DAUGHTERS OF DIANA GATHERING
A Gathering of Amazons, Dianic Witches, and Goddess Women
in Female Sovereign Space
Our 2025 PRESENTERS
(not in alphabetical order)
RUTH RHIANNON BARRETT (Michigan)
Dedicated for over 50 years to women's magic and mysteries, Ruth Barrett is a Dianic high priestess, seasoned ritualist, teacher, author, and award-winning recording artist of original Goddess songs and chants. Ruth's numerous recordings, have been among the pioneering musical works in the Goddess Spirituality Movement. Ruth began her formal Goddess studies with founding Goddess Movement muse Shekhinah Mountainwater in 1975. Since inheriting Z Budapest's Los Angeles ministry in 1980, Ruth has taught magical and ritual arts in the Dianic tradition at festivals and conferences across the United States, in Canada, and Great Britain. She is HP Emerita of Circle of Aradia. In 1997 Ruth was honored as recipient of the L.A.C.E. award for outstanding contributions in the area of Spirituality from the Gay and Lesbian Center in Los Angeles. In 2000, Ruth co-founded Temple of Diana, Inc, with life partner, Falcon River. Ruth is author of Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries: Intuitive Ritual Creation, and editor for the anthology, Female Erasure – What You Need To Know About Gender Politics’ War on Women, the Female Sex and Human Rights. Ruth co-leads an annual women's pilgrimage to Crete with Catherine Ridder. Ruth teaches classes online through Temple of Diana grove, Guardians of the Grove. www.guardiansofthegrove.org and www.dancingtree.org
Hestia Bee (Michigan)
HESTIA BEE began her studies in Dianic Craft in the late 1980s with Ruth Barrett after attending a memorable Autumn Equinox ritual with Circle of Aradia. Hestia was ordained a Dianic Priestess of Ritual by Ruth Barrett in 1992. Hestia’s ministry focuses on ritual design and facilitation, divination, and education. Hestia has been a tarot reader for over 40 years with a specialty in tradition-informed intuitive reading. She has served in leadership in many capacities at Temple of Diana member grove Circle of Aradia. She teaches workshops and class series on her own and in collaboration with Cerridwyn RoseLabrys and Ruth Barrett. She is also a teacher’s assistant for the online classes of Ruth Barrett and Falcon River. She lives in mid-Michigan, and enjoys the open road in her minivan camper. Hestia spends a lot of time thinking about Crete (including when and how to return for another stay), “prehistoric” symbols and rituals, and how to keep faith with our ancestors. Hestia holds an undergraduate degree in Women’s Studies and master’s degrees in Counseling and Behavior Analysis. Hestia can be reached at hello@hestiabee.com and her website hestiabee.com
Kathy Crocco (Ohio)
Kathy was a member of the archery crew assisting Falcon River at Amazon Archery at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival for many years. Kathy is a retired special education teacher and loves to support women in this form of female empowerment.
Sandy Cybele (California)
When Sandy Cybele began formally studying witchcraft with Ruth Barrett in the early 1990’s, she was amazed to find someone who routinely used her psychic skills to teach as an empath; but it took her several years to recognize and trust it in herself. She’s spent a lifetime learning to trust her intuition and has been teaching classes and facilitating seasonal rituals and monthly moon circles since 2004 in the Inland Empire, Orange County, and the greater Los Angeles area of southern California. Sandy is an ordained Temple of Diana priestess and founded Chalice Moon Grove, Temple of Diana, in 2015.
Julia Freya (Pennsylvania)
Julia is a Dianic initiate who facilitates a new Dianic circle in Philadelphia. She is a private practice psychologist and a yoga instructor studying womb-centered and subtle body practices. Her focus as a clinical and forensic practitioner is depth psychological approaches to recovery from power-over harms, and the legal system's complicity in perpetuating violence against women and girls. Among her interests include the role of Dianic ritual and group dynamics in transforming the effects of women’s socialization under male supremacy. In addition to local rituals and introductory presentations, she assists in facilitating seasonal rituals with Temple of Diana priestesses in California and online.
