Kate Steichen’s Spiritual Journey – Joie de Vivre
Kate has had experiences in multiple dimensions of life. Although she was introduced to a structured religious tradition in childhood, she has long received visions and mystical experiences.
Her mother was raised as a Protestant but converted to Roman Catholic when she married. Believing Catholic schools offered a better education, both parents were happy to enroll Kate and her brothers in them.
Despite the rules in the Catholic school, Kate had been taught to think for herself. Even as a child she questioned what she was taught. Why, for example, could women only be at the altar to change the doilies? Why should she confess sins she couldn’t identify?
Alongside Catholic practices, Kate recalls early mystical experiences. As a grade school student, for example, she once, while riding a city bus, envisioned the Virgin Mary coming to her – an event that left her with a lasting sense that God exists everywhere – not just in a church.
Despite the good education during her freshman year at a Catholic Girls’ Academy, Kate was frustrated when she was denied access to both art classes, which were her love, and advanced placement courses. For that reason, she transferred to a public school. She then experienced discrimination for no longer being a parochial school student, so stopped participating in Roman Catholic services and sacraments.
Ironically, she experienced that same difficulty pursuing her love of art when applying for college scholarships. Kate’s quiet inner voice guided her to follow her artistic calling. She was accepted as a Centennial Scholar at the University of Denver and only by remaining undeclared for two years could she study fine art.
During that time, art was her passion, as well as its own meditative practice. Religious thoughts faded to the background. She attended church only occasionally, such as on Easter. One such Easter Mass, attended with a Jewish classmate, prompted further questioning when her friend remarked, “’Eat his body; drink his blood,’ –– that’s cannibalism!”
On the last night of her second and last year at the University of Denver, Kate experienced a life-altering bicycle accident. She describes what followed as a near-death experience –-being drawn farther and farther into an ecstatic tunnel of light until she found herself in blackness and heard what she believed was the voice of God saying, “Get back in your body. You haven’t even begun to do what you are here to do.” A gift of that experience was that Kate no longer feared death.
While at the University of Denver, Kate met Arthur, a man of Greek heritage who shared her skepticism toward hierarchical religion. After investigating many churches, and being rejected by both Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox church leaders for not being willing to follow church orthodoxy, they eventually chose to marry in a Quaker meeting house.
Kate was fortunate to be able to pursue her passion for art in a huge, 500-student art department at the University of Illinois, where she studied for her final two years of undergraduate education, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking.
Following graduation from the University of Illinois, Kate joined the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, beginning a rich 20-year period in the Boston/Cambridge area. Having begun as the museum’s graphic designer and photographer, Kate was successful in leading the museum’s art school and describes that period as a time when “Life was my art, my practice, my teacher.”
Those years also included earning a master’s degree from Harvard Business School and working for seven years as a marketing executive for Parker Brothers before starting her own firm as a creativity consultant to Fortune 500 corporations over the next decade.
During this period, issues over having children led to her divorce from Arthur. Kate’s inner voice asked, “What is my feminine creativity as a woman, not dependent upon whether or not I have a child?” Around this time, she experienced another profound inner event–––a “conscious dying” vision in which she experienced dissolving into the universe. She decided that the inner journey is much more fulfilling than one’s outer journey.
In Cambridge, Kate met and married Frank in a civil ceremony. A practicing Buddhist, Frank introduced her to meditation and retreat practice. Kate started a regular practice of Vipassana meditation, Hatha Yoga, and their annual, week-long silent retreat at Christmas time.
At about age 30, Kate received the inner question, “Why are you here?” This question triggered an 18-year quest that included exploring many human potential, mystical, and psychological venues, resulting in becoming certified as a Polarity Therapist, a Psychosynthesis Guide, and a Professional Mediator.
It was also during this period that Kate began participating in and later leading vision quests, inspired by John Milton, a pioneer in bringing wilderness-based spiritual practices into contemporary Western life. (He was one of the first ecologists on staff at the White House as a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, and was a founding member of the environmental organization Friends of the Earth.)
