Sarah Kate Istra Winter
Sarah Kate Istra Winter, also known as Dver, is a spirit-worker on the margins of Hellenic polytheism, with ties to English, Germanic and Slavic folk traditions as well. She has been a priestess of Dionysos for two decades, has long paid cultus to Hermes, Hekate, and Odin (among others), and is deeply devoted to a host of personal and local spirits. Her practices include entheogenic trance, pathwalking, bone-working, divination, masking and mumming, liminal magic, and devotional worship. She...See more
Sarah Kate Istra Winter, also known as Dver, is a spirit-worker on the margins of Hellenic polytheism, with ties to English, Germanic and Slavic folk traditions as well. She has been a priestess of Dionysos for two decades, has long paid cultus to Hermes, Hekate, and Odin (among others), and is deeply devoted to a host of personal and local spirits. Her practices include entheogenic trance, pathwalking, bone-working, divination, masking and mumming, liminal magic, and devotional worship. She is also an artist who works in an ever-changing variety of mediums as a means of creating tangible artefacts to bridge the worlds. A passionate writer before she could even properly read, she currently writes non-fiction with occasional poetry, and has been published in several pagan and polytheist magazines, journals and newsletters. Her books on religious topics include Kharis: Hellenic Polytheism Explored , Komos: Celebrating Festivals in Contemporary Hellenic Polytheism , and the companion to this book, Dwelling on the Threshold: Reflections of a Spirit-Worker and Devotional Polytheist . She earned her Bachelor's degree at Goddard College in Comparative Mythology and Ritual. Dver was raised in New England, but has found a home in the lush, green, nymph-haunted Pacific Northwest. She spends her days doing ritual and making art, tramping through the woods looking for mushrooms, animal bones, and spirits, working through large stacks of library books, and talking to invisible people. Her many blogs, books, services, and other projects can be found at BirdSpiritLand.com. See less