The Death Alchemist
A plática (or conversation) is how I first began intentionally walking this path. It was 2014 and I had just returned home from a 10 month pilgrimage in Central America. I hadn’t accepted it yet, but my mother was dying of metastatic breast cancer.
It is during this time that the foundation of my work was created. Sitting at the kitchen table with my aunts and cousins in Mexico. Shuffling cards and excitedly giggling at the possibilities. Reflecting. Crying. Raising our spirits and our audacity. Only stopping when my uncle would come home from work so we could all eat lunch together. Cuddled up in bed and talking until four in the morning while watching movies and reading poems from my tia’s library.
In March of 2015, I walked my mother home as a death doula before I knew the weight of what that meant. Death has been with me since birth, walking beside me since I was a child growing up with my Catholic, mystical, trailblazing, seemingly unafraid abuela (grandmother)
Looking back, I now see that Death’s beckoning was not only one of cultural comfort and understanding that was embodied by our Matriarch, but also a taste of the service that I would eventually step into.
In 2016, Santa Muerte appeared to me in a dream as my mother. I was living with my first live-in boyfriend and was in the very early stages of a very controlling time of my life, which included disordered eating and emotional abuse. My silent grief, alongside this relationship, only added fuel to the fire. I took a break from doing readings for family and friends, picked up a hobby I had loved in high school — photography — and started a blog called The BadGood where I would write about life, relationships, and art.
It would still be another few years before I shared the full breadth of my gifts publicly.
In March of 2020, after my mom’s five year anniversary, I joined Instagram and created a page called Amor y Alquimia (Love and Alchemy) where I started sharing Tarot and oracle messages, writings on Mexican folk magick, kitchen witchery, and creating homemade oils for self-alchemy, grief, and inner child healing. About 6 month later, I heard Death’s call come in much louder and changed my name to The Death Alchemist.
I decided to deepen into my purpose through a Death Midwifery Apprenticeship led by a former mentor, and as they say, the rest is history. My cousin Jorge died suddenly a few weeks into the program and I immediately knew I was being initiated.
In 2022, my entire life crumbled (I call it my Tower year) when I lost my stepfather, best friend of over two decades, and soul pup all in the span of 10 months. Another initiation.
The last few years have been a slow and intentional rebuild of my heart, my life, my art, this work, and my story (The Hermit and The Star have been loyal allies) and I am truly grateful for every moment that has led me here.
Thank you and I look forward to connecting with those who feel called to sit at my table.
Con mucho amor,
With much love,
Adriana Michelle
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