Metaphysical healers, musicians and artisans gathered in Lake Linden
Jackie Froiland offered magickal treatments to visitors at the People’s Celebration Fall Healing Fair in Lake Linden Saturday. Photo by Paula McCambridge.
Fall Colors Healing Fair will be an annual event
LAKE LINDEN — With Friday’s full moon and resounding thunder, it was as if nature itself couldn’t wait for the People’s Celebration Fall Colors Healing Fair in Lake Linden Saturday.
By Saturday morning, the storm had subsided and, instead, the sun emerged and shone its light on more than 20 metaphysical healers and artists from across the Midwest. The healers basked in the summery weather, starting their day in a meditation and prayer circle outside the site’s cream-colored yurt, a large, round tent.
They prayed, they held hands, they hugged — hugs were plentiful to both friends and strangers throughout the day.
And when the healers dispersed from prayer, they sold their services - readings of tarot, chakra, akashic records. Tarot consists of a deck of special cards used by readers to gain insight on past, present, and future. The chakra refers to energy points throughout the body, and akashic records are records of a soul’s life from creation, including past lives.
“This gathering is a safe place for healers, metaphysicians and artists,” said Kent Richards who organized the event with Jen Nilsen. They plan to make it an annual event during the last weekend in September, so consider this your save-the-date.
Aware that the healing arts sometimes create discomfort among those unfamiliar with it, Richards and Nilsen hope those who are curious will come to find out what it’s all about.
“You’re forced to grow when you go into the unknown,” Nilsen said.
Kent Richards creates a sound bath for those visiting the Fall Colors Healing Fair in Lake Linden Saturday. The fair was organized by Jen Nilsen and Richards at his Wild Blue Wander UP, 20 acres available for camping on Rice Lake Road. Photo by Paula McCambridge.
The fairground filled a section of Richards’ Wild Blue Wander UP, which he describes as a sacred 20 acres between Lake Superior and Rice Lake where people can camp and hike for solitude. There are suggested prices and what Richards calls a love donation. Visitors are welcome here regardless of their finances - if you have more, share more; if you have less, they still want to share their fire pit with you. The fair charged no admittance.
Nilsen describes the land as magical like the people who are drawn there, people like intuitive guide Jackie Froiland who set up her table of spell jars and inspirational cards.
“I’ve always been into this,” said Froiland, a Copper Country local, formerly an obstetrics technician. “I took three months off to become a better tarot reader, and that three months became a year.”
Why the life change? Froiland said she’s called to help empower women, especially those who have found themselves in relationships with narcissists.
“My big thing is to show women their worth,” she said. “It’s been too long that we’ve been told we come last.”
That thread of empowerment connected the work of one healer — fostering strength, courage and confidence in those who visited them.
Len Novak displayed his hand-made percussions, including one hollowed out tree limb filled with Lake Superior stones. It slowly rattled as it was tipped from end to end. He called it a lake essence percussion creation meant to sound like the shores of Lake Superior.
Visitors regularly spent a half hour or more with the empathic Novak whose eyes filled with tears whenever his musical work mesmerized a listener.
Hiking trails through the property brought surprises, like an outhouse that appeared to be a door standing in the middle of nowhere. Tiny gnomes and fairies dotted the paths resting on tree stumps and reclining in mossy ground. The delighted squeals of children could be heard as they discovered each one.
And then, there were group experiences in the yurt. Richards himself led a sound bath with the cost simply a donation. Sound emitted from crystal and brass singing bowls, steel drums and flutes. The crowd came in chattering in introductions and soon fell into a shared state of calm as Richards drew them together in soothing sound.
For healers, the fair isn’t all there is. Anyone looking for community with fellow healers can join the group at Wild Blue Wander UP every two weeks through November and again in the spring.
“It’s a time for us to do healings on each other,” Nilsen said.
Weekends are open to all - just contact Richards through his website at WildBlueWanderUP.com. He said he also responds to the good, old-fashioned phone call. He can be reached at 906-369-1819.