Lately, it’s been hard for me to focus on the moments between yesterday and tomorrow. Lots of work, but little intention. That’s part of the reason I found myself lying on my back on a massage table with a health care worker rubbing a whole egg on my forehead.
And while I know many abuelas swear by this habit, no one has ever rubbed egg on my face before. Covered with a knitted blanket and darkened by an eye mask, the shell felt familiar yet foreign to my skin. I like that.
Floating above me is Antoinette Chirinos, a Peruvian healer who has called San Diego home for the past 16 years. I came here for a Chirinos Limpia session, or what some might call an energy cleaning. It’s my first time. I have never attended a session like this before, but I wouldn’t call myself a non-believer.
I have been working with psychedelic medicine for more than a decade, and there is considerable overlap between Chirinos’ work and that of plant medicine experts. I have become skeptical about the effectiveness of chakra cleansing and chicken magic, but I am hopeful that it will work at the same time. I really want to visit the sacred place within myself that I haven’t been able to find lately.
“This is a massage of the nervous system,” Chirinos tells me about his work. “It’s regulating energy that’s out of balance. It’s like changing your oil; it keeps you from burning out and depleting your body.”
i imagine myself Ding Ding A spiritual Jiffy Lube for a tune-up. I hope to be able to run more smoothly by the time this is over. I felt more grounded. A better version of myself.
“Americans are feeling extra stress,” Chirinos says. “It is very important to make peace and mental health a priority.”
This resonates. Between work and a baby at home, I often feel like I’m caught up in a horde of people. His arms are pinned down and he is struggling to breathe. I tried to slow down and steady my feet, but I could barely feel them scraping the ground as I was being carried. The heel doesn’t seem to get caught.
When Chirinos contacted me, when I lost contact with my center, so to speak. san diego magazine When I offered to serve her, I felt a calling to come. Maybe all I need is someone to dry clean my aura and get me out of the rat race and back on track.
Chirinos moves around me playing crystal singing bowls. In a good way, and out loud. Have you ever seen a macro photo of water hit by different sound frequencies? Or sand on a plate scraped by a violin bow? Atoms dance in geometric shapes.
Surrounded by the vibrations of the bowl’s low hum, I feel the liquid molecules in my body turn into half-melted snowflakes. I’m a cartoon angel relaxing on a cloud. The louder she plays, the deeper I sink.
I also like this.
When I met Chirinos, it felt like we were speaking different dialects of the same spiritual language. She is kind and warm and has her passion for her job. This work has been passed down in her family. Her grandmother was also an energy worker. Her grandfather worked with plants. Chirinos does both.
“I didn’t learn this in school,” she says. “I guided her. She feels her grandmother’s presence when she works. She speaks to me.”
Many of Chirinos’ clients are social workers and mothers, she said. She is someone who takes on a lot of things. “And then there are cancer patients who come to her in addition to other treatments, because the chemotherapy is putting a lot of stress on her body,” she says. Her work combines various energy work techniques such as sound therapy, Reiki, smudging, crystals, and eggs.
She says the egg picks up spiritual debris on me, like an antibiotic for energetic bacteria. Whatever tries to take away my energy leaves the egg in a vacuum. I imagine invisible barnacles clinging to me, sucking my vibrant life force and slowing me down. yesI think, rub me with that egg.
After touching my arms, hands, legs, and feet, she cracked an egg into a glass of water. She then inspected the floating albumen, chalaza, and yolk and told me what she saw. A kind of fortune telling. Perhaps it’s a form of tasseography, like a fortune teller reading tea leaves, or maybe something more.
She pointed out dozens of tiny bubbles at the end of a thin string of egg whites.
“Every single one of those bubbles was attached to you,” she says. “What I don’t need.”
I nodded in agreement, wanting to believe her more than me.
I remain skeptical. In our hyper-competitive, hyper-consumer culture, the world of wellness can often feel like it’s been invaded by an army of snake oil salesmen looking to make a buck. Chirinos does not ring such alarm bells for me. Her desire to help seems genuine. Maybe she’s thinking of something.
I don’t feel any particular connection to the bubbles, nor do I feel noticeably lighter, but I’m curious to see how I feel over the next few weeks. I’m not here for mental Botox. We don’t want temporary solutions. Seek deeper healing. You may carry some ingrained knowledge with you.
Our sessions last about an hour. Before we parted ways, Chirinos gave us some advice on how to protect ourselves from the harsh energies of the everyday world we live in. “There’s so much energy and stress hitting us all the time,” she says. “You need to be prepared and protect yourself.”
I discuss Agua de Florida (a type of plant-based alcohol used to cleanse energy), which I have enjoyed for many years. She told me to use it more consciously at the base of her skull and behind her knees to protect herself.
“The backs of my knees are where bad energy attaches,” she said, and told me to bend down and bring earth energy onto and around my body to protect and ground me. She seems excited for me to start practicing.
“If you raise your vibration, the healing will continue,” she told me.
I will wait a few weeks after the session before writing about it.
In the meantime, I will follow her advice. I use Florida water more diligently and leave my house dirty after weekly cleaning. Connect more deeply with the earth. Overall, I’ve become more intentional with my energy.
I’ve noticed that there are moments throughout the weeks where I feel more calm than I have in months.
Although I couldn’t feel it at the time, her sessions helped me slow down in a deep way. Maybe it’s the singing bowl, maybe it’s the way she balances my energy, maybe it’s the eggs. Whatever it is, I find it easier to find and return to a quiet center within myself.
I’m still stuck in the big crowd, but I’m starting to feel my heels catch. It’s slowing down. My life has not changed dramatically, but I have become more patient and calm. If you do that, you’ll want to change the oil again someday.
