Bio
I was born and raised in London, England. Deeply affected by the death of my mother when I was five, I had a deep bond with my father who was my first spiritual teacher. Growing up with the influence of Gurdjieff, I developed a deep longing to know who I am beyond the conditioned personality.
Never satisfied with the life being offered to me through a traditional education, I explored through drugs the realms beyond the norms, and set out for the far East as soon as I left school. I became interested in the teachings of the sages of India. At 21 I arrived in the ashram of the enlightened mystic Osho. I fell in love with meditation and found many opportunities for personal growth and transformation through workshops, retreats and trainings.
I lived with Osho in his ashram and later in his commune in Oregon, where I found fellow travelers and a lifestyle that gave me a place to experience and express the inner and outer freedom that my Soul had been longing for.
After Osho left the body I continued to meet and sit with many enlightened beings, Poonjaji, Gangaji, Mooji, Leonard Jacobsen, Faisel, Miranda Macpherson, and others such as Ramana Maharshi who have long since left the body.
From this longing to share the richness of my experience and introduce others to the freedom of their True Nature, I developed a body of work called Celebration of Being. These workshops were initially for women to free the Sacred feminine, and embody all that we are beyond the conditioned roles.
The work went on to include Rites of Passage for men to open to the feminine thereby healing the wounded masculine. And for women to be seen and healed by the presence of the true masculine.
I developed and led leadership trainings for many years, teaching people to guide others in deep transformation.
My inner work has always involved walking the edge between trauma and initiation, and how those two intertwine. In my Rites of Passage work, I offer a sensitive approach to the trauma, tragedy and suffering we inevitably all go through in our journey through life, and how that can be a doorway to freedom, when held in a loving container.
Living through five years of cancer in my forties, coupled with the inevitable losses of midlife, gave me a personal introduction to death. Letting go of my work with Celebration of Being initiated me into the dissolution of the ego identified self.
The death of my beloved father affected me deeply and I began a deep exploration of death and an apprenticeship to my own disappearance. The ongoing inquiry of Who Am I? (or Who Am I when I am not?) became a constant companion and deepened my journey from self to Soul.
In 2018 after the fires began to devastate California, my husband and I moved to Asheville, North Carolina where we now run a retreat center; Samasati~ a sanctuary for the Soul (samasatisanctuary.org)
I continue to run meditation and transformational retreats, and to work individually with people in Rites of Passage and the Alchemy of Awakening. I am in the process of writing a book on the Alchemy of Awakening, about my own rocky road to inner freedom.
My personal joy in life these days is in experiencing myself as nothing and everything. To simply BE, without any expectations, roles or rules is one of the joys of eldership.
To “be nothing, do nothing, become nothing, get nothing, seek for nothing, relinquish nothing, Be As I am, and rest in God” (quoted from my teacher Miranda Macpherson) is my great joy in life, along with the relaxing of all the “ego- efforting” that comes from the frantic separate sense of self. Freed from the structures and schedules of strategic living, I am exploring the creative aspect of my being these days. I love to experience spontaneous living, beyond the mind, trusting more and more in my own inner knowing, and letting intuition and Grace guide my life. Letting what comes come and what needs to go, go, and resting in emptiness.
I love to spend time out in Nature, in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains that surround me. The bubbling creeks, rushing rivers, flowing waterfalls, richly diverse forests and spectacular vistas never cease to fill me with awe and wonder. I love each season, so unique and dramatic in its beauty, and each season is so needed to give birth to the next evolution of Mother Nature’s magnificent expression.
I love to be in my garden with my hands in the earth, amazed at how seeds grow into delicious vegetables, and bulbs into beautiful flowers and Nature just keeps on doing her thing despite our human ignorance and carelessness. It is my great joy in life to tend to the earth, and create more beauty on our land. There is so much ugliness in the world, so I consider it my contribution to bring back the sacredness of Life.
And tending to the simple things, like loving our gorgeous kitty, Issie/Miss Isness, cooking nourishing meals and taking care of our guests, tenants and retreat participants.
I ask myself sometimes, Is it enough? And the sense of ease, flow, wonder and gratitude tell me It is enough. Being present, here now, it is everything.
Rajyo is a spiritual leader and a soul mentor. Her depth of experience as both a student and teacher in the psycho-spiritual world enables her to offer a rich blend of tools to bring a uniquely transformative experience.
She is a certified life coach, trauma healer and somatic therapist. She has been a yoga, meditation and mindfulness teacher for over two decades.
Rajyo has been leading retreats, workshops and leadership development trainings internationally for over 25 years. Rajyo created and was co-director of a ground-breaking body of work in the US (CorExperience.com) and the UK (CelebrationofBeing.com)
Rajyo’s current work is focused on the Alchemy of Awakening (https://alchemyofawakening.net ) which helps people awaken to a deeper level of Soulfulness and spiritual maturity in this pivotal time in history. Her deep passion is to help people live a more embodied, heart-centered and authentic life and bring back a sense of the Sacred to our world.
She also facilitates meditation retreats and personally tailored retreats for individuals who wish to have a reset in their life. Some of the modalities she offers in her retreats are:
- Transformational coaching
- Counseling
- Trauma healing
- Rites of Passage
- Grief work
- Somatic experiencing
- Meditation and mindfulness
- Breathwork
- Yoga
You can see all of Rajyo’s offerings here: