Born into a lineage.
Tested through a life.
Sangoma · Seer and Guide · Author · Speaker
The lineage
Tae Betty Schriefl is a seventh-generation Sangoma from a royal Batlokwa lineage in the Northern Sotho-speaking region of South Africa. Her calling was present from birth and was recognised early by the elders.
This calling, however, came at a price. Like many people with an unusual destiny, Tae Betty had to pass through several essential experiences before she could find her way.
The path
Within her family, she was at first the scorned, invisible child. Then she had to leave her homeland — from South Africa to Europe — in order to find her inner home. For a long time, she also refused to follow her calling, trying her hand at several professions. Hard work without fulfilment, to the point of exhaustion, was the result — until she finally yielded to her destiny. Her roots had caught up with her.
On a journey in South Africa, she nearly lost her life. She had a near-death experience: outside her body, she saw herself and her family at her bedside — calm, without fear, at peace.
Tae Betty's authority does not come only from her lineage and her gift. It also comes from these deep personal experiences.
Today — Two worlds
Today she lives in Germany and South Africa and works in both worlds — in German and English. Her work brings together the ancient wisdom of her tradition and modern Western life. Alongside her traditional knowledge, she earned a diploma in Herbal Medicine in the United Kingdom, in order to understand the European perspective and bring it into her work.
In South Africa, Tae Betty rarely approaches people. They sense her gift and come of their own accord. There, she regularly speaks in front of several hundred. Her presence on stage is distinctive. Not academic. Not polished. Not smooth. In the German-speaking world, she is currently building this presence.
Tae Betty has told her own story in a book — The Invisible One: From an Invisible Child To a Bridge of Healing, available so far only in English. She is currently working on a second book — about what African wisdom means for people in the West.
UMOYA
Tae Betty is co-founder of UMOYA — a structured system for conscious life transitions, which she has developed together with Dirk Hollstein. Her perception, her ritual experience and her African wisdom form the living source of this system.
Here, Tae Betty's personal work stands in the foreground. UMOYA is the wider frame behind it.
About UMOYA · umoyasystem.com