Chatting with Rev. Laura Gonzalez | Instructor of the Workshop "Decolonizing the Goddess" |

In today's conversation, I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with the Rev. Laura Gonzalez.
She is a Pagan priestess, spiritual and community healer, writer, podcaster, social justice and religious freedom activist, priestess of the Goddess, and minister of the Circle Santuary-among other great things!
Laura teaches wonderful classes, such as how to read tarot and limpias, but her main focus -as of now- is teaching a workshop called "Decolonizing the Goddess," which focuses on Mexica deities. She also volunteers as english teacher every week.
Follow Laura on all her social media platforms, and consider enrolling in her classes if you are looking to learn from a very seasoned Pagan practitioner.
______________________________________________
Laura's Linktree:
linktr.ee/magi...
_______________________________________________
Music:
Epidemic Sound
share.epidemic...
"Bounced Back" by Blue Topaz
_______________________________________________

[@Lonna3]

It's so good to hear from witches of color. Thank you.

[@abwitchjournal]

Thanks to you! I hope you enjoyed our conversation🙏🏾

[@dylanmagoiofthethalasso4032]

I love that she rolled her eyes when she mentioned manifestation 😂🤣 I roll my eyes too 😂🤣😂🤣 Lol that joke, I have heard over the years that Catholics are the most witchiest Christian denomination...I would agree. Sometimes I do forget about Canada and South America when I say or think about America. Over the past year or so I have been on a journey to deconstruct, dechristianize, decolonize (I think that's all the "de" words 😂🤣) my practices and beliefs and mindset. I have been meaning to journal it out but haven't. I hate when people don't clarify that what they said is UPG, like in November someone posted I believe on TikTok that November 16th is sacred to Hecate and that spread like wildfire through the witchcraft and pagan communities, turns out that it was someones UPG and they didn't clarify. Over the years of being a witch and a pagan I have come to the conclusion to not really care for teachers and just people who share knowledge on different practices i.e. hindu practices like chakras, mudras etc because I have learned that most of the information is heavily watered down "to make it palatable" to the western world. I would rather get the information from a practitioner that lived in the culture and the belief. I love academia too but sometimes maybe even most of the time it does come from a western/ colonized perspective and bias. Ronald Huttons book The Witch somewhat touches on this, it's a thick a*s book too 😂🤣 and somewhat dry since it is a scholarly work. I'm only about 40 pages in 😂🤣😂🤣💀 You have to put the folk into it 😂 lol you have to see what the people believe, say and do. Since culture, beliefs, practices change over time, if it doesn't change then it dies (for the most part). Last year I found two witches and hellenic pagans that grew up in Greece and I immediately followed and turned on there notifications because I know that there views are important since they grew up in Greece, I didn't. I LOVE Greece and ancient Greece, the Gods etc. Those two women have the cultural context that I don't. They said that sadly Greece isn't super welcoming to magick/witchcraft and pagans. Which SUPER sucks!!! I have found a handful of academic books on ancient greek magick that are on my wishlist but they are expensive they usually start at $30 for a paperback! I only have one book so far. I have noticed for the past couple years that people and authors are too broad with there words. Like she said Mexico is a large place but the author was talking about Northern Mexico. For me, if I were to write a book on magick in Arizona I would have to specify kind of central Arizona because if I said "Arizona" in general then I would be wrong because Northern Arizona doesn't have a lot of the desert plants, Northern is mostly your typical foresty area. Vise versa too most of there plants aren't down here either. We have different animals for the most part too. Southern Arizona is slightly similar to my knowledge as central Arizona like Southern has the Gila Monster. I feel like I'm the odd one out because sometimes I can be claircognizant, sometimes I can have psychic dreams, sometimes I can feel things. It's almost like phases or seasons. My latest was late December to mid January, I felt drawn to our open door at night and it felt heavy and not so good. It turned into anxiety almost paranoia but then my neighbor told me that there have been break-ins and thefts so I was relieved that I was not going crazy and that I was being warned in some way. I love that "It's super. natural." We live in a modern world so that means we are allowed to use modern technology in our practices. I can not stand love and light readers, I believe that they are not truly helping the person that they are reading for. I also see so many tarot videos saying "YOU HAVE A WITCH COVEN DOING BLACK MAGICK ON YOU" or "A WITCH CURSED YOU" and I roll my eyes because that is most likely not the case plus there is possibly some sort of bias or indoctrinated world view. When I say to someone I hear the Gods I always specify that I hear them in my head kind of like telepathy. The hearing is not outside of myself but it's within myself. I LOVE the groundedness of your points!!! I do have mental illnesses but I have gotten tests just to make sure that I do not have schizophrenia or anything else. My Dad and I are wearing masks right now 😂 at his doctors appointment. I believe that some people were ungrounded and I believe that some had mental illnesses and I believe some had both. I love that quote from her brochure.

[@abwitchjournal]

Thanks for leaving such a great comment. I love to read how you felt by listening this interview 🫰🏽 I appreciate that support, friend!