I do not like to talk about myself, but I imagine you are curious to know who is Ixtoii Paloma Cervantes.
The Spiritual Path was not “my calling”, although I come from a spiritual family. Not only I was born and raised in the Mexican Tradition or Curanderismo. Since I was very little, my mother pushed me in this direction, and also into her appetite for learning about other traditions. So I learned about metaphysics, meditation, numerology, energy healing, Reiki, communication with spiritual guides, etc.
I was her companion in her exploration of spiritual ways. Besides learning our Mexican ways; I also learned other modalities and traditions from all over the world. We learn about Buddhism, Hinduism, Celtic traditions, Shamanism from different cultures than ours.
My mother believed very strongly in numerology and sacred geometry. So we, her children, “were used to complete” her ceremonies with the right vibration or number of people in the ceremony or sacred geometrical figure in the “right position” or mandala. She was strict in that sense.
When I was a little older and I wanted to go somewhere, the usual answer when I asked for permission was “You’re going to Thursday’s practice first”. We didn’t have to do any house chores at home but we did have spiritual chores. This gave me a sense of spiritual responsibility since I was very little.
From my mother, my family and my teachers, I learned all sorts of ceremonies, rituals, spiritual practices, and spiritual healings related to our own tradition, Mexican Curanderismo. Ceremonies like Energy Cleansings or Limpias, Rameadas, Sahumadas, Susto or Soul Retrieval, Recovering our Past (Past Life Regression in the Mexican way), Re-establishing the Life Force Ceremony or Espejo de Obsidiana, Empacho, Cross Over, Cutting the cords from family misfortunes to avoid sicknesses and bad luck, El Despertar (awakening our spiritual memory and legacy), El Balanceo (balancing the energy centers in our body), Fire Hands (similar to Reiki), Curanderismo Spiritual Psychic Surgery, Opening the oracle to see future events, use of herbs and remedies, etc.
I also learned metaphysical modalities like Akashic Records, Numerology, Energy Healing, Meditation, Crystal Therapy, Reiki, Color Therapy, Sound Therapy, Tapping/EFT therapy, etc. We were her guinea pigs, her experiment and her companions in all her spiritual adventures.
After a while, I started to really enjoy the spiritual ways and I became her serious student and her mentors became my teachers as well.
I always had the tendency to practice more Shamanism and Curanderismo rather than the other modalities that my mother used to practice and when I was old enough to have my own choices in the spiritual tradition I became the apprentice of Emilio Canche, a very well-known Mexican Shaman or Curandero in the area where we lived in Quintana Roo, México.
I learned many things from my family, my mom, and also from her mentors. I grew up in the Mexican Caribbean, the Mayan territory. From the Mayan Indians, including my teacher Emilio Canche, I also learned many things. I had no clue where all my learning was leading me.
I went to university because my love for Mother Earth is so big that I wanted to learn everything, therefore I decided to study science. This gave me another perspective about my Spiritual Tradition. I learned to merge science like quantum physics with spirituality. That is how I learned about how and why our ceremonies and spiritual tools work with such amazing results. When I came back from the university, the Mayan Indians of my town in Quintana Roo, México, saw in me a potential I did not know I had. I was “forced” to break some sort of bad omen or spell on a Mayan Indian from my town and that is how my life as a Mexican Shaman or Curandera started. This happened in the ’80s. This is the story:
One day, a Mayan Indian came and asked me to remove a spell that someone put on him.
At first, I said no, but he insisted. The Mayan Indians of my city do not accept a “no” for an answer and can be aggressive if you contradict them. So I said yes because, although I had no idea what to do, I was afraid for my safety. What if he could not do anything? What are the Indians going to do with me? I told the Indian that I had to prepare myself spiritually therefore to come the next day. I thought that 24 hours was enough time to think about what to do. I had all the training of my family, my mother and their teachers, but I knew nothing about breaking spells and dark things.
Next day the Indian came as agreed. I asked him exactly what he wanted from me. He said that he broke up with his girlfriend like a month before and she went to see one of the curanderos of our town to cast a spell on him. Since then he had been very sick, with insomnia, anxiety and losing weight among other things. He described all of his symptoms. He wanted the spell to be removed and also a healing ceremony. I knew I could do the healing but the removing a spell I had no clue. I asked for the name of the curandero and he gave me the name of our worst sorcerer. I became so afraid. I said definitely I cannot help, please go look for help somewhere else, but he said nobody wanted to do that work because not only that sorcerer was the most feared in the region, he was the father of the ex-girlfriend and the other curanderos were afraid of any retaliation. I was super scared. The Indian was super scared too and desperate so he threatened me. I had no choice but to do the work.
