About Me

The Full Story

DIFFERENT TOOLS. SAME MAGICK.

I’m Mi-Ri Yvonne — a witch, Second Degree Priestess, Tarot reader, Holy Fire® Reiki Level II practitioner, wedding officiant, professional chef, bellydance artist, mother, teacher, and lifelong student of energy.

It sounds like a lot of different things.
 

To me, it really isn’t.
 

I’ve always loved noticing what’s already there and helping it become more.

Ingredients become a beautiful meal.

Cards become a conversation.

Movement becomes expression.

Stories become ceremony.

Energy becomes something we can listen to, receive, and work with.
 

Sometimes my role is to care for you. Sometimes it’s to remind you what you already know.

And sometimes it’s simply to say: Yes. That. Keep going. Make it bigger.

That’s the thread through everything I do.

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THE FIRST DOORWAYS

I was drawn to mystical things long before I had language for any of it.
 

I grew up without a formal religious practice, but dreams, astrology, symbolism, magick, and especially cards fascinated me.
 

My dad had fancy ways of shuffling when we played Crazy Eights, and I loved practicing them. I checked Tarot books out from the library and studied astrology, dreams, symbols, and patterns wherever I could find them.
 

I didn’t get my first oracle deck until my late twenties. Once I did, it felt ridiculously natural.
 

People began asking me to pull cards for them, and it felt less like learning something new and more like picking up a language I already knew.
 

Over the years, my spiritual life expanded through Buddhism, Christianity, prayer, metaphysical teachings, witchcraft, energy work, and Divine traditions from different paths.
 

Eventually, I stopped trying to make myself choose one doorway.
 

My spirituality became a tapestry.
 

I like it that way. ✨

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THE WORK THAT TAUGHT ME ALCHEMY

I became a professional chef in 2003 after earning my two-year Culinary Arts degree from Los Angeles Trade-Technical College and training under Michael D’Orazio of The Palm DTLA, Chef Felix of Gozar WeHo, Denise DeCarlo, and Top Chef Season 2 alum Betty Fraser of Grub Hollywood.
 

For more than twenty years, I’ve cooked in professional kitchens and private homes for retreats, events, high-profile clients, dance communities, and families of all kinds.
 

Dance became another major part of my life. I spent seven years performing and touring with Karin Lynge Jensen's Mandala DanceWorks, and in 2007 our group won the Bellydancer of the Universe title in the Tribal Fusion Group category. I also trained under Khani Jo Zulu and Gigi Corkett, Tamra-Henna, Melanie Lane, Aubre Hill, Elizabeth Strong, Zoe Jakes and the amazing Linda Faoro.
 

Around this chapter of my life, I also discovered the teachings of Louise Hay and Abraham Hicks, which became integral to the way I began thinking about my beliefs, expectations, inner dialogue, and the life I was creating.
 

Their work helped me recognize that I could intentionally participate in changing the stories I carried about myself and what was possible for me.
 

That became a major foundation for the way I understand mindset, manifestation, self-trust, and personal transformation today.
 

I didn’t know it yet, but I was already learning another form of alchemy:

Change the inner story, and you change what becomes possible from there.

Then came ceremony.
 

I became a wedding officiant in 2010 and discovered how much I loved taking a couple’s stories, personalities, and little details and turning them into something that actually sounded like them.

In 2018, I received WeddingWire’s Best Officiant of the Year award.
 

Cooking. Dance. Mindset. Ceremony.
 

Different mediums, same instinct: Notice what’s already there. Bring it forward. Make it beautiful.

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TRAINING THE GIFTS

Reiki found me before formal witchcraft did.

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My first session happened while I was performing in Las Vegas, before I even knew what Reiki was. A cat climbed onto my back and started purring during the session, which remains an extremely on-brand introduction to energy work.

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Years later, while hosting a Self-Love Retreat, I looked up a fellow dancer’s Reiki teacher and spotted a Witchcraft 101 year-and-a-day training listed underneath his Reiki classes.
 

I was geeked.
 

So naturally, witchcraft took precedence. 🔮
 

That path led me to The Temple of Witchcraft, where I became a Second Degree Priestess under High Priest Scott Smith.
 

Tarot and Reiki quickly emerged as two of my most natural divinatory arts.
 

I’ve used Tarot for guidance for more than a decade and work with clairsentience, clairvoyance, clairaudience, and clairgustance alongside the imagery and symbolism of the cards.
 

I also trained in Usui Reiki Level I with Scott and later continued my studies with Reiki Master Kimberlie Eddy, becoming certified in Holy Fire® Reiki Levels I & II.
 

Both practices taught me something important about the way I work: I don’t always need to push for an answer.

Sometimes I need to listen.
 

Sometimes I need to receive.
 

And sometimes the thing we’re looking for is already right there, waiting to be noticed.

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MOTHERHOOD, REBUILDING + WHERE I AM NOW

I first became a mother in 2019 and welcomed my second child fifteen months later.
 

Life changed shape.
 

So did the way I used my gifts.
 

Cooking became about keeping delicious, nourishing choices available without making the same dinner every night.
 

Tarot helped me hear myself more clearly.
 

Reiki, prayer, ritual, movement, intuition, manifestation, and spiritual study became part of how I cared for myself, raised my family, rebuilt, and discovered what I wanted next.
 

There have been successes, experiments, pivots, things I adored, things I outgrew, and a few lessons that apparently wanted an encore performance.
 

It all counts.
 

And now, these offerings no longer feel like separate pieces of my life.
 

They feel like different ways of doing what I’ve always done.
 

When I offer Reiki, you get to rest and receive.
 

When I prepare food in your home, one part of your week becomes easier, more delicious, and already handled.
 

When I teach Tarot, I’m helping you recognize and trust your own symbolic language.
 

When we dance together, I’m watching for what your body already knows how to do — and helping you make it bigger.
 

That’s probably the simplest way to explain my work: I care for what wants care. I encourage what wants to grow.
 

Sometimes you need a little more home.
 

Sometimes you want a little more adventure.
 

Sometimes you just want to try the thing you’ve been curious about and see what happens.
 

I’m very good with all three. :-)
 

I’m still learning, studying, creating, changing, and unfolding too.
 

I don’t believe we have to have everything figured out before we’re allowed to enjoy what we know, trust what we feel, or receive what makes life better.
 

So bring me the ingredients.
 

The cards.
 

The curiosity.
 

The tired shoulders.
 

The half-formed idea.
 

The movement you think is “nothing yet.”
 

We’ll see what’s already there.
 

And then we’ll make something of it.

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DIFFERENT TOOLS. SAME MAGICK.