And now, introducing (to the new people) and welcoming back (to the past attendees), your Between the Worlds Co-Facilitators, Otter and Spiritwolf!
J.R., better known as Otter, first came to BTW in 2006. There he met the man he would later marry and found a path to understanding himself, spiritually, as a gay man and his place in the world of other men-who-love-men. Otter served as Heralding Coordinator, aka Princess of the Sisterhood of Screeching Harpies, for a number of years before taking on the role of Co-Facilitator for the gathering in 2014.
Spiritually, Otter evolved from a philosophical Taoist and existentialist to the eclectic pagan and Kitchen Witch he is today. Following a 16 year career of pagan community organizing, teaching, and presenting public ritual with the Covenant of Brighid’s Haven in his home town, Otter now feeds his faith by reaching out to the spirits of the natural world around him. Seeking to deepen his connection with wild spaces he has hiked and pilgrimaged over 900 miles in the forests and gorges of the Allegheny Plateau and around Lake Erie and the Allegheny River and their tributaries.
Beyond the mists of our personal Brigadoon, Otter is an Administrative Law Judge in the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. He lives with his husband, Grey, in Erie, Pennsylvania, not far from the shore of his beloved lake.
Spiritwolf, or Leon, is, spiritually, an eclectic still finding his way amongst the paths. While SpiritWolf started practicing in the early 80s, he dropped away for several years while in the Navy following other paths of beliefs but came back to paganism in the 90s.
SpiritWolf started coming to Between the Worlds in 2004. The following year he helped start a security contingent because of his past military experience and in 2005 the security contingent developed into the Brotherhood of the Spectrum Blade (the physical and spiritual guardians of the event) which is still growing. SpiritWolf and Daystar moved to Ohio from the San Francisco bay area in 2007 and joined Green Faerie Grove. SpiritWolf was elected president of GFG from 2008-2010 and again in 2012 to present and this is his third year as Co-Facilitator. Outside of all this, Leon is currently the assistant to the CFO of the Columbus Metropolitan Library.