"Without plants, there are no gods." - Ifa proverb.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. In 2002 I apprenticed at “Dragon Herbs” in Santa Monica to add to my personal studies in Classical Chinese Herbal Medicine and in late 2002 travelled up to northern California to study at the California College of Ayurveda, graduating in 2005 with a certification as an Ayurvedic Health Specialist (AHS). In that same year I was invited to speak at UCLA’s first Allopathic / Alternative Health Fair on Ayurvedic Medicine while also giving free tongue diagnosis to those who stopped by my booth to find out more about the science. Starting in 2006, I also studied Yoga & Ayurveda under Mas Vidal at Dancing Shiva Yoga Studio in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles and am currently the Ayurvedic consultant for the LA based Yoga collective ShivaKali.
Besides my background in Ayurveda and Chinese Herbal Medicine I also study try to incorporate herbs, minerals, and therapies used in such systems as Unani Tibb, Western Herbalism, Native American, Amazonian, and African Herbalism (both in their therapeutic and magico-religious aspects). I have also worked in the Supplements industry, giving micro-consultations utilizing whatever stock of encapsulated/powdered/liquid herbs, vitamins, minerals, greens, probiotics, amino acids, fish oils, etc were available to instigate healing and transformation in those I was dealing with.
In addition, spiritual geography has now become a part of my arsenal, having received my certification as a Feng Shui consultant from the American Institute of Feng Shui (2017). I am also a student of the tantric healing practices of the Yuthok Nyingtik, the spiritual nucleus of Tibetan Medicine. And last, but most intriguing, I am also getting learned in the old African-American tradition of Hoodoo / Rootwork, the science of how Black people in America, pre- and post-Emancipation, were able to use “herbs and roots to affect supernatural occurrences as well as natural cures.”
