Gemstone massages, holy smoke, and a chance encounter converge by design in San Miguel de Allende.
Walking along a cobblestone lane in San Miguel, bleary after ten hours of travel and a predawn arrival from my home in California, I make my way through the Zona Centro, the heart of this storybook town known for its artists and dreamers. I pass ocher and violet adobe facades, lipstick-pink geraniums spilling over balconies, odalisque dogs lolling on agave-lined rooftops, wrought-iron rejas adorning beribboned casement windows, and ornate doors of iron-studded mesquite framed in carved stone that at once stand guard over and intimate further enchantment within.
Another few blocks on from my host’s house, I reach the Laja Spa at Casa de Sierra Nevada, a Belmond hotel with origins in the 16th century. One could almost miss it; a modest wall plaque marks this extraordinary property whose portals, by local architectural tradition, sit flush with the street. San Miguel is a town that unfolds inward to reveal itself.
Greeted in reception as if I were a regular for tea, I find myself in a gentle maze of marble columns and graceful porticos, murmuring fountains and arching palms, Escher-like staircases and leafy courtyards. A meandering garden path leads to the inner sanctum that is Laja, where the air is fragrant with lavender and the cool breath of stone. Delivered into the care of Consuelo Hernández, I’m ushered to a dressing room of travertine and Talavera tile to shower and slip into a robe and slippers.
Of Laja’s Signature Indulgences, I’m here for the Mexican Ritual, a restorative treatment incorporating earth, air, water, and fire. My aim as a neophyte visitor: fast-track recovery from the unholy geometry of airplane seats and a refined initiation into place—a jump-start to my week-long holiday.
It Starts with Smoke
Copal incense curls toward the heavens in arching ribbons—sweet and sharp, ancient and medicinal—an offering to deities said to purify, protect, and bless. I stand in Laja’s sun-drenched courtyard as Consuelo circles me with an eagle feather. Just over a parapet, the Gothic spires of La Parroquia, the town’s landmark pink church, bejewel a sky of powder blue and puffy white clouds.
Consuelo Hernandez at home in Laja Spa at Casa de Sierra Nevada; photo by Trish Reynales
Consuelo sweeps the feather around my body. “Para limpiar,” she says. To cleanse. Her voice is soft and warm, less instruction than integral to the ritual itself. Even her name is apropos. Consolation, solace, comfort. San Miguel born and raised, the Mexican Ritual’s creator, Consuelo learned her techniques, she tells me, from her mother and grandmothers.
Following a saltwater foot bath to reduce swelling and fatigue, the ritual moves to the caldeado, a pre-Hispanic therapy using local gemstones to dissolve aches, ease inflammation, and enhance circulation. Polished to a satin finish, the black volcanic obsidian retains deep, penetrating heat, and Guanajuato amethyst is said to rebalance energy. Consuelo moves her instruments with seasoned deliberation—weight onto shoulders, a glide along the spine. There’s a sense of lineage in her touch. At times she pauses, resting a stone at the base of my neck or the hollow of my lower back, heat melting tension, heat seeping into muscle.
An unhurried two-hour massage on, I feel deliciously stretchy and refreshed. Grateful for Consuelo’s expertise, I’m primed to explore.
Saints, Satan, and Serendipity
Laja opened in 2008, the same year San Miguel was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, honored both for its Spanish Colonial Baroque architecture and its role as a rebel stronghold against the Spanish during the Mexican War of Independence. Paradoxes, I’m learning, are integral to the culture here. La Alborada, for instance, the dazzling fall festival, marks a historic battle between none other than Archangel Michael—aka San Miguel—and Satan, with music, dance, pre-Hispanic and Christian processionals, red-hot fireworks, and church bells.
The town’s population of some 70,000 includes venerable families like Consuelo’s, whose roots go back centuries, living alongside scores of expats, creatives come to reinvent. Shaped as much by history as by imagination, by the native-born as by newcomers, it’s easy to feel at home here. It’s a place that embraces strangers.
In the days that follow, I also discover that San Miguel is delightfully human-scale, a walking town rich in symbolism and whimsy. Picture taco stands and an adobe Starbucks, hojalata tinwork and Jeff Koons knockoffs, galleries ensconced in former monasteries, bas-relief saints presiding in storefront alcoves, winged hearts and insouciant angels carved into the masonry. In San Miguel, any stroll to the corner store is an adventure in artful and spiritual tableaus.
It seems preordained, then, toward the end of my stay, to seek a healing session with an expat shaman I hear about at a dinner party.
Ad Hoc Altars and a Celtic Wolf
Known by word of mouth, Gray Wolf—aka El Lobo—is a transplant from Nashville, a self-described “preppy, gay shaman” who has practiced in San Miguel for 35 years. In, say, Malibu or the Hamptons, he could be your neighbor: tall, lean, smiling blue eyes, close-cropped silver hair and beard, khaki shorts, crisp button-down shirt, loafers. As a shaman, though, he’d be easy to spot in any crowd; a tattoo of a blue-eyed Celtic gray wolf runs the length of his right calf.
Gray Wolf’s shamanic offerings range from aromatherapy and energy cleansing to medicine wheel and spirit journeys.
