My work with the elders of the Andes inspires me to think again and again about how we learn, integrate and transmit knowledge. Ancestral ways that wisdom is shared land very differently from modern, institutionalized education. The study of relationship between humans and beyond humans are pillars to the way ancestral cultures conceptualize wisdom formation and the players who influence human intelligence. At the center, they acknowledge that the very existence of human consciousness depends on our relationship with the wild, animate world.

While Our Anatomy Project was on hold from 2021-2023, I was working with Imago Community. In that time we brought over $150,000 to indigenous led communities in South America. We did this through a combination of fundraising and collaborative commerce. This work opened the door to many relationships that have sown the seeds for Our Anatomy Project to emerge anew.

I participated in a Hanbleceya ceremony in Colombia in the summer of 2022. This is a Lakota vision quest ceremony that emerged in Colombia as a result of long held relationahips between lineages of north and south America. It includes spending 4 days and 4 nights meditating and listening in the forest while fasting from water and food. Hanbleceya is translated as ‘crying for a vision’. This ceremony opens the channel to receive spiritual guidance for your own life and for your community.

While I was fasting I felt Our Anatomy Project like an ocean lapping at my shore, gently waking me from our hiatus. I also received dreams of Abluela Ana Maria who I had met in the previous weeks. I shared the dreams with her and she invited me to visit. She shared with me her life’s work- to weave the consciousness of the cosmic womb back into humanity, to help us remember how to honor the origin of life. It was curious to me because I paused my research with Our Anatomy Project as I was coming into deep inquiry about the womb. Inquiring into what I could learn from the womb about how to create a good container for the research.

My time with Abuela Ana Maria led to her sharing her vision for a pilgrimage to Rome. Together, we organized a caminata sagrada that was simultaneously walked on three continents in September 2023. Ana Maria’s vision and the plan for our pilgrimage came into greater focus as we consulted with other elders and listened to messages from the more than human world. The purpose of the caminata sagrada emerged as a prayer for the end of child pornography and sex trafficking. How we came to that intention is a beautiful and winding road.

In the process of planning the caminata, elders in Colombia started to share more and more with me about the Andean Cosmovision’s views on pleasure, sexuality and planetary anatomy. One of the requests from the elders is to create educational materials and learning environments that benefit the children as a part of how their wisdom is passed on through me in my work with Our Anatomy Project.

In February 2023 I received a residency at La Realidad, Putumayo, and participated in a minga for the regenerative arts. I am currently living and working in Colombia, continuing to study with the elders and build alliances. I will be spending time at Ecoaldea Atlantida with Abuela Ana Maria, visiting various elders who are interested in OAP, and returning to La Realidad to continue the explorations that began at the minga in 2023.

I am currently fundraising to accomplish my goals for 2024 and I a thrilled to announce that I received funding for coaching with Hilary Bradbury, who will coach me to design the pilot project.

Learn more about my plans for 2024 here.