When I first met Lainie, we were at a live event in NYC and I could tell from across the room that she was a woman who was full of art, passion and self expression. Lainie is known as “the Lady Gaga of consciousness” and I think one of her quotes sums up her work perfectly: “You are the artist in charge of the greatest masterpiece on earth: YOUR LIFE!”.
N: You use a great term in your work: “authentic soul expression”. Can you define this for us?
L :: I believe we are each unique imprints of the Divine. There will never be another one of us. Therefore we all matter deeply. Regardless if we’re a woman, queer, black, Hawaiian, Jamaican, Arab, wealthy, destitute, etc. We each have a unique medicine, a set of deep gifts that only we can bring to the world – that’s based on our experiences, personal stories, strengths, abilities, values and more – making this formula entirely our own. This is our authentic soul expression that comes deep from within the core of our being. It is our individual essence & light, teeming with gorgeousness from the inside out.
Unleashing this expression into the world allows us to feel purposeful, more alive, and have a greater sense of well-being overall. It also increases our capacity to love, for as we become more authentic we can love ourselves and others more. The overall health of our mind, body and soul also depends on our level of freedom to express our full selves. It isn’t about self-help. It’s about stepping into the fullness of who we really are, standing in our truth, and claiming our worth for the good of all those in our global village.
Our world is so deeply in need at this time. That’s why there’s an underlying humanitarian effort with all of my work, encouraging sacred activism. It’s igniting our core creativity and bringing forth our divine nature so that we can sparkle shamelessly & be fully of service in our world. It’s a spiritual, creative and activist approach to living fully, deeply engaged – and the overall goal is to ignite a soul-led revolution.
N :: And I want to know…How did you come to know your authentic self?
L :: I came to know my authentic self along a journey of getting deeply lost in surface glitter and glam, living out the shattered aspects of my ego in the world through a series of different identity players: the Dominatrix, the Avant-garde fashion maven, the Celebrity stylist, and more. This led me on a self-destructive path to a place of total emotional, financial and spiritual bankruptcy that ended in a near suicide attempt. It was only then that I began a lifesaving spiritual journey that helped me to return home to my true self and remember who I was and why I was here.
It was really a process of self-actualization with a lot of depth psychology work and learning about myself, especially the shadow aspects of self I’d never wanted to confront before. I do the work I do now in the hopes that I can help others circumvent the hardship of such a treacherous journey by helping them to go on the inner pilgrimage as a choice, instead of out of desperation. True transformation begins within us & it’s the only way to get to our authentic core. That’s why the deep dive within is so important.
N :: And how did you become comfortable with expressing it?
L :: The top three tools that I use to become more comfortable with expressing my authentic self still to this day are daily practice, boatloads of courage and sacred support systems & sisterhoods to uphold me along the often difficult journey. For it is a journey, and we are always blossoming into the fullness of our true selves more and more. This work is never done, but we get to choose when to start. The joy is found on the path.
N :: Next I want to talk about “divine legacy”. Tell us what this means :)
L :: Our Divine Legacy is essentially our life purpose and why we are all here at this time on planet Earth. It is living into our peak potential and stepping up into a position of leadership with our deep gifts to serve the world’s deep needs. Our lives are the true masterpiece, a distinct form of sacred art, a Divine creative challenge. How can we tend to this masterpiece with the appropriate reverence? I believe the answer is to become highly developed, fully actualized people in pursuit of selfless service. There will never be another me, or you. And we must remember that someone out there needs us. We must live our lives in service to the greater good so they can find us. We must discover our Divine Legacy.
We have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters, to uphold the web of oneness of which we are all a part and to uplift one another. We’re all connected. It’s our duty to help out those in need – we are a reflection of one another and we need each other more than ever. That’s why we’re seeing the sharing & connection economy blossoming and old institutions that don’t serve the greater whole crumbling.
N :: How important is sisterhood in our evolution, and when it comes to expressing our gifts?
L :: Though I don’t solely work with women, it’s what I am being called to at this time with the Mystic Sister Circle to create a mutually healing, inspiring and nurturing container for growth and transformation. Sisterhood, to me, is gathering souls together in intimate space to create an incubator-womb space in which to tap more fully into our true source of Feminine power within, fulfill our soul’s deep longing & have help to step more fully into our leadership. These are sacred circles of sisters acting as catalysts, witnesses and midwives for each others’ growth on the path of individuation & living our purpose. We share our stories, knowledge, growth and expertise to collectively up-level the quality of our lives for the benefit of all. Together we create a kind of portal of divine feminine wisdom and power in the Universe that increases our collective power to manifest, to love and to help co-create and transform our world. And overall, Sisterhood becomes a Divine container to birth our greatness. As Rev. Lorenza Andrade Smith said “Sacred is the meeting place, that holy ground of grace and power that brings forth the well-being of all people.”
This is crucial to our evolution since the Divine Masculine and Feminine are in an imbalance in our world today, and we need to help restore them to balance. Darwinian studies actually suggest that the solidarity of women is the only thing that truly neutralizes male aggression. It is when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable with other women that we connect on a deep level and go beyond jealousy and comparison into a space of deep belonging, support and encouragement that I believe truly can help towards transforming our world now.
N :: There are so many questions I could ask of a fellow business owner and creative. But more and more these days I just want to talk about love, and art. So, what do you have to say about love? You even put the word in your name! Tell us about that.
L :: ‘Love’ bodily inserted itself into my name during my Interfaith Ordination in a Redemptorist Chapel in Upstate New York in 2011. My parents never gave me a middle name since they wanted me to be able to choose one when the time was right. Turns out it was the Divine that chose it for me. The message came loud and clear after I spoke my vows and I knew that it was my spiritual renaming to embody this new identity in the world, beyond just the use of the title Reverend.
