Mikaya Heart is an extremely unusual and radical woman. Born in Scotland in the fifties, on the edges of an aristocratic family, she developed a deep bond with Nature from a young age, which enabled her to survive a difficult childhood.

She was molested by several men and repeatedly abused psychologically by her father. Although considered a child genius at the age of seven, she broke away from “the norm” early on, swearing to walk her own path and tell the truth. After two years at York University, she realized that academia is deeply disconnected from life and would never bring her joy, so she dropped out. She became first a barefoot hippie and later a radical anarchist feminist activist, as well as a car mechanic, carpenter, and organic farmer.

Her travels started when she was fifteen and discovered hitchhiking, which enabled her to go far abroad on a minimal income. She spent months going here and there in Europe, also visiting north Africa and later spending five months in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. At the age of thirty, she moved to California, illegally, where she lived in the boonies caretaking a ranch, growing her own food and building houses out of recycled lumber.

She did a great deal of healing work on herself in her thirties and forties, much of which centered around her sexuality. In the nineties she wrote When the Earth Moves: Women and Orgasm which was inspired by her own experiences and by many interviews with other women. Since she considers sex to be a metaphor for life and one of the best ways to learn how to let life-force flow freely through the body, she thought she might become one of San Francisco's sexperts but changed her mind when she realized what a difficult subject it is for most people.

She started studying shamanism with Angeles Arrien in the eighties, and after a retreat in Montana with Brooke Medicine Eagle, she went on to study the nature of reality with a number of beings who speak through Dayana Jon (dayanamag.org). She has been studying with them ever since and considers their wisdom to be the most powerful and truthful teachings she has ever come across. After a number of powerful spiritual awakenings, she now teaches classes on the true nature of reality.

In the year 2000, she had an epiphany which led her to sell her property and go traveling again for thirteen years. She has traveled, mostly alone on a limited income, in more than 25 countries and five continents. Wanting to find out who she was when she wasn't helping others, she took up kitesurfing in 2003. Ironically, she probably helps the world more when she is kitesurfing than at any other time, since it brings her to a very intense place of joy, and that is infectious. She is now known as one of the top women kitesurfers in the Pacific Northwest.

Mikaya is completely at ease talking in front of large groups about the details of her extraordinary life, and at this point, she wants nothing more than to share her wisdom. Her greatest desire is to contribute to the creation of a kinder and gentler world. She believes that more women need to be encouraged to heal from abusive pasts, make their own choices and generally step into their personal power, Mikaya's story will help everyone who has the courage to walk that path.

In her article, From Activism to Shamanism, Mikaya shares some of her personal process.