Relevant training + experience: Lara Vesta’s numerous ancestral kinship courses + gatherings; Josh Schrei’s Mythic Body course; White Awake’s Before We Were White course; many other courses with ancestral kinship mentors, including but not limited to Sophie Macklin, Carmen Spagnola, Megan McGuire, Sylvia Linsteadt, Asia Suler; additional training + experience explained below

Ancestry can a tricky thing, especially for those who don’t live on the lands of their deep (or even immediate) ancestors. Tracing lineages is hard for many us, yet even when we know who our ancestors are on paper, how often do we actually know them? Like, know them in our bones, blood, and bodies? In our voices, habits, and memories? I certainly didn’t for much of my life, and I still have lots of work to do to change that.

Eventually, when certain patterns couldn’t seem to be broken and invisible threads kept tugging me in the same directions over and over, I had to accept that despite being an autonomous individual, I am also the vessel that thousands of generations have been poured into and are now housed. I am made from the joys and sorrows of countless people: their struggles and their triumphs, their addictions and their freedoms, their actions and their inactions — all of this resides within me now.

What a burden this is.

What an honor this is.

What a privilege this is.

Most of my ancestors (including those of blood but also those from other forms of lineage) are long-forgotten in the records of written history and linear time. Yet their existence is evidenced through my own. My ancestors are deeply and vibrantly alive through me and by virtue of all their descendants. I can choose to ignore them to my own and others’ detriment, or I can choose to befriend them, learn from them, and collaborate with them.

Exploring and connecting with my ancestral lineages has been a joy and grief-filled process. It has involved losing and gaining so much, learning and unlearning so much. It’s definitely included historical research, but that feels like a side note to me. This is because the moments I feel my ancestors most viscerally isn’t when I’m studying historical data. The times I feel my ancestors most deeply include attending 12 Step meetings, learning embroidery, trying and failing and succeeding at cooking family recipes, praying to God, sleeping and dreaming outside, writing and talking to my beloved dead, swimming in salt water, being unwell and asking for help, singing folk songs, repairing ancestral wrongdoings through present-day efforts towards collective liberation, and other embodied acts. These are some of the ways and the times I have felt truly connected to a vast web of belonging that reaches across time and space.

My blood ancestors hail from many different places. Before settling in the United States at various points, most of them came from Western Europe, including the Scottish Highlands, Ireland, France, and Spain. Another part of my lineage belongs to the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. I imagine other lands and peoples are part of my family tree and I honor them despite my ignorance of who they are.

My hope is that this beautiful little life of mine can serve as an alchemical vessel through which my lineages are transformed alongside me, for the better. I pray that my life is a space in which my ancestors experience deeper healing, joy, and fulfillment as they simultaneously nourish my own.

I especially wish to thank Lara Veleda Vesta for her teachings surrounding ancestral animism and connection to lineage. I must also name Josh Schrei, Sophie Macklin, Carmen Spagnola, Megan McGuire, Lyla June, Naomi Ortiz, Rachel Halder, Sylvia Linsteadt, Asia Suler, Becca Piastrelli, Catelynn Hendrick, the organization White Awake, and the numerous people who help folks (especially white-bodied folks) in connecting with our ancestors in meaningful, healing, and embodied ways.

Of course, our ancestors are not simply those who took on human form. In the words of Sophie Strand, “Our body is a ritual, our cells are a product of anarchic queer lovemaking whereby mitochondria and ancient prokaryotes fused to create the cells that build our bodies today. We are the product of these fusions.” In very real ways, we are each the meeting point of countless beings, species, and realities. Our ancestries are indeed numerous.

Blessings upon all our ancestors. May their mistakes and their good deeds serve as teachers for their descendants. May each of our lives become an act of reparation and a holy reclamation for all lineages, forward and back.

Relevant training + experience: independent study, namely through the work of Chani Nicholas, Alice Sparkly Kat, Cristina Farella, and Renee Sills of Embodied Astrology

As someone who began my college career as an astronomy + religion double-major, I have long been fascinated by scientific and spiritual mappings of the heavens. Astrology is a natural meeting point for these interests and I appreciate astrological frameworks for addressing and understanding personal, worldly, and cosmic happenings. My primary teachers in this field include Chani Nicholas, Renee Sills, and Alice Sparkly Kat, Cristina Farella. Each of their frameworks are liberatory, decolonial, fun, and beautiful. Jana Roemer’s AstroNidra meditations have also served as wonderful charms for the road of my life.

