Press Kit for Wisdom of the Plant Devas

Thea Summer Deer, Ph.D. is an herbalist and intuitive, educator, licensed minister, singer-songwriter and published author. She began practicing midwifery and teaching Holistic Childbirth Preparation in 1978 and was a founding mother of the South Florida School of Midwifery. Her involvement in Alternative Medicine spans 35 years as owner of Mindbody and Evolutionary Press, and as the Executive Director of Resources for World Health. She is a graduate of the Botanologos School for Herbal Studies and received her doctorate from Venus Rising University in Philosophy and Shamanic Psychospiritual Studies.

Born in Miami, Florida, Thea grew up barefoot among the Seminole Indians along the banks of the Miami River at the Musa Isle Indian Village. She spent all of her childhood summers in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. As a child she learned how to shoot a bow, canoe, weave and gather medicinal herbs. She later went on to grow and use herbs as an important part of her midwifery practice. Thea has worked and studied with various practitioners for over thirty years including: Susun Weed, Pam Hyde Nakai, Beverly Laughing Eagle, Willie Whitefeather, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, M.D., Ph.D., and Patricia Kyritsi Howell. An ongoing student of herbal medicine with a special interest in Chinese Five Element Theory and the use of herbs during pregnancy and in Wise Woman care, Thea teaches online at Wise Woman University. She also offers workshops in Earth-Spirit Medicine, Herbal Medicine, and offers Healing Herbal Retreats. Thea is in private practice in Asheville, NC.

Fortunate to spend a great deal of time in nature since childhood, Thea’s natural gift of clairvoyance and clairaudience has facilitated her ability to contact the realms of spirit. Specifically, the plant spirits, or “devas” who appear in her book, Wisdom of the Plant Devas: Herbal Medicine for a New Earth, Inner Traditions/Bear & Co publisher.

Mother, grandmother, avid cook and gardener, it was in her garden that Thea discovered the devas that she shares in her book. Her articles have appeared in numerous magazines and publications, and she was a food column writer for the Mountain Laurel Magazine, and copywriter for WHLC FM 104.5 in Highlands, NC.

Thea resides near Asheville, NC surrounded by ancestral Cherokee land with her husband and musical partner, Chuck, aka ‘The GreenMan’ Willhide. Ordained in the Madonna Ministry she is a public speaker and New Thought minister.  Music is an important part of her ministry and she is an award winning singer-songwriter performing in the acoustic duo, Thea & The GreenMan. Follow her on Facebook for updates, or subscribe to her Kitchen Blog or Book Blog and quarterly ezine, Hoof Tracks.

Whiteside photo by Thea