OUR TEACHERS
Akemi Tsutsui-Kunitake
Akemi Tsutsui-Kunitake is a visual artist, karate-ka and creator of Live Deliciously. Based in Denver, her work is informed by her identity as a third and fourth-generation (sansei-han and yonsei), mixed-race Japanese American. Her artwork blends themes of Japanese folklore with Western mysticism. She is inspired by the intersectionality of cultural tradition, ancestral wisdom and modern identity. She is a lifelong student of Shotokan karate-do under the instruction of her father, Isao Gary Tsutsui, at Colorado Budokan.
Akemi has also been fortunate to train with masters of other karate styles in California, Hawaii and Japan. As karate embodies so many elements that are integral to the Japanese American experience, she describes karate as her ethnic and spiritual identity in motion. With a formal education in Ethnic Studies, Akemi has worked in the fields of culturally specific education, advocacy and holistic health. She has continued her studies through courses on Japanese energetic healing, Shinto, deep ancestral work and radical community care. Akemi is a frequent collaborator with the Japanese Arts Network as a Cultural Consultant and artistic partner.
Carla Torres
Carla is a Witch, End of Life Coach & Death Doula, she has been practicing magick since she was 18 years old and is an initiate of COTW Coven here in Colorado. Carla received both her End of Life Coaching & Death Doula certifications through her course work with the Conscious Dying Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Carla is passionate about the Death Positive movement and is an advocate of normalizing death and mortality in everyday life. She hopes to bring death back to its sacred place in the community through her death work services and discussions. Carla’s strengths in the death work field are being able to approach this part of life with a radical presence of non-judgment, love and a bold vulnerability. Carla is a end of life care volunteer for Hospice and is currently working towards a Home Funeral Guide certification. When Carla is not hosting death related discussions, helping families plan for a good death or sitting vigil, she can be found talking to her house plants or rolling around in laughter with her two daughters.
Jess Ellis
Jess is a Denver-based artist who creates small sculptures and jewelry using elements of nature.
Jess creates imaginative miniature worlds honoring elements of nature and science. These sculptures contain magic in the form of preserved insects, bones, stones, moss, and plants. Inspired by the natural curiosity assemblages of the Victorian Naturalists and the Wildlife Halls of modern science museums, Jess hopes to inspire wonder, curiosity, and understanding for our natural world. Each piece she creates is a reminder of the beauty that lies in death and its importance in the cycle of life.
Jess teaches classes that stitch together magic, art, and science with an aim to inspire her students to to approach the world, and their practice, with endless curiosity.
Kaedrich Olsen
Kaedrich Olsen has been an ardent student of Old Norse literature and spirituality, concentrating upon the runes and various esoteric paradigms from an early age.
Kaedrich Olsen author of Runes for Transformation and founder of GaldraKraft, has been an ardent student of Old Norse literature, runes and mysticism for 30 years. Building upon the wisdom from the Viking rune masters, he has developed practical techniques for transforming one’s life. The people he helps learn to connect with and become the embodiment of their own higher being. In doing so, they surmount the blocks which have prevented them from achieving their ideal lives and become the creators of their own greatest reality.
Dr. Lisa Martinez
Lisa Martinez is a board-certified Doctor of Natural Medicine who walks the traditional healing and spiritual path of Curanderismo. This path can be described as a multifaceted blend of healing practices from the past and present that include indigenous folk medicine modalities from Mesoamerica to Africa and it strongly influenced by Spanish Spiritualism and Judaism. Her family roots are from Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado where curanderismo was and still is an enriching and common way of life. Lisa’s grandmothers were her biggest influences providing her a lifelong apprenticeship. These teachings lead to the development of sacred connections with plants, stones and spiritual practices that are used to help others in their journey to emotional, mental, physical and spiritual healing.
Private sessions with Lisa are holistic and intuitive in nature and are personalized to include the body-mind-spirit connection in conjunction with the cosmic energies, ancestors, santos, angels, and guides. Her therapies and modalities utilize a variety of traditional techniques such as platica (heart to heart conversation), body work, sacred plants, aromatherapy, dream analysis and use of obsidian to encourage and engage the body’s innate healing response. Her practice also includes limpias (spiritual cleansings) and end of life transitions.
Lisa is a registered Psychotherapist with the State of Colorado. She is a student of La Maestra Clarissa Pinkola Estés and has attended many years of her trainings via the Archetypal and Cross Cultural Studies Institute. She is also a participant of The International Collaboration of Indigenous Healers, Curanderos, Sanadores y Shamans which originated in the sacred mountains of the Tepoztlan Valley in Mexico.
When able, Lisa supports clinical sites and community outreach operations in collaboration with others in the Denver Metro area providing culturally based services and education.
Loretta Ledesma
Loretta Ledesma, founder of the Mile High Conjure Gala, is a Santisima Muerte devotee and practitioner of Conjure who has a deep relationship with the spirit world and the ancestral realms.
She approaches the work from a Conjure tradition and a close, open relationship with the dead. Loretta walks her spiritual path openly and comfortably with the less freely-talked about workings and brings deep knowledge and experience of this strangely beautiful wisdom to her teachings. Loretta teaches at as well as curates the Ritualcravt School in Denver, Colorado. She is a Legacy student of the Conjure man Professor Charles Porterfield. She has learned from and sits at the table with some of the most trusted elders and teachers in Conjure.
Michelle VanderHouwen
Michelle VanderHouwen is the owner of Oak and Hawthorn and provides the plant babies for Ritualcravt’s annual plant sale.