I asked him to lie on the floor and close his eyes. I went to my altar and prayed to Grandfather Creator, Mother Earth, my ancestors and every spirit that I know for guidance and help. I prayed so hard for a long time and then did every preparation technique for the ceremony that I knew. I used my feathers to go over his body especially his heart. I use my spiritual waters until I ran out of them. I kept praying and working on him. I lose track of time and then after I felt that I was done I stopped. I was so deep into my spiritual state that I remember very vaguely what I did.
He had a big smile and was very thankful. He was insisting on paying for my services. I told the Indian that the cost for the ceremony was his silence. I asked him not to tell anybody because I was afraid that somebody else wanted something similar and for sure I wouldn’t be able to do it again. The Indian said that he was going to keep our secret.
He did not. Next day I had a line of Mayan Indians at my door asking for services and I started officially working as a Professional Mexican Shaman or Curandera. Now you know how it all began.
After a while, working so much in the healing field, it wore me out. I wanted a change of life and I went to study in the UK something totally different and non-related to spiritual practices. But Grandfather Creator had other plans for me and who will think that at the university I was going to meet a medicine man from the Druid tradition. He was a teacher in his tradition and he taught me many things as well.
Then I moved to the US and started working under one of my mom’s mentors that lived in Los Angeles, California. His ways were totally different than mine and I discovered that I had a gap in my ways. I needed to learn something that my mother didn’t teach me. Then the Universe or Grandfather Creator blessed me with the biggest gift I had ever had in my life. Grandfather Creator sent on my way my main teacher Don Manuel Flores. He was sent in the most amazing way that I will explain in another occasion. He is a Mexican Shaman or Curandero that doesn’t know how to read or write and barely speaks Spanish because he speaks his native language from where he is from the village that he is from. This is a place where the states of Sinaloa, Nayarit, and Durango meet (Mexico). He has been my mentor since 1998.
After a while, in the late ’80s and early ’90s, I started teaching classes and training people. I ran with the same situation over and over again, some clients will come with the same issues repeatedly no matter what I did, said or instructed to do. I asked permission to my mentor to start teaching my clients how to improve their lives with our traditional practices and the permission was granted. That is how I became a Maestra in Spanish or mentor in English.
All over the world, the words Mexican Shaman or Curandero (male) or Curandera (female) are often used to represent a person that practices our Spiritual Tradition. The Mexican Shamans or Curanderos do not call themselves in this way. They are called “People of Wisdom”. This means the person that has or carries the wisdom to help himself or herself, others and Mother Earth. A big part of our spiritual practice is to cultivate humbleness and for that when we are among ourselves we don’t use any titles at all. We just call ourselves practitioners.
One becomes a “Person of Wisdom” or Curandero after years of training with a qualified mentor. At some point in the training, the mentor decides when the student is ready to perform the work and then the student goes through a series of ceremonies and initiations to be prepared to be a “Person of Wisdom” or Curandero or Curandera to start to working in the Curanderismo field.
A Curandera never stops learning. My learning continues and will do so forever. My mentor says that life is an endless lesson and it is up to us if we want to learn or not.
To merge the knowledge of the past with modern life is what I teach in our classes…. And why not? We can combine the best of both worlds. That is my passion. I like to share how I learned to combine both worlds. If I am sick, I will take my medication plus I will have a healing ceremony. In fact, we should combine everything that is helpful and not label it or judge it….just live it and enjoy it. Like it was done in ancient times.
So, this is me, as my mentor calls me: “The one who walks among worlds”. He says that I walk in the ancient, modern and spirit world and at the same time.
I do not live in Mexico anymore. Beautiful California is my home.
We are blessed with a beautiful place to teach classes and to have private consultations and ceremonies, this place is the Institute of Shamanism and Curanderismo or ISC Center for short.
Living in California had opened the doors of opportunity to learn and incorporate other traditions into my practice and the way I work with people. Seeking for help in a spiritual problem that I had led me to meet Grandfather Semu Huaute from the Chumash tribe. He was the first Native American Medicine man that taught me the Native American ways.
I was already working as a Curandera and he asked me if I wanted to learn his ways I needed to promise him that if I know something that may harm somebody I should not say anything. This promise got me in internal confusion because I was trained by my Curandero mentors to go in the spirit world and find out things like if a husband is cheating, or if somebody is harming with negative energy or sending a spell or if somebody is stealing money and things like that. In the Curanderismo tradition, the duty of the Curandera is to bring this information to the client. In Granpa Semu’s ways, it is the opposite. He wanted me not to tell the client. He was very persistent on this and he helped me to find a solution. I will work in the spirit world to help people fix their problems but I will never pinpoint anybody. I lost a lot of clients with this new way because some people just want confirmation on who is harming them and I was not able to provide that anymore.
