Healing Justice and Creating Change
As you read this, you may already be very familiar with my path and journey. My justice work. My spiritual practice. The way I yearn for us to be human with one another. Some of you may be new to me; this may be our first interaction. Whether you're a longtime friend and fellow journeymate or a new friend on my path, welcome. Here's what you need to know about me. I am many things. I carry heron medicine, and heron energy is associated with dabbling in many things that may not make sense to others, but make total sense to the heron.
What else you should know is that I am a Leo sun, Cancer rising, and Aquarius moon. If you don't know anything about astrology, that is okay, but here is what I will tell you about my astrology: integrity is one of the most important values and practices for me.
I feel the world’s suffering and never shy away from it, and in many ways, my body carries the energy of ancestral and planetary wounds, working to transmute them.
And I am a humanitarian. I am here for our collective healing.
Like heron, Aquarius energy may seem wild or weird, disjointed or out there, but their kind of weird will help heal the entire world. They are ahead of the curve; they know shit. They are seers. And so am I.
What else you should know is that when I was born, I had to fight to survive, and this was the first initiation into justice work and practice. My first conscious practice of putting my feet in the fire as preparation for being alive in a world that needs us to get to the root of our suffering and, as much as is possible, mitigate it.
As a psychic once told me, I came here to speed us up. Not urgently or expectantly, but in a way that supports clear sight and right action now. The ways I encourage clear sight and aligned just action take different forms, because in addition to what I have already named about who I am, I am also a witch, an alchemist, a spiritual teacher, director, and companion, a healer, a writer, a lover of bees and a bee tender, a grief tender, a singer, a dreamer, and a truth teller.
And more. There is always more.
The specific way the art form of Healing Justice emerges in my life is heavily influenced by my mom, Clara. She was a special education teacher for 32 years. She was a fierce advocate for the children in her classroom, and I witnessed her fight the system many times. She was my first social justice mentor. Not only was I influenced by her, but also the many mentors, comrades, and teachers I have encountered along the way. They have met me in my social work schooling and practice, when I trained to become a dismantling racism educator, and in the many yoga and justice workshops, immersions, and long-form trainings I have led through the creation of Skill in Action, a book and body of work. Spiritual teachers have influenced me and held me in moments when I needed their embrace. Spiritual teachings I have learned, conjured, shared, and returned to again, immemorially, have influenced and shaped me and what I offer in the world. Brave souls who wish to work with me in some capacity, be that through intuitive healing, dismantling racism, community work, holding change, in kirtan as they sing with me, or in any of the transformative ways I can work with people and the earth, influence me.
The roots (assumptions, values, and knowings) that extend from my healing justice practice are:
We can and must heal on all levels.
We can heal back, now, and into the future.
We cannot heal in isolation.
Our liberation is inextricably bound.
Spirit, the Divine, God, Goddess, or whatever name we have for the holy is inside us and around us.
We are spiritual beings with earthly assignments.
We have ancestral wisdom and technologies at our disposal.
We are nature, and the more-than-human world is our teacher; may we honor it as such.
We must become adept at journeying to other realms of experience to bring medicine back here, now, for our benefit and for the benefit of all.
Peace is possible.
The world we want to dream our way into already exists; it is here now, too.
For years, people have asked to spend time with me to learn more about my path, practices, vocation, and how they all tie together. Given this and the latest expansion of my work into Spiritual Direction and Companionship, I thought I would explain how I’ve woven together my life’s work to date so it's clear to you.
The frame for my work has always been the same: Healing Justice, which, to me, is an art form that inspires not only individual healing but also collective healing. Healing justice is a praxis grounded in the reality that nothing we experience in our individual lives occurs in a vacuum. Healing justice presumes that whatever work we do to heal must happen on all levels-personally, interpersonally, institutionally, and culturally. It assumes we have ancient, ancestral technologies available to guide us toward alignment and wholeness. At the heart of healing justice is the belief in our ability to break free of what binds us to our suffering, to move through the reckoning, and heal.
The way these roots nourish the earth and those who choose to work with me happens in different ways.
I have written seven books focused on some form of healing for our collective. From justice and yoga, to collective grief, to healing in community, to holding sacred space for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in affinity groups, to how we might better understand our suffering through the lens of yoga philosophy, specifically the kleshas, to the medicine and wisdom honeybees offer us about collective well-being, to the ways we must protect our energy if we are to sustain these times.
I guide change within and across difference through anti-oppression work and the belief that we can love ourselves into who we want to be. I facilitate individual and collective change and, while doing so, encourage people to bring their authentic selves to the space and to trust that change is possible. I facilitate what is alive in the room, not my agenda, which means I have an immense capacity to be dynamic, do chaos magic, and call people and groups into alignment and their highest good.
Yoga, Somatic Practice, and Embodiment
I move people physically, spiritually, and emotionally, and shift thought patterns through my devotion to yoga and my studentship of the vast and expansive path of Yoga. Somatic practice is part of everything I offer. We must return to our bodies to regulate our nervous systems and tend any wounds that need our attention. The body is also a vessel for attunement with ourselves and one another.
Counsel, Intuitive Healing, and Spiritual Direction
I’ve long offered counsel and support, beginning in social work and now evolving into intuitive healing and Spiritual Direction. I am deeply intuitive and invite people to listen to their internal knowing through my intuitive healing practice. Through Spiritual Direction, I sit with seekers from all faiths or no faith tradition and invite Spirit into the room to move through and around us using contemplative practices, rituals, mantras, deep listening, and silence.
Akashic and Shamanic Sessions
I nourish change through my Akashic readings, offering downloads from one’s soul record to provide healing and often intuitive answers that fill any gaps in one’s journey.
I offer shamanic healing and drumming to the beat of many hearts, to find medicine and gems to bring into the here and now.
I put on my veil and ask to embody the oracular archetype to provide healing to individuals and the collective. I love this kind of magic. It begins with an altar I intentionally build, moves on to listening to music to enter a trance state, working with a black mirror, and answering queries from curious seekers.
And more. There is always more.
The tapestry of roots and actions that emerge from these tendrils of my practice of holding change centers on healing justice. These tendrils all connect in a web of support for you and me. For everything.
Everything I offer interconnects with the desire to remember what we need to know and to heal.
I am available to support you through one or more of my healing justice or healing arts offerings. In-person. Online. In a training or immersion. A Spiritual Direction session. A yoga class or experience. A group process focused on the Wheel of the Year. An intuitive healing or shamanic session. A dream circle. A kirtan or song circle. In ceremony. Around the energetic cauldron of this time. Join me. We will grieve, remember, and heal together. We will live into our endless capacity to care for and heal one another, all the while wielding justice in ways that empire never even knew were possible.