The Next Incarnation ...  And Other New Age Centers

Celeste and Jananda came to Sedona in the summer of 1990. They both joined the Center for the New Age when Pete Sanders was president. Celeste, an artist, began organizing visionary art shows and Jananda worked as a volunteer until the closing in January 1995. They supported the Center through all its ups and downs because they believed in working and serving as a group. During these years, they recall very successful celebrations were organized at the Flicker Shack for the Wesak Festival in the spring and the 11:11, which like Harmonic Convergence, was celebrated in many parts of the world.

I first met Celeste and Jananda on my scouting trip to Sedona, in 1993. They used to have weekly meditation gatherings in their home and sometimes potlucks. Invited by a friend to the potluck on Memorial Day weekend, I was impressed by the 45 people who had come. We went around the circle introducing ourselves and saying a little about what had drawn us there. The magnetic quality of Sedona was startlingly evident. Only a few people had been in Sedona more than two years.

Six months after the original Center for the New Age closed, Jananda called a meeting to begin a new organization based upon the best of the old Center ideas. About 40 people attended that meeting, many of them people associated with the original Center for the New Age. Within three weeks the doors opened on W. Hwy 89A. They bought 30 chairs and a used glass counter, put up some shelves and a sign and were in business under the name New Age Information and Services.

After they opened, Anita Dalton complained that the name chosen was too similar to the name she had taken over for her private business. Not wishing to get into a legal fight, the new group became The Hub of the New Age Community. As before, it is non-profit and relies heavily upon community volunteers.
 
 

The Hub is a member-based service organization in support of the New Age community.  Jananda, the founder and manager, continues to devote his time and energy to developing this organization.  There is a smooth flow between the Hub, the newly established Earth Mother Father Foundation (1997) under teacher/healer Margareht-Rose and Crystal Sanctuary which was founded by Rev. Gwen Monique-Richland in the same year as the original Center for the New Age.

Each of the centers has a different focus; the Hub as a community resource center, Earth Mother Father with a focus on healing work and Crystal Sanctuary with more of a focus on spiritual education. However, the latter two have now combined.
 
 

Crystal Sanctuary was established and is managed by white-haired Gwen who calls it a transformational resource center. It operates in West Sedona with a full calendar of events.  Both local and out-of-town people make presentations. Gwen ran a center in Las Cruces, New Mexico for three years before coming to Sedona. "There was no doubt in my mind that New Age activities, while certainly not new, are the pathway to human expansion," she says.

In the years since 1988, Gwen has participated in many seminars and retreats and taught a variety of classes on metaphysical subjects. However, "in the whole metaphysical world," she writes, "crystals are my first love."

"Crystal Sanctuary," she writes, "is chartered through the Church of Malabar, the second oldest church in Christendom. The first church was founded by Paul in Antioch in 38 A.D. In 58 A.D. the apostle Thomas went to Malabar, India, where he established the church; it is still a beautiful active place today. It came into this country from Malabar in 1940. It is a metaphysical church, wide open at the top. We have no set dogma; everyone is welcome with no concern as to your past or present religion."

Gwen feels "the New Age movement has gone through its beginning, explorative stage, then a period of confusion and now is becoming a much more solid, viable, and accepted  philosophy..."