About Founder + Creatrix:
Paola Guerrero is an Afro-Indigenous Colombian-American woman (she/her/hers) living in the diaspora who walks the medicine path as a curandera, sonic space holder, shamanic ceremonialist, wordsmith, certified reiki master + teacher, spiritual herbalist, cartomancer, certified yoga instructor (200 HR RYT) specializing in Social Emotional Learning and Feeling (S.E.L.F).
Her esoteric sciences training began as early as 11 when she purchased her first deck of tarot cards and maintained a study of folklore, mythology, mysticism, anthropology, and the esoteric arts, including tarot, astrology, espiritismo, mediumship, ATR, and hoodoo.
Paola Guerrero is certified as an Usui Reiki master teacher and has apprenticed with Geordie Numata of Deer Spirit Reiki, while providing free healing sessions and support for underserved communities in the greater NY/NJ, Tri-State Area.
Paola’s shamanic curanderismo maestra is Irma StarSpiritWoman of Shamanic Reiki Fire, and was initiated in the toltec tradition, named as “Chicahua Etzli Yaotl” (Nahuatl for “Strong Blood Warrior”) in 2018.
The study of herbs and kitchen remedies began for Paola as a child, when her grandmother would forage wild herbs for folk remedies, weaving creativity and storytelling into the fabric of her reality. After a series of interesting coincidences + synchronicities, her formal training as an apprentice of Spiritual Herbalism with Karen Rose of Sacred Vibes Apothecary began in 2020, completing the coursework of all three levels in 2022. The coursework would allow her to amass over 1000 hours of study, practice, garden education, community work, conference programming + creation, brand development, clinical herbalism client work, formulary creation + design, and the acquisition of a detailed materia medica.
Most recently, Paola has worked alongside her plant medicine communities and their respective elders for deeper focus on education, fundraising and proper engagement as a shamanic spaceholder and ceremonialist . Her work has led her to co-facilitate psilocybin mushrooms + cacao retreats with Cardea, in Treasure Beach, Jamaica. Her experience as a facilitator of these sacred medicines began as a novice trip-sitter in 2003, encouraging psychoanalytical explorations solo and in group settings for the healing and mutual advancement of her burgeoning communities. Her first Ayahuasca ceremony was in 2011, with a beautiful community-based organization in Bergen County, NJ, that supported earth-based and interfaith dharma talks, healing rituals, educational workshops, and intuitive development for spiritual discipline.
Paola’s ceremonial space-holding practice grew from an intuitive need to create safe containers for a profoundly introspective and viable experience for the person receiving their ceremony for their healing and/or respective intention. Her teachers are from various traditions, and as such, she is weaving a tapestry of esoteric wisdom that is reflective of her cross-pollinated approach to education and development.
She utilizes her training methods to liberate others to have the courage to take charge of their physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional health.
Paola feels energetic healing is a vehicle for liberation from emotional blocks that can support in the individual’s self-actualization journey.
She lives in NYC.
About the Brand
The Mystic Vanguard LLC is a Botanica + Apothecary based in Queens, New York, founded by Paola Guerrero. With an emphasis on embodied awareness techniques, tarot coaching, spiritual + intuitive herbalism, reiki energy healing education, and ceremonial space holding, Paola practices thoughtful and reflexive scopes of work to promote spiritual, physical, and emotional well-being for her clients.
