Queer, Holy & Divinely Led | with Guest, Rev. Rainbow Weldon (PT2)

Part 2: She was born for this, y'all.

It’s Part 2 of my 3-part series with Rev. Rainbow Weldon—Queer New Thought Minister, Consciousness Coach, Meditation Facilitator, and founder of the Queer Spirit Collective.

In this episode, Rainbow shares her path into ministry, how a spiritually curious kid from the Bible Belt became a minister, teacher, and guide. We talk about calling, ego, emotional awareness, and what it looks like when your life keeps nudging you toward who you really are… whether you were planning on that or not.

Rainbow has over 20 years of experience working with individuals and groups, helping people connect to their own inner knowing and live with intention—while also being a very real human with a full life, a big heart, and, at the time of this recording, a brand new kitten.

To check out Rainbow's work, go to: queerspiritcollective.com

Thank you for listening! Learn more at suzannsole.com

Check out Suzanne's spiritual and sassy t-shirts at personallyspiritual.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

As I'm getting from my seat up to, you know, I've just been to introduced, I hear this voice, or I just have this knowing. And this isn't something that happens to me a lot. Um, but it was like, you were born for this.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Oh my god, I love it. You're listening to the Spiritual Shit Show Podcast with Suzanne Soule, episode 77. Hello, you gorgeous rays of light and love, and welcome to the Spiritual Shit Show Podcast, where we get into the carnival ride, the healing and spiritual awakening journey can be. I'm your host, Suzanne Sol, comedian, lifelong spiritual student, and I'm sharing some of the tasty treats I've learned along my journey that have helped me, and that I hope help you too. It's part two of my three-parter with the fabulous Rev Rainbow Weldon, queer new thought minister, conscious creator, sacred activist, and founder and spiritual director of the Queer Spirit Collective, an online community for connection, joy, and community. In part two, Rainbow shares what it looks like to practice spirituality in everyday life, aka when it's hardest for most of us, to be spiritual. And we talk about her journey into ministry. It's super cool. And how she celebrates her queer identity in her spiritual message. Recorded in late 2025, this interview with a rainbow is an amazing example of the power of manifestation and keeping your heart and your eye on the prize, as she is now the founder and spiritual director of Queer Spirit Collective, an online community celebrating joy and connection. So why don't we get into this convo, eh? Rainbow Yuron. So tell me, you say manifestor. I would love to hear about your manifestation process, how that looks for you, how you practice that.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Yes, and it's funny, the the reason the context in which I wrote manifestor in my bio is not even necessarily about the idea of manifesting, but it's the it's the type I am. Y'all, there's all these different systems and I can human design.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Yes, yes, yes, I've heard of it.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

I'm a manifest of human design. Oh, fabulous. So that has its own other things that really has nothing to do with the idea of what we kind of think about as manifestor. But when I wrote that and I knew I was like, people aren't really gonna probably know what I'm talking about, like human design manifestors. Some may or some may not, but even if they just read it as a manifestor, well, that's true too.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

So yeah, because I mean you manifested your own spiritual center. Can you share how that came about? Because I feel like that really ties into the manifestor.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Sure, yeah, yeah. So manifesting, you know, uh this idea of allowing something to be from a heart's desire, you know, um and being that conscious creator with your life. Um and so um, you know, I don't this other random story is coming up from childhood, which I'm gonna tell, and then I'll tell the Ahava one too. So, like I say childhood, but I was actually college. So my uh sophomore year, yeah, I know it is still young now, even young then. Um, but sophomore year in college, my best friend from childhood went and studied abroad in Costa Rica for ecology, biology, something. And so I was she was there for a semester, but during the summer break, I was like, I want to go visit her. I want to go to Costa Rica. And this was uh, so I set that intention, and again, you know, it's like okay, it's like where's the money gonna come, you know, and all that kind of stuff. And then this is back when we had newspapers. So her mom found like an ad and circled it, brought it over in a newspaper about some like charter flights that you could also like buy in on and like get a really so it was like a hundred dollar skin or something. I know, yeah, I've heard of these. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm still looking back, I'm kind of like, I didn't know what I was doing. And my parents were like, here, yeah, get on this charter flight for a hundred bucks to Costa Rica. You're fine, you're 19. Great idea, Rainbow. We're behind you all the way. Anyway, so I find this super cheap flight, and then like uh just and I've always been real like resourceful in that way of like if I want to do something, then it's like open up, you know, and just like got some like babysitting gigs from my out of my neighbor. And then I noticed he had like all this like extra lumber sitting out or something. So I just asked him about it. He's like, Oh, I've been meaning to take that back to return it to Home Depot or whatever. I just don't ever have the time. And I'm like, well, how about I take it back for you and keep 20%? He's like, sure, or whatever, you know. How industrious of you! Yeah, let me see. I was like, what about yes? I used to paint rocks and go around the neighborhood and and sell rocks, you know, for 10 cents.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Um every little bit counts. And you know, it just speaks to me that you like your intention was pure on I want to go. I'm not confused about that in any way. So your eyeballs and your mind were like, how do we make it happen?