Relevant training + experience: Josh Schrei’s Mythic Body course; private mentorship with numerous somatic coaches; completion of myriad embodiment courses with various teachers, explained below

Developing a deeper relationship with my body has been one of the most beautiful yet complex tasks of my adult life. It goes hand in hand with my (re)connections with spirit, land, psyche, and more. I could name many teachers and guides here, but I am particularly grateful for my somatic coaches, namely Rachel Halder, Isha Vela, and Li Tian, and the members of somatic healing collectives I’ve been a part of. Janelle Hardy, Carmen Spagnola, Renee Sills, Lara Veleda Vesta, brontë velez, Josh Schrei, Gabriela Gutierrez, and Ariella Daly have also been wonderful teachers in this area. And, of course, I thank my wondrous, disabled, magical body for holding my varied experiences so loyally and resiliently.

Relevant training + experience: personal mindfulness practice since 2012; mindfulness training + facilitation experience at Blue Cliff Monastery + Mindfulness Center’s during my yearlong residency there; my various professional roles at Copper Beech Institute; racial justice coordination work through ARISE Sangha; my experience offering private and group mindfulness mentorship to many; additional training + experience explained below

Somewhat unexpectedly, Zen Buddhism became my first “formal” spiritual home in my early twenties. I thank the late Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and the entire Plum Village tradition, namely the community at Blue Cliff Monastery (which served as a literal home for me in my mid-twenties), for all they have offered me. I was then employed by the ARISE Sangha (a racial-justice focused branch of the Plum Village tradition) to help bridge mindfulness practice with liberation efforts more fully within the lineage’s community.

A special shoutout to my monastery roommates and fellow queens Sarah, Kat, and Elena; another deep bow of gratitude goes to all the other monastics and lay practitioners who have befriended, supported, and mentored me. Thanks also to Rabbi David Leipziger Teva for introducing me to mindfulness when I was a spiritually-adrift college student. I am also grateful for the teachings of Joanna Macy, Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Lama Rod Owens, Jasmine Syedullah, Rev. Koshen Greg Snyder, Alan Watts, and the lineages of teachers who have informed my teachers. And, of course, I pay homage to Shakyamuni Buddha, whose teachings are precious and wondrous.

Relevant training + experience: Union Theological Seminary education and relevant theological + care work courses; religious studies at Wesleyan University; Peer Chaplain role at Union Theological; Clinical Pastoral Education at Union Theological; hands-on liturgical + pastoral care experience at various UCC churches; Ministry21 student; liberation theology course facilitator; additional training + experience listed below

As the descendent of devout Christians and a former candidate for ordained ministry, I love God and Jesus profoundly. I have experienced inexplicable joy as a result of reclaiming my Christian heritage. Yet I also recognize the immense harm the Church and many of its leaders and dogmas have inflicted upon the world. I therefore seek to repair the relational ruptures caused by these acts without forsaking my love of God and Christ.

My first teachers within Christian spheres were my maternal grandparents, miabuelita yabuelito. Their love of God instilled in me a yearning for sacred union and I can never thank them enough for this.

I am also indebted to my pastors, namely the Rev. Dr. Julia Burkey, who shaped my life in more ways than I can describe. I also thank the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, Rev. Amanda Hambrick-Ashcraft, and Rev. Bertram Johnson for their guidance. Thanks also to Dr. Brandon Nappi for his unwavering faith in me. And many, many thanks to First Church in Middletown, Union Theological Seminary, and the United Church of Christ, all of which have supported my faith and education in incredible ways.

I consider many Christian mystics, especially Medieval women, as ancestral guides. These include especially Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena, Hildegard of Bingen, and Teresa of Avila. Other mystic ancestors whose writings have touched me include St. Francis of Assisi, Meister Eckhart, and St. John of the Cross.

The writings and teachings of Fr. Richard Rohr, John O’Donohue, Carl Jung, Nathan D. Mitchell, Robert Johnson, Carol Lee Flinders, Jan L. Richardson, Sophie Strand, Mirabai Starr, Dr. Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Dr. Aliou Niang, Dr. David Carr, Dr. Julia Lillis, and Rev. Euan Cameron have also been influential to my faith. Liberation theologians whose works have informed me also include Dr. Nancy Eiesland, Rev. Dr. James Cone, Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez, Dr. Monica Coleman, and many others.

Additionally, the creative works of Khalil Gibran, Rainer Maria Rilke, James Weldon Johnson, and William Blake have been spiritual treasures for me since youth. I also consider the fantasy series His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, the fantasy novel Wise Child by Monica Furlong, and the science fiction masterpieces Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler and DUNE by Frank Herbert to be remarkable theological commentaries.

Finally, I will close by saying that these things I know to be true: that Jesus was God enfleshed through the body of a poor, marginalized, Jewish child of color in an occupied territory; that in spite of oppressive conditions, he wholeheartedly embodied his inherent belovedness, divinity, and humanity; that he was then executed by the state and its militarized authorities for his divestment from repressive paradigms; and that he made himself an apprentice to Death, thus becoming a midwife to his own rebirth and the birthing of many worlds anew. In so doing, he became the Christ, the Anointed One who supports others in reclaiming and enfleshing their inherent belovedness, divinity, and humanity. Thanks be to God for this holy alchemy.

