Lumi's Story

I didn’t grow up in an ashram or a mystical commune. I grew up in small-town Oklahoma—where the closest thing to spiritual ecstasy was a Baptist revival under a white tent in July. But somehow, magic still found me. At eight years old, I wandered into a children’s theater program that felt more like a portal than a playhouse. We danced as mythical creatures, meditated with our eyes closed and arms wide, and slipped into dreamscapes through improvisation. That’s when I first glimpsed the invisible world—and realized that the body, the breath, and the imagination were gateways to something infinite.

 

My teenage years were a little less poetic. Somewhere between cosmic curiosity and questionable choices, I found myself caught in the whirlwind of substances and a search for belonging.  In the middle of it all, I chose to move to Mississippi just before my senior year of high school. I knew I needed a change—a chance to step away from the shadows I was getting lost in, even if I didn't yet know where I was heading.

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But slowly, I began to find beauty in simple things. I gave up chasing highs and began finding beauty in simple things-like leaves emerging on trees in the spring.  In 2005, I completed massage school and stepped into the healing arts with both feet—studying in India and Thailand, exploring energy medicine, yoga, breathwork, and the subtle maps of the soul through the body.

 

But healing didn’t arrive on angel wings—it came through shadow. In my early thirties, after years of training in the healing arts, I entered a different kind of apprenticeship. I spent several years studying with grandmother shadow work teachers who taught me how to sit with grief, shame, and the parts of myself I had tried to outrun. It was there I learned not to spiritually bypass, but to befriend the darkness. Only then did I begin to discover the quiet revelations that come through stillness. 

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For over 15 years, I offered bodywork and energy healing in service to others. And then, life did what life does: it handed me initiations that no training can prepare you for.

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I’ve walked through the underworld—personally, spiritually, and relationally. I’ve witnessed the unraveling of a loved one’s mind and held the impossible grief of losing her. I’ve been misunderstood, misrepresented, and publicly shamed—more than once. And yet, I’ve also been carried by silence, reshaped by nature, and held in the quiet, miraculous hands of grace.

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These experiences didn’t close my heart—they broke it open. They brought me to my most enduring teachers: Silence, Nature, and Tea. Through long periods of solitude and devotional practice, I discovered that presence itself is the great teacher. That we are not here to bypass the human experience, but to make it holy.

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Today, I serve as a spiritual mentor, ceremonialist, and guide for those walking their own winding paths of awakening. My work is rooted in the mystic traditions and grounded in real life—in dishes and dirt, grief and grace, tea and truth.

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When I’m not in the tea room or wandering the woods near my home in Asheville, you’ll find me reading by the fire—or traveling with my husband Jeremy, as we guide others to sacred sites around the world through our company, Inchanted Journeys.

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If you’ve ever felt like your story doesn’t fit into a single category—or that your heart is both tender and fierce—you’re not alone. I look forward to meeting you wherever you are on the path, and walking a few steps together.

In Peace & Presence,
Lumi