Semerit is an Intentional Creativity Teacher and Coach who has supported BIWOC (Black Indigenous Women of Color) in our community through the monthly Re-Membering Circles and our course offerings.
Semerit Strachan is a Feminine Power Transformational Coach and Facilitator who has dedicated her life to helping women break out of the inner fears that limit them from blossoming into the fullness of their contributions in their chosen careers.
She uses her experience as a Certified Intentional Creativity Coach and ancient African cultural wisdom as a Griot of Medicine to reconnect her clients to the literacy of the symbolic language of the body, recovering their ability to perceive what their body is telling them through discomfort, symptoms, and illnesses.
With 39 years of experience as a medical doctor, she is intimately familiar with integrating healing techniques that incorporate and balance mind/body/soul approaches to facilitate moving clients from exhaustion and burnout to revitalized creativity; from confusion and lack of direction to knowing their gifts and how to package them into unique and needed contributions.
Semerit holds a medical degree from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York and a Master's in Public Health from Columbia University. She has served as Griot and Director of Medicine at the Cultural Wellness Center in Minneapolis and has been a faculty member at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine.
A British artist now living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area, Andrew is a muralist specializing in photo real trompe l’oeil (deceive the eye), and has been a professional artist his entire life.
Following a classical European education in the arts, he became the apprentice and protégé of William Holgate ([1931-2002] the world's finest master of the decorative arts in the last 150 years) working on cathedrals, Royal Palaces and international architectural treasures. Before moving to California, Andrew served with Greenpeace as a crew member on the flagship Rainbow Warrior I working on campaigns across Europe and the North Atlantic protecting marine mammals and preventing chemical and nuclear dumping.
Since 2005 he has worked with the legendary architect/artist Rod Garrett on designing "The Man Base," the centerpiece of the Burning Man festival, the world's largest art event, held annually in Nevada. Andrew continued as the designer of The Man after Rod's passing in August 2011 and was given the title of “Steward Of The Man” by Burning Man's founders.
In October 2011 he was honored by winning the Alameda County Board of Supervisors 2011 Arts Leadership Award and was subsequently appointed to a four-year term as a board member on the Alameda County Arts Commission. He also holds a position on the board of the Alameda County Arts Education Commission and Executive Committee. He was a faculty member at University of California, Berkeley, where he lectured in and wrote the curriculum for the course “mural and decorative arts” and continues his calling to pass along his knowledge with The Big Picture Project, mentoring graffiti offenders towards “making art without victims''.
In 2019 he was invited by the European Cultural Academy to give a lecture about his work designing Burning Man at Palazzo Rossi in Venice as part of the Biennale Arte Festival. He was subsequently invited by the Academy to lead a workshop in Amsterdam of artists from around the globe with the work being exhibited at Venice Giardini della Biennale in October 2020.
In the summer of 2020 Andrew was also the subject of a major movie by director Gerald Fox called "Art On Fire" based on a book of the same name by Jennifer Raiser.
Co-Founder of Musea, Jonathan McCloud, will share his wisdom about Intentional Creativity as a healing modality and also how Intentional Creativity relates to science.
Jonathan McCloud, our resident scholar and Chef is a poet and artist at heart. He was born in a small West Virginia town and was built for adventure. He spent two tours jumping out of airplanes for the US Air Force and retired from service from injuries. He found himself swept into the glamor and gastronomy of the food world and worked for top chefs around the world serving fine cuisine. He owned several restaurants as well as earned two advanced degrees with honors in business.
After nearly 30 years of developing his career in hospitality, he changed his life path to take up life as an artist, photographer, and poet, as well as working for Burning Man, Couch Surfing, and more in the artistic, digital, and business startup realms.
He met Shiloh Sophia in 2012 and the two of them struck up a quantum conversation resulting in a lifelong partnership and working together in business with Intentional Creativity through various technology platforms. He now brings his savvy to her world as the man behind the curtain'. Described by his colleagues as an alchemist, Mr. McCloud co-founded their not-for-profit, the Intentional Creativity Foundation, prepares cuisine for participants around the world with his culinary genius, and creates supper clubs for eccentrics. He serves as the CFO of the organization.
Lavender Grace, a friend of Shiloh’s since childhood, offers her skills of intuitive drum song – ongoing tradition.
She facilitates a practice delving into circle, grounding, stretching, tone, chant, song, and frame drum. These ancient tools have been used for millennia as a portal to transcend our current state, dispel disease, and bring harmony and peace to our hearts and our community.
