My Story
A mentor said once, "Rebirth is a lifestyle for mission souls."
This has been true for me. Perhaps it rings true for you too... I also believe that every time we are reborn, we find more home in our being, belonging as our authentic Self, closer to our core Truths, our passionate radiance, the embodiment of why we chose to be on Earth at this wild time. My many rebirths have led to a long resume, many grand adventures, and an ever-clearer understanding of my mission here ~
In a nutshell:
- 20+ years studying and educating about Earth systems as a professional volcanologist, educator, and backcountry trip leader
- 15+ years working as a freelance photographer, researcher, and business consultant for start-ups and small businesses
- Certified Facilitator and Trainer in Obsidian Womb Wellness therapies and Soul Ministry coaching
- Ceremonialist and Reverend Priestess of Auset through the Iseum of Obsidian Womb of the Fellowship and Temple of Isis
- VITA-certified Sex, Love, and Relationship coach - a science-backed, somatic-based, and tantra-informed method for transformation
- Decades-long healing journey on ancestral and physical levels, including complex PTSD, endometriosis, fibroids, chronic Bell's Palsy, and a broken back
- A spiritual education and initiation into the mystery schools of both ancient traditions and the Earth herself
- Initiated into grief, death, and shadow and the quantum realms through overcoming many hard losses, as well as an awakening of my 'clairs'...
Soul Seer, Vision Midwife, World Bridger, Intuitive Healer, Lion-Hearted Leo
I can't thank you enough, Karina, for holding me in my darkness and letting me know it's a safe place to go.
~ D.M.
My work is focused around integrating our wounds and shadows to more fully embody our joy and truest service in the world.
I offer 1:1 Mentorships and Sessions, and regularly offer a guided 4-month group Mastermind journey through the underworlds and volcanoes of the womb. For those on a passionate path, I lead a 13-Moon Volcano Priestessing Initiation and Ordination (we will begin again in the Fall of 2025).
I also regularly offer workshops and women's circles in the Colorado area, have some retreats dished up for coming years, and am available for speaking engagements near and far.
My story really starts in December, 2009 ~~ when I was struck by lightning on the slopes of an erupting volcano.
In that moment, I already had a decade under my belt as a professional geologist on the path of inner Earth studies, specializing in the mechanics of volcanic eruptions. As a respected, innovative researcher in my field - with a Masters degree, a Fulbright grant, two peer-reviewed publications, and acclaimed industry experience under my belt - I was poised for a successful career in science.
I was also exactly a month out from a divorce, and had landed in Puna on the Big Island of Hawaii with a one-way ticket and no plan but to heal and find a new way forward.
Despite my academic successes, much of my 20s was spent unearthing, navigating and trying to make sense of the drama and trauma of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a loved one (Unfortunately, I know I'm not the only one with this story - it's one of the big reasons why I now do what I do!)... As my marriage, self-esteem, and sense of belonging became other casualties of ancestral patterns I was determined to break but didn't know how, at the age of 29, I set out to rediscover myself.
In what became an appropriate Saturn's Return for a quadruple 12th-house Leo (I knew nothing of astrology at the time; I only felt a deep yearning to meet Pele so I could call myself a "true volcanologist"...), I wound up at the doorsteps of the fiery Goddess, feeling like there was nowhere else to go in the whole world, broken in body and spirit, pleading for help and for grace.
She replied with a literal lightning bolt, and my life changed forever ~~ A shockwave of liquid time and light, through the butcher knife I was holding up to my right ear (I had been chopping an onion a split second before as everything exploded around me) down my body and out my hip as I simultaneously hit the floor, miraculously unscathed. An immediate knowing it as a gift, as if every chakra from crown to root had been "burnt out", cleansed of lifetimes of karma by the plasma fire of creation. A renewal. An awakening.
In the years that followed, I lived a very different life than the one I had before.
I traveled light and often, learning new ways of communication with Earth wisdoms, integrating the grief of heartbreak and loss on so many levels, doing the deep work to untangle and heal the many-layered generational wounding patterns that weave through trauma and abuse, finding unexpected miracles and mysteries at every turn.
Just as tales suggest - the lightning awakened my psychic powers - and it took some time to integrate and learn to work with these new sensibilities.
Behind the scenes of the many jobs I worked during these years, I was pouring myself into a divinely sparked project that took on a life of its own - a journey into the interconnected evolutionary systems of Earth and consciousness, grounded in both scientific process and shamanic practices.
The Molten Roots Method was born.
In 2016, this research brought me to a remote erupting volcano in the Pacific Ocean (Yasur), to Standing Rock in South Dakota, and then back to the halls of academia to learn more about electromagnetism and inner Earth processes. I received a Fellowship to fund Ph.D. studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), where I got to spend a few years in the world of cutting-edge research into the geophysical processes of erupting volcanoes (and also give myself a crash course in entrepreneurship and business!)..
However, academia was not to be my path.
The wild always calls too loudly...
I have always known that my truest work in the world is to be a pioneer, weaving the worlds of Earth science with something more primal, more sacred, an honoring of the lifeforce present in all forms of body, from human to planet. We are, after all, multidimensional beings and Earth truly is our Mother.
UpLight Ventures LLC was birthed in 2019 with a vision of bringing small groups of women on unique, life-changing, adventure retreats to the mouths of molten volcanoes, where Earth's primal and mystical power is undeniable.
Our first trip was planned for May, 2020 to meet Stromboli Volcano in the Aeolian Islands off the coast of Sicily.
Then, Covid…
As fate would have it, at this same time I also began an intensive deep dive into the wonders of Obsidian as a yoni egg - a volcanic glass geometry and powerful tool for accessing the subconscious, training psychic gifts, and bringing deep healing to the roots of ancestral trauma - work which revealed a soul calling into a new realm.
This work led to a rebirth on many levels ~ to my becoming ordained as a Reverend Priestess, as well as an initiation into a women-led Nahuatl tradition of central Mexico, a lineage linked to ancient Mystery Schools and Obsidian teachings. It also led me to a 650-hour certification as a VITATM Sex, Love, and Relationship Coach - a tantric, neuroscience-backed, somatic-based methodology for potent healing and connection to your inner fire, your most authentic self. With the sudden death of my mentor, Ayah Buonaugurio in February, 2023 I took on a bigger role in this work as Heirophant and Guide to Priestesses-in-Training and upcoming Obsidian Womb Facilitators.
These days, I can be found with soul family and my dog Yoda on a remote Colorado mesa, where the Rockies meet vast desert. A place where the wild still pulses through the weave of community, and agricultural and cultural abundance fill my plate and heart. Some of my favorite things include adventures beyond cell range, digging in the garden, painting and writing, playing and dancing.
Our stories, wounds, and traumas are the gateways to our greatest,
most sustaining wealths.
"If we own the story, we can write the ending" -Brene Brown
Copyright © 2025 UpLight Ventures LLC All Rights Reserved