Author and priestess Janet Callahan has had articles published in several books and on various websites, as well as on her own blogs. She has had poetry published on the now defunct paganliving.com. She’s also published an eBook on being a Pagan Parent in the NICU.
Ms. Callahan is a Mother priestess originally trained by White Mare Sisterhood, a Dianic coven in the suburbs of Detroit. She is currently a 2nd degree student with a more traditional Wiccan coven.
Additionally, Ms. Callahan and her husband own QuickSilver Dragon Inc., which used to be a medium-sized metaphysical goods wholesaler, but is now a much smaller home for a few small projects. She is the former Program Director of SpiralScouts International, an alternative Pagan-based scouting organization for children ages 3-18, and a former board member of several other Detroit area Pagan organizations.
Ms. Callahan grew up in what was then a rural community outside St. Louis, Missouri. As a child, she spent hours upon hours devouring every book in the library, and came upon books on ESP, witches, and ghosts in the adult section of the library by age 8. Her mother encouraged her to read anything that interested her, and related topics remained a part of her regular reading for much of her childhood, much to the chagrin of her conservative German Lutheran family.
In college, Ms. Callahan discovered the wide world of Pagan religions. After many years of solitary study and practice, she began to formulate her current spiritual view, which she refers to as Modern American Polytheism – a mixture of syncretistic polytheism, techno-Paganism, pop-culture magick, and Unverified Personal Gnosis (UPG). Then, feeling that maybe she’d missed something by remaining a solitary practitioner, she joined White Mare Sisterhood in 2004, and was initiated as a Daughter priestess at Imbolc, 2006 and as a Mother priestess at Imbolc 2007.
Ms. Callahan has been happily married to her husband, Barry, for more than a decade. The Callahans are the parents of one 3 year old boy, Alexander (aka Acorn), and one five month old girl, Bethany (aka Leaf). Both children were micropreemies. weighing less than 2 pounds at birth. Alexander spent 291 days in the NICU and had a tracheostomy due to breathing issues, which will be out by the end of summer 2011. Bethany is currently still in the NICU and the family hopes she will be home by Thanksgiving. You can read about the family’s unique Pagan parenting journey at http://www.ourlittleacorn.com
Ms. Callahan’s extended family-by-choice, both local and distant, is a large part of her support system no matter what is going on in her life.