With the years I realized how right Granpa Semu was. When we tell somebody that someone else is sending negative energies we are setting up that person to start thinking and feeling negative thoughts against somebody but at the end, it is not so much “against somebody”, it is that we harm ourselves when we cannot stop thinking negative thoughts. Our body starts vibrating in negative energy and very soon we start feeling depressed and even developing illnesses.
Grandpa Semu introduced me to a friend of his, “Burning Mountain”, a half Mexican and half Native American Medicine man that taught me more Mexican ways to perform ceremony and healings and the Californian and Lakota ceremonial ways too. Also, he introduced me to the Sacred Fire for ceremonies and to the Spiritual Purification Ceremony for the Soul in two ways: The Mexican Temazcal Ceremony and the Native American Sweat Lodge Ceremony.
Another door that California opened for me was the opportunity to learn about Santeria. The spiritual tradition in Cuba. My Mexican Curandero mentor introduced me to a Santero (practitioner) and asked me to learn his ways because I needed to become stronger in different ways to remove negativity. I was so scared of the Santero. It took me a while to accept his ways. I think I was to close minded. I learned that although many people think Santeria is a scary tradition, it has such a beauty and strong connection to Mother Earth. So I learned how to become a stronger practitioner connecting with Mother Earth in their ways. Also, I learned the rich herbology tradition that they have. I grow my own plants and prepare Spiritual Baths for people in the Mexican and Santeria tradition.
Other doors that California opened where the Western or Core Shamanism with two people that were very loving and patient with me. When I meet them I was still dealing with a very strong spiritual problem and they both did their best to help me in directing me to the people that may know how to help me. I took some classes with them looking to understand how people in the USA practice the Western or Core Shamanism.
Around the year 2002, I took some classes about Tibetan Shamanism with Dr. Peters.
He used to travel to Nepal to learn and bring the teachings to California. Recently I traveled to Nepal (2019) and it was a very nice surprise that the Nepalese Shamans “saw” that I carry their tradition within me. Instead of starting from zero they helped me to reinforce what learned from Dr. Peters.
When I was little I was introduced to the Hindu traditions, to meditation, yoga, mantras, mandalas, and all those things but it was when I moved to California where it really became involved with this beautiful tradition. Every Thursday, for many years, I will go to practice with a group of Hindu friends. I learned how to perform pujas (ceremonies), how to bless houses and things like that. I traveled to India and stayed at an ashram or monastery to strengthen my spiritual practices.
After all these things happened my main mentor Don Manuel Flores told me that I was ready for the next step and he started an intense training. When we were done is when my life as a Curandera or Mexican Shaman did a big 180-degree turn. I started to work not only with my regular clients but with women that were raped and abused, helping people stuck between life and death, working at hospices and hospitals, blessing homes, guiding people in their spiritual life, working with children, etc. My clients are workers, housewives, lawyers, doctors, students, phycologists, and from every spiritual tradition and country. I train other curanderos, spiritual leaders from other traditions, healers, massage therapists and also people that want to learn because no other reason than having the call inside themselves to better their ways and live.
Where I am going with all this is to show you that it is very important to have an open heart and strong prayer. The Universe and/or Grandfather Creator are going help you out in your spiritual growth when you don’t give up, practice constant, pray strong and have an open heart I had no idea where all this beautiful journey of my life was going to take me. I just followed my intuition. Each time I have the opportunity to learn something new I go ahead and learn it. I love to travel with a purpose and the purpose is to grow and to become a better human being. Now I lead traveling trips for people that are open and want to learn and experience different things. I travel in and out of the US performing ceremonies, teaching and giving private consultations.
The last thing I would like to share with you about myself is that I am a Mexican Shaman or Curandera that does not do recreational or spiritual drugs to reach spiritual states. I do believe and practice that we can achieve stronger and longer results with spiritual practices alone and not with substances that alter the mind. It is not that I don’t approve spiritual drugs like sacred mushrooms, sacred cactus, ayahuasca, etc., I cannot say much because I had not even tried them… not even marijuana. But I had worked for almost 30 years helping clients with physical, mental, emotional and/or spiritual problems that they developed from using these kinds of substances and I can tell you that sometimes these substances help and sometimes they don’t. It depends on the person leading the ceremonies, the person taking the substances and in many other factors. I do not promote the use of anything that alters the mind in my practice and classes. If you are looking to learn in a safe way for your health you are welcome to join my teachings. The door is open for those that want to make an effort to improve their lives.
Ixtoii Paloma Cervantes – Curandera
Ixtoii Institute of Shamanism and Curanderismo
