“Loba is a light. She inspires us with profound wisdom gained from her deep listening to the natural world. While many of us are busy with crowded schedules and media mania, Loba and her partners live in the Gila wilderness where their lives are deeply blended in the dynamic cycles of nature. They are beacons to us; they remind us of the joy, ease, and, ecstatic wonder of being human. I am grateful for these Magic Canyon mysteries... and Loba, the sweet daughter of the Earth, performing her alchemy. I am blessed. I am blessed more. I am heaped with blessings from the canyon and those who love it, and those ancestors who loved it for thousands of years.”
-Justine Toms, New Dimensions Radio, CA
 

LOBA has been a codirector of this project for a decade and a half now. As a young woman she literally followed her dreams home here to New Mexico, where she found her true self, her power and her calling. She’s known for writing a cherished regular column for SageWoman magazine as well as feature pieces in other related periodicals (samples herein), and has even more dramatic an impact in person. Loba’s well earned wisdom is exceeded by her deep presence, expressive gratitude, compassion, empathy, sweetness, devotion, strength and joy.... serving as a shining role model for everyone she meets. Loba loves preparing wondrous meals for Center guests, hosting with Kiva Rose the various events including the annual Wild Women's Gathering. Letters continue to come in years later from the women and men who have benefited from her guidance and example. Loba’s angelic voice and canyon melodies can be heard on the GaiaTribe album “The Enchantment.”

“I feel born of the Earth, born into self, born to live again. I’m feeling like an individual, a person with a core.... Awesome! Loba is a bright new, crisp, windy Fall day that is blowing away darkness from my soul and lifting me into the happiness of the universe beyond.” -Suzanne Mahoney

Loba, I think you are the Goddess of all Goddesses and I mean that! You are such a fantastic inspiration to me and everyone who meets you. You are so beautiful from the core really. Thank you so much for all the wonderful help you were to me. - Suzen Dopson, NM

"Kiva helps us cut through any remaining illusion and denial, making clear the hard choices we need to make in the course of becoming our whole and empowered selves. She clarifies, bolsters, discomforts and assures like none other.”
-Karen Forth (author of The Price Of Fiction)

KIVA ROSE is an Animá codirector, powerful counsel and insightful teacher, impassioned poet and inspiring author, esteemed herbalist and founder of the Animá Medicine Woman Tradition. She too writes a quarterly SageWoman column, entitled The Wild Maiden, and her essays and poetry have appeared in numerous publications including Awareness, Sun, Slow Trains Literary Journal, Megaera, The Beltane Papers, Vision and Eclectica (see Kiva’s writings page). A brilliant child who never quite fit in, she dealt with family abuse and gender violence to grow up into a woman of incredible insight and strength. She is responsible for co-creating the curricula for the Animá correspondence courses including the Medicine Woman and Herbal paths, her much acclaimed Medicine Woman Herbals blog, developing this Animá website, counseling visiting women, creating posters and display ads, and restoring native wildlife and plant life with a USFWS grant. Handling the majority of correspondence, she’s most likely the person you will hear back from when you query about the various opportunities here. Kiva joins Loba in leading women’s group events and vision quests, and is loyally wedded to this purpose and place, guaranteeing the passing on of these glad duties and important teachings, and the continued protection of this precious canyon sanctuary.

“Kiva is a wise medicine woman, teacher and healer whose gentle integrity is truly an inspiration. I honor her strength, her consciousness, her wisdom...”

-Ivy

"Jesse inspires our passion to take us further– seeing the world whole, even holy."
-Terry Tempest Williams (author Desert Quartet, Red and others)

JESSE WOLF HARDIN is well known in various esoteric circles as a unique and powerful artist, musician, historian, writer and presenter, as well as the founder of the Animá Teachings. Jesse was responsible for the purchase of the canyon property in 1981, its subsequent ecological restoration, and the 1987 founding of this educational project. Beginning in 2001 he initiated and assisted its transition into being part wilderness women’s center, and has since assumed a supporting role while continuing to present talks at various events, provide counsel to the most open and insistent seekers, guide any men who come here for a vision quest, and develop curricula for and teach some of the Anima correspondence courses including The Shaman’s Path. Jesse is the author of seven books and over 500 published magazine articles (see examples), on subjects from nature wisdom and personal growth to Western history and the pleasures of gathering, cooking and enjoying fine food. True West magazine editor and publisher Bob Boze Bell and other historian authors have recommended those of Jesse’s writings that combine stories of the American Frontier, the sporting tradition and insights into the human psyche... while luminaries including Ed Abbey, Joanna Macy and the Pulitzer winner Gary Snyder have lauded his work on the human/nature relationship, and his concert performances have been praised by musicians from Baba Olatungi to Paul Winter of the Paul Winter Consort.

“Jesse Wolf Hardin addresses the need of human beings to search within themselves, and within their bioregions, and to make the connections that may save our sanity, and the planet too. I know of no-one more thoughtful or articulate or inspiring.”

-Jerry Mander (author of In The Absence of The Sacred)

Jesse Wolf Hardin & Kiva Rose are available for a few off-site presentations each year, within four hundred miles of the Center, including conferences, festivals, churches and universities. Their talks and circles cover a wide variety of topics including sense of place, terra-shamanism, reconnection, gender, healing, plant medicine, women’s empowerment. Talks almost always end up in group hugs and howls, as the participants reclaim their individual clarity, aliveness, purpose and joy. To book them for an event you are hosting, contact Kiva Rose at Animá Center.

RHIANNON greets visitors with the most sincere acceptance and love, but she also has some strong opinions and preferences she’s quick to share. Everyone who comes here ends up effected by her sparkling energy, honesty and delight. She inspires even much older kids to let down their guard, engage the canyon, express their excitement, exceed and excel. She may continue this work on into adulthood, leave and then one day return, or spend most of her time away once she’s grown... but she will no doubt carry the inspiration and instruction of this place no matter what she ever does.