Can a Company's Product have a Spiritual Essence?
The mythic magic of our world and how it lives in business too ✨🚢🌈
As we set sail from the port of Barcelona on Virgin Voyages’ “Valiant Lady” cruise ship, I could feel a sense of adventure and possibility swell with the waves.
Now before you twist an eyebrow wondering “a cruise?” let me tell you, this ship is different. Imagine walking through beautifully art deco-designed champaign rooms on your way to incredible views of the expansive ocean through port holes that throwback to nautical heritage while making space for everything from Drag Queen Bingo to burning-manesque Scarlet Red Octopi parties… have I rattled your conception of this cruise yet?
The design of this ship has a lot of love and care in it, which is why, this ship literally has a spirit.
Before I get to that, let me start with why I was cruising in the first place.
I had the great pleasure and honor of getting to be a part of a new series that Virgin has been building that uses the brilliant strategy of ship as content platform. It’s called “Elevate” and the idea is to create a cruise that specifically offers inspiring experiences. From sound baths to sessions on reframing your perspective, Virgin brought together some of the best practitioners to inspire, transform minds + hearts, and give people a different kind of cruise experience.
I brought The Feast onboard to create spaces of community, connection, and reflection on fullness and fulfillment as well as offered energy work through dance & movement through my work with Portals.
Fast forward to the moment we find out the spirtual nature of the ship itself. We were in one of these glam, 20s-inspired velvety performance spaces bringing everyone to laughter, tears, and dance with Portals energy work. It was potent (as usual) and everyoen had a beautiful experience. But it was after one of these sessions that one of the cruisers surprised us with their own transmission…
After we had said all of our thank yous and closed the space, an unassuming but motherly and loving woman walks over to my co-faciltiator, Tavi Stutz.
She takes his hand, thanks him, and then looking at him, begins her own channeling work. I could feel a primal energy rushing through to grace him and spirit came through her to clear, bless him and work him over. She bowed deeply as she continued the work, weaving as she walking backwards with great focus and intention bowing as she walked…
Humbled, we were grateful to this unassuming power-house of a women — standing at about my height of 5’0 (maybe less) and mom to three gorgeous girls who had also joined us for the session, she had clearly been around a few lifetimes!
“I have a snake Goddess who lives within me” she explained to us. “The Godess loves him so much,” she said as she explained the work with she had just offered to Tavi. “And this ship, this ship has the spirit of a bird… I don’t know why, but it has that spirit in it”
It’s hard to describe the feeling of being on the water, in the middle of the ocean. There is an untethering that happens because, well, you are not on the ground. But in that untethering, there is infinite possibility. The feeling of our time on the ship was exactly that, a moment of suspended possibility — even flight.
There are a lot of ships out there, and I imagine that not all of them have the spirit of the bird. It takes love and care to create something that has a spirit in it. And sometimes, maybe, just maybe, that’s not just figurative, that’s literal. How would we create what we create if we knew that with the love we were putting into something, we might actually be birthing something that’s alive? How would we care for things differently? And how might we approach differently, the possibilities latent in our creations by considering the purpose we are here to realize together?
The Virgin Voyages team has not only created a vessel with a beautiful spirit, but they are filling that vessel with inspiration too. It was such a gift to get to bring the work of spirituality and connection outside of the echo chamber of lingo and identification with “awakening” to those who might not otherwise have the opportunity. From veterans to travel agents, entrepreneurs to doctors, moms and college kids, The Valiant Lady and those traveling the seas with her spirit realized a real experience of flight together.
To live our myth in the world can look so many ways. And there is so much more magic than we could ever imagine. When we live with open and wide-eyed wonder and curiosity, life becomes so much more magical and inspired.
So the next time you think business is evil, or get mesmerized by the more ascetic versions of spirituality, remember that everything can be a platform for love if you make it that - even a cruise. ❤️🚢 🌊✨
With love,
Rei