For decades, I’ve longed to know, express and uncover the depth, breadth and texture of the soul that yearns to live through me.

I searched high and low outside myself for career paths that fit me. First, it was a long stint doing meaningful non-profit work with a focus on serving people who are poor. Then, I joined the ranks of Higher Education by teaching and mentoring students seeking to find their own unique career path. Next, I ventured into the corporate world working as a Director of Coach Development serving Life Coaches that wanted to support others yearning to live from a place of optimal well-being.

All of these jobs held meaning and some level of fulfillment for me but they lied alongside the path that was truly beckoning me. Beneath the aspirations of my ego, a much deeper summons persisted. Here, a title or specific role was not the nectar of vitality calling my name. Rather, this inner voice sought a more intimate manifestation of the mythopoetic soul essence uniquely given to me by birthright. Yet, I resisted this painful process yielding to this inner voice. Instead, I survived on a borrowed sense of self that was grown from a childhood urgency to fix what appeared as broken. This false sense of self caused me to do “service work” from a place of inner poverty where the burden of fixing others hardships became, over time, untenable. And then, it happened... In the winter of 2022, a “perfect storm” of unmet soul needs and suppressed emotions united with the mania of the pandemic and I was struck with the immense gift of the Soul’s Dark Night. While deeply painful, this was “The BEST THING that EVER HAPPENED TO ME!”

How could I say such a thing? Well, to see the truth, sometimes we need to be pressed firmly into the Earth and experience our embodied existence as humans . While this period of my life was marked by the dark unknown in its many forms, it also brought forth an unprecedented richness. Soon after it began, I found that something magical began to emerge. My friendships and family connections grew exponentially and the “I” in me was no longer trying to do my life alone, The burden I felt to carry other’s pain began to diminish. For the first time, I was becoming myself. My TRUE SELF!

During this retreat into the Dark Moon phase, I entered the natural world as a seeker of what had been lost in me. Marked by wilderness wanders, self-designed ceremonies, chanting, playing the drums, shamanic journeys, communicating across species and by regular immersions into my favorite creek, I began to receive messages from these sacred relational practices. The essential piece that kept coming through over and over was that my inner system needed to radically re-organize to shift its relationship to the source from which energy flow emerges. Instead of working from the fast-paced productive mindset of an effort driven intellectualism (and individualism), I had to shift to the seasonal pacing and communal wisdom of the soft, yet vibrant heart. This is and has been the game changer of my life and I’m eager to share it with you!

I encourage you to consider entering your Dark Moon phase with me as your guide,