Meet the Maker
Aloha. My name is Riand (ree-AHN) and I have been walking on this spiral path for a very long time. Spanning multiple timelines, lifetimes, and dimensions. It is important to understand that this does not make me special... but it does add some extra layers and flavor to what I offer. It's hard to really know me without knowing that. It is what it is.
A story about how I came to be here...
My spiritual practice began in childhood, around age 6 or 7. I spent a lot of time in the woods around my house, hearing and seeing and knowing things that other people didn't seem to Hear or See or Know. I built strange altars for things without names, and booby traps for the neighbor boys.
This is when I first started mixing plants together. My hands just did it - the plants gently and lovingly inspired each movement. Their whispers felt nourishing and sensible in a world that didn't otherwise make much sense. Witch in the Woods was my favorite way to play.
For the next few decades, my practice would go through many twists and turns. I would cast spells in secret, and on rooftops throughout my adolescence - accessing the most rebellious hues of my Self that I could find... I would experience an Age of Rejection of the Self, where I would become a logic-loving, anxious atheist and verbally shit on anything spiritual, natural, or woo-woo because it all drew too much attention to the parts of myself that felt hard to love. Then I would experience a beautiful Homecoming through the transformation of becoming a mother, reactivating the natural Feminine intuitive blueprint that I had allowed to go dormant in my body and spirit.
I would learn chemical composition of plants through Aromatherapy Certification. Organic farming of sacred medicine plants, such as 'awa and noni. Basic alchemical principals through making soap while blasting Led Zeppelin, fermenting my own wild mead, distilling hydrosols in my big copper still, and reading piles and piles of books. I would stumble upon mentors from all over the world... some of them finding me in dreams, some of them human, some of them not.
I would study the dance of the planets. I would help hundreds of people find their medicine... whether that be through words, plants, journeys, or supplements. I would walk the hedge between this world and the next with the help of poisons, sacred medicine ceremonies, and a bad attitude that nearly got me killed a few different times. (It's okay, me 'n Death are cool.)
And now I am here. I have a sturdy wooden worktable that I love, in a purple cabin full of plants and pets and bad jokes. I make medicines and try to help people find what they need.
Witch in the Woods is my favorite way to play.