“I believe we are already what we seek. It is waiting for us like a seed to be loved into blossom.” — Mark Nepo
About Flora Schanda
Warm Welcome!
I am Flora (she/her) and I am passionate about supporting others to come into conscious relationship with the more-than-human world and their own kind and loving ancestors and reconnect with the wisdom, beauty and magic of the ancient heart of this animate Earth.
My love for the Earth and the benevolent people and powers seen and unseen is rooted in my practice as queer witch, seeress, ritualist, animist and Pagan priestess re-imagining and rekindling the Earth-honouring ways of older European ancestors.
I am a descendant of diverse Celtic, Germanic, Norse and Slavic peoples, and my recent ancestors are from Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy and Germany.
My people are people of the oak and the white deer, of mountains, clouds and the northern lights, of the ocean, rivers and the yew, people of stone circles, grains and the sun, of wildflowers and bees, of birch, owl and elder, larch, juniper and falcon.
Born and currently living in Vienna between the Danube and the Vienna Woods, I grew up mostly on the northern border of the Alps in the Central Austrian lake region of the Salzkammergut.
A child of landscape ecologists, I was raised with an awareness and appreciation for the beautiful diversity and interdependence of the many beings and ecosystems of this planet.
As an Earth empath I have always felt a deep connection with the more-than-human natural world and continue to be blessed by my friendship with flowers, trees, forests, moss, lichen, fungi, mountains, animal kin, the fae, and spirits of water, wind, and weather.
I got involved in ritual arts and Earth-honouring Neo-Pagan spirituality as a teenager and have been on these paths for more than 25 years. My ever-curious mind and heart have also guided me to explore meditation, mindfulness, somatic, trance and ecstasy practices, as well as different kinds of body and energy work.
With an academic background in German and English literary studies I spent many years doing library and archive work and am now pursuing a master’s degree in comparative religious studies with a focus on ancient history, mythology, gender and queer studies.
I have also long been involved in community organising, activism and art especially for queer-feminist and sex-positive spaces and projects, and I cherish these connections and experiences.
Starting seven years ago, a health crisis and chronic illness led me to seek support for these challenges and to experience the transformative power of ancestral healing, ritual arts, and nature connection.
Through the course of a long and nonlinear “dark night of the soul” these practices have become beacons on my path. They have helped me not only get through but come out the other end to greet the new dawn with more groundedness, inner strength, presence, clarity, compassion, alignment with my true self, and appreciation for the preciousness of our unique and fragile lives.
Following ancestral guidance and the threads of my unfolding destiny I have taken various practitioner trainings to be able to extend that support and light the way for others, and I have been stepping further into embodying some of my lineage gifts as dedicated Priestess of Freyja in the Way of the Völva, a contemporary Norse Pagan tradition.
This also calls for reclaiming and disentagling what remains of some of these older wisdom ways from legacies of colonialism and erasure, as well as from abuse by supremacist and nationalist ideologies.
Deepening my relationships with the living world and the compassionate elder powers, and bringing forward the blessings and ancient magic of my wise and kind ancestors have become sources of felt belonging, support and guidance in my life.
I feel grateful, happy and honoured to share the gifts I have received on my journey and to guide others on these pathways.
I welcome clients from diverse cultural, religious and personal backgrounds and specialize in working with fellow empaths and highly sensitives, people seeking to reclaim or deepen spiritual gifts, those living with chronic illness, and members of the LGBTIQ+ community.
If you are interested in working with me, you are warmly invited to book a free 20-30 minute consultation to ask initial questions, clarify what you are looking for, and find out whether we are a good fit.
May we all remember that we are blessings, and may we know home and belonging and that we are loved.
Teachers, Mentors & Wisdom Lineages
Some of my trainings, teachers and mentors previous or ongoing include:
Ancestral Lineage Healing Practitioner ~ Dr. Daniel Foor / Ancestral Medicine, USA
The Way of the Oracle Priestess (in training) ~ Sally Pullinger / Glastonbury Goddess Temple, UK
Priesterin der Göttin / Priestess of the Goddess (in training) ~ Hildegard Kirchweger / Noreiatempel, AT
The Way of the Völva - Priestess of Freyja ~ Zindra Andersson / Glastonbury Goddess Temple, UK & Noreiatempel, AT
Awakening to the Runes ~ Maggie Cunningham / Magin Rose, UK
This Land Magical Training ~ Al Head / Moving Energy, UK
Advanced Ritual Healing Practitioner ~ Maris Bergrune / Living Voice Medicine, USA
Gather at the Well - Norse Ritual Animism ~ Maris Bergrune / Living Voice Medicine, USA
Oracular Seiðr & The High Seat ~ Maris Bergrune / Living Voice Medicine, USA
Transformational Mediumship ~ Maris Bergrune / Living Voice Medicine, USA
Foundations of Psychopomp ~ Shannon Willis / Red Earth Healing, USA
Ancestral Dreamwork ~ Shannon Willis / Red Earth Healing, USA
Waldbaden-Trainerin / Forest Bathing Trainer ~ Ulli Felber / waldwelt, AT
Nature and Forest Therapy Guide (in practicum phase) ~ ANFT, Slovenia/USA
Naturmentorin / Nature Mentoring and Wilderness Skills (in training) ~ Wildniscamps, AT
Forest Pedagogy Seminars e.g. Wilderness Herbalism, Fungi Adventures, Animal Tracking ~ Forstliche Ausbildungsstätte Traunkirchen, AT
Energy Work ~ Robert Henderson, AT
Energy Body Mastery & Energy Body Clearing ~ Langston Kahn / Last Mask Center, USA
Urban Tantra Professional Training ~ Barbara Carrellas, Sweden/USA
Lomi Ke Ala Hoku Master Practitioner ~ Margareta Kappl, DE / lineage of Kahu Abraham of Kawai’i
Bowen Technique Basic Training (in training) ~ Bowen Academy Europe, AT
Sharon Wheeler’s ScarWork ~ Andrea Clusen, DE
Heart of Belonging
These days I walk the forest
with the love of my ancestors
coursing in my blood like sap in a tree,
their voices on the wind and echoing in my footsteps.
Listen, they say, there is a door in the oak
and if you enter you will be as the tree of life,
roots reaching deep underground
into the heart of Earth,
at one with the infinite web
whose pulse beats like a drum within the land.
Your core is a flash of bright lightning
with a heart of green flame
and your branches touch the clouds,
the stars and the heavens.
An ancient bird nests there,
looking out high from the center of the world.
Listen, follow the ancient tracks
and you will be as the white deer,
antlers crowned with stars,
your hooves sparking a shimmering trail
across the night skies.
Listen, there is moss growing secretly
beneath the snow
and if only asked kindly,
it will heal wounds of flesh and of soil.
Listen, they say, all of this is us, all of this is you.
You have been with us from the beginning.
Your bones are made of sweet kinship
and you are held in the heart of belonging.
In the dark of the forest two owls call
and in the voice of my ancestors I answer.
Listen, all of this is you, all of this is us.
We have been here from the beginning.
— Flora Schanda
“Flora is an extraordinary practitioner and human being, balancing radical compassion with fierce integrity, and bringing a spark of magic with her to everything she does. I deeply appreciate her awareness of social justice and intersectionality and her capacity to hold and honour diversity, difference, and marginalisation. She brings an openness and an abundance of kindness, warmth, curiosity and creativity that make her a pleasure to share space with.”
– Rev. Rowan Bombadil, Author of “Igniting Intimacy - Sex Magic Rituals for Radical Living & Loving”