“I’ve always been the one who walks barefoot through the woods, greets the moon, and dances in the rain.”

I’m an animist, a queer and neurodivergent human, a mum and a passionate advocate for the power of words.

A small village in the Peak District is home, but I’ve also lived in the sprawl of London and grew up in an industrial Northern town. I’m a Yorkshire lass at heart; I love the tea and the beer and the sarcastic humour, but I’m also a sensitive soul, called to to the open moors and the wild woodlands of our land.

I am deeply moved by words and believe strongly in the power of speaking them aloud. I like to bring my passion for words to every ceremony I create and am hugely inspired by writers such as John O’Donohue, Glennie Kindred, and Emma Restall Orr.

I am a practiced storyteller and public speaker and bring a captivating enthusiasm to my encounters with an audience.

I love folk music and will always get up and dance given the opportunity. Campfires, long skirts, cider and drums are my idea of perfect evening. I love to camp with my family and also dream of sneaking off into the woods alone, to sleep under the stars.

I’ve visited Stonehenge, Avebury, the Nine Ladies, Arbor Low, West Kennett Barrow and Glastonbury Tor over the years and have a deep respect for these wild and sacred places.

I still find the hills of my own valley the most perfect place to be to watch the sun rise and set.

 

 

A Wild Celebrant…

I trained to be a ‘Green-Spirited’ Celebrant, with two wonderful teachers, Glennie Kindred and Annie Keeling, almost a decade ago. Their teachings rooted ceremony in the earth, the seasons and our own personal inspirations and expressions. This training helped me consolidate years of pagan exploration into a personal animistic outlook. I am passionate about living a sustainable, eco-conscious life and am deeply inspired and upheld by the energies of the Four Elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water) and the seasonal Wheel of the Year. They form the root of my spiritual practice and the foundation for my continued journey for deeper connection and appreciation of the World.

My ceremonies are all unique and reflect the unique heart of the people they are created for. While I mostly bring my ceremony skills to weddings and handfastings nowadays, I have in the past held seasonal celebrations for over a hundered attendees with the Pagan Federation, and held space for intimate 1-2-1 rituals for individuals who were experiencing powerful life transitions.

An animistic writer

My writing spans mediums, from non-fiction to folklore to poetry. I have a Masters degree in Creative Writing, but my skills were honed scribbling in journals and on scraps of paper about my kinship with the more-than-human world.

My first publication is Walk The Wheel – tales of the turning seasons, is a new collection of original tales inspired by the turning of the seasonal Wheel of the Year. Each story evokes the magic and folklore of British and Irish seasonal festivals with ‘lucid and delicate prose’, weaving fairytale, nature writing and modern storytelling. You can purchase it here.

I have been a regular contributor to the Earth Pathways Diary for over a decade and have also been published in magazines, journals, blogs and independent publications, including:

Juno Magazine 
Kindling Journal
The Countryside Charity blog
Glossop Winter Story Trail
Intrinsic, an independent anthology of nature writing, by women and non-binary people published by Creative Countryside
Queer Reparative Poetry Anthology, 2023

 

If you are looking for a speaker, writer, want to work on a creative project, or I can help create or guide you towards the wild ceremony of your dreams, get in touch here or via email
kelitomlinwrites [a] gmail [dot] com