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From her website at
oriahmountaindreamer.com:
Oriah is first and
foremost a story-teller, a lover of words and symbols and the
stories that lift our spirits, open our hearts and offer us ways to
see patterns and create meaning in our lives. The focus of her life
and work has been an on-going inquiry into the Sacred Mystery. Her
writing, teaching and personal journey all explore how we can each
become the individual we are at the deepest level of being and how
we can co-create meaning together in the world. Blending humour,
insight and compassion for our human struggles Oriah encourages
herself and others to be ruthlessly honest and infinitely kind
toward our own strengths and our weaknesses.
Raised in a small
community in Northern Ontario, Oriah’s family encouraged her to
bring her questions and explorations to the Christian tradition they
espoused. At home in the wilderness she was drawn to and at home in
the ceremonies and earth-based teachings of the First People’s,
eventually teaching and sharing what she learned. Her daily practice
includes ceremonial prayer, yoga, meditation and writing. A graduate
of Ryerson University’s social work program (Toronto) and a
student of Philosophy at the University of Toronto she has
facilitated groups, offered classes and counselled individuals for
over thirty-five years. The mother of two grown sons, Oriah lives
with her husband Jeff in a home surrounded by forest stillness
several hours north of Toronto.
Oriah is the author
of several best-selling books: The Invitation
(now translated into more than fifteen languages), The
Dance, and The Call: Discovering Why You
Are Here. Her book, What We Ache For:
Creativity and the Unfolding of Your Soul, explores the
challenges, rewards, and necessity of doing our creative work. Opening
the Invitation is a small book that shares Oriah’s story of
writing and sharing her much-loved poem, “The
Invitation.” All five of Oriah’s books are published by
HarperONE, San Francisco. Using story and sharing meditations
Oriah’s writing explores how to follow the thread of our deepest
heart's longing into a life where we can choose joy without denying
the difficulties we each face. Facing the challenges and finding the
joy of living who we are is further explored on her Sounds
True CD, Your Heart’s Prayer. Oriah has shared her insights
and stories with audiences throughout the world at conferences and
retreats and through radio and TV appearances (CBC, TVO, Oprah, NPR,
PBS, Wisdom Network.)
Oriah is currently
focused on writing. She is working on a novel, another non-fiction
book-- a collection of stories about deepening our inner lives-- and
writing a weekly blog, “The Green Bough” at oriahsinvitation.blogspot.com
The Name
Oriah has a long
and unusual history with her name. In 1984, at thirty years of age,
after the onset of severe Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, she had a dream
where several elderly women- those she calls Grandmothers in the
dream- told her to change her given name to Oriah as part of the
process of healing. Nervous about doing something others might see
as strange, but desperate to be well, she took the name Oriah and
has been called this (by everyone but her mother) since that time.
Twenty years later, while doing a book tour, on three successive
nights, in three different cities, she was told by people at the
bookstores she was visiting that Oriah means light of God in Hebrew,
and that it is an ancient Jewish custom to change a patient’s name
when doing a healing, to invite new and healing energies.
A year after taking
the name Oriah, still seeking healing, she went to a shamanic
teacher who gave her the medicine name "Mountain Dreamer.”
The shaman told her that a medicine name tells someone what gifts
they have to offer the world in their lifetime and that Mountain
Dreamer meant "one who likes to find and push the edge."
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