I started taking classes at the cave in the winter of 2010. I remember that because for me, life has been divided into two parts. Before Shamanscave/After Shamanscave. Prior to making my way to the cave I was pretty much what everyone expected me to be. A full empath, I was very good at feeling out the energy of the room and putting on a mask so that people might be less hurtful to me. For awhile that seemed to work well enough, but done basically for the entirety of my life I inevitably forgot it was a mask I put on and became trapped by my imagined expectations of the world around me. I guess that's just another way of saying I went insane.  

Looking back I don't think I really believed I could heal, but I did the work and over time started to notice that things were getting better. It was like someone took a magic eraser to my trauma and just started to blur the lines of my past so that I no longer was haunted by it. 

It was pretty wild and when I started to understand that the person holding the magic eraser was me, well... Life got a whole lot more interesting.That's when I became a maker and the second part of my life came into view. I'm no longer what people make me into. I'm a maker. 

As a teacher of the tradition I enjoy most of the different aspects of the curriculum, but what really fascinates me is the underlying relationship between the classes. The way in which they act in concert to bring about change. Nothing is really separate or divided in the curriculum. Everything is there for a reason and being able to help people figure that out for themselves is a huge part of why I am here now. There's a purpose here at the cave, an intent. It's the reason why those who stay here do. 

It took me some years to figure out what that really was, but when I did I found my home. I'm here now too to assist people as they work to see themselves apart from the madness that exists in the world.