Relevant training + experience: Sacred Crossings Level 1: Enter the Grave death doula training; Deathwives Death Doula 101 + 201 certification courses; Lara Vesta’s live mentorship through the Dark Goddess death-transition process; my own experiences with death + dying

As a survivor of a near death experience, I was once unexpectedly thrust into a close relationship with death. I now view this experience as having been a sacred invitation to reshape my relationships towards death, dying, life, and living. I can genuinely say I am grateful for having been dragged into such an Underworld. This initiation allowed me to touch profound mysteries and reemerge with newfound gratitude for my life. In real ways, my life is indebted to the human, spiritual, and medicinal guides that aided me on that journey. Since then, I’ve sought to treat death as my teacher and life as a promise to fulfill.

As part of my continued explorations of death and dying, I have completed some death doula training through Sacred Crossings’s Level 1: Enter the Grave course. I then completed Deathwives 101 + 201 death doula certification courses. Relatedly, I underwent Lara Veleda Vesta’s Dark Goddess program, which offered a mythic and ritual approach to integrating death-transitions and grief-full rites of passage. Lastly, many of my somatic and spiritual practices + training center around learning to “die well” now so that we can truly live well before our ultimate death.

While death may be the greatest equalizer, our experiences of death are not equal. At their most fundamental levels, systems of oppression are mechanisms for ensuring that certain people and beings are at greater risk of violent and premature death. Liberatory activism is thus a vehicle for mitigating such harm while affirming the sanctity of all life. I am so grateful for the work of those who approach death care and grief work through the lens of collective liberation.

Relevant training + experience: Lara Vesta’s ritual education + mentorship through various offerings at the Wild Soul School; my seminary education at Union Theological Seminary, including liturgical, worship, and pastoral training; my work at various UCC churches; Josh Schrei’s Mythic Body course on embodied devotion; years’ worth of professional ritual offerings; additional courses + teachers explained below

While my greatest guide in the realm of devotional rituals and worship is the vast mystery devotional practices seek to honor, I have many human mentors to thank for training me in these arts. These include: the Rev. Dr. Julia Burkey and the First Church of Middletown congregation; the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis and Rev. Amanda Hambrick-Ashcraft of Middle Collegiate Church; my professor of worship, Rev. Cláudio Carvalhaes; my professor of interreligious engagement, Dr. Jerusha Rhodes; my professor of spiritual formation, Rev. Jane Huber; the Dean of my seminary’s chapel, Dr. Sandra Montes; my incredible mentor and teacher, Lara Veleda Vesta; the deeply knowledgeable yet thoroughly humble Josh Schrei; the magical Yarrow Magdalena; the veritable alchemist brontë velez; the various spiritual communities I have lived in and been a part of; and the many friends and loved ones who have engaged in devotional practices with me throughout my life.

Relevant training + experience: my own disabilities + neurodivergence; Sophie Macklin’s Ungovernable Bodies course; Sophie Strand’s The Body is a Doorway course; Lara Vesta’s mentorship + courses; my disability theology studies at Union Theological Seminary; additional training + experience explained below

As a chronically ill, disabled, and neurodivergent person, it has been deeply nourishing to learn from other physically, mentally, and chronically ill + disabled folks. These teachers include: Sophie Macklin, whose Ungovernable Bodies course was profoundly helpful for me; Sophie Strand, whose various writings + courses have impacted me deeply; Clementine Morrigan’s writings and workshops, especially those on trauma magic; Lara Veleda Vesta, whose dís-abled magic is beyond compare; Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s stunning book Care Work; Naomi Ortiz’s moving book Sustaining Spirit; my professor Dr. Max Thornton and fellow Disability Theology classmates; Dr. Nancy Eiesland’s groundbreaking book The Disabled God; and many others whose lives beautifully challenge + rebuke conventional understandings of wellness, worthiness, illness, and more. We create new worlds by virtue of our vessels.

Relevant training + experience: longstanding personal dreamwork, trance, and psychedelic practices; multiple dreamwork courses with Toko-pa Turner, the Hayden Institute, Ariella Daly, Gabriela Gutierrez, and others; trance-technique trainings through Josh Schrei’s Mythic Body course; additional training and experience explained below

I have long been fascinated by the imaginal visions we receive during rest as dreams and during waking life as trance. I tried studying these topics for years but only truly resonated with a teacher upon encountering dreamworkers Toko-pa Turner. Her blending of Jungian psychology and mysticism is truly stunning, and I’ve had the privilege of completing her Dreamwalking and Dream Drops courses. I have also completed group-dreamwork training through the Hayden Institute, which similarly blends Jungian psychology and mysticism in its approach to dreamwork. My dream practice is also heavily informed by the writings of Clarissa Pinkola-Estes, Carl Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz, Robert Johnson, Jeremy Taylor, Athena Laz, and many other writers in the field.

