Marie Elena Gaspari

Master Wisdom Teacher

“I am birthed in a song of joy,

a radiant, multi-dimensional, being of light,

all beauty ascending.”

Marie Elena Gaspari is a Master Wisdom Teacher with forty years of spiritual exploration, study, and practice. Marie Elena has taught programs in the Healing Arts since 1990. She has led over three hundred ritual and ceremonial events including Women’s Moon Circles, the Sacred Feminine Mysteries, Rites-of-Passage, and Wheel of the Year gatherings.

Marie Elena is a twenty-year practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, a Reiki Seichim Master, a Shamanic Arts practitioner, and a former member of Findhorn-founded, Sirius Community, in Shutesbury, Massachusetts.

Marie Elena Gaspari is an award-winning poet. She is the founder of the Northport Poets & Writers. Her poem, The Quilting Circle, was a Traverse City Poets Night Out, 2016 Winner. The Marketplace, won First Place in Word Letting’s 2010 Self-Portrait Poetry Project. Dreaming Back My Sisters. was awarded the 2005 Artists Embassy International Grand Prize at the Palace of the Legion of Honor, in San Francisco, California.

Marie Elena’s Sacred Dance experience spans twenty-four years. She is a Tara Dhatu Level III teacher of the international; Mandala Dance of the 21 Praises of Tara. In 2001 Marie Elena was one of sixty women, from twenty-four countries, chosen to offer the 21 Praises of Tara Mandala Dance in Dharamsala, India, at the invitation of H.H. the Dalai Lama.

Marie Elena has an M.A. from Naropa University and a B. A.from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Marie Elena was raised in Massachusetts, spent twenty-five years in the Bay Area of California, and now lives with her husband on the Leelanau Peninsula in Northport, Michigan.

I am Marie Elena

Light Beloved of God

I am a woman unto myself

dancing barefoot beneath the moon

That is all the beauty I need

Marie Elena 2005

Marie Elena Gaspari – Master Wisdom Teacher

Brief Healing Arts Bio

1955 Born in Littleton, Massachusetts.

1978 First Spiritual Teachers, Peter and Ellen Tadd. New Salem, MA.

1979 Received a B.A. in Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

1982 Joined Sirius Community in Shutesbury , MA. Marie Elena was introduced to the following teachings and principles while at Sirius: The Findhorn Garden principles, Bio-dynamic Farming, Rudolf Steiner/Waldorf School, Alice Bailey, Consensus Decision-making, Mondragon Work co-operatives, Circle Dance, the Lakota Sweat Lodge teachings of Charlie Tom, the grandson of Black Elk.

1984 Studied yoga and related topics at Kripalu Center in Lenox, MA.

1985 Studied the work of Starhawk. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

1986 Marie Elena moved to the Bay Area of California.

1987 - 2012 Studied Astrology with Andrew Wolniak, Demetra George, Stephanie Austin, and Helen Jasper.

1989 -2010 Attended Pujas, programs, and retreats with spiritual leader “Amma”, Mata Amritanandamayi at the MA Center Ashram in San Ramon, California.

1990 Graduated from Vickie Noble’s nine-month, Mother Peace Shamanic Healing Arts Program. Oakland, CA.

1990 - Present Professionally practiced Astrology and Tarot.

1990 - 2008 Established the Sisters of the Moon Women’s Circle, a monthly full moon circle celebrating Tribal Sisterhood and the natural cycles of the earth, moon, and sun; the Equinoxes, Solstices and Cross-quarter days of the Wheel of the Year.

1993 - 2006 Marie Elena established Moonflower Creations, a Shamanic Arts organization. Marie Elena witnessed, officiated, and offered programs for the Rites of Passage, birth through death. She led classes and workshops on the Ritual Arts, the Blood Mysteries, the Sacred Feminine, Trance Journey, Dream Work, the Song of the Self, Astrology, and Tarot.

