the Director of The Tantric Shamanism Institute and The School of the the Intuitive Healing Arts. She has been teaching healing and tantric shamanism workshops nationally and internationally for 18 years. Her work is based on her own experiences with both ancient and new techniques for the evolution of consciousness. She has a deep commitment to creating safe space for the deepest of transformations. tantricshamanism.com.
Sylvia is a recording artist and a visual artist with a beautifully rich CD, Awakening the Sacred Fire . Her passion for the arts informs her teaching work.
For more information, visit http://www.triplemuse.com.
Katlyn Breene
Katlyn has been creating sacred art , dance and ritual for over 20 years. Her art is a manifestation of her beliefs and can be seen in places of worship in over six countries.She is currently the owner and creator of Mermade Magickal Arts which makes fine hand blended incense and oils and is the author and illustrator of many books on spiritual arts and folklore. Also the Co-founder of the “Road to Eleusis” an initiatory and transformational retreat based on the Mysteries of Ancient Greece at Eleusis (since 1991). Now in Nevada, Katlyn is the founder and Priestess of Desert Moon Circle. She and her husband Michael, known as “Zingaia” create techno-tantra-trance music dedicated to sacred lovers and to the Goddess in all Her many aspects.
For more information, visit http://www.mermadearts.com.
Thom Cavalli
Thom F. Cavalli, Ph.D. received his doctorate in psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology in San Diego in August 1979. The theme of his dissertation was published in ARCHE in an article entitled The Cosmology of Chance. Dr. Cavalli has been in private practice for twenty years. In that time he has been licensed as a psychologist, marriage, family, child therapist and a Qualified Medical Examiner. He has provided many seminars and workshops to community agencies, industry and private organizations. These include the University of California at Irvine, the California Graduate Institute, The Scottsdale Center for the Arts, The C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, the American Psychological Association, the Orange County Friends of Jung and the California Psychological Association. Dr. Cavalli has appeared on national television, interviewed in Prague and recorded on radio at the University of California, Irvine. His book, Alchemical Psychology, Old Recipes for Living in a New World is being published by Putnam in March 2002.
For more information, visit http://www.alchemicalpsychology.com/.
Bruce Fisher
BRUCE FISHER worked as a professional chemist and college professor for 40 years, having received a B.S degree in chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania in 1952 and a Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from M.I.T in 1957. His professional accomplishments include the development of a new artificial kidney dialysis membrane, as well as several new synthetic polymers and specialty elastomer compounds, for which he received numerous patents. He also worked at the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense in the area of ballistic missile defense and reentry phenomenology. He retired in 1995 to devote his energies to teaching, lecturing, and writing on philosophic and metaphysical topics, and is the author of over 20 books covering such diverse topics as spiritual alchemy, kabbalah, occult anatomy, St.-Germain, Pythagorean numerology, the Gurdjieff teachings and music as the expression of the soul. Several of his books are in Joost Ritman’s Biblioteca Hermetica in Amsterdam. He has been a student of the ancient wisdom teachings for over 30 years, and has the unique ability to integrate Eastern mysticism and Western occultism with modern scientific views. He was for five years a regular lecturer at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, founded by Manly P. Hall, as well as involved in several Rosicrucian organizations. He resides in Prescott, Arizona with his wife, Suzanne, who is also a teacher and student of music and metaphysics.
For more information, visit http://myweb.cableone.net/subru.
Dennis William Hauck
Dennis William Hauck is an author, consultant, and lecturer working to facilitate personal and institutional transformation through the application of the ancient principles of alchemy. As one of the world’s few practicing alchemists, he writes and lectures on the universal principles of physical, psychological, and spiritual perfection to a wide variety of audiences that range from scientists and business leaders to religious and New Age groups.
Hauck is a regular contributor to dozens of national magazines and scholarly journals and has been interviewed on nearly four hundred radio and TV programs, including such popular national shows as “NPR’s Morning Edition,” “Sally Jessy Raphael,” “Geraldo,” “A&E Unexplained,” “Sightings,” “Extra,” and “CNN Reports.” He also serves as a special consultant to a several leading film production companies and a number of popular television programs. He is an instructor in the Alchemy Home Study Program and conducts alchemy tours to Egypt, India, and Europe. He is also an instructor at Flamel College and serves on the Board of Governors of the International Alchemy Guild.
His bestselling new book, The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation (Penguin Putnam 1999), presents startling new revelations about the mysterious “time capsule of wisdom” that inspired over 3,500 years of alchemy. His latest book, Sorcerer’s Stone: A Beginner’s Guide to Alchemy, is due out from Kensington Publishing (Citadel Press) in 2003.
For more information, visit http://www.alchemylab.com.