I have also learned dreamwork and trance-induction techniques from shamanic practitioners (namely, Ariella Daly and Gabriela Gutierrez), which offers a relational and animist approach to dreamwork. Additionally, my study of trance-induction and mythosomatics through Josh Schrei’s Mythic Body program deeply impacts my dream and trance work.

Last, but certainly not least, I must thank the greatest of all dreamers, that mysterious force who dreamt this world and all the cosmos into being. May we, too, dream ourselves and our reality anew by virtue of our yearnings for a joyfully liberated world.

Relevant training + experience: my own experiences of animist intimacy with the landscapes I have lived upon and loved; Josh Schrei’s Mythic Body course; Lara Vesta’s guidance through her Wild Soul School programs; Weaving Earth’s Under the Auspices of Summer live course; and numerous workshops and courses on earth-animacy and land-based-intimacy, including with brontë velez, Sophie Strand, Sophie Macklin, Asia Suler, Sylvia Linsteadt, Ariella Daly and Gabriela Gutierrez, among others

As a child, I loved the many lands and creatures I encountered during my upbringing and understood them to be my kin. But this sense of enchantment got buried somewhere along the way and it’s been a long process of reclaiming it. Relearning how to connect with the spaces I inhabit has been both challenging and immensely healing.

I wish to thank the following teachers and communities for supporting me in rekindling my relationships with plant, animal, mineral, and other forms of kin: brontë velez, tayla shanaye, Lauren Dalberth Hage, and the entire Weaving Earth team, along with my Under the Auspices of Summer classmates (especially the Rest Pod I was part of); Ayana Young of the For The Wild podcast; Josh Schrei of The Emerald podcast and his Mythic Body course; Ariella Daly of Honey Bee Wild; Lara Vesta of the Wild Soul School; Gabriela Gutierrez; Pinar and So of Queer Nature; Robin Wall Kimmerer and her book Braiding Sweetgrass; Megan McGuire; adrienne and Autumn Brown of the How to Survive the End of the World podcast; Becca Piastrelli of the Belonging podcast; Naomi Ortiz; Marysia Miernowska of the School of the Sacred Wild; Rachel Halder; Molly Costello; Catherine Sieck; Sophie Strand; Carmen Spagnola; Sylvia Linsteadt, Sophie Macklin; Joanna Macy; Lyla June; Asia Suler of One Willow Apothecary; Sabrina Scott; and Catelynn Hendrick of A Tethered God. Each of your offerings have meant so much to me.

I also wish to thank the many lands I have been blessed to call home throughout my life and the beings within them who have been my neighbors. These include the San Francisco Bay Area / Ohlone territory, with its breathtaking landscapes, sacred waters, and magical fogs; Biarritz, France / Basque territory, with its beautiful oceans, mountains, and farmlands; Washington, DC / Anacostan territory and the resilience it constantly demonstrates; Pine Bush, NY / Munsee Lenape territory, that stunning land where Spirit is so readily present; Hartford, CT / Tunxis and Poquonook territory and all its gems that reveal themselves on their own time; Upper Manhattan / Munsee Lenape and Wappinger territory, the concrete jungle that somehow teems with life; and Middletown, CT / Wangunk and Quinnipac territory, the beloved Forest City that has held me through thick and thin.

Relevant training + experience: Lara Vesta’s Dark Goddess initiation process; Josh Schrei’s Mythic Body program; numerous myth-centric courses with Sophie Strand, Sophie Macklin, Sylvia Linsteadt, Ariella Daly and Gabriela Gutierrez; my longstanding, independent study of myth and folklore; additional training and experience explained below

In the process of reenchanting my days and reconnecting with my lineages, I have found it invaluable to engage with myths, folktales, fairytales, and other forms of magical storytelling. My primary teachers in this area are the myths and tales themselves, whose wisdom and animacy sink deeper into my being the more I relate with them.

