The Birth of Phoenix Hearth
I was born with both fire and water inside me — a hearth flame that longed to blaze, and a tide that longed to flow. The world asked me to hide them, to shrink, to blend in. So I survived by dimming my light and silencing my waters — but that was not the same as living.
Through loss and breaking, the dams finally gave way. Fire roared, water surged, and in their meeting I was remade. I rose as the Phoenix, not of fire alone but of flame and tide together — burning away what was false, flowing back to what was always true. Now I tend the Phoenix Hearth: a transformational healing practice, where flame and water meet, and where those who gather may remember their own fire, their own flow, their own belonging.
That’s the story behind the name. This is how I’ve lived it.
I’ve always carried both strength and sensitivity inside me — a steady fire and a deep current of feeling. For a long time, I learned to hide them. I played small, blended in, and tried to be who others expected me to be. That helped me survive, but it wasn’t really living.
Life eventually broke through those walls. Heartbreak, loss, illness, and change shook me until I couldn’t keep pretending. My inner fire pushed me to burn away what didn’t belong, and my inner waters helped me soften, heal, and return to what felt true.
Now I tend what I call Phoenix Hearth — a transformational healing practice. It’s a reminder that we don’t have to choose between strength and sensitivity, between rising and resting. Both live in us, and both can guide us back to ourselves.
Phoenix Hearth
Phoenix Hearth is a space where people learn to identify what’s happening in their lives and decide what to do next.
At its core, Phoenix Hearth holds both transformation and tending. The phoenix speaks to growth, renewal, and becoming. The hearth speaks to steadiness, presence, and the everyday work of living with what we’ve learned. One without the other doesn’t hold.
The work here uses symbolic and archetypal ways of understanding — including tarot, astrology, and a shared symbolic language — to make patterns visible and understandable. These tools help clarify what’s happening, name what’s been hard to see, and bring awareness to what’s already moving beneath the surface.
Some offerings are structured — classes, workshops, small groups. Others are conversational and responsive. What they share is an emphasis on personal responsibility, self-trust, and integration, grounded in what can actually be lived and sustained.
Phoenix Hearth is for people who are questioning, re-orienting, or finding themselves at a threshold — whether that threshold has a clear name yet or not. It’s for those who want depth without dogma, insight without dependency, and change that can actually be lived with over time.
Phoenix Hearth isn’t a system to follow. It’s a hearth you return to — with a phoenix that reminds you, sometimes gently and sometimes with a nudge, of your own capacity to rise, choose, and keep going.
The Phoenix Behind The Hearth
I am Sue Hess, the person who holds this work and tends the hearth it grows from. I am a teacher, guide, and catalyst for insight and change.
People tend to come to me at moments when something is shifting — or needs to. Sometimes that’s a conscious choice; often it’s not. My work centers on helping people recognize patterns, question what they’ve been taught or told about themselves, and move forward with greater clarity and self-trust.
Tarot is often the starting point for my work with people, but it’s not the whole of how I work. I think and listen in patterns — archetypal, symbolic, and relational — and I draw from multiple traditions to support discernment rather than dependency. I may also reference astrology as another language for understanding personal patterns.
I studied Tarot, Astrology, Hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) with Rev. Bill Trivett of New Visions Books & Gifts and was initiated as a Teacher and Guide through the Modern Mystery School in the lineage of King Solomon. My background also includes Reiki, Kabbalah, and ordination as a priest in the Order of Melchizedek. These traditions inform how I hold space — grounded, ethical, and oriented toward personal responsibility.
I’ve been engaged in my own inner and spiritual work for decades. I teach and mentor from lived experience, clear boundaries, and a deep respect for each person’s autonomy.
Whether in a class, a group, or a one-to-one session, my role is not to tell people who they are or what to do — but to help them see what’s already present, so they can choose their next step with confidence.