A Brief Bio

I had the good fortune to spend my childhood in 1970s Borneo, where I was exposed early on to indigenous lifeways and deep, vibrant animist ways of being in the world. In fact, that early richness of experience meant that I spent most of my teen and adult years in the U.S. trying to find ways to integrate that deep early learning with my own inherited ancestral practices.

Of necessity, that process has involved a profound reckoning with both the beneficial and harmful aspects of my heritage. Through decades of academic research and spiritual practice, I came to appreciate the wisdom traditions of the Ancient Mediterranean ancestors. Their teachings on the living, animate cosmos were preserved in the Orphic Mystery tradition, which for centuries has been at the heart of the Western esoteric traditions—pagan, Christian, Hebrew, and Islamic alike.

However, that same esoteric tradition has all-too-often been “white-washed” and stripped of its wildly liberatory power to transform and undermine oppressive social structures. Our cosmos is gloriously, endlessly alive and abundant, and in the face of climate despair and ecocide, the teachings of the Ancient Mediterranean ancestors show us how to connect to each other, to our earth, and to the realm of the “more than human”—animals, plants, minerals, and the wide heavens above. Only in relationship with the cosmos can we find our own center, and be of service to the world. 

From this core mission, my practical work in everyday life takes many forms: teaching, speaking, translating, and advocating. Right now I am most excited about my Mysteria Mundi project: an ongoing translation of the Orphic Hymns that I am doing with the support of my substack subscribers. You can find out more about that here on my substack site, and about the classes that have stemmed out of that work here on my Classes page.

In my personal life, I live and work in Brooklyn, NY, where I’m a single mom to a teenage boy and two cats. My favorite pastime, apart from caring for those three precious creatures, is tending my terrace herb garden, from which I can see the ocean, and watch the sunrise, moonrise, and stars. 

🙏 A Very Partial List of my Teachers 🙏

I was fortunate to receive scholarships to attend Brown and Princetonfor for my undergraduate and first part of my graduate education. While I was there, I studied with the following scholars of classical history, ancient magic, anthropology, and religion: Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Hans Dieter Betz, Glen Bowersock, Peter Brown, David Carruso, Joseph Dan, David Frankfurter, John Gager, Moshe Idel, Dirk Obbink, Elaine Pagels, David Pingree, Stanley Stowers, Froma Zeitlin, & Slavoj Zizek, among others.

My Masters in Anthropology was done at Columbia, where my main teachers were Valentine Daniels, Rosalind Morris, Sherry Ortner, & Michael Taussig.

I also have been fortunate to have excellent poetry mentors, among whom are Paul Matthews, Gibson Faye-LeBlanc, and Gregory Pardlo.

Conversation partners who are especially important to me these days are Bayo Akomolafe, Sophie Strand, and my fellow researchers at the anthropology journal Oscillations.

My best spiritual teachers were my grandparents and parents. And my fellow-survivor leaders at Sanctuary for Families. But formally, I consider Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche to be my root dharma teacher. I took my Bodhisattva vows with Geshe Michael Roach, who I no longer study with, but was important in my early training. These days my sangha is the world, and my practice is guided by the earth and stars.