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Welcome to Waking Spirit! I'm delighted you are curious about the services, courses, workshops, and products offered here to support your journey towards spiritual wholeness.
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Like you, I am a multi-faceted individual; but you can call me Crystal.
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I am a spiritual wellness professional, radical self-care advocate, intellectual historian and author, intuitive energetic healer and coach, spiritual trauma and resiliency specialist, workshop facilitator, Reiki Master, herbalist, creator of crafty trinkets, purveyor of perennial wisdom and mineral specimens (aka books and crystals), and Waking Spirit's founder.
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I received my B.A. in 2017 from Salem College, in Winston-Salem, NC, where I crafted an Integrative Studies major around The Intellectual History of Western Civilization from Antiquity to the Early Modern Era. The Integrative Studies program allowed for a fusion of the socio-historic, religious, and philosophical studies necessary to engage with the enigmatic theological writings of two thinkers at the heart of my academic adventure: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Sir Isaac Newton.
Following Salem, I attended Wake Forest's School of Divinity and graduated with a Master of Divinity (MDiv.) in May of 2020. My vocational development at Wake Divinity included creation and facilitation of a trauma-informed holistic wellness program designed to support financially insecure women for a local non-profit organization. In my academic studies, I engaged with various forms of mysticism, liberation and process theology, and explored concepts like, Richard Rohr and Cynthia Bourgeault's Non-Dual Christianity, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's "Noosphere" (Carl Jung's concept of Collective Conscious), and the Enneagram.
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When someone asks me, "So what, exactly, do you do," I often smile and reply, "I get it! I didn't really understand what I do for a long time. The imaginal realm of spirituality is indeed mysterious and confusing at times."
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While the above reply doesn't clarify what I do, it highlights the fact that terms like "spiritual professional," "holistic wellness consultant," and "intuitive energetic healer and coach" are ambiguous at best. Hopefully, the Approach to Spiritual Wellness section below will be helpful! If you are looking for detailed descriptions of the services offered through Waking Spirit, you can find them through links on the Services page here.
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My approach to Spiritual Wholeness is rooted in knowledge gathered from both academic studies and practical, lived experience.
It begins with appreciation for and acknowledgement of the human paradox. We humans are individuals who, as a majority, experience life by engaging with various groups and communities. At the same time, we embody and express individual identities. The relationships we have with our individual self, our higher Self, and collectives of others significantly shape the way we experience and engage with reality. The human paradox is that we are, at the same time, individual beings and parts of a greater, collective whole.
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As individual parts of a collective whole, the most important work of our incarnation (when our souls partner with our physical bodies) is to reclaim, re-integrate, and choose to live as our individual, authentic self in every present moment.
The lifelong process of embodying our authentic self can be confusing and challenging. We are all called by the soft, internal song, the "sound of our genuine" as Howard Thurman so eloquently described, to know, love and listen to our authentic self. We are called to hear and cherish the song our soul sings within.
Many times, re-connecting with and reclaiming our authentic self requires that we return to and heal wounded places within our being. We each must, in some way, revisit the Valleys of Shadows where our wounds occurred. For those of us who carry complex layers of trauma within our stories, this process can be exceptionally difficult.
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My vocational calling includes serving as a guide for others as they transition through various stages on journeys to reclaim and embody their authentic selves. I understand this calling as being something akin to a spiritual cartographer. I guide people through different stages of soul mapping, then work with them to discern ways to apply what the map presents to their every day, practical lives.
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Who I Am
What I Do
Professional Credentials
Approach to Spiritual Wholeness
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Waking Spirit's website was launched during the summer of 2018. Conversations with a dear friend about our own spiritual journeys, involvement with diverse groups of truth-seekers, the nature of existence, and shared sense of identities as intuitive healers, "Wanderers," and "Bridgers," we created an online resource for the growing number of individuals experiencing and participating in the Awakening zeitgeist emerging within humanity's collective consciousness. However, the energy we could each devote to the site dwindled as other aspects of our lives began to require more of our attention. And the site stayed in hibernation for about four years.
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Most of the products and services offered by Waking Spirit developed between 2015 - 2020, when I co-owned a small business, One Small Stone, with a group of friends in Winston-Salem, NC. One Small Stone was a side hustle for us as we completed various degree programs. As the years passed, everyone became busy with different careers and life-paths. We ultimately closed One Small Stone in January of 2020. The following September, I left Winston-Salem, NC, my home for 23 years, and returned to the Middle-Tennessee area, where I lived for the majority of my "growing-up" years.
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Today, Waking Spirit is a fusion of the site's original intent and practical experience gleaned from One Small Stone. First and foremost, Waking Spirit is a resource for those experiencing, embracing, and participating (or has a desire to participate) in the Awakening zeitgeist emerging within humanity's collective consciousness.