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Maggie Kelly has reopened Satsang House near Rancho Santa Fe. Photo by Mallory Olenius
ColumnsSoul on Fire

Soul on Fire: Exploring a house of meditation

With things opening back up and new demands returning in the household, do you have a plan to stay centered? Are you feeling anxious after this year-long sabbatical of isolation?

How is your spiritual practice going? Are you ready to go back into the world full throttle?

Before you ramp back up, you might want to add a regular meditation practice to your arsenal to handle life on life’s terms.

You will notice a common theme within all the articles in this column. The answers are all within. The world is only going to change from within. To have a Soul on Fire, one must hear that still small voice within.

How do we go within?

Suppose we could just get still. 

Rumi wrote,  “There’s a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen.”

But how do we get there?

I want to introduce Maggie Kelly to the readership. She has created a space that allows a person to remember who they are and why they are here —The Satsang House. Satsang, loosely translated, means a community that joins together searching for truth.

Maggie was in middle management for HBO and got ground down like most of us who end up on a path to awakening. Chronic illness, divorce, kids with their own set of problems brought Maggie to a place where she was looking for a way out. Feeling stuck, she just needed help from the turmoil she found herself in and knew there had to be a better way.

In 2006, she took classes at the Chopra Center when it was in Carlsbad. In 2016, she became a Chopra Certified Meditation Teacher and now coaches, teaching meditation practice, guiding many into the return of their authentic spiritual self.

Using an ancient Vedic method of astrology, she discovers your unique Mantra. A Mantra is a word or sound that aids in concentration during Meditation. According to this Joytish method, the universe made a distinctively individual sound when each of us was born. A Primordial Sound. This is the method and vehicle behind the chatter of your mind. One has a place to land, on the Mantra, when our thoughts go off in different directions — known as the “monkey mind.”

“People learn to relax as a by-product of learning their unique mantra,” states Kelly. “There’s a silent state that exists within you, but we’re the ones who cover it up with texting and computers and constant notifications. When we return to the grounded state that is our spiritual self, we stop striving. We stop suffering.”

Before the shutdown, Maggie opened up her unique one-acre property near Rancho Santa Fe, a meditation practice just by walking the grounds through the gardens. There were gatherings or Satsangs, potlucks, spiritual book studies, full moon meditations, and special brunches for Father and Mother’s Day.  Monthly community gatherings where people on the path could connect with like-minded seekers, even Tibetian Buddist Monks would come by to commemorate the opening of The Satsang House every October and introduce teachings.

With proper protocols in place, I’m excited to announce she is opening once again. She has continued to guide people with three weekly free meditations online via Zoom. Several workshops are being developed to reignite your life with intention setting and transcending habitual patterns—spiritual discourses on character skills followed by guided Meditation.

The big news is a second Satsang House in Sedona, Arizona, a Retreat Center that Maggie is excited to launch with Cathedral Rock views replete with a creek running through the grounds.

Check out all the offerings on her website, www.satsanghouse.net, where you can find more information, make an appointment and get details of upcoming events and classes.

Maggie Kelly has a Soul on Fire and a passion for creating world peace, one meditator at a time.