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AMRITA HOBBS is an internationally facilitator. Her work has been acclaimed in Canada and the USA, the UK and Europe, Russia, Estonia and South Africa as well as Australia. Amrita has offered innovative workshops for teens and adults for more than 30 years. She is a progressive teacher and leader who is passionate about the place of Rites of Passage and Initiation on our lives. Her work with mothers and daughters was featured as an ABC documentary FIRST BLOOD. She also was featured in a television documentary called FREEDOM OR MADNESS.
Amrita sings to the soul of woman to be true to Herself, live life beyond the edge and expand into the fullness of all possibility. She brings a passionate commitment to making this a better world. Her work is said to be life changing. Amrita is an author and publisher, her latest book GETTING REAL… about growing up! is and invaluable resource for teens, parents and teachers. Visit www.amritahobbs.com for info. |
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At age 60, for almost 30 years, Anique Radiant Heart has dedicated her life and her talents to assisting women and girls to awaken the great Feminine Divine within them. Gifted with a miraculous voice and the ability to open people’s hearts with her singing, she has facilitated Goddess mystery workshops/events, celebrating the Goddess through ritual and song in the United Sates, England, France, Athens, Singapore, Taipei, Australia and New Zealand.
A keen scholar, author, singer/songwriter, artist and political activist, Anique’s love for the Earth, women and the feminine principle she lovingly calls the Goddess, has been the motivating force behind her extraordinary music and the work she does in the world.
“I believe that women are at the vanguard of the awakening taking place on this planet. An awakening to a different level of existence, which allows us to be in this world and yet not part of it. The struggle against patriarchy and the journey to the Goddess are synonymous in my view. When we discover the great ancient heritage of Goddess loving cultures which existed for millennium after millennium before patriarchy, we find a profound woman focused body of evidence, which strengthens our inner core and provides the tool for self empowerment, self determination and enlightenment. We can then go out into the world and do what must be done so that as many people as possible can be free to celebrate that discovery.”
At the 2007 Australian Goddess Conference, Anique was honoured as a Foremother and Elder of the Goddess Community in Australia. Her work as a spiritual teacher, ceremonialist and sacred singer has grounded many in the love and reverence of the Goddess.
This year – 2008 – Anique returns to the Glastonbury Goddess Conference for the third time, to launch her new CD “LIVING THE GODDESS” which completes the trilogy with “INVOKING” and “EMBRACING THE GODDESS”. She will also present her workshops and sacred singing at the Budapest Goddess Conference, the Dutch Goddess Conference, she will tour Italy with local Priestess Morphisa Elanory to bless sacred sites and present her sacred singing to local Goddess worshipers, and will tour the US, presenting her work at Goddess temples and festivals, culminating in presenting her Chanting the Chakras workshop at the Goddess Temple in Orange County.
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Bilawara Lee
Bilawara whose name means Black Cockatoo, is a senior woman and Grandmother from the Larrakia Nation of Darwin Northern Territory. She is a Cross Cultural Awareness trainer, Conflict Resolution Mediator and Authorised Marriage Celebrant. Bilawara has over 57 year’s experience working, living and being part of a vibrant Aboriginal family and community. She is acknowledged and respected as a community communicator and teacher of the ancient wisdoms of Larrakia Aboriginal spirituality and healing.
Daughters of Gaia ~ Eileen Kaufman & Yia Alias
Eileen Kaufman is currently manager of Warrah Farm, a biodynamic farm in Sydney and teaches Biodynamic Farming at Parsifal College. She has twenty years of experience in the area of sustainable farming. She has travelled extensively participating in study tours of traditional farming practices in India and Sri Lanka. She is a qi gong practitioner -a movement meditation for self healing. Eileen is a founding member of Hestia Heart Flower Womens group and has performed in the Goddess Dance Troupe. Yia Alias -Goddess Dance.