Throughout all her years, she has studied art as a window into Spirit and the psyche, and Nature has been her church. Michelle believes that our hands are magnificent communicators. When we let them dig, sculpt, draw, scrape, tie and sew, we are sending messages to and from Heart Center. Our hands, full of sensation but devoid of reasoning, can create pure, honest prayer. In Michelle’s classes she teaches, with a variety of tools, different ways of accessing Spirit using our hands and hearts. Her goal is to help us all access the knowing we had at birth. Michelle is deeply knowledgeable about the spiritual wisdom of nature, studied Shamanic Herbalism with Darcey Blue, and walks with the soul of a Witch.
Missy Johanna Rhysing
Naomi Sangreal
Naomi Sangreal is an avid dreamer, teacher, artist and magical psychotherapist. She has been channeling prophetic dreams and making artwork as long as she can remember. Whether you need consistent guidance, a simple card reading, a dream diving session or a combination of all three, you can work with Naomi to choose the approach that best fits your needs. She is guided by her keen intuition, a lifetime of research and experience with dream work, as well as her extensive academic studies of the deep psyche. Naomi graduated with her BA in Contemplative Psychology from Naropa University with an emphasis in Transpersonal Counseling, Art Therapy and Visual Art. Naomi has been teaching dream and nightmare classes at Ritualcravt in Denver, CO since 2017 and holds her Masters in Counseling and Depth psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. With one foot in each world, she brings together the healing power of psychology and the transformative wisdom of spirit to artfully guide you through life’s challenges. Naomi’s authentic presence and down to earth approach creates a genuine connection and safe space for compassionate healing.
Renna Shesso
Renna Shesso is a shamanic healing practitioner and teacher, professional tarot reader, priestess of the Craft, and writer.
She began exploring magical knowledge-paths as a young adult, learning astrology from her grandmother, and has expended her interests exponentially in the decades since then. In addition to her own self-published zines on magical workings, Renna is the author of Planets for Pagans and Math for Mystics (both published by Weiser Books). While privileged to study with many fine teachers, she turns to Nature Herself as the ultimate teacher and healer.
Dr. Samuel Nez
Dr. Samuel Nez is Diné (of the Navajo Nation) and Mexica, born and raised near Shiprock, New Mexico on the Navajo Reservation and incorporates the healing traditions from both sides of his family.
Dr. Samuel Nez is Diné (of the Navajo Nation) and Mexica, born and raised near Shiprock, New Mexico on the Navajo Reservation and incorporates the healing traditions from both sides of his family. Over the years, Samuel has traveled and studied with traditional healers, curanderos/curanderas, shamans and medicine men and women in the Southwestern United States and Mexico. He developed a relationship with the sacred fire at a young age and has been a firekeeper for the temezcal and inipi sweat lodges for many years.
As a board-certified Doctor of Natural Medicine and a practitioner of Curanderismo he utilizes a variety of therapies and modalities in his private practice. Samuel is also a Registered Psychotherapist with the State of Colorado and a certified NADA Acu-Detox Specialist. He is a student of La Maestra Clarissa Pinkola Estés and has attended many years of her trainings via the Archetypal and Cross-Cultural Studies Institute. Samuel is also a participant of the International Collaboration of Indigenous Healers Curanderos, Sanadores and Shamans which originated in the Sacred Mountains of Tepoztlan Valley in Mexico.
Sterling Moon
Sterling is passionate about helping others find inspiration and guidance through tarot, communication with spirits, and old-timey folk magic.
Sterling has been reading tarot since 1995 and began offering readings and teaching professionally in 2013. She doesn’t shy away from the trope of fortune teller. Sterling specializes in future-based readings. She’s had the ability to connect with spirits of the dead and the natural world since childhood and has been practicing folk magic since 2014. She is particularly influenced by her practice of and studies in the Scandinavian tradition of Trolldom. Sterling’s spirit communication style is a unique blend of classic mediumship techniques, folk magic, and paranormal investigation strategies.
Sterling also had a 20-year career as a professional advocate for survivors of crime prior to and holds a Master’s Degree in Advocacy and Political Leadership. Her work as an advocate is a lifelong calling.
Guest Teachers
Crane, The Water Bearer, has grown to learn many of the best ways to soothe the soul and open the heart! He uses his platform to shine a light on societal structures and inequalities…as a reflective dialogue for our time! Allowing a space to foster new possibilities for society & ourselves!
Starting “The Water Bearer’s Tea” in the Fall of 2016, Crane currently shares insight on several platforms! He delivers exclusive guidance to his members at ‘THE BREW: Membership & Community’, and offers Personal Astrology readings, on a daily basis! His Astrology readings are always discounted for Queer and/or POC clients.
Susan Redington Bobby is a practicing witch and the founder of Professor of Words, LLC, where she is an online teacher, an editor, a writing mentor, and a tutor. Her specialty is being able to read people on a deeper level through their writing. She is a retired professor of English with expertise in fairy tales, adolescent literature, goddess archetypes, magical realism, creative writing, and film studies. She is the author of Beyond His Dark Materials, the editor of Fairy Tales Reimagined, and co-editor of The Artemis Archetype in Popular Culture. The Series Editor of Tales from Fiddler’s Green, she also publishes creative fiction under the pen name Miranda Rey. She is currently studying the Bardic Course in Druidry from OBOD (the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids). She maintains Mellie’s Grove, a certified backyard wildlife habitat that is home to a rescued and stabilized cat colony and all manner of wildlife.
Dr. Alexander Cummins is a magician, diviner, historian, and poet whose work focuses on magical books, demonology, geomancy, and folk magic as well as love divination and enchantment. His doctoral research centred on magic and the emotions in the pre-modern world. He can be found at www.alexandercummins.com