Welcome, Beloved
My name is Sepideh Hakimzadeh.
My blood ancestral lineage comes from the ancient lands of Persia and Anatolia, what are present-day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Turkey. On both my maternal and paternal sides, my great grandmothers were part of nomadic tribes: the Shahsavan of Northern Iran and the Lori of Southern Iran.
I was born in Iran in the immediate aftermath of the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, which became one of the country’s darkest moments in modern times. I was birthed into a time of great fear, uncertainty, death, and destruction, what was essentially the culmination of the greed, interference, and predatory energies of Western powers determined to destabilize the region. Seeing the opportunity, these energies were then taken up by a patriarchal theocratic regime that has ruled ever since through the brutal repression of its people, women and ethnic minorities in particular.
My parents were revolutionaries fighting for a democratic future. A victim of the regime’s bottomless cruelty, my father was imprisoned at the time that my mother gave birth to me. They named me Sepideh, which means first light, dawn — the dawning of the first light. My name symbolizes hope, freedom, joy, and liberation from the depths of darkness.
We eventually left my motherland to seek stability and freedom, initially in France and then in Turtle Island — the present-day United States — first as refugees and, eventually, as citizens.
Healing comes when the individual remembers his or her identity — the purpose chosen in the world of ancestral wisdom — and reconnects with that world of Spirit.
- Malidoma Patrice Some
I am also a psychotherapist with a group practice, Whole Mother Therapy, where we work with people across the full spectrum of pregnancy, postpartum, and motherhood/parenting. I have a background in a variety of healing modalities, including massage, mindfulness, energy work, and somatic movement.
My work is to guide femmes, wombed humans, and mothers toward a deeper understanding of the sacred and help them remember and reclaim the ancient ancestral wisdoms as they birth a new world. I created Seemorgh Mystery School to help initiate those with wombed bodies into the boundless power of the womb portal so that they can truly embody their voice and step actively into creating a liberated, balanced world.
Through decades of working to remember my true essence, reclaim my divinity, and reawaken and embody the power of my sacred oath, I have come to see that my name is a perfect representation of who I am and the path I must forge in this lifetime.
Seemorgh is Iran’s Phoenix. She plays a prominent role in Iran's mythology and in the Shahnameh (The Book of Kings). She is the holder of life and death. Of hope and rebirth. Of all the tenets that mystery schools nurture and teach. The ancient lands of my birth and my ancestors hold and guide me in my ongoing work to remember Who I Am.
My teachers have been many over the last 20-plus years: Michael and Anneli Molin-Skelton, Susan Harper, Lionel Corbett, Jack Kornfield, Pema Chodron, Gabrielle Roth, Toi Smith, and Clarissa Pinkola Estes, among numerous others, have all expanded my understanding of myself and my place in the world. And I am currently in mentorship with Myranda at Boundless Warrior. In the unseen realms, I work closely with my guides, guardians, ancestors, and Creator.
I identify as non-white and queer; my pronouns are she/her. I see my queer identity as one that is in relationship with all energies around me, expanding beyond rigid categories of sexual identity and gender. As for identifying as non-white, Whiteness is a cultural construct that has its basis in Western European narrative. I am an Iranian woman, an identity that carries a lot of complexities in the West. My identity speaks to a culture, a way of life, and an understanding that is definitively neither white nor Eurocentric.
I want to acknowledge the original land protectors: As a resident of Los Angeles County, I live on Chumash, Tongva, and Kizh land.
