Mistress Ladybug: High Priestess of Colors
Ordained: March 2009
Dedicated to Diana

After many years of solitary practice as an eclectic witch, Ladybug found CAYA Coven through a Google search and has been a lover of this community ever since. Ladybug sees religion as a form of collective creative expression which elevates the individual while knitting a group of people together, and not as a hard and fast universal “truth.” She is very proud of CAYA’s unique ability to foster the divinity within each person while forming a fun, lovely and ever-evolving tradition of Earth-based spirituality. Ladybug draws inspiration from Wicca, Yoruba traditions, Zen Buddhism, Tantric traditions, Native American shamanism and was once an Evangelical Christian years and years ago. To her, it is more important that a person be happy and healthy while connected to a supportive community and the natural world rather than be staunchly bound to a set of human-made rules. As a priestess of the Wildflower tradition and a high priestess of the Pan-Dianic Bloodroot Honey tradition, Ladybug works within the collective as the coordinator of the Goddess sabbats, helps teach Wildflower Skills Workshops and feels called to priestess various rites of passage, like weddings, coming of age ceremonies and funerals.

Ladybug enjoys painting, photography, drawing, yoga, belly dancing, bhangra dancing, burlesque culture, reading, writing racy fiction stories, gardening, lucid dreaming and loves animals. She practices Reiki, vermiculture and is slowly learning herbalism. She lives in Emeryville with her newborn son, husband, three cats, fish, worms and a multitude of houseplants and, at certain times of the year, is blessed to live with her two stepsons. Ladybug is currently 100% absorbed in loving motherhood.

Lady Maia Mermaid: High Priestess of the Sacred Hearth
Ordained: March 2010
Dedicated to Aphrodite

Maia Mermaid is a hearth priestess, teacher and mentor. She believes that our homes are sacred spaces, and should be treated as such.

She is dedicated to Aphrodite and Frigga, and works with several of the orisha, mainly Yemaya. She beads, knits, studies herbalism, and plays with her cats in her spare time.

La Strega Manea Trinacria: High Priestess of Wild Magic
Ordained: March 2009
Dedicated to Diana

"I am one of the hidden children of the Goddess. From generation unto generation has the knowledge been passed and the Old Ways been kept by those who kindle the flame."(a quote from The Veglia in Hereditary Witchcraft by Raven Grimassi). La Strega Manea Trinacria is ordained as both a Wildflower High Priestess and an Pan-Dianic Bloodroot Honey High Priestess for Come As You Are Coven. Manea is one of the co-founding High Priestess of CAYA Coven South Bay, and is deeply involved with their Grove of Artemis and co-ed Sabbats as well as continuing her work with the Bloodroot Honey Tradition Sabbats.

Manea feels that the Deities that chose her for dedication in these traditions best represent who she really is. For her Bloodroot Honey work she is dedicated to the Goddess Diana, a strong, independent Italian goddess of ancient roots but with a strong hold on the present. Manea's very open mind and big polyamorous heart founded CAYA's PaganAmory study group and the Goddess Aphrodite leads her in the work. She is also dedicated to the Goddess Inanna and the God Dionysus for her Wildflower Work. They are the combination of Wild Magick and civilized priestesshood. The Queen of Heaven and Earth with the ability to get down and party!

Outside of CAYA, Manea comes from a family lineage of Witchcraft and has been officially preistessing with her family coven La Strega Famiglia for over 10 years. She is very active in both the Pagan and Burning Man communities and is currently the Treasurer for the Silicon Village Burning Man camp. In her mundane life she works in banking and has been with the same company since 1995.

Basically she's a Pagan Poly Kinky Witchy Burner Banker ... a big bundle of Wild Magick cleverly disguised as "professional" in the muggle world.

Lady Rowan Nightshade: High Priestess of Esoterica
Ordained March 2009
Dedicated to Eris

The night is bleak, the landscape hushed, still cloaked in fortune secret.
The time is still, spins fast away. If you catch it, you won't keep it.
She sees beyond the clicks and whirs. She hears beyond the light and dim.
She won't abide the temporal quakes. She won't atone her whim

Queen of Cats, she
Queen of Plants, she
Queen of Spinning, Swirling Cosmos, she
Distaff grasping star-crowned Maiden, Elder of a woad-dyed hand
Sister who sets the world in motion, Lady who walks at twilight’s sand,
Mother who guides the multiverse, Mystery clothed in seal skin cape

Earthen Daughter whispers creation
to the darkened terrascape.
Seeing first another's beauty,
Hearing first another's voice,

Gently guiding flashing passion
While at play she needs no toys.
Like the door that slowly creaks
Like the tree that softly speaks
The spectral shadow silent, wreaks havoc

Moon-glowing brow forth-arches fierce
Eye in shadow viewing
She whose breath can bless or curse
whose song is power brewing

Where she walks, discordance trails, as cloud enshrouded peak

Who she loves ne’er stays alone, her courage buoys the meek
On bleakest night, she sees the shades of darkness that she'll rule.
For towering high above the plains, she’s fair and never cruel
Ever present, watching o'er
Tribe and clan and child
In living dreams, the witches tree.
Serene, but never mild

Chieftain Branwen: High Priestess of the Primal Heart
Ordained: March 2010
Dedicated to the Morrighan

Through the window of a car, under the light of a wandering star - Branwen spent her childhood watching the sometimes slow, sometimes dramatic change in landscape of the country. Being a child of a Marine, she grew up in a ever changing world of different people, places and ideas. This cross pollination of experiences and her father's living example of honor, loyalty and resilience would be the foundation of her beliefs for years to come.

Influenced at an early age from the modern military society of U.S. bases, it seemed natural to be drawn into the fantasy and history of ancient warrior cultures. Quickly did the Arthurian Legend imprint itself on her soul. From childhood through the teenage years, she kept one eye observing her surroundings and one eye firmly planted in myth, legend and history. After a series of trial and errors in the various Christian religions (ranging from United Pentecostal to Catholicism) she stopped trying to find that elusive feeling of purpose and sanctity in the modern world. She just started living and believing as she always wanted to, the Celtic way.

Books were her first teachers, from the dry academia of archaeological findings, to the somewhat obtuse myth structures and re-tellings, and a healthy dose of intuition , did she forge her spiritual path. Two years ago she was drawn to the group whose name said it all "Come As You Are", it was there she found her community, her place as a priestess, and her voice.

Duat Ka Neit Kismet: High Priestess Who Walks Between the Worlds
Ordained: March 2009
Dedicated to Bast

Council member for CAYA South Bay, High Priestess for The Grove of Hekate, and Dedicant Trainer for the South Bay. She is a Priestess of Bast and spends many evenings gliding between worlds, although dedicated to spending as much time as possible in this one. Animals are her passion and she loves to hear people laugh. She is currently spending her days planning rituals, playing with cats, searching for a puppy, and preparing her son for college.

Raven of the Redwoods: High Priestess of Rhythmic Transformation
Ordained: March 2009
Dedicated to Pele

They don't make witches much more down-to-earth than Raven of the Redwoods. The first sacred crone in the Bloodroot Honey Priestess tribe, Raven brings a ton of magical and transformational technologies to her craft.

After years of solitary practice, developing a strong spiritual connection to earth magic and goddess, Raven found home, sisterhood and community in CAYA. Initiation and ordination as a high priestess of the Pan-Dianic Bloodroot Honey tradition offered Raven the full expression of her work and calling. Raven can often be found holding space for her sisters as they move through their joys and challenges. That is, if she's not busy playing with and loving up the CAYA babies.

Raven, a triple Scorpio with a Leo moon and Gemini rising, provides Astro-Crone reports at our monthly full moon circles (Grove of Artemis) and at our Goddess sabbats.

