Zoe Gaia, founder of Soul Arts International, is a visionary leader devoted to empowering women through the wisdom of the Divine Feminine. Known as “Soul Mama,” Zoe weaves together sacred practices, shamanic traditions, and creative arts to inspire women to reconnect with their inner power, Earth’s rhythms, and ancient wisdom. Soul Arts International, established in 2015, supports women’s growth, healing, and community, helping them to embrace their cycles, reclaim their strength, and honor their unique roles as storytellers, earth dancers, and temple keepers. Through this movement, Zoe guides women in rising together to remember their radiant essence and sacred purpose. MysticMag connected with Zoe to find out more.
Soul Arts International was born out of a deep personal journey and a desire to support women’s awakening. Can you share a pivotal moment in your life that catalyzed your shift into founding this movement and how it shaped your vision of feminine empowerment?
I would describe my life as a series of incremental moments that have led me to where I am today. A significant event in my early childhood—a fracture—made me acutely aware of resources beyond my family. I spent a great deal of time in nature and began learning about meditation at a young age. By the time I was 14, I was deeply involved in yoga, breathwork, and personal retreats, and had been exposed to Tibetan Buddhist practices through my family. This early exposure instilled in me a profound desire to explore spiritual and healing practices.
However, a major catalyst for my work with women, especially mothers, came later when I became a mother myself. I became acutely aware of the inequalities between men and women and saw how vulnerable women could be during the early years of motherhood. I grew passionate about supporting and empowering mothers, recognizing that while they were busy serving their families and communities, they needed to be well-resourced themselves. This passion became central to my work, alongside my dedication to the expressive arts and spiritual offerings, which have been deeply rooted in my life from an early age.
The Divine Feminine is central to your teachings and practices. How do you interpret the Divine Feminine in today’s world, and what does it mean for women to embody this energy amidst global change and personal transformation?
I believe it’s essential to distinguish the concept of the divine feminine from the patriarchal, “perfect” feminine ideal. Often, society views the feminine through a limited lens—defined by virtues like morality, obedience, or beauty. These traits have historically been trained into women through a patriarchal perspective, framing femininity as something saintly, well-behaved, or purely aesthetic. However, when we talk about the divine feminine, it’s crucial to break free from these restrictive ideals and understand it as something vast and all-encompassing.
The divine feminine embraces the full spectrum of feminine expression, from the dark and wild feminine to the fierce, rage-fueled feminine that seeks to cut through outdated structures. It includes the warrior feminine, the nurturing earth mother, and everything in between. The divine feminine is not about perfection; rather, it’s about unleashing and expanding the definition of the feminine, embracing its untamed, sometimes chaotic energy.
To me, accessing the divine feminine opens us to qualities beyond our human limitations. It helps us transcend narrow perspectives, releasing us from selfishness, small-mindedness, and the rigidity of judgment. When I connect with this frequency, I’m loosening my own fixed ideas and beliefs, allowing fluidity to enter my perception. In doing so, I move beyond being defined by gender, attractiveness, or moral judgments, and instead, become a more open channel of consciousness.
This connection to the divine is both above and below—it reaches into the depths of the sacred feminine within the earth while also expanding to the cosmic and star realms above. The divine feminine, as I see it, is about freeing femininity to exist beyond limits, allowing us to embody a broader, more fluid frequency that transcends the human self.
Your journey has woven together sacred practices from diverse traditions, such as Tibetan Buddhism, Shamanism, and Yogic teachings. How do you integrate these varied spiritual influences into the work you offer at Soul Arts, and what unique wisdom does each bring to the retreats and trainings?
When we look deeply into ancient traditions and cultures, there’s an incredible overlap in teachings and symbols. For example, in the philosophies of ancient Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as many Asian traditions, we find recurring themes and myths—often involving goddesses and the philosophies of yoga. These teachings transcend specific religions or spiritual paths, pointing instead to universal principles. For instance, in the yogic tradition, we’re taught to live like a lotus flower, rising above attachment to roles, ideas, and people. Similarly, in Buddhism, the lotus symbolizes transforming the suffering of human experience into radiant beauty, blooming even in the mud.
In shamanism, which works closely with the elements and the three realms—Lower, Middle, and Upper—there are also parallels to these ancient practices. My spirit-based trainings have often included navigating different realms of consciousness, whether through physical practices, meditative states, or shamanic journeys. Over the past year, I’ve been deeply immersed in medicine woman training from the Peruvian tradition, and once again, I see clear connections with other ancient paths from around the world.
