My Story
Mijn leven is vanaf mijn vroegste herinnering een zoektocht geweest.
Een zoektocht naar alternatieven voor de westerse waarden van macht, imago, bezit en ratio. Een zoektocht naar verklaringen voor alles waarvan ik gewoon wist dat het bestond en waar was, maar dat niet binnen het westers discours paste. Een zoektocht naar de reden van de sterke aantrekkingskracht die krachtige bomen en oude plekken altijd op mij gehad hebben. Die zoektocht is de rode draad in mijn leven, maar ook een reis.
En steeds opnieuw beland ik bij krachtige bomen en plaatsen. Van Wéris en Hamoir tot Mexico, La Gomera en Australië.
From my earliest memory, my life has been a quest.
A search for alternatives to the Western values of power, image, property and reason. A search for explanations for everything I just knew existed and was true, but which did not fit within Western discourse. A search for the reason for the strong attraction that powerful trees and ancient places have always had on me. That search is the thread of my life, but also a journey. And again and again I end up at powerful trees and places. From Wéris and Hamoir to Mexico, La Gomera and Australia.
1977, 31 December
my birthday and the day of Saint Sylvester - the festival of ‘sylva’, the forest.
1985
an innocent experience that summer that I would always recollect: I was already so influenced by the information that there aren’t any native conifers and that deciduous species are so much better, that I felt depressed on a summer camp simply because my team was located in a conifer forest and the other in a deciduous one during a game.
1995-2000
formation bio-engineer at the Catholic University of Leuven (CUL) in soil science and tropical forestry (and with many courses in forestry)
1996-2001
became acquainted with druid Chantal Hoyberghs through several workshops – first part of the druid formation from the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids
1997-2012
Egyptian belly dance with Amana Dance Theatre and other
(this may seem irrelevant, but when belly dancing energy flows - experienced belly dancers are also energy experts in some way)
1997
stage in Thailand with agricultural students and farmers thanks to the International Association of Students Agricultural and Related Sciences (I.A.A.S.)
1998
stage in Togo with small farmers thanks to I.A.A.S.
1999
field work for my thesis in Cuenca, Ecuador, about fertility gradients in terraces on the steep Andes slopes
2000-2001
Additional eduction in the social and cultural anthropology (CUL), a focus on religions and trees with a comparative study of druidism and other nature religions
2001-2002
Master in Tropical Agriculture at the CUL with an ethnobotanic study about the use of garden plants in a remote village (Coyula, Oaxaca) in Mexico
2003-present
coordinator with Forest Group (South-)Limburg
2007-2009
thoroughly renovating the house of my dreams
2009-2011
education integrative massage
2010
regularly participating in family constellations
2010-2012
introductions in emotional bodywork, firewalk, sweat lodge
ceremonies, a traditional ayahuasca ceremony, adoula, alternative festivals, participating in full moon gatherings for women, visiting a festival of indigenous shamans,... education light worker and initiations in healing, reiki
2013
becoming a mom
2014
start ashtanga yoga
2011-2014
guiding in the Cistercian abbey & brewery of Val-Dieu
2017-2024
root work for Land of Eya
2023
my rebirth as Aelyn (moonlight) and the start of tree readings
2024
finally meditating daily - more light work for trees including through the Power of 8 (Lynne McTaggart)
