Join me for an introductory series to designing your own rituals! Come to all three sessions or come to one or two.

Tickets on RitualCravt website!

In the words of Victor Anderson, a witch’s circle is “a magnifying glass to the Gods.” Casting circles is an important first step to most rituals – it can serve as protection, cleansing, and focus. It can create the “cauldron” of our ritual, into which we can add the ingredients of the magic we want to brew. 

Though perhaps lesser known, crossroads are another traditional witch’s tool that we open in order to see between worlds and converse with spirits. In this workshop, we will dive deeply into each of these tools, finding creative and intentional ways to set up ritual space to best serve the magic we seek.

In this workshop we will: 

• Work with grounding & alignment to locate and build self-sovereignty

• Play witchy games to practice feeling and sensing energy

• Hone our ability to direct energy through multiple methods of circle casting

• Invoke and dance with our divine selves

• Learn some about the history of witch’s association with crossroads

• Open the crossroads and listen for the spirits that arrive

What to Bring:

• Whatever you need to be comfortable for two hours – cushion, blanket, water

• Wand for circle casting if that’s your jam (or we’ll just use hands if you don’t have one)

All are welcome. You do not need to have magical experience or identify as a witch to join!

Join me at the Be Free Healing Center in Fort Collins, Colorado for a Queer Mystery: Ancestors workshop!

Register on the Be Free website! (Scroll down to find the date of the workshop - October 3rd)

Ancestors are about more than our DNA relations – they are also about our Chosen Family, including Chosen Family beyond the grave. Join me in a ritual-based workshop where we honor the Queer Ancestors – those who inspire us, those fore-parents and activists who led the way for our queer selves to shine today.

In this workshop we will:

• Gently pull on the threads of our (potentially complex) relationship to ancestry

• Practice a triple soul alignment as a way of feeling into Ancestors of Blood, Ancestors of Land, and Ancestors of Craft

• Honor the Queer Ancestors through shared altar making, singing, and movement

• Dance and meditate with Queer Ancestors and Queer Descendents (those yet to come) to listen to the messages they have for us

• Explore the Queer Ancestors we want to become.

We welcome those who identify as LGBTQ2S and those questioning their sexuality or gender identity to join. If you’re wondering if you’re “queer” enough, you are welcome here! 

You are invited to bring an item (or two or three) for a Queer Ancestor altar. This could be a photo of a queer ancestor who inspires you, an offering of food, something you find beautiful, or an item that represents the ancestor you want to become.

It is recommended that participants at this workshop have an established grounding practice and some experience with coming in and out of trance (meditative/ecstatic) states. For questions, email: SilenWellington@gmail.com

Register at this link!

Queer Rites of Passage: Cycles of Life and Death is a 6-week virtual Reclaiming core class that will explore the cycles of life and death through myth, ritual, storytelling, trance, and dreamwork—looking and listening to how they speak to us and show us ways to deepen our own practices, become truer to ourselves, and unveil our own myth as a witch. Rites of Passage is designed to unite your creative and magical selves as you cultivate the skills to become your own priestex/ess.

We’ll do all of this through the queer lens, considering the “non-normative logics and organizations of community, sexual identity, embodiment, and activity in space and time" (Jack Halberstam). Queer as in to question the foundation of an existing structure, to look at existing norms, question their impact, and harness our potential for transformation. Queer as in (re)awakenings, (re)becomings, and all the ways we come (back) home to ourselves across life and death, that great circle with no beginning and no end. 

You do not need to identify as queer or LGBTQIA2S+ to participate, but be prepared to proceed along this path queerly! 

In this class, we will: 

• Explore and share the living myth/story of ourselves

• Look at nature with a queer lens to listen for the wisdom that life and death offer

• Learn about and practice leading trances 

• Engage dreamwork to deepen into our inner myth 

• Identify spirits, deities, and other allies who are ready and willing to assist us in this lifelong work

• Aspecting, or “draw down” spirits, allies, or beings

• Design our own ritual as a group to support who we are becoming.

This class is taught as a core class in the Reclaiming Witchcraft Tradition. Please note, Elements of Magic is a pre-requisite for this class.

Rites of Passage is the teaching of a lifetime—whether you’ve been practicing witchcraft for a long time or you’re fresh out of Elements of Magic, this class will deepen your relationship with yourself, your queer ancestors and descendants, and your queer community in this lifetime.

We will record sessions to share with students who signed up for the class but may need to miss a session. 

Class Dates & Times

Classes will be held via Zoom on Sundays from:
9am - 12pm PDT (Pacific)
1pm - 4pm BRT (Brazil)
6pm - 9pm CEST (Central Europe)

Classes are participatory, and attendance at all classes is encouraged. They will be: 

Sept 20, Sept 27, Oct 4, Oct 11, Oct 18, Oct 25

Costs & Sign-Up

This class is being offered on a sliding scale of $450-$150 USD and R$600,00-$450,00 Brazilian Reais. The actual cost of the class is $300 USD or R$525,00, but if you are able to pay more, this allows others who might not otherwise be able to access this class to pay less. For payment, please send money via PayPal to Silen Wellington, with the note “Rites”. Silen’s PayPal email is silenwellington@gmail.com.

For support in considering a sliding scale, please look at the Green Bottle Sliding Scale tool.

If cost is a financial barrier for you, please reach out to Silen to make a plan for paying in installments or requesting a scholarship. We are committed to making this work financially accessible.

Join me at the Be Free Healing Center in Fort Collins, Colorado for a Queer Mysteries workshop!

Register on the Be Free website! (Scroll down to find the date of the workshop - September 12th)

Queerness is a force that cannot be snuffed out — it springs forth from even the straightest of families. To the befuddlement of evolutionary biologists looking only for reproductive viability, queerness sits in a mysterious and bold defiance. And yet, it is often left out of spiritual spaces or at best, added as an afterthought — as a third wheel in some otherwise “complete” heteronormative assumption of divine masculinity and divine femininity. But what if queerness was just as holy? What if queerness was a unique and necessary part of a spiritual ecology? Come explore and embrace the sacred nature of queerness! In this workshop, we will center queerness as a Divine Mystery, court it, ask what wisdom it has to offer, and feel for our spiritual role(s) as LGBTQ+ people.

During our time together we will: Engage ritual tools such as grounding, circle casting, calling upon queer allies Trance into the mystery of Queerness and explore the unique gifts we each have to offer Open our channels of expression through writing, movement and song to let our sacred selves flow through Affirm our inherent holiness as queer people. We welcome those who identify as LGBTQ2S+ and those questioning their sexuality or gender identity. If you’re wondering if you’re “queer” enough, you are welcome here!

Join me as I guest star on my friend Xander’s project & podcast — Held Together! 

Register on Xander’s Eventbrite Page by clicking here!

Held Together is behind-the-scenes look at how Xander Peer Keller has built, sustained, and been shaped by their CareWeb.

In this Held Together, we will talk about the queerly serendiptious way they met, fell in love, shapeshifted through the different iterations of their relationship, and navigated inter-abled relating. We will talk about finding our queer, nonbinary selves, "de-escalating" relationships (or rather...finding the right shape for them when gushing love doesn't always mean sex), and the magic that connects us.

More about Xander:

Xander Peer Keller (they/them) is a speaker, writer, facilitator, and consultant exploring disability, neurodivergence, chronic illness, and queerness. Their work reimagines care, community, and creativity, showing how interdependence is a source of power rather than weakness. Living with chronic pain since childhood, they once pushed through at great cost—until collapse led them back to their body, their needs, and the power of collective care. Now, they create spaces where honesty, grief, and joy can coexist, where disabled and neurodivergent people are fully seen in both their struggles and their magic. Through storytelling, teaching, and advocacy, Xander invites others to imagine expansive ways to live, connect, and thrive—together.

Register Here!

Explore Mad Liberation, challenge sanism, connect with Mad Ancestors, and build tools for community care.

How can we better support our mad kin at witchcamps, community circles, and other spiritual spaces? How can we be more aware of the unconscious sanism that shows up, even in communities of witches? How do we define our consensus reality as witches and is there an unspoken “right” and “wrong” way to be altered?

This 2.5 hour workshop is a provocation for Reclaiming witches to explore how our community navigates mental health, madness, and crisis.

During this workshop, we will learn about the history of the Mad Liberation/psychiatric survivor movement, unpack “sanism” in spiritual spaces, and learn about frameworks around madness beyond pathology.

We will engage with madness as an ally, explore our own perceptions and beliefs around altered states (including nonconsensus reality), and learn some tools to better support our friends and loved ones who may be experiencing non-consensus realities.

Throughout our time together, we will:

• Learn about a social justice movement (Mad Pride) lesser known in Reclaiming space

• Explore our worldviews around mental health, altered states, & nonconsensus reality

• Work with Mad Ancestors and listen for their wisdom through trance

• Write, journal, move our bodies as we digest

• Have small group discussions

• Practice tools for consent-based care

Pre-requisites: Elements of Magic or equivalent foundational witchcraft experiences (must be fluent in grounding, coming home to yourself, coming in and out of trance states with choice and intention).

Join me and Playground Ensemble at 7:30pm on Friday, September 4th as we kick off the 21st season with Unchambered, an electroacoustic music show.