One vivid memory is of a week-long Wilderness Solo in Baja in 1988, when her clothes (and more importantly, the solution for her contact lens) were lost in flight. She was left alone for a week and recalls hearing what she described as a majestic angelic choir on her last night alone on Christmas eve.
The following year, during a retreat in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona with John Milton, Kate experienced a powerful drumming ceremony. She interpreted it as marking the end of her marriage to Frank and the beginning of a new life, symbolized by an image of an empty nest that appeared on the ground the following morning. It signaled to her that ending the marriage was OK as the beginning of a new life.
After their eight-year marriage ended, Kate received inner guidance to move to Crestone, Colorado, where her inner voice told her to purchase land where she would learn directly from the land and be alone in a way that she had never been before.
Crestone, once a mining town, has become a spiritual center for many world religions, including a Hindu ashram, two Zen Buddhist retreat centers, many Tibetan Buddhist centers and stupas, and the presence of Catholic and Episcopalian chapels, as well as other religious and New Age activities. In the early 1980’s, much of this spiritual development was catalyzed by the couple Hanne and Maurice Strong, he a multimillionaire businessman and United Nations Undersecretary for the Environment.
Crestone is often described as one of the most spiritually charged places in the United States, with a unique “vortex” of energy that draws people from around the world. The spiritual energy in Crestone is a blend of natural geography, high-altitude atmosphere, and the concentrated presence of diverse religious communities. It’s not just a physical place but a perceived energetic field that draws seekers, practitioners, and visitors alike, making it a distinctive destination for those seeking connection, peace, and transformation. (Native Americans taught that Crestone is a place to pray, to vision, and to die.)
Kate, who had always been open to visions, recalls a vision she had before moving to Crestone. It was of a young girl dancing gleefully in a mountain meadow full of wildflowers. She took this message as confirmation of her next step.
Early in her time in Crestone, Kate decided that she wasn’t sent to Crestone to make money and offered her expertise for free instead.
She would remain in Crestone in the same house for 35 years. (Kate had never lived in a house for over five years during her entire life before this!)
During those 35 years, Kate interacted with a wide range of spiritual leaders and practices. This included a seven-day, silent Zen Buddhist Seshin with Richard Baker Roshi.
Many times, during her adult life, Kate experienced a conscious dying, which assured her of how glorious is the spiritual life following death. These experiences enabled Kate to telepathically release her father from his fear of dying.
She was initiated into the practice of Sufi meditation through work with Shaykha Fariha al Jerrahi, who is a female Sufi leader of a worldwide tariqat (Community of Lovers). Early in her Sufi practice, Kate had what she describes as a “visceral experience of the incredible power held by the Prophet Muhammad and all true Prophets throughout time.” Shaykha Fariha asked her to become the Crestone Circle Guide, which meant being a representative of the Shaykh and leading a group in this mystical, inclusive, devotional path, the goal of which is to become empty of all but God.
While in Crestone, Kate first became involved in community activism when the federal government identified the San Luis Valley that included Crestone as a military training ground. She met Brigadier General Mason Whitney and, through respectful dialogue, helped convey the community’s needs. After their meeting he said to her, “Thank you for not calling me names!” Instead, she took him inside a Catholic chapel during his visit, whereupon he said, “I can see that these people need absolute quiet to do what they are here to do.” It took another six months, including nationwide TV and New York Times coverage but the military training plan was canceled.
Kate’s community work led her to meet John, her third life partner, who practiced Tibetan Buddhism and later became initiated as a Sufi dervish.
After her 35 years, she and John decided to leave Crestone to be near medical care in La Jolla, CA, bringing with her all that she had learned and practiced. Also important was bringing enduring friends, including a daily email exchange with a close friend in Sweden in which each serves as a supportive witness of the other’s life.
Among the many teachings she carried forward was one from a women she called her “Crazy Wisdom Teacher,” who helped her recognize her essential purpose as “joie de vivre” – a joyful embrace of life.
That phrase, “Joie de vivre,” remains the clearest expression of how Kate lives.