Sumaiyah Wysdom is the Executive Director of the Intentional Creativity Foundation and the Director of Administration and Digital Infrastructure for MUSEA. She is a Certified Intentional Creativity Teacher, Coach, and Guide who has been using and sharing the medicine of Intentional Creativity for more than 10 years.
In 2023, Sumaiyah Wysdom opened Wysdom Arts Gallery & Atelier located in Baltimore Maryland, where she was born and raised. Wysdom Arts is an intimate creative sanctuary where Sumaiyah paints and creates for herself as well as teaches Medicine Painting and other creative exploits to women who are called to a healing journey through art. As a sur-thriver of domestic violence, Sumaiyah Wysdom is keen on walking the Path which she was Divinely appointed to walk: to be in service to women (rather than offer a service). She has made a conscious choice to walk the Intentional Creativity Path of Practice as her creative spiritual practice, showing other women how they too can use medicine painting as a spiritual practice in their lives.
Blessed with the Wisdom of her Ancestors, Sumaiyah Wysdom uses this ancestral connection to remember that she is her Ancestors wildest dreams and to encourage other women to see themselves in this Light too. Through Wysdom Arts Gallery & Atelier, Sumaiyah is able to help women artists reach the goal of having their art shown in a gallery, giving them the exposure, they need to be accepted in other galleries and museums. The creative sanctuary she created allows creative self-expression as well as opportunity. We are born into the culture and traditions in which we are brought up. Sumaiyah Wysdom ensures that we know that we have a CHOICE in what culture and traditions we decide to cause and create for ourselves.
With nearly 40 years in the information technology field, Sumaiyah Wysdom also offers technology training to creative womenpreneurs to empower them to take charge of the technology for their business. She uses art as a means to show women in business how to creatively employ and engage with the technology needed to run a business online. As Creatives, women want to spend their time in their business on what they love - creating. Sumaiyah teaches these women how to put the needed technology in place to put their business on auto-pilot, thereby removing the time it takes to manage and maintain their online presence.
Honored to be part of the MUSEA's Red Thread Sisterhood, Sumaiyah's Ancestral bond helps her to help others both creatively and through creative technology practices. The name "Wysdom" was given to her by the Ancestors during a Shamanic journey in 2015 as well as the Ancestral guidance to continue to empower women as she has been empowered by those who have walked this path before her. It is Sumaiyah Wysdom's clear acknowledgement and acceptance of the charge to carry this torch forward that empowers her to continue this, Path. Ase'!!!
Shiloh Sophia lives life as a great adventure! A renaissance woman who communicates her philosophy through painting, storytelling, and illustrations. For 25 years she has dedicated her soul work to the practice of creativity as a path of transformation and consciousness. As a gallery owner, she has represented her own work, as well as hundreds of women artists.
Her paintings are widely collected around the world and she achieved incredible success with her fine art and books by the age of 40. Her intuitive painting process led to a desire to teach and serve. Her contemplative approach provided groundbreaking research on how Intentional Creativity® gives voice to the soul. Her message of ‘creating with intention’ has reached tens of thousands, and for some programs, she reaches upwards of 500 enrolled students online per month.
Her devotion to sacred art-making and specifically medicine painting and metacognitive drawing is a personal spiritual practice. Her relationship with the feminine Divine and specifically Mother Mary and Magdalene has deeply influenced her work, having painted over one hundred images of Madonnas, many of which are used in the Mother Mary Deck published by Blue Angel. She is trained as a Reverend and leads circles for women to explore their relationship with making sacred art.
Her work is taught in university MA and Ph.D. programs, at the United Nations, and by over 300 Intentional Creativity® Teachers and Coaches worldwide. At the core of her work is a belief that the right to self-express is one of the most basic human rights. Her research dives into the exploration of the right/left brain connection with the heart and body as well as how image and language inform consciousness.
Some of the Many Hats Worn by Shiloh Sophia...
She is the creator of over seven illustrated books and journals and is currently working on a series of mythic novels as well as an inspirational deck. Having been trained by her mother Caron McCloud the poet, and Sue Hoya Sellars the artist, she brought her gifts of language and image into form. To her students, she offers the gift of a 'creative lineage’ rich with a community of culture, practice, process, and teachings.
To honor the lineage, her husband Jonathan and she co-founded MUSEA: Center for Intentional Creativity® where she is the Curator of a visionary art collection. They provide education at their campus and in their global online classroom. She can be found most days having tea with her muses discussing quantum physics and celebrating revelations of the heart.
Kayleen, a long time friend of Shiloh Sophia's, who has shared her knowledge of the feminine with our community for years, will be teaching during RITUAL.
