Creating Community and Connection in Times of Accelerated Change

By Lori Marie

For the last three years, I have been thinking a lot about community and connection and why it feels so important right now. As I talk with spirit and listen to the signs, it is apparent that many of us can agree that we are living through a unique period of accelerated change. People are questioning things they never questioned before. They are leaving careers, relationships, belief systems, moving to live off-grid and creating conscious communities, and letting go of versions of themselves that no longer feel right. More people are becoming curious about spirituality, consciousness, energy, healing, astrology, and the deeper questions surrounding why we are here and what this human experience is really about.

Going through these kinds of shifts can be exciting, but they can also be incredibly lonely. Sometimes you begin changing before the people around you do. You become interested in things your friends and family do not understand. You start asking different questions, looking at your life differently, and realizing that you need people around you who are willing to have conversations that go beyond what happened at work today or what everyone is watching on television.

This is why community is becoming so important. We have more ways to communicate with each other than at any other time in history, yet so many people feel disconnected. We can spend hours online, belong to dozens of groups, follow hundreds of people, and still feel like we have nowhere to go where we can simply be ourselves, talk about what we are experiencing, learn something new, and meet people who are also trying to understand their own path.

There is something powerful that happens when people come together. We learn from each other. We introduce one another to ideas and experiences we may never have discovered on our own. One conversation can change the direction of someone's life. One introduction can lead to a friendship, a collaboration, a teacher, a healing experience, or an opportunity that would never have happened if two people had not found themselves in the same room or community.

The spiritual and healing community needs more opportunities to work together, and when light reflects, it expands! There are so many gifted practitioners, teachers, healers, intuitives, artists, and people with knowledge to share, but many are trying to do everything alone. They are trying to find clients, build an audience, market themselves, rent spaces, organize events, teach classes, and create community while also doing the work they actually feel called to do.

At the same time, there are people searching for exactly what these practitioners have to offer. They want to learn. They want to explore different healing modalities. They want to attend circles, classes, workshops, and gatherings. They want to meet other people who are interested in spirituality and personal transformation, but they do not always know where to find them.

This about it, what would happen if we created more bridges between those doing the work and those who need assistance in doing the work?

What if someone interested in astrology attended a gathering and discovered Reiki? What if someone looking for a meditation class met a teacher who introduced them to mediumship, sound healing, herbalism, consciousness studies, or another path they had never considered? What if a new practitioner who had been wondering how to begin had a community where they could meet people, share their gifts, and learn from others who had been doing this work for years?

This is the kind of community I want to help create.

I do not believe everyone needs to practice the same thing or believe the same things. In fact, I think one of the greatest benefits of community is being exposed to people who see the world differently than we do. We can be curious. We can ask questions. We can share what we have learned and listen to the experiences of others. We can take what resonates with us, leave what does not, and continue learning.

There is also something to be said for simply having somewhere to belong. I think sometimes we make community more complicated than it needs to be. Community can be sitting around a table having coffee and talking about an idea. It can be attending a class and realizing the person sitting next to you has been going through something similar. It can be sharing resources, supporting someone's new business, showing up for an event, introducing two people who should know each other, or offering encouragement to someone who is trying something new.

We all have something we can contribute.

This belief is one of the reasons I created the 8th House Mystery School. I wanted to create an online space where people could connect across cities, states, and countries and have access to teachers, classes, conversations, resources, and different areas of spiritual and personal development. There are so many subjects people may feel called to explore along their healing and spiritual paths, and I wanted to create a place where they could discover new areas of study while also becoming part of a community.

The Mystery School is still growing and evolving, and I believe that is how it should be. I do not want to create something where people simply sign up, consume information, and leave. I want people to participate. I want them to introduce themselves, start conversations, ask questions, create groups, share what they are passionate about, meet teachers, find friends, and eventually become teachers and contributors themselves if that is where their path leads them.

My vision for the 8th House Mystery School has always been bigger than an online school. I see it as a community that can eventually reach people throughout the United States and internationally. I want people from different backgrounds, cultures, traditions, and areas of study to have opportunities to learn from one another. I believe there is tremendous value in creating spaces where people can explore different ideas and practices while developing their own understanding of what spirituality, healing, and personal transformation mean to them.

At the same time, I have felt called for many years to create something in person.

I live in Arizona's East Valley, and I know there are people all around me who are looking for community. There are healers working from their homes, practitioners looking for affordable places to see clients, teachers who would love to offer classes, people who want to hold circles and workshops, and others who simply want somewhere to go where they can meet people who share some of their interests.

That is why I am beginning to create The Spirit Collective.

My vision is to bring together people throughout the East Valley who are interested in creating a spiritual and healing community. I want to meet the practitioners, teachers, healers, artists, creators, and community members who are already here. I want to hear what people need, what they would like to offer, what resources they have, what challenges they are facing, and what we might be able to create by working together.

Eventually, I would love to see The Spirit Collective have a physical home where practitioners can offer services, teachers can hold classes, people can gather for events and conversations, and the community can support a marketplace filled with products and services from local spiritual businesses and creators. I imagine a place where someone can come for a healing session, stay for a class, discover a new book or crystal, meet someone over coffee, attend an evening gathering, or simply spend time around people they enjoy being with.

But before there is a building, there has to be a community.

That is where I am starting.

I am calling in the people of Arizona's East Valley who feel there is a need for something like this. You may be an experienced practitioner who has been doing this work for decades, or you may be someone who is just beginning to explore your spiritual path. You may have something you want to teach, a service you want to offer, an idea you have been carrying around for years, or simply a desire to meet people and be part of something meaningful.

I want to hear from you.

I want us to sit around tables, drink coffee, have conversations, share ideas, and find out what happens when people who have been looking for community finally begin finding each other.

For those who are not in Arizona, the 8th House Mystery School is my way of creating that connection beyond geography. It is a place where people throughout the United States and around the world can learn, connect, share their interests, discover new areas of spiritual study, and become part of a growing community.

For those of you here in Arizona's East Valley, The Spirit Collective is the beginning of creating something together right here at home.

I do not know exactly what these communities will look like five or ten years from now, and I am okay with that. Some things need room to grow. They need people to bring their ideas, experiences, gifts, and energy into the process. I know what I am being called to create, and I know I cannot create community alone.

Community requires participation. It requires people willing to show up, have conversations, support one another, share what they know, and make room for people who are still finding their way.

We are living through a time when many people are questioning where they belong and searching for deeper meaning and connection. I believe we have an opportunity to create the spaces we have been looking for and to help other people find them too.

Maybe the next teacher you need to meet lives ten minutes away from you. Maybe someone in another country has been studying something that will completely change the way you see your own path. Maybe the person you meet at a coffee gathering becomes a lifelong friend, a business collaborator, or someone who introduces you to an idea you would never have discovered otherwise.

We cannot know what becomes possible until we begin finding each other.

That is what I am creating through the 8th House Mystery School and The Spirit Collective.

And if any part of this speaks to you, I invite you to become part of it.

It Starts Here.

Lori Marie