Raven lives in Emeryville (right upstairs from Mistress Ladybug, thank you goddess!). She grows succulents to look at; and kale, chard, mizuna, tatsoi, snap peas, purple green beans, patty pan squash, and more to eat. Raven is a lindy hopper, blues dancer, martial artist (t'ai chi), kombucha brewer, sauerkraut maker, ghee maker, locavore, and an all-round amazing cook (grilled veggies are another specialty). She enjoys her iPhone, reading, coaching clients to their highest good and most fully expressed lives, graphic design and web development. Raven owns her own business and is committed to being useful, of service and ridiculously prosperous

Wishbringer Molly Blue Dawn: High Priestess of Serendipity
Ordained: March 2011
Dedicated to Sheila na Gig

"I was the only one of the original Elderflowers not to have initiated as an Amazon during the first year of CAYA. Something about the developments in my life and the developments in CAYA finally made it clear to me that it was time for me to go through initiation again, this time as an Bloodroot Honey Priestess! I am grateful to have had the experience of returning to the state of being an Initiate, learning new things, learning new ways of learning, and especially learning from some of the people who learned from me as Wildflower Initiates! Becoming and Bloodroot Honey High Priestess has taught me new things about myself as a woman, as a witch, and as a member of CAYA. I am thrilled to embrace this new aspect of service to my community, to my Goddess, and to myself!"

Madame Hummingbird Rainbow: High Priestess of Sacred Dance
Ordained: March 2011
Dedicated to Hekate

“Dance is the Movement of The Universe, Concentrated in an individual”
-Isadora Duncan

Dance in itself is sacred, the ability to be filled with the joy of movement is a blessing. It is Love, Peace, Joy, Heartache and Divine Inebriation in every dance. Hummingbird enjoys celebration through sacred dance and ritual, and the invocation of the senses. The blessings of transformation are felt in every step. She is delighted to have found a place with CAYA Coven as a Wildflower High Priestess and feels blessed to have a safe place to express her love of the divine with others. CAYA coven seemed to sprout up at the perfect time, just as a shift in the wind had come. Hummingbird saw the opportunity to form a lasting and meaningful bond in the arms of her coven family.

Hummingbird is one of the founding High Priestesses of CAYA South Bay. Working close and personal on the full moons and Sabbats with her sister High Priestesses. As she is a priestess, she is also a mother to a vibrant young man and she is enjoying the Mother aspect of her life right now.

Hummingbird is a Stitch Witch and has helped others on their path within the creative process. She owns her own home based business From The Fig Tree, where she creates magical clothing, jewelry and oils with the desired intent of the person for whom she makes it.

Thora Azuolas: High Priestess of Storms and Stars
Ordained: March 2011
Dedicated to Isis-Heket

The stellar canopy spins gently
in her care and her control
Viewed through the peace that's found between
The place where all the four winds howl

She of eloquent demeanor
She of statuesque repose
She glows in light and moves in shadow
Seeing what the darkness knows

She treads the quiet, ancient path
Constrains the churning, mirthful wrath
Hides from none & guides the flash
That flares the cloud-begotten match

And though forgotten are the tongues
Which spake the oaths proclaimed in hand
She gives them voice to pride renewed
And brings the healing to the land

And from her lofted perching fortress
Mighty, proud, brave, fair and free
She finds the stars within the darkness
And calms the storms of land and sea

- written as a gift by Abba ben Zo

Brenda Kyria Skotas: High Priestess of the Threads of Secrets
Ordained: March 2011
Dedicated to Hera

From earliest memory Brenda has been on the path of the witch, the seeker, the priestess... Her first memories of the divine, those of realized fate and the comforting presence of her goddess. Blessed with a knack for knowing and for seeing that which is hidden, her journey has been one of great trial, considerable transformation, and epiphany. She is at her base, a survivor.

A woman of passion she devotes herself fully in all aspects of her life. Whether it be her personal relationships, communing with the divine, tracing the lines of the world, learning the secrets of her ancestors, or removing the dust and spider webs from her home.

Brenda spends much of her free time in creation, an enthusiastic spinner with her fingers in many other fiber crafts, she takes peace from this simple act of transformation. She has a long lived love affair with the arts, from sculpture to word play and all things between, and an overwhelming need to surround herself with the natural world. Often escaping the ever spreading clutch of concrete and cable to sit in shadows beneath the trees or at the ocean cliffs.

