We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ishadai Jones a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ishadai, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

It is the year of the snake and the snake sheds the old ways it has outgrown. This year feels so much like the great snake shed, revealing the new and the risk to do something radically different, not defining my life or seeing myself through the lens of who I was, but see the possibilities of who I am becoming.

Recently, I made a prayer, “I am ready to go to the next level of my life.” Wow, I didn’t realize the prayer was a risk I was taking on my life and my work as a teacher of the mystic arts. Three weeks later, my life turned upside down and was a mess. Everything in my work spiraled downward, people revealed where they were, betrayal, abandonment, and rejection and the universe kicking my ass to get out of a work situation that I have outgrown was full on. However, I didn’t realize then it was an answer to my prayer, and the universe conspiring to to make way for the next level. I believe when practicing and doing the best we can with integrity, things are taken away from a lower level to be replaced in a higher level. Two weeks after being in a mess of rejection, and feeling like at the bottom of the barrel, I practiced more and especially when I felt the pains of rejection and betrayal of my business partner, students, and of myself. I practiced throughout the day to see the lessons in the situation and how. I helped to create the situation. I worked to fully be accountable of my actions, and move through, what spiritual seekers term as “the dark night of the soul.” After practicing relentlessly, I then felt energy surges like never before in my meditations. I felt the height of my guides and could feel my crown expand and go higher than before and felt the depth calm of my soul, amidst the chaos and confusion. The calm was so deep, the shakiness of my heart never returned. A friend gifted me a reading and another intuitive friend echoed the same sentiment that I am going to the next level, let the old go, do not get stuck in the stories based on dramas of others and petty gains, and justification which distorts the container and the heart of the work. A few days after, I then got an email from my teacher who my husband and I have been training with for about 18 years, and with whom we received our doctoral degree and ordination as a Priest in Christian Mysticism and as a teacher in Buddhism. He emailed us to refer a student, letting us know as he is retiring, and he is referring students to us to carry on the lineage and teachings his life’s work, he so kindly and generously shared. I was beside myself, what an amazing honor to continue his work and legacy, especially in the field of Buddhism, where my husband and I have been focusing our training for two decades. I felt so grateful and see the invitation to go to the next level. When I spoke with my teacher about my situation of feeling ousted from my previous work by a business partner, he had shared how when we do this work of the Divine, it is not our mission it is the Divine’s mission and what is aligned will be revealed, and what is not aligned released. It is part of the path, however painful the pruning may be, it is our work to stay aligned and with integrity to the light of the work. Now as I am letting go of my past circle and work, I clearly see the rejection was protection of the next level of work. The teachers reveal themselves, the students choose, and will they get stuck in the drama and get duped by emotions or allow the eyes of the heart to see past them, and to choose from the observer, the soul witness. The wisdom of the heart The risk I took with my prayer has revolutionized how I see my life, my work, spiritual path, and the power of the Divine at work in my depths of my life. From this experience I can truly appreciate the depth of my commitment to my work as a teacher, and the expression of that work into the world, valuing my own work, like never before. Before I thought I couldn’t stand on my own, now the prayers reveals the risk I must take that is before me to believe in myself that I can. I can stop hiding behind others and step up to the plate and go to the next level in sharing who I am and serve from the depths of my being uncompromisingly and not playing small. I am grateful for the lessons I have learned regarding trust and integrity. As I write this, I also remember another teaching, when one deepens into the mystic work in the most subtle levels, when you miss by an inch, you miss by a mile. So as one deepens into the work, it is important to stay in integrity and in the clarity of light otherwise, the subtle truths we keep can create great distortions of the mind and emotions that distorts our perception of reality and how we engage and create our world.

Ishadai, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My path as a spiritual seeker and healer began when I was 12 years old, I felt drawn to the spiritual path and a life of service of healing, spreading light and love into our world. I then began to study, volunteer, and train with the nuns in the local area. I began tai ji and qigong when I was about 19 and was embraced like a daughter by my taiji teacher Sifu Yao. She recognized my healing abilities and taught me about energy work and taiji specific to cultivating healing gifts. We all have healing abilities, it is our inherent power and part of my work is to support to awaken them through activation and practice. As an adult, I went ashram hopping, lived in Tibetan Buddhist Gompa (meditation center), for 6 years, Hindu ashram for 3 years, Zen center for 3 years, and various monasteries studying and training with master teachers. I then. pursued healing, became an Acupuncturist, receiving my Masters in Chinese medicine, herbalism, and shamanism. I am an ordained Christian Mystic and Buddhist Lama. I have a Doctorate in Medical Qi gong, and studied and trained as a shaman for two decades through living teachers and my guides in Lucid Dreaming Time in night school. My dedication and training takes my work at the soul level. I offer 5 Element Readings, Relationship Compatibility and serve as a Life and Spiritual Coach, Birth and Death Doula. I am writing a few books: “Becoming Sovereign,” “Virtuous Bread,” “The Living Trinity,” “The Flowers of Awakening,” and “Love Without Agenda.” I also teach workshops and have longer trainings in Mysticism with ordination as a Mystic Priest and Priestess. My husband and I have an ongoing class “Becoming Sovereign,” bringing together mystic teachings and practices with 5 Element perspective to navigate through the year. This class and. the book is based on reclaiming our natural inherent power as a sovereign divine being naturally through the seasons of our lives, using the year as the microcosm of the macrocosm of our cyclical life. In my work as a teacher, we explore wisdom teachings and practices from different mystic, and wisdom traditions to remember our true nature and cultivate our clarity, coherence, joy, power, and love to heal our lives, our ancestors, our world. We are moving through great transitions in our world, and the great change that is happening is happening through each and every one of us. We need to support each other and re-member our sovereign power to heal, transform, create, and celebrate our lives and our world.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Your work speaks louder than words. I work primarily through word of mouth.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

I think one of the most important skill to have is being present and open with your client. The work at the subtle level is not dependent on the mind, but opening beyond the known, knowing without knowing, When we are present and open beyond the limitation of our knowledge, we are able to access what is needed in the moment for the client. There have been plenty of. times where I learned a technique on the spot and applied it to be exactly what the client needed to support them in their healing. It is important have presence because of the livingness of the being and what they may need in the moment the mind can not comprehend, because sometimes it is more subtle than the mind, it may be spiritual or soul work, and to access and work at the level of soul requires the depth that goes beyond the mind and the self. It is good to have training, have credible skill and knowledge, but if they are not used relevantly and at the level it is needed, then the work may not be effective or as effective. We say in the healing field, that we are vessels of healing, we are not the one doing the healing. We let our ego go, our mind go, our preconceptions and ideas go, to allow a higher guidance of light to guide the healing that has ripened to receive.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ishadai.org
• Instagram: ishadai888
• Linkedin: grace jones
• Youtube: ishadai888