Meet Lynn Till | Folk-Futurist Herbalist, Tea Leaf Reader & Spiritual Worker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lynn Till and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lynn, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I was born in Virginia but moved to Colorado in 1991 right before starting Junior High. I went to high school in Parker while living in Franktown and Elizabeth. I was very much a hippie horse girl who ended up getting very into the punk scene via skateboarding and snowboarding. My first jobs were as a stable hand and working in a flower shop, but I drove to Denver to go to shows every chance that I got. While my love of nature, plants and animals started back as early as a can remember, the impact of DIY ethos from being involved in underground music continues to frame my worldview. I took my first herbal medicine classes in the late 90’s while living in a punk house in the City Park West neighborhood and pretty much immediately started using what I learned on myself and my friends. Learning herbalism was a helpful skillset that ended up turning into a lifelong passion and launched multiple small businesses over the years.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
For a long time I thought that I was going to be a midwife. In the mid 2000’s when I was a doula, worked at the mother’s milk bank and got my start as a staff herbalist at Apothecary Tinctura, I became a massage therapist as a way to support myself through midwifery school. Most of my clients at that time were either trying to conceive, pregnant, postpartum or navigating pregnancy loss. The ongoing education and adjacent trainings that I dived into to ensure that I was able best fully support my clients included Trauma Touch, Death Midwifery, Shamanic Soul Retrieval, Womb Healing and more. While my practice, methods, traditions and the tools I use have shifted and continue to evolve over the years, I’m forever grateful for the trauma informed foundation that birth work paved for me. Learning how to support people at the transitions of birth and death was training that I rely upon daily when I hold space for clients during readings and healing work.

After my 3rd child was born I had an experience during an appointment with a sweet first time mama that made me realize that I was beyond exhausted and that I didn’t have the bandwidth to adequately hold space for clients in a way that they deserved while I was juggling my own babies. When I left the birth world I ended up going on to co-create the green beauty brand R.L. Linden & Co. with Robin King and founded Rosehouse Botanicals, a living apothecary on South Broadway. Both small businesses came out of grieving the career path that I needed to step away from while also needing to have a creative outlet for my own sanity as a mother of four, that and that they both allowed me to majorly nerd out on plants in a variety of ways.

In 2019 I got really sick and was forced to step away from work for several years, it made me reevaluate everything. I honestly never thought that I would ever go back to working one on one with clients let alone be offering any kind of spiritual work to the public, but a little over a year ago I started to slowly dip my toes back in to offering readings and healing work regularly and it’s been lovely. I’m consistently humbled and in awe of being trusted by clients to hold the space for them to heal themselves, it is an honor and responsibility that I do not take lightly.

The Tea Leaf Readings and healing work that I offer are based in Serbian Romani ancestral traditions, my business name Baba Ruzas Garden pays homage to my Stara Baba (great-grandmother). I currently offer readings and healing work at Cosmic Tea Holistic Shop, offer Tea Leaf Readings as a part of the Ancestral Medicine Clinic at Alchemy Ritual Goods and am excited to start hosting Mystic Tea Parties at La Victoria Healing Kitchen!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I might not be the best person for this question, I’m.a bit of a hermit and tend to stick close to home or at quiet spots in nature, but here would be my top picks for a cozy slow burn week:

-Definitely a trip to the Denver Botanic Gardens, preferably when it’s raining and then warming up with a bowl of congee at Onefold and finishing the day with a sound bath at Intune Wellness Studio

-Grabbing something yummy at Padoca Brazilian Bakery before exploring the historic rose collection at Fairmount Cemetery when they are in bloom and then going out to dinner at Potager and eating under the twinkle lights in the back garden.

-Hitting up Ti Cafe for Cherry Rose Milk Tea before going record shopping at Drop To Pop, Chain Reaction and Wax Trax then heading to El Taco De Mexico for a Chile Relleno Burrito

-Taking our time, catching up and getting Bottomless Tea at Tealee’s Tea House & Bookstore and then continuing the book shopping at Petals & Pages, The Shop at MATTER, Spicy Librarian and Capital Hill Books

-Going to Convivio Cafe for breakfast before heading to the mountains for a lazy day next to a river in the forest looking for Colorado’s wild orchids

-If the altitude was getting to them and/or they needed some alone time I’d send them to Recovery Lounge and Spa to relax and refill

-If they wanted to do a spa day together we’d go to a yoga class with Soraya Latiff before heading to a day at Sapa Spa and Wellness

-If they had kids I’d add Casa Bonita, Meow Wolf, Manitou Springs Penny Arcades, swimming at Eldorado Springs Pool and doing some fun scavenger hunts out in nature inspired by the book “Where Is Koketso” by local author Nyasha Williams

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’m super grateful for my husband and four kids who are all endlessly supportive of all the things that I’m working on. Shoutout to the local women owned small businesses Cosmic Tea Holistic Shop, Alchemy Ritual Goods and La Victoria Healing Kitchen for believing in me. Much love to my Folk-Futurist Community Plant Medicine Immersion co-teachers Faatma Be One and Asia Dorsey and to Lou Florez my dear friend and co-host of the Radicle Curiosity Podcast. Luki Herbs and Accupuncture, Mesa Chiro Healing, TLC Bodywork Denver and Direct Osteopathic Primary Care help keep my body cared for as I continue to heal, to Minoru Farm for growing good food for my family and Fireweed Field for growing the healing herbs that end up in my tea cups. Sending all my love and thanks out to family, friends, community, teachers, students, clients, elders, ancestors and last but absolutely not least, the PLANTS!

Website: https://www.babaruzasgarden.com

Instagram: @babaruzasgarden

Image Credits
Lynn Till