William LeSassier, herbalist, healer and teacher for more than 30 years, was born November 6, 1948 and died May 13, 2003. His work, begun seriously while he was still in his teens,  took him from his native Texas to California, later to New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon and many foreign countries…. eventually to New York (where he died) and Virginia (where he’s buried).

William once researched the origins of his name and found that it is from an Old French term meaning “Keeper of the Waters”. It described the caretaker of the locks on canals.  William was the Keeper of the Waters. When he was in the mood, when it was the Tao of that place in time, he would open the sluice gates, sometimes only as an aside or an afterthought. The waters of Understanding would spill forth, opening a passage to a deeper or higher level of being… then he’d let us be on our way. He’d succinctly done his job in that moment & was on to the next. Now William’s presence here, his job, has drifted to another level altogether.  We, his students, family and friends, are left to piece together the footprints.

If you knew William, you’ll know the depth of his knowledge and our hope to capture a fragment of the information, to somehow grasp that glimpse & formalize it so future generations of practitioners & students can benefit directly from his having been here. 

As Dr. Rosita Arvigo said, “William is one of our ancestors now. We must capture our heritage.”

You can follow the buttons on this page to learn more about this project or about William, to leave comments or stories of your own, to join the network via the mailing list and to donate to the project in whatever way you can. Thank you.

Moira Brown, the WLSArchive