My part of the program will include a premier of brand new work titled You of the Cave Beneath the Sea. This piece is a play on a witch chant to Grandmother Weaver, Old Fate Herself, who is said to knit our souls together beneath the sea. In it, Silen plays with morphing filters, granulation, vocoding and other effects to create an oceanic rocking prayer to Grandmother to weave good fates for us.

More info & link to tickets!

Queering the Elements of Magic is a 6-week virtual Reclaiming core class that will teach you the core principles and practices to create magic in your life, and especially to explore queer magical tools and honor the Queer within and outside us. Through exploring the elements of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit, we will connect with ourselves, queerness & the Land and develop skills to show up ever more fully in the world and in our communities. This class will explore: What is the magic I have to offer our communities? How can we bring our magic out of the circle and into the world? What are our queer tools to honor, to affirm, to celebrate? 

We use queer as a verb. In the words of bell hooks, “‘Queer' not as being about who you're having sex with (that can be a dimension of it); but 'queer' as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and that has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live.” Queer as in to question the foundation of an existing structure, to look at existing norms, question their impact and harness our potential for transformation. What do we want to keep, change, discard, or play with? When we are queering the Elements, we are looking at and transforming our relationship to the world around us.

This class will be focused on queerness and developing the magical tools to be fully present in ourselves. That said, this class is not exclusive to LGBTQ+ community and we welcome anyone who wants to explore these themes with us.

In this class, we will ground in our resilience to come home to ourselves; develop tools to create our own rituals & tell our stories; explore the Elements as mirrors to the queerness within and around us; vision into how we want to be and create in the world; write love poems to our many names; craft anchors for the authenticity of ourselves; cast circles for protection; explore queer rage, queer grief, queer healing; call on our queer ancestors and allies; and call our dreams into being.

This class is taught as a core class in the Reclaiming Witchcraft Tradition. Elements is the teaching of a lifetime, and whether you’ve been practicing witchcraft for a long time, or you’re a beginner curious about magic, this class will deepen your relationship with the Earth, with Spirit, and with your own authentic self.

To register, fill out this form!

Class Dates & Times

Classes will be held via Zoom on Saturdays from:
4pm - 7pm PDT 
5pm - 8pm MDT
8pm - 11pm BRT
+9am - 12pm AEST (Sunday morning)

Classes are participatory, and attendance at all classes is encouraged. They will be:

Aug 16th
Aug 23th
Aug 30th
Sept 6th
Sept 13th
Sept 20th

Those who sign up for the class can also join a private Discord server to discuss class themes, questions, subjects, though participation on the Discord server will not be required.

Costs & Sign-Up

This class is being offered on a sliding scale of $330 - 120 USD and R$550,00 - 400,00 Brazilian Reais. What this means is the tuition for this class is $225 USD or R$450,00, but if you are able to pay more, this allows others who might not otherwise be able to access this class to pay less. For payment, please send money via PayPal to Silen Wellington, with the note “Elements”. Silen’s PayPal email is swellingtoncomposer@gmail.com or you can use this link.

For support in considering sliding scale, please look at the Green Bottle Sliding Scale tool.

If cost is a financial barrier for you, please reach out to Silen at swellingtoncomposer@gmail.com to make a plan for paying in installments or requesting a scholarship. We are committed to making this work financially accessible.

Join me in Boulder for a PRIDE Cabaret where I’ll be reading poetry alongside aerial dancers, drag artists, and more!

Tickets and more information here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pride-cabaret-tickets-1376275630459

Join me for a performance of “After Scandal, School Hires Witch,” newly arranged for piano, violin, cello, electronics, and me as spoken word poet for Playground Ensemble’s annual Pride concert. Click here for tickets!

Join me for a poetry set at Full Expression Dance Collective’s Pride show. Collaborating to bring together The 2025 Pride Performing and Cultural Arts Celebration on Saturday, June 7th, 2025 - honoring the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community and the history of Pride. 

Activities all day including dancers, drag performers, spoken word, music, and comedy. My set will be in the 4-6pm range.

Join me for a set with Alia Goldfarb at FoCo MX. I play at 3pm at the Art Lab with electronics, voice, and piano, including the premier of a brand new voice & electronics piece titled “How the Light Loves to Fall.”

Get tickets through FoCo MX: https://focoma.org/focomx/tickets

This June, I’ll have a premier on Playground Ensemble’s Pride Concert. This year’s Pride Show will feature the world premiere of five new pieces inspired by the stories and lived experiences of transgender individuals living in Colorado’s Front Range.

Wednesday, June 5 at 7:30pm
Town Hall Collaborative, Denver

Join us as we share their powerful messages and journeys through music and poetry.

