The Altar Healing and Ceremony

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The Altar Healing and Ceremony

The Altar // Healing & Ceremony is a holistic healing practice, created by Teagan West in Rochester, NY

11/22/2025

ECSTATIC DANCE • ROCHESTER NY ❤️‍🔥 WINTER SEASON
Sundays 5-7pm @ The Rose Room
Sliding scale $10-30 // RSVP to Teagan!

Hello beloveds! We’re BACK for our winter season of ecstatic dance! 6 years strong 💕 come join us!!

We’ll be dancing in the beautiful Rose Room in the South Wedge, home of Rochester dance community for decades!! 💠

Here are the full list of dates! Mark your calendars!! Bring your homies!! 💕

Sundays, 5-7pm!
- NOV 30
- DEC 14
- JAN 11, 2026
- JAN 25, 2026
- FEB 8, 2026
- FEB 22, 2026
- MAR 8, 2026
- MAR 22, 2026

Bring your beloveds, boogie in community ~ all bodies & abilities welcome, come as you are! 💕🫂🕯️

Hope to see you this season!!

11/20/2025

ALTAR RITUAL ARTS • handmade with love & care
🦌🏔️🪶🕯️🌌 .ritual.arts

Sweet friends, I hope you’re doing well. Coming to you with excitement as I prepare another family of drums & rattles to be born into the world. As the solstice approaches, I feel the Great Spirit Bear blessing each piece with its wisdom.

As many of you know, I have been creating these ritual tools for years as a devotional practice & offering. To me, they are not just tools — but also spirit helpers, protective allies, medicine kin that help us to do the deep work we steward in the world. No matter how you identify, practitioner or otherwise, these little magicians are here to partner with our magick.

This process has taught me so much. From sourcing ethical materials from my community & the land, to really intentionally slowing down so I can be in deep receptivity with the spirit of each piece as it comes into being. It has become the heart of my own devotional & ritual practice.

Blessed by the clean waters of the River, offerings made to the land spirits, sung over in prayer, witnessed by the ancestors. It is all On Purpose, as it should be. Gratitude to my family + teachers who have taught me SO much about this process of Creation. 🏔️

…:…

I have a series of DRUMS & RATTLES in the works for the winter season, as we approach Solstice. I prefer to make each piece specifically for the one to whom it belongs, so please reach out if you’d like a custom & we can weave ritual intent.

DRUMS are 16 or 18 inch maple frames, with deer, buffalo, horse or elk skin. Deerskin can be color dyed with advance notice ❤️ each comes with a handmade be**er, + your choice of handle weave.

RATTLES are made with bear skin, deer tine handles and your choice of fur. Filled with quartz crystal & seashells, bells optional to add on for faerie magick.

All pieces come with a bag of To***co to offer to the land upon receiving & awakening their voice. 🕯️💠
All materials are sourced ethically from fellow community members. A group effort. 🫂

To receive in time for the holidays, please let me know by Dec 8 if you’d like a piece ❤️🏔️ mucho amor !!

First photo by my beloved 🤍

11/19/2025

ANCESTOR CIRCLES ⭕️ gathering in community to tend, repair & commune with our lineages

This work will weave across the threshold of the winter solstice and into the new year, culminating at Imbolc as we plant a seed of New Life with our people.

We move through lineage tending, cultural repair & intergenerational healing. We hold the blessings & burdens in each hand, and examine what it means to be the face of our bloodlines.

We begin the second week of December — still some spaces in our Thursday evening group; 6pm EST. Reach out if interested :)

BIG LOVE ❤️‍🔥🏔️🕯️

11/18/2025

As the Scorpio new moon approaches, I feel myself giving into the Río Abajo Río. Always there, ever-present, full of truth. I follow its wisdom willingly.

What a gift, to have the courage to step into the current. To trust myself enough to let go. And in doing so, to actually access the well of grief that holds all memory. Only there can I find myself fully.

Grateful for sisterhood, mutual regard, a commitment to doing the work side by side. This is the path; there are no shortcuts. We bow our head down and kiss the Earth in gratitude for what matters. We give thanks to our Ancestors for standing at our backs while we learn to hold it all. Making more room for Love.

The world does not need more of a Villain era than already exists. I am here in all tenderness, heart and eyes open at the beauty & terror of this reality.

I know there are many sources of support in my life, keeping me in my seat of integrity. Asking that I learn how to show up better, not as a value judgement, but as a commitment to healing & liberation. To be a Good Ancestor, a willing collaborator, a humble villager. This is our Life’s work; it is Heart Work.

