Sex Educator, Yogi, Cannabis Ecopreneur
Year born: 1987 (25 in ceremony)

Dedicated to the pursuit of sustainable, holistic healing methods, certified yoga instructor Rachii Ma lives by the words of Neem Karoli Baba: “Love everyone, serve everyone.”

A former dancer with The Boston Ballet, Rachael has been a dedicated yogi since 2002. She became a certified Hatha Yoga teacher under the lineage of Sri Shambhavananda at the esteemed Shambhava School of Yoga and earned a pre-med degree with honors from the University of Massachusetts.

She is working toward an eco-conscious revolution for human health through her Colorado-based businesses, Ganjasana, and served her community as the education program manager at the Responsible Sex Education Institute of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains for four years. She now has an exciting new job as Director of Education at Empowering Education.

Rachael has spent time exploring medicinal plants with the Shibipo Tribe in the Peruvian Amazon. Her creative teaching techniques are infused with a blend of tantra, vinyasa flow, balance and our sacred connection with the earth; her classes equip every body with valuable tools to use on and off the mat.

Rachael upholds her position as a leader in the world of holistic health and is honored to bear her fruits of deep insight.

Rachael's Plant Spirit Grant Story

Rachael Carlevale, the first grant recipient, went home and set some important familial boundaries after her ayahuasca experience. Since then she has been continually promoted in her work as a sex educator for Planned Parenthood, where she is rewriting the curriculum from a mindfulness perspective. A former dancer with The Boston Ballet, Rachael has been a dedicated yogi since 2002 and is a certified Hatha Yoga teacher. Her practice is evolving in creative ways that have led to Ganjasana™, a new concept that fuses yoga, healing and cannabis with a special focus on women’s reproductive systems. This brings her full circle to her original desire to be a medical doctor, a career path that she’s also revisiting from an integrated medicine perspective. When she went to Peru, Rachael was suffering from a serious physical health issue (a pre-cancerous tumor) and having trouble eating; both of these issues have improved substantially after ayahuasca. She got a clear message to make healthy decisions, including maintaining a balanced relationship with cannabis, another “master plant.” She will be returning to Peru in December 2016 to continue her work with the medicine.

“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.” – Rachael Carlevale

Image: Rachael Carlevale with Shipibo artist Luz Isamani Romayna (the two women have kept in touch).

Rachael in AlterNet

Rachael spoke about her experience in AlterNet. She said:

“I think ayahuasca really helped on an emotional spiritual level as well as the cellular level. It’s one of the most transformational experiences anyone can have in my opinion because while you're there you’re feeling so many different things. It’s literally a paradigm shift in your understanding self, and of the world, and your relationship to people and to nature. Personally, one of my weakest strengths was communicating. Telling people how I felt, that sort of thing, was really hard for me. I feel completely different now. Now it’s no problem.” – Rachael Carlevale, AlterNet

“The work Zoe is doing with Cosmic Sister is just outstanding and fully needed. There is no equality between the male and female sectors of our society, so it’s really just helping bring women to the forefront. One of the things Zoe says is, to protect women, wilderness and wildlife. I love that, I resonate with that. That’s everyone. It’s really this connection for all these different females to feel supported and to support one another.” – Rachael Carlevale, AlterNet

Cosmic Sister Plant Spirit Grant 2013
Cosmic Sisters of Cannabis Grant 2015
Women of the Psychedelic Renaissance Grant 2016
Ayahuasca Retreat: Nihue Rao / DreamGlade