Teachers

It's sometimes challenging to find the start of something that is so much a part of who you are today. There are many people, places, and studies that have led me forward on my journey. Here are just a few.

Rebecca Altman, Weaver of Magic

Five years ago, I signed up for Rebecca Altman's, The Wonder Sessions. At the time, the thing that caught me was a video she did where she was sitting in nature and talking about connecting out into the world around you. I wanted that. And, I wanted the way I felt when I watched and listened as she described it. That was an opening.

It's not that I hadn't been interested in nature and nature connection before, because I had. And, I could go way back to things like Permaculture and Gardening and childhood, playing in the outdoors. But choosing The Wonder Sessions was an acknowledgment to the Universe that I was ready. Ready to quit hiding from my deepest self. Ready to quit hiding from the magical mystical way I wanted my world to be.

Of course, I didn't magically find it the day I signed up. It's been a long and sometimes painful journey to get from there to here. But it was a start.

jim mcdonald, clown and herb teacher extraordinaire

When I finished The Wonder Sessions, I signed up for jim mcdonald's Lindera program Jim teaches about herbalism but also how to apply energetics (hot and cold, damp and dry, tense and lax) to not only the use of herbs but to discover what is happening in your body. Jim's full immersion, Lindera, changed the way I think about herbal medicine but also helped me to feel more deeply into the ways of my body.

Katherine Genet, Author

Early last year, I read the Wilde Grove series by Katherine Genet. The world she described felt so rich to me and seemed to be a breadcrumb along the pathway I had to follow. I read all of her books and read the whole series again this year just to feel into the magic.

The Path of Druidry

Then in March of 2022, I signed up with OBOD, the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids to begin training in Druidry. What led me there? I'm not exactly sure. I'd been on the site before because I'd archived a few articles in my personal library. But that particular day, I noticed the training. It was no longer just a resource, it was something I could follow. And, I felt it was the right thing for me to do at that time.

This past year has been like stepping onto a conveyor belt. Some of what I've done in OBOD was related to what we did in The Wonder Sessions. I've spent a lot of time connecting with the elements (earth, air, fire, water) and making them very personal to me. Training in Druidry is a path of drawing in myth and magic and wonder with the world around us.

The Fairy Congress

Then, as if I wasn't already moving quickly enough I attended the online Gaian Congress which is an offshoot of the Fairy Congress. Attending the Congress has put my inner life on overdrive. And, it's brought so much magic into my life.

That said, sometimes it seems like I'm spinning in circles or maybe flying around like a bunch of leaves in a fall windstorm. And, yes, like I'm all the leaves. I'm now to a point where I'm hoping to draw all of this magic and wonder into myself and integrate it and transform it into the path that works for me. A mix of Druidry and magic, shamanic journeying and adoration of the world around me. My hope is that by writing about it, by synthesizing all of what I've learned into a personal practice that makes my life richer and helps me be a better person, and helps me reach out into the world with my gift, I'll find even more magic.