I'm Rebecca Jackson-Aydelette 

 

and I'm so glad you're here!

 

I’m a Spiritual Director (though I also adore the words Spiritual Companion and Spiritual Midwife)

My greatest privilege is to companion people just like you on their spiritual journeys as they explore what nourishes them, what connects them and what makes them feel most fully alive.

By combining Focusing, Reiki, aromatherapy, SoulCollage®, journaling and the labyrinth, I offer support for remembering and re-membering (as in putting back together) who they are as they reconnect with their inner truth and wisdom and with their Higher Power.

 

 My Spiritual Journey

I grew up at the end of a mile-long dirt road.

 

The woods were my backyard and the river was my front yard. I had the gift of roaming and I spent countless hours by the shore and in the woods experiencing Mother Nature, reveling in Her wildness and my own.

In nature, I always felt like I belonged.

I've always known there's something larger than me and that it is pure LOVE.

I've always known that I belong in that LOVE. 

And I've always known that a spark of that something larger lives inside me as pure LOVE.

I dwell in the Oneness and the Oneness dwells in me.

I didn't get that from church.

I got that from growing up outside.

I've spent a lot of my life inside churches.

I was brought up in a moderate United Methodist Church and spent the better part of two decades as a member of a fairly liberal Presbyterian Church (PCUSA).

And as hard as I tried to fit in, a part of me never felt like it belonged.

My Celtic DNA runs deeper than any church theology or dogma and though the language of the Celtic traditions of my ancestors has long been lost in my lineage, I've always felt the connections deep in the marrow of my bones.

Around 2014, when the PCUSA was deeply debating their stance on LGBTQI+ people (whether they could be part of church leadership and whether they supported performing marriages of LGBTQI+ couples), I decided that I was tired of trying to fit my beliefs of God and how God loves, into a man-made box.

Religion felt too small for me and too constricting.

When I began my studies for Spiritual Direction at The Haden Institute, I was asked to write my spiritual autobiography. In it, I wrote:

 

I've always known that I'm part of something sacred, something much greater that also lives inside me. My belief in the man-made God I learned about in church was always shaky, at best . . . but my faith and trust in a Creator whose love and creativity and compassion is infinite has always been at the core of my being.

 

Writing that felt bold and courageous and a little dangerous; as if by writing it, I was confessing a secret part of me that held the potential for my undoing.

And I was right.

Writing it, saying it out loud, was absolutely the beginning of my undoing . . . the final undoing of the restraints and constraints I'd willingly worn to fit in and to feel like I belonged.

I began to understand that my spirituality is an intrinsic part of my being and that to hide it or to make it small meant that I wasn't living wholly as who I was created to be. I'd become disconnected from what gave my life meaning.

And so I began to ask hard questions.

And I began to listen.

I embarked on a pilgrimage of sorts. I read books, journaled, cut and pasted, reconnected with nature, worked with my dreams, and so much more. I began to feel a transformation. I was rediscovering and experiencing that spark of Divine Love I'd known as a child; that spark that resides deep within my heart. The more I experienced it, the less fear I held onto and the more connected I began to feel with every facet of my life. 

Each of us walks a different journey through life and yet, every time someone shares their story with me, I see a little bit of my story in theirs and it reminds me that we are all connected. 

One of the greatest privileges of being a Spiritual Director is in witnessing both the humanity and the divinity in each of us. Seeing them coexist in ways that remind me of why I believe Marianne Williamson is right when she says,

 

"Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth."

 

Clary & Sage

When I look back to my childhood, 

 

my memories are filled with cutting and pasting, creating things with my hands, mixing plant medicines, wandering in the woods, playing by the shore, nursing hurt animals back to health and a deep spiritual connection to my Creator.

Discovering my own soul-tending practices came from revisiting these memories; they held the wisdom I needed to reconnect with my truest self.

Over the years, I’ve assembled a personal apothecary, of sorts. Like a spice cabinet, it contains different spices that I call on for different reasons. Some, like my journal, my deck of SoulCollage® cards, a select few essential oils and a handful of crystals, I use often. I’ve created a relationship with them, and I consider them to be my trusted friends, or allies.

Clary Sage is one of those close allies. Traditionally known as a “woman’s herb,” it is said to bring comfort and ease during menstruation and menopause. I know it best as an essential oil and over the years, it has assisted me with finding clarity and vision in my life.

Sage is one of the few plants I have in my tiny herb garden (a generous description of what it actually is). A handful of plants have decided they enjoy the little patch of rocky, red clay I deposited them in several years ago. I’ve come to understand that if it’s chosen to stay, it probably has some wisdom to share with me . . . you’re likely familiar with “wise sage” and “sage wisdom.”

And so, there you have it, Clary & Sage . . . clarity and wisdom.

My Wish for Us 

Clarity and wisdom is my wish for all of us.

 

I know what it is to be depleted and overwhelmed in all the ways we find ourselves disconnected from our hearts these days.

I have experienced deep, transformative healing from intentional soul-tending on my own spiritual journey.

Because of that, I feel an intense desire to invite and encourage you to find or rediscover your own sacred truths and innate wisdom.

Finding meaningful ways to reconnect with myself, and tend my own soul have been the most important aspects of my own healing journey and companioning you on your journey back to yourself would be one of my greatest honors.

Stay Connected

 

Sign up with your email address to receive my (almost) weekly Wishes for You newsletter.

 

It's an honor to be invited into your inbox and I'll never share your information or send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.