”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 someone, they will jump.”*
A newsletter from Hillary & Bradford Keeney, creators of Sacred Ecstatics.
Brad and I are authors, shamanic scholars, spiritual electricians, creative (anti)therapists, and co-founders of Sacred Ecstatics: a music-led, movement-fed approach to everyday mysticism that cooks the soul, ignites the heart, and awakens the creative life force.
The primary vehicle for our work is the Sacred Ecstatics Guild. Founded in 2014, the Guild is a seasonal online community that embarks on an annual, seven-month immersion in ecstatic mysticism. As hunter-gatherers of fire-born jubilation, passionate artists of reality invention, and spiritual engineers of higher sensation, we cultivate creative communion with the divine.
Here is our manifesto:
This newsletter offers a glimpse inside the Sacred Ecstatics universe. Essays are primarily written by me, Hillary, but all audio tracks 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, this newsletter is free to all. If you enjoy it, please share it. 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, to book a Reset Session, or to join the next Guild season, visit our website.
See you in the big room,
Hillary & Brad
*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.
