Welcome to Collective Self

Welcome to my personal writing space and author page. I’m Lori Kane–Whidbey Island-based community herbalist, essayist, poet, author, home canner, mystic, sci-fi fan, aunt, antiracist, Alzheimer’s care partner, and co-conspirator of others playing and working for love, life, wonder, curiosity, and freedom for life on our beautiful earth. I recommend searching this site by keyword and just getting lost for a while–allow the universe (or multiverse) to find something for you that you didn’t realize you needed.

I’m a full-time herbalist at the moment, so most days you can find me online at Ritual Mischief. Daniel, I, and others also sometimes host retreats, talks, walks, teas, games, and workshops. You can learn more about those by signing up for the Ritual Mischief email newsletter, or on Daniel’s website, and sometimes on our Silly Dog Studios website. 

Books hold some of humanity’s deepest magic. In the presence of books–like in the presence of forests and fields–I feel I fully belong. I write to understand the moment and so that someone else might open a book to find exactly the thing they need at just the right moment for them—like other authors have done for me across my life. I write so that others have the experience of drawing in their breath with wonder and delight as they’re reminded of the deep magic at play in our world, and within humanity herself, even here, even now.

My latest collaboration–the Mystic Routine–is a series of eight activity books. They live on the Ritual Mischief website. They’re about waking up, centering on what matters most to your community/self/ancestors, and holding on to wonder throughout your lifetimes.

Our latest book Unshaken Wonder: Becoming Playful Elders Together can be ordered from you local bookstore. And is available in digital form on Amazon and in print form on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, Books-a-Million, and BookBaby’s bookstore here. It’s for people asking themselves questions like: How do I get back to my playful self? How do I get back to being in love with humanity? What does it take to become a playful elder today? What does it take to encounter wonder daily? What does it take to reconnect with the wonder at our core during times of increasing polarization, isolation, exhaustion, and anger and when confronted by pain, death, injustice, and horror?  I suspect that to find unshaken wonder we must be ready to unlearn much of what the old us thought was true. That we must feel a little bit ready to open ourselves up again to new possibilities, people, ideas, and places. Ready to let go of what doesn’t matter in this moment in favor of what matters most to those fully present and together here, right now.

Are you ready?