Social Impact Authors: How & Why Alex Naranjo and Marlene Vargas of House of Intuition Are Helping To Change Our World
An Interview With Edward Sylvan
Alex: The ultimate goal is to empower people. To demystify other planes beyond the physical, your innate inner knowing, the Art of Tarot. To show that we are ALL psychic and it’s a matter of exercising that spiritual muscle, trusting and following your intuition.
Marlene: Through us sharing our personal practices and rituals, that we do in our personal lives and have used to build the House Of Intuition, we hope our readers will realize — like we did — that you can practice magic and harness your personal power without giving up your religious faith.
As part of my series about “authors who are making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alex Naranjo and Marlene Vargas.
Alex Naranjo and Marlene Vargas are the founders of House of Intuition, which has grown from a small shop offering crystals, tarot, and intuitive services to one of the largest, well-known metaphysical brands in the U.S. Currently, there are numerous store locations sprinkled throughout California and Florida, with plans for more on the horizon. In addition to handcrafting an array of ritual tools such as intention candles and oils, House of Intuition offers a cosmic classroom of esoteric subjects, metaphysical services, and House of Intuition TV, a digital platform focused on sharing knowledge of spiritual practices that bring healing, perspective, and magic. They are also newly published authors of “YOUR INTUITION LED YOU HERE: Daily Rituals for Empowerment, Inner Knowing, and Magic” (On Sale 12/28; Rodale Hardcover) — a part memoir/part ritual guide written to dispel the myths and uncover the truths of the modernized metaphysical world.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
Alex: I was born in Colombia, South America and I am my immigrant parent’s firstborn. My father left for the US seeking the American Dream when I was just months old. He was gone for a couple of years and came back for my mother and me when I was 3yrs old. I was traditionally raised Catholic from my mother’s guidance and my father, on the other hand, is not religious at all — however, he would say, “I have my own direct relationship with God and I don’t have to subscribe to any religious paradigm.”
Marlene: I was raised in a small town south of Los Angeles, called Wilmington, Ca. I am the middle child of three. When I was younger, I loved and played sports just like both my siblings. My father coached me through my short time in softball so I was very much and still am a Daddy’s girl. I too grew up Catholic, and although no one in my family spoke about spirits or energies beyond our physical world — I was always able to feel and see the shadows of their presence.
When you were younger, was there a book that you read that inspired you to take action or changed your life? Can you share a story about that?
Alex: In college, a book called “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom deeply impacted me. There is a particular quote in the book that really stood out amongst many great ones. “The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We’re teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it. Create your own.” This resonated with me because it sparked something within me to question my path. As I mentioned earlier, I was raised Catholic and I love my Catholic foundation — however, there were things about it that didn’t align with me, especially as I explored my place within the world being transgender. So I realized that the traditional “culture” that I was raised in did not entirely fulfill me. Something had to change. This set my journey on a path where I was open to seeking and finding things from other belief systems that I identified with. I started to collect these practices, and also, create my own. In our book, we share this as we hope to inspire others to truly listen to their intuition and find what feels right for them.
Marlene: At about the age of 28, I discovered the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. At this time I was a young mother of a 4-year-old, not making a large income and feeling that I would never be able to create the life I desired. This book completely gave me a new outlook on the way I looked at money, and instead of feeling powerless under my circumstances, I felt empowered by the wisdom I read on those pages. This was the beginning of the foundation of my entrepreneurship. So when we decided to write our first book “Your Intuition Led You Here”, it was so very important for me to be transparent and share not only the positive things that have happened over the years but also the extreme challenges I had to overcome — and the rituals and practices I learned to get here — in hopes our readers will feel inspired and know that they too intrinsically have the potential within themselves.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
Marlene: The most fascinating thing that has occurred is STILL continuing — it is just being witness to our ability to create more than what we originally set out to do. You see, Alex & I never thought we would have more than one House of Intuition store, nor did we ever think we would write a ritual book! But an interesting piece of our puzzle, while building, was learning the ability to strongly listen to our intuition and tune into the others that walked onto our path. By being flexible and not stuck on just our vision of what we wanted, and open to listening to messages in the form of our intuition (or seemingly casual conversations with others), we have both learned that magic can occur when we are attuned to all possibilities and pivot as needed with no fear. So, the takeaway from that lesson is to take the time to process, to never say NO right away. It’s alright to take information in and ask ourselves — “why is this showing up or being presented to us?” — without any judgment first. If I had not learned this lesson, I definitely would have never written a book. Because initially I never thought I had the ability to do it, being I wasn’t a big fan of traditional schooling, nor was a book ever part of our plan. Yet here we are, finding ourselves with enough life learnings and intuitive ritual knowledge to share and fill up hundreds of pages.