I also have many human teachers to thank in this area. I would not be who I am today without the myth-centric mentorship I’ve received from Lara Vesta, whose teachings have transformed me to the core. I am also indebted to the work of Josh Schrei and The Emerald podcast he produces, as well as his Mythic Body course. I have also been privileged to take classes with Sophie Strand, whose work always moves something deep within me. Sophie Macklin’s courses and blending of anti-fascism and folklore have also been pivotal to me. I also wish to thank Clarissa Pinkola-Estes for her book Women Who Run with the Wolves; Toko-pa Turner for her book Belonging; Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki’s many wondrous films; Joseph Campbell’s scholarship; the groundbreaking archeological research of Marija Gimbutas; Janelle Hardy for her blending of myth, writing, and embodiment; Megan McGuire‘s mythical and ancestral reconnection work; Catherine Sieck’s stunning artwork; Sylvia Linsteadt’s creative retellings of European myths; Sharon Blackie for her varied works and writing; Jessica Dore’s blending of tarot and myth; and Ariella Daly and Gabriela Gutierrez’s magical offerings. Thank you all for helping myths come alive for me once more.

Relevant training + experience: my work coordinating advocacy + community organizing efforts for People For the American Way’s youth leadership programs; my work as racial justice coordinator for Plum Village tradition’s ARISE Sangha; my experience working on dozens of political campaigns (for candidates and policy initiatives) over the last 20 years spanning local, state, and national levels; my extensive training in organizing principles, including through many organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America, People’s Institute for Survival And Beyond, Training for Change, Midwest Academy, and others; my personal investment in transforming political + economic systems in service of collective liberation

As a firm believer in the possibility of living lives defined by dignity, inner + outer wellbeing, sovereignty, and personal + communal flourishing, I am a proud member of the political left. If labels are helpful to you: I’m a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

While I don’t expect others (including my clients) to agree with my views, it is important that I name my stances on some political, economic, and social matters. This is because spirituality and spiritual care, like politics, are never neutral. Politics and spirituality both reckon with the question of how individuals within social or sacred collectives relate to the larger whole of society and existence. Our spirituality shapes and is shaped by the political systems we live within; our politics and political systems are shaped by spiritual frameworks. My care practice is therefore not simply a spiritual act — it is also a political act. Because my work supports the healing and liberation of beings who are impacted by social, economic, and political systems, my work cannot be neutral with regards to said systems.

So, to be clear, I believe and affirm the following:

That capitalism is a sin. That the hoarding of resources amongst a grotesquely wealthy elite is a moral and social abomination. That white supremacy is an evil and violent mechanism, one through which oppressive hierarchies are maintained within the capitalist system on the basis of a fabricated notion known as “race” and the false superiority of “whiteness”. That poverty is a social failure on the part of a government, not an individual shortcoming. That war, imperialism, and colonialism are unjustifiable forms of violence; each demonstrates a society’s inability to reckon with its own demons. That coercion and punishment are illegitimate and unfruitful ways of relating with others or addressing problems. That the planet is a holy place worth tending and loving, especially in the midst of climate collapse. That indigenous peoples’ kinship with ancestral homelands must be honored, celebrated, and sustained. That bodily autonomy is a fundamental right, one that must be respected lest no other rights be honored. That abortion is a life-affirming choice even in its relinquishments. That no being is superior or inferior to any other by virtue of all being made by divine hands. That immigrants and refugees are deserving of welcome in foreign lands, are beautiful threads in the communal fabric. That queer, trans, and gender-expansive experiences reflect an expansive divinity. That disability is a resounding invitation towards interdependence. That all beings (human and otherwise) are worthy of having their basic needs for belonging, dignity, and care met with ease. That a better world is possible, and that such a world is coming.

May we work together, as individuals and collectives, to usher a beautifully liberated world into existence.

Relevant training and experience: queer-trans equity trainings through various courses and professional credentialing processes, including Still Harbor’s spiritual direction practicum, Union Theological Seminary’s peer chaplaincy onboarding process, YP4 of People For the American Way’s employee onboarding process, and many other courses and trainings in settings (see the politics + liberation tab); my labors in support of queer-trans liberation through my work with People For the American Way, Union Theological Seminary, the United Church of Christ, and other settings; my own experience as a queer and genderfluid person

As someone who is in a regular exploration of my gender and sexuality, I deeply appreciate the work of those who hold non-normative experiences of these things. I especially value the work of Alok Vaid-Menon, Pinar and So of Queer Nature, Clementine Morrigan, and many others who embody expansive genders and sexualities.

Additionally, I will forever be indebted to my family and the neighbors who raised me on the edge of the Castro, a historic gay neighborhood in San Francisco, CA. You all helped me witness queer + trans joy from an early age, something for which I am profoundly grateful.

Last, but certainly not least, a special shout out to all the queer + trans friends, mentors, and lovers I’ve been privileged to grow alongside over the years. How we live and love is truly sacred. I am profoundly proud to be a queer, gender-expansive being, and I know God is proud of this too. They made me this way, in Their beautiful image, after all.

