Grandmother Turtle Elder and storyteller

[Rev. Allen M. Drago ~ Traveler]

. Appearances at the following festivals: Heartland, Rites of Spring, MAPA Beltane, Dragon Hills Rowan Festival, Gathering of the Tribes, Sirius Rising, Starwood, Craftwise, Free Spirit Gathering, Florida Pagan Gathering, and Harmony Tribe. She is a co-founder of the Life Springs Festival and the Stones Rising Festival.
For bookings, speaking events, and workshops with Elspeth, please contact Eri at [phone] or [e-mail].

Few of our cultural elders in America ever reach the status of "Living Legend" but 78 year old Grandmother Elspeth of Haven has most certainly done so. Her reputation for honest advice and earth-based "mountain wisdom" draw throngs of people, young and old, male and female, to gather in her teaching circles, as she travels around the country, weaves tales, startles us with her homespun humor and heals us with her imagematic journeys of the spirit.

Author of the beloved poem "The Challenge," a forthcoming story book, Gylantra's Journey, and creator of the long-awaited double CD "Out of the Forest," Elspeth Odbert has been conducting workshops on spiritual growth and enrichment since 1991. Opinionated and outspoken in everything she does, she is a great-grandmother, environmentalist, healer, teacher, pastoral counselor, shamanic practitioner, "wild woman," storyteller, and member of the Echota Cherokee Tribe. An honored Elder in the Pagan community and co-founder of The Haven Way, an eco-spiritual path of personal and planetary transformation, Elspeth is a living example of the timeless truths that she teaches.

Elspeth, who travels so often she has come to refer to herself as "The Crone on the Road," is best known for her mesmerizing "fireside voice," which seems to come from a distant time and place, as much as for what she has to say, which is plenty. She feels that her learning has been received directly from what she calls "The Source," and recognizes the importance of sharing those insights with others. Most of her teaching takes place in the form of workshops, events, speeches, postings on her online group "Elspeth's Roadies," You Tube videos, and her upcoming meditation CD, first of a series.

Her workshops reflect her primary concerns: Earth Stewardship, healing as a multi-dimensional spiritual path, the under-recognized value of older women in society, and the integral relationship between humans and other beings. Her contributions to personal development include "Resonating with the Crone," a workshop designed for pre-and menopausal women, which is now in its seventh year; and "Personal Evolution," a workshop for adults of all genders. She is a motivational speaker for women's groups of all ages.

To younger women struggling to bring dignity to their gender, Elspeth is the wise grandmother they never had, never knew, or lost too early in life, and she gracefully fulfills that role for them, using every opportunity to help them find their own path, whether it be as businesswomen, pagans, eco-feminists, lesbians, Aquarian-age spiritualists, indigenous, or "other," and they adore her in return. In fact, the famed Brushwood Folklore Center in Western New York, which hosts many of the top names in the pagan/new age media circuit, from Magus McBride to Gavin Frost to Timothy Leary, has recently opened The Storytellers Pavilion, a beautiful open-air temple to the wisdom of this Crone, and each year, many such celebrities as well as other, less well known people, make the pilgrimage to consult with her. Amid the confusion and haste of the talk circuit, such actions speak louder than words.

"When she is not on the road in "Harvey, the RV', Elspeth makes her home in West Virginia. She shares her life with her husband Nybor, an artist best known for his mystical fantasy paintings, and Soltice, the fur person.