A Spiritual Leader & Wedding Officiant

From her earliest years, Rev. Heron was called to be a spiritual leader. Born into a western mainstream religion, the rituals and practices of the faith leaders was a fascinating subject for her. However, as she approached adulthood, she discovered that simply because of her gender, these mysteries were not hers to explore. Thus began a lifelong path of exploration and service.

During her early adulthood, she explored many paths of faith. Among the spiritual traditions that she explored were Nordic, Hindu, Kemetic, Hellenistic, Dianic, Kabbalah, Buddhist, and western Celtic paganism.

She is formally initiated in Tibetan Buddhism (the Nyingma family) by Tsoknyi Rinpoche through the Urgyen Samten Ling Gonpa in Salt Lake City. This was under the tutelage of Lama Thupten Dorje Gyaltsen Rinpoche, who was under the guidance and blessings of the late Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. In 1995 at the age of 25, she embarked on a lengthy Buddhist pilgrimage through Nepal and India. During the pilgrimage, she visited many sacred sites of Buddhism, and received blessings from the Dalai Lama at his home in McLeod Ganj. She has maintained a lifelong practice of meditation and walking the eightfold path from these early influences.

In the early 90s she ritually dedicated herself to a life of service to the Goddess, and at the same time, took the Bodhisattva vow. While she has been a student of many diverse traditions during her lifetime of spiritual studies, she also has a lifelong aversion to hierarchy in spiritual practice, and has never wished to call herself “High Priestess” or “Lady”. She prefers to consider all other humans as equals, regardless of social “status”, spiritual knowledge, length of practice, or chronological age.

Beginning in 1996, she began to offer her service as a wedding officiant, and since that time has performed hundreds of in-person and virtual weddings. She specializes in Celtic Handfastings and other non-religious or alternative spirituality ceremonies.

In 2003, she founded the Church of the Sacred Circle, a nonprofit church based on interfaith expressions of spirituality. Through the church, she has supported many individuals on their own spiritual paths, and has ordained clergy within the Church.

In 2007, the Church dedicated their permanent temple space that has contributed greatly to the growth of the church.

In 2021, she founded Online Weddings Utah to begin to expand her wedding officiant services to the wider world, and has since performed hundreds of online ceremonies.

In 2023, the Church of the Sacred Circle celebrated the 20th anniversary of it’s founding.

In 2024, Rev. Heron began as a religious services volunteer with the Utah State Correctional Facility. She has since performed many rituals and other services for a diverse population of inmates. Some of these have been recorded for release into the wider corrections network, so that other prisoners may access them.

LGBTQIA+

LGBTQIA+ weddings, same-sex marriage, gay marriage, lesbian marriage, or as she prefers to refer to it – marriage – is an important civil and legal right, and a social and cultural rite of passage.

Any marriage is a genuine joy to be a part of, but LGBTQIA+ weddings are very special to Rev. Heron indeed. Every ceremony feels like a triumph, and several of her couples have begun their ceremony by quoting the Supreme Court decision from Justice Kennedy. 

She has been a lifelong and passionate advocate for LGBTQIA+ civil rights, long before she was personally impacted by the marriage equality decision. Starting from her earliest adult years, she took part in marches, rallies, vigils and other acts of support for the LGBTQIA+ community.  

When same-sex marriage was briefly made legal in Utah on December 20, 2013, she rushed to the local county courthouse, and over the course of those heady few days was fortunate to officiate dozens of ceremonies for happy couples.

Finally, when the decision was made permanent on Oct. 6th, 2014, she was again at the courthouse offering free ceremonies for anyone who needed it.

Since marriage equality was made the law of the land, she has have been fortunate to be the officiant at many weddings that include same-sex couples, and is a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, since both her wife and her son have transitioned.

Personal Life

When not undertaking her calling as a minister, Rev. Heron has many diverse interests and hobbies.
An avid world traveler, she has visited every continent except Antarctica, which is of course “on the list” to see! Along with world travel, she is a fanatical music fan, having attended well over 400 concerts in her lifetime. She enjoys a highly diverse range of music and loves to dance along. She is a seasoned photographer, and specializes in portraiture, storm chasing, and light-painting. A long and varied career in IT has proved to be a fortunate addition to her online weddings business. She also enjoys reading, science, needlepoint, crafting, and studying Old Norse, History, and Archaeology.

In support of her wider community, she is also part of a small 501(c)3 organization that raises money for causes ranging from youth homelessness, international advocacy for the rights of women and girls, local children’s hospitals, and animal sanctuaries.

One main constant though, is her family. While she has lived in Utah for most of her adult life, in 1998 she moved to Florida to be with her future spouse and soulmate. They married while in Florida, and then returned to Utah in 2001. They settled in the Salt Lake valley and had two children who are now adults.

She and her spouse have been together for 27 years now, and celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in February of 2025.