Having grown up going to Catholic schools, MaryAnn wanted to be a nun from a young age. But “not fairing well with nuns’ she much later in life (after having 5 children) embraced Witchcraft through her training with Susun Weed. MaryAnn was Susun’s first “live out” apprentice for 3 years studying Goddess Witch work and in-depth herbalism in the Wise Woman tradition.
But there was a depth of the sacred that she was still seeking. This seeking led her into a 12 year traditional Shamanic apprenticeship with a Cherokee Mystic beginning in the late 1980s and through the late 1990s. The training was deeply intense and opened shamanic portals for her.
During the same time as her intensive Shamanic training, MaryAnn was initiated into the Seneca Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge by Twylah Nitsch the Wolf Clan Grandmother who trained her to draw Seneca Wolf Clan Medicine Wheel Earth Energy Charts. Twylah personally initiated MaryAnn into the Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge and later initiated MaryAnn as a StoneKeeper of the Wolf Clan.
Even with these deeply held trainings the Priestess continued to call to her. MaryAnn began her Priestess training in the Avalonian Thealogical Seminary completing a beautiful Novice year. When the Avalonian Thealogical Seminary closed for re-organization, she eventually left the Sisterhood of Avalon in search of another Priestess training.
As the saying goes -when one door closes another opens, and she found the Apple Branch. It turned out to be an incredible and wonderful Priestess training Journey satisfying all of MaryAnn’s long held desires for unfolding her Priestess self.
Through the Apple Branch, MaryAnn is an Ordained Clergy and Initiated Dianic FaerieCraft Guardian High Priestess and Bandrui of the Apple Branch, a magic initiatory tradition combining the work of Druidism and Witchcraft based on the Old Dianic and Faerie Faith Traditions with special connections to ancient female Druidism known as Bandrui. Through the Apple Branch, she is also an Ordained and Initiated Priestess of the Feminist Dianic Wicca Tradition. Later through the Apple Branch, MaryAnn became High Priestess of the Shaman Witch Priestess Mysteries and Sacred Wisdom Herbs and Priestess of the Fellowship of Isis.
Through the order of Ord Brighideachhe, she is a FlameKeeper of the Three Fold Fire of Brighid and is also Priestess of the Avalon Tradition through her own inner work and training. In addition, she holds the Shamaness Status of Hnoss-Horn Volva initiate in Pillar Seidr, an Initiatory Path in Norse-based Shamanism for Women.
In addition, MaryAnn has received the following spiritual trainings:
- Practitioner Munay-Ki 9 Rites of the Earthkeeper Initiations
- Initiator of the Rite of the Womb
- Annym Billagh Ancient Healing with Trees Practitioner
- Certified Practitioner Ritual Training Counselor
- Certified Shamanic Counselor
- Certified Energy Dynamics Counselor
MaryAnn, known as Priestess Ayaana Elena Morgana, is a Shaman Witch Priestess of the Evenstar Sisterhood of the Council of Nine. She is the Founder and Director of the Evenstar Earth Path Seminary and Mystery School where she trains women as Women Shaman Witch Priestess. The Evenstar Shaman Witch Priestess training focuses on nature centered therapy, Shamanic Healing, and contemporized Rites of Passage. Through Evenstar, MaryAnn teaches deep Mystery School Initiatory Trainings on the path of reclaiming and living ancient Women Shaman Witch Priestess Traditions.
As part of the Shaman Witch Priestess trainings, MaryAnn, has been the creator and developer of two Shaman Witch Priestess speciality work trainings.
The first is the Wise Woman Wortcunner year long training (which is also the Novice Cycle for the Shaman Witch Priestess training). In this Wise Woman Wortcunner Journey, initiates utilize the natural magic and ancient wisdom of this nature centered Wise Woman Wortcunner archetype to awaken the corresponding energies within themselves opening themselves to their natural multi-sensory, multi-dimensional nature.
In her most recent training, MaryAnn has levered her Eco-Art Therapy Certification as the creator and developer of the Creative Arts Priestess Path, the Creatrix Art as a Way of Knowing 2 year journey into the heart of the creative force.
In addition to the training of Women Shaman Witch Priestesses, MaryAnn maintains a private practice as a professional Life Coach specializing in health and wellness and creative life transitions.
MaryAnn started Evenstar Herbs in 1987 as an herbal and wellness products mail order company and began doing Wellness, Nutritional and Herbal personalized programs and teaching herbal training. Over the years she has created more than 10,000 Wellness Nutritional and Herbal Individualized Programs.
In 1998, MaryAnn transitioned to the CEO of Evenstar – Woman as Healer, working with clients as a Personal and Professional Life and Health and Wellness Coach. She has maintained a private practice as a Personal Life Coach receiving her coaching training as a graduate of CoachU’s three year Life Coaching Program. She also has completed the Simply Effective Coaching training and is a licensed trainer in the multiple Personal Life Coaching Programs. MaryAnn has an eclectic complex of training and experiences which enables her to offer a uniquely integral approach to living as the creative force in life. In addition to her Master’s degree in Human Development from University of Chicago and a second Master’s degree in Psychology and Counseling from Goddard College she has completed over 40 varied trainings and certifications.
Throughout the years, MaryAnn has worked in multiple health and wellness roles. She has extensive training in the field of Alternative Medicine and for over 35 years she has worked in the Alternative Medicine Field as a Certified Clinical Nutritionist, herbalist, Certified Childbirth Educator, Lactation Consultant, Homebirth Lay Midwife, Brain Chemistry profiler, and a Health and Wellness Coach with a comprehensive functional medicine, health and wellness, and energy medicine background.
Her Functional Medicine Specialty is working with the Biochemistry, NeuroScience, Positive NeuroPlascity and Functional Physiology correlates of Mood Disorders. For over 10 years she worked in partnership with the top Functional Medicine Testing Laboratories.
Covid and the current state of the world has nudged MaryAnn into a new re-invention cycle. The world is shifting and changing and she sees that new approaches are needed. MaryAnn has been studying Magical Activism with Starhawk for focusing her own Shaman Witch Priestess work towards a free and equitable society for all. She is currently working through several trauma trainings- individual trauma, collective trauma, and trans-generational trauma along with deep systems work and is going deeper with her previous nature centered work by joining with The Work that Reconnects to bring this much needed work to her communities. During the last two years, MaryAnn has embraced her own creative force through women’s art and handcrafting – rock painting, embroidery, weaving, basketry, cauldron and medicine bowl designing, and more. In 2023, she hopes to open her Sacred Evenstar Arts Etsy shop.
MaryAnn lives in Virginia, USA with her husband of 53 years, David, (who is an Artist, and the Chief Operating Officer of Evenstar) and their 2 cats Lana and Oliver. They have five grown children who live close by with their spouses and partners, 12 grandchildren (two of them married- but no great-grandchildren yet) and many dogs, cats, chickens, birds, goats, pigs, and a plethora of plants, trees, flowers, and grasses.
You can find out more about MaryAnn and her work at https://womanashealer.com/.