Relevant training + experience: completion of Still Harbor’s spiritual direction practicum; 1.5 years of theological and pastoral care education at Union Theological Seminary (UTS), including spiritual care courses; Clinical Pastoral Education unit at Middle Collegiate Church while studying at UTS; private mentorship under Rev. Dr. Julia Burkey, Dr. Brandon Nappi, and others; my role as the first Peer Chaplain at UTS; deaconship and lay leadership at First Church of Christ in Middletown, CT; my many experiences of receiving spiritual care

As a spiritual care provider, it is important that I share who has taught me spiritual care techniques. My former pastor and dear mentor, the Rev. Dr. Julia Burkey, has been an exemplary role model for me in this area, primarily while I served as a Deacon for First Church of Middletown. The same goes for Rev. Bertram Johnson, who served as my supervisor while I was a Peer Chaplain at Union Theological Seminary. I also thank Rev. Jose Collazo Jr., who supervised me during my Clinical Pastoral Education while in seminary, as well as Dr. Su Yon Pak for her field education mentorship. My pastoral care teachers, Rev. Dr. Eileen Campbell-Reed and Rev. Dr. Pamela Cooper-White, were also instrumental to my learning. Additionally, The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis and Rev. Amanda Hambrick-Ashcraft were incredible role models for me during my internship at Middle Collegiate Church. I also learned the art of spiritual direction through Still Harbor and wish to thank my teachers Marchaé Grair, Nathan O.A. Bakken, and Enrique Cintrón for all their guidance. I must also thank Spiritual Directors International (the leading organizing that supports and convenes spiritual care providers) for selecting me as a 2023 New Contemplatives fellow and supporting my professional growth. And, of course, I thank my spiritual director, Candace, for showing me what it means to accompany someone along their spiritual journey.

Relevant training + experience: the Tarot Skills class and Tarot Circle intensive with Jessica Dore; Tarot for Liberation course with corinna rosella; divinatory practice courses with Ariella Daly and Gabriela Gutierrez; mentorship with Lara Vesta

My primary teachers in the world of tarot are the cards themselves. Their images constantly unearth new insights within me, which I have Pamela Colman Smith and many other artists to thank for. Tarot cards never cease to surprise me with their depths and unexpected questions.

In addition to the cards, I have many people to thank for their guidance and wisdom. I am a graduate of Jessica Dore‘s Tarot Skills class (which provided guidance on how to offer trauma-informed readings) and Tarot Circle (which taught me so much about tarot as ritual and the power of group readings). I am also a graduate of corinna rosella from Rise Up! Good Witch’s Tarot for Liberation course (which helps students understand the ways divination can further collective liberation). Last but not least, I have learned from many other divinatory practitioners and tarot readers, including Kim Krans, Beth Maiden, Michelle Tea, Jessa Crispin, Jerico Mandybur, Maria Minnis, Cassandra Snow, Carmen Spagnola, Tina Gong, Gabriela Gutierrez, Ariella Daly, Lara Vesta, Asia Suler, and others. Thank you all for your wondrous magic.

Relevant training + experience: my personal recovery process

While my offerings do not constitute Twelve Step recovery support or sponsorship (for such services should remain forever non-professional in accordance with the Eighth Tradition), I wish to thank and uplift the ways recovery fellowship and processes have powerfully influenced my spiritual journey. I find it truly wondrous that a disease as harrowing as addiction could become a portal to divinity for me and so many others.

Without a doubt, walking into my first recovery meeting years ago jumpstarted my adult explorations of what “God” means to me. 12 Step recovery has helped me cultivate a beautiful relationship with a greater, wider, deeper power than myself. I thank all those who have helped this come to bear, especially the sponsors I’ve had over the years. Thank you for teaching me truer meanings of power and surrender.

Relevant training + experience: Lara Vesta’s Dark Goddess process and mentorship; numerous tarot + divination classes and personal study (see the tarot + divination section on this page); my longstanding personal magic practice

Witchcraft and magic were my first spiritual inclination. By magic, I use the definition found in Meditations on the Tarot, which defines the term as “the use of the subtle to influence the dense.” By witchcraft, I refer to the term “witch” whose root is the Proto-Indo-European word weid, which means “to see” or “to know.” Witches are those who see deeply and therefore know deep truths; they can harness inner visions to transform the outer realities. By these definitions, I consider many practices to be magical witchcraft.

After estranging myself from magic and witchcraft for years in my younger adulthood, over the past decade I have slowly and joyfully reclaimed my inherent love of these things. Those I have to thank for supporting this reclamation include Lara Vesta, Asia Suler, Sabrina Scott, Megan McGuire, Marysia Miernowska, Carmen Spagnola, Maria Minnis, Clementine Morrigan, Becca Piastrelli, Chaweon Koo, Silvia Federici, Max Dashu, Lisa Lister, Ellen Dugan, and many others whose inner wellsprings are deep and remarkable. Thank you all.

