Andras Corban Arthen
Andras Corban-Arthen is the founder and spiritual director of the EarthSpirit Community. Andras has taught and lectured publicly about the pagan traditions throughout the U.S. and abroad since the 1970s, and has been featured in a number of books as well as news media. He currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the oldest and largest interreligious organization. He was chosen to represent the pagan traditions at the United Nations Interfaith Conference on Religion and Prejudice in 1991, and has been a featured presenter at the Parliaments of the World's Religions held in Chicago, Barcelona, Melbourne, and Salt Lake City, as well as at the Encuentro Mundial Interreligioso and the Diálogo Cultural Universal in México. More recently, he spoke at the Religions for the Earth conference, and at the concurrent People’s Climate March, in NYC. Andras also serves as president of the European Congress of Ethnic Religions headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, and sits on the advisory board of the Ecospirituality Foundation, a United Nations Consultative NGO based in Torino, Italy. Originally from Galiza, Spain, he lives with his extended family in Glenwood, a 135-acre pagan sanctuary and nature preserve in the Berkshire Highlands of western Massachusetts.
Deirdre Pulgram Arthen
Deirdre Pulgram-Arthen is the executive director of the EarthSpirit Community, and has been involved with the organization since 1980. Deirdre has an M.A. degree in Counseling Psychology from Lesley University. She is a trained pagan priestess, a spiritual counselor, an educator, a writer, a community organizer, a singer, a certified Death Midwife, and an experienced ritualist and composer of sacred chants. Since the birth of her first child in 1987, the theme of spiritual birth, both literal and symbolic, has become a major aspect of her work. In 1990, Deirdre helped to plan and execute an interfaith service for 250,000 people which opened Boston's celebration of Earth Day. She has offered presentations for a number of civic and religious organizations, including the National Organization for Women, the Unitarian-Universalist Women's Conference, and several universities. She has been featured in local and nationally syndicated television and radio programs and interviewed for numerous publications, notably Woman of Power magazine, the Time-Life Books series "Mysteries of the Universe", and the book “Stepping Into Ourselves: An Anthology of Writings on Priestesses.” Deirdre is a member of the Women’s Task Force of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and serves as one of the Parliament’s Ambassadors. She has been a presenter or performer at every Parliament since 1993.
Susan Curewitz Arthen
Susan has been associated with the EarthSpirit Community since 1981 and holds the position of Treasurer on the Board of Directors. This association has allowed her to develop skills as a teacher of Tarot and as a Program Coordinator for many EarthSpirit events, as well as helping to create public rituals and classes and to function as a legal minister for weddings and other life events. Sue has also taught classes on-line about Rites of Passage. She served both nationally and locally as a Board member for Covenant of the Goddess, and also served on the Board of Cherry Hill Seminary. Susan has two grown children and now lives with her extended family at Glenwood, a pagan sanctuary and nature preserve in Western Massachusetts. Susan was employed as the Business Manager and Human Resource Director at the International Language Institute in Northampton, MA and is currently serving as Treasurer for the Worthington Library. Now retired, she is able to spend more time learning new skills and having adventures. She has attended the Parliaments of the World’s Religions in South Africa, Barcelona, and Australia as part of the EarthSpirit delegation, and discovered a love for traveling to faraway places.
Eric Leventhal Arthen
Eric has been involved with the EarthSpirit Community for over thirty years, and he has been on the Board of Directors for much of that time. He has participated in many EarthSpirit activities which include attending, offering workshops, and helping with various staff positions at Rites of Spring. Eric has led clans at Twilight Covening since the first one was held in 1986. These include topics such as intuition and perception, haiku as a way to connect to nature, and dreams. Eric has been part of the EarthSpirit delegation at the Parliaments of the World’s Religions in Chicago, Barcelona and Salt Lake City. Professionally, he is a software engineer and has worked at a number of high tech companies in the greater Boston area. He also served for ten years on the Board of a privately owned retail apparel chain of stores. Eric lives in the Hilltowns of Western Massachusetts and can occasionally be found riding his tractor to help maintain the boundaries between the fields and the encroaching forests.
