Where to Start with Julie Piatt: A Beginner's Guide
Finding Julie Piatt—or Sri Radhe, as she's known in her spiritual work—can feel like discovering a secret portal. She exists at the intersection of devotional music, plant-based wellness, and raw spiritual transmission, which makes her harder to categorize than most teachers. That's exactly why she matters.
Start Here: Her Instagram Live Kirtan Sessions
Your best entry point is Julie's Instagram presence, specifically her live kirtan (devotional chanting) sessions. These impromptu performances capture her essence better than anything polished: she sits at a harmonium, often in her home, and channels Bhakti devotion through repetitive Sanskrit mantras. The production value is minimal. The spiritual voltage is maximum.
What you'll encounter is unfiltered vulnerability. Julie doesn't perform—she transmits. Her voice cracks sometimes. She cries. She laughs mid-chant. This isn't the glossy wellness industry version of spirituality. It's someone genuinely dissolving into divine love in real-time, and inviting you to do the same. Expect fifteen to forty-five minutes of repetitive chanting that initially feels foreign, then hypnotic, then potentially transformative.
Next Steps: Deepen the Practice
After experiencing her live presence, move to her collaborations with East Forest—primarily the meditation music they've created together. These longer-form pieces integrate her vocals with ambient soundscapes, offering an accessible bridge between her raw devotional work and more familiar contemplative music. Listen while meditating, walking, or doing gentle movement.
Then explore her written work on spirituality and transformation. Her books blend memoir, spiritual philosophy, and practical guidance around conscious living. She writes the way she chants: with intensity and without apology. The focus is often on radical authenticity, feminine spiritual power, and what she calls "dying before you die"—the ego dissolution required for genuine transformation.
Finally, seek out any talks or podcasts where she discusses her spiritual journey. She's remarkably candid about her path, including the challenges of marriage, motherhood, and maintaining spiritual practice inside a full life rather than retreating from it.
Common Misunderstandings
Beginners often mistake Julie Piatt for a lifestyle guru or plant-based cookbook author. While she's been deeply involved in the wellness world and plant-based nutrition, reducing her to those dimensions misses the core. She's fundamentally a mystic who happens to care about what you eat, not a nutritionist with spiritual leanings.
Another misconception: assuming her devotional practice requires you to be Hindu or religious. Bhakti is a path of love and devotion that she's adapted into a non-denominational practice. You don't need to believe anything specific—you just need to show up and chant.
When This Work Lands Hardest
Julie Piatt's teaching hits differently depending on where you are. It lands hardest during major identity transitions: divorce, career dissolution, the end of who you thought you were. Her work speaks to people tired of spiritual bypassing and hungry for practice that demands everything. If you're in a "burn it all down" moment—whether by choice or circumstance—her transmission can feel like water in a desert.
Women navigating their power, particularly in midlife, often find her work resonant. She embodies fierce feminine spirituality without softening it for palatability.
Your 1-Week Starter Plan
Day 1-2: Watch two of Julie's Instagram live kirtan sessions. Don't multitask. Just sit and let the chanting work on you.
Day 3-4: Listen to her collaboration music with East Forest during a 30-minute meditation or walk. Notice what emotions surface.
Day 5: Read excerpts from one of her books, focusing on chapters about transformation or spiritual practice.
Day 6: Try chanting along with one of her recordings. Use "Om Namah Shivaya" or "Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu." Let yourself sound terrible.
Day 7: Journal on this question, which runs through all her work: "What would my life look like if I stopped performing and started transmitting?"
Julie Piatt isn't for everyone. Her intensity can feel like too much. But if you're ready to stop gathering spiritual concepts and start actually dissolving—she's a genuine guide for that particular fire.