Birth & flying the coop
1969 - 1986
I was born in late 1969 in Auckland, New Zealand. The clan included my parents Jeneen + Wayne and my sister Jacqui. My parents, shedding light + wisdom on my path, taught me of both shadows + light, of ebbing + flowing.
Growing up in New Zealand was a blessing. As a shy, inward kid, I met my love of nature there. I watched, listened, and learned. I felt so much truth + beauty in nature. spending hours and hours in the forest, dropping my school bag, and running out to the forest. I spent my childhood close to my mother’s side.
My sister and I grew up surrounded by spirit. We knew no different.
Spirituality… whether it was mum waving sage through the house, feeling or seeing ghosts, the spirit world, new religions, ancient religions or ancient ways, crystals, or fairies in the garden. My sister and I grew up surrounded by spirit. We knew no different.
Illness kept me missing weeks and months of my final years of high school and ballet. Finally returning to school, saddened by missing out on dance, directionless in school, working at Swenson’s ice cream parlor to pay for my point shoes.
Mum suggested a modeling class.
My confidence was lacking and I hated wearing dresses. I was a lanky, dress-hating, frizzy-haired, gapped-tooth tomboy, who wanted to be a vet and gardener. It was like she could see what I didn’t know.
On one of my daily 10k runs, I ran to the ever-alluring beach. A photographer approached me and suggested I contact him to take photos (yes I did have an eye roll when he asked). It all started to unfold. I said yes to both the photos and modeling school. I was soon thrown out of secretary school and Swenson’s, all of which I got fired from… I was responsible and on time but I had started doing modeling jobs… all of which I thought was silly…
I can’t question life’s process.
Looking back, it was all divine order – the good and the scary, the unknown and the known.
Returning to school at 17, after a long period of sickness, I went to take my final math exam. The teacher announced that I had a phone call from my mother. Mum said, “Rachel, New York wants to see you.”
I hung up the phone and walked out of the gates of the school and never looked back.
Life changed from the recluse to the butterfly.
This body has seen many cocoons and many rebirths over the last 55 years. And by God’s will it’ll keep shedding!
Teenager & modeling
1987 - 1990
I left home at 17 to move in with my boyfriend.
Parents divorced. Agents from around the world appeared in New Zealand offering me contracts in Milan, Paris, and New York.
I went to New York.
So much juiciness within the stories… lonely times, heartbreak, homesick, traveling, and amazing friends. Seventeen years old and living in New York with the great matriarch Eileen Ford of FORD Models.
Nurtured and secure, the moment I got off the plane, I worked: Italian Vogue, Australian Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Revlon Covergirl, Avedon, Steven Meisel, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
I trotted along like it was normal.
Taking in my stride, always saying, “only six more months then home to New Zealand.”
I would always retreat into a church, into a garden, or into the woods… into different spiritual practices. My heart yearned always to return to the inner sanctum.
Marriage & motherhood
1990 - 1997
Twenty-one and married. And, wow, to what an incredible man.
We met in a nightclub only to marry three months later. On tour, I became pregnant with my first. Baby Renee made her grand appearance in 1992, followed by my second Baby Liam in 1994.
The loves of my life, my soul family. We loved, we traveled, we were a strong family – on the road and off.
The layers of experiences are really quite intoxicating. In the whirlwind of the intensity of my life at this point, little did I understand this was the path and I was either dancing with or diverting from the path.
Whether there were diversions or not YOU have to be the one to take the COURAGE to SEE. These are the moments that the heart breaks, or that you feel scared or nervous.
Saturn return hit me and I was textbook:
WHO AM I?
WHERE AM I GOING?
WHAT AM I DOING IN THIS LIFE?
I left…
Single & wake up
1998 - 2016
These years were filled with motherhood: ice hockey, ballet, being single, exploring the world, and school graduations. And these years continued to be filled with work: making movies, music videos, hosting TV shows, the list goes on…
Illness, hospital stays, anxiety, back surgery, heart problems, broken marriage engagements, heartbreaks, career went down the toilet, studying witchcraft with Laurie Cabot, studying other modalities, and many times wanting to plug into the avatar of the dragon, like in Avatar. Where was my dragon?
In this chapter of my life, I pushed the boundaries to see how far I could play and avoid the void that was waiting like a caged animal.
Tour of Beauty
Video series
This show, birthed in New Zealand, featured me traveling the world looking at beauty + well-being. I wanted to do a show that really looked at culture and its ways, beliefs, beauty, food, and depth!
This yearning to come home was amplifying. Coupled with lingering questions of other’s perceptions (Will they think I’m weird? How could I be open with all my different beliefs?)… this is EGO!
Moments + experiences change life.
When I heard my mother had cancer our lives crumbled.
She fought hard. She cried. We loved, we laughed, we nursed her, we cried with her. This changed our lives. My mother, the great guardian, had died.
In her last days, I asked, “What do you regret, Mum?”
She took a moment… her beautiful long fingers tapping on her lip.
“I regret not being + doing me! Being fully who I wanted to be!”
These simple words we see in quotes, we read when we see them… but when they came from my mother’s lips in her final days, they hit me hard.
No excuse to be fully you. The soul knows who it is!
There is no confusion there, it is the mind, the ego that hijacks this full expression of self.
Void & cracking open
2017 - now
I stepped off the plane in India and my journey unraveled fast. Quickening happened. Little did I know that I was about to come face to face with Self.
Rishikesh + Beyond
After the death of my mother, I went to Rishikesh, nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, to study yoga.
While I had been practicing yoga for 12 years, here I wanted to peel away the grief on a cellular level.
This yogic journey changed my life.
I was triggered, I was frustrated, I was waking up in all sorts of ways. The experiences were intense but surrendering and letting go of the stories helped release the reigns of control.
India has been such an incredible teacher with all its wisdom and ancient philosophies.
I have completed over 500 hours of yogic trainings including numerous master modules in Meditation, Tantra, Kundalini, Jyotish, Great Goddess Kali in all her ten forms of the Wisdom Goddess, Rituals + Havan.
These deep, ancient teachings of the great rishis and gurus share the wisdom of the absolute, of the inner temple, of the connection to breath, body, and mind. They share teachings of will, of intention, of actions to access bliss.
I never went to India to teach, but here I am, and I look forward to SEEING YOU.
Certifications
Yin Yoga Teacher Training & Immersion, Yoga & Ayurveda Center – January 2021
Living with the 64 Yoginis, The Himalayan Institute – January 2021
Saundaryalahari: Wave of Beauty, The Himalayan Institute – December 2020
Jyotish (Vedic Astrology) – June 2019
Master Training (Beyond 500 Hours) in Vedic + Tantric Transcendental Wisdom, Sattva Yoga, Kriya, Naad, Himalayan Kundalini, Laya, Hatha Vinyasa, Sattva Meditation – May 2019
Master Training Initiator Module: Initiator to Advanced Meditation – November 2018
Master Training Initiator Module: Initiator to the Dasha Mahavidyas: The Wisdom Goddesses of Tantra – November 2018
300-Hour Yoga Teacher Training – May 2018
200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training – December 2017
meditation initiation · hatha · chakras · koshas · pranayama · rituals · japa
Tada drastuh svarrupe vasthanam
The seer abides in its own nature
