I’m Ahriana Platten.
And my life has been one long lesson in paradox.
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What is paradox?
It is the moment when two things that look like opposites sit together at the same table and reveal their shared truth.
Sacred and ordinary.
Broken and blooming.
Lost and guided.
Human and divine.
The world calls it paradox.
I call it wisdom.
It matters to me that you know…
…the sacred is real and the dishes still pile up.
…transformation happens and it can feel like you’re being turned inside out.
…you can study ancient wisdom while living a modern life with mortgages, teenagers, and late-night grocery runs.
For more than thirty years, I’ve been helping people weave paradox into one powerful, livable truth.
How I Actually Got Here
I didn’t float in on a lotus flower (though that would make a great story).
I was pulled into this work the same way a soul is tugged by a longing it can’t name but refuses to ignore.
Yes, I have credentials: Interfaith Minister. Unity Minister. Third-degree High Priestess in two lineages. Reiki Master Teacher. Sonic Meditation Facilitator. Transpersonal Hypnotherapist. Ph.D. in Pastoral Counseling Psychology.
But titles shaped me less than these moments:
Sitting with elders from more than 250 spiritual traditions.
Praying in temples in South Korea, Spain, and Bali.
Listening to Wisdom Keepers in Mongolia, India, Egypt, and Brazil.
Walking ancient grounds in Turkey, China, Ireland, Hungary, Italy, Vietnam, Portugal, Switzerland, and across North America.
(Whew. My feet remember every mile.)
What I learned was simple.
Truth is everywhere.
And we’re far more powerful than we imagine.
What I Do Now
I help you stop performing your spirituality and start living it.
For Seekers
I guide you through initiations that break you open and remake you.
Midlife. Grief. Menopause. Identity collapse. Spiritual awakenings disguised as falling apart.
I know these terrains. I’ve walked them barefoot (sometimes on hot coals). I know where the gold is hidden.
For Business Owners & Visionaries
I help you build work that is spiritually alive and financially sustainable.
Thirty years of leadership taught me how to bring a vision into form without losing your soul or your sanity.
Sacred work deserves success.
For Practitioners & Leaders
I teach you how to hold transformative space without losing yourself.
How to lead from wisdom rather than wounds.
How to build communities that nourish instead of drain.
What I'm known For
Books like Rites and Rituals, Sacred Menopause, and The Changing Story.
My Converging Paths column on Patheos.
My advice in the documentary Time of the Sixth Sun.
Serving as an Ambassador to the Parliament of the World’s Religions.
But the work I treasure most happens quietly, when someone suddenly realizes she isn’t broken. She’s evolving. (I love that moment when a person sees challenge as an upgrade.)
Why People Work with Me
Because I don’t offer spiritual shortcuts.
I don’t pretend awakening is a bubble bath.
I won’t smile sweetly and tell you to “trust the universe” while your world is collapsing.
What I will do:
Tell the truth with compassion.
Hold space for the mess.
Show you how the mystical and the practical flow from the same river.
Bring three decades of lived spiritual scholarship.
Walk beside you with warmth, honesty, and a heart that has weathered storms.
Real wisdom shows up in jeans and a sweater. I’m proof.
Who I am Beyond the Titles
I’m sixty-five and well-acquainted with my inner voice.
I’ve tested everything I teach on my own life and lived it long enough to know it works for others.
I’ve survived divorce, menopause, raising a blended family, life-threatening illness, professional reinvention, and those nights of the soul that make you wonder if the ground will ever steady again.
I emerged more alive than ever.
I live in Colorado with my husband. He works with men. I work with women. We work with couples. We lead retreats across the world. Together we help people navigate the passages that unmake and remake a life.
We have a “yours, mine, ours, and somebody else’s” family full of adult kids and grandchildren I adore.
I love good coffee, honest conversation, and the fierce joy of people who decide to stop shrinking and live fully.
If you’re looking for polish and perfection, I’m not your person.
I’m all about authenticity and deep, messy, heart-felt experience.
The Reason I Do This
There was a time when I couldn’t find anyone to walk me through the moments that split a life open. I searched for a lighthouse, a steady voice, a map. No one came.
So I followed the quiet pull of my own soul.
I was lost in a wild way that made my breath thin and dissolved everything familiar.
Then a few wise women reached toward me.
They didn’t fix me.
They didn’t tidy me up.
They simply stayed and said, “You’re still in there. I see you.”
And slowly, I saw myself again.
That is why I do this work.
I hold a lamp while you find your footing.
I stand beside you as your old stories fall away.
I remind you of your power when you can’t feel it.
I tell the truth about the path ahead, even when it trembles a bit.
And I promise, with my whole blazing heart, to honor the sacredness of your transformation. To see your beauty. To speak truth with tenderness. To protect your pace. To walk with you until you remember your own magnificence.
Most of all, I promise this:
I will always call you to your highest expression.
If You're Ready...
If you’re in a transition that feels like a holy undoing.
If you’re building something sacred and need it to actually work.
If you’re done performing spirituality and ready for transformation that reaches your bones.