Hi, I’m Deb, known online as Deporodh (call me Deb!), and I’m a wordsmith born, retired technical writer, a long-time techie (I go back to CP/M operating systems), a lifelong medievalist, and a witch.

Arcane biography

Began divination study 1975: tarot, astrology, Anglo-Saxon runes, ogham. Primary divination tool is tarot—preferred deck is the Robin Wood Tarot. Worked in AOL’s Crystal Ball forum in 1993 and 1994 as a reader.

Began magical healing work in 1976, ordained 1981 in the neo-pagan ULC Church of Anaxagoras (now extinct).

In 1993 founded & hosted for its first year the weekly Pagan/Wiccan Discussion Group. Held in the conference room of AOL’s Religions & Ethics Forum, the WDG was named “One of the 50 Best Places to Be Online” by PC Week magazine late that year.

Volunteered with regional pagan non-profit Bay Area Pagan Assemblies (BAPA). Accepted editorship in 1993 of its nationally distributed magazine (Pagan Muse & World Report), the Muse received a Reader’s Choice Bronze Award in 1996 from the Wiccan/Pagan Press Alliance.

In 1997, the De Anza College (Cupertino, CA) Film & Television Department filmed & aired an interview-format half-hour show; K.C. Anton & I were interviewed for an early episode: “What’s Up Wit’ Witches?” When this was filmed, K.C. and I were engaged and had been working partners in Wicca since 1993. We were also both volunteers and officers in the Silicon Valley regional non-profit Bay Area Pagan Assemblies (BAPA; now dissolved).

In 1993 I began study with British Traditional Wicca, initiated in 1996. Developed and taught seeker courses in Wicca from a traditional perspective 1996–2000. Made elder in 2001, founded first coven in 2002 (hived 2007, later disbanded 2010), and a second coven in 2010 which disbanded in 2017. Member New Wiccan Church, International, 2007, currently an officer and Seated Elder.

Mundane biography thumbnail

Connecticut Yankee born, 1951, of a New England family that, to quote my great-grandmother Orlie Jane Brown Brown, “came over on everything except the Mayflower.”

California girl raised, 1956–1974—that takes one through my Sonoma County upbringing  to my Humboldt State baccalaureate. Service to country ensued as a volunteer in the U.S. Army Reserve (1975–1978, Honorable Discharge, discharge rank E5, Award of Achievement).

San Francisco resident with a seven-year career in “Wall Street West”—the S.F. Financial District, which terminated with Shearson/AmEx gobbling its way down Wall Street shortly after “voodoo economics” raised its ugly head.

Relocate to Silicon Valley and a new career as a full-fledged technical editor and technical writer. By the 1990s, recognition of technical writing efforts included Awards of Merit, Achievement, and Excellence in professional competitions, and regional and national presentations well-received at Society for Technical Communication conferences.

Career cut short four weeks following September 11, 2001, when a stroke  permanently retired me; my rehab M.D. instructed me 10 months later that “a day job will kill you.” My day job since is “taking care of Deb“—to quote my dear departed K.C.