Nicki Harris (California)
is an ordained Temple of Diana Priestess of the Guardian Path. She is a graduate of the Spiral Door program and has served as a teaching assistant for the program. Nicki regularly serves at Temple of Diana Grove rituals and is the former President of the Temple of Diana Board of Directors and serves on the Daughters of Diana Gathering Committee.
Nicki’s mother stated that she sang before she talked and she has turned that love of singing into service as a member of the Westside Threshold Choir singing at the bedside of the dying as well as co-facilitator of a Los Angeles area women’s singing circle.
Tracie Jones (California)
Tracie is an ordained Dianic Priestess of the Guardian Path whose Dianic journey began with Circle of Aradia on a stormy Winter Solstice in 2003. A graduate and teaching assistant of the Spiral Door Women’s Mysteries program, she honors Ruth Barrett and Falcon River, founders of Temple of Diana and the Spiral Door program, as her most beloved and transformative teachers. Tracie serves as a ritual guardian, Temple of Diana board member, and co-facilitates a monthly Singing Circle in Los Angeles with Nicki Harris. In deep, somatic connection with Mother Earth and the unseen, she offers earth-rooted healing, Havening™️, flower essences, energy work, and embodied oracle readings, that soothe the nervous system and guide women back to their magic, wholeness, and the knowing that we are all held. She can be reached at RootedHeartHavening@gmail.com
D. Ebony Labrys (Oregon)
is a daughter of Oya, and has been a student of The Craft since the late 1980’s, when she first saw the Daughters of the Moon Tarot deck. Since then, she has evolved into an eclectic Dianic Witch, writing, co-writing and priestessing group rituals in Oregon. She is also a student of Ruth and Falcon’s and aspires to become a priestess in the Temple of Diana path.
“I am a Seeker, and on my Path, I have been blessed with teachers in both the Santeria and Wiccan traditions. I serve the Goddess as a Teacher, a Priestess and a womon born womon, working to help myself and my sisters tap into Her Divine Spirit. When we are steady on our feet and within ourselves, we raise the Matriarchy, feed our children and make the world safe once again, for the generations yet to be. Magic is all around us, even in those things that seem mundane and commonplace. My hope is that I may, through the rituals and workshops in which I participate, help womyn see how truly powerful we are.”
Temple Ardinger (California)
Temple Ardinger is a Dianic Witch and graduate of the Spiral Door, Women’s Mystery School of Magick and Ritual Arts. With 35 years of crafting experience, Temple is focused on bringing crafting back to the Craft. She helps administer the Facebook group: Dianic Tradition - Female Witchcraft and Women's Mysteries. Temple is also an officer on Temple of Diana's board of directors.
Caterina Fiordellisi Nelli (California)
Caterina is a native of the Detroit metropolitan area, first generation Italian and has lived more than half her life in the Los Angeles area. She been a part of Circle of Aradia (CoA) since the early 90’s and facilitating for the past few decades. Caterina was ordained in November of 2014 by Ruth Barret. She has served on the board of CoA and Temple of Diana, Inc. She currently serves at The Assistance League of Los Angeles and is chairing Operation School Bell that served several thousand students last year alone in the Los Angeles School District. Caterina’s passion is ritual and finding deep meaning in all passages of life. Dear to her heart is the Croning Ritual, and she looks forward to facilitating in your diving into your unique tapestry and weaving your vision. Always In Her Service….
Catherine Ridder (California)
Catherine is a Dianic initiate and has been a ritual drummer since 1996 for Circle of Aradia, and has co-facilitated ritual retreats since 1995 (including yearly women's pilgrimages to Crete with Ruth Barrett). She is a marriage and family therapist in private practice, as well as a certified massage therapist. Catherine is a passionate nature-lover and engages in wilderness adventures of all sorts.
