Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Oriah Mountain Dreamer is an international renowned writer and prose-poet living near Toronto, Canada. She has authored seven books, several becoming best selling works, including "The Invitation" (now translated into more than fifteen languages), "The Dance," and "The Call: Discovering Why You Are Here." She has facilitated workshops, ceremonies, and retreats on both writing and Native American/First People shaman practices throughout the United States and Canada, and has appeared on several national television shows including CBC, TVO, Oprah, NPR, PBS, and Wisdom Network.

She has been living with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) since 1984, and has reoccurring periods of two to three years where she is mostly bedbound. In an interview where she was asked about challenges in her life, she stated: "...I have come to realize that although the illness puts very real limitations on my life – I will probably never risk a trip to India, and I rarely go out in the evening, etc – it does not stop me from living my soul's deepest longing. Most of the time I can read and I can write- although I write a bit slower than I might otherwise. Even when I can't do these, I can pray and meditate and shape my day around the kind of meaning-making creativity I love."

Oriah Mountain Dreamer is not her birth name. After she became ill with severe ME/CFS at thirty years of age, she had a dream where several elderly women - those she calls Grandmothers in the dream - told her to change her given name to Oriah as part of the process of healing. Despite being nervous about how others would view her name change, she was willing to see if it could help with her healing. Twenty years later she found out that "Oriah" means "light of God" in Hebrew and that it is an ancient Jewish custom for a person to change his/her name when healing in order to invite new and healing energies. "Mountain Dreamer" is the medicine name given to her by a shamanic teacher which means "one who likes to find and push the edge."

Fehr blogs at The Green Bough.

Interviews

 * 2005, Oriah Mountain Dreamer: what she aches for
 * 2011, Interview by Wise Women Network
 * 2013, Blessed are the Weird: Host: Jacob Nordby Guest: Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Online presence

 * Website
 * Facebook
 * Twitter
 * Blog
 * Amazon author page