Guided Light: Lea Jones

Approx. 15 minute read.

The concept of “Guided” is learning and allowing your internal compass to navigate your spirit’s path for the soul’s story in this lifetime. Much of this guidance is interconnected to unseen entities and powerful cosmic energies that really require well-versed guides to help you along your particular path.

I call in these types of “Guided Lights” through my work and it was such an honor when I connected with Lea several years ago. Learning about each others’ backgrounds within our communities helps us realize what guides might be helpful for us to connect with. Having some one you can trust in guiding you through their own astrological and occult knowledge is such an ancient, sacred, and communal relationship. It was something my path desired and Lea has been that steady light helping guide the way. I am so excited that this is the first in our Guided Light interview series.

Welcome Lea!

Lea (Lee-ah) was born and raised in Foster City/San Mateo (Ohlone Indigenous lands).

One of the aspects of Lea’s practice that is very telling is that it’s more than “a practice” it is her life. Her days and nights are interwoven with magickal practices and patterns. Her life studies of astrology just reinforce all of that.

I love hearing Lea’s stories and listening to her guidance; I’m so excited to share some of this Guided Light’s brilliance here in this space with you all.

Lea’s path started off by spending 3 years in getting certified as a rootworker, which overlapped into spending another 3 years getting certified as an herbalist and aromatherapist. Because she expands beyond American concepts, she’s been able to learn from a wide range of indigenous, culturally-based magickal systems. Currently, Lea is a student of Quareia, which is rooted in the foundations of Ancient Egyptian magickal systems, and it’ll take her 7-10 years to move up into adept level magick. “The magickal system(s) of Ancient Egypt also dove-tail into magickal foundations of Ancient Nubia/Sudan,” says Lea. In addition to that, her current favorite magickal systems to learn through are the Tuareg culture of Mali, Kongo, Ethiopia, South Africa, Haitian Vodou, Daoist magicians/fangshi of China, Native American, and the cultures of Central America. As it is important to learn through her cultural backgrounds it is essential for Lea’s practice to also honor the ancestors of the land as well as the cultural backgrounds that represent the communities she lives and travels in.

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Lea, did you have any “first” guides as a child that you remember giving you insight to your current path? Did nature fulfill this role as a child?

Absolutely no one and it was horrible. Foster City/San Mateo is a pretty conservative area, although they’d like to believe they’re liberal out here. Eurocentric conformity is definitely pushed above all else, and even through today I don’t feel comfortable speaking to most people out here about magick nor astrology. Herbalism would also be pretty time consuming beyond pop culture concepts of such.

I think what did help me is having access to play out in nature as a child 24/7. I was always out in grassy fields with the animals, at Mama Pacific’s shores, climbing up in trees, etc. As a child you can’t decipher that these are all foundational powers weaving and expressing their own creative (or destructive) force. But it always felt like home to me more than anything, as it probably would to any empathic, precog, intuitive child. The land and elemental forces have always felt like family to me.

How does nature now guide your daily life and craft?

Nature guides every aspect of my life and craft. In order to get dressed in the morning I wash my face using a homemade herbal face scrub, brush my teeth using a homemade toothpowder, use a shea-coco butter base (with other natural and alchemy oils mixed in) as body moisturizer, anoint my skin with certain alchemy oils, and use botanical perfumes as body sprays. I couldn’t even get dressed without the power of nature.

I will say that the botanical perfumes and alchemy oils are made and used in accordance with the season and planetary transits. For example, we’re in mid-summer now moving into Leo season, with a domination of Aries/Mars and Plutonian-Saturanian/Capricorn aspects/transits moving across the cosmos. Of course, the Aries-Capricorn aspects will square one another off and on into the Fall.

Re: Leo season, when I was a younger and content with just being a witch I was obsessed with solar power. After all we are a solar worshiping culture, politics constantly uses solar sigils for their election campaigns, and a lot of rulership power in general moves through solar magick. However, looking back I can see how I didn’t understand it then, and in 5 years I’ll probably look back and see how I don’t understand a lot of it now – the power of Ra after all is something one must learn treading lightly. But what I have learned is that applying the power of lunar energy when solar power dominates, really helps to balance out the energy within and around me. So, over the next month I’ll be working with a lot of lunar plants to balance out the increased solar power. *What is the Sun without the power of the Moon?

It is through nature that you learn a great deal about elemental forces, and how to balance those forces out so you as a human can work with them and not get energetically fried and laid out for days/weeks. The challenge is that we’re socialized into misconceptions of what balance really is, and to move into true balance you can find yourself completely out of synch with what’s normalized within what I call matrix reality.

I love how you talk about the cosmos when asked about nature, can you share more about how the cosmos guide your craft/life?

I’m not sure how anyone today can practice magick without moving into an above average understanding of cycles of time on multi-generational, collective/community and nation-state levels, which is what learning true astrology teaches you. Understanding how planets express and impact collective, community and individual trends/experiences will help to keep you ahead of where mainstream consciousness is being steered (and controlled), so you can gain better insight on how to properly navigate these unprecedented times.

Cosmic timing lets me know what to use for ritual works, when to start seeding plants, what alchemy oils, tuned jewels, and magickal tools I use on any given day, etc. Of course, there’s always situations wherein one needs to do things out of necessity, but for the most part I check in and navigate according to the daily cosmic weather like matrix reality reports our daily weather forecast.