El Lobo sees clients in his office or their hotel or residence. I opt for my session at my friend’s home, relaxing on a massage table as he sets up an ad hoc altar: lighted candle, crystals, a censer. El Lobo asks after my spiritual beliefs and issues I hope to address. Then he starts in, suspending an obsidian pendulum to assess my chakra points—root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, crown—before “clearing” each with ceremonial waves of an eagle feather.
He then “reactivates” these points by diffusing an essential oil blend of cedar, sandalwood, and myrrh—a bunny-soft scent that evokes Catholic Mass.
I wonder that Consuelo’s eagle feather has already cleared my chakras at Laja. In any event I’m pleased to be “all clear” of anything, perhaps doubly so, and settle in for a prescribed Medicine Wheel of guided imagery.
El Lobo has the reassuring drawl of a commercial airline pilot. “Take a gentle deep breath in,” he says. “Bring it to the top of your lungs, expanding, expanding—and release. Now, I’m going to take you on a journey into the sacred forest . . . ” And he does.
It’s nighttime in the forest, a mental landscape of majestic trees, their thick roots and trunks velvety with mosses of chartreuse and jade and emerald. I see a roaring fire of gold and purple flames dancing at the center of a round clearing, where saints and angels and warrior gods show up as guides. I encounter young selves and old selves and family members earthly and departed. I’m invited to make eye contact with souls and have unspoken heart-to-hearts that ease and free up mine.
I inhale into it all—deep breath in, expanding, expanding . . . release, and let it go . . . Two hours or an eternity later, El Lobo lands me back into corporeal surroundings, this interior journey a spirited complement to the grounding bliss of Consuelo’s obsidian stones. I feel a gazillion pounds lighter, my soul as buoyant as my Laja-uncrunched body.
Winding up the day, I join friends at a rooftop restaurant, the view of La Parroquia by now as familiar as it is ethereal. The spires glow pearlescent against a deepening sky. Wistful that I leave tomorrow, I give in fully to the moment of timeless beauty and fleeting splendor—just another magical evening in San Miguel.
Bodywork
Laja Spa Hospicio 35, Zona Centro
A verdant corridor leads to Laja Spa at Casa de Sierra Nevada
Open to guests and non-guests alike, Laja focuses on holistic therapies and Mexican botanical traditions. The menu includes Swedish, deep-tissue, hot stone, and aromatherapy massages; customized facials; reflexology; and body scrubs and wraps using essential oils, mineral salts, and plant-based extracts from Mexican artisanal brands Cantaluna and AgaveSpa as well as mainstays Phytomer and Primavera. The spa has three treatment rooms, a salon, and a compact fitness center. In the spa boutique, find organic Rayito de Luna facial mists and moisturizers and Japa Mala Los Cabos meditation bracelets of obsidian, amethyst, and other Mexican gemstones. Rates (taxes and gratuities additional): Signature Indulgences treatments run 50 to 200 minutes and start at $155; Mexican Ritual, $285.
Inner Work
Shamanic Bodywork and Healing San Martin 7, Santa Julia
Gray Wolf’s shamanic offerings range from aromatherapy and energy cleansing to medicine wheel and spirit journeys. His training and expertise spans massage therapy, craniosacral therapy, Reiki, hypnotherapy, primal therapy, plant medicine, Native American spiritual traditions, and Jungian dream analysis. El Lobo conducts two-hour appointments in your San Miguel residence or hotel, or at his office, where you may meet Gato, his sibylline black cat, said to enjoy imparting energy to the treatments. Options also include counseling sessions via Facetime or WhatsApp. Rates: From $85 per hour.
Stay
Casa de Sierra Nevada Hospicio 35, Zona Centro
Serene, secure, and ultra-private, beautifully appointed in Mexican Baroque style, this opulent Belmond hotel hosts guests in just 37 rooms and suites, all rich in art, antiques, and individual theme décor (angels and martyrs, lions and horses, pre-Hispanic iconography). Ideally located, the residential-style property spans six colonial mansions in the heart of Zona Centro. Along with modern conveniences, guests enjoy such amenities as in-room fireplaces, bronze freestanding tubs, and courtyard plunge pools. The Sierra Nevada offers three restaurants, two bars, a swimming pool with chaise-side service, a cooking school, gallery tours, folk-art workshops, and the award-winning Laja Spa. Rates: From $565 to upwards of $1,500 per night.
Play
Café Rama Nemesio Diez 7, Zona Centro
An eclectic cultural hub and bistro (shrimp tacos, chilaquiles, salmon pesto fettuccine) with full bar (mango margaritas, Guanajuato’s Torre de Tierra wines), art galleries, fortune tellers, and a candlelit stage for live entertainment, Rama also holds a VSA Designs boutique of the café owner’s exquisite San Miguel-made line of Virgins, Saints, & Angels artisanal jewelry featuring spiritual medals, milagros, hearts, crowns, and other symbols of magic, protection, and hope.
Trish Reynales
Trish Reynales is a Santa Barbara-based travel and arts writer and the former editor in chief of Virtuoso Life and Caribbean Travel + Life. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including C Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, and The Los Angeles Times.