Thank you for finding your way here to the Sacred Grove. My name is Erin Shrader, renamed Erys Pyrfloris through my work with the plants, and it is my honor to hold this portal to another way of being human.
I am a licensed Registered Nurse and a board certified holistic nurse. I am also as a Registered Yoga Teacher, Certified Spiritual Director, Master Level Reiki Teacher, and Herbalist. I am mother to two children, Ashlyn and Torrin, and wife to Mike, my high school sweetheart. We tend 3.5 acres of degraded forest, and raise a flock of chickens as well as our dogs Mia and Mac our three cats Bodhi, Lilith and Mandragora, our Leopard Geckos Mary Jane and Milo, our snake Malicia, and some fish. We live in a zoo!
I have practiced earth-based religions for over 25 years, and have been initiated into the practice of magick since 2001. I am an initated second degree Druid in both the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids and the Ancient Order of Druids in America. I am a Novice Monk in the Gnostic Celtic Church, which is the religious body of the Ancient Order of Druids in America.
I am deeply grateful to all of my teachers, and there are so many. I am sure there will be many more. Some of my foundational teachers in herbalism are Sajah Popham, jim mcdonald, Paul Bergner, Asia Suler, Rosemary Gladstar, Rosalee de la Foret, Calyx Liddick, and Matthew Wood. And of course, the plants themselves.
To anyone who considers me a teacher, I am grateful for your trust and companionship. You are certainly a teacher to me, too.
Through all of my work as a nurse and healer, and in my personal life, I have found that our true resilience and strength doesn't come from what we have as an individual, but from how we belong to each other. We heal when we feel seen, appreciated, supported and loved. When these needs are met, we can offer healing and wholeness to others.
I hope that my work will help us belong to ourselves, to one another, and to the world around us. I do this work by tending the land, making medicine and selling it through my online apothecary, blogging and podcasting at The Plant Witch Podcast, and collaborating in community with other humans and more-than-human beings.
My priority is to care for myself and my family well and fully, so that I am healthy and clear and able to give my best to my work in the world. I am a community health nurse at heart. That means that I value education, prevention, relationships, and the health of the environment.
I hope you will join me on this journey toward belonging fully as humans on this good Earth.