AWAKENING ARTEMIS

Combining Chakour's intimate story of her own healing journey with practical plant-based knowledge, AWAKENING ARTEMIS is rooted in the belief that healing happens through reclaiming an intuitive connection to ourselves, to the natural world, and to our own "inner wild."

Having experienced a series of physical traumas as a youth - including chronic asthma and a car accident in which she fractured her back and neck - led Chakour to pursue various approaches to therapeutic movement from martial arts to yogic practices, as well as to explore traditions honoring the mind-body connection such as Zen meditation, Tibetan Buddhism, Taoism, and Plant Spirit Meditation. Twenty years in the making, her uniquely integrative approach to self-healing informs this real-life fairytale, memoir, plant guide, and healing tool. Chakour begins her tale at the edge of the forest and guides us deeper into the woods, where plants elicit memories, offer medicine, and frame each section of the book. Cycling through the seasons, we learn about the practices of visual art, competitive boxing, archery, meditation, and herbalism - with a focus on the elemental nature of each plant or family of plants that have helped Chakour and her students heal body and mind.

Following the quintessential arc of the heroine's journey, AWAKENING ARTEMIS is an awakening to oneself and to the natural world; within its pages, we learn that the strength we seek has been with us all along and that plants are our allies, available to us to aid us as we heal. In the tradition of other books connecting women and nature that have proven beyond popular, AWAKENING ARTEMIS is for fans of classics such as Susan Griffin's Woman and Nature and Clarissa Pinkola Estés' Women Who Run with the Wolves, as well as Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass and Sharon Blackie's If Women Rose Rooted. Also for fans of hybrid memoirs such as the recent The Book of Help by Megan Griswold, AWAKENING ARTEMIS will appeal to readers who appreciate Chakour's grounded, practical, yet personal and relatable approach to self-healing through a blend of storytelling and instructive herbalism.

Vanessa Chakour is an herbalist, holistic arts educator, former pro-boxer, experienced archer, environmental activist, and founder of Sacred Warrior - a multi-disciplinary educational and experiential "school" offering plant medicine, martial arts, wildlife conservation, and meditation through courses, workshops, and retreats. Since its inception in 2011, Sacred Warrior's mission has been to "rewild" the domesticated self in order to heal relationship with ourselves, each other, and the earth. Sacred Warrior's Rewilding Retreats are in partnership with the Wolf Conservation Center in New York, The Jaguar Rescue Center in Costa Rica, and Alladale Wilderness Reserve in the Scottish Highlands. Chakour has studied and taught with renowned Herbalists such as Robin Rose Bennett and Matthew Wood, and has created events & initiatives on behalf of luminaries such as His Holiness, The Dalai Lama and hip hop legend KRS One. She is a founding member of the True Athlete Project; has presented at the Muhammad Ali Sports and Social Justice Forum on Sports, Self-Awareness and Sustainability; and has consulted for corporate clients seeking sustainable, earth-centered solutions. For more information on Vanessa and her work, please visit her online at sacredwarrior.co and vanessachakour.com.