Christine DeVai has been a herbalist and student of nature cure all her life. She grew up in Switzerland where herbalism is widely practiced and the standards of herbal products marketed very high. When she came to Canada in 1965 she found herself wondering why there was no training available and eventually initiated and wrote the first herbal curriculum which she taught at a Canadian public college, graduating students with a herbalist certificate after a rigorous two year program. She founded and was the president of the Ontario Herbalist Association, and together with a college, Dave Carroll, published a much loved journal on herbalism. She created a forum for an annual summer herbal renaissance venue where she invited many known and respected herbalists from all over the world to co teach with her which was enjoyed for almost two decades by many herbal enthusiast. During this time she had a full time private practise as a consulting herbalist and was also a guest speaker at health fairs internationally.
Her evolutionary process involved master herbalist certification with Dr. John Christopher and Rev. Hanna Kroeger, as well as Canada’s own native teacher Norma Myers from B.C. She served her teachers for seven years each. After they passed to the spirit world her personal health crisis necessitated a three silent year retreat during which she met new Mentors guiding her path to eastern modalities and Ayurveda, the mother of all healing. After ten years of training she graduated as an Ayurvedic chef, nutrition and wellness consultant.
She has spent extensive time in India during the past twenty-five years, teaching at an Ayurvedic College in Rishikesh. These days she manages a small hermitage with organic gardens, still gathers and tinctures, offers consultations and volunteers for Hospice, while honouring the “Eldering” phase of her richly rewarding journey to her final liberation.