River Realm Readers

San Marcos exists at the heart of its sacred springs, a place with a deeply-rooted spiritual connection that dates back for centuries. Within this cherished space thrives the River Realm Readers, a community of intuitive artists and healers dedicated to helping people realign with their higher purpose.

River Realm Readers consists of seven intuitives – Parker Dumas, Jenn Perez, Diedre Rodriguez, Sydney Moon, Pocky Stixx, Wendy S. and Gregor Ælfweald – with backgrounds ranging from tarot and oracle card readers to energy workers, crystal healing, astrology and rune readers. Each reader comes to their spiritual practice with different gifts, but united with a common purpose: to give guidance and reassurance about one’s place in the universe.

Parker Dumas, who runs Twin River Tarot, is a nonbinary empath born and raised in San Marcos who uses his intuitive gifts to provide a diverse, accessible healing space for others.

“Growing up surrounded by the beautiful spirit of the rivers, I have always felt the magic in this community,” Dumas said. Currently an International Studies senior at Texas State, Dumas began intuitively practicing divination around the age of 13, particularly connecting with the practice of tarot, oracle and pendulum readings. “It’s been an important part of my life ever since,” he said. “Through these, I am able to provide intuitive guidance to the situations you experience along your journey of growth.”

Oracle reading is somewhat like tarot, in that both are based on a deck of cards, but oracle tends to be more about self-reflection and allow for a broader range of interpretation. More people are familiar with tarot cards, which feature a more structured deck of major and minor arcana, though many readers use tarot as a starting place for spiritual direction.

“I have recently developed my own tarot spread that allows me to help guide people into past life regressions,” Dumas said, “which is a beautiful way for people to connect with their spiritual lives.”

Like Dumas, Jenn Perez is a San Marcos-born intuitive who credits local lore, urban legends and encounters with her family as the beginning of her spiritual journey. “It was something that always fascinated me,” Perez said. “I did not know much about my indigenous roots, but I’m continuously learning more about them. My mother's family is from Mexico, and my father's family has lineage connected to the Lakota and Apache indigenous tribes.” Perez currently attends

Texas State with hopes of someday becoming a pathologist, working specifically within the San Marcos intuitive community as a healer who helps others navigate through grief, guilt, agony and shame by creating a sacred space in which someone can become vulnerable.

“My gifts enable me to feel the deep-rooted pain that we carry for far too long,” Perez said. “I felt the burden, agony, shame, and guilt that has come along with so many experiences I had in my life. Through healing these parts of myself, it has allowed me to see the wounds that people cover up so well.”

Within this shared space of vulnerability, Perez is able to channel messages that provide an alternate perspective in a person’s journey of healing. “These messages are of healing and pure, unconditional love from Spirit, your ancestors, past lives and guides,” Perez said. “My gifts help you find the path towards rediscovering your love for yourself and the love from Spirit.”

Dumas added, “There’s no strings, no tricks. I can’t see the future or read your mind. Everything I feel is based entirely off of the energy you provide. The real magic comes from you – and it’s amazing to see what you’re capable of. Sometimes it takes a little bit of guidance to get there.”

Another member of the River Realm Readers collective is rune reader Gregor Ælfweald. Born in El Paso, but raised in Coopertown, Tenn., Ælfweald grew up in a part of greater Appalachia where ‘spiritual gifts’ are treated as a given and openly accepted.

“In that context I learned, mostly from my grandparents, about understanding and interpreting signs in nature and communication with the dead and spirits of the land,” Ælfweald said. “I didn't understand any of that as 'mystical' or 'occult'. As far as I knew, divination and spirit communication were just things that people do.”

Ælfweald, who received a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Austin Peay State University and a Masters in Philosophy from University of Oklahoma, became interested in studying various mystical systems of Eastern and Western cultures from an early age, and felt particularly drawn to seership, which relates to prophecy and clairvoyance.

“I am familiar with Runes, Ogam, Wildwood Tarot, bones and Seider deeply at an intellectual level,” Ælfweald said. “I do believe my raising with an openness to the 'unseen' has helped me be a well-rounded seer who can balance a cognitive understanding of oracular systems with applied wisdom intuition.”

Each reader at River Realm came to the collective through connections with local herbalist Fawn Gregg, who is on a mission to provide holistic healing while fostering the growing metaphysical community in San Marcos. She currently has two storefronts: Herbs & Oddities, described as a “Tiny Metaphysical Shop of Wonders,” and Stonebound Treasures, a rock and gift shop that hosts monthly divination fairs and maker’s markets in support of local artists and intuitives.

“I got into River Realm Readers because I got to know Fawn through going into Herbs & Oddities all of the time,” Ælfweald said, “which I quickly came to call 'my happy place.’”

Recently, Herbs & Oddities celebrated its third anniversary, the shop’s growth attesting to the tight-knit community that has sprouted up around it. This is not surprising, given that recent world circumstances have caused many people to question the role of standard religion in regard to their daily life and wellbeing.

According to Dr. Deborah Cornah of the Mental Health Foundation, “In the past decade or so, researchers across a range of disciplines have started to explore and acknowledge the positive contribution spirituality can make to mental health.”

These findings dovetail with Ælfweald’s philosophy as well. “I believe we are on an upswing of interest and value in the wisdom of 'the beyond,' and the aid that it can give us in our lives,” he said.

The readers of River Realm agree that selfexploration is the key to finding true happiness and purpose. “Should you feel drawn to the spiritual community, I highly encourage your interest,” Dumas said. “It can be life changing. Sometimes we are unable to understand the messages we are receiving. These spiritual spaces are the perfect place for others to tune in and interpret those messages, so you can hear what you need in the way you need to hear it.”

Perez concurred, saying, “That connection between you and the Creator has always been present, but sometimes we need a little help remembering it’s there. If any of the messages have the slight chance of allowing you to see yourself worthy of grace, mercy and healing, then I believe I’ve done my job.”

River Realm Readers are located at 705 W. Hopkins, from 12 to 6 p.m. daily, and walk-ins are welcome, though booking an appointment is also available at riverrealmreaders.square. site/ or by calling 512-749-1041. Stonebound Treasures also features a reading room, and the maker’s markets spotlight various readers as well.

Private, individual readings are also available with Parker Dumas at twinrivertarot.com.

“If any of the messages have the slight chance of allowing you to see yourself worthy of grace, mercy and healing, then I believe I’ve done my job.”

– Jenn Perez, River Realm Readers