Introductions are in order
Hello all and welcome! My name is Gabriel Varzalyi, but you can call me Gabe. I welcome you to my site and to the readings and consultations I offer.
I reside in Pittsburgh, PA, but I was born and raised in Washington D.C on the Virginia side (if you know, you know) and magic has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I was raised in two different and distinct cultures and traditions. However, those points of view have shaped my understanding of the world.
I had a feeling about the unseen world for as long as I could remember. Understanding and seeing the land spirits and water spirits come forth from the early morning hours, to feeling the warmth of ancestors when called upon, were things that I never spoke about, unless it was to my grandmother. She too had an understanding of the unseen world. She would laugh and simply say, “that’s family. They never truly leave.” However, until my early 20’s, I kept that world to the imagination.
To start that spiritual journey, it would land me weirdly enough in New Orleans, Louisiana. As I made New Orleans my home, I could feel a lingering of that same spiritual energy I had as a child, which landed me at the doorstep of a conjure man’s shop. He was a few years older than myself, but had the wisdom of a sage. Not long, he took me under his mentorship, and the rest was history. I knew in my heart that this was where I was meant to be; to do. And for a few years, old-school conjure and New Orleans Voodoo shops were a second-home to me, after the mundane world came first of course. I would study and learn and work at these shops, helping patrons and tourists with any spiritual need. I’ll go into those lessons in later posts.
I always considered myself a “shop witch”, a name of a spiritual worker or reader that one would hold in their memory, but never go into the public eye. In essence, I wouldn’t even imagine starting my own website, or even offer spiritual assistance outside of a spiritual shop setting. So, once I left New Orleans, I had no idea how I would continue this work I started all those years ago.
But to make a long story short, I do this work because I want to help people, truly and genuinely. It’s a calling, a faith, and an exploration, all wrapped up in one package. There will always be twists and turns and ups and downs on this journey we call life, and having a little bit of a map of sorts won’t hurt. To see the unseen, to traverse terrain unfamiliar, or even take an unbound leap, is a step in one’s journey through the spiritual.
May the paths of life be illuminated by Spirit and the ancestors, and may we grow as individuals, but as a community.
-Gabe
