Zoey is a tarot reader, reiki healer, and plant witch that I first discovered via Twitter, where she shares her spot-on card readings with advice on the energy of the day. She lives in enchanting New Mexico, spending a lot of her time in the garden to create blends with herbs and flowers.
Here she shares a bit about her inspired life and how she overcame hurdles in her journey to self love and acceptance.
You can book a session with her here.
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Name: Zoey Anne Aranda-Tafoya
Age: 25
Your sign: I am a Libra sun, Libra moon and Pisces rising.
Where are you from?
I was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico and currently reside in beautiful Corrales, New Mexico.
Where are you going?
I am going to places I can’t even imagine just yet! I’ve been envisioning myself teaching at a spiritual retreat somewhere tropical. I also dream of building a home with my beloved, and of motherhood.
Can you tell us about your work?
My life’s work is to learn how to embody unconditional love here on earth as best I can, this is my true purpose. This work is not always easy in a limited human form, I am constantly met with my ego and sometimes it’s a struggle to bring myself back to love. I find that returning to my breath and to nature always helps me center myself in true unconditional love because that’s when I can feel it so clearly. My purpose has translated to me helping others through tarot readings, intuitive guidance, energy healing and plant medicine. I love to help others find the spark of divinity and unconditional love within themselves. All of my healing work is meant to empower the people I am blessed to encounter rather than make them dependent on me or an outside source for their healing. I am here to help awaken the divine in each person I encounter no matter what that looks like at an individual level.
Do you have any other passions that you pursue or would like to?
I am very passionate about gardening and would love to build a greenhouse so I can grow more plants year-round! I mostly work with flowers and herbs that I use to create facial and yoni steams and tea blends. I would love to study herbalism more as a whole and become a certified herbalist one day! I also want to learn more energy healing modalities. In my spare time I pursue my passions of art and music by painting and by playing my harp!
Do you have any advice for people who want to tap into their gifts and intuition?
My advice for those who wish to tap into their spiritual gifts and intuition is to start with an intention. Dive into your heart and ask yourself why you want to explore these gifts. Is it heart based or is it centered in ego? Honoring your intention is what will help you grow and expand the gifts that are meant for you. Always listen to your heart and allow it to guide you, that’s what being intuitive is all about.
What is a typical day like for you?
My typical day begins with a slow and peaceful rising. I like to spend my mornings outside in my garden tending to my plants and connecting with the earth. I also love to take morning walks through the bosque or wildlife area near my home, I am a fifteen minute walk from the Rio Grande. It’s so important for me to ground first thing in the morning and to connect with the energy that is around me, this helps me to remain centered in love and peace throughout my day. After I feel centered and balanced I like to get right into any tarot readings or healing sessions I have scheduled for the day. I prefer to do this work in the earlier hours of my day when my energy is fresh and I am tuned into my spirit away from distractions. I pull a tarot card for the guidance of the collective consciousness every week day and post it to my website and to social media. Once all of my readings are done I like to unwind with some yoga or meditation before work. I nanny two beautiful children in the afternoons. I have so much fun learning from and guiding children, their presence helps me to connect with my own inner child. After work I spend time with my family, my friends or myself. I love coming home to my own space and taking a bath to cleanse myself from the day and to recharge and relax. I am often filled with creative energy before bed so I will use that time to paint, write or play music. Throw in some homemade tea, quality time with my cat and lots of reading and that’s a great day!
Is there any types of healing that have helped you a lot on your journey?
Tarot and Reiki have proven to be powerful healing tools in my life. I started reading tarot in my teens and at the time it was just for fun and curiosity. I pulled my cards out again following my divorce at age 22 and began using them to dive deeper into my subconscious and connect with my own spirit. It has turned into a source of comfort and healing for me. I am certified in Reiko-do and have been getting Reiki treatments for a few years now. Reiki is the most powerful form of energy healing I have experienced and it really opens me up to forgive myself and others and make peace with life as it is. I have also found plant medicine to be extremely healing on my journey. I take flower essences to combat anxiety and depression and working with my own flowers and herbs has brought me immense joy and peace.