Having spent her life in the silence of solitary practice, she was surprised and delighted to find herself drawn to Come As You Are Coven, their joyful eclecticism and the deep bonds of community filling a space in her heart that she had never realized was empty.

Salamangkero Yansumi Diwata Oceana: Q’desha, High Priestess of Music
Ordained: March 2011
Dedicated to Lilith

Coming from a background that is a mix of Filipino and Irish heritage, Yansumi has always been a bridge between peoples. Whether it be between family members, , community members, peoples of different ethnicities, or between people of emotion and people of logic, those who are open to magic and those who aren’t, Yansumi has always worked to bring peoples of contradiction together in more harmonious ways. Hers is the way of always seeing “both sides of the coin” where people are concerned.

Yansumi has found sanctuary in the magic of music and song whether that be through playing instruments, singing, or just listening. She believes that it is through sacred sounds and tones, one can unlock great spiritual and emotional healing that can be translated into physical healing. It is one of her greatest joys in life to bring the art of music to ritual to help others feel the joy and healing that music brings.

Yansumi has always walked the path of the sacred sexual woman or Q’desha. She believes that one can worship and meet the Goddess through the art of sacred sexuality and she has brought that to her spiritual practice both personally and publicly in many forms. One of Yansumi’s greatest desires is to help find healing for those who have suffered wounds that prevent them from enjoying their sacred sexuality to the fullest extent possible.

Szmeralda Shanel: High Priestess of Sacred Arts
Ordained March 2008
Dedicated to Isis, Mami Wata, Kapo-Laka and Kali

Ordained Priestess of Isis with the Fellowship of Isis and Temple of Isis. Founder of the Iseum of Black Isis. High Priestess in the Amazon Dianic Goddess Tradition. Mami Wata child. Hoodoo.Witch. Dancer. Magic Mistress. Music Maker. Vision Weaver. Daughter of the North Star. Artist. Seer. Seeker. Poet. Teacher. Student. Trickster. Healer. Fool. Lover. Story keeper. Storyteller. Sensualist. Songstress. Bawdy Wild Woman Warrior. She who casts the Bones. Tarot. Ecstatic Shamanic DreamWalker. Priestess of Pleasure and overindulgence. Black Gypsy. Rainbow. Kaleidoscope. Changing. Feri...

Lady Kahina: High Priestess of Divining Change
Dedicated to Artemis, Oshun, Shango, Brigantia and Isis/Au Set

“I am an actor, a singer, a dancer, a teacher, a healer, a lover, a mother, a warrior, a priestess, a witch.....A Woman.”

Lady Kahina is a High Priestess of both the Wildflower and Amazon traditions of Come As You Are Coven, a priestess of the Corellian tradition, and an initiate of the Gardnerian tradition. Lady Kahina is the founder of the Grove of Artemis women's full moon circle, and the leader of the “Sprouts” pagan parenting group. She plans to eventually create a pagan centered earth conscious, children's scouting troop.

Lady Kahina is also a legally ordained interfaith minister who offers professional Tarot Card Readings, Spiritual Counseling, pagan and interfaith wedding ceremonies, and Rites of Passage.

Ivy: Priestess of Conscious Creation
Ordained: March 2011
Dedicated to Sunna

Nothing happens unless first we dream. –Carl Sandburg

Growing up in the mountains of North Carolina, Ivy has long been a dreamer and a seeker. She has had a long fascination with the world of magic, mystery and the universe and a deep hunger for community. Although she long felt like the outsider, when she found CAYA Coven, she knew she had found her spiritual home.

Ivy's main spiritual practices are related to crafting. Whether it's mixing up a magical oil or a batch of cupcakes, tying a spell cord or knitting a sweater, she finds that creation and craft connect her to the energy and love of the Universe. Ivy also works with the Tarot and is quietly dipping her toe into herbalism.

When she's not at CAYA, Ivy spends much of her time on the internet, attempting to create some sort of order out of the chaos. She is most often found with her knitting, cupcakes, or her iPhone, and sometimes all three at once.