Mz. Imani
For nearly 25 years, Mz. imani has been following the path of the drum. This was long before the days it was accepted and common for women to play the drum. For her entire life she “knew” that she was destined to play an instrument, but she did not find the drum until her mid twenties. Always has she seen and felt things that many do not. She has a strong an independent streak of exploring the ineffable, and lives the innate sense of the wild. Mz. imani has a deep desire to validate and support people who are on a spiritual path. She is committed to sharing the knowledge and wisdom teachings that carry her forward.
Mz. imani encourages people to bring their full presence to life. She invites us all to reflect on the heart of the divine and become a force of nature that brings light to the world. She stands beside her sisters and brothers and calls forth the wisdom that resides in each and every one of us. If you are actively interested in helping make the world a better, brighter and more peaceful place, you are her family! Brought up on the drum by Babatunde Olantunji and Darrell Rose, her shamanic training comes from being “hard wired at birth”. Formal shamanic training includes intensive study with Bekki Shining Bear Heart and Crow Swimsaway (Church of Earth Healing), Nicki Scully (Shamanic Journeys) and raising her two children, Mica and Dawnstar.
Mz. imani is a minister and a spiritual coach. She is a member of the Alchemical Healing lineage, a musician and fire circle facilitator of elemental alchemy. She finds perspective and tools that are unique to the individuals and groups she works with, and makes herself available for ceremonial support. Her highest priorities are to share the skills she has honed over a lifetime of experience and study. Her intent is to instigate opportunities for collective prayer, healing, collaborative art and music. She is a performance and ceremonial artist who offers mentorship programs (Portal Trainings), one to one sessions (Alchemical Healing, Organic Shamanism), drum circles (Spirit Drum Circle, SoulFire Inside), and sacred all night fire circles (SoulFire). Mz. imani works closely with indigenous elders of many nations and is one of the Drum Keepers for Turtle Women Rising.
For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/consciouscollaborations.
Donald Michael
Kraig
Donald Michael Kraig graduated from UCLA with a degree in philosophy. He has also studied public speaking and music (traditional and experimental) on the university level. After a decade of personal study and practice, he began ten years of teaching courses in the Southern California area on such topics as Kabalah, Tarot, Magic, Tantra, and Psychic Development. He has been a member of many spiritual and magical groups and is an initiated Tantric.
For more information, visit http://www.dmkraig.net.
Forrest Landry
Forrest Landry is a philosopher, writer, researcher, scientist, engineer, craftsman, and teacher who has been studying and practicing the varied High Arts since the mid 70’s. By combining deep personal intuition and experience with some of the most powerful intellectual models of our times, he is able to offer many unique insights on the nature of life in this universe. He is also the author of several innovative and hand crafted books on the primal nature and deep theory of an Immanent Metaphysics.
Currently, he is the highly successful lead architect and the principle systems design engineer for one of the worlds most sophisticated search engine projects. His key systems infrastructure work is in production on several federal classified and unclassified networks in the USA, including various FBI investigative projects, TSC, IDW, DARPA, the Library of Congress Congressional Records System, and many others.
Joshua Levin
Joshua began his professional life exploring issues of identity, education, and change in Native America, Nepal, Mongolia, and Honduras. Over the last fifteen years, he refocused these interests on the application of creative activity to holistic education and personal transformation. Essential to this work has been a sustained personal practice in the arts, and extensive involvement in ritual as a social context for collaborative creative engagement. To this end, Joshua has helped to design and facilitate art happenings for more than twenty years, and is most recently co-creator of the Alchemifire Ritual, a cutting edge format for personal/interpersonal exploration and deep play.
He served as resident artist with Firedance during its founding four years, as musical director for Fires Rising, and as a regular collaborator and faculty member at the McBride School of Magic. He has performed music in a range of contexts and configurations such as the traditional Middle-Eastern music ensemble Sherefe, the eclectic Seeds of Time, the contemporary NWR ensemble, The Sweet Ride To Heaven Jubilation and Wonderment Band, and kirtan accompaniment with yoga and bhakti luminaries including Saul David Raye, Steve Ross, Wynne Paris, Brenda McMarrow, and Jagadeesh. Together with Deborah Levin, he is the co-founder of Sacred Arts Circles and New World Rhythmatism, which are ongoing collaborative community based art forms. He plays South Asian tabla, doumbek/darbouka, and is an endorsee for Cooperman Framedrums. His music can be heard on a variety of CDs and DVDs.
His popular anthropology classes include special topics courses on rhythm, art, and culture. Joshua is also an award winning contemporary visual artist. He has been a featured painter at Beloved Festival, and has shown his artwork alongside many of the leading figures in the visionary art movement.
For more information, visit http://www.mythfits.com.