Alex: For me, the most interesting mistake I made in my career was to think that I didn’t like to be around death or the thought of death. I went to school to become a social worker and I was very good at it, until the amount of death I witnessed in a nursing facility I worked at filled me with so much sadness — I could not bear to continue the job. So it is really ironic to me, how through creating House of Intuition with Marlene, I now feel a close connection to my ancestors and talk to the dead on a frequent basis. There is another layer to life, all the energies we cannot see but do exist, that affect us without knowing (if we are not tapped in or attuned to it). I now can’t imagine my life without the ability to find beauty in death.
Can you describe how you aim to make a significant social impact with your book?
Alex: The ultimate goal is to empower people. To demystify other planes beyond the physical, your innate inner knowing, the Art of Tarot. To show that we are ALL psychic and it’s a matter of exercising that spiritual muscle, trusting and following your intuition.
Marlene: Through us sharing our personal practices and rituals, that we do in our personal lives and have used to build the House Of Intuition, we hope our readers will realize — like we did — that you can practice magic and harness your personal power without giving up your religious faith. That you can create the life you desire by tapping into your intuition and strengthening your connection to energies that can help you in all areas of your life. We are all creators and are so powerful — magic really does exist within us all.
Can you share with us the most interesting story that you shared in your book?
Marlene: The story of a world beyond the physical one that we see, and the realization of my ability to communicate with spirits, our ancestors and the dead. When I was younger, I always knew there were spirits around me — but I didn’t have someone to explain to me what I was feeling. Instead, I was raised in a society that told me it didn’t exist, and so I tucked that feeling away, stamped down within myself until it was released by the death of my beloved Aunt Ruthie. After her passing, she came to me and there was no denying that what I heard was her voice from the afterlife. She unlocked a whole world of energies and spiritual guidance previously unharnessed by me, one that I’ve learned to tap into to amplify my intuition and manifest the abundance I now have. There is so much unique knowledge I’ve gained from being attuned to the spiritual world.
Alex: I would say the most personally pivotal story I shared in our book revolves around me realizing I am transgender, within an upbringing that didn’t immediately foster acceptance. I never felt comfortable in my “skin suit.” However, I never really could pinpoint what I was feeling — other than that something was not right. Until one day — through being open to exploring modalities and rituals for myself — in my mid 40’s during a kundalini yoga class, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Through the ritual work, I finally realized what was happening. Needless to say, talking about this in the book is really my “coming out”, as only very few people know other than those very close to me. It’s a journey of truly developing your own inner compass, clearing through ritual to unblock and access your intuition.
What was the “aha moment” or series of events that made you decide to bring your message to the greater world? Can you share a story about that?
Marlene: I can’t say it was an “aha moment” — it was more like an “OK Spirit, we hear you!” moment. We were told repeatedly in several past tarot readings we would write a book. We had also randomly been approached by several people that felt compelled to say to us “you should write a book”. But writing a book for me was so overwhelming. We were and still are very focused on the growth of our magical community and reaching as many people as we can via our House of Intuition stores and ritual tools. So taking on the challenge of writing a book when both us have no knowledge on how to even begin to accomplish that goal was never really thought of. However, as I mentioned previously, it was a message that kept repeating itself — to the point that we learned we must question ourselves “why does this keep coming up?”. Spirit has a way of getting the message across. So when we were approached by our now book manager, it was time to throw in the towel and take action to what the Universe was presenting to us. In some ways, what is inevitable will eventually find you.
