DEBORAH

Good Morning, an interview with Deborah Hanekamp

I sat basking in the beautiful setting-sun in Greenpoint Brooklyn waiting for Deborah to arrive to our tea date at Bakeri. It was summer, the sun was beginning to set as it illuminated everything with golden light beams from the cosmos, the special ones around twilight, my second favourite time of day.

Deborah arrived looking like a vision of beauty in a long indigo hand-died smock, with glistening skin and such wonderful energy and presence. We sat for tea and discussed many things: self-care, healing, auras, her past, her daughter, beauty tools, life in New York. Deborah has been able to see auras since she was a young girl. A gift she has honored and developed through her life. I asked many questions about her life and journey as a healer and Amazonian Curendara. Curendara is the traditional word for native healer.

One thing that Deborah shared with me, which I can’t forget, was that shortly after I emailed her asking to interview her for The Well Woman, her daughter was playing with a doll and suddenly turned to Deborah and declared that she was naming the doll “Tonya”. Her daughter had never heard the name before. We both laughed at the synchronicity and I said, “well I guess you kind of had to meet with me after that.” I was blown away, to say the least. A moment where we couldn’t help but feel that something larger than ourselves brought us together.

As with many of the inspiring women I interview, I struggle to describe their essence with words. How do you describe energy, when it is so much better felt and experienced?

In a nutshell, I feel these photos capture her essence better than I can describe. She is a woman, a mother, a healer. She exudes these qualities with such ease and clarity. It is so wonderful to be in her energy. She is compassionate, caring and also extremely down to earth. She shares her gifts of healing medicine with the world in a way that is uniquely her own, through her Medicine Readings, which can be described as:

“A personal ceremony for harmony and rapture. This life altering ritual includes an intuitive reading, spiritual guidance, hands on or distance energy balancing, crystal and sound therapy within a sacred setting. Healing baths and life enhancing actions are prescribed for homework. The past healed, the path cleared, intentions set and seen to fruition.”

I am so happy to bring her harmony and rapture here to The Well Woman. Deborah is a true representation of the feminine, the intuitive, the mother, the essence of what it means to be a Well Woman. Enjoy, learn from her rituals and listen to what she’s been tuned into recently.

Black as Night by Nahko Bear

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Describe who you are. What is your favourite quality in yourself?

I’m a Daughter, mother, sister, lover and Seeress who is proud to have the wisdom to understand the difference between discernment and judgement, making it possible for me to see the balance in everything. 

What are your morning rituals? What’s the first thing you do when you rise?

Write down my dreams and have my personal practice and meditation. Make breakfast for my beautiful daughter, bring my husband tea and walk my sweet dog before getting ready to offer a day of Medicine Readings.

Does the quality of your morning set the tone for the rest of your day? 

Of course! 

What does self-care look like as a mother? Did it change after the birth of your daughter?

Mostly I just have to be open to my daughter coming and joining me for my self care practices which is a wonderful opportunity to release any illusion of loneliness. 

What foods do you nourish yourself + family with in the morning?

Green juice & smoothies.

Do you drink coffee or tea?

First coffee then tea. 

You have been blessed with the gift of seeing colours and auras around people, how do you suggest one expand their energetic field?

I think zen meditation is very expansive. 

Quality of food is so important but so is quality of mind. How do you feed your mind?

I go to Rumi & Hafiz for comfort. Their devotional words always have a way of bringing me back to myself. 

You have been a healer for 15+ years, how did you find this path? How has your practice evolved?

At the age of 17 after a series of three strong tragedies. I began listening around this time. I began listening to my compassion through becoming a vegetarian and practicing yoga. My spirituality evolved from that point. Through yoga, I found different teachers and gurus and followed some into the jungle. A lot evolved from there. My path has been guided by intuition and a strong ability to listen.

Can you explain what an Amazonian Curendara is?

A woman who heals with plants, songs and shamanic practices of the Peruvian Amazon. 

What was it like learning from your healing master in Peru?

Very humbling and eye opening. 

Can you describe your process of giving Medicine Readings? 

First we sit together to see if you have any intention you’d like to work with, then we meditate together and I look deeply into your aura and share with you what I see, then we do a healing ceremony after which a ritual bath and spiritual homework are prescribed.

As a healer, how do you find your own healing?

Spending time with family and doing medicine readings on myself. 

You are someone who values early bedtimes and early mornings – tell us about the significance of this to you.

I feel like it’s in our nature to rise and fall with the sun. I’m also just a natural morning person which makes me almost useless past 8:30pm.

In a busy and energetic city like New York (or any metropolis) how do you protect your energy and stay grounded/connected to nature and earth? 

I stay grounded in the light of love which is the most centering, protective and powerful force there is. Yes, I prefer nature but the city needs me now, I go where love guides me. 

What is your favourite beauty ritual? 

New moon haircuts, offering the trimmed hair to the earth.

Describe mornings with one word.

Ascending.