About Me
Hi! My name is Mara. I’m an educator, facilitator, community weaver, writer, caregiver, death doula, and community herbalist. I’m excited about plant magic, story-telling, art + ritual making, shapeshifting, and dreaming together.
My death care and grief support work is community oriented, taking place in group settings to feed the collective work of growing more deeply attuned and resourced communities who love, care, dream, and create courageously in times of loss, change, and grief.
Podcasts
Learn more about me by listening below!
breathing wind - [march 5, 2024] - Rolling out the welcome mat for grief with mara june
Missing Witches - [October 31, 2023] - EPisode 213 - Samhain 2023: Altaring Grief with Mara June
Magick + Alchemy - [may 24, 2023] - Episode 106: Grief Spells with Mara June
Why Motherwort + Rose?
Motherwort and Rose are two incredible teachers for navigating change, grief, stress, and heartbreak. Embodying both softness and strength with both delicate and thorny parts, their medicine is gentle, grounding, and yet fiercely loving. Rose is known to be energetic heart medicine in herbal traditions from around the world. Motherwort is often described as a “plant hug”, and is used to settle the nervous system and soothe broken and racing hearts. These two plants can help us remember what deep presence and strength in the midst of change feels like in our bodies, while also bringing in softness, slowness, and gentleness for ourselves and others.
My Teachers, Training, root system, + Inspiration
Community, Loved Ones, + this brilliant world
All my loved ones are the ones who have brought me into this work. I’ve learned so much from those who I’ve gotten to organize with and create life alongside, about dreaming, creating, loving, failing, grieving, and dreaming and loving again. I’m indebted in the best way to the communities and ecosystems I have been lucky enough to find myself in, including the courageous animal and plant companions who have been my first and longest teachers of being with death, grief, joy, and care.
Death Care, Community Herbalism, + Trauma informed care
I began my death care studies over 10 years ago with Aleia O’Reilly through volunteering with Further Shore in Flagstaff, AZ, and have since completed my End of Life Doula Training with Alua Arthur of Going with Grace, received my proficiency badge with National End of Life Doula Alliance, and am a Death Companioning Initiate with the American School of Thanatology.
I studied herbal medicine with Mike Masek at the Forager’s Path in Flagstaff, Arizona & apprenticed with Karen Mee at Moonbow Botanicals in Durango, Colorado. I have a trauma-informed herbalism certificate through the American Herbalists Guild. I’ve also studied with Rebecca Beyer of Blood and Spicebush.
Community Based Education + Care
I received M.A.s in Sustainable Communities and Political Science from Northern Arizona University, where my research focused on community based education, community care in social movements, critical theory, and abolitionist and environmental justice movements. I studied with Dr. Kim Curtis, Dr. Janine Schipper, Dr. Sean Parson, and Dr. Jessi Quizar, who gave me the incredible gift of their mentorship. While I ultimately left academia, it was the place I was exposed to many of the thinkers listed under creative + visionary traditions, and first experienced radical community.
creative facilitation
I’ve been trained as a creative community facilitator through my Masters in Sustainable Communities. Since then, I have spent over a decade facilitating various groups in visioning, organizing, and creative work. I am currently in the Jewish Studio Project’s 2 year Creative Facilitator Training.
Somatics + Pleasure
While I am not a somatic therapist, the practices of somatics, embodiment, recognizing the incredible intelligence of our bodies, and sinking into pleasure inform all of my work. I have learned so much from the work of somatic educators Steve Hoskinson, Marika Heinrichs, Camille Barton, Margeaux Feldman, and my somatic and organic intelligence coaches Robin Craig + Lee Datura.
Creative + visionary Traditions
There are many more who, while I do not know them personally, have greatly influenced me and are a constant source of inspiration. Here are a few:
adrienne maree brown, Aurora Levins Morales, Dori midnight, Michelle Tea, Octavia Butler, Jessica Fern, Bayo Akomolafe, Silvia Federici, Donna Haraway, Joan Halifax, Cindy Milstein, Jenny Odell, Robin Kelley, Mary Oliver, Brontë Velez, Trisha Hersey, Ruth Gilmore, Fred Moten, Clyde Woods, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Ruth Ozeki, Aleah Black, Margeaux Feldman, Sophie Strand, gabi abrão, Amanda Yates Garcia, Josh Shrei, Peia Luzzi, Tom Hirons…
…and all those who have woven, held, and passed the threads of creative + visionary traditions, movements, and stories rooted in dreams for collective care + freedom: story-tellers, artists, tricksters, heretics, poets, meme-makers, tarot readers, keepers of traditional indigenous knowledge, Afrofuturists, blues musicians, abolitionists, surrealists, critical geographers, queer death workers, queer Jewish witches, scholar-organizer-healer-poets of disability studies, queer theory, transformative justice, and reproductive justice.