The Beauty Mage

Got busy making magick in order to stave off my feelings of anxiety once we knew quarantine was coming.. The results are being listed in my Etsy shop Daily.. 🔮✨

(Eucalyptus and Rosemary based Floral Smudge Wands in The Beauty Mage Etsy @ https://etsy.me/3aqui8C 🌟)

Today marks the sixth year since my dad (left) passed away and a week ago marked one year since my uncle Harold (right) passed away.

I was a radically different person at each point of these personal tragedies. I'm a radically different person today.

I was changed by my grief. I was changed from my grief. There was no point at the raw beginnings of those wounds that I would have been capable of the level of work I am doing now. Grief is always a tragedy. Whether from a sudden tragic loss or a prolonged battle, the people closest to the center of trauma will always experience a period of malaise.

A time that is so deeply connected and simultaneously disconnected from the specificity of the experience. I remember those weeks around each of their deaths as if they were dreams.

The death of someone you love so deeply literally creates a rift in your concept of time and space. So today, as I am knee deep in the focus of my passions, as I am swirling in the joy of proselytizing about my crowdfund campaign, I am also meditating on my grief and allowing it space.

I am aware that the import of those losses is that life filled those cracks in my existence with gold much like a kintsukuroi ceramic. I exist in the gratitude that life broke me only to make me more beautiful in the end. And, furthermore, to make me a much more valuable vessel for healing.

To my favorite two guys on the planet I say Asé and thank you for making me who I am today. I know that you are still watching over me and conspiring for my greatest good.

“Urban riots must now be recognized as durable social phenomena,” King suggested during his “Role of the Behavioral Scientist in the Civil Rights Movement” dissertation at the American Psychology Association in D.C, on Sept. 1, 1967. “They may be deplored, but they are there and should be understood. Urban riots are a special form of violence. They are not insurrections. The rioters are not seeking to seize territory or to attain control of institutions. They are mainly intended to shock the [Caucasian] community. They are a distorted form of social protest. The looting, which is their principal feature, serves many functions.”

He added, “Let us say boldly that if the violations of law by the [Caucasian] man in the slums over the years were calculated and compared with the law-breaking of a few days of riots, the hardened criminal would be the [Caucasian] man. These are often difficult things to say, but I have come to see more and more that it is necessary to utter the truth in order to deal with the great problems that we face in our society.”

Actor/activist, Harry Belafonte, shared a similar moment about his friend. “Midway through the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. realized that the struggle for integration would ultimately become a struggle for economic rights,” Belafonte reflected. “I remember the last time we were together, at my home, shortly before he was murdered. He seemed quite agitated and preoccupied, and I asked him what the problem was?”

According to Belafonte, King responded, “I’ve come upon something that disturbs me deeply. We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should have, and I know we will win, but I have come to believe that we are integrating into a burning house. I’m afraid that America has lost the moral vision she may have had, and I’m afraid that even as we integrate, we are walking into a place that does not understand that this nation needs to be deeply concerned with the plight of the poor and disenfranchised..” (continued in comments)

Still consistently obsessed with J Curl lashes. This was a beautifully natural mink set for my client’s wedding day. She wanted to feel like the best version of herself and I think this set was what the doctor ordered!!

I’ve been such a busy bee manifesting and prepping for my crowdfund campaign that I allowed the holiday shuffle to stop me from doing my own 2019 recap.

So here I celebrate all that 2019 was to me. I started the year with many deaths, quite literal and figurative. (There will never be another like my uncle Harold, I miss you every day.) But those losses gave way to so much rebirth. I got to celebrate the union of one of my close friends, travel to and fall in love with Mexico City & San Miguel de Allende, and expand my business. I opened my salon 🍾🥂 I pushed my own boundaries and stretched myself in ways I never imagined. I fell in love with public speaking and got to sit on several panels preaching the gospel of radical self love. I was accepted into the inaugural incubator and found a new community of empowering black business owners. I became an active contributor to and found a great friend in . And all the while I still somehow managed to actively connect with and remind my friends and family of how truly important they are to me. I know a lot of people had a rough go of it last year. But overall, I made it work! I’m so thankful for all of the lessons and new friends and I’m already super busy making 2020 my best year yet! Happy new year y’all!!!

People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead."

~James Baldwin

There is always choice, even when it feels as if there aren't choices. Even when it feels as if all signs lead to there being only one possible choice. There are choices. Resisting making a choice is, a choice. Attempting to blame some outside source or circumstance is a choice. Hiding under the covers and pretending the issue doesn't exist is a choice. Often the source of 'decision fatigue' is a prolonged practice of ingnoring your intuitive voice.

We are constantly choosing. And the life you create is based upon just as many of those tiny choices as the giant ones. So I challenge you today to check in with yourself as you are choosing and make sure that each decision is building a strong foundation for your highest and best good.

: if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed by decision fatigue, consider finding a divination tool like a pendulum. As you get comfortable working with its power you will find that the volume of your intuition increases and decision making will come with ease.

I haven’t been posting enough about my lash work lately so it’s time to rectify that. Been so busy building the healing side of TBM that I kinda forget to keep letting y’all know that lashes are still my main boo✨ this is from a recent fill on the lovely .rapley

Had the pleasure of watching the indomitable marry her best friend Henry Self in LA’s best kept secret venue. I’m so happy I got to be a part of this special day. It was beautiful beyond measure and full of some of the most interesting and fun people. I don’t know if my faith in finding love was restored but this union definitely helped 😆 shouting a huge congrats 🍾🎉🥳🥂✨ Here’s to many anniversaries to come! Love you both 🖤🖤🖤

Got her!!! For years she’s been pretending like she didn’t wanna get hooked on my lash crack. And now she’s already on the come back. Fresh set for my boo thang

So honored and full from the radiance that transpired last night at our panel at ✨ and thank you to our loverly sponsor 💫 we covered everything from why we practice ritualizing our beauty routines, to using our spirituality to dismantle the internalized patriarchy we’ve been socialized into believing, and what transcendental beauty means.

I’m so thankful for each of the panelists who showed up in full bloom ready to teach and sow seeds into our growing community. Please follow and support all of these magical beings of of of
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