Crystal’s Story…
Crystal L. Steinberg is a highly creative soul. She fell in love with art as a child but found little creativity in art classes. After determining to postpone making art until she retired, creativity continued to permeate her life. While teaching at Marquette University High School, she created and coordinated an Academic Support Program for at-risk students. She also designed curricula such as “Literature and the Visual Arts” and “Literature and Diversity.” The Art Institute of Chicago invited her to teach teachers about using the museum and its exhibits in their classrooms.
A misdiagnosis of a brain tumor found her discerning more about her purpose, she attended seminary. During this time, she partnered with The Parliament of World Religions with The Art Institute of Chicago to facilitate a variety of programs. She served as a parish pastor and mission developer until her mother received a terminal diagnosis. She took a leave from call to help facilitate her mom’s living while actively dying.
When grief surrounded Crystal after the loss of her mother, it caused monthly body memories that regularly fostered tears. This is when she met the Essences. When she first inhaled Lemon, she closed her eyes and experienced an angelic being presenting it on a stone before her. Eventually, a symbiotic relationship between the gifts of the Plants and Trees and Crystal’s creativity emerged. Ongoing anointing of clients and herself helped her understand that healing, in large part, comes from within. This is when she became a Myrrhophore initiate in the legacy of Mary Magdalene and a student of Toltec Wisdom.
Recognizing herself as a wounded and scarred woman of faith, Crystal traveled through the Lutheran Synods, seminary, ordination, and serving as a parish pastor in search for meaning. It was not until she decided that she would rather go to hell than remain in a broken, dogmatic system that she left the church roster and consciously turned inward to find meaning instead. Here to create as all are in a variety of ways, she witnesses connections between things, questions one “right” way for everyone, and refuses to check her brain at the church door as a sign of faith. Tending to her wounds and scars helps her understand her need to walk within to find Wholeness. A Wholeness that does not seek perfection but rather creates a container that can entertain diversity, conflict, and purpose without the need for power and control of others. With this mindset, Crystal helps clients learn to manage their energy as they transition through healing, learning, and growing cycles throughout their lives.
Crystal’s publications and the gatherings that she facilitates help participants unlearn religious dogma and discover what resides within them.
In addition to Walk Within—Reclaim Your Spiritual Nature: Advent, Solstice, & Christmas Path, Crystal’s forthcoming book, The Walk Within: Companion Journal offers an abundance of additional space for creating written and/or visual responses on each path. These contemplations inspire Word and Image Synthesis to help reclaim and co-create a world of Compassion, Love, and Beauty even in the midst of pain, woundedness, and healing.
