Through Aztec ritual, released what doesn’t serve me into an egg, so i can live and breathe in my fullest power and potential. The yolk=soul, individual self. The white stuff, is all the distorted beliefs and traumas I held onto that were standing in my way of being my fullest self. The bubbles above my head, were all the people who influenced the belief that I didn’t deserve to be my fullest self. Like a child being pushed back into the corner, a tower or mountain of doubt stood before me. I am free of it. Free to be completely me!
—Tina—

On both my parents’ sides, there is Aztec lineage. There were healers on both sides of the family. On my father’s side, my grandfather Valentin Rodriguez was a “huesero” (hueso is the Spanish word for bone, so in essence, a natural chiropractor) in his village. Those ailing in his community would come to him and he would adjust them and give them healing. Another common technique used by many healers near or within borders of Mexico is a limpia or cleansing.

I grew up sometimes receiving these traditional methods, but it wasn’t until 2006 that it was brought into my life and practice.

I remember walking into Half Price Books and going into the metaphysical section as I often would, but this time would be different than all the rest. As I remember it, this book literally flew off the shelf and hit me in the head. It was the book of my teacher, Elena Avila–Woman Who Glows in the Dark–the title alone evoking curiosity. At the time I found the book, I was at my wits end with doctors who wouldn’t take the time necessary to help me without the use of drugs. Reading Elena’s book, I realized that she had the same dissatisfaction with Western medicine–a practicing nurse in hospitals for many years until she went back to her roots, went to the source, and learned to heal the whole body, not just the physical. She and her book changed my life, and I knew that I needed to meet her and study with her. Her words spoke to me so clearly it was as if she took the words out of my mouth–that there is a clear connection between our emotional and spiritual traumas and the illnesses we suffer.

I looked her up online–www.elena-curandera.com–and saw she was having a workshop in Abiqui, New Mexico. I remember the workshop was open to health practitioners and I thought, “Well, I’m not really a health practitioner. I practice Reiki, but that’s it.” But I emailed her anyway and asked if I could be apart of the workshop, and she invited me in. The workshop was held at Ghost Ranch (a place where Georgia O’Keefe created many of her great works), a very magical place with a night sky unlike any I’ve ever seen.

A main lesson we learn is that the root of our illness usually stems from a trauma from childhood that causes us to adopt a distorted belief system about ourselves that manifests in our body physically. In working with her in this first workshop, and then going to two workshops in New York City and another in New Mexico to assist her as an apprentice, I realized that the common thread between us all is that our pattern is rooted in the distorted belief that we are unworthy of something: Unworthy of love, success, of our talents or accomplishments, of a healthy relationship/s, and the list goes on. When we get to the root of that belief and where it came from and cleanse it from the body, we open the space to invite what is our divine birthright–and often that is the part of our soul that escaped as a result of the trauma that occurred.

It is a three part process: a platica (heart to heart talk to get to the root of the issue) a limpia (cleansing with an egg, rosemary, incense, feathers, or whatever tools I am intuitively called to use) and a soul retrieval (integrating that part of the soul that out of protection of itself left the body, welcoming it back with light and unconditional love).

By use of ritual–setting of an altar for intention, calling on one’s Spirit Guides and the Spirits of the four directions, and use of this sacred medicine–I have found profound healing. It is an Earth based medicine, ancient and beautiful. Each direction governs a part of the self, and each God/Goddess of each direction has a powerful lesson to teach to help us realize full health and harmony. Ritualizing what it is that one wants to release and clear from their body is a powerful way to move forward. Every cell of your body knows what is being released, and it is done in the most sacred space, in the most sacred way. And calling back the parts of ourselves that we have lost, we learn how to integrate ourselves back into wholeness.

If you are interested in learning more about this healing practice, feel free to ask me any questions.

Que para todos tenganos (so that we may all have)
Luz, Paz, Amor, Consciencia y Harmonia (Light, Peace, Love, Consciousness and Harmony)
Ometeotl (the Divine Union of Duality)

R.I.P Elena Avila (May 24, 1944-March 17, 2011)

I love you, and know you are with me, saying my name, helping me re-member myself always. Te amo siempre.