We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Erica Xavier-Beauvoir. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Erica below.
Erica, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
The art of recovering from bending, stretching, and compressing are learned and passed down from ancestral technology called DNA. I learned resilience because of historical collective resilience. Watching resilient energy pass down from generation to generation and gifted code phrases like “We’re just doing the best we can” or “God makes a way” are the declaration of ancestral spell work beautifully woven into my bones.
From the paternal line of Haitian revolutionaries to the maternal line habitual runaway slaves and abolitionists, I have much magic to draw from. I found my resilience through ancestral stories. Great Uncle Papa Max Beauvoir as reigning Haitian Vodoun Priest in Haiti until his passing, keeping the spirit of noble traditions alive on such rich soil. Learning of Thomas and Basil Dorsey up north. Thomas Dorsey running away from the plantation, buying freedom, and becoming one of the wealthiest caterers in Philadelphia. Basil Dorsey, his brother building a house with his bare hands to help abolition work. Will Dorsey masterfully archiving Black stories used by the likes of W.E.B Dubois. My grandmother Emma Kate mixing conjure with Christianity making sure we were divinely protected by lineage spirit guides.
The range and depth of ancestral magic fills each void with light. My ancestors taught me there will never be another me. To smile at the pressure because your whole being is worth more than diamonds.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am an Executive Consultant, Psychic Medium, Spiritual Coach, Storyteller, and Narrative Alchemist working with cities currently to create green/natural burial options in city cemeteries. With life-long psychic gifts, I have abilities to speak directly to land (and energy within it), cultivating healthy exchanges between humans and Spirits. Sometimes we forget to ask the land for permission before embarking on events or programming needing Earth’s assistance. With this unique blend of talents, I also work with city government’s creating sustainable land use options for green/natural burials, listening to the land and locals, as well as creating recommendations based on spiritual land energy, community engagement, and best practices.
I also am a Death Doula Ritualist providing artistry, intentionality, and craft around transitioning by listening to the transitioning Spirit, living family, and friends. Collaborating making sure all are honored in moments of grief. Working alongside funeral directors to create indigenous-centered directives for those who are in African Traditional Religions, and providing assistance based on my indigenous priesthoods. Needless to say I do indigenous Earth works, and I fill directly aligned with my passion and destiny. I am doing work in Durham, North Carolina, please email for information on upcoming events if you’re in the area.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Three areas of knowledge most impactful in my journey was unlearning, healing, and re-aligning with my ancestral destiny. Unlearning came from acknowledging we are taught certain things based on fear and trauma. To embrace my full potential, I had to separate from any contracts (school, religion, and/or belief system) that was given to me to program fear or trauma into my Spirit. After identifying this was basically my entire existence! I began therapy and reprogramming based on courage, revolution, honesty, and truth. I honestly just feel better not moving in fear of anything. Lastly, with such a clean slate and doing a lot of ancestral research about people I come from and their collective magic, I begin to incorporate their magic into my daily practices thus tapping into passionate work which felt in direct alignment with my life’s path. Embodying my lineage magic helped me find my own magic within it.
My advice is look at your life and figure out what is yours and what was learned. What feels good and what was passed down as traumatic responses? What needs to be evaluated and what needs to be elevated? Asking yourself what is your passion and what is stopping you from exploring it?
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
The current challenge is around green/natural burial education in marginalized communities. Governments hire me to find innovative ways to spread information in BIPOC communities. According to 2021 KB Publications data 84% of families would consider a green/natural funeral if offered. The challenge is breaking through a slow moving funeral industry and capitalistic influences of traditional funeral profits. Although our ancestors had indigenous style burials, post Civil War, funeral took on a different energy as bodies had to be preserved moving state to state.
Research suggest White urban families are the highest demographic with green/natural burial education access. My goal is to provide access to information to BIPOC communities and make sure policy across the land allow for affordable green/natural burial cemetery plots.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ericaxavierbeauvoir.com
- Instagram: @thespiritualgeneral
- Facebook: Erica Xavier-Beauvoir
- Linkedin: Dr. Erica XB