What does divine union mean to you?
To me divine union is all about the merging of souls. It’s stripping yourself down to the soul and allowing your beloved to witness you in all of your imperfections and raw beauty. It’s a love unlike any other I have experienced, it pushes me to heal more than any other relationship I have ever been in. Divine union means the death of who you used to be and what is known and comfortable, and a process of complete rebirth. It is not always easy, it will trigger you more than any other partnership you have encountered but the growing and healing you do together is so worth it.
What are your superpowers?
My superpowers are vulnerability and resilience. I have been through a lot of painful and traumatic experiences in my life and they have only served to strengthen me. No matter what challenges I face I always choose to rise and continue on my journey. I always say “you can’t keep me down for long!” I am extremely open about my experiences and emotions on my social media platforms; I choose to share my heart with the world. I receive so many messages saying that me sharing my story and being open about my healing process inspires others to heal and keep going. I have turned what most consider a weakness into a strength. I find that vulnerability and authenticity go hand in hand and to me life feels empty if I am not showing up as my most authentic self. Being vulnerable allows me to make the most amazing and genuine connections with other people and even if I end up getting hurt I know I gave my all and that’s what matters.
What’s on your music playlist?
I’ve been listening to a lot of activating music lately! I’m obsessed with Fia‘s album Legacy of Light and Deya Dova‘s album Myth of the Cave. Besides that I’ve been getting down to Thriftworks and The Growlers. My music taste is kind of all over the place.
Who inspires you and why?
I am deeply inspired by the people who are most important to me in my life. My mother, my father, my boyfriend my friends, they would not be a part of my life if they did not inspire me. I myself am a survivor and so I surround myself with those who have overcome difficult challenges and who have improved their lives for the better.
What is your best advice for loving yourself?
My best advice for loving yourself is to throw away comparisons to others. As long as you compare your life to the lives of others you will suffer. You came here with a unique purpose and a unique path just as everyone else did. We compare paths and physical vessels as if they should be the same and this creates deep dissatisfaction within. Who you are right now in this moment is so beautiful and so worthy of love. There is no one else like you on this planet and that is a cause for celebration. Your unique purpose is needed here, your existence has meaning, don’t get caught up in trying to live someone else’s purpose, you can’t. Just be yourself and love who you are in this moment.
Has learning to accept yourself been a journey for you or has it come naturally?
Learning to love and accept myself has been a very long journey and I still struggle with it at times. There was a time when I hated my body and my being, and I actively sought to harm and destroy myself. It took a lot of life changes to rid myself of this self hatred but the most important factor in loving myself was finding God again and becoming aware of my own toxic thoughts and behaviors. As you begin this journey of self acceptance you will find that many relationships and situations will begin to leave your life. My personal journey meant losing my ex husband, friends of several years and everything I was familiar with. Some people do not know how to process your healing and will no longer be a vibrational match for you and you will part ways. This is always bittersweet but the people you lose as you begin to love and honor yourself are not really a loss at all. I believe self acceptance comes when we are so tired of pretending to be anything other than what we are, that we decide to finally make peace with who we are and love ourselves fiercely. I find that I still have days where I question my worth and feel bad about myself and it is on those days that I am extra gentle with my being and extend compassion to myself. I am human and I have challenging days just like everyone else but I remember that I am here because the Creator so desired my existence and that means I am always worthy of love.
What would you tell your younger self?
I would tell my younger self to hang in there, brighter days are coming. I would tell her that she is not alone and that she is worthy of so much more than she is accepting. I would tell her that I am so proud of her for continuing to choose life and for opening her heart up even after it has been so mistreated. I would tell her that the things about herself that she has deemed unworthy of love are the things that make her most special and unique. I would tell her that the temporary discomfort she feels is worth the blessings and transformation that life is bringing to her. I would tell her that she is loved always.
