Since childhood, I have wanted to leave a lasting impression. Now, at 37 years old, I’m quite content with the idea that this is what I came to this Earth to do. I’m not in a rush.

 

My parents gifted me with the name Matthew. It’s taking some time but I am really growing into it. I have to say, I am very grateful to have been given a name in a moment where it would never have dawned on me to claim one for myself. I have come to notice that even though I am on soulful path, this earthly journey would be so much more difficult without a name.

 

I grew into a young man at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Western Canada. Another gift. It’s inherent to speak with the stones, the water, the trees, to sing to the birds and flirt with the cats. Nature is imprinted upon the surface of my heart and has saturated deeply into my skin. I often forget that when I write and speak, it comes forth in a language that is distinct from the elements. I believe that this upbringing has caste me a poets fate. I take that on fully, often in the form of a dramatic hat and a new signature colour.

 

I struggled to complete grade school. Not before I excelled in the arts of learning, but I certainly did struggle. I got lost in the throes of teenage heartache, underwhelming revelations about the “real” world and a lack of clarity about “who” to be. I tried my many hands at being a professional bodybuilder, growing a service based start-up company with my best friend, conquering the realm of investment banking, and over a series of other notable escapades, eventually initiating this project, Sacred Row, the Sovereign Mystic Arts Academy.

 

Sacred Row was born after a healthy dedication to a personal discipline. I’ve always had an innate mistrust of authority and an “I’ll see for myself” attitude and this combined to create an obsessive investigation of all things mystical from an early age. I’ve studied hermetic principles and altered states of consciousness with master teachers throughout my life. I’ve trained in the sectors of energy work, sound work, breath work…I’ve studied yoga to a very deep degree and am currently a full decade into a deeply committed apprenticeship in the realm of plant medicine. In the end, I’m still a poet. More than I am a lot of other things. More than I am any of the things that other people would label me as. Almost as much as I have become Matthew, I am a poet. Almost as much.

 

Sacred Row was born out of an intense urge to house my hidden expressions and my mounting desire to transform within a container that existed beyond my own flesh and mind. It evolved into a mission to become sovereign as a speaker and a mover, and to carry that voice and rhythm into harmonic resonance with my surroundings. This is where it stands now. Sacred Row is my uninhibited offering of synergy to a world that I’ve chosen to speak to and move with. If you find yourself connected to “that” world, then I pray that this Row sounds like freedom echoing within the chambers of your heart. 

 

The rest, will simply unfold like the petals of a flower— natures own poetry in motion.

 

You are the way,

 

Matthew