My Teachers
I first met Tsaurrurrikame Eliot Cowan in 2007. I was freshly in the throes of a spiritual crisis-- one that shook the very foundations of how I perceived my own safety in the world. A friend had sent me his book, Plant Spirit Medicine, a few years before, and I knew then that I needed to pursue his teachings.
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The years I spent studying under Eliot literally changed the fundamental way I understood the world. Raised in the suburbs of New York City, I was surrounded by people who mostly ignored, even scoffed at nature! By pursuing nature medicine through Eliot's
indigenous perspective, I was forced to rewire my brain to comprehend what he was asking us to do. Talk and listen to the spirits of plants?? That means that ALL plants have spirits! That we can communicate with! Every day! And because plants and trees can't be the only wise beings filled with spirit, therefore everything on this planet must be rightfully infused with conscious awareness...
In a culture that raised us to act otherwise, this is still something I must continually integrate every day of my life. Remember. Remember. Rocks, too. Clouds, too. Cars, too. Plastic, too. The spirits of some things are easier to access than other things. Nothing is excluded. I highly recommend engaging with the spirit of a plant--any plant! Especially the everyday ones that grow in the sidewalks and in our gardens. Every plant offers medicine on some level-- edible or not. I owe this understanding to my beloved teacher, Eliot.
I met Dr. Malidoma Somé only a year or two after meeting Eliot. In fact, after I finished my 2-year studies with Eliot, a strange rash developed on my arm that was completely resistant to treatment. Upon my very first encounter with Malidoma a few months later, the rash mysteriously cleared up.
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I felt a strong pull to study with Malidoma. His book, The Healing Wisdom of Africa, produced profound healing dreams for me. I was in the midst of a frightening, disorienting spiritual crisis at that time, and aside from enrolling in his training in Indigenous African Spirit Technologies, I pursued a one-on-one divination from him. This initial divination allowed Malidoma to peer directly into the spirit world and discern what was at the root of my spiritual crisis. He recommended I consult directly with his elders in West Africa, which I had the good fortune to do a few months later in person on a visit to Malidoma's home village in Burkina Faso. The healing work and insights that have come from Malidoma and continue to come from my 14+ year relationship with the Dagara are myriad and profound. Malidoma's work brought me into deep communion with the spirits of the elements, the ancestors, and the wisdom beings the Dagara refer to as the kontomble. These relationships continue to shape my daily life navigating a culture which both dismisses and fears the very real world of spirit.
I continued my studies with Malidoma (receiving specific ritual training and blessing to hold Dagara-style ritual) until his death in 2022. After my initial trip in 2010, I returned to his home village of Dano, Burkina Faso both in 2015 and in 2023. In 2023, I completed a Kontomble Merger in the village-- an initiatory ritual which closely weds the initiate with the nature spirit beings. This work continues to unfold in me.
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Malidoma's name meant "to make friends with the stranger/enemy." He spent his adult life translating the spiritual foundations of his native Dagara ways as medicine for the largely spiritually-impoverished, ancestrally-orphaned modern Western world. As someone in close relationship to his work, I honor the gifts of his life path and gratefully fumble forward into the complexities of race and African history that offering this ritual work brings along with it in the USA.
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Learn more about Malidoma in his beautifully written memoir of his early life, Of Water and the Spirit.
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Why Elf Owl?
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Beginning in the morning and throughout the day of Elder Malidoma's death, I received unexpected dreams, images, and messages. (One dream showed me a large human migration that may be needed in the future-- and alongside this migration is the profound, essential need to actively grieve all that is being left behind.)
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As I sat in prayer at my ancestor altar the night of his death, I felt a gentle invitation to run a bath and continue my connection with the ancestors while submerged. During this very peaceful bath, I heard a voice say, "Your name is Elf Owl."
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As I have a tendency to disregard certain messages, I continued bathing peacefully, my mind wandering off. A few minutes later, (maybe as the ancestors sensed I hadn't taken them seriously?), I heard the same message repeated: Your name is Elf Owl.
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Elf Owl? Aren't those the tiny owls that live in the woodpecker holes of saguaro cacti?
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When I emerged from the bath that night, I decided to try on the name. I thought to myself, my name is Elf Owl. As quickly as I had that thought, for a flash of a moment, my vision sharpened 1000%.
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What does one do when receiving a name from the Other World? I didn't know, except to honor this gift and keep the story to myself.
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Nine months later, I had my first public offering as an energy worker in Boulder. When I returned home from a day of working on people, I stepped off my porch and found...
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​(To be continued.)
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