Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kassandra Ocasio. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kassandra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

The biggest risk I took was branching out with my own business surrounding spirituality and healing. I have always had a passion for stones, energy healing, and connecting to the divine for years prior to this, but finally felt comfortable enough to want to share that love with other people around me. I’ve always been a private person so sharing this intimate part of me was hard at first, but I saw and witnessed first-hand what a healthy relationship with Spirituality could do for your mind, body and soul. And It was that complex and long lasting change that made me feel like if other people knew about this incredible natural magic (that we all have access to tap into) I could help bring more healing and community, something we all desperately need right now.

In doing this, I feel I’ve found my true purpose. Not only in crafting protective talismans (amongst other magical goods) that are intentionally crafted but in sharing my vulnerabilities, my ideas, and desire for reconnection with my culture.

I had spent so much time silencing my own voice for fear of judgement and scrutiny, so one of my primary focuses with my business now is to uplift the voices of marginalized groups in any capacity I can. I do this through sharing the connections I make with my ancestors, protecting the sacred, sharing my platform to give a voice to other BIPOC Spiritualists in the community, mutual aid, and community focused healing work. I realized that simply recognizing my voice as “just as important” allowed for others to recognize the same power within themselves. That is well worth the risk.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am the owner of Karaya Magia. My name is Kass, but I’m also known as La Bruja Canela. I’m an eclectic Bruja, Level 1 Reiki Practitioner, reconnecting Taíno and intuitive card reader. My practice and business revolves around natural magick, the phases of the moon, ancestor veneration, divination, astrology, plant medicine, community, energy, and crystal healing.

This business stemmed from the want to share the gift of natural magick with the world. I wanted to somehow honor my Ancestors so at the time I used the word Karaya (Moon) and Magic (Magic) to form a sort of bridge between the cultures that made me.

At first I started out with stones, and just stones, knowing that some day I wanted to expand…As someone who is always wearing stones themselves and realizing just how healing they can be, I found myself creating protection talismans; necklaces, bracelets, keychains, you name it! Amongst the protection talismans, I now offer all kinds of magical goods to enhance your practice such as runes, oracle/tarot decks, spiritual sprays, altar displays and more!

I make sure to make my prices affordable and even offer sliding scale pricing because I pride myself on making it as accessible to everyone as I possibly can. I offer readings on a monthly and weekly basis on my Patreon and on a donation basis otherwise. I am blessed and humbled to say that those who purchase from me and who have received readings from me, have told me that they can quite literally feel the love and energy that is poured into each and I have dedicated, repeat customers because of this. I believe that’s because I am very intentional about everything I create and everything is created with your highest good and healing in mind. Not to mention it always cleansed before shipping. It’s not about the money for me, I treat everything with the utmost care and respect because I have a high reverence for this work.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

In my journey of reconnecting, I’ve found myself having to unlearn a number of harmful tropes and mindsets that lead directly to the colonization of my Ancestors. Being a Puerto Rican woman growing up in America was extremely confusing. It seemed like I was “too American” for Puerto Rico and too “Puerto Rican” for America. I never felt like I really fit anywhere and this caused a lot of inner turmoil and unfortunate rejection of my own culture. It wasn’t until I was older that I felt the insatiable desire to re-connect. I didn’t know who I was and I wanted to find out. My business really was my jumping off point because it was my first step into unapologetically accepting who I was. When I found my tribe, Higuayagua, I learned that I never knew what true community was like. Community wasn’t meant to divide or make you feel like you didn’t belong. They helped me to understand that I was different, they were all different, we were all different, and that was okay.

Have you ever had to pivot?

In my studies of reconnecting I realized that a lot of misinformation is tossed around as fact. Especially from those who believe that the Taíno people are extinct due to a paper genocide. Because of this, a lot of this info is conflated, intermingled together and hard to separate. My Kasike Jorge Baracutey informed us that although Karaya does have indigenous roots, there is more evidence that she originated from a different part of South America rather than the islands like I originally found in my studies. At first this was a hard pill for me to swallow. I was really hard on myself, wondering why I hadn’t done more research, how I felt I too was passing along misinformation…but I was assured that the intention is what matters the most and ultimately I forgave myself for the misstep and focused on making it right.

coincidentally (or not, I for one am not one to believe in coincidences!) a Taíno sister who also owns a shop (Boriquen Gitana) made a brilliant post surrounding Karaya and the misinformation we find about her on the internet. I reached out to her, asking her if I could share her post with an additional message that I had to share and she agreed. I took that opportunity to speak plainly and transparently to my followers about my mistake and my next steps.

Fast forward to now, I have decided that I will be changing the name to La Bruja Canela so that it focuses on the services that I provide while still honoring who I am. This doesn’t take away the fact that my work will always center around my ancestors, but will allow me the space to grow with my business however I feel I need to without the spreading of any harmful misinformation.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.karayamagia.com
• Instagram: @KarayaMagia
• Facebook: @KarayaMagia
• Twitter: @KarayaMagia
• Other:
  Patreon: Patreon.com/LaBrujaCanela
  Resources: SavageHeart.carrd.co
  All other links: https://snipfeed.co/brujacanela