Free Spirit Gathering is proud to announce a diverse and interesting set of Featured Presenters for 2025!

Jason Mankey

Jason Mankey read his first Witchcraft book in the seventh grade, and by the age of twenty-one had fully embraced the Pagan path Today Jason resides in California’s Silicon Valley with his wife Ari where he spends his days writing about the Craft and tending to his sunflower garden. For fun Jason enjoys researching pagan deities, the occult influences in rock/pop music, and the history of Witchcraft and magickal practices. When not participating in, writing about, or studying the Craft, Jason is usually spending time with his cats or participating in some whisky tasting. His latest book is “High Priest” , a biography of Raymond Buckland.

• Raymond Buckland: International Man of Mystery
• The Magick of Initiations, Elevations, and  Dedications
• The Horned God 3.0
• Crafting the Best Rituals of Your Life
• A Ritual For Pan

Mortellus

Mortellus is a lineaged Third Degree Gardnerian High Priestex of the Long Island Line and author of the award winning Do I Have To Wear Black? and see current best-seller The Bones Fall in a Spiral. Presently hard at work editing “Necrobotany, The Morticulture of Death” for its spring 2025 release date. In addition to their role as High Priestex, Mortellus is a Mortician, and holds degrees in Design, Education, Fine Arts, and Mortuary Sciences. Their areas of expertise include necromancy, necrobotany, mediumship, and the funerary rites of minority faith groups. Currently residing in Western North Carolina on two acres that doubles as the Covenstead for the Coven of Leaves with their spouse, six-year-old twins, and dog; and generally wishing there was a better way to cram their adult child off at college into a bio, and more time in the day for hiding in the studio and playing with clay.

Ron Padron

Rev. Ron Padrón (he/him/his) is the creator of White Rose Witching. He is a gay Cuban-American hedge priest from the swamps of Florida, now living in the mid-Atlantic with his husband and their small werewolf. He is specifically interested in divination, Queer Ancestor veneration and necromancy, hedge witchery, and spiritual activism. He has presented at gatherings such as the Salem Witchcraft and Folklore Festival, Hallowed Homecoming, Free Spirit Gathering, and Sacred Space. He is a co-founder and co-editor of a punk spirituality zine, ALTAR PUNK, an interfaith project focused on reclaiming faith and spirituality from nationalist movements, and the founder of the PaganPunk Community Grimoire project, a collection of short zines on varying pagan topics.

• Community Ancestral Healing Ritual
• Designing Queer-Inclusive Ritual
• Personal Healing Integration Ritual
• Decolonizing Death

Uggla the Blacksmith

Developing his blacksmithing skills over the better part of a decade, Uggla is a skilled and enigmatic blacksmith from Uggla’s Night Forge, known for their unparalleled craftsmanship in forging weapons and armor imbued with magical properties.

Uggla creates both new items, recreates historical objects, and repurposes some items into different objects. While many blacksmiths are focused on specific types and styles of work Uggla prefers to focus on tools and objects that history used in daily life.

Established in 2017, the Night Forge is located on the east side of Akron Ohio in the historic area of Goodyear Heights.