Relevant training + experience: personal yoga asana practice since 2005; yoga nidra facilitator training with Tanis Fishman at School of Sankalpa

I have practiced yoga since the age of fifteen because of the physical and spiritual nourishment it has offered me. I am also a graduate of Tanis Fishman’s yoga nidra training program, and I am grateful for all that the practice of yoga nidra has gifted me. Additionally and relatedly, I am indebted to and influenced by the teachings of Swami Satyananda Saraswati, B.K.S Iyengar, Jana Roemer, and Adriene Mishler.

Alchemy is the process by which the base, dense, and raw materials of spirits, psyches, and bodies are transmuted such that their deep, holy purpose radiates outward from within. My offerings are cauldrons through which interior landscapes are transformed in service of exterior liberation.

Ancestry can a tricky thing, especially for those who don’t live on the lands of their deep (or even immediate) ancestors. Tracing lineages is hard for many us, yet even when we know who our ancestors are on paper, how often do we actually know them? Like, know them in our bones, blood, and bodies? In our voices, habits, and memories? I certainly didn’t for much of my life, and I still have lots of work to do to change that.

Eventually, when certain patterns couldn’t seem to be broken and invisible threads kept tugging me in the same directions over and over, I had to accept that despite being an autonomous individual, I am also the vessel that thousands of generations have been poured into and are now housed. I am made from the joys and sorrows of countless people: their struggles and their triumphs, their addictions and their freedoms, their actions and their inactions — all of this resides within me now.

What a burden this is.

What an honor this is.

What a privilege this is.

Most of my ancestors (including those of blood but also those from other forms of lineage) are long-forgotten in the records of written history and linear time. Yet their existence is evidenced through my own. My ancestors are deeply and vibrantly alive through me and by virtue of all their descendants. I can choose to ignore them to my own and others’ detriment, or I can choose to befriend them, learn from them, and collaborate with them.

Exploring and connecting with my ancestral lineages has been a joy and grief-filled process. It has involved losing and gaining so much, learning and unlearning so much. It’s definitely included historical research, but that feels like a side note to me. This is because the moments I feel my ancestors most viscerally isn’t when I’m studying historical data. The times I feel my ancestors most deeply include attending 12 Step meetings, learning embroidery, trying and failing and succeeding at cooking family recipes, praying to God, sleeping and dreaming outside, writing and talking to my beloved dead, swimming in salt water, being unwell and asking for help, singing folk songs, repairing ancestral wrongdoings through present-day efforts towards collective liberation, and other embodied acts. These are some of the ways and the times I have felt truly connected to a vast web of belonging that reaches across time and space.

My blood ancestors hail from many different places. Before settling in the United States at various points, most of them came from Western Europe, including the Scottish Highlands, Ireland, France, and Spain. Another part of my lineage belongs to the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. I imagine other lands and peoples are part of my family tree and I honor them despite my ignorance of who they are.

My hope is that this beautiful little life of mine can serve as an alchemical vessel through which my lineages are transformed alongside me, for the better. I pray that my life is a space in which my ancestors experience deeper healing, joy, and fulfillment as they simultaneously nourish my own.

I especially wish to thank Lara Veleda Vesta for her teachings surrounding ancestral animism and connection to lineage. I must also name Josh Schrei, Sophie Macklin, Carmen Spagnola, Megan McGuire, Lyla June, Naomi Ortiz, Rachel Halder, Sylvia Linsteadt, Asia Suler, Becca Piastrelli, Catelynn Hendrick, the organization White Awake, and the numerous people who help folks (especially white-bodied folks) in connecting with our ancestors in meaningful, healing, and embodied ways.

Of course, our ancestors are not simply those who took on human form. In the words of Sophie Strand, “Our body is a ritual, our cells are a product of anarchic queer lovemaking whereby mitochondria and ancient prokaryotes fused to create the cells that build our bodies today. We are the product of these fusions.” In very real ways, we are each the meeting point of countless beings, species, and realities. Our ancestries are indeed numerous.

Blessings upon all our ancestors. May their mistakes and their good deeds serve as teachers for their descendants. May each of our lives become an act of reparation and a holy reclamation for all lineages, forward and back.

The material world is imbued with divinity and material things are animated by a sacred force. They are gateways to the holy. I practice reverence and reciprocity with the enchanted and enchanting world that is our home, to honor and enjoy it. This includes experiencing grief and anger over modernity’s destruction, while also cultivating resilient love for reality’s fervent depths. Apocalyptic conditions are revelatory invitations towards new ways of being, and spirituality help us see into these nascent possibilities. My work invites us to live into new, emerging realities.

I value authenticity and integrity, which means I offer what I’ve most needed to receive. My offerings are thus informed by years of study; they are heartfelt reflections of my imperfect attempts at finding meaning and healing. I only offer what I’ve been thoroughly trained in.

