Jane Carr

I am a teacher, writer and shamanic healing practitioner committed to nurturing in-depth collaboration with spirit and with other people to create life-giving cultures and practices in communities, organizations, and educational institutions. I teach shamanic skills from a belief that the inner work toward freedom and discernment enables empowered and effective outer work toward justice, equity, and sustainability.

My search for community based on critical reflection and inspired action led me to pursue higher education–from Harvard’s honors track in American History, to a Master’s degree in Education, and a PhD in public affairs and policy. My desire to collaborate with others toward shared visions led me to community development work through the Peace Corps in rural Paraguay, to teaching public school in New York City, and to working with the Rights of Nature movement in Portland. As I encountered the challenges of acting from shared vision and love through the course of this work, I developed spiritual skills in meditation, yoga, transformational kinesiology, emotional clearing, and shamanism.

Over the past decade, shamanism has been my spiritual home as it has given me access to healing, connection, and creativity beyond what I ever imagined possible. I see the profound potential of shamanic skills–practiced with depth and rigor–to inform collective decision making about policies and practices in multiple sectors, including the environment and education. My intention in teaching is to share skills that help us transform destructive patterns at their root, and thus bring the gifts of our souls into the world.

Formerly a senior teacher at the Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing, I currently teach online courses (Planetary Guides, shamanic journeying and mentorship) and in-person classes on art and shamanism. I practice soul retrieval and ancestral healing through Zoom sessions and in-person. In addition to my training in Andean shamanism (with Katherine Dougherty and Adolfo Tito Condori) and with the Last Mask Center (with Christina Pratt), I bring six years of experience teaching classes in civic leadership and sustainability education at Portland State University, and my research and writing on holistic civic engagement. My dream is to collaborate with others to bring shamanic technology to our process of democratic self-governance.