Ask A Healer Spiritual Wellbeing Series

Ask A Healer Spiritual Connection Info
Spiritual Community and Sacred Ceremony - Gatherings of Light Beings and Why We Need Them
Copyright, Neva J. Howell

Find Festivals and Fairs

Sacred Relationship to All has been a challenge and a blessing in my life. I have struggled with trust, issues of privacy and empathic overload.

There is much to be said for solitude and solitary seeking. I have been baptised into many realms, while retreating and totally apart from other human contact.

Yet, as I review my spiritual path so far, it is the times of community and group ceremony that have provided my most powerful lessons and greatest gifts.

I wrote this article after a decision to go back into spiritual community by way of gatherings and fairs. I am grateful that there are still those who have the vision and dedication to preserve land on the earth that is dedicated to ceremony, healing and Sacred gatherings for the purpose of spiritual acceleration.

"There is too much emotion, too much negative emotion: frustration, hatred, anger. I think that's the great obstacle. So I think as a first step this should be cooled. Reduced. Forget these things.

And I think for the time being, we need more festivals, more picnics. Let us forget these difficult things, these emotions and make personal friends. The we can start to talk about these serious matters." Quote taken from 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama

Let us Celebrate Life Together

I used to participate in new age fairs, both as an intuitive reader and a healer. I found them rewarding but intensely challenging as well.

As an empath, any situation where there is a gathering of conscious seekers is intense. To feel all the energies of the other vendors, readers and healers was one thing......to feel all the questions, emotions and desires of the thousands who came through the room was quite another.

I've also attended my share of festivals, faires and Sacred Ceremony over the years and, while I enjoyed most, I typically also found myself energetically overwhelmed at times.

When my life fell apart around 2001, I just stopped seeking out Sacred Relationship, stopped offering myself in service at festivals and faires, and retreated into a very private, almost hermit-like existence for 7 years.

The 2007 Renaissance Faire at Heartwood

I don't recall how I found out about the Spiritual Events and Renaissance Faires at Heartwood Sanctuary, in Mentone, Alabama, but the knowledge came at a time when I was open enough to follow it. I attended the very first of their Spiritual Renaissance Faires.

I can't say this event was without challenge for me. I had been living a very secluded existence for years and to open myself to the energy of so many at one time again was not easy.

Looking back no that decision now, I know that choosing to attend this spiritual faire was the beginning of my greater choice to come back to life, come back into Sacred Relationship with others, and celebrate in community.

If you look within and find that you have retreated from service, from spiritual community and from Sacred Relationship to others, one way to step back into the world of Spirit is by attending spiritual festivals or ceremony.

There are groups of Light Beings all over the earth that are holding space for you, and people like you and me, to emerge again into spiritual community.

There seems to be an ebb and flow to this, with some of us retreating to heal, to reinvent ourselves and to awaken to a new level of purpose while others of us are in a position to hold Sacred Space for those returning.

I've been at both places on the wheel and am very grateful for those who held space for my own return in 2007.

About Heartwood Spiritual Center:
Heartwood Sanctuary is located on 40 beautiful acres of dedicated land and is Sacred Space for ceremony and healing.

What makes land more Sacred in one place than another?

I believe all land is Sacred but that human choices, made by all of us, to pave paradise and put up parking lots has weakened the the healing vibrations over much of Mother Earth.

Conscious spiritual stewardship of land is now needed to encourage the land to dance again and breathe with Sacred Breath into those who walk upon it.

Cathy and Ted, the caretakers of Heartwood, have taken their stewardship seriously and you can feel it when you step onto the land there.

The next Faire is coming up on October 11, 2008. The topic of this year's event is spiritual service. I'll be there. Join me for a time of sharing at 10:00 on Saturday. I'll be speaking on "what if it's gone?". What if the thing that hinders you most is gone? How would your life change? Maybe I'll see you at Heartwood and we can explore that question

Update: Changes at Heartwood....like so many others during this fast flowing river time, Heartwood is transitioning. The property is being sold and Cathy and Ted are moving on to some other path of service that will be revealed. Please check the website for more information on their new path.

Search for festivals and fairs in your area


Spiritual Awareness Article: I see Light Beings

Spiritual Health Disclaimer: I would be the last to say that solitude and retreat, even for very extended periods of time, cannot be a vital and fulfilling spiritual choice. How could I say that when I've spent years of my own life alone. Yet, I would also say that it is dangerous to remain alone out of fear, woundedness or empathic overload. This, I have also done. In times when I just felt that my spiritual being was akin to raw skin exposed to fire, I retreated to balance, heal and strengthen. The danger for me was getting comfortable with being comfortable. I had to come back into life, into spiritual community, and into group ceremony. Otherwise, the lessons I learned in solitude would help no one, not even myself. Faires and festivals are a wonderful way to reconnect.