Oriah Mountain Dreamer is a facilitator of spiritual retreats, workshops, and ceremonies throughout the United States and Canada. She is a student of philosophy, seeking to understand how we can all be who we truly are. Her name was given to her by the elders with whom she apprenticed. It means one who likes to push the edge and can help others do the same.
Oriah grew up in a small town in northern Ontario. When she was 19, she went to Toronto and trained as a social worker. There she worked with teens on the street, abused women, and families in crisis. Oriah inspires and challenges people to live a full life by mixing ruthless honesty with humor and compassion for human struggle.
As an accomplished speaker and author, Oriah shares stories of her personal life and years of training in an intertribal tradition of shamanic medicine. Her debut book, The Invitation, was a bestseller. It is based on a prose poem of the same name that she wrote after returning home from a party one night. She wrote the poem as an expression of all the things she really wanted to know about and share with others.
Oriah has shared her stories with audiences throughout the world. She has made TV and radio appearances for The Oprah Winfrey Show, National Public Radio, PBS, and others. To view her current calendar, visit her website at www.oriahmountaindreamer.com.
From her book, The Invitation:
• It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
Oriah wrote the start of her poem, The Invitation, after an unsatisfying evening at a party. She says the poem “took on a life of its own” and that “people copied it and shared it with friends and colleagues around the world.” The poem became the basis for her book, The Invitation, which is the best place to start with Oriah Mountain Dreamer.
According to Oriah, The Invitation “is a declaration of intent, a map into the longing of the soul, the desire to live passionately, face-to-face with ourselves and skin-to-skin with the world around us, to settle for nothing less than what is real.” In the book, she offers inspiration on experiencing the beauty and sacredness of life.
Each chapter of the book uses passages from her poem to lead you to a more passionate and fulfilling life, one with greater truth and integrity. Each chapter ends with a guided meditation related to what was written. All sections of the book contain personal experiences to help guide you, and the power of Oriah’s words will take you on a journey to the inner depths of your soul.
ADDRESS: Mountain Dreaming
300 Coxwell Avenue, Box 22546
Toronto, ON,
Canada, M4L 2A0
WEBSITE: www.oriahmountaindreamer.com