About Me

My name is Lorna Smithers and I am a Brythonic Polytheist, shamanic practitioner and author. I have been devoted to Vindos, a Brythonic God who rules the Otherworld, for fifteen years. He is my patron, my inspiration, my beloved, and my truth.

I had my first initiatory experiences in my late teens and early twenties whilst studying literature and philosophy. Without a context I feared I was going mad. Nietzsche’s writings on the Greek Gods led me to questioning whether we have Gods in Britain too and this led me on a winding pathway to Brythonic Polytheism and shamanism.

In 2012, when at a time I was experiencing suicidal ideation, I met Vindos and realised my visions had been of the Brythonic Otherworld. Our meeting saved and transformed my life. I dedicated myself to Him as an awenydd ‘person inspired’ and served a seven year ‘fairy apprenticeship’, journeying, creating, bringing back forgotten myths and local lore. At the same time, I practiced core shamanism with the Way of the Buzzard. I then went on to complete a shamanic practitioner apprenticeship with Jayne Johnson.

I am autistic and asexual and have lived experience of anxiety and an eating disorder. Shamanism, meditation, breathwork, yoga and strength training have helped me to build a better relationship with my body and to regulate my nervous system. Healing my own wounds has provided a firm foundation for guiding and healing others.

I lived as a nun by the name Sister Patience within the Monastery of Annwn for three years and now lead a semi-hermitic life as an aspiring Hermit of the Heart of Annwn. My core practice and biggest challenge is ‘being present for Vindos’ as a devotional act.

I have worked in conservation and ecology and I currently work part-time as a cleaner. I tend a garden where I grow small green things and volunteer in Greencroft Valley.