Well, now you know I have to ask…what was something you learned during your Saturn Return?

Definitely strength and perseverance because there were many times wherein, I was shown I had to depend on myself. Saturn also confirmed for me that I was nothing like the majority of people I grew up around, nor those in my family, simply because I didn’t share in most of what my peers/family perceptually bought into as reality. However, growing up I was labeled as always being “too deep,” and mostly felt alone in crowds. I’ve always been and felt different.

What saved me is the same thing that’s always saved me growing up – education. At that time I applied and got into a few grad schools for psychology – another step many medicine people and natural magicians take because it’s the closet concept academically to how our healing powers express and what could help me make sense of what I constantly picked up on around me as an intuitive, precog, empath. Most importantly, it helped me understand how matrix reality impacts me and others, how to acknowledge and work through shadow aspects of reality (which includes my own shadow aspects – how I as a micro vessel feed matrix macro dynamics), the power to be found within shadow reality, and also the power of self-accountability, awareness and healing.

What does a new future look like for you?

Hopefully being able to sustain a lifestyle that allows me to continue to move up the magickal training ladder in Quareia. When you start working with deeper powers the first 3-5 years of training it pulls the false self apart so you can step into the truth of who you are as an initiate. This entails every single aspect of your being that is imbalanced surfacing to express. That can be a mental and physical imbalance, a lifestyle imbalance, a partnership dynamic imbalance, career imbalance, etc. All of it will surface, unravel and destruct, so that the creative spark – the truth of who you are – can surface. And it is that truth of you as a vessel that’ll be able to survive moving into and through the initiate stage.

Just existing as someone who practiced magick before Quareia created so much shame around how I as an authentic human expressed my existence – mostly because magick is so grossly misunderstood in the states, and there’s this concept of convenience and comfy magick as something all so powerful and life transforming. I’ve never been fond of the surface of things.

I am also learning how to plant and grow anything I can get my hands on if I have time and room for it. So, I see myself in the future still immersed in plants, astrology and magick.

Oh, how it’s all interconnected! Can you share how you relate to the dreamworld as a guide and how that inspires your work?

I’ve always felt like “dream” reality is more alive than mainstream waking reality in the states. I work with various guides, the land, learn from Mama Pacific, travel to different countries, planets/realities (I’ve “met” various plants that don’t even grow on this planet, as well as plants that I was destined to meet and work with in the future).

I can dream true about anything in mundane reality, from when someone plots against me, to when someone from the past will visit/call me, to when the dead/bloodline ancestors come through to visit – but these are not what really interest me, as the veil has been thin for me like this since I was 15.

What fascinates me is the astral travel to other countries I’ve never been, going back into past lives 100s of years ago, or future timelines, as well as galactic travel to other planets.

What do you believe will guide and create our new futures?

I would say that it takes all of us, from all dimensions, realms, timelines to weave a new (and better?) future into existence. Sure, deeper powers can move into destabilizing and destroying current imbalanced cycles of existence in order to birth a creative spark from anew. But I believe every human being is an expression of vast amounts of divine power, and the capacity to create through that divine power is limitless.

We don’t care to hear nor listen to what the land, trees, waters and nature in general needs. We don’t understand what our communities need beyond what older generations have already created, nor how to obtain it. We are socialized to focus on our sole needs with no understanding of how our lifestyle needs might impact others or the ecology of the land and elemental forces that sustains us. *When this happens for an extended period of time, is it any wonder that deeper powers move in to destabilize all of it?

I also believe this is why it’s been so easy for most to jump on the limitations of what’s perceived as “ancestors” in America. It’s like ancestor has replaced the religious dogma of Jesus – the consciousness hasn’t changed, simply the labels, as you can’t understand ancestral forces at its truer expansive level without some understanding of the vast interconnection of all things and the part you play in it … as the First Nations have been trying to teach us time and time again “all our relations” matters.

Speaking of “all our relations”, who would you say is your current go-to pandemic plant allies and why?

Tulsi because of its power to heal and strengthen the heart, the nutritional properties, and how it balances the mind, CNS/ANS and is a reproductive tonic. A magician without an empowered heart will get eaten alive in places like the Underworld, so Tulsi is a very important and sacred plant ally for me to have. *I’m taking a shot at growing a few different types of Tulsi as well.

I don’t think I can live without moringa either – currently sipping an infusion of such. I love the nutrient component, plus it’s good for the bones, immune system, digestive system, eyes, brain, and energy/stamina levels.

I also have this mix that is my evening go-to body tonic: lemon balm, milky oats, sage leaf, violet leaf, and helichrysum flowers.

Wow, thank you for sharing your plant allies and that mix sounds amazing! Are there any projects you would like to share that have been created out of your guided experiences/connections?

One of my BFFs and I created an LLC called Tatay’s Blends in honor of her Dad.

We’ll probably branch off into other areas of the botanical market as our company expands.

We just obtained the LLC and will most likely launch this sometime next year. The goal for the rest of this year is to watch how society transforms (not like you can run to big herbal stores and get everything you need in a week at discounted prices anymore to make your herbal products), and learn how to grow as much of the botanicals we’ll be using in our products as possible.

That sounds amazing Lea, we’ll be sure to circle back so we can update this article with information about how people can connect with Tatay’s Blends.

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Background painting of Yemaya in Lea’s photo is by artist Stuart Littlejohn.