Presenters

Paul Bembridge, M.Phil.,
is a historian of Western esotericism who has presented at numerous Esoteric Quests, tracing the rich spiritual traditions within European literature. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, he has taught in several British universities, most notably alongside the late Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke at the University of Exeter’s Centre for the Study of Esotericism. He trained originally as a medievalist at the University of York.

John Carey, Ph.D.,
is Professor of Early and Medieval Irish at University College Cork. Throughout his career, he has published extensively on the nature of the Irish Otherworld, and of its inhabitants. His books include Ireland and the Grail; Magic, Metallurgy and Imagination in Medieval Ireland; and The Mythological Cycle of Medieval Irish Literature. He is also general editor of the Temenos Academy Review.

Regina de Búrca
is a storyteller and ritual facilitator whose work weaves Irish mythology, landscape wisdom, and symbolic practice into immersive experiences. She produced the first Irish language Rider-Waite Tarot deck, and runs Creative Recovery Substacks, where she explores the living relationship between folklore, archetype and personal transformation. Drawing on years of study in Irish tradition, and intuitive ritual practice, Regina helps us to reconnect with ancestral story, seasonal rhythm, and our own inner knowing.

Leonard George, Ph.D.,
is a Canadian psychologist, writer, educator and broadcaster. He has given lectures and seminars on five continents and has written many articles, books and short stories. His most recent book is Explorations in Music and Esotericism, an anthology co-edited by Marjorie Roth and himself. A life-long student of esotericism, he has served for many years as an advisor and presenter for The Esoteric Quest.

Michael Gibbons
is a prominent Irish field archaeologist and author based in Clifden, Connemara. He specializes in historical, archaeological, and landscape tours across the West of Ireland, particularly in the Connemara region, and is well-known for his extensive research and findings regarding Connemara’s archaeological sites.

Patricia Lysaght, Ph.D.,
is Professor Emerita of European Ethnology, University College Dublin, and is a member of the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy, the Royal Irish Academy. She has edited the folklore journals Béaloideas (Dublin), Folklore (London), and was President of The Folklore Society, London (2017-2020). She continues to publish widely in Irish and international academic contexts.

Jennifer Murphy
is a Dubliner born and bred. From the time she could talk, Jennifer’s inner-city grandmother Frances filled her ears with Irish folklore. This influenced her lifelong studies in Medieval Irish and Celtic Studies, Anthropology, and Jungian Psychology. Through mythwork, dreamwork and the body, and centering the soul in the everyday experience of life, Jennifer makes Celtic soul and spirituality a living aesthetic that people can dream into their modern lives. celticcreatives.com; celticcreatives.substack.com; instagram.com/celticembodiment

Alan Potter
was born in Dublin and grew up there and in Wexford. A graduate of Trinity College, he lived in Berlin and San Francisco before joining the Camphill Movement for special needs children and adults in 1980. A Biodynamic gardener, part-time Steiner/Waldorf teacher, Anthroposophical bookseller and adult educator, he is a student and guide of the Hibernian Mysteries and of early Christianity in Ireland.

Ralph Peters, Ph.D.,
was a former chair of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department at Berkeley College in midtown Manhattan where he taught psychology, philosophy and religion. He explored Celtic Christian sites in Ireland with theologians Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan in 2006. In the spring of 2022, he presented The Ecological Spirituality of William Irwin Thompson: From Celtic Animism to Gaian Cultural Ecologies at the Inaugural Conference on Ecological Spiritualities sponsored by the Harvard Divinity School.
The Quest Team

Ralph White
is the creator and director of the Esoteric Quest series of conferences and journeys, begun in 1995 in Bohemia. He is the director of the New Center for Holistic Learning NY, was co-creator of the New York Open Center, the city’s premier venue for spiritual and ecological consciousness for 38 years. Ralph also is the author of the memoir The Jeweled HIghway: On the Quest for a Life of Meaning, and edited and introduced The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited, an anthology based on the first two conferences in this series. He lives in New York City.

Carrie Wykoff
has been the Conference Coordinator for the Esoteric Quest since 1998. She produces all types of events and the Quest is truly one of her favorites. She is also an Interfaith Minister, a musician, a fitness instructor and is the Event Production Coordinator for The Radio Kingston Community Tech Team. Civically minded, she serves as a Town Board Member for the Town of Rosendale, NY.

Andrea Lomanto
has worked with the Esoteric Quest since 2006. She is a puppetista and visual artist, working independently and collectively to support social justice movements. She also began the Power Up Youth Project, using public procession as a means for young people to creatively respond to issues of their choosing.