Sister Gertrude Morgan: The Mystic of New Orleans - Book - Page 111
Afterword
S
everal years ago, I dreamed that my husband, Brad, and I were in
the archives of a vast library. We were shown a large book of illustrations made by an African American woman from the Deep South
whose identity I did not know, and whose name was never mentioned
in the dream. The librarian told us that the woman received a calling
in her later life to begin making art, and specifically to illustrate her
visions. The next morning, I reported the dream to Brad. He said it reminded him of Sister Gertrude Morgan, the evangelist and artist from
New Orleans. That was the first time I heard her name. From that
day forward, Sister Gertrude became a major source of spiritual and
creative inspiration in our lives. She also profoundly influenced the
Sacred Ecstatics Guild, the global community we founded to explore
the aesthetics and ecstatics of mystical living.
A profound turning point took place for us when one night, Brad
dreamed that Sister Gertrude appeared in our New Orleans living room,
standing next to our piano. She pointed straight in the air and shouted,
“Come together, come to gather! Do it now!” She repeated this several
times in her loud, booming voice. The vision was so strong that the next
morning we followed her instructions and spontaneously invited the
entire Guild to spend carnival season with us in New Orleans. We gathered every afternoon for the entire month of February 2020. That lifechanging experience proved to be our last in-person meeting with the
Guild for a very long time. Two weeks later, the coronavirus pandemic
put the entire globe in lockdown. Sister Gertrude had gifted us all with a
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