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

Maria Elena, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

Just as my business originated with Tarot card readings as the primary offering, the name of my business also came to me through Tarot. The first deck I was given as a young teen was The Mythic Tarot by Juliet Sharman-Burke, Liz Greene, and Tricia Newell. This deck is based on Greek mythology and all of the figures depicted in the deck are meant to represent the gods, goddesses, and other characters from Greek myths. The card that stuck out the most to me, as a 14 year old with very little working knowledge of the archetypes of the Tarot, was the High Priestess who, in The Mythic Tarot, was depicted as the young goddess Persephone descending a staircase to the Underworld. My interest in this card led me to learn more about the myth of Persephone – Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Underworld. I eventually developed my own modern interpretation of her story that felt deeply resonant with my own life and experience. As I developed my business, I decided that my work should always be in service of this archetype.

To be Persephonic means many things. It means honoring your personal cycles of life / death / rebirth on every scale. It means being present with the both/and. Understanding that you can be both the lovely maiden Goddess of Spring AND the severe Queen of the Underworld. To be Persephonic is to have an innate desire to see and experience what goes on in the shadows, while still maintaining your connection to the light.

Every product and service offered by Persephonic Healing Arts is developed with this archetype in mind and our ideal clients and customers are those who are on their own journey with the myth of Persephone and the archetype of the High Priestess.

Maria Elena, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Persephonic Healing Arts currently has three branches:

– Intentionally infused bath and body products designed to enhance your self-care rituals

– One on one sessions that integrate Tarot, bodywork, and various modalities of energy healing to assist the mind / body / spirit with identifying, processing, and integrating the never ending cycles of life / death / rebirth that we experience as humans

– Classes and workshops where I empower you to develop your own toolbox of skills and practices around Tarot and witchcraft-as-self-care.

Before I started my business, I was working in the adult entertainment industry while earning my degree in Gender Studies. Both of these experiences taught me so much about truly living in the both/and of my experience, providing high quality professional services in a stigmatized industry as a highly sensitive person, and how to relate to people in a way that allows them to feel truly seen. I believe that my years in the industry built an important foundation for my current and future work and I am still so grateful for that time.

In late 2019, I started getting nudges that it was time to branch out of adult entertainment so I began sharing more about my experience with the Tarot and created my first signature offering – Year Ahead Readings – at the end of that year. It was such an honor to provide my clients with guidance ahead of time when we had no idea of the experience that was to come. Many of the clients I read for that year and the following year still return for regular readings.

The pandemic brought two major shifts to my business. First, it forced me to go full time with Tarot readings and it led to the development of my bath and body product line. I had been working on a exit strategy from adult work but I knew so many of my friends and colleagues were in serious trouble as the world began to shut down. So, I followed my guidance and created a fundraiser where I handmade (and hand delivered) self-care ritual toolkits to customers in Phoenix and Tucson, AZ with all profits going to mutual aid funds that were supporting vulnerable people in my industry. Some of the items in these kits evolved into the product line that exists today.

The next major shift my business experienced came in late 2021. I once again was receiving signals that it was time to explore something new, but I was unsure which direction to take. After yet another incredibly illuminating Tarot card reading, I took a day job assisting an acupuncturist in her private practice. This break from my business gave me the space I needed to go back to school and come back to my business with fresh ideas, new energy, and a lot more clarity on the direction I desire to grow in. I am now back to being a full time entrepreneur and am growing and expanding in ways I couldn’t have dreamed of before the break.

What I think is so important about the story of how Persephonic came to be, is how it really makes clear that I am living the spiral of life / death / rebirth right alongside my clients and customers. Every product, service, and workshop I offer was originally developed because I needed it to help me navigate these processes, heal my own junk, and find alignment with my soul’s purpose in this life. I am here to offer what I have learned through my experience, to continue learning through experience, and to help guide a few steps behind me on the same path, should they want it.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Despite offering services that can be done remotely and products that can be shipped anywhere, I firmly believe in the power of having a strong local community so most of my new clients and customers come from in-person events! I love getting to meet with people face to face at local markets and pop up Tarot events. I have found this to be a great way to give potential clients a brief introduction to the brand and what we have to offer in a very genuine way which makes it more likely for them to convert into regulars. These clients also get a good feel for who they are supporting when we get to meet in person which can foster a sense of loyalty to the brand and make it more likely for them to recommend Persephonic to their friends and family. I had a young client that I met doing walk-in Tarot readings refer her aunt to me which was so sweet.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The story about the first products I ever sold is quite the story of resilience. I previously mentioned how the current product line evolved from these self-care ritual kits I sold as a mutual aid fundraiser at the start of the pandemic. The development of these kits came from a need to do something ~anything~ at a time when humanity as a whole was really scared of what was happening. At a personal level, I was dealing with some pretty heavy grief as lost my job and had to cancel a wedding I had been planning for over a year.

Most of the original supplies for the self-care ritual kits came from wedding supplies that were now going unused. Mason jars that were going to be drinking glasses at the reception were now the packaging for bath soaks. I added herbs to tea light candles we had purchased as wedding decorations to make them a little fancier for the kits. It was not only a lesson in pivoting, but also a lesson in using what you have in front of you to create something new and marketable. I raised a significant amount of money through that fundraiser that went directly to mutual aid groups around Arizona and the Navajo Nation.

Contact Info:

• Website: persephonic.square.site
• Instagram: @persephonichealingarts
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/persephonichealingarts
• Threads: @persephonichealingarts
• Email: [email protected]
• Subscribe to the newsletter: http://eepurl.com/h1lrHT

Image Credits
Product photos by Olivia Torres