Loto Journal
Through personal storytelling and letter writing, follow our Founder, Jennifer Axcell, as she travels the 🌎 globe as a digital nomad and Desert Mother, exploring Consciousness, rest, and Self-care.
Including thoughtfully created blog content about somatic healing practices, nervous system regulation techniques, and contemplative practices, Loto Wellness Collective’s blog focuses on the art and science of rest and renewal, drawing inspiration from Christian mystics, monastic wisdom, modern neuroscience, and depth psychology.
Reader’s Note: In an attempt to bring a conscious sense of responsibility to our language (where inclusivity and equality matter), in our Loto Wellness Collective blog content, except for direct quotes, the pronouns often used for God are They/Them in reference to I AM. When referring to Jesus specifically, the pronouns He/Him are used. Also, we have taken the liberty of capitalizing the term “True Self” so you will know that we are not referring to the “false self” (psychological egoic self), but the foundational self that we are in God.
The Returning: The Way of the Explorer
Rather than seeking God “out there,” the Explorer turns inward—not in self-absorption, but in humility—trusting that deeper awareness does not lead away from God, but into God.
The Returning: The Way of the Intellectual
The Intellectual encounters the Divine through reading, theology, history, philosophy, scripture, and sacred inquiry. Their devotion looks like open books, marked pages, late-night questions, and the holy insistence that truth matters.
The Returning: The Way of the Enthusiast
Enthusiasts live with a holy expectancy that God is always up to something — always revealing, always surprising, always moving. They feel God in music, worship, dance, creativity, synchronicity, and divine interruptions.
To the Enthusiast, life is a sacrament. Everything is pulsing with potential and shimmering with Presence.
The Returning: The Way of the Caregiver
Caregivers meet God not in grand missions, but in small mercies. In washing a sink full of dishes for someone who’s overwhelmed. In sitting beside a friend who has no words left. In showing up when it would be easier to turn away.
The Returning: The Way of the Activist
For the Activist, compassion is not a concept — it is a calling. Justice is not ideology — it is worship. Action is not distraction — it is prayer embodied. This pathway is where the heart of God touches the wounds of the world. Where faith becomes flesh and love becomes action.
The Returning: The Way of the Contemplative
The Contemplative pathway is less about what you do and more about who you are becoming. It is the slow, steady descent from the mind into the heart — the place where God speaks in silence, and where the soul finally remembers the sound of its own name.
For the Contemplative, prayer is less about speech and more about presence. Less about effort and more about surrender. It is the practice of resting in Love, rather than performing for it.
The Slow Path Back to God: Why Contemplation Still Matters
Contemplative prayer flips that whole dynamic. It’s less “Lord, do something” and more “Lord, show me what is already true.” It’s less striving, more surrender. Less performance, more Presence. Less noise, more spaciousness.
The Returning: The Way of the Ascetic
The Ascetic pathway is for those who encounter the Divine not through abundance, but through simplicity. Not through stimulation, but through stillness. Not through addition, but through the sacred work of subtraction.
Returning to Oneness: Christian Nondualism
Nondualism is the remembrance that God is not somewhere far beyond us, but within us and around us, breathing through every cell of creation. We are not apart from God—we are expressions of God. Each of us, a reflection of YHWH in flesh, just as Jesus revealed.
One Who Wrestles With God
Perhaps that is what the mystics knew all along: that sometimes the only way to find YHWH is through the body that breaks, the fever that humbles, and the desert that strips us down to the soul.
Biblical Feasts: Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)—Renewal
Yom Kippur is not merely about wiping away wrongs; it is about restoring union. The people are reconciled with God, with one another, and with themselves. Alienation is dissolved. Oneness is remembered.
Biblical Feasts: Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets) - Awakening
On Rosh Hashanah, the trumpet's cry is not for battle, but for the soul. It interrupts forgetfulness. It calls us back to awareness: God is King, life is fragile, and every breath is holy. "Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance." (Psalm 89:15)
Julian of Norwich: The Mystic Who Saw Love at the Center of It All
Julian of Norwich—a voice of profound hope, sacred vision, and tender intimacy with God.
Hildegard of Bingen: The Mystic Who Sang the Cosmos Awake
Hildegard of Bingen—the fierce visionary and endlessly creative.
Mary Magdalene: Apostle to The Apostles
Clare of Assisi: The Mystic of Radical Simplicity and Fierce Love
Clare of Assisi—the quiet strength and holy devotion of a woman who renounced the world to fall completely into the arms of God.
Margery Kempe: The Mystic Who Refused to Stay Silent
Margery Kempe’s story echoes through the centuries, especially for modern women who feel the pull to more. More intimacy with God. More honesty in their spiritual walk. More embodiment of their faith—unapologetically emotional, deeply sensory, and uncontainably alive.
Teresa of Ávila: The Mystic Who Made Prayer a Palace
Teresa of Ávila—Carmelite reformer, contemplative firebrand, and one of Christianity’s most beloved mystics.
Radical Community
Marguerite Porete: The Mystic Who Loved Beyond the Bounds
Marguerite Porete—Challenges us to trust Love with everything.
Contributors & Collaborators
Loto Living and Loto Journal, would not be possible without the ongoing support and generous contributions from an incredible team of writers, artists, healers, editors, creatives, and pastors.