In Shooting the Shit, NATIVE talks to Nashvillians who are doing things a little differently—think of it as grabbing a quick cup of coffee with that screenprinter or tattoo artist you keep seeing on your Explore Page. This month, we talked to self-described “Tarot Priestess and Reiki Healer” Violet Guide about her spiritual journey, which took her from being an ordained minister to leading tarot readings during Pride Weekend.

Violet Guide offers everything from tarot readings to energy clearings to Reiki chakra alignment. How do you know which service to recommend for a specific client?

Most of my clients write with an idea of the direction of energy healing or self-enlightenment that they want to receive. But as we unpack their bags mentally, and I sit across from them, I see in their aura fields and recommend or clarify from that point with them.

How can the average person—maybe someone who isn’t spiritual in any sense of the word—benefit from your services? What feeling would you like your clients to walk away with after a session?

The greatest part about being a human is that you don’t have to be spiritual to be connected to your body, mind, and spirit. We are all walking energy fields regardless of your personal belief system. My personal goal with each person is for them to walk away feeling connected to their own bodies again. For them to feel the movement of the mental fog lifting and to give them a game plan to start making life adjustments to maintain the healing received or self-awareness illuminated.

Before starting Violet Guide, you were an ordained minister that worked with abused women and victims of sex trafficking. How did you get into such a harrowing form of ministry?

I personally come from some rough abusive experiences and statistically should have ended up in the same situation, but I didn’t because of a privileged community. I felt it was important to work in environments where I had emotional and physical relation with the person in trauma, and I saw my reflection in the eyes of these girls. These women didn’t have a choice, and I wanted to be a person to hold their hands and help them to cross over the bridge of victim to a person of rebirth. We will not be defined by our levels of abuse but defined by our pursuit of phoenix energy. If I could do it, so could they.

You left organized religion and then, after four years of “spiritual detox,” started Violet Guide. What made you leave the church? What do you mean by “spiritual detox”?

I could write a book on the reasons why I left the American church, and it has nothing to do with Jesus. It’s a loaded question of sound personal reasoning mixed with my body and spirit telling me this was emotional abuse and they were calling it love.

When you leave a community built around codependency and fear of eternity, you are faced with having to unlearn the language, the energy, and the physical people who had become “your family,” and that is enough to shatter any person or keep them in their own personal body of imprisonment. I chose to pull the rug out from under myself in the name of searching for true self-completion. In my spiritual detox, which is a deconditioning process, that is what I did. I had to unlearn everything that was taught to me, and I started exploring forms of healing that were all-inclusive to humanity with the foundation of the Golden Rule.

As a spiritual healer—especially a spiritual healer in the Bible Belt—are people confused or even skeptical about what you do?

Of course! The ironic part is most of my clients are in crisis with the church and seek me as a safe place to unload their true confessions. The confusion rests in miseducation of the “Hollywood image” versus what tarot really is, and most people do not even know what Reiki does either. The majority of my responsibility is education and creating a space for others to explore, question, and ultimately be empowered to grow and change without fear of the cultured Bible Belt.

What would you tell someone who wants to get into mysticism but maybe isn’t sure where to start?

My first question would be what is your definition of mysticism? I truly believe in the power of self-searching and research. I was born seeing spirits and aura colors and slowly learned that others are as gifted as me and finally found where I “fit in” in that way. If you are interested in something, go down that wormhole. Learn. Experience. Use all of the senses that you have in research. Ask questions. Go listen to experts. Give yourself permission to explore because no one else will. It is on you to reconnect to your entire self again.

If you’d like to learn more about Violet Guide or book a session, visit violetguidehealing.com.