Once upon a time, a long time ago - hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of years ago - we were not strangers in the world.
…Nature was all around us, and we knew that every tree, animal, river, and stone was alive, just like we were. Conversation and collaboration with the wind and the rain, with animals and plants, was just another part of life.
When these words came to me in 2003, I knew that they had to be the opening lines in my book, “The Way of Magic.” It took me three years to finish writing, and many more to grasp their depth, to become “not a stranger” myself, and to inhabit a world that is intelligent and alive. It took yet more years to realize what a sentient world is, what initiation is, what spiritual maturity is, how much support is available to us, and what we are capable of.
Now I seek to share these skills, understandings, and gifts directly.
I teach and guide ritual practices for people to reclaim a connection with the living world, our selves, our heritage, and our innate wisdom. My purpose is to help us step into what we are called to do and be, facilitating healing and entering a sacred and magical existence. All of our gifts are needed during this very fraught time here as part of Gaia.
I use methods that I have found powerful and effective, including Ancestral Healing, Voice Dialogue, and trance/ritual work, along with spiritual mentoring and teachings that invite us back into an intimate relationship with the living world.
Contrary to what we have been taught, we are social, even collective beings, deeply dependent on and influenced by each other. We grow best when other humans hold space for us to show up as our best selves and open up to the sacredness of our world and our lives. Intact cultures pass this wisdom down through the generations; these are not things that humans are designed to discover or learn on our own.
This is a critical time for humanity, a bifurcation point with unique possibilities and perils, when we are called to recover our innate genius, to step up as spiritually mature people, to reconnect with sources of wisdom, and – perhaps above all – to remember and revive our connection to all life. There is no question that humanity will not continue in our current trajectory. I invite you to be part of the great turning toward freedom, love, joy, beauty, aliveness, and interbeing, to ignite the potential we barely remember.
When we act in service to life and to our own souls’ deepest longings, we are blessed with the grace of joining in the ongoing magic of creation.
Hineni: I answer the call.
Who am I:
I was born and grew up in the glorious climate of Cleveland, Ohio, USA to lineages from the Ashkenazi Jewish East European Diaspora as far as I can trace, to a mother who emigrated as a teenager after WWII. I moved to Israel in 1986.
I am the author of Derech Hakessem (The Way of Magic), the only manual of Witchcraft, neo-Paganism, and Goddess Spirituality written in Hebrew for the local audience, attuned to the local cycle of the year and Jewish holidays. I am a writer, a singer-songwriter, a ritualist (priestess), a Reclaiming tradition witch, a Voice Dialogue Facilitator, an Ancestral Medicine Practitioner, and a life-long animist. I was part of the earliest days of Paganism and Women’s Circles in Israel, when we held sacred song circles before they were called that. I taught “Way of the Witch” and other courses in basic magical practice. I completed a Masters’ Degree in Sociology from the University of Haifa, and certificates in Life Coaching and Permaculture Design. I moderated online forums dedicated to Paganism in Israel and the writings of Charles Eisenstein.
I am also a mother of two adults, was a contributor to Be’Ofen Tivi natural parenting blog back in the 90s, am a long-term spouse to a man who now has dementia, and am old enough to claim the mantle of crone and to have been through a thing or two.
Image by Inbal Cohen
I draw inspiration from the work of Starhawk, Ora Gavriely, Dr. Daniel Foor, Dr. Daniel Naveh, Charles Eisenstein, and Stephen Harrod Buhner, among others.