A South Whidbey shaman and former restaurateur in the Village by the Sea wants to help bring change to the Emerald City.

Graham Gori, who lives in a northern neighborhood of Seattle, announced his intention to run for Seattle mayor over a year ahead of the election in 2025. Although he acknowledged that his chances of winning are slim, he believes he has an important vision and message to share with his fellow citizens.

Gori is the former owner of Portico Latin Bistro in downtown Langley, which closed its doors in 2020. Shortly afterwards, Gori moved to Seattle and dedicated himself to studying shamanism, which he now practices on South Whidbey.

As a shaman, his job is to help people heal from ancestral wounds, or past traumas.

“I think any politician who says that he is a shaman is automatically going to raise some eyebrows because not many people know what a shaman is, and it’s a pretty flexible career in terms of what shamans do for society,” he said.

Gori is also an astrologer who provided a comprehensive reading for a South Whidbey Record reporter last month. As he was contemplating his next evolution in life in terms of what he wanted to do with this existence, the idea of running for mayor occurred to him. The Record is the first news outlet he decided to contact about this momentous decision.

“I decided that it’s much better now, at this point in my life, to start saying yes to things instead of saying no,” he said.

He believes humanity is undergoing a tremendous shift in consciousness. As society is becoming more polarized, old structures that have remnants of patriarchy, control, dominance and hierarchy are starting to falter, and a new way of being is about to arise.

As mayor, he wants to be able to offer a voice for people who really want to see a fundamental shift in how life is run, beginning with the prioritization of education — reeducation of what it means to be a member of the city of Seattle and what kind of a new civilization the citizens can bring about through themselves and their desires.

“I believe that as a society once we begin to shift towards making sincere efforts to alleviate fear, not only for ourselves but for everybody else, then we can begin to construct a society that is based more on love and wellbeing for other people,” he said.

He credits South Whidbey for providing some formative experiences, including an introduction to plant medicine. It was a great place to learn, and its progressive nature provides a haven for healers who are doing “edgy stuff.” He still has a community on the island, and it’s also where his children live.

This will be his first time running for office.

When Gori opened restaurants, he did it because he wanted to create a place that he would like to go and eat. When he was a journalist, he wrote stories that he wanted to read. And now at the age of 49, he ponders what kind of city and society he would like to live in.

“When I think about being mayor of a major city, a metropolis, it’s not so much the statement ‘I live in Seattle,’ it’s ‘Seattle lives through me,’” he said.

For more information, search #shamangrahamformayor on Instagram and X and visit the “Lucid on the path” channel on YouTube.