Ep#35 Transforming Ancestral Pain into Power and Thriving in Our Lives & Business with Vanessa Codorniu

In this episode of Your Story Medicine, I welcome Vanessa Codorniu, an acclaimed psychic medium with 25 years of experience and more than 10,000 individual sessions. She is a Bruja and Latinx teacher of intuition and clinical hypnosis, with a focus on healing ancestral trauma/patterns through hypnosis. A secret weapon for CEOs and entrepreneurs all around the U.S. and the Latin American world, Vanessa is most passionate about helping individuals develop their own inner resources, especially through intuition development and mindfulness tools.

Vanessa is the founder of Intuitive LeverageTM, an 8-week intuition bootcamp that gives structure to the invisible so participants can make their sensitivity their greatest advantage in life and business. Nacimos Magicos – Born Magical is her 8-week Intuitive Journey Deepening Our Gifts, Honoring Our Ancestors and Reclaiming Our Sacred Inheritance through The School of The Healing Artes.

This renowned Argentine-American started doing readings at age 16 after her family confirmed that she was seeing and knowing things accurately about people who were no longer with them. She guides seekers to break through fears and connect to the practical power of their intuition so they can serve the world powerfully with their gifts. She created her school to stand for diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility for underrepresented BIPOC communities, and hopes to continue supporting the next generation of leaders and healers for years to come. Listen for more on her podcast, The Biz Bruja Podcast.

What are you celebrating about yourself today?

Vanessa: I’m celebrating the fact that everything that I’ve always thought was lacking in my life in 2017 is now full. My garden is full. The community and friends I’ve wanted are with me. I’m preparing for my wedding. Even though I experienced so much loss last year, all of the hard work has paid off. All the surrender has paid off. I’m so grateful.

How would you describe your medicine?

Vanessa: I am a combination of all of my ancestors’ sacred medicine brought into this modern-day world as a student, a teacher, a mirror, and a lover of humanity. As I alchemize myself, I help alchemize the world. I took the opportunity to access my gifts instead of trying to hide them; so, I’m an answer to my ancestors’ prayers. I’m an alchemist, discoverer, and explorer.

How has your ancestral lineage influenced your path today?

Vanessa: My ancestors taught me that there is spirit in everything. They taught me about cleansing. My family had an altar shelf where we honored our ancestors. The stories of our families were passed down from generation to generation. Since I was a kid, I knew their struggles and how they overcame them. My grandmother was indigenous and given up for adoption at a young age and how she struggled to adapt growing up. She was a medium. My grandfather was of a mixed background and explored hypnosis and speaking to guides. From a young age, my intuition was honored thanks to my grandmother and grandfather. No one ever told me I was crazy or weird. It was a way of life for me. At around 16, I had an unbelievable experience when a dear soul from my mother’s past spoke through me. That event was huge and I soon started to have past life regression sessions. I was scared at first, but found safety in the fact that my own grandparents had these experiences themselves. Specifically, they were Japanese in their past lives and had known each other even back then.

Your school, the School of the Healing Artes, exists to awaken the healer within each and every single one of us. Tell us about what inspired you to create it.

Vanessa: We do not have to come from an exotic background or special talents to become a healer. It’s all about allowing it to flow through us and release from ourselves the colonized hold of propriety or what’s “correct”. I was inspired to create the school because I spent almost 20 years in a sweat lodge studying and teaching at a women’s festival. I learned that we thrive and experience more powerful healing when we are in a supportive community. And I doubled down on it after the events of last year deprived many women and members of the Latinx community of this type of support.

What would you say to somebody who tells you that you shouldn’t give away your stuff for free or do a sliding scale or “pay what you can”?

Vanessa: I think there’s room for everything. You can have an exclusive program that you charge higher for and there’s room for speaking for free. I do both and I still have $30,000 months. It’s all about finding out what you can do to serve people in ways that they need the most. Some people say, “Charge your worth,” and I’m really kind of stumped with that because I’m priceless. We should go with our intuition and not feel that we have to stick to these strict rules about doing business. When you do something for free, think of it as planting seeds. It will pay off later on. It’s all about tapping into ourselves and seeing what’s in alignment.

Why is it important to remember your ancestral lineage when building your business?

Vanessa: We’re all colonized people, some more than others. We were taken away from our natural instincts, which includes making our own solutions to our problems. We are naturally creators. When the norm became to work for somebody else, we started to let go of our own resourcefulness and resilience. When we’re able to tap into our gifts and get paid for them, work does not become, “Ugh, it’s Monday.” It becomes joyful because it’s work that we already love. I don’t believe that everyone wants to be an entrepreneur; but, I do believe that everyone has a soul gift or an ancestral gift that can bring them joy, whether they do it full-time, part-time, or as a hobby. Most of us hide these gifts. The path of sacred business is the path of liberation, reclamation, financial freedom, and creative expression. We can tap into the strength of our ancestors whenever we experience grief. And now, I feel that I can do something for free sometimes because my cup is full. When I feel abundant—in my body, in my life, and in my sacred work—I can do something free because I don’t feel like it’s anything that’s being taken from me.

What do you do to stay grounded and what have you learned to release?

Vanessa: Connecting more with nature and spending a little time talking with others about things that have nothing to do with business and spirituality has kept me grounded. I’ve learned to release the need for public recognition because the truth is, it doesn’t and won’t change my work.

What is a ritual, practice, or words of wisdom that you would invite us to embody?

Vanessa: Set up a space, or a few spaces, in your home where you have a photo of an ancestor. If you don’t have a photo, pick a rock or a leaf that represents them. Spend some time journaling and asking what are some of the heavy patterns that have kept you limited. Then ask how you can release these and why you were born in this particular time and space to break the cycle. How can you honor your ancestors in this way? Think about your legacy and what will bring you the greatest joy.

If you could speak to yourself as a future ancestor at any time in your life, what would you say?

Vanessa: I would let her see me and let her know that she has everything within her; that the forces within her, surrounding her, moving through her are greater than she could ever imagine and that she really just needs to trust and step out. She will attract all the people and opportunities that are in alignment. She should always turn inwards and to her spirits; that while some people will betray her and do what they do out of their own pain, that they’re also beautiful people. The world is waiting for her because she already has all the soul agreements with these people and with herself. She can have love and a successful, sacred legacy—which is what happened!

Conclusion: Never fear or doubt, because the answer and the guidance to move through it is already inside you, offered by the ancestors that want the best for you. It’s all a matter of being open and willing to tap into your ancestors’ sacred medicine and embracing what will bring you the greatest joy.

Action Integration: Become deliberate about creating spaces in your life that will allow you to access the wisdom of your ancestors so that you can start gaining clarity about your medicine and the sacred legacy you were born to leave.

Learn more about Vanessa and her offerings:

Visit her website: www.thebizbruja.com 

Follow her on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thebizbruja