Yia has trained at the School of Dance Oriental. She has performed as a street artist and at a variety of festivals - moving more towards tribal trance and accessing shamanic energy. She has also danced with the Harmonic Dance troupe and is a Qi Gong practitioner. Yia has worked teaching music and movement to people with disabilities, runs on-going chakra and Goddess dance workshops, and creates sacred art installations, for sale and commission. Yia's current passion is facilitating her local women's group The Hestia Heart Flowers, focusing on rites of passage, celebrating the milestones in a women's life. She also runs the eight week course called The Journey with the Seven Greek Goddesses. As a collage artist, Yia offers a collage of her knowledge and life experience to inspire others to reach their full potential in the dance of life.
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Chris Sitka has been researching, writing about and presenting workshops, slide shows and talks on the Ancient European Goddess Cultures since the early 1990s. She enjoys demonstrating that traditions from her own European ancestry are based on authentic archaeological evidence of long lived sacred practices. She has also worked closely with Aboriginal women Elders from the Western Desert and participated, by invitation, in many women's traditional ceremonies with them.
EARTHSONG ~ Zenzi
Zenzile has been teaching and performing dances of Africa for more than five years. She received the dance from her Husband Master Percussionist Kintsho and his group MZUMBA the Dance of Happiness. She has studied with many Experts in African, Caribbean, Cultural and Sacred Dances. Widely influenced and intently studied with Earth Dancer Siski Lyndall Martin. She is ambassador of Lilobao and tribe to MZUMBA and is practising the Seasonal Dances and the Earth Song with the Serpentine Dancers of Lilobao.
With more than fifteen years of musical experience, Danish born mother of two, Tanna Kjaer-Dona knows how music can affect us in every facet of our lives. A healer at heart, she was drawn to the idea of using the power of music and song to foster personal and spiritual growth. Although an accomplished and gifted performer and songwriter in her own right, she has used her gifts and time to found numerous choirs and singing groups with an aim to creating a unique atmosphere and vehicle for people to heal. Whether travelling the Priestess of Goddess path, arranging a song, directing choirs or performing, Tanna gives 100% of herself to her task.
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Diana Seekers & Marnie Dean
Diana Seekers has been responsible for the Goddess Calendar and Gifts of the Goddess, offering Goddess centred creations for our alters, giftings and hearths. Diana has collaborated with Marnie Dean, a digital artist who is also a healer and energy worker. Marnie has travelled the glob celebrating Goddess and women energy. Her artwork is glorifying the Goddess in the 2009 Goddess calendar.
Eileen Haley is a Brisbane-born and Sydney-based writer and quilter. Her quilts have been exhibited at the NSW Quilters’ Guild annual exhibitions and Braidwood Quilters exhibitions including “Two Fires” (2005) and “Women, Words and Stitches” (2007). Her most recent literary work is the poem sequence Full Circle, published by Ginninderra Press in 2007.
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Glenys Livingstone has been passionately involved in the resurgence of Goddess imagery for the Sacred for three decades: this was the topic of her participative doctoral research in Social Ecology (University of Western Sydney 2002). She is the author of PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion, and continues to write many articles for a global network. Glenys teaches a year-long course in Celebrating Cosmogenesis, and facilitates many Goddess events at her Akkademie PaGaian Cosmology. She lives in the Blue Mountains, Australia, where she and her partner Taffy hold sacred space for the celebration of Earth’s holy-days with a small open community, according to their place on the planet. Glenys completed post-graduate theological studies in Berkeley California in 1982. She is a mother and grandmother – “Musa”. Her website is http://pagaian.org, where her book is live. |
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Jane Hardwicke Collings is an independent midwife who has been attending homebirths for the past 24 years. She is herself a homebirth mother, grandmother and a teacher of the Women's Mysteries. She has written 2 books and today will present some information from her forth coming book "Birthing With The Goddess". |
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Julie Walton
A pagan witch, singer/songwriter Julie Walton brings an essence of stillness, inner connectedness and beauty through song to the Goddess Conference. She is an ‘in-spirited’ songstress who will open the Conference with a haunting ‘Invocation to Gaia’, with whom she feels a deep connection. Julie has been receiving/writing songs of spirit since 1996, performing with her Sunshine Coast band “Pentacle” for four years and releasing her first album Eternity in 2005. In 2006 she released the beautiful Pagan Fire album, launched at the inaugural Gold Coast Goddess Conference. Musical highlights of 2007 included live performances with Jon Stevens (Hyatt Coolum), Josh Groban (QPAC Brisbane), many World Music gigs with Vox 16, pagan and goddess gatherings large and small and the opening and closing of the Goddess Conference. To date she is writing for her next album and, in August, is taking her first overseas trip to sing in Japan. A relative newcomer to the Goddess path, Julie is becoming increasingly empowered by the sacred feminine through conscious observation and involvement in her own life.
