Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Mormon Stories podcast. I'm your host John Delin. It is June 23rd 2023 and we are here in part two of this epic important inspiring heartwarming thoughtful interview with Celeste and Davis. Hey Celeste.

Welcome back. We just did an amazing part one with Celeste. There are various titles that we had for the episode, but really deconstructing Mormon God.

So in part one Celeste talked all about being a super Mormon woman, doing all the things, serving a mission, getting married in the temple,

and then even writing articles for the Mormon Church as a successful blogger, writer, doing the mom thing.

But then her husband having faith issues and then herself going through her own faith journey. And we ended part one with Celeste's Mormon God both dying but also reconstructing into a new God which you described as big love, right? That was your new God became big love, right?

Right. Yes. And how that was exhilarating for you on the one hand, but sort of devastating and toxic for you to stay engaged in Mormon Church activity, subject your family and specifically your children to Mormon shame and fear and all the nastiness.

And the way that we ended part one was with you just saying, I can't keep going to church. And so you had what was called your Dunday, which was where right before COVID happened, you realize you couldn't go to the Mormon Church anymore and take your kids. And that's how we left it.

So we decided beforehand that part one was going to be about deconstruction, but we should also say that your big love God was very exhilarating and positive to you. So it wasn't all dark and negative. It was also exciting.

But what we want to focus on for part two is reconstruction because your title, which is a little bit, it warrants explanation. Your current coaching title is.

It's spiritual director, which yes, it's a bit of a misnomer even among spiritual directors because it's from like decades, decades past when this industry was created, but we often prefer the term spiritual companion because we're not directing anything.

We're basically a companion for your spiritual journey, wherever that is, whatever that is, that's what we do.

Yeah. And I don't want people to like, oh my gosh, God talk or oh my gosh, spirituality talk.

Because I don't think I don't sense a ton of not that I want people who are pro-wu to be turned off. I don't want to shame anyone.

But I do get the sense that when you talk about God, it's kind of in quotes, and when you talk about spirituality, there's not a ton of woo in it.

It's more about like being in contact with the present moment, nature, being connected to yourself, much more than like angels or priesthood power or even a sky daddy.

Right, definitely. I mean, I don't know that I myself would listen to a podcast called reconstructing God and be like, meh, pass.

Because those terms and that language and even the word spirituality leaves a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth, which I think it does for a lot of people who leave the church.

It's like hard pass like been there, done that.

Ouchy, painful, not interested. And I very much relate to that. I'm not saying like, I understand you, I'm saying I am you.

Like I is really hard for me to be in rooms where, you know, needing to discuss the God, where the God resembles the God of my past.

I just have such a bad taste in my mouth for all of that and I want to be free from that.

So yeah, just relating to all of the triggers around both spirituality and God.

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