Vanessa's Story

TO UNDERSTAND ME, THERE ARE FOUR THINGS THAT SHAPED WHY I DO WHAT I DO:

1. I was a sensitive child with a strong connection to Spirit (with an uncanny ability to predict future events and pluck uncomfortable facts from adult minds). I felt alone without anyone who could explain and guide me in what I was experiencing with the unseen world.
2. The running theme of my childhood was being told “you’re too sensitive,” “you’re too much,” “why do you always have to be so intense?”
3. Growing up in the middle of corn and soy fields in Illinois, I have known many people who died from cancers related to the pesticides used in the fields that seeped into the drinking water.
4. I’ve always had a profound relationship with Nature. The Earth speaks to me and through me, and people tell me my energy helps them feel more grounded. This connection guides my every decision.

Through my teenage years, on the outside everything looked great: friends, good grades, captain of the soccer team-you know the type. However, on the inside, I willfully ignored my spiritual gifts, turned away from my truths, and turned towards alcohol and drugs to try to fill the void.

I graduated college with a degree in Sustainable Development (before “sustainability” was a buzzword). I tried to work with midwest farmers to help them convert from conventional agriculture to organic practices and, as a young female, that didn’t go over so well.

At the age of 23, I was in a car wreck and suffered a traumatic brain injury, among other serious injuries, and was in a coma for a week. The doctors were certain that - at best - if I woke up, I would function like a 4-year-old for the rest of my life, physically, mentally, and emotionally. 

I woke up.

It was a miracle. The doctors proclaimed that I had “died” and defied all scientific reasoning for being alive. Coming out of this experience, I was given a very clear message that I was to help people connect to the Earth and Spirit. 

That’s when I fully embraced the life I was meant to live.

At the same time, I (finally!) sought training for the spiritual gifts I’d tried to ignore for so long, spending 5 years developing, attuning and deepening my abilities as a mystic.

For the past 20 years I’ve trained thousands of educators worldwide through the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center’s School Garden Teacher Training Program, various workshops, and different colleges and universities on best practices for connecting people to the Earth and developing science curriculum. Currently, I have the honor to teach in the Contemplative Education and Environmental Studies Departments at Naropa University.

I’ve worked with many great teachers and mentors, but my relationship with the Earth has been my biggest teacher. Through living on multiple organic, biodynamic farms and homesteads in the US, Europe, Central and South America, and Africa, and through spending much time being still in Nature, I cultivated a deep relationship with the Earth, fine-tuned my spiritual skills and accelerated healing multiple times in my life.

In fact, a couple of years ago I had a brain scan, and the neurologist was in disbelief at what he saw: There was no sign a traumatic brain injury had ever happened!! I’m a case study for doctor residency programs of a successful epigenetics patient.

Rhett's Story

As far back as I can remember, I’ve experienced nature and spirits in ways other people couldn’t understand.

For me, there was this whole other world that was so real and felt so right to be part of, but the pressure to disconnect from it, and the fact that nobody else could see it, made me feel crazy.

Throughout my teens, I felt like I was in a constant fight to keep the spiritually connected part of myself alive, when society, my school and my parents wanted me to go with ‘the program.’ The message was clear: This is how you need to see and fit into the world, and you need to forget about everything you feel and know is true.

Hopeless and depressed, I shut down, numbed myself, and withdrew. I barely made the grades to graduate high school, struggled with drugs and alcohol, and got arrested multiple times. I was prescribed medications for ADHD and anxiety, but they didn’t address any of my issues.

It got to the point where I said “If this is all life has to offer, then I’m not interested.”

In the midst of this, I was driving down the highway and I got the message very clearly that it was “no mistake” that I was here, that the Earth itself wanted me here, and that it was important for me to stay.

I bawled my eyes out.

I took that message seriously, and began to take my life seriously, acting with hope and intention for the first time.

I started to take care of myself by developing a meditation practice, changing my diet, growing my own food and foraging for wild edibles. I studied herbalism and wildcrafting like it was my job. I exercised regularly and sought out indigenous teachers and experts on traditional skills - men and women who were also connected with nature on a deep level.

I went back to school, earning nearly straight A’s and successfully graduating college with a degree in Culture, Ecology, and Sustainability with an emphasis on Ecological Agriculture. My goal was to continue to deepen and expand the Earth stewardship practices I’d learned.

When Vanessa and I had the vision to start Earth Magic Academy to help others reclaim their connection with Spirit, with the essence of who they are and their unique gifts, I saw there was a larger role for me to step into. 

I could be the rolemodel I’d never had. 

To present a different kind of masculinity that isn’t defined by career status, competition and sports knowledge - but a more sensitive, spiritually open strength that’s grounded in connection and skills that bring us closer to Earth and our own natures.