A web designer and IT trainer by trade, I used to take pride in being successful in the male-dominated computer world. I had little idea that, although I had passed successfully as a female all of my life, many of the qualities of the feminine were a complete mystery to me!
In the early 90’s I moved to Byron Bay and began to sit in women’s circles, to sing with a group of women called the Voices of Gaia and to begin a long overdue journey of discovery of my feminine nature. I surfed the internet for the first time and yOni.com was conceived. I wanted to create a website that explored and celebrated the many flavours of the feminine and provided a nurturing space for women to connect. I chose yOni for the reverence intrinsic in this Sanskrit name for female genitalia. Actually I think yOni chose me!
My site was a success and my journey with the feminine continued. I was initiated into the joys and challenges of mother-hood, and led to work with a number of excellent teachers. I co-created the Heart of Woman collective and ran weekend and on-going women’s groups.
Now living just north of Byron Bay with my 10 year old son I work full time offering feminine oriented website design and further developing yOni.com. I am part of an ongoing women’s group who have met together regularly for the past six years. We take it in turns to facilitate the group providing me with a fertile testing ground for my own particular flavour of women’s work. My offering is to support women to accept, explore and, if need be, heal our relationship with pleasure, our sacred sexuality and our wondrous yOni.
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Lucy Cavendish is a woman living in Sydney, Australia, with her pixie-like daughter and the spirit of her beautiful dog… She works magic every single day of her life, embracing it as a creed for personal fulfilment and happiness, and as a belief system that sees us as part of nature, and thus gives us all the motivation to respect and revere and delight in our unique experience here on Planet Earth.
Lucy is the author of The Oracle Tarot, Magical Spell Cards and White Magic, all of which are published internationally by Hay House. Her most recent works include The Oracle of the Dragonfae, and As Above, So Below, a meditational CD… She created Witchcraft magazine way back in 1992, and edited it for five years, is a feature writer for Spellcraft magazine, Spheres, and has appeared in anthologies like Disinformation's Pop Goes The Witch! She is a classic book witch and adores writing and reading and creating powerful, life-changing and enchanted workshop experiences.
Mallika Is The Goddess Of The Flame, and a Fire Dancer at the age of 30 she has been working using her gifts for over 12 years as a Spiritual Guide through readings and sharing her spiritual wisdom through workshops. Many whom have already met Mallika have been inspired and those whom are yet to meet her will be equally inspired and enlightened. goddessoftheflame@bigpond.com
Mikailah is a Mother, Creative Visionary, Priestess and Teacher of Women’s Sacred Rites. Her journey began many moons ago with her descent into the Underworld. Whilst there she ate the seeds of the Pomegranate & learnt to listen to the quiet whisperings of Goddess. She heard ‘the call ‘of the Black Goddesses and her passionate work is dedicated to Ishtar, Isis, Lilith & Mary Magdalena. Mikailah communes through the beauty of story-telling, astro-psychology and feminine ritual for today’s contemporary society. She facilitates Goddess circles & workshops and now teaches a sacred priestess course ‘Quadishtu’ on the Gold Coast.
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Goddess spirituality is not a text-based tradition, except insofar as it reads the "book of nature". I, however, am strongly word-focused. As a child I found enjoyment and information in books. Today I seek writings which speak of Goddess, of earth and nature, of that which is sacred. I haunt bookshops and online booksellers, I devour catalogues and reading lists, endlessly searching for wisdom and inspiration.