I don’t expect others to agree with every facet of my approach because it’s heavily informed by my unique journey. Rather than force clients to fit into predetermined expectations, I help them embody their authentic selves.

Surviving polarizing times requires the dexterity to hold “opposing” truths at once. Spiritual practices help us cultivate such inner and outer flexibility by trusting that something vaster than our dualistic imagination is possible. My offerings guide people in adopting nuanced, non-dual understandings of self, other, reality, and divinity.

Devotion is the act of honoring that which we trust is sacred. To live in these times requires that we push back against false idols, including the fake gods of capitalism, nationalism, and more. In this era, we are being asked to redefine (or, rather, remember) what is truly sacred. By guiding clients to touch the profound mystery we all belong to, my offerings seek to support this endeavor.

I devote myself to the mystery from which all things emerge and to which all things return. There is nothing more gratifying to me than this. While I often call this mystery “God” it is ultimately beyond names or categorization. I know the divine is thoroughly tangible by virtue of our embodied experience and wholly unknowable by virtue of its vastness. I know in the deepest parts of myself that there is no realm beyond the holy’s reach, no being too unlovable to be blessed, no wound too deep to be soothed, no wrong too great to be tended in partnership with divinity. Thanks be to God for this liberation.

In the words of adrienne maree brown, "emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. it emphasizes critical connections, authentic relationships, listening with the body and the mind. in emergence, the whole is a mirror of the parts. fractal - the health of the cell is the health of the species and the planet.” In understanding that we are interdependent – that we “inter-are” – and that private emergence is inextricably linked to that of the whole, I divest from the cult of independence and invest in interdependent flourishing.

I value the rights of individuals and communities to live lives of joy, wellbeing, fulfillment, and security, free from state-sanctioned violence + oppression. I aspire to help create a world in which these things are accessible without assigning any being as disposable, superior, or inferior. I choose to support systems that honor the inherent dignity and divinity of all beings, ones that prioritize our safety, wellness, joy, and fulfillment. I work diligently to free myself from the internal prisons I inherited through wounded lineages, because liberation is an inner pursuit as much as it is an outer one. I pray my offerings honor the inherent belovedness of all beings and support this vision of collective liberation.

I celebrate the fact that we are limited, finite beings by virtue of our embodied existence. Our capacity is finite: eventually, we require rest, and ultimately, we die. No one can escape these truths. I believe that in honoring these limits, we learn to touch the sacred infinite nested within us. In the same way that there is an endless number of decimals between 0 and 1 (such as 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, etc.), so too does the infinite hide/reside within finite boundaries. Honoring our limited experience opens us to the limitless essence of reality.

As taught in Meditations on the Tarot, I understand magic as the art of using the subtle to influence the dense. When we intentionally collaborate with the imperceptible, we practice magic. This framework helps me understand most things as magical processes, including spiritual care. While we may not always “see” the heartbeat of existence, possibilities unfold as if “by magic” when we trust the holy is real. I create magic by working with the subtle elements of reality, to invoke sacred transformation in our dense, embodied experiences.

I honor mystery and the potent power inherent to unknowing. In a world that values knowledge and rationality above most things, I work to become a better devotee of the unknown. Given that deep truth reveals itself in its own time (rather than on our schedule) and that wisdom makes room for uncertainty, relearning the etiquette of knowledge will help us find delight in mystery’s surprises.

I am a contemplative of the mystical orientation, which means I know the divine is readily accessible to anyone without mediation or middlemen. This embodied awareness of divinity is supported through the regular practice of contemplation, ritual, devotion, and conscious relationality. I aspire to support myself and others in developing authentic, unmediated relationships with divinity, as a reclamation of our spiritual sovereignty.

In valuing interdependence, I also value the cultivation of personal sovereignty and differentiation. Our ability to be in healthy, transformative relationships is directly proportional to our rejection of false masters, in our ability to know where we “end” and others “begin.” This requires us to have a clear sense of self, that we become able guardians of our inner domain, that we establish and maintain the parameters that support our health and flourishing, and that we remain committed to our deep wellness even when this upsets those who wish to control us.

In opposition to the capitalist mindset that argues “busy is good” and that incessant productivity is the marker of worthiness, I value spaciousness, rest, and fallow seasons. I aspire to lead an exceedingly spacious existence, and I pray my offerings counter scarcity narratives. May my work be an outgrowth of a beautifully spacious process.

Just as a human body necessitates both skeleton and muscle to function, I seek to balance solidity with flexibility, flow with structure. In a spiritual sense, I wish to nourish myself with consistent practice while allowing unexpected movements of spirit to change me in surprising ways. I pray my offerings remain supported by stable foundations that are also open to change.