Today we’d like to introduce you to Quibilah Alexander
Hi Quibilah, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I am Quibilah, and I am black and queer and currently reside in the Austin, Texas area. I graduated with my Bachelors degree in Psychology in 2004. I have worked in the non-profit sector for over 20 years working with marginalized children and families. I’ve always felt charged by providing support to people who need it. As a sacred space holder in the community, I have a foundation that supports me with building relationships centered from my heart space and rooted in my purpose.
I started my business, Sacred Ascension to make healing accessible for BIPOC community members. We curate monthly meditation offerings where I offer sound healing and tea ceremonies. We also curate wellness retreats for BIPOC and womxn centered collectives/organizations. We also offer individual 1:1 sessions for personal healing. In addition, I am an ordained minister and specialize in offering sacred ceremonies for people who identify as queer and/or BIPOC- wedding and celebration of life ceremonies.
I embarked on my personal healing journey, over 10 years ago when I received my first reiki session. I was going through a transition in my life and felt called to receive a session. That session was very pivotal in my own journey as it shifted so much for me. I received my attunement in Usui Reiki levels I and II, shortly afterwards. This opened many opportunities for me, which led me to become a certified health and wellness consultant, certified community herbalist, I studied grief and death work, and sound healing.
After the transitions of 2 important people in my life within months of each other in 2022, my mother and my aunt, I was thrown into my own grief journey. It felt very isolating at times, and I had such strong emotions spilling from me with most of my interactions with other people. My grief journey inspired me to create opportunities for the community to come together and move through grief as a collective at my “Grief Jams” and “Grief Walks”. The Grief Jam is an offering that allows people to identify where they feel grief in their bodies and move through it. We do stretches, breath work, and dance through the grief, together. We close the jam with heart opening cacao to honor our time together and most importantly, to honor the grief that will always be a part of our journeys.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I can say that this journey has not always been smooth. There have been many bumps and detours along the way. As a solo parent and having a full-time career, my heart-work with Sacred Ascension sometimes has to take a back seat. Finding balance with all of my responsibilities has proved to be challenging at times. It is my desire to fully step into my work with Sacred Ascension, full-time. Therefore, providing services that are well-received by the community and accessible has been what drives my sacred work. It has been challenging to figure out how to make my work sustainable because my community needs it and so does the world.
As you know, we’re big fans of Sacred Ascension. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
At Sacred Ascension, we offer opportunities to heal and grieve in community and in a 1:1 setting. We offer monthly collective meditations that offer breath work, sound healing, meditation, and tea ceremonies. We offer 1:1 reiki healing sessions, 1:1 vibrational sound healing sessions, grief rituals, and ancestral reverence offerings. We also collaborate with BIPOC and womxn centered organizations and collectives to curate wellness sessions and retreats by offering an opportunity for deep rest and providing a sacred space to receive support from community. As a wedding officiant and death doula, we offer support with curating sacred ceremonies for life’s celebrations and transitions.
Another wonderful aspect of our work is sharing the importance of ancestral reverence with the community. Many are not comfortable or knowledgeable about such an ancient practice, so part of our purpose is to share this with others. In 2023, we collaborated with the first Black cemetery in Austin, TX to spread awareness about its history and importance to the community. As our city grows and expands, historical places are being displaced and forgotten. The city is planning to build new housing developments around the perimeters of the cemetery, and we wanted to ensure that the community knew about this. We planned Ancestral Prayers, which was an offering to honor and bless the sacred lands of the cemetery, pay homage to the ancestors buried there, and show the community that the cemetery and black graves matter. We offered prayers, dancing, storytelling, sound healing, drumming, and placed flowers on the graves. We are very proud of this offering because it was something that the community needed and because ancestral reverence work is so important to us. This will be an annual offering and we are planning for the next offering in October 2024.
Another aspect of our work that sets us apart is our focus and understanding of grief and honoring it as a collective instead of in isolation. In the west, we are taught very early on that grieving should be done in private or not at all. Many of us do not know how to grieve because it has not been acceptable and/or we have not seen others grieve in a way that honors it. If we do not acknowledge our grief, it can manifest into something more.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
First and foremost, I will acknowledge and honor my ancestors here. They have blessed me with the vision, the courage, and endurance for Sacred Ascension and have aligned me with the right collaborators who support my work in various ways. It has been extremely important for me to collaborate with other sacred space holders in the community to ensure all of our strengths are uplifted so those who attend our offerings feel fully supported. There are so many people to name, including clients who have experienced my work and have shared about it and/or continue to support my work. In an effort to not leave anyone out, I will just express my gratitude for the people who saw my work and wanted to be a part of it by collaborating with me, speaking encouraging words to me along the way, and reflecting back to me that this is my sacred path and I was made to do this work. Infinite gratitude to you all.
Pricing:
- Recorded Sound Healing Meditations: $11.11+
- Distance Reiki Session: $77.77
- Collective Sound Healing Sessions: $111+
- Ancestral Reverence Ritual: $144.44
- Sacred Ceremony Officiant: $484+
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ko-fi.com/sacredascension
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sacred_ascension
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SacredAscensionShop
- Linktree: https://linktr.ee/sacred_ascension