Immensely grateful to not walk the path alone. To meet others whose hearts are as open to learning, growing, deepening. To see one another clearly, without the dust of projection. To shine the mirror as an act of love & companionship.

Here we are. Another layer deeper into learning what this all requires. Tired, but not weary. Quiet, peaceful, willing. A deep bow in my body, a gentle heart, open and curious.

Deepest, indescribable gratitude for my beloved sister — beyond the words, my heart is with you always. You are a living example of the Warrior I one day wish to be — prayers for gentleness amidst it all. Loving you to the moon and back again.

And to my incredible Hermana .gonzalez — a heart of true power, you inspire me beyond measure. So grateful to walk this path with you. Dos Pajaros Somos!!

Love to all whose paths I have the privilege to cross, to learn from. Thank you for sharing your radiant hearts with such courage & compasion. Gratitude to the weavers for bringing us together in these ways. 🕸️

11/17/2025

SCORPIO NEW MOON 🦂 INVOCATIONS 🕯️

Read for your rising sign ❤️‍🔥

Sun, Moon, Mercury all conjunct at 28* of Scorpio. The messenger descends into the Great Below and brings a message through our bodies. The Goddess waits in exile, accompanied by our Mother of the Fringes. Venus & Lilith conjoin in Scorpio and bring truth where it’s needed as medicine.

This is shadow magick, purgative, alchemical integration. This is seeing what needs to be seen so we may be set free. ❤️‍🔥🦂🕯️

Across the Sky, Uranus brings a flash of lightning to awaken insight from within. Jupiter & Saturn still in a softening water trine to allow our emotions to become a divination tool. Follow what you feel — it will lead you to the truth. Go deeper than you think you need to. 🏔️

May it be so.

11/16/2025

Scorpio Medicine a Homeopathic 🦂❤️‍🔥🕸️

Coming out of my own grief process for a moment to reflect on its healing potency. Scorpio season and this upcoming Scorpio New Moon on Thursday has been nothing short of alchemical. Intense, but so needed.

Take care of yourselves friends ❤️‍🔥🦂

11/09/2025

RATTLES ✨🐻🦌🌲 calling in the ancestors…
+ Rare footage of my singing on the internet 🙈

As I prepare to birth another series of rattles leading up to Solstice, I am reminiscing on the magick of each piece created.
These are not just tools — they are spirit helpers, in support of our work as humans & practitioners. For clearing the way, for hearing our ancestor’s guidance. For remembering who we are, for finding our center.

Each piece has a voice, that is specifically ensouled to call in YOUR protective powers & ancestral guides. The creation of a rattle is deeply intentional, so that when used in ritual space, the spirit of the rattle itself is a main presence in whatever ceremony follows. These are deeply personal tools, not meant to be bought off the internet IMHO.

Rattles have been used in ceremonial work across cultures worldwide, and most echo this thread of cosmovision; the rattle is alive, an animate being that is able to support in both the invocation of spirits AND the clearing of unhelpful or stuck energies. They are the ultimate tool for ritual discernment, creating boundaries & containment as needed.🦨

The heads of these rattles are made from leftover bear skin scraps. Fallen Deer & elk tines are used for the handles, & various scrap furs for the neck - coyote, otter, beaver & fox. Each rattle is filled with tiny seashells & quartz, small pieces of Cedar to bless their song.

This next series is limited to 5 rattles, to strengthen ritual intention & creation. Reach out if you’d like a piece made personally for you. I welcome you to share with me your ritual intentions if you’d like, to incorporate in its birthing process.

They are made with deep love & sincerity, from my ancestors to yours.
All my heart. 🪶🪽🦌🌙🙏

11/07/2025

HEART OF THE DRUM 🕸️ Handmade Medicine Pieces

Beloveds! As I prepare materials for another family of drums, I wanted to share some pieces of the past!! Each piece has since found its perfect home, in the hands of its player. ❤️

UPDATE: I currently have Buffalo, Deer & Horse skin prepared for 16-18” frame drums ❤️‍🔥 Elk & dyed deerskin can be prepared with personal inquiry!

I have been making Drums + Rattles for many years under the guidance of my teacher, who has shared endless teachings about the true medicine of these spirit helpers in the North American tradition.

In this cosmology, these instruments are not just objects, nor simply ‘tools’ for the practitioner. Each piece is intentionally birthed in ritual space, with the Ancestors + Bigger Powers as witness. In doing so, each piece is ensouled with a SPIRIT, animated by ritual aliveness.

This process of learning the spirit of the Drum + the wisdom of the Rattle has truly been my greatest teacher. It never ceases to amaze me, how each piece chooses their maker. I truly have no say in the matter — the Ancestors know exactly what to do. They simply use my hands to weave their magick, and connect it to the one who will someday use each piece as an ally + spirit helper.