A passionate scholar, a cultural historian, musician, writer, and teacher who weaves myth, music, psychology, history, and art with experiential learning.
A faculty member of the Pacifica Graduate Institute, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Kayleen teaches regularly for the Osher Life Long Learning Institutes at UC Berkeley, Sonoma State University & Dominican University. Her classes, on a wide array of topics ranging from Depth Psychology to Dante to Contemporary Classical Music, have been hailed as "inspirational," "fascinating and compelling," "transformational," and "truly life-changing."
Educated at Smith College, Mills College, the San Francisco Conservatory, Pacifica Graduate Institute, and the University of California, Kayleen wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on Passion and Paradox: The Myths of Mary Magdalene in Music, Art, and Culture. Kayleen also holds three master's degrees: one each in music (piano performance), mythology, and psychology. Kayleen has been a guest presenter and lecturer on the intersection of history, mythology, psychology, and the arts at Oxford University in England, the Assisi Institute of Depth Psychology Conference in Italy, the Houston Jung Institute, Chartres Cathedral in France, Grace Cathedral and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.
In 2016, she took on the roles of a pre-concert lecturer with the San Francisco Opera and Santa Rosa Symphony and has become a consultant in archetypal psychology, myth, and ritual for Proctor and Gamble. The Creative Director and Resident Mythologist for the Mythica Foundation for Education, Contemplation, and the Arts, Kayleen leads workshops and retreats throughout the country and offers a pilgrimage to sacred sites in Europe every year.
Brimming with the quirky enthusiasm that prompted her nom de plume, it is impossible to spend time with Jenafer Joy and not fall in love with yourself, with the whispering of your muse, and with Jena's heartfelt and contagious love of the creative life. Jena has been leading healing & creative arts courses since 2003 and most particularly enjoys tromping about at the juicy intersection of intuition and art. Her Inspired Inquiries are quick playful video nudges (accompanied by good music) that carry you towards your own deep important answers.
With a background in both acupuncture and accounting, Jena is ridiculously suited to being a most steady and linear guide through circuitous imaginal terrain and her specialty is designing and delivering an inspiring curriculum full of engaging art and deep inquiry. Jenafer Joy lives in Mendocino County and teaches almost exclusively online, where she quite enjoys being an “imaginary best friend” to hundreds of women.
In addition to running her courses at www.inspiredinquiries.com, you’ll find her behind the scenes and narrating many Musea.org courses. She has been a director of Cosmic Cowgirls since 2010 and Director of Curriculum for Musea Trainings including the Color of Woman Teacher Training since 2014.
Annie is an artist/creative and anthropologist who has instructed anthropology in higher education for over a decade. Her lifelong interest in what it holistically means to be human on Earth over space and time, in all of its diversity and interconnectivity, led her to pursue a graduate degree in 2011. She intentionally focused her Ethnobotanical studies on relationships between plants, people, ecosystems, and intergenerational knowledge. Her current primary research interests reside in the intersectionality between Ethnomedicine, Ethnoecology, Global Indigenous Studies, Rites of Passage, Movement Studies, and the Anthropology of Creativity, Healing, and the Arts. She has taught on the Art of Activism, Anthropology of Art, Foundational Anthropological Studies, Human Innovation, the Body and Culture, and World Cultural Diversity. She has also spent time working in museums, in the non-profit sector, facilitating outdoor education to connect people with the earth, on archaeological excavations, in the field conducting qualitative ethnographic research, in her studio writing, painting, and exploring the divine feminine, and in the lab performing data analysis.
With a calling to study with MUSEA in 2019, Annie began focusing her attention on the deep healing work that Intentional Creativity makes accessible in the cultivation and curation of one's conscious awareness and the benefits that come from making the choice to cultivate and curate life. She became a certified Coach in the Intentional Creativity® Method and studied teaching Intentional Creativity® with Shiloh Sophia, in addition to earning an Advanced Yoga, Meditation, Mindfulness, and Breathwork Certification.
Annie currently works in the field of Integrative Medicine and is founding an emergent practice where she is doing transformative work with individuals and small groups using Anthropology, Intentional Creativity, and Yoga. Her particular activist-oriented focus at this time is to bring the insights of anthropology to the larger global public so that collectively we may pivot as a global society toward repairing our relationships with ourselves, and with the Earth so as to no longer exceed the carrying capacity of the Earth, to build a more intentional awareness of what it means to be human, to create space for more calm human nervous systems, and to be in community with others who also value themselves and the beauty of our natural world.
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