Zhiva came to me while in the midst of feverishly researching my eastern European roots and the ancient healing methods indigenous to those places. My mother line was brought to the US by way of Bohemia. My great-grandmother, with whom I share a birthday, and most of her siblings, were the first in her family to be born on this soil. Her parents and two siblings came from what is now the Czech Republic in the early 1900s.
When I was young, I remember often hearing whispers that the women in my family had "the gift" of intuition. Later on, I would learn that my great-grandmother used to channel via automatic writing although she kept it secret, for I am sure many different reasons. Although much has been fractured in this line of my family, once I started doing my own healing work, I felt a strong urge to revisit the roots of my grandmothers and the pre-christian/patriarchal healing methods of the lands from which they came.
In this learning, I discovered that the pagan traditions in that region were incredibly simple and close to the earth. Spiritual connection and the ability to heal are deeply embedded into a great reverence for and dynamic alignment with nature. Just like our bodies are always striving towards homeostasis, so is the earth. We are not actually separate from nature at all. That idea is the great fracture that has kept us from our birthright as people with wombs or feminine spirits: access to our own power.
It is in the simple, everyday connection to our Great Mother Gaia that we find peace and healing, not just for the self, but for all.
My ancestors practiced very simple and close-to-the-earth practical magic. That way of life has resonated the most with me as well. I have always been pulled to keep my spiritual practices simple. Close to myself and close to the earth. So I developed Zhiva Energy to share with others who are looking for a similar, simple and natural approach to balance and harmony in the body.
The word Zhiva came to me slowly. First, I discovered the word "zhyva" as a Slavic word for sacred universal life force. It means ALIVE, VITAL ... being animately existent. Further into my research, I discovered a pre-christian goddess that goes by many names, one is Ziva. She is the goddess of life, water, and fertility. She pre-dates mother earth as a goddess, and is more connected to the waters of primordial earth. The goddess of living water.
From that honoring of my roots, combined with modern wisdom of my own after so many years of direct work with the female root, Zhiva Energy was born.