A little about the story I set to music…

“Becoming Who I Am is an ode to my gender-identity journey, chronicling the process, hardships, and triumphs of self-discovery. This road is not easy, as you will learn from the piece. But it is also so positively life-changing, and I would not trade these experiences for anything. Despite the fear-mongering propaganda from news media outlets, and despite the transphobia that is so pervasive in American society, I am proud of who I am and who I am becoming.”

~Written by the storyteller & violist for the piece, Ashton Mach

Tickets; https://www.playgroundensemble.org/pride-2024

Catch me reciting some poetry and playing the role of “Seer” in a Drag Christmas Spectacular!

Tickets:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-drag-christmas-spectacular-tickets-769236837087

Get ready for the ultimate festive extravaganza with "A Drag Christmas Spectacular," where dazzling Queers will slay their way to Bethlehem.

A CHRISTMAS STORY NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!

Part theatre, part drag show, part queer retelling of the Christmas story, A Drag Christmas Spectacular will debut an original piece of Queer performance art that will give queers a home during the holidays.

You'll meet the three Magi: Gayspar, Belthaslay, and Melqueer who try to follow the star that appears one night, the star that promises the birth of new life, hope, and joy, but let's just say, they get a little off track....

Featuring the creative genius of Krisa Gonna and a cast of phenomenal performers like Mx. Soña Rita, Gila Moonstar, Little Sarah Tonin, Liz Agana, Veginia Quartz, Magnus Magnesia, Poly Amour and more!

The creative partnership between Krisa Gonna and Foothills Unitarian will center the queer experience of epiphany and the claiming of queer truth and identity as life-giving and divine.

Harnessing deep relationships with the local Colorado LGBTQIA community, local performers will be invited to co-create aspects of the performance drawing from their own lives.

Ticket Sales go to fairly compensate our amazing actors and team with proceeds going to support Rainbow Villages.

Join me for a night of new music, poetry, and performance art exploring the impact of anti-transgender hate and queer resilience.

The program will include new spoken word + piano music where Silen will share their story about being targeted by anti-trans hate, and piano-vocal songs about the resilience and beauty of queerness.

Following, we will open the stage to other poets and spoken word artists to express and share with the option of musical improvisation over their words.

$10 suggested donation. Pay what you can. Eventbrite requires at least donating a dollar to reserve a seat through their "donation" settings. Email: swellingtoncomposer@gmail.com if you want to reserve a seat and can't pay $1. Please fill out one ticket form for each person in your party.

This event is in partnership with Out Boulder County & SPLASH NoCo Youth and supported by SummitStone Health Partners. Thank you all for your support!

Thank you also to Bas Bleu theater for donating their theatre to this event.

This is an independent production from Bas Bleu. The Bas Bleu Theatre has been made available for this event by special arrangement between the Bas Bleu Theatre Company and SPLASH NoCo Youth.

Link to RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/transcendent-queer-music-poetry-tickets-721793492767?aff=oddtdtcreator

Accessibility Info:

Bas Bleu is wheelchair accessible with at least 5 spots in the front that could fit a wheelchair and 5 other seats that don't require stairs to sit in. The rest of the 90 chairs are elevated. If you want to reserve one of the ground level seats, please email: swellingtoncomposer@gmail.com.

If you need to take a break, if you feel overstimulated or the intense themes of this show are too much, I will not be offended by you stepping out to take care of yourself. There are chairs and tables in the Bas Bleu lobby, and you can come back in at any point

Come see me perform some electroacoustic music with Playground Ensemble at Leon Gallery in Denver! Tickets here.

Join me at a PBS storytelling event where I’ll share my story about surviving suicide attempts.

Colorado is usually in the top 10 states with the highest rates of suicide. Through this unique Ted Talk-style storytelling event, PBS12 will help make more Coloradans aware of the impact of suicide and suicidal intensity, and most importantly, the many roadmaps to recovery.

Storytelling has the power to save lives. When it comes to suicidal intensity, suicidal behavior or a suicide loss, people often feel profoundly alone. Stories connect us, build supportive communities, shift biased attitudes, and cultivate hope.

Facilitated by Sally Spencer-Thomas, Psy.D. and Co-Founder & President of United Suicide Survivors International, this event will feature diverse local stories as well as a special highlight from the PBS documentary by Ken Burns, Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness.

We invite you to join us on an inspiring journey from pain to purpose.

Tickets: https://www.pbs12.org/tickets/eye-of-the-survivor-event/

Join me and other musicians & poets to observe international suicide prevention day. A night of music, art, and poetry.

Join me and the other Wolverine Farm artists in residence the month of August for a showcase of how we spent our residency!

https://www.wolverinefarm.org/programming/writer-in-residence/