”I used to wonder what made people shout, but now I don’t. There is a joy on the inside, and it wells up so strong that we can’t keep still. It is fire in the bones. Any time that fire touches a man, he will jump.”*
Welcome to Fire in the Bones, a newsletter from Hillary & Bradford Keeney
We live in a time when calm mindfulness, quiet stillness, and cool composure are overemphasized at the expense of heightened sacred emotion, quaking bodies, and soulful commotion. The less traveled path to transformation aims to set the heart and soul aflame.
Welcome to the quest for sacred ecstasy.
Brad and I are authors, former academics, creative (anti)therapists, and co-founders of Sacred Ecstatics, an experiential approach to everyday mysticism that lights a fire in the soul and awakens the creative life force.
The primary vehicle for our work is the Sacred Ecstatics Guild. Founded in 2014, the Guild is a global online community of people dedicated to living as ecstatic mystics—hunters and gatherers of fire-born jubilation, passionate artists of reality invention, and spiritual engineers of higher sensation. Here is our manifesto:
The Guild runs seasonally from October through April, and each year we go on an unpredictable odyssey guided by visionary dreams. Anchored by our weekly online Spirit House Meetings, we use these dreamtime threads to weave a new reality until it palpably feels as if we’re living in another world—the big room of mystery that is the mystic’s true home.
This newsletter gives readers a glimpse inside the Sacred Ecstatics universe. Essays are primarily written by me, Hillary, but all audio productions feature Brad on vocals and piano. Subscribers can expect new essays monthly, with the occasional lagniappe post.
(“Lagniappe” is a New Orleans term for “a little something extra.” We are fortunate to call New Orleans home.)
For now, my writing is free to all. If you enjoy it, please spread the word. Sacred Ecstatics flourishes entirely by word-of-mouth. To those of you who have pledged your future paid support: thank you!
For more about us, our books, or to join the next Guild season, visit our website.
See you in the big room,
Hillary & Brad Keeney
*From the book, God Struck Me Dead: Religious Conversion Experiences and Autobiographies of Ex-Slaves, Edited by Clifton Johnson, Fisk University, (1969), p. 74
Welcome page painting is by Mark Bryan.