For me, Love is showing up fully, bringing our full light, and giving our best. It means coming from the heart center in all we do and tapping into the ‘we’ instead of just ‘me.’ It is remembering the gift of our oneness and letting that lead all of our actions. Love is our true nature, even though we occasionally deviate from it, and compassion and empathy are love’s bedfellows – qualities our world needs more of now than ever. I also believe love is a kind of currency. I’ve almost finished a whole book about that, in fact!
I believe it’s time for us to make love the new bottom line in our world. But more importantly I believe the most fiercely loving action we can do for ourselves and for our world is self-realization: to become who we were meant to be in this lifetime, unleashing our full soul expression and living our Divine Legacy out in the world. As I said before, we’ve been put here on earth at the most powerful time in history. We must ask why.
N :: What role does art play in your day to day life? How does this influence your business?
L :: For me Life is a work of art and Art is the work of life. God or Spirit is often defined as Source and Creator, just as we are all powerful creators. I believe we must tap into that potential that is ours by birthright. Art and creating will forever be my lifeblood. The Artist is one of my main archetypes and largely how I approach the world, with a multimedia perspective. Everything becomes a medium for creation: words, pictures, thoughts, spiritual practices, and more. And this applies whether I’m designing a container of transformation, writing a book, mentoring a client, building a wearable sculpture, brainstorming a new venture, performing blessings, making soul collages or participating in a more traditional art fair. It’s all art to me and all part of the larger masterpiece I’m constantly cultivating, my life. I practice what I preach and move towards being more fully soul expressed each day, doing all that I can to live into the fullness of who I am and tap into my peak potential here on earth – and helping others do the same.
Art influences my business life directly since I believe entrepreneurship is one of the greatest forms of creative expression that there is. I’ve also always been involved in pushing the limits of systems and boundaries in order to re-create them, which helps me to carry big visions & execute big concepts for my ventures. This is why I’ve always been such a multi-passionate entrepreneur, and I’m sure this will continue into the future with all the ideas I have brewing of late;)
N :: You talk about aliveness a lot in your work. I’d like to know what makes you come alive and feel lit up?
L :: I thrive on bringing out the BEST in people – their soul essence, their aliveness, their peak, their bright joy and bold love – through my powerful multimedia ministry. Because I deeply believe that everyone matters in our world and there are too many individuals that are living in a spiritual, emotional, financial poverty. It lights me up to give people the power to build their own destinies while simultaneously challenging the status quo and breaking boundaries.
But the greatest sense of aliveness for me comes from being deeply useful to our world & our human species that is so deeply in need, bringing out my full creative expression through my various containers of transformation – at present, the Mystic Sister Circle program, my upcoming book and also a social impact TV show – and making my livelihood from my service.
N :: What is your vision of the future?
L :: I envision a world where everyone is loved, cared for and nurtured with their basic human needs met so that they have the opportunity to thrive, including Mother Earth. A world where we live together as if in one global village, where love serves as the new bottom line and our oneness as human beings is fiercely understood, promoted & respected. A world where everyone is fully AWAKE to LIFE and engaged in self-mastery: redefining what fulfillment means, refusing to accept life as it’s given based on the status quo, and moving towards their full creative potential as well as inhabiting a life they totally love & helping others to do the same. A world where it is safe to bare our raw authentic selves to the world and express our unique voices, employing radical acceptance and empathy in order to uplevel our own lives as well as others’. A world where we all have personal & financial freedom and come about it from the sweet spot between altruism & self actualization, the individual & the collective. A world where everyone enjoys outrageous love, unbridled self-expression and total aliveness each day. A world filled with He(art) Warriors lighting up the world with their fierce love and serving to help and heal our planet.
What’s a He(art) Warrior™, you might ask?? An individual who is moving with courage and intensity towards living fully ALIVE and deeply engaged from the heart: the vital, essential Self. One who is creating their life as a great artistic masterpiece and cutting away what no longer serves in order to be boldly and authentically who they are & humbly serve our world. One who is choosing to see the world through the eyes of the heart & love fiercely in every moment. One who is returning home to who they’ve always been and daring to live into the fullness & depth of their Being each day to leave normal in the dust, SPARKLE shamelessly, and shake the world.
This is the movement I’m building each day and all my work, including the Mystic Sisters, is part of this larger vision. What can I say, I like to think big, and from the he(art) ;)
Rev. Lainie Love Dalby is a visionary artist, urban priestess, author and transformational leader with her own brand of multimedia ministry. Recently pegged as a “Global Midwife for the 21st Century,” she will activate you to amp up your aliveness, claim your deep gifts, and create your life as a great Masterpiece for the good of all. Both a spiritual guide & ordained Interfaith Minister, she skillfully combines the disciplines of authentic soul expression, cultural innovation & urban spirituality. Lainie’s love-filled teachings include creative entrepreneurship, humanitarian leadership & soulful branding to help individuals and organizations lead more heart-centered, morally courageous and radically authentic businesses and lives. As global ritualist Barbara Biziou has said, “Like a great sculpture, Lainie Love can see what lives inside of you and frees it to truly live fully.”
Her work has been featured in online global summits, TV & radio shows; presented at institutions such as Cornell University, The New School, Rush Arts, One Spirit Learning Alliance & SCOPE, and sought after by high profile art collectors as well as the stylists of Nicki Minaj & Paris Hilton. Her diverse talents & finesse have also appeared in the New York Times, NY Arts Magazine, Marie Claire Magazine, Paper Magazine, V Magazine, Time Out New York, and several other publications & blogs where, because of her marriage of unmistakable style & deep urban mysticism, she is often referred to as “The Lady Gaga of Consciousness & Spirituality.”