DiAnna Ritola (NY City/Massachustts)
is a Dianic Priestess and Interfaith Minister. With nearly 2 decades of experience as a counselor and educator at the intersections of feminism, sexuality, and spiritual practice, DiAnna has been both a solo witch and a community priestess, serving as clergy with The Mother Grove Goddess Temple in Asheville, NC for 4 years (2013-2017). DiAnna knows the Goddess calls us to celebrate the pleasure of embodiment, and DiAnna facilitates shedding shame, embracing touch and connection, and truth telling as a spiritual sexual female. Her book, Mismatched Luggage: Unpacking Your Sexual Baggage for Your Spiritual Journey was published in 2020 and is available for purchase. She offers counseling via Zoom to women around the world. www.diannaritola.com
Pele Yemaja (Michigan)
Pele Yemaja was formally trained in piano at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, beginning at age 6-through 16. Beethoven soon gave way to boogie, but over time she was quietly led to the path of the drum. Her passion was ignited in 1993 at Ubaka Hill’s workshops at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, where she first encountered the rhythms that called her spirit. That year marked the beginning of her formal training in drumming, joining the first Drum Song Orchestra that performed at that festival for many years to come. Over the past three decades, Pele has studied with master teachers including Ubaka Hill, Linda Thomas Jones, Edwina LeeTyler, Judy Fatu Henderson, Deb McGee, Paloma and Afia Walkingtree. In 2008, she traveled to Conakry, Guinea, to study drum and dance with Afia Walkingtree and M’Lamine Camera, the principal soloist of Les Ballets d’Afrique Noirede Mansour Gueye. Immersed in the living traditions of Guinea, Pele fell deeply in love with West African drum and dance. Upon her return, she became a drummer for New Traditions African Dance, continuing to carry the many rhythms forward with not only the djembe, but the Kenkeni, Samban and Dundun as well. Pele has also had the honor of recording with Ubaka Hill on the albums Shapeshifters (1995), Dance the Spiral Dance (1998), and most recently she celebrated another milestone, serving as percussionist for the renowned musician Ruth Barrett on the album Once and Future Amazons (2020).
Falcon River (Michigan)
is an ordained Temple of Diana Priestess, and co-founder of Temple of Diana, Inc. She has helped create and support women's ritual circles since 1976. Falcon teaches magick, tree lore and Norse runes (bringing a feminist perspective), and other related Heathen lore online through ToD grove – Guardians of the Grove, and at women’s festivals. Falcon is an experienced archery instructor who will also be assisting with Amazon Archery this year at our gathering. www.guardiansofthegrove.org
Cerridwyn RoseLabrys (California)
started on her Dianic journey on May Eve, 1974, with the Susan B. Anthony Coven#1 and Dianic feminist foremother Z Budapest and organized her first coven in the state of Washington where she did extensive research studying world cultures and their Goddess roots while pursuing a minor in history. She earned a master's degree in counseling at USC, and joined with newly ordained High Priestess Ruth Rhiannon Barrett in the new Moon Birch Grove coven. Cerridwyn was ordained as Priestess of Ritual and Herstory on Brigid, 1981. She co-authored several seasonal rituals, some of which continue to be celebrated by Circle of Aradia. She is a graduate of the Spiral Door Women's Mystery School of Magick and Ritual Arts, and was ordained as High Priestess at Winter Solstice by Ruth Barrett in 2011, during the 40th year celebration of the Feminist Dianic Tradition in Los Angeles. She holds center as High Priestess for Circle of Aradia to this day. www.circleofaradia.org
Sara Macaluso (California)
is an ordained Temple of Diana priestess and graduate of/teaching assistant for the Spiral Door of Women’s Mysteries. Sara has been doing ground archery for 15+ years, having first picked up a bow at one of the earliest Daughters of Diana gatherings where archery was being offered by her mentor and friend, Falcon River. In 2019 she fulfilled a “bucket list” goal by taking a clinic in mounted (horseback) archery and quickly fell in love with the sport. Since then, she has continued to train and compete in mounted archery, most recently placing first in her division at the “Mayhem on the Mountain" national ranking competition hosted by Hidden Creek Ranch in Frazier Park, CA. Sara is a Level II archery instructor and active member of Poseidon’s Horse Archers.