Rachael Carlevale, a permaculture farmer, yoga instructor, mindfulness educator, cannabis activist, and cultivator, is working toward an eco-conscious revolution through her Colorado-based business, Ganjasana Cannabis Plant Medicine Yoga, The Ganjasana Cannabis Yoga School – Ganjasana Ganja Yoga 100-hour CEU Yoga Teacher Training to bring her knowledge of plant medicine, yoga, and mindfulness to the world. She sees herself as a conduit for awakening messages from the natural world and a steward of the medicine, and she roots her practices in the ethics of permaculture – earth care, people care, fair share.

“When I lead ceremonies, I am just a guide,” says Rachael, the first recipient of Cosmic Sister’s full-immersive Plant Spirit Grant. “The plants have the wisdom, and I’m just setting up a safe and sacred space for people to feel comfortable exploring in their own creative ways.” She holds space for practitioners to cultivate and deepen safe, harmonious plant medicine relationships for transformation and healing, and she aims to raise awareness of indigenous wisdom.

A former dancer with the Boston Ballet, Rachael has been a dedicated yogi since 2002 and is a certified Hatha Yoga teacher under the lineage of Sri Shambhavananda at the esteemed Shambhava School of Yoga. She earned a pre-med degree with honors from the University of Massachusetts; in her senior year, she traveled with ethnobotanist Chris Kilham to the Peruvian Amazon. She was certified as a mindfulness educator at the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

Rachael served her community as the education program manager at the Responsible Sex Education Institute of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and as education director at Empowering Education. She is the sales director for Moon Mother Hemp, a certified organic, seed-to-sale hemp company in Boulder, CO.

Through several Cosmic Sister Psychedelic Feminism grants, Rachael has spent time working on personal and professional growth at Nihue Rao and DreamGlade, two Shipibo ayahuasca retreats in the Peruvian Amazon. Her creative teaching techniques are infused with a blend of tantra, balance, regenerative agriculture practices, and sacred connection with the earth. “After connecting with the aya plant spirit medicine, I found that everything ultimately comes down to self-love and purpose. As educators, we aim to change behavior in a positive direction, and the plant showed me that it is not so much about the content we teach but rather the intention of cultivating a sense of purpose,” she says.

Rachael has presented at popular conferences such as Maui Cannabis, Women Grow, and Girls to Women and cultural festivals such as Bonnaroo, Grandoozy, Sonic Bloom, and The Matriarch Gathering, and is a featured teacher on Green Flower Media. Her work has been featured in LA Yoga, Civilized, VICE, Alternet, Financial Times, and The Denver Post, and graced the cover of Canada’s Lift. Rachael has been awarded a Yoga Journal Conference Award and a White House 1st Place Grant in Permaculture Gardening.

Cosmic Sister (@CosmicSister) awarded Rachael Carlevale a Women of The Psychedelic Renaissance grant to present “Integration: Building Bridges to Cannabis Spirit with Nature as Our Ally” at Spirit Plant Medicine Conference in Vancouver, BC.

Integration: Building Bridges to Cannabis Spirit with Nature as Our Ally

Educator and farmer Rachael Carlevale redefined her relationship with the natural world when she began to work with master plants, including ayahuasca and cannabis, during her university studies on plant and soil sciences for healing. Carlevale explains why it is essential to work with the practices of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness before, during, and after plant spirit medicine ceremonies to fully integrate the journey for optimal well-being. She also shares her experiences with regenerative farming to build healthy soils and sequester carbon through permaculture practices and design and the importance of regenerative agricultural methods to sustain the growing interest in the use of entheogenic plants.

#Ganjasana, #GanjaYoga, #RegenerativeCannabis, #CannaYoga, #LivingOrganicSoil