This is why each piece is made personally — I don’t often make Drums or Rattles without personal inquiry first. Reach out if you’re interested!

11/05/2025

TA**US FULL MOON 🕯️ INVOCATIONS

Luna is generous, hopeful, abundant
A reminder of regeneration
The possibility of life after death
REBIRTH 🌌

Read for your rising sign!!! ❤️‍🔥🕯️🤟

11/03/2025

TA**US FULL MOON 🐂🌖🕯️ Wednesday Nov 5 @ 8:19am EST

Death & Life require one another
Getting good at dying is required to truly live
Decay creates the conditions for Growth
Regeneration requires sacrifice
Trust in the seed, the fertile black darkness
You are becoming…
A time of stillness is the Heart of any growth cycle
Trust in death and the inevitability of life ongoing
Courage to let it go is often rewarded by creation

11/02/2025

INVOCATION OF THE MOTHER
SAMHAIN 2025 🕯️

Beloved Mother of many forms
Known by countless names,
You are the one we call upon tonight
To witness this embodied Rite.

Fearsome, compassionate,
terrifying in your splendor
Help us to transform this rage into freedom
And Oppression into liberation.

Help us to know the ways
we have internalized
The density of supremacy,
The weight of the overculture
As it’s carried in our bodies,
Frozen in our bones
for so many generations.

This is where we get free.
Help us to break the binds that hold us,
Imprisoned by fear and falsehood —
Transformed into unbound joy
And wild remembrance.

This is our birthright,
Descendants of ancestors
Who fought hard to survive.

In your endless compassion,
help us to hold the truth of our humanity,
To grow around our grief in
Utmost sanctity.

We call to you, mother of the fringes
To bring our exiled parts Home
To the center of our hearts,
The soul of the world.

We welcome you in whatever form you might take to become our greatest teacher.
Reveal to us your glorious face
And guide the way, benevolent One
To the reality where all life is held as sacred.

As the beasts of Empire rear their ugly heads,
may truth render them dead.
May all mouths be fed, all Violence end,
And fear be lifted.

We offer you our dance as a call
to liberation, we shake off old stories
and make space for celebration.

With our Ancestors as witness,
we welcome the wise & well spirits
to join us in this embodied transformation.

Tonight, we release, we leave it all on the floor, and in our howling glory, we are terrified no more.

For the world that Has been,
And the world that will be,
So mote it be.

🦇❤️‍🔥🕯️

Blessed Samhain to all. This is the invocation for tonight’s embodied ritual & dance as community. Written under the Pisces moon conjunct Rahu, Saturn closeby. May it be so. 🦂 invitation to connect your altars tonight, I can send playlist to those that cannot attend in person. ❤️‍🔥🙏🦇

10/31/2025

BLESSED SAMHAIN!!! 🦇🕯️🪽🗝️❤️‍🔥

To those who celebrate — may your path & your people be BLESSED! May those that have yet to find their way home be guided by your songs, your prayers, and the miracle of your existence!! May you feel proud & embodied as the face of your lineages!! 🕯️❤️‍🔥🪽

It is no secret, this is my favorite threshold of the year. My entire astrological chart stretches the bend of Virgo/Libra/Scorpio season — I love dancing between the worlds, honoring death as our greatest friend & teacher. Above all else, I love celebrating the miracle of life through the reality of our ancestors.

I shared a bunch of musings this past week on the Altar of Stars about Ancestors, Ritual recovery, ghosts, lineage healing, and the magick of this work. Enjoy!! Open for all to explore!!

If you are observing this threshold in any way, may it be full of beauty & healing potential. May we sing our people HOME and feel the closeness of their council. May we all remember the birthright of our belonging, to Land, Lineage & Kin.

BIG LOVE! Xoxo Teagan

Address

Rochester, NY
14620

Website

http://thealtarhealing.com/

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Welcome to VAYA!

VAYA Ayurveda + Wellness is a complete holistic healing service, created by Teagan West in Rochester NY.

VAYA aims to create a system of healing tailored to the individual's unique needs. The practice is rooted in Ayurvedic Health Counseling, and supported by various healing tools such as Mindfulness + Meditation, Reiki Healing, and more.

Teagan received her Ayurvedic Health Counselor Certification from Kripalu, and is NAMA certified to administer Ayurvedic care. She is also Reiki level 2 certified, as well as trained in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Therapy. Teagan works to fuse all of these tools together into one complete holistic healing practice, tailored to the individual.

Please reach out with any further questions. We are here to support you in any way possible through your process of healing!