Moira Ashleigh
Moira Ashleigh is part of the Glainn Sidhr Order and is a longtime contributing member of the EarthSpirit Community with clergy credentials. She has taught at Rites of Spring, Twilight Covening, A Feast of Lights, Free Spirit, Pagan Pride, and was the coordinator of the EarthSpirit's "East" events for 20 years. Moira has a Masters degree in Theater and Dance from Emerson College, and during her tenure as a member of MotherTongue, she held many creative roles including lyricist, choreographer, costumer, vocalist and CD cover designer. She is also a storyteller with her long-time partner Duncan Eagleson, and is the embodiment of the character RagRoot at the New York Faerie Festival. Moira is passionate about clean water and wildlife. She volunteers for the Mystic River Watershed Association and has won awards for her nature photography, which she uses to emotionally engage the public in the beauty and welfare of the natural world. Moira is a professional Web designer who began her design work for EarthSpirit with the Web pages for Rites of Spring in 1995, and has continued to grow and build the EarthSpirit online presence for 22 years, including this latest redesign. Moira is also on the Board of Directors for WRAM the Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of Massachusetts. She is involved in the local WordPress Community, and is on the volunteer organizing committee for WordCamp Boston.
Kaye Kittredge
Kaye Kittredge is an artist, systems thinker and member of Glainn Sidhr. Over the last 25+ years she has organized and performed in EarthSpirit gatherings, celebrations, and events. Professionally she has held a variety of positions in information technology focused on program management, organizational transformation and alignment. She draws inspiration from nature in both her career and artistic endeavors.
Donovan Arthen
Donovan Arthen is a lifelong member of the EarthSpirit Community, and is very excited to step into this new role as a steward of the organization that has shaped so much of his life. Donovan works as a business consultant in the mission-driven and nonprofit sector, and as a personal leadership development specialist with individuals in and out of the professional world. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Music from Wesleyan University in 2011, and was awarded a Master of Science in Managing Mission-Driven Organizations degree from Marlboro Graduate and Professional School. He served for several years as the Executive Director of PeaceJam New England, and is currently a trustee of the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School, and a member of Wolfgard Northeast’s Board of Directors. Donovan is a practitioner of Anamanta, and a devoted animist who does his best to live closely intertwined with the Earth, spirit, and community. He is one of the founding members of the Brotherhood of the Stag and Wolf, and has been a presenter, performer, and teacher at events and conferences all over the world, some of which include Rites of Spring, Twilight Covening, Feast of Lights, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, Spiritfire Festival, and the Romuva Camp in Lithuania.
Sarah Rosehill
Sarah Rosehill attended her first Twilight Covening in 2001 and has been hooked ever since. She began volunteering at EarthSpirit events in 2003 and since then has served in a variety of roles, from coordinating registration to organizing ritual, and attended the Parliament of the World's Religions held in Barcelona in 2004 as part of the EarthSpirit delegation. She has studied Anamanta and Feri and taught at Rites of Spring and Twilight Covening, as well as Pagan Pride events and Pantheacon. She lives in the Boston area, where she helps coordinate EarthSpirit’s “East” events and serves as the co-chair of the Pride Interfaith Coalition. Sarah works at a high tech company, helping to implement improvements in the processes around new product development, and is delighted to be the mama of one very talkative toddler. She is also a writer, with an essay published in Pagan Consent Culture (eds. Christine Hoff Kramer and Yvonne Aburrow),and one forthcoming in Pagan, Goddess, Mother (eds. Sarah Whedon and Nané Jordan), as well as work on EarthSpirit Voices and Rebelle Society. She is passionate about developing relationships with the Earth, building community, and integrating spirituality into daily life.