Jeff McBride
Jeff McBride, named Magician of the Year by The Magic Castle in Los Angeles, is recognized as a foremost innovator in contemporary magic. His magic performance art combines mime, masks, Kabuki Theatre, world-class sleight of hand and grand illusion to create a completely unique performance experience. New York Times columnist Glenn Collins writes, “What Mr. McBride gives his audiences is a mesmerizing performance…a magic show that is at once a celebration of mystery and a struggle to understand powerful forces.”
McBride is a regular headliner at casino showrooms in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, and has been seen on every major US television network. Jeff plays the role of Joran on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Most recently he has been a special guest on Criss Angel’s Mindfreak, and the subject of the Canadian TV documentary: Jeff McBride – A Magickal Life on the “Enigma” series. He runs the McBride Magic & Mystery School in Las Vegas, and has created some of the best selling teaching videos in the world of magic. In addition he is a popular lecture and workshop leader for both magicians and corporate audiences around the world. With his wife, Abbi, he hosts transformational fire circle events around the world.
For more information, visit http://www.mcbridemagic.com.
Abigail Spinner McBride
Abigail Spinner McBride is a high priestess of the Family of Fire, a massage therapist, musician and dancer, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a highly skilled facilitator of fire-circle technology, and the co-author of Universal Fire Circle Alchemy.
https://www.vegasvortex.com/pages/UniversalAlchemy
Her latest album, The Family of Fire, is a collection of her original music, inspired by the fire circles, which has won critical acclaim. With a background in music, dance and body/mind wellness, Abigail is consistently creatively engaged. You will find her working with her clients on the massage table, digging in the garden, playing various musical instruments, working behind the scenes of the Magic & Mystery School and the Vegas Vortex, singing, teaching meditation classes, cooking up vegetarian feasts, practicing dance, yoga and magic, and gazing lovingly into the eyes of her husband, magician Jeff McBride.For more information, visit https://open.spotify.com/artist/5etXBWMIgc9rCGUNMO3e37?si=CMBi6FYCSHyC9X4UhF9nwQ.
Deborah Nervig
Deborah Nervig is a teacher, a dancer and a mom; throughout her life, she has been interested in finding pathways of connection. Seeking ways to deepen meaningful relationships has been a motivating force behind Deborah’s work, whether connecting through words or through dance. She is an excellent listener and expert communicator, working with students, friends, and neighbors, and is happy to be sharing the effective tools and ideas for scintillating conversations with the Vegas Vortex. She also is a gifted massage therapist.
Together, Deborah Nervig & Joshua Levin have more than thirty years of training in music and movement. During the last six years, they have fashioned a bridge between the ethnic roots of their arts, in Middle-Eastern and South Asian styles, and the diverse multicultural world of the contemporary Western drum and dance scene. The exercises that are offered in their classes, meditations, and workshops are carefully designed to improve the quality of your playing or dancing, the emotional content of your experience, and the overall synergy of the group or circle. They have studied and taught in various locales around the world, and regularly travel in the U.S. sharing the healing ecstasy of these arts.
For more information, visit http://www.mythfits.com.
Alchemical Ritual Theater
Alchemical Ritual Theater is a community of ritual theater performers, artists ,musicians and writers. A.R.T. holds regular classes in the Las Vegas area for those who seek to explore the Western Mystery traditions. A.R.T. most recently hosted MYSTERIUM – an international conference on Magic and the alchemical tradition.Nicki Scully
Nicki Scully is an author, ceremonialist, and healer who has been teaching metaphysics, healing, shamanism and the Egyptian Mysteries since the early 1980s. She created Alchemical Healing, a powerful healing form that combines energetic healing techniques with shamanism and alchemy for powerful and enduring transformation. She currently gives lectures and seminars internationally, and specializes in spiritual tours to Egypt. Her most recent book is Power Animal Meditations, Shamanic Journeys with your Spirit Allies (originally The Golden Cauldron). Alchemical Healing will be published in fall, 2003.
For more information, visit http://www.shamanicjourneys.com.
Rev. Areeya Marie Sharpe
Rev. Areeya Marie Sharpe, is a local Las Vegas private chef, priestess and artist. A devotee of Sekhmet, Areeya works to perpetuate re-connection and healing in many strands of local and global community. Spirit Haven Creations provides several diverse services of raw, vegan, vegetarian, “comfort home fusion cuisine”. Services include: Private Chef Service, Food Prep class/workshops, kitchen organization, ambient nourishment concepts, menu concept and consultation.
Current Project:
The Sacred Waters Fire Circle, an online creation of fire and water technology fusion, envisioned on sabbatical several years ago in a remote temple dedicated to the Egyptian Goddess Sekhmet in the Nevada desert. SWFC will offer online sanctuary/seminary workshops and classes in ritual theater including: Sacred Fire Circle and Global Healing Water ceremony technology, Elemental Portals, Wheel of the Year and Lunar Cycles Celebrations will also be explored. One Mind, Elemental, Multi-Ethnic Tribal,Goddess, and Chakra art will also be available. Website projected launch fall/winter 2013. For more information, workshop catalog and booking, please contact: areeyaworld@gmail.com.
