How do your understandings of home, history, and place tie into your practice?
“I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma on a ranch. I usually introduce myself as being raised by cowboys, and other people who tended to the land or service. I think I grew up close to spirit, spiritualism, and prayer— around a lot of women and men I would consider prayer warriors, pastors, and teachers. All those elders and mentors influenced my work, specifically in the way they led by example. My commitment to sharing my weekly collective readings is specifically rooted in that practice. Even if I wasn't filming it, I was doing it. And sometimes, I do that practice without sharing.
In terms of place, I'm a little after my third year of living in New Orleans and I'm so excited to connect with this land and community in that same way. Spirit is very palpable here as well— in a more initiatory way. Or maybe it's just that I'm older, and have less leniency in the lessons that I'm learning. But I think in terms of my title, I want to grow into, as a woman of the river or woman of the water, I know it's important for me to be of the beings around me.”
What's the essence of your workspace?
“I'm kind of grateful that I live in a neighborhood with many of those spaces at home. I was taught by my dad in order to master living, you have to master the mundane.I translated that wisdom into mastering the art of living. I feel pretty much anywhere in my home, I could do any of this work. I also have a very stringent protective practice— as in not many people get to be in my space. I live alone. I have rituals to protect my home.
If I do take my practice outside, for myself, I try to do so by the river, by the water, or under the large, protective oak trees here. Honestly, if I think about it, no matter where I live, I’ve gathered an understanding of where I can connect to what I would call Mother Earth, or connect to spirit, and a safe space.”
Do you have a grounding ritual?
How do you prepare yourself to enter this work?
”You have to. If you don't, it's spiritually negligent. It's very hard for me to see individuals, because I once was them, dive into spirituality with no mentors, or guidance in terms of protocol. But the more that I understand a crow in the tree over there, the more I understand the nature spirit, and the more I understand that there are protocols, rules, orders of operation. Living the spiritual work is connecting with my ancestors. And so the first thing that I do every day is wake up and say hello, or actually I don't even speak before I have coffee with them. I set into meditation at my altar where I breathe on my altar, visualize myself channeling my higher self and circulating that energy while anchoring it in the Earth is the part of my grounding practice.
I think the danger of jumping into spirituality without understanding that you possess yourself first is that people are not grounding their spirit. In reality, they're actually going further out. Grounding by visualizing, by doing breathwork, by physically having my feet on the ground— I hardly ever wear shoes unless I have to, is just that foundational practice. From there, really mastering possessing myself, clearing my energy, cleansing my energy, and then connecting with my ancestors are the biggest forces.
I always have a glass of water when I'm working with clients as a container of energy. A friend of mine named Maura Garcia who’s a dancer, I believe— told me to pour the water to the west, or the realm of the ancestors when the session is complete. So I open this circle and ritual work for myself or for clients, and then at the end I close that circle. There are also tools I may use a selenite wand, smoke, or different crystals to ground me if I feel like I'm receiving too much information or floating out, but really understanding and seeking out protocol for different practices is essential to exploring divination or energy healing work.”
Who do you look to for guidance in this work?
Do you have a spiritual community?
“I was just talking about this with my friend Shydeia, who's one of the founders of Black Girl Magik. And unfortunately, a challenge of having a sagittarius rising placement is that it has been very hard for me to stay in one place for long enough to really cultivate a physical, spiritual community. I mean, I really felt like I had that growing up in Tulsa. I lived in the same home for 18 years of my life. Having lived now in three different states and various different cities since leaving home, I have a spiritual community and a community of artists and creative individuals all over the country. I think, maybe a goal or a task that my spirit and my ancestors have for me to sort of ground here and receive that community and create that community. I just got hit in the head with the leaf, so I guess that answers my question.
I do think it's hard because I'm not from here. Luckily, I have neighbors who are natives— but they're not the kind of neighbors who are spiritualists. They're like— wait, did you say you are what? What are you doing?—keeping tabs and all of that.
But with this question, in terms of the spiritual circles— houses of individuals who have been here for a long time are not information. On the street that I live on, there are different individuals gathering and practicing magic here that are ethnicity or lineage specific. I don't believe it's my place to insert myself into those spaces. I may have seen some white people who think it’s okay, but we'll keep that between you and me.
Though there have been individuals I've met who have been super supportive in that way. I was meeting with my friend for full moon and new moon circles prior to the pandemic. That was really lovely. It was a diverse group of people bringing our practices together around whatever lunation was happening. We shared what we were doing, and would do a collective ritual. That's something I really desire for the future. But it feels very disjointed right now, to be honest. And I'm not. I don't think I'm at the level to be initiated. I don't know if that's on my path. I'm in three schools right now. This is already enough of an initiatory practice for me.”
Could you speak to your Riverside Chats Intensive?
“That may be the most fulfilling part of my practice right now. It gives me and my clients the opportunity to dive deeper, as I hold space for them and their exploration of spiritual practice. What is really funny to me is that nine times out of ten I sit down for one of those sessions and we're both working through similar themes or are on similar parts of our journey.
When you do spiritual work for you and you ask for aligned clients, the work is very reciprocal.
And I feel that way in the intensive in a way that I don't feel when I'm doing a one off tarot reading, because it’s missing the deep dive. That’s why I developed Riverside chats— and I did that almost as a vetting process; in a similar way, I don't let people into my house that my ancestors haven't said can be there. I'm also working towards not giving people access to my energy unless I know the depth of their work there, which I think is the foundation of a spiritual practice.
The program is three sessions long. The first session is an ancestor reading that really provides context for work within lineage, spiritually, and gifts that you came into this life with— to your role within your family which gives you supportive information to really deepen your work. In the second session, we start the process of developing or fine tuning a spiritual practice that is really, the attention of that is the grounding, the re-centering, and the connecting that is required of us time and time again with so many distractions around us in modern life. In the third session, we talk about developing a spiritual routine, and then there's a free choice. And so, it often looks like an introduction to Tarot, or an introduction to working within the moon cycles and planetary energies, or even your guides. I want to support my clients with utilizing the tools that they need to really master their practice.
There is a bit of homework. It's often reflective questions, or mirror work that needs to be done. It could also be sitting down with your ancestors and receiving information— any tools that can be carried over throughout someone’s spiritual journey. And I always tell people this could hit now, but it'll probably hit better five years from now. This is a process. Building legacy takes time.”
Find Lauren | Woman of Rivers (she/her) on Instagram @womanofrivers,
at womanofrivers.com, and on Substack.