Our Team

Carolyn Griffeth

Founder, Ritualist, and Soul Guide

In the center of my soul there is a feeling of being bound to something. This mysterious “something” reminds me that my life is not my own. There is a mission I came here to fulfill–the passion of my soul.  

This passion has become increasingly clear over the last decade. As a young woman, I left medical school and spent the next twenty-plus years immersed in social change movements. Around 42, I entered a period of spiritual expansion in which I was visited by a series of dreams and visions that revealed a further calling. In one such dream:

I climb onto a roof and from this high place I see images of the ceremonies I came to serve and bring forth. The potency of what I see strikes me like lightning! In a mix of joy and agony, I cry out, “I will do this!” over and over.

The vision of Earthkeeper Wisdom School emerged in a similar way: In response to my earnest prayer to be shown my medicine for the world, I saw a cycle of ceremony…

Sobonfu Somé, ritualist of the Dagara tribe, became a core teacher to me at this time. Of the soul’s journey, she wrote, “It is like looking for a path and suddenly the path takes you. The path takes you; you don’t take the path.”

I have been taken by the path of serving the rival of living culture as a ritualist, dream worker and soul guide. I warmly welcome you to contact me if I can be of service to your journey!

  • The teachings of EKWS flow from my mystical journey, my life in the trenches of social change activism, and my devotion to the web of life. Additionally, I have been blessed to learn directly from these and other remarkable teachers:

    • Joanna Macy, founder of the Work that Reconnects and an elder/mentor to me.

    • Sobonfu Somé, ritualist of the Dagara tribe of Burkina Faso

    • Hilary and Brad Keeney, teachers of the ancient art of ecstatic engineering

    • Rebeccah Bennett, founder of Inpower Institute and Spirit Rising—a womenist community where I serve as a spiritual minister.

    • Bill Plotkin, Animas Valley and Purpose Guides Institute - schools of nature-based soul guiding in support of the journey of soul initiation

    • Francis Weller, soul activist and grief ritualist

“There is a web of connection, life, and light.  This web is how we stay connected to earth and other worlds.  Connecting to the web feels like being so bound to something.” – Sobonfu Somé

Lyndsey Scott

Song Leader, Priestess

Song welcomes us to Life, now. It teaches me to Hold each moment as prayer, whatever the task at hand. It gives me a way to praise this question, this being, this ache, This. Leading community singing woke me up to my priestess soul! I love to honor our thresholds, bring beauty to our gatherings, tend the grief in our bones, liberate the pleasure in our bodies ~ all woven in Song, all in service of this great big Coming Home. When I lead us in song, I pray this full transmission comes through to nourish us as we claim and wake into our divine birthright, Freedom, and into our full bandwidth of praise, pleasure, play, and power. 

Leading song with Earthkeepers lights me up ~ seeding a repertoire of "sonic ritual vocabulary" for us to draw on as we deepen into community, laying a bed of tones and beats for us to freestyle our prayers into, anchoring the field of ceremony as we experiment in co-creation. Our singing is laced with laughter, reverence, presence, & permission. Our singing Remembers us into Village.

My start in art school jostled loose the Weird; my decade as a community artist in St. Louis, MO trained me as a Weaver; my recent adventure as a small-town yoga studio founder honed me as a "just folks" embodiment-based Sacred Space Holder. My love of loooong journey bike-abouts throughout the Heartland teaches me earthspeed Kinship. My prayer for the abolition of the prison industrial complex requires my commitment to ending internalized and systemic racism, and necessitates the tender work of apprenticing to personal and collective Grief.

Find out more about my work at:

  • Deepest love and gratitude for my song teachers and mentors, Liz Rog, Lisa Littlebird, Laurence Cole, and Barbara McAfee, who model the path of singing as heart-opening, and to Holistic Resistance, modeling Song and intimacy as tools for ending white supremacy.

“Then the singing enveloped me. It was furry and resonant, coming from everyone's very heart. There was no sense of performance or judgment, only that the music was breath and food.” – Anne Lamott

Tamira Cousett

Collaborative Partner, Ancestral Medium

Tamira is an ancestral medium and ritual facilitator specializing in supporting folks with remembering the authentic pathways of ancestral connections. Her practices are rooted in ecosystems of Love and Black liberation theologies and informed by her initiations into Afro-Brazilian earth-honoring traditions and West African Ifa Òrìṣà tradition. She enjoys co-weaving communal containers of curiosity, connection, homecoming, and life-affirming rituals with folks and their ancestral ecosystems of care. 

Find out more about Tamira’s offerings at:

Rebeccah Bennett

Guest Teacher and Anti-Racism Consultant

Rebeccah Bennett is founder of InPower Institute, a Center for Community Healing & Well-Being in St. Louis, MO and its spiritual community, Spirit Rising. A highly-regarded community healer, spiritual director and life coach, Rebeccah has committed herself to the liberation and healing of the human spirit. For nearly 25 years, she has inspired, coached, trained, and helped tens of thousands of people in countless communities, always working to elevate human consciousness and improve the human condition.

Find out more about Rebeccah’s work at:

Brittíni "Ree Belle" Gray-Chiquillo 

Guest Teacher 

Brittíni is the Founder of Mama Scrap's Incorporated and the Deputy Director at InPower Institute, where she oversees the esteemed Black Healers Collective. Brittíni is also a multi-methodology/modality healer & wellness curator, artist, certified doula, strategist and more… Her work is expansive and rooted in the intersections of healing, freedom, spirituality and culture. Central to how she shows up in her public life is as a politicized healer, exploring the balance between the need for innovative communal healing spaces and connecting to the root system of ancestral and indigenous practices. Brittíni powerful workshop Reparations as Ritual is core to A Year in Ceremony.

Find out more about Brittíni’s work at:

Micaiah Hambley

Relational Bridge to Earth and Soul

Micaiah learns from and serves his human and more-than-human community as a ritualist, healer, soul guide, and relational bridge to the wilds. At 19, he began training in Buddhist Monasticism and embodiment-based healing modalities. At 23, feeling called by the wilderness, he left the monastery to embark on a series of multi-month to year-long solo retreats in remote nature, that continued for the next 9 years. Micaiah’s path of homecoming to earth and to Spirit has been intimately intertwined with his committed path of homecoming into loving relationship with his body, emotions, and human community. Micaiah serves Earthkeepers as an Earth-connection facilitator and ritualist.

Micaiah sees clients one-on-one online and in-person. Find out more about his offerings at:

Seren

Ritualist, Muse, and Web Tender

Seren lives in wild devotion to Earth, to all of their kin, and to the great mystery. They joyfully express this devotion through writing, song catching, beauty-making, and practicing deep loving relationality with all life. Seren serves Earthkeepers as earth connection facilitator, tender of social ecologies, ritualist and resident muse. You are welcome to call upon them for energy healing, grief tending, and ritual dreaming.

Learn more about Seren’s work at:

Kelly Mathews

Director of Organizational Artistry

Kelly is an organizational strategist, web designer and soul-centered marketing guide for mission-driven businesses and organizations. Through close listening, strategic planning, and design — she supports business owners and visionary leaders in bringing their sacred work into the world. As Director of Organizational Artistry at EKWS, she provides both operational and creative support to our growing organization.

Find out more about Kelly’s work at: