One of my most favorite parts about creating the Many Moons Workbooks is being able ask incredible, wise practitioners to be a part of it! Liz Migliorelli is definitely one of these enchanted makers, a person it is easy to be blown away by! Founder of  Sister Spinster, Liz is a witch wearing a myriad of hats, all of them quite magical and healing. She runs several herbal and mystery schools throughout the year, makes potions for various healing processes, sees clients, and writes.

Liz Migliorelli is a western herbalist and magic maker who believes in affordable, accessible, community-based health care and the healing power of plants. She is the head witch behind Sister Spinster, a line of flower essences and other potions. She teaches ancestral remembrance, folk healing and magic classes across the country. She lives on the Mendocino coast in California where she will soon open an herb school. She enjoys blowing kisses to the whales.

Learn more about Liz below.

Hi Liz! You do many, many things: teach, make potions, give intuitive consult, give Western herbalist consultations, write, and many other things I’m sure I’m missing here! Did you consciously design your life/business in this way? Or is this something you are constantly experimenting with? 

Hi Sarah! I did not consciously design my business this way, it just kind of bloomed forth as such! I’ve always been really excited and inspired by so many different things, it was hard to imagine just picking one thing to do in my life.  When you work for yourself you have to wear so many hats, which also means you’re never bored. One day I can wear my teacher hat, and the next day I can don my wide-brimmed gardening sun hat. I’m not very excited about putting on my accounting hat though, but I begrudgingly do it. Even with clients, I have some folks who come to me for magical work and ritual where others just come because they want an herbal clinician and are just looking to boost immune system function. It feels good to be able to create something new when I have energy for it but also to have spaciousness for refining other skills. I am always busy though. I learned the hard way that I can’t let myself write emails while cooking dinner. Can’t wear those two hats at once, otherwise your phone will drop in your soup….

You wrote TWO awesome pieces for Many Moons 2018 Vol 2. Your August piece was called: "Blood is for Everybody," and it was about building blood. You gave examples for working with blood, as well as shared a blood-building herbal recipe. You also shared with me that the original piece was much longer! Do you mind sharing one or two blood-themed tidbits that have fascinated you?

For me, I am always interested in the ways in which blood health can be supported by herbs. Yarrow is one of my favorite blood building herbs, and it has such a magical affect on the blood. For example, if someone really wants to bring on a sluggish menstruation, they can drink an infusion of yarrow to stimulate their cycle. So in this case, it is encouraging blood flow. But someone can also use a yarrow infusion for really heavy menstrual bleeding (often called menorrhagia) as it will help curb excessive flow. Yarrow really responds directly to the body's blood flow, they work in harmony together. Another favorite herb for supporting the blood is Rosemary. Whenever I drink rosemary tea or take a rosemary tincture, I can literally feel the blood in my body move with more warmth and vitality. I feel more empowered because I am actually in my body! And it also helps that Rosemary is not just moving the blood, but cleansing out toxins that keep my brain feeling sluggish as well. And then of course there is ginger, red raspberry leaf, burdock, dandelion root.... I could go on and on!

The Many Moons piece you contributed was in December and is all about dreamtime: working with it, nourishing it, and honoring it. What are some of the gifts that honoring your dreams and sleep have given you?

Honoring my dreams has seriously changed my life. For example, about six and a half years ago I had a dream about my Polish great-grandmother. I've never actually met her. But she introduced herself to me in the dream and told me that I needed to learn about my ancestors otherwise I would be very ill. I woke up and contacted my teacher, Atava Garcia-Swieciki and told her I wanted to learn more about Slavic folk traditions, and the next month she started a Slavic dreaming circle that I was a part of. Through those dreams and working with slavic myths, I began to create the foundation for what is now my Folk Medicine and Magic of Old Europe class that I've been teaching for the past five years. It's my calling, my passion, it is what moves my heart the most. And it's all because of honoring this original dream, making it real in my waking realm. It has changed everything for me! In 2019 I'll actually be starting a dream school that honors the ancient work of the Aesclepion dream temples in ancient Greece.

Has anything cool happened in your life as a result of paying attention to the different cycles of the Moon? Have you learned anything new about yourself/nature/plants as a result of this? 

I honestly feel like paying attention to the cycles of the moon was a major undercurrent in my move to the country three years ago, which has been a huge blessing. But yes, I’ve learned so much about myself from observing cycles— it is the foundation of everything. I think what has been really helpful is tuning in to the fact that it’s NORMAL to have cycles with libido too! Everything in my body cycles, everything rises, releases, retreats and rests and repeats.

Visit the Sister Spinster website here.

Follow Liz on Instagram here.

Buy Many Moons Vol 2018 Vol 2 here.