A Beautiful Life – Helen Celestine Escoffier

I first met Helen several years ago, while still living in the city. When my husband Julian and I were ready to move, Helen and her mother, Cathryn, recommended Westchester and helped us to find our house. I will never forget the first time she came to visit us here. She staggered through the doorway carrying a giant amethyst crystal over a foot and a half high, “I brought you a housewarming present” she said, and then added with a laugh “but can you help me now, it’s very heavy?” So together we carried it up the stairs to my meditation room and between us we actually felt and sensed the perfect placement for it. That is where it still sits, in an honored position.

It feels like our many years of friendship and visits just flew by. So many days we would gather around Helen’s kitchen table, and I’d get to know some of the many wonderful people in the StarVisions community. Everybody knew that her door was always open to anybody who needed her. On other occasions Helen came to dinners at our house, and fit right in with all of the people we introduced her to. It was a wonderful friendship of mutual exchange of ideas, friends, and more.

This last Sunday, the 24th June 2012, the day of Helen’s memorial, was beautiful and sunny. The church was packed to overflowing with dear friends and family, and it was clear to see how much she was loved and adored by all. The ceremony opened with Bear Walker’s loving words and his drumming set the pace and provided the heartbeat of the service. The Reverend Deborah Moldow gave a beautiful welcoming speech and Howard Kelly’s warm humor lifted our spirits and brought smiles to our faces. There were so many wonderful eloquent speakers, including Roland Comtois and Deana Marie. Many thanks to Jim Guerci for everything he did, as well as putting together the inspirational video display with Helen’s vision of the world and hope for StarVision’s future.

Also thanks to Jim Rusin who spoke movingly as he thanked the community. He, his wife Leila, and so many truly loving people helped Helen in her last days. I personally don’t know all their names but they were there for Helen when she most needed them and for that they deserve our heartfelt thanks and love.

The various musical offerings and meditations were a real solace to us all. I couldn’t help but think that this was Helen’s real gift to us: this wonderful community that shares so much love that we can heal each other from this great loss, and together continue her vision.

To listen to a podcast interview with Helen go to Interview

To visit Starvisions, go to www.starvisions.org


Book Review of “Life is Eternal Newness”

| by Staff

A practical book on meditation and enlightenment, a must read for any spiritual seeker. A more poetic Eckhart Tolle; Kahlil Gibran meets Krishnamurti. Ilie Cioara’s message is original and unique, as he never travelled to India and never belonged to any traditional school. By practicing the silence of the mind, through an all-encompassing attention, we discover and fulfill our innermost potential of becoming one with the divine spark that lies dormant within us.

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Book Review of Dreaming the Soul Back Home

| by Cheryl Shainmark

Anything by Robert Moss is always a treat, and Dreaming the Soul Back Home is no exception. This may be Moss’ best effort yet at bringing shamanic healing to the fore. For anyone searching for lost fragments of themselves, this wonderful book is like a treasure map with “X marks the spot” on it.

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Cultivating Joy with Triza Schultz

| by Triza Schultz

Indigenous people around the world have always known that every aspect of nature is also a teacher for spiritual growth. Every animal for example, offers its own “medicine” simply by its way of being that can teach us wisdom about living in harmony with nature and balancing our own lives. Hummingbird teaches us to seek out the sweet nectar in daily life.

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Soul Stories with Roland Comtois

Roland M. Comtois is an internationally acclaimed channel, best selling speaker and author of “And Then There was Heaven” and “A Journey of Hope and Love.” Join him on his live streaming radio show “Soul Stories” on www.talkstreamradio.com every Wednesday evenings at 7:00PM.

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Are Your Organic Almonds Really Raw?

| by Reviewer

Few people realize that most of the almonds sold in the US that are marked “Raw” are actually processed with a steam pasteurization process that can reach temperatures of 150 degrees Fahrenheit or greater. Since a 2007 mandate was passed by the USDA and FDA, all US grown almonds, both organic and non-organic, must be pasteurized prior to sale.

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Soular Astrology with Jude Currivan

| by Jude Currivan

W ith the situations in Syria and the Eurozone crisis worsening, the continuing influence of the eclipses is merging with the other powerful astrological alignments of these next few months. The transit of Venus on 5th/6th June whose influence will also be felt for some time offers us a way of healing these outer conflicts and unsustainable systems through an inner and outer rebalancing and empowerment of the divine feminine and attributes of inclusion and compassion within our individual and collective psyche.

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Robert Moss on Dreaming the Soul Back Home

With the June 15th publication of his newest book, Dreaming the Soul Back Home, Robert Moss answers some of the questions he frequently encounters from readers and workshop attendees.

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Change your Life with Fairytales by Peter Gruenewald, MD

| by Peter Gruenewald, MD

Peter Gruenewald, MD Creator of Personal Resilience, has released three new CD that use elements of therapeutic story telling and trance state induced through bilateral brain stimulation (as used in EMDR), heart rate variability training (breathing technique with breath pacer) and slow music composed at a rhythm of less than 60 beats per minute.

The techniques behind Personal Resilience are a powerful combination of Creative Visualization, Heart Rate Variability Training and Bilateral Brain Stimulation (inspired by EMDR)

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Recognizing a Liminal Moment

| by Cheryl Shainmark

Liminal moments can be sublime, or transcendental. If you’ve ever experienced the beauty and mystery of a synchronicity, and felt that momentary pause and a sense of glimpsing something bigger, then you’ve had a liminal moment.

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