Marcus Sims
Marcus Sims graduated magna cum laude from Shenandoah Conservatory and has many years experience as a musician and teacher. He co-founded the Village Tree with Jaqui MacMillen, a monthly dance and drum event, initiated the Mankind Project Drumming Society in 1999, and in 2001 sparked the formation of the Rhythm Workers Union, drummers, dancers, and musicians working for peace and justice. Marcus is a certified Ta Ke Ti Na teacher and continues intensive study with Reinhard Flatischler, the Austrian composer and master drummer who developed Ta Ke Ti Na. He brings an open heart and an affection for the “beginner’s mind” to his work in re-membering the power of rhythm into our communities and culture.
Michael Wall
In addition to hosting scores of community music-making events, Michael Wall has taught and performed on djembe, dundun, conga, frame drum and percussion for many years. He is committed to reminding the fire circle community that the frame drum, conga, and other sacred sounds and instruments play a valuable role in the all night journey. Michael is the co-founder of the Hawaii Fire Tribe Gatherings and Oahu’s Sacred Arts Circles – inspired by the power of drum, dance and song as portals to heart-filled magick and sheer ecstasy! He currently teaches a weekly frame drumming class, and is an Artist Teaching Partner for the Hawaii Department of Education.
For more information, visit http://www.firetribehawaii.org.
Merrill Ward
Merrill Ward is a ritualist, performer, teacher and student of Hermeticism and Thelemic Ceremonial Magick and works as a freelance producer and filmmaker as well as the Marketing Director for independent world-beat record label, Sequoia Records. He was a founding Council Member of the Firedance Drum & Dance Festival and a ritual participant and facilitator in the first Mysterium event in 2000. Under guise of his magical name (Frater Hrumachis) he serves as an initiate within several magical traditions, most notably, the Ordo Templi Orientis, perhaps the largest magical society and occult fraternity in the world, where he has written several articles on various subjects within the magical tradition. He is and ordained Priest of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, the Past Master of L.V.X. Lodge, O.T.O in Los Angeles and currently serves as the Public Information Officer for the U.S. Grand Lodge of O.T.O. He continues to host, facilitate and present regular classes, workshops and lectures on diverse mystical subjects including Ritual and Ceremonial Magick, Hermetic Science, Alchemy, Raja Yoga, Occult Philosophy & Psychology, Qabalah, Tarot, and the History of Magick and has done so for nearly 10 years. He is very active in the “Spiritual Cinema” movement and is presently scripting a documentary entitled “The Way of the Magus” inspired by the writings of Aleister Crowley. Merrill and his wife and Priestess, Loraia (Soror Ashera), are currently living, loving and working in the Rogue Valley in Southern Oregon and are expecting the arrival of their first “crowned & conquering” child by the Winter Solstice of 2004e.v.
Sheila Z
Sheila Z is dedicated to the path of Spiritual Evolution. Founder of The Open Wisdom Institute. “Where Ancient and Quantum Physics Merge” Creator of the “Intentional Wellness” Seminars, her passion is to Uplift the Body, Mind and Soul. To heal the hearts and raise the frequencies of humanity. Through group and private session healings, journey meditations and workshops on higher consciousness, Sheila Z Facilitates “empowering individuals to their highest purpose” with Life tools for transformation.
“We all come in to this place and time with all the wisdoms of the ancients” It is all there for us to tap into. Our commitment and connection to nature and grandmother earth lends us the path for spiritual evolution.Sheila Z Stirling is the Author of Reading the Language of The Cosmos” A channeled work on the energies of the Cosmos and how they affect our journey on a moment to moment basis. She is also a conscious channel and recording artist of ‘Sounds of the Soul’ which is an angelic interpretation of the God Code. The journey meditations with this sacred music has been transformative for countless individuals.
For more information, visit http://www.openwisdominstitute.com.
Oberon Zell
Oberon Zell-Ravenheart is a modern-day Wizard, and an Elder in the worldwide Magickal Community. In 1962, he co-founded the Church of All Worlds, a Pagan church with a futuristic vision. Through his publication of Green Egg magazine, Oberon was instrumental in the founding of the modern Pagan movement, which he so named. In 1970, he had a profound Vision of the Living Earth which he published as an early version of “The Gaia Thesis.”
Oberon is a thealogian and ritualist, creating and conducting rites of passage, seasonal celebrations, Mystery initiations, Earth-healings, and other large rituals. He creates jewelry as well as sculptures of altar statues, and is the headmaster of the Grey School.
For more information, visit http://www.oberonzell.com.