My birth name is Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti. I am of Bolivian and Brazilian descent and currently live in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Throughout my life, I have been guided by practices rooted in imagination, play, and storytelling—practices that move across parallel realities and invite us to engage with both the visible and invisible worlds. These paths have taken shape through the arts and through the art of healing. Often existing at the margins of society, they have become the foundation of my lifelong exploration into the emotional, spiritual, and cultural dimensions of human experience.

Experience

My healing journey began in the Andes, where divination and oracular traditions opened the path to my initiation into Andean Priestesshood. I am an apprentice in the Amawta/Yatiri tradition of the Aymara wisdom keepers, under the guidance of elder healers in Bolivia. I have been initiated in the Illapa (lightning) elemental lineage and at the sacred moon temple Iñak Uyu on Lake Titicaca. Through these initiations, Phaxsi Uma was born as an Amawta/Yatiri healer and as the seed of this sanctuary.

My path has led me to many parts of the world in search of healing, meaning, and connection. In China, I studied martial arts and Kung Fu with Taoist and Buddhist monks at Wudang Shan and the Shaolin Temple. In Mozambique, I apprenticed with women curandeiras. In Brazil, I come from a family lineage of curandeiras from both Umbanda and spiritistas practitioners. For the past decade, I have served as an apprentice and ceremonial support to Fredy Velásquez in the Yagé plant medicine tradition of Colombia.

In the Netherlands, I have studied with shamanic practitioners including Daan van Kampenhout and Linda Wormhoudt, and I am a certified Shamanic Practitioner through Definest Academy. Since 2020, I have also been the founder and facilitator of Moon Gatherings in Amsterdam—a women-led temple and New Moon circle dedicated to radical listening, sisterhood, and community building.

Ethics

The ethics of my work are rooted in reclaiming ancestral knowledge that has been systematically erased through colonialism and empire. This is why my practice is deeply committed to social justice, collective healing, and community care. My thinking has been shaped by the work of critical voices such as Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Elvira Espejo, Bayo Akomolafe, and Nega Duda.

I believe there is no healing without acknowledging the histories of oppression that continue to shape our lives. The wisdom I carry is kept alive through the resilience, resistance, and nonconformity of Indigenous peoples. My service is an offering in honor of these teachings and an intention to help keep them alive.

I am here to serve the Earth, the Apus, the Awichas and Achachilas (ancestral spirits and territories), and the Runas (human beings).

Thank you for being here, for connecting, and for considering this journey with me.

With love,
Phaxsi Uma

Photos: Maaike Ronhaar, Jochem van Tol, Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti