Spirit House Founder Aja Daashuur On Democratizing Spirituality & Wellness

During days when communal sound baths and busy breathwork circles are a distant memory, Spirit House Collective is a place to tune in with community, sans the germs.

Before the pandemic, the collective of spiritual practitioners hosted gatherings in pop-up locations across the country. Since COVID hit, they have transferred their offerings (think coffee readings, akashic records, and spell-poem casting workshops) into the digital arena.

That's not the only change made. Following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police and ensuing Black Lives Matter protests, the WOC-led space started an aptly named True Wellness program.

With this program, founder Aja Daashuur hopes to chip away at the barriers that have historically kept the BIPOC community sidelined from wellness by giving white and white-passing people the option to fund workshops for Black people and non-Black POC.

Now more than ever, Daashuur thinks that wellness—specifically, the more spiritual side of wellness—needs to be a basic human right.

"People are feeling rudderless right now," she says on a call to mbg. "I think that's why spirituality is having a renaissance period. People are like, 'I want to know who I am. I don't want to be told who I am anymore. I want to make my own decisions. And I really want to connect to how powerful, how divine, and how limitless my soul can be.'"

Daashuur's preferred medium for tapping into expansive energy during restrictive times is spirit guide communication. Each week, she holds a weekly Spirit Church session that connects a virtual group with loving guides and ancestors. She has seen it be a powerful experience, especially for BIPOC folks who are holding onto generational trauma.

"Trusting that there are energies that truly care about our interests can—I know it sounds cheesy, but—it can make the world a more inclusive, diverse place all around," she says.

This time of year lends itself to spiritual work: "Dating back to Paganism, this has historically been a time when a more concentrated effort is made on connection," Daashuur explains. "We are focusing a lot of energy on paying respects to those who have come before us, and that is already creating a charged energy to reach through the veil and receive guidance from those that aren't on this plane anymore."

She says that the first step in doing so is sitting in meditation. While it can be difficult to turn your attention away from your physical experience, it's the only way that any sort of metaphysical guidance can come through. Intuitive guidance doesn't tend to visit when our mind is still stuck in our last zoom call.

"You're trying to allow your subconscious mind to push information to your conscious mind," she says. "So when you're meditating and things are coming through, whether it's words, images, body feelings, don't ask yourself in the beginning what's happening. Just allow it."