I now live my calling, a witch with roots dating back to the days of my Grandma Valadez. She healed our Latino community as I watched. Chicken bones buried for warts, urine for earaches, weeds from between the sidewalk cracks of my native Houston boiled into a tonic for congestion and fever. She planted her garden by the phases of the moon; and she never did tell me what the raw eggs in water under the beds of young women were for. But it must have worked, for they kept coming back and asking for it.

Born March 18, 1944, the last day of Pisces, I remain true to that sign with my innate ability to read people, to emotionally connect and disarm them. As a result, I have grown into a counselor, a sexual healer, and a confidant to strangers in line at the super market. I now use this ability in my pagan practice to help those around me see and grow. I give great reflection, honestly.

As a Rainbow Warrior, I have taken that early childhood superstition embedded deep within generations of Latino Catholic culture onto a spiritual path aware of Spirit, and the power within its honest expression. I am part of our group’s journey into connecting the spirit of the land with the spirit of man; helping those who are able to listen and learn from the wisdom of my time here upon earth.

I am a Reiki Master teacher (both Usui Reiki and Karuna Reiki), a second degree priest, shaman, and ritualist. As a priest and ritualist I am a shaker and a doer, so you better come ready to transform once my juju starts! As a shaman I have learned to journey deep to begin the healing process. I know that balance and understanding comes from connecting the above with the below, the within to the without.

I now follow a Wiccan path that continually focuses my talents towards helping those I meet. I see that my path is one of healing and counsel, an existence turned outward to balance my inner strength and ability to confront my own challenges and thrive.

One last thing to keep the record straight; I couldn’t have done this without the help of every witch I have ever known or will come to know. Good or bad or in between or unseen, they all become part of the fabric I now weave, ever becoming the shroud only I can wear.

For these gifts I give thanks.