1994 Became a Reiki Master in the Reiki Sechim lineage.

1994 Received personal instruction in Lakota Sweat Lodge teachings and other studies from Lakota Medicine Man, Francis Two-Charger and his wife, Pipe Holder, Marie Two-Charger.

1994 - 2011 Sacred Dance studies with Bonney Meyer in Berkeley, CA.

1994 - Present Marie Elena participated in the ancient, Tibetan Buddhist offering practice of the 21 Praises of Tara Dance Mandala under the tutelage of the Dance Lineage Master Prema Dasara, Anahata Iradha, Bonney Meyer, and the Tara Dhatu organization. Marie Elena danced the Mandala nationally, in California, Arizona, Utah, Hawaii, Michigan, and New York, and internationally in India and Nepal.

1996 - 2003 Marie Elena and four other women established Rosa Mandala, an organization in the Temple Priestess Tradition that honored the sacredness of everyday life and that supported and celebrated diversity of spiritual expression. Rosa Mandala led large-group, family-friendly, Wheel of the Year celebrations for the Equinoxes, Solstices and Cross-quarter days. Rosa Mandala sponsored national and international instructors of Ethnic and Global Dance.

1995 - 2002 A member of the Rosa Mandala Sacred Dance Troupe led by Bonney Meyer. The Rosa Mandala Sacred Dance Troupe was dedicated to presenting a living expression of the Sacred Feminine through dance, music, movement, and prayer.

1998 Took refuge in Tibetan Buddhism with native Tibetan, Lama Thartse Rinpoche, of Ewam Choden Buddhist Center in Kensington, CA.

1999 - 2005 Engaged in formal studies of Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Thartse Rinpoche and other notable Tibetan lamas and teachers. Marie Elena’s Tibetan Buddhist empowerments include: Chakrasamvara from H. H. Sakya Trizin, and White Tara from H. H. 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Drodul Trinley Dorje. She received Vajra Nairatma, Naropa Vajra Yogini, Mahakala Panjara, and the Twenty-One Praises of Tara from H. E. Jetsun Kusho Chime Luding. From Lama Kunga Thartse Rinpoche she received many empowerments including Green, Red, Gold, White, and Black Tara.

2001 Marie Elena was one of sixty women, representing twenty-four countries, chosen to take part in the Tara Dhatu Dance Peace Pilgrimage, to Dharamsala, India and Kathmandu, Nepal, to dance the 21 Praises of Tara Mandala, at the invitation of H.H. the Dalai Lama.

2000 - 2002 Completed a Master’s Program with Naropa University, Oakland, Campus. Comparative Spiritual Tradition. Instructors included; Matthew Fox, Joanna Macy, China Galland, Russill Paul, Ana Perez-Chisti, Brian Swimme, and Kaleo Ching.

2002 Four months of study with Luisah Teish in the Yoruba Lucumi tradition.

2007 Marie Elena became a Wisdom Teacher after thirty years of spiritual exploration, study, and practice. At this time, she was guided to create the Circle of the Rose Wisdom School.

2008 Certified as a Tara Dhatu Level Three Instructor for the 21 Praises of Tara Mandala Dance.

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2012 Marie Elena and her husband move to Northport, Michigan on the Leelanau Peninsula.

2012 - 2016 Marie Elena is part of the Tibetan Buddhist Omena Karma Kagyu Study Group, led by Venerable Karma Kunga in Omena, Michigan. She attends weekly meditation and prayer practice. Marie Elena receives teachings and empowerments from Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche and Lama Karma Drodhul of the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Monastery in Woodstock, New York and from Lama Kathy Wesly, Gyurme Chotso from the Columbus Karma Thegsum Chöling Meditation Center.

2020 - Present Engaged in a mentoring program with Prema Dasara, Dance Lineage Master of the 21 Praises of Tara Mandala Dance, Spiritual and Creative Director, and founder of the international organization, Tara Dhatu.