"All of us, of course, can teach without words, from the smallest child to the most wizened elder. Every time we make sounds of pleasure when we eat, cry a tear of empathy, rise to meet some challenge with a willing heart and body, every time we stop to admire a little bug, pause to sniff a lover’s neck before a kiss, or respond to a need with silence and touch, we are teaching without words."

Loba is the wonder-filled author of the upcoming book “The Enchanted Pantry: Recipes for a More Magical & Flavorful Life”, as well as an Animá Sanctuary host and her beautiful voice and canyon-inspired melodies can be heard on the GaiaTribe album “The Enchantment”.

She and her partners live and teach on an ancient Mogollon place of power, 7 river crossings from the nearest road and a 5 hour drive from the nearest city, in a river canyon in mountainous Southwest New Mexico. A longtime fellow writer for SageWoman magazine, she’s regarded for her emphasis on the power of nature, food and home.

Known as a “purveyor of sacrament and delight,” Loba inspires self love and re-enchantment through personal example and wild food feasts. She is host to the many inspired retreat guests and students, including for the Animá Herbal Tradition Intensives and the Shaman Path Intensive at the Animá Lifeways & Herbal School.

LOBA has been a co-director of the Animá Lifeways & Herbal School for a decade and a half now. As a young woman she literally followed her dreams home to New Mexico, where she found her true self, her power and her calling.

Dedicated to the furthering of traditional life and foodways, Loba teaches a variety of hands-on rewilding and homesteading skills as diverse as wild foods preservation, backwoods gourmet cuisine, firecraft, water collection and management as well as sensory immersion in the land. Her emphasis on personal, bodily connection to wild self and earth is an inspiration and lesson for all those who come in contact with her.

Loba’s amazing traditional foods recipes are featured on the Animá Lifeways & Herbal School Blog, along with her regularly updated tales describing her day-to-day, magical canyon life.

It is in person, however, that she has the greatest and deepest impact, her hard earned truths exceeded by her thorough engagement, expressive gratitude, compassion, empathy, sweetness, devotion, strength and joy... serving as a role model for everyone she meets.

The wondrous feasts she creates for retreat guests and workshop participants inspire conscious engagement, connection and gratitude, and usually end up being a major component of their experience here. And her teachings as well as palpable caring often have a profound effect on the participants of the various Animá workshops. Letters continue to arrive years later from those who credit her guidance and example.

The Enchantment--CD

Gaian spirituality informs and supports other spiritual and magical paths with its integration of holistic science, ecology, shamanic insight and ancient pan-racial wisdom- "a new model for teaching and practicing, in reciprocal relationship with the instructive natural world."

Here we're called to make an intentional and passionate ritual of our very lives, while fulfilling our "most meaningful purpose."

In addition to the powerful spoken wizardry of Jesse Wolf Hardin, contributing to this special mix are the enthralling Loba, the acclaimed Jenny Bird from Taos, Ricardo Mendoza and Carlos Lomas on Middle Eastern oud, Joanne Rand from N. California, and the blessings of a 93 year old Indian medicine man.

Learn more and order here

Susun Weed, guest host at WomensRadio.com is the author of the acclaimed best seller Wise Woman Herbal Series. Her health books for women offer Wise Woman approaches to common women's ailments including menopause, childbearing, fertility, cancer prevention and treatment, breast health, and reproductive health. Susun Weed offers women safe and easy solutions to common problems, visit her at SusunWeed.com for 3000 pages of Wise Woman wisdom and wit.

Join the Wise Woman E zine for articles on women's personal empowerment and well-being. Go to the forum for support and networking with like-minded women. Listen to Susun Weed's engaging weekly radio show at WiseWomanRadio.com. Read women's e-news, view women’s art, read and post poems at our web-log WiseWomanTradition.com. Browse thousands of articles, recipes, and more at WiseWomanWeb.com.

All free all the time, knowledge is empowerment, herbal medicine is people’s medicine, join us now.