Through the Soul Arts training, we bring forward these practices, integrating breathwork, divine imagery, and embodiment practice with self-empowerment. Many ancient traditions used mythical cosmology to facilitate altered states, which we also incorporate through various techniques, including shamanic journeying, deep meditation, breathwork, voice and even dance. By drawing on archetypal and mythical energies—from goddesses to elements and earth medicine —we tap the intelligence of the body and
we open the human self to connect with a wide range of inner qualities and powers. This approach allows us to tap into deeper potential, fostering a transformative connection with these ancient, universal energies.
Soul Arts emphasizes healing through expressive arts, movement, and embodiment practices. How do these elements facilitate transformation, and why do you believe they are especially powerful for helping women reconnect with their authentic selves?
We’re currently living in the Information Age, but I believe there will come a time when we move beyond it, into a period where what truly matters is how deeply embodied we are in what we know. Learning has many layers, and while information is a crucial starting point, knowledge alone doesn’t create genuine transformation. If we want to alchemically change areas of our lives that aren’t working, we need to engage with wisdom on all levels of our being.
For true transformation, it’s essential to incorporate practices that engage the whole self—through breath, sound, and movement. Without this, we’re merely connecting with concepts we like or filling our minds with information. And while there’s nothing wrong with gathering knowledge, information that isn’t translated into action or embodied as wisdom becomes somewhat redundant in a world already overwhelmed with data but lacking lived experience.
Practices like dance, movement, breathwork, and sound work bring knowledge into the soma, the body’s realm, creating somatic experiences that allow for real, lasting change. This somatic engagement aligns our thoughts, words, and actions, closing the gap between what we believe and what we’re actually living. In this way, we can move from merely knowing something to truly embodying it, allowing for a more integrated and authentic life experience.
You speak of Gaia, the Earth, as a guide and mother, inspiring and grounding your work. Can you elaborate on the role of Earth connection in feminine healing, and how practices at Soul Arts help women attune to and deepen their relationship with nature?
Early in my meditation practice, I used to focus on “going up and out”—leaving my body behind to transcend into cosmic realms, reaching what could be called a Nirvana experience. It was a sense of being beyond the self, immersed in spacious, light-filled consciousness. Many traditional spiritual paths, especially those with a masculine focus, aim for this kind of transcendence—rising above the earthly experience. This is also common in religious frameworks like Christianity, where God is seen as an external figure in the sky, guiding us to ascend beyond the physical.
But the Goddess path and divine feminine teachings lead us in a different direction. They call us back into our bodies, encouraging us to align with our cycles and to engage deeply with our emotions rather than transcend or suppress them. This approach brings us into an intimate interface with life, grounding us in the human experience rather than encouraging us to escape from it. As I embraced more feminine practices, my spirituality shifted profoundly. Instead of focusing on ascension, I began to appreciate the power of descent—of grounding into my body, connecting to the womb space, and finding strength in the rootedness of being present.
The divine feminine invites us to descend, to embody, and to connect with the energies within ourselves, and even beyond ourselves, by tapping into the ancient feminine wisdom that flows through all life—masculine and feminine, human and non-human. It encourages us to reconnect with life force in tangible ways, honoring the Earth and her wisdom. Mother Gaia, Pachamama, Earth Mother—these sacred connections remind us to attune to the Earth, which is vital for our healing and transformation, especially as we find ourselves disconnected from the elemental world and the natural cycles.
This path teaches us to value the intelligence of our own bodies, our breath, and the rhythms of nature. The divine feminine embodies cyclical renewal: birth, death, transformation, and rebirth. By embracing this cycle, we can participate in our own renewal and contribute to the planet’s healing. It’s a shift from the ego-driven, hierarchical model, which often places humans above nature and each other, toward an understanding that we are small parts of an interconnected whole. Rather than consuming endlessly, the feminine path shows us how to rest, renew, and reintegrate into the cycles of the Earth. We learn to listen deeply, to attune ourselves to nature’s wisdom, rather than forcing our agenda upon it. This return to the sacred feminine offers us a path of healing that is rooted, regenerative, and deeply connected to the wisdom of the Earth.
If you would like to find out more about Zoe Gaia, or Soul Arts International Feminine Embodiment Training, please visit https://soul-arts.com/