Thus, it is not surprising that my journey to Goddess led me to books and thence to formal study. From a Bachelor of Divinity, to a Masters' degree on elderly women's spirituality, to a Doctorate in literature and Goddess spirituality, words have provided insights and tools for exploring and expressing my relationship to Goddess.
Today I live my commitment to Goddess at Wildwood, my sacred place, where I watch the platypuses, koalas and possums as each, in its unique way, lives out - wordlessly - the story of Goddess. Here I read and I write: about Goddess, for Goddess, with Goddess.
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Ruth Shepherd is passionate about sharing her love of resonant sound She inspires women to explore the music within, to find their rhythms, and their own sound. Ruth has a background in formal music (BA, Dip Ed ), a strong interest in Music Therapy, is a Registered Nurse and Midwife, and has been active in community music for the past 10 years. A life crisis precipitated her personal journey, investigating the Healing potential of Sound. She now facilitates Womyn’s Frame Drum, Chanting and Toning Circles. Ruth will present a workshop “The Goddess Drums: Women Reclaim the Power of Drumming”, a hands on workshop for all womyn who feel an intuitive desire to play the drum. We will play handmade deerskin Medicine Drums, and finger play Goatskin Frame Drums. Womyn participating will be captivated by the ethereal harmonics of Whirlies, Singing Bowls, Tibetan Bells and Tingshaws. We will investigate the Herstory of the frame drum – traditionally a Women’s drum, experience a Herstorical Drum Meditation, and a Healing Drum circle. Absolutely no musical expertise is required….If you have a heartbeat, you can drum….
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Tanishka is a highly experienced Women's Mysteries facilitator, having created & conducted the annual Awaken Goddess Initiate Priestess Course in her hometown, Melbourne since 2002, as well as Women's Retreats, Tantric Love Goddess Workshops, Rite of Passage Ceremonies, Dance Meditations & Community Events celebrating Seasonal & Astrological shifts. In 1996 she was initiated into the feminine mysteries, spending a year long vision quest in the Otway Ranges, after which she returned to pioneer a unique series of ‘Awaken Goddess'TM feminine archetype seminars & channelled readings. In 2008, due to popular demand she opened her full moon gatherings to men as well as women, disseminating the ancient teachings of the Grail by journeying experientially around the astrological mandala working with masculine & feminine archetypal counterparts to assist in anchoring the new consciousness of sacred union upon the planet. She has also performed as a shamanic dancer at Tantric workshops & wedding ceremonies, facilitated countless magical events for children as Titania, Queen of the Faeries, worked professionally as a stand-up comedienne & completed her first book, ‘The Inner Goddess Makeover' which was released June 2007 & is available both online & in bookstores nationally. In 2006 she created & unveiled the Star of Ishtar range of chakra Goddess essences, oils & auric sprays which are now available both in selected retail outlets & online at www.starofishtar.com Tanishka has been a guest speaker at the Australian Goddess Conference, Mind, Body, Spirit Festival & writes for various national magazines.
thea Gaia lives with her feet in ancient times, her head in the rainbow, and her body acting out one of earth’s countless stories. Her conscious “Gaia” life began in the 1980’s with Goddess studies and changing her name to thea Rainbow, then continued with writing Gaia poetry, sharing a “Gaia’s Island” vision with women in America, co-creating “Gaia’s Gallery” in Adelaide, followed by “Gaia Womanspace” in Canberra, changing her name to thea Gaia, working with Gaia Matrix Oracle Cards, forming with others a Women’s Network named Sisters of Gaia in the 1990’s, and acquiring a symbolic statue “Behold, Gaia” in 2007 ! Living out her ancient self in her present place of Australia, thea remembers her journey beginning in rural Queensland, then continuing through teaching deaf children, theological studies, church ministry, discovering and teaching Goddess culture, ritualising, and then simply becoming a woman on the spiritual path of being a female human being, consciously recognising her life as Gaia’s. theagaia@ozemail.com.au
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