MOTHER OF UNCONVENTION | Diva Zappa

Artist, actress and energy worker, DIVA ZAPPA, lets intuition be her guide in the renovation of her Toluca Lake home.

Cut the cards, shuffle the deck, do whatever you want with them, and when you feel like they’re ready, hand them back to me and we’ll see what they want to share with you.”

Actress, artist, clothing designer, energy worker and magical being, Diva Zappa, is about to read my tarot, something at which she is extremely gifted. My eyes wander above her head to the jagged, black flames engulfing the large picture window behind her. “It’s like an explosion. This is what this window always wanted to be. It’s actually similar to what my mom did around an archway at the house I grew up in. So I guess it’s also an ode of sorts.”

Her house is chock full of artistic expressions such as these, which is no surprise given her lineage. The youngest child of legendary musician Frank Zappa and his wife, Gail, she grew up submerged in creative energy, fostered by souls who knew how to touch other souls.

After her mother’s passing in 2015, Diva was left with some monumental challenges. “I had to learn how to navigate this world without this intensely amazing and strong feminine energy. My mom was ridiculously awesome and such a force, so it’s been interesting to step into my own wings and find my own strength.”

Logistically, there were some challenges as well. The family home in which she had grown up and shared with her mother for nearly her entire life was about to be sold. “I went to every single open house in LA and this was the very last house I saw. It was on the market the whole time but never called to me from the outside so I never even considered seeing it.” This changed once she walked in and spotted the gem of the property; an enormous, Keebler-elf-like mulberry tree looming just outside the back door. “My heart exploded. I took a deep breath and thought to myself, ‘I’m home.’”

In order to bring the structure up-to-date, she needed to take it down to all but two walls, which presented her with a very interesting opportunity. “There were certain things that I knew I had to do instinctively, like, when we were pouring the foundation, I needed to put crystals in there.” With the help of her dear friend, tarot teacher and crystal expert, Melinda Lee Holm, Diva picked stones that were meaningful to her.

“I’m not really a crystal person. That’s the interesting thing. But I knew that I wanted to call in creativity and inspiration and connection and to be open – to have support and magic and protection.” Diva scattered an assortment of seed crystals around the perimeter of the house for ideas, added a Herkimer diamond to boost her clairvoyant and clairaudient abilities, and in the heart of the house placed her birthstone, a ruby. “I put selenite crystals in the walls surrounding the front gate so that everyone who walks through it gets blessed, and I also put it in the pool so that when you swim, you get a full bath of cleansing.”

The scale of the house is innovative as well. All of her doorknobs are European height except for her front door, which is downright massive, resulting in a doorknob which, quite amusingly, lands directly at her nose. “I built a house for a giant because I want to feel tiny and like the magical creature I am!” she says with a laugh.

“My basic rule was, if it isn’t a FUCK YES, then it’s a No. I do the same thing with tarot that I do with every other aspect of my life. Building this house actually helped me tap into the purity of that and trust my intuition, which, in turn, opened up my intuition even more.”

And then there is the matter of Emilio, the mile-long scarf that she been knitting for the past 10 years. “I sit in the TV room and work on him while I watch terrible action movies.” To knit a foot a day takes her about 6-8 hours. If she did a foot a day, every day, she would be done in approximately 15 years. “So I have a minimum of 15 more years to complete him.” At present, he’s about 400 feet long and resides in the northeast corner of her TV room, all curled up in a massive heap. But don’t feel bad for Emilio. He does manage to get out once in awhile. “There have been a few times when he’s been on display. He was in London for 6 months without me when he was a baby. He was hanging from the ceiling, barely 40 feet long, in this magical Soho tea shop called Maison Bertaux.”

“Knitting is more of a meditation for me than anything else and what you see, especially in Emilio, is that he’s a living journal. It’s also a practice in realizing that every step that you take every day adds up to a beautiful piece of art. Whatever your passion is, whatever you’re working on, if you do something towards it, even if it’s a small thing, it adds up. And all of a sudden you’ll wake up and you’ll be like “OMG, I made that. I did this. I’m here. I made my dreams come true”, because you actually worked for them. It just doesn’t fall in your lap. I mean, sometimes it does, but most of the time you don’t realize how hard you’ve worked for so long and then, all of a sudden, it’s there.”

To learn more about Diva’s tarot readings and energy work or to book her for private readings or parties, please visit her at divazappa.com or on Instagram at @magikatarot or @divazappa.