Ann Keeler Evans — Author, Ritual Maker, Visionary, Change Agent.
Hello, I am Ann Keeler Evans, The Priestess Is In! I am a writer, a thealogian* (I live, study and represent the Feminine Divine), and a ritual maker. In my work as a priestess, I have served individuals and small private communities as their family priest; I served a thoughtful, rural Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Central Pennsylvania for thirteen years, and now I’m helping you find meaning and purpose in your life, providing ceremonies that celebrate your life, and aiding you find, join, or establish communities of Peace, Justice, and Creativity. Our mobile world allows me to work with you wherever you are on the globe, and my spiritual journey enables me to work with you wherever you are in your heart, mind, and soul. I believe our mission in life is to live gratefully, passionately and intentionally, so, as the Priestess, I’m In to facilitate individuals, couples and communities get in touch with their passion and put Peace to work in the world.
I have had the opportunities to travel this land extensively, thereby meeting people exactly where they live — across this wide country and deep in their souls. Paying attention to what has meaning, and to where the connections happen, enhances life. I help people clarify their beliefs and values and then apply them to their lives, celebrating life’s momentous passages in the midst of their communities in today’s ecumenical world. My greatest joy is in helping individuals and groups reflect on and work toward prayerful, intentional living.
And so, I have created my own brand of ceremony, one that allows me to design and perform rites of passage and celebrations in people’s lives — weddings, baby blessings, memorials, and so on. I design and perform ceremonies of all kinds, leading small personal rituals as well as large community celebrations.
I aim to help the people I work with to build bridges connecting the things that matter. Rich lives are incredibly complicated, and people seek ways to bind things together: the sacred and the secular, the personal and the professional, the individual and the communal, culture and class, men and women, grown-ups and children, and our faith and its application.
I have lived in small towns and large cities, on the East Coast and the West. I’ve also lived in Europe, both in cultures where I knew the rules and the language and cultures where I had to find her way. I left the sweet safety of my family and small hometown of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania and took off to Sweden to live with people I had never met, at the height of Sweden’s leftist activism during the Viet Nam War. From there, I moved to the quiet seclusion of Wilson College for Women and then on to the edgy, fast-paced life of a professional single woman in the investment business in mid-town Manhattan and in Paris. Then back to the academic cloisters, this time of Union Theological Seminary in Harlem. Then I left Union, New York and the mainstream church in order to create an entrepreneurial, ecumenical ministry on the other side of the country.
I have lived in republican states, socialist countries and democratic cities. I studied in a mainstream Christian Seminary; I read with a friend as she prepared for her bat mitzvah; I’ve explored emerging spiritualities and sat with indigenous elders. I have lived alone and in community. I appreciate the value of intimate conversation and also thrive in cyberspace. I aim to keep balance in my life by taking sabbaticals…and then work endlessly pursuing my dreams.
I am currently preparing to publish the next edition of Peacemaker’s Tarot: For the 21st Century . Previous books of mine, Promises to Keep: Crafting your Wedding Ceremony and Remembering a Life: On the Death of Your Beloved, were both at Emerald Earth Publishing. I’ve also published poetry, and songs – Songs for Earthlings (Emerald Earth Publishers). I’ve been described as “a lively lecturer with a warm and witty sense of humor and an intimate presence”. I preach and pray and lead worship across a wide spectrum of faiths and traditions. I’m a skilled leader for conferences and seminars on women’s, children’s and family issues about prayer and spirituality. And if you need an opinion on things spiritual or ethical, it’s likely I can help you!
AKE, February 2022