Denai Fuller from Moonflower Medicine reveals parts of her incredible journey that has led her to where she is today, and shares her passion for the tarot and all its bewitching ancestry!
Which aspects of your upbringing have had the biggest impact on who you are today?
My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 15. She initially decided to combat the disease with a macrobiotic diet – which we were all introduced to – and which consisted mainly of whole grains, fresh fish and vegetables. This made such a huge impression on me as I truly loved the food. Remember that in the 80s this kind of diet was not mainstream and you had to go to the small health stores to find these kinds of foods.
I really believe that my mother’s illness therefore threw open a door for alternative therapies and belief systems. Unfortunately my mother went on to die four years later when I was nineteen. Instead of rejecting entirely the newly introduced lifestyle my mother had adopted for us, I started thinking about what pieces were missing, and why it hadn’t worked. This threw the door open even further and it became this huge portal into all kinds of alternative ways of life. This is where I came across Louise Hay, for example, and her belief of diseases being lodged in our emotions.
How and when were you first drawn to tarot?
While my mother was sick, I went to college, graduated and then entered the world of corporate America. I was in my early twenties and pretty depressed, when I look back. I was clearly in search of something, as every weekend I would find myself in a feminist bookshop.
One day, this book jumped out at me – The Medicine Woman Inner Guidebook by Carol Bridges – which I took home and devoured. I realized that this book was the accompanying guidebook to a set of Tarot cards that were based on Native American spiritualism. I ran back the next day and got the cards. I like to say that the Tarot found me and it was like rekindling with old friends – there was a certain familiarity which continued to deepen along the way.
Would you describe tarot to be some form of magic?
Not initially, no. I believe the Tarot is a tool of transcendence – there is a story, a system and a myth going on in the major arcanas (secrets). If you really integrate these archetypes and the arcanas into your life path and the journey that is taking place, you become a really well initiated adult and it moves you through your challenges, journey and life and helps you transform and grow.
In the way that magic is used to effect a change, then yes Tarot is magic. The Tarot contains deep esoteric teachings, so I am wary of using the word ‘magic’ to portray the Tarot in a frivolous way.
How do you proceed with a tarot session?
All my sessions begin in the same way. I begin with an invocation or prayer to our guides, the person’s ancestors, archangels, ascended masters and whoever is helping them in a benevolent manner on their life path. I like to create a ceremonial and ritual space and use the likes of holy water or smudge smoke to bring the person fully into the moment, and into the here and now so as to openly receive the messages that come through. It helps the client drop a little deeper into what we are doing.
Of all the modalities or therapies you offer, is there one that you would recommend over the others?
I do offer multiple therapies. I have been in this field for thirty years so I have accumulated many skills and have done many readings. I do believe that all healing takes place within the energetic world. I would say my most chosen modality would be a reading for love, a psychic reading.
However, the most important treatment one can gift oneself is energy medicine and I do offer different sessions, whether it be spiritual baths, vaginal steams or chakra balancing… I really encourage all my clients to keep working with me to move over to energy medicine, because even if I perform a ritual before a Tarot reading, the client is not really receiving the shifts on their body in the same way as it would happen if I were hands on, so to speak.
Did your engagement with the tarot spark your interest in flowers and their essences?
I wish I could say yes. The flowers and the essences found me, as did the Tarot, again through trauma and tragedy, and via a death portal of my daughter dying. The Tarot and flowers definitely share common ground.
When my daughter died in 2005, I was sent some Bach remedy by a colleague (which I didn’t use). My daughter was a huge fan of flowers, and her favorite was the huge magenta hibiscus. Flower essences at this stage were starting to circulate more and more in my life.
On the second anniversary of my daughter’s death, I was so in grief, and so desperate to connect with her that I made this magenta hibiscus essence and took it repeatedly. I felt revitalized and this essence actually brought me back to life. This experience woke me up to the full potential of flower essences.
What is the core of healing with flower essences and how do you determine which to use?
I believe flower essences really penetrate in a deep way to work on the emotional body. One needs to learn the foundations of flower essences to become a practitioner (as I am) and know the basic repertoire, but I take a lot of other things into consideration too; where the person lives, what they are going through and intuition etc..Flowers simply pop up and appear to me. It differs for every single person, and this is how I go about creating flower essences for the personal needs of my clients.
You often talk about Mayan culture. How does it resonate with you and your spirituality?
The Mayans are the indigenous and original people of Belize, and Belize is my ancestral heritage. I was born there, as was my mother, my grandmother and so on. There are five tribes that live together peacefully in Belize. We never have this conversation around cultural appropriation, as perhaps all the tribes were oppressed. These five tribes form Belizean culture and we all live together respectfully, share each other’s ways and beliefs, and are all proud of our country and share a deep love for our homeland.
