Hey, I’m Rel!

I am a question-asker, mistake-maker, and Death Doula who walks in the liminal, in-between spaces, in pursuit of an aligned, interdependent life. 

I started making ritual candles on Cherokee & Catawba land in 2020- searching for the confluence of our present need for collective resonance, and the skills and lessons of my ancestors. I am dipping my toes into ancestral arts as I learn to farm in ways that honor the wisdom of my Jewish ancestors.

As I deepen my relationship with Jewish time and ceremony, I am consistently enamored with the ways in which candles, and the light they provide, have been used by each generation of my lineage to mark endings and beginnings, to mourn, and to rest. The Talmud provides extensive instruction on how to make these candles in accordance with halachah, Jewish law. I am taking these learnings and exploring around them to make sacred ritual candles in a way that feels authentic, queer, place-based, and rooted in antiracism and rematriation.

These explorations for ancestrally-rooted resonance guided me toward Death Work in 2021, when I studied with Going with Grace to become a Death Doula. Since then, I have informally empowered and held countless loved ones in their loss and grief journeys. I am finally starting to provide more concrete Death Doula services, such as launching my inaugural communal end-of-life planning cohort, RELEASE MAP, in Fall of 2022, and providing 1:1 grief support to those in my community.

Stay tuned for more offerings, and please let me know if I can support you in ritual, death, or grief.