Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria/Bruja Caribe.
Maria, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Bruja Caribe officially got its name in December of 2016, started as a pseudonym I would use to describe my spiritual journey, I was a witch, I was from the Caribbean so it was a quick way to summarize being Venezuelan born with ancestral roots all over the place and a wise-woman in the making, I actually got a tattoo of those two words when I was traveling thru Mexico and exploring being by myself physically, mentally and spiritually during a very tough transition.
I come from a household where being spiritually inclined is something that we are encouraged to welcome into our lives, even though -traditionally- my family is predominantly catholic as most of the Latino-Caribbean families usually are, thanks to that I always was interested in studying and exploring multiple denominations of spirituality always gravitating towards the traditional spiritual practices of the African and Caribbean diaspora.
Being spiritually oriented gave me a sense of self-awareness while simultaneously holding me accountable by constantly pushing me to learn and practice my craft, when I found Tarot (around my 15th birthday) I did not only receive a way to channel the messages and the lessons that this whole journey would teach me but I happened to find a voice and the guidance required to help and uplift myself and my community. I took my first steps with the tarot cards in 2011 and have shifted my work from being entirely devoted to self-development and self-discovery into community healing and our reconciliation with the divine feminine and divine masculine archetypes.
I started by pulling out cards for myself on the low, being very secretive about it to reading for a few lucky friends that would tell other friends and those friends would talk about me to their other friends, until I finally decided I was ready to expand the circle of people I was able to reach and help thru my practice by offering in-person readings, online readings and most recently setting up a little booth for live tarot readings all over North Miami and Downtown.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I think acceptance mostly, there is a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation when it comes to tarot, too many negative stereotypes that sometimes blind us from seeing the value of the practice and how it can help us develop a higher sense of self-awareness and heighten our intuition. In a sense, we could say that Tarot is not predicting who you will marry but the things that you have to work on or look for in order to find The One, it’s not the map that will guide you to the gold but the instructions that will help you find the gold by your own means or even realize that maybe you don’t really need to find gold cause you already possess inner riches that are a million times more important than the quest you’ve forced yourself to be on,
Also, the negative connotations that surround the Witch archetype have always been there since I first claimed the word “bruja” as part of my identity, most of the elders in traditional Latino communities would warn you of “the dangers of witchcraft” and at first it would discourage me a little because I feared “el que diran” (what other people would say) but as I grew older and more aware of the practice, I’ve learnt that it’s up to us as a new generation of brujas to break those patterns of misinformation and educate by being an example in our communities,becoming leaders and guides, teaching and opening the paths towards the benefits of our practice as a tool for self discovery and even a therapeutical outlet to survive these complex times that we live in.
Please tell us more about what you do, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I would define myself as an intuitive tarot reader, a community healer and definitely a wise-woman in the making. My biggest interest is to level up thru spirituality and be able to develop solutions to the most common problems in our community thru mental health advocacy, leadership, self-awareness and most importantly: hard work and dedication.
I’m a self-proclaimed champion for divine duality, a womanist and overall a real down to earth bruja. I like to make people comfortable and make the readings seem like more of a conversation with a friend than a therapy session even tho we will discuss deep subjects and might have to uncover certain wounds in order to heal them as part of the process. I try to translate the messages that the cards bring in ways that anyone who sits at my table can understand thru analogies or even examples from my own life, my biggest interest is that the people who get a reading from me understand that everyone goes thru sh*t. It is normal and it is part of our journey here on this physical realm, so if I can lift a little bit of that weight off their shoulders by helping them recognize that and have a deeper understanding of their situation in a safe space of love and support: I’m the happiest.
I can proudly say that some of my first clients at first came in for a reading and they ended up becoming my closest friends thanks to the impact that tarot had in their personal journeys and them allowing me to be a part of that path towards a better version of themselves. I am always hearing back from past seekers that I had the pleasure to have a session with and the simple act of reaching out to update me on what’s going on and the positive changes that they’ve been experiencing fills me up with immeasurable happiness. I am grateful for every single person that feels connected to what I do and at the end that is my biggest reward and motivation, having an impact and being able to help and make a change in my own community.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I think each of the steps of this journey has been necessary for me to grow into the person I am today, so I’m just grateful for the lessons and if I had to start over: I’d be more than happy to go through it all over again.
Pricing:
- 25 minutes reading: 25$
- 45 minutes reading: 50$
- Monthly forecast: A 44-minute reading focused on discovering and explaining the energy available for you in the upcoming month Price: 44$ (Ask about the birthday month discount if your earth strong is coming soon)
Contact Info:
- Website: brujacaribe.com
- Email: hola@brujacaribe.com
- Instagram: brujacaribe
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