Woodbury Heights resident Briana Schuster led a passion project of hers at The Zen Den on Main in Marlton on Oct. 12, fusing poetry, mediation, music and prayer. For Schuster, spirituality is about listening to her inner self.
“I’m very passionate about not seeking or externalizing but really taking a sovereign look inward and finding that path yourself, seeing where your passion is, seeing what lights you up because that’s breadcrumbs to me,” Schuster said. “The heart always knows the answer to all and always knows the exact path you get to take, and it really just requires slowing down and listening and following that passion.”
Schuster is a quantum energy practitioner (an individual who utilizes principles of quantum physics combined with spiritual practices to facilitate healing and promote well-being on physical, emotional and spiritual levels) and sound healer, guiding others back into connection with the intelligence of their own heart and higher self. She’s both a Florida and Tennessee native and moved to New Jersey in her early twenties. Growing up, she experienced the world very differently than most people. Schuster was born highly intuitive on multiple levels – the strongest being clairvoyant, clairaudient (having the power to hear sounds said to exist beyond the reach of ordinary experience or capacity) and claircognizant (the psychic ability of clear knowing or inner knowing) – navigating a reality that often felt layered with energies and impressions that others around her could not perceive.
Schuster’s teenage years and early twenties became a mixture of spiritual curiosity and deep self-destruction. For years addiction pulled her into environments filled with violence, manipulation and exploitation but in 2018, she received the help she needed and that’s when she slowly began rebuilding her life through recovery, writing, meditation, somatic practices and deep self-inquiry. She has since married, became a mother and devoted herself to practices that brought her back into her body. Today, she’s the founder of New Earth Resonance in Mullica Hill, a holistic space for quantum energy, sound healing, intuitive readings and somatic therapy, a holistic therapeutic approach that emphasizes the mind-body connection.
Sufi and Sound featured sacred poetry, music, meditation and contemplative reflection inspired by the wisdom and beauty of the Sufi tradition. The experience weaved together carefully curated soundscapes and provided opportunities for personal reflection, complete with mediation chimes, a rain-stick and sound bowls. Designed to be welcoming to people of all backgrounds, the evening offered a peaceful space to slow down, reconnect and explore universal themes of love, presence, surrender and unity. Rather than recreating or representing a traditional Sufi ceremony, Sufi and Sound drew inspiration from the writings of great Sufi mystics, presenting their poetry through an artistic and contemplative lens.
“Sufi connects to the heart through poetry, through community and through love, and so (Sufi) ceremonies were not really a typical layout, but (people) would come and sing and dance and listen to sacred, mystic teachings and just be in each other’s presence, with love, around each other,” Schuster said. “When I found this sect, I realized how much it connected with my personal higher power and how it seemed so similar to my path because I embrace sound and music as a way to feel connected to something different than the mundane. It really taps us back into the sacred, listening to beautiful sounds and music and poetry.”
Sufism refers to the inner dimension of Islam which aims to attain mystical knowledge and love of God through meditative practices, ethical cultivation and purification of the heart and self, according to The Pluralism Project. Though Sufism began with individuals, Sufi communities, or tariqahs, were formed around them providing a template for spiritual guidance. In Sufi tradition, sound and music are sacred spiritual tools rather than simple forms of entertainment. Sound is powerful to Schuster because it connects her body, mind and soul and connects her to her subconscious. Typically, she’ll have a general layout planned for how she wants to run her sessions, but she’s found through experience that the best sessions are when she gets out of her own way.
“The minute I have my ideas, it’s never as good as when I’m in the moment, I’m humble and I’m looking to read the room,” she said. “Everything I do is about connecting to the heart space, embracing experience, embracing the sacred, and being present and held by sound and poetry. That’s what really changed everything for me.”
Briana Schuster, a quantum energy practitioner and sound healer, led Sufi and Sound at The Zen Den on Main in Marlton on Oct. 12, sharing an evening of sacred poetry, music, meditation and contemplative reflection inspired by the wisdom and beauty of the Sufi tradition with attendees.
