Welcome!
Hi! I’m Kati Standefer, author of “The Wild and Holy Moment”—a story of surviving multiple death initiations and being courted by shamanic practice, as a person without clear spiritual lineage, in a modern world.
In January 2024 my guides told me to write a memoir called Shaman, about the historical destruction of shamanic lineages around the world and my own decade-long process of being trained for spiritual service—whether or not I wanted it—by land spirits, plant medicines, celestial beings, and human teachers of different traditions.
I resisted HARD at first. I had kept this part of my life mostly a secret. My first book, Lightning Flowers, included extensive reporting about issues like mining, medical technologies, corporate social responsibility, and conservation, and I often spoke in medical and business settings where “the woo” is not exactly welcome. I didn’t want to ruin my reputation.
I know now that my role is to help heal that divide. To bring the sacred and animistic back into realms more often analytical and academic.
I launched this Substack to practice telling spiritual stories and, more importantly, to practice being seen as a spiritual storyteller.
I’m now studying at the Nordic School of Shamanism near Lavik, Norway. This storyline will be a key part of Shaman the memoir. (Yes, I am currently seeking representation for this project.)
When I’m not writing, I’m singing folk and bluegrass onstage, weight training, trail running, downhill skiing, mentoring other memoir writers, puttering around the farmer’s market, traveling to new countries, or reading in my little cabin in Kelly, Wyoming.
Accolades for Lightning Flowers
Lightning Flowers: My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving a Life was released in November 2020 and was a Finalist for the Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction, an Editor’s Pick at the New York Times Book Review, and the Common Read at Colorado College (‘22-’23) along with lots of other fancy things. You may have heard me talk about the book on NPR’s Fresh Air or the goop podcast, or seen it in the pages of Oprah Magazine or People Magazine.
Fun fact: I’m working on a different memoir over on Patreon. Skin Hunger: A Sexual Reckoning traces my journey from sex-shamed abstinence devotee to sex educator for a small abortion clinic, wrestling with the policies and programs that influence our personal lives and the ways celibacy and casual sex can both be, at turns, empowering and emotionally decaying.
