How on Earth did i get here? and another tip for healing our separation wound...

How on Earth did i get here?
Do you ever stop and ask yourself this question?  i have been reflecting a fair bit on this one lately.
I am almost half way thru my fourth decade and finally i feel like i know why I'm here and what to do about it.  What a relief and what a wild and wonderful journey it has been to get here!

Don't worry! I will not be telling you my life story.  Only the parts that relate to how i came to this place with my current work; offering classes in Druidry, Spiritual Stewardry, Earth Acupuncture, Tree Medicine, Dowsing and connecting with the spirits of Nature.

For many years i have held as my guiding mission to facilitate the healing and connection of people and the heart of Nature.  Everything i have learned and offered has been true to this, but sometimes it has felt sort of piece meal.

After getting a bachelors degree in Natural Resources and realizing there was nothing in this field i wanted to do, i apprenticed on an organic farm in Boulder, CO.  My first farm mentor was a witch.  She invited me to participate in a few rituals and i was awed by her power and wisdom.  I farmed and managed CSA's for the next 6 years in Arkansas, Ma. and Maine.  It was farming and being deeply tuned to the seasons, soil and plants that brought me to my pagan path.  Pagan simply means, "of the country".  Folks who live close to nature and her cycles.  I began leading seasonal celebrations on the farms as well as learning about herbs; growing them and making medicine.

After a particularly hard summer on one farm, i felt burnt out and decided to delve more fully into my herbal explorations which landed me as the gardener at Avena Botanicals in Maine.  I reveled in the curvaceous beds, perennial plantings and attention to beauty.  That summer i learned loads.  The highlight for me was being introduced to pendulum dowsing and flower essences by a very special visiting teacher named Kate Gilday.  I was hooked!   Larken Bunce who was my fellow garden faery at Avena invited me to return to VT with her and we landed in a lovely old farm house on a big plot of land in central VT which we called Habondia Farm.  This was a place of community living and more great learning.  I studied dowsing with the American Society of Dowsers which has its annual conference in VT every summer.  I apprenticed with world renowned geomancer Patrick McManaway for two years.  I trained and was certified as a flower essence practitioner, and i staffed and facilitated regular women's initiation weekends in NJ.  I also offered an apprenticeship called Earth Spirit Healing and continued to co-create seasonal rituals for the community on the land.  I began to consult as a Flower Essence practitioner and geomancer.

And then came Ivan.  We met several times that first summer doing geomantic consults and workshops.  It was this shared path, and the intervention of Patrick who hosted Ivan in VT, that brought us together.  Ivan saw in me a natural organizer and asked if i would help him put together a Shamanic Healing Training in VT the next summer.  Thus began our personal and professional relationship.  It has always been both with us.

We started the Green Mt Druid Training in 2006 and i was a student in the first class while also administrating and organizing logistics for the program.  Sometime in this period i also apprenticed with Susan Grimaldi a gifted local shamanic healer.  Once i completed my training, I slid gradually into teaching and directing along side Ivan.  The Druid School is now going into its 9th year.  Ivan and i have developed an extensive, transformative curriculum and we have learned and grown so much thru our professional partnership.  

The most recent study i have taken up is Faery Seership with Orion Foxwood and RJ Stewart.  This work has deeply inspired and resonated for me and brings a deeper understanding and reverence for the Sacred Earth and her denizens.

Although I continue to consult privately when asked, my true gift and passion is in teaching and group work. It is now time for me to spread my wings and fly solo a bit.  I have gathered many tools and loads of experience and now i see how it all fits together and its amazing, actually.  You can't make this shit up!

I'm so excited to be offering a new training called Guardians of the Sacred Earth next spring.
More details to come!
My mission is the same;  To facilitate the healing and connection of people and the heart of Nature.

With gratitude for all my teachers, both human, spirit, divine and creaturely.
I pray that i continue to grow in understanding, wisdom, love and the power to co-create real change for the benefit of all beings.

Awen.

Part 2 of Healing the Wound of Separation

Building a new land based culture thru story.

Go out to your special spot in Nature and ask the land to share with you, or inspire in you, a teaching story.  A story about Her; of how to live in Her with harmony, wisdom, healing, love...  What are the archetypes and characters?  What and who do they represent?  Listen, open, and express.  Let the land flow thru you and see what story develops.  Tell this story to others who live near and far.  See if it evolves thru the oral tradition.