Alex: It is funny because we never set out to have multiple stores, let alone write “Your Intuition Led You Here”. However, Spirit had another plan for us. And as the House of Intuition grew, so did we. We would tell our story about how we met, all that we went through and how the House of intuition organically became created through it (which is all in the book). And we would share many of the rituals we share in our book with our clients and things would just simply come to life & fruition. We would verbally share our manifestation stories with others and their reaction often was “seriously, you both should write a book.” When those comments started to come more and more frequently when something would happen whether good or bad, we would jokingly say — “well that one is going in the book!” The empowering knowledge we have to share is bigger than the both of us. Though the thought of writing a book seemed impossible, scary and truly overwhelming, we could not pass up the opportunity knowing that we can now reach the masses with our message.
Without sharing specific names, can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
Marlene: There are many stories but I will share the one closest to me. When we set out to build House of Intuition, with no religious base and to welcome all ritual practices, I never thought my very traditional family would follow suit. I didn’t push my magical practices onto my parents, siblings, extended family or friends. However through the years, I am so happy to say that even my 70-year-old parents now have ritual tools, altars in their homes, and pray to their ancestors. We actually now all do a ritual practice during Thanksgiving which we like to call Gratitude Day, where we serve our ancestors food first before we partake. It’s so fulfilling to see and hear stories of others connecting to their ancestors and doing rituals when one is in need or offering of gratitude. It really warms my heart like no other.
Alex: I am so honored and grateful to have the opportunity to serve others in a way that has been so impactful to myself and them. From teaching someone how to ritual cleanse their home or aura of any negative energy to helping them connect to a loved one that has passed over — has been my best work. I remember in the earlier years of House of Intuition when a young mother came into our shop in tears. Concerned and not knowing why she was standing in the middle of our store uncontrollably crying, we asked if we could be of service. I remember we were not ready for her reply, as she told us “I have just lost my daughter last night and the first place I knew I had to go to was here. I needed a safe space that allowed me to feel comfort.” With that, I placed my arms around her as she cried on my shoulders. I will never forget that feeling because not only did she find comfort in being with us, but she gave us both the strength to never give up no matter how hard our journey may be. We will always continue to expand House Of Intuition to the best of our ability. Whether it be love, money, creativity, protection, healing — we created this place for anyone to learn how to manifest any intention they set their focus and intuition on.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
Alex: We are not trying to solve a problem as much as I believe that — with sharing our story and what we’ve learned — we can empower and inspire people to believe in themselves. I believe that everyone’s path is different and that we must respect and honor each other so that we can come together as ONE to spread love and light.
Marlene: I believe everyone has their own path here on earth and those that seek what we have to offer will come — hence our saying “Your Intuition Led You Here’. For others, they have a path that they must fulfill in other ways. I will say that if we can honor and respect each other’s paths, and not try to box each other all into one belief system, we would all learn to spread love, compassion, and not judgment.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Alex: Leadership to me means the willingness to serve, teach and inspire. As a leader, one must lead by example. In my opinion, sharing knowledge and experiences to empower others is a trait of a leader.
Marlene: By sharing knowledge and magic through our stories of both success AND failures. By being vulnerable — it showcases strength, not weakness. If we all can share, we all can learn and create space for a better world to live in. Leadership is knowing that we are all both students and teachers throughout life.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
Marlene & Alex: All of our failed attempts at business only helped us hone the magic of our intuition, and prepared us for the one that was destined for us. If we didn’t learn through those failures and develop empowering practices and rituals through them, we wouldn’t recognize the red flags when they appeared or know how to handle them.
- Your biggest failures are your biggest lessons.
- Be persistent and consistent but know when to let go.
- Don’t focus on how things will happen, but move as if they already have.
- Enjoy the journey at every level because as you grow — those slower days you will yearn for.
- Don’t let other’s fear become your obstacles, tap into and trust your intuition
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Marlene: Simply put: Don’t work harder, work smarter! I tell myself this all the time. We both tend to not realize our growth over time and the need to let go of things that we must delegate to others — so we are both able to continue to do what we do best — grow House of Intuition and be of service to our community.
Alex: Inspect what you expect. This quote reminds me that while I must not ever take for granted that things are alright, I am to keep myself aware of details small and big as we grow — so we can make sure our business foundation continues to stay strong and fruitful.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Through www.houseofintuitionla.com
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Social Impact Authors: How & Why Alex Naranjo and Marlene Vargas of House of Intuition Are Helping… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.