Today we’d like to introduce you to Bonnie Divina Maa
Hi Bonnie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I moved to Texas from California in 2020, for my partner’s new job. And like many Californians, I had visions of giant trucks, cowboy hats, BBQ, and pecan pie served with a Southern drawl. I truly wondered if moving for love was worth leaving all-things California, where I was thriving in my own hands-on healing business, and was very involved in the yoga, sacred medicine, and ecstatic dance communities. I could also hop on my bike to grab an organic green juice any time I liked. I arrived right before the pandemic was announced, to an oasis of pine trees, right on Lake Conroe, about an hour north of Houston. Just before the world shut down, I was able to attend a Sistership Circle with Yumie Zein as well as a drum circle, where I met Guy Brown, the founder of Medicine for the People Spiritual Gathering. I ate some humble pie, as I realized the vast diversity of this community, full of people who were healers, lightworkers, spiritual seekers, and medicine people just like me.
By then, I had woven a rich tapestry of experience, all of which well-prepared me for the work I do now. I spent fifteen years as a registered nurse in critical care and emergency medicine and even owned a farm-to-table restaurant with my ex-husband when I lived in the Hudson Valley. I grew up in Miami, FL, and lived in Hawaii, Connecticut, New York, California, and Koh Phangan, Thailand. I have also spent months at a time in Nepal, India, SE Asia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru, as well as two recent immersions in Egypt. For twelve years, I have traveled the world and learned from numerous shamans, healers, and enlightened teachers, such as Ram Dass and Mata Amritanandamayi Ma, also known as “Amma,” the “hugging saint.” I supported several healing retreats as a yoga teacher, and later as an apprentice and assistant, on Ayahuasca retreats in the Amazon, mainly with the Shipibo-Conibo and Mestizo people. I also received advanced training as a kambo practitioner with the Matses tribe in Peru. Concurrently, I delved into other formal studies and have completed many courses in shamanism, shadow work, trauma resolution, and psychedelic integration. I also honed my skills as a singer/songwriter and have performed in many conscious festivals across the world.
I regularly attend Medicine for the People Spiritual Gathering, outside of Austin, where I have the honor of opening the sacred space in the opening ceremony, and also offer Medicine Mantra, my own unique fusion of chanting in English, Sanskrit, Quechua, and Spanish. I also love to support other local gatherings by offering cacao ceremonies, fire ceremonies, and music. I most recently joined Life-Con and the Sacred Health Council in Houston, a physician-driven initiative to unite science and spirituality, where I share about ways to heal with sacred medicines, in a safe, trauma-informed setting.
The pandemic opened up a whole new way of being able to work with people online. and the work that I do now, as a multi-dimensional healer, soul guide, and psychedelic integration specialist, is primarily through Zoom. although I offer kambo ceremonies and numerous workshops, music events, and retreats throughout the year, both locally and abroad. The pandemic also provided the perfect opportunity to sit down and finish my book, The Place Beyond the Story: A Spiritual Adventure, which is part memoir and part travel guide, as well as being an insightful and informative dive into ancient wisdom, spiritual teachings, and modalities for healing. It chronicles my breakdown/breakthrough in 2012, and the epic 13-month soul journey that followed, through southern and southeastern Asia.
I am currently taking time away from my usual community offerings to promote my book, which is available on Amazon and is getting excellent reviews. I am finding that marketing a book is a whole lot more challenging than writing one! On the day to day, I work with many people in the Austin area as well as many others from around the world. I am so grateful to have landed here in Texas, where I feel the most “at home” of anywhere I have lived in the world. We have a beautiful community here, and I am blessed to be a part of it.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
When I was in victimhood and still afraid to share my difficult challenges with others, everything was a struggle. My divorce and loss of my restaurant in 2012 felt like a massive blow. Before that, I was in a mental health hospital for a while with major depression and suicidal ideations. Once I had my spiritual awakening, and found the path for healing, things turned around very quickly. I lost my former partner in an accidental death in 2016, and although it was one of the hardest things that I have ever been through, my trust and faith in Spirit, along with the help of sacred medicines and a beautiful supportive spiritual community, it ultimately became one of the greatest learning experiences of my life, and helped me to evolve my soul beyond anything I ever knew was possible. I still face many challenges in life, yet I have many efficient tools in my toolbelt, along with many guides, teachers, and wise friends and soul-family. Once I got out of the victim mentality, changed my perspective, and could see how everything was happening “for me,” I experienced a massive shift in times of hardship. Learning to find power in vulnerability, to speak my authentic truth, and to ask for help was the game-changer that really smoothed out the rough edges.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
It’s difficult to put everything I do into one category, as it checks many boxes. My official business is Madre Divina Intuitive Healing. Ultimately, I am here in service to help others remember who they are, to help them learn how to become both fully human and fully Divine, which is also the path I am on. This comes through in different ways, as I have many modalities and can meet most people wherever they are at. I do everything from shamanic journeying, energetic realignment, and soul retrieval to vocal activation and laughter therapy, to physical trauma release and quantum-level trauma resolution, as well as learning how to heal with the sacred medicines.
My formal training and 15 years as a registered nurse gives me a lot of insight into medical conditions from the allopathic standpoint. My 500-hour training in yoga and training in other indigenous and ancient mystical traditions gives me insight into the energetic and spiritual side of things, and my training in trauma resolution, emotional regulation, shadow work, and psychedelic therapies gives me many tools to offer each individual. I want people to feel empowered in the work they do with me, to find their own inner healer.
I am most proud of my book which I have just self-published. It was an 11-year project and was a journey of personal healing and reflection. While it is humorous and takes the reader on an epic travel journey, it is also filled with wisdom and practical ways to heal and evolve spiritually. I just found out that I am a finalist in the Global Book Awards, and this is validation of how good it is. It’s great to create and produce something that I still love to read and re-read, and I still pick up reminders of how to stay connected, grounded, and present on the day-to-day. It is a great roadmap for the spiritual seeker and equally as resonant for those who are further down the path.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
You can reach out to me through my website, www.bonniedivinamaa.com. I am always looking to collaborate with others and to learn from them.
You can support me by purchasing my book, The Place Beyond the Story: A Spiritual Adventure, on Amazon or Kindle, and leaving a review on Amazon and Goodreads! Reviews are like gold for an indie author. They move the book up in rankings, which promotes sales. There are 60 million books on Amazon, so the reviews help make the book more visible to others.
Pricing:
- The book is $9.99 on Kindle.
- It is $19.99 in paperback.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bonniedivinamaa.com
- Instagram: @bonniedivinamaa
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bonniedivinama/
