If you feel the pull, and if you are ready, willing and able to do the work of self-healing – finding the deeper connection to yourself and to the Life and Spirit within you – then I am here to guide you to the knowledge I have gained through decades of study and practice.
My role is to transmit the knowledge so you don’t have to start from scratch. I stand on the shoulders of generation after generation of ancestors from several lineages.
My own Personal Journey has led me to the solemn oath to continue this practice and share it with others.
If you have an inkling that the Old Ways hold something special for you, I encourage you to reach out. There is unimaginable support waiting for you.
“While my sessions with Winter Jade only began a short while ago, I feel changes occurring deep within. I am learning successfully to quiet myself, to listen and to allow the beauty from Father Sky and Mother Earth to heal me. I am not sure what will happen and what my path will end up being. I do know that I have a calm and hopefulness that I have always yearned for.
I am excited to continue on this path and learn more.
I have put my trust in Grandmother Winter Jade and truly believe that this path I am on with her guidance is for wonderful reasons.”
~Laura, Chicago
About Grandmother Winter Jade
In the Beginning….
My first exposure to the spiritual side of indigenous medicine came from Celtic priestesses. I still lead celebrations on the holy feasts of The Wheel of the Year. A life altering change came when I began studying Shiatsu in 1974. I began to realize that true healing came not from pressing my thumbs on acupoints, but from transmitting self-healing impulses to clients. But it was Shinto priest, Shinmei Akinobu Kishi, who inspired me the most. He was able to show me how to alter my vibration to meet the frequency of a client’s vibration (we all vibrate due to electrical impulses of our nervous systems). He impressed me so much that, after studying with him in the States, I felt compelled to move to Europe to apprentice with him from 1982-84.
In Japanese tradition, I lived in the same household and had 24-hour access. He was training me to become a Shinto priestess, but I had to return to the States before I felt ready to assume that responsibility. However, his was my most profound and formative education.
Kishi was a healer of extraordinary magnitude. He was in a horrific automobile accident when the driver fell asleep at the wheel going 100 mph. Kishi was thrown clear and landed in such a way as to completely shatter his 1st lumbar vertebra, destroying it completely. While in the hospital, he refused drugs and grew back his vertebra. The doctors couldn’t believe it.
Kishi was inspirational. Just being in his presence was uplifting. He passed away in 2012. He still lives in my heart. He had the most profound influence on my hands-on healing. How deeply he touched me is inexpressible.
For me, even the important influences of my subsequent mentors take meaning and significance through the lens of Kishi’s direct transmissions. Although memory fails me in many areas, I can still recall his exact words, tone of voice and facial expressions as he instilled his absolute certainty within us that we have the power to catalyze positive change. All my thoughts, experiences and endeavors in my work are permeated with his invincible spirit and his unwavering faith in Spirit . . . and our ability to channel it.
The Path Continues….
Many years later, I met a Cherokee priest named Grandmother River (the Cherokee people use the word priest for both women and men). I was introduced to her at a pivotal moment in my life. She understood what was on my heart when no one else could.
Grandmother River gave me a year’s worth of tasks to complete before she would perform my Eldership Ceremony. That ceremony had been my reason for meeting her, and I fully expected its completion to be the end of my association with her. But I had been so profoundly touched and changed by my encounters with her and the practices she assigned to me, that I continued with her from 1996-2003.
I found Grandmother River to be magnificent in Ceremony. At a certain point in my training, she endorsed me to lead individuals and groups in the Old Ways of Journeying – a method for meeting your Totems and Spirit Guides, and for healing your past in many ways. Though now 2,000 miles away, I can still rely on Grandmother River for mentoring whenever I need counsel about advancing my spiritual walk.
Continued Study…
During that same period, I met and studied with medical intuitive Gregory Antyuhin, a Russian “Shaman Without A Drum.” His way of praying is my personal favorite. It is so full of love that you can feel yourself filling up with it. At the end of a prayer, I feel that I am literally made of love, from the depths of my DNA all the way out to the very hairs on my skin.
He has a very special way of viewing and clearing Chakras, and in 2004, he endorsed me to teach this unique work. It is one of the most inspired and prayerful practices I have been privileged to learn and share.
They are still with me…
It was the mastery and mentorship of my teachers that urged me to develop my own work. I still hear their wisdom and guidance whispering in my ear, encouraging me to delve, yet a little deeper, into understanding the human potential for healing and happiness.
I have learned that you have the power within you to connect to Spirit and to your own soul: to be self-determining; to be courageous and compassionate; to find forgiveness and appreciation; to give and receive; to know when to take a step back, and when to step up.
It is a blessing beyond measure to have been called to this work. It will be an honor beyond words to share it with you.
And the day came
When the risk to remain
Tight in a bud
Was more painful than
The risk it took
To blossom
~ Anais Nin