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Yeah, and seeing the things that maybe always been there, but had I not tuned to that, I wouldn't be tuned to that possibility and set that intention, like noticing it. So anyway, that that's just kind of the way like life just kind of was a lot for me, kind of growing up with using these the spiritual principles in that way. So I was um at a time in my ministry where I was ready to become a spiritual director and you know, be have like, you know, be the spiritual director of my own center and started doing some visioning around what that might look like in my ministry and all this. And this symbol of a wagon wheel um came through. At first, I wasn't sure if it was like a bike spoke or what it was, and then I go on this three-month journey of uh on the road, traveling, and you know, for just turned three-year-old daughter in the back and traveling around the country, speaking, doing workshops at different new thought communities, and just kind of, you know, seeing like what's gonna be next, where it's a new beginning. Where in the country do I want to live? And I was coming from Chicago. Um so the first stop I ended up doing from Chicago was coming to the center called Ahava Center for CSL, Ahava Center for Spears. Okay, so it existed already. Yes, so I did not found Ahava. It was it found me. Um I said as like as I said that I felt like I just had to say that because it that just sounded like one of those cheesy thoughts. But I guess it is kind of still true. Like, I didn't find Ahava. It's wonderful. It found me. So I walk in the door, my first, you know, stepping out, leap on faith, uh, first gig on the road trip, and there's a big wagon wheel on the wall.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Oh my gosh! You were like, uh oh.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Yeah. And then talking with Reverend Sonny Cantrell Smith, who founded Ahava. Okay. She invites me into her office, and there's a quilt with wagon wheels, all this wagon wheel symbology and that's incredible. Yeah, I'm like, so what does this mean to you? Because it means something to me, and it obviously means something to you. Yeah. And she shared that that symbol had come to her envisioning around her ministry, which made her know that she needed to come to Lexington, Kentucky, and found this center.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

And Lexington, Kentucky is shaped like a wagon wheel. Like there's the downtown, and then there's all these roads. You were called. Like a spoke. Yeah. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

They were like, um, here, this is where you're going.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

So that I continued my my trip and you know, explored other places, but I have now been in Lexington, Kentucky for six and a half years. Wow, look at that. That's incredible. And and um it wasn't, you know, even though at first I thought I was looking for a community that I was looking for a spiritual leader, uh, the spiritual director, solo minister. Um, uh, it was again the perfect path from some other, you know, healing and different things that I didn't even know needed to occur um by coming in and working with Reverend Sonny for uh what, two and a half years or three years or so first, before then she retired from that to be that so it was like that partnership and that mentorship and the space to, you know, learn a new community and everything. And what a gift. Yeah. That's a major manifesting. And then the curveballs, right? So you manifest, and I'm not saying there aren't times when you think, like, yes, this is so divinely perfect, I can't even have imagined it, that the curveballs don't come and you're like, Why am I here? What's going you know? Yeah. But eight months after being here with COVID, so it was like the ministry I thought I was walking into totally took on, had to take on a new form. And so much changed through that. But it was also, you know, um an opportunity for a lot of creativity. Um and amongst all of that, that was COVID. Um, you know, not dismissing any of that, but there was also a lot of creative joy in like doing something different. And how are we gonna, you know, that I guess that ADHD part of me was like, okay, you know, like being a different thing. So you do something different. What are we gonna do? Yeah. And coming up with creative ideas of ways to gather and ways to create community online. And uh, I think one of my favorite ones being uh drive-thru prayer that came through revisioning with our practitioners. Oh my god, I love it. So fun. People would drive up. We were outside, it was cold, and we are all you know, gloved up and masked up, and had people drive up and we give them some coffee, and then they go to the next stop, and practitioners are standing there with big poster boards with their phone number, and you call from your phone and get a prayer. Oh my god, that is genius.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yeah, and so freaking cute. It really was. Oh my god, I can't stand it. I know. Oh my god, that is so precious. And you know what? It probably meant so much to them at that time. It was such a scary time. It was and it was isolating, and we had no community, and to do something that like community and and personal feeling and just so fun and folksy.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Exactly. And we did it like in a short time frame too, so it wouldn't be like outside just like waiting all day. So it was like a line of cars, so like people kind of got to like honk and see, or you know, some people got out and talked outside if they were comfortable, but it like brought everyone together within like a two-hour window or or so, you know. In a way that they felt safe to do.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, which is amazing. You know, I wanted to kind of just track back one hot second because I forgot to ask you about when you got the call to ministry, how did that come to you? Standing in the ocean in Hawaii.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

So you were you were living, you guys were living there at the time, right? Yeah. Okay, so you were living there with your uh wife at the time.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Yes. And went there teaching children's theater. Uh, got a contract with the army to to do theater and arts classes with the kids there on the army base. So that's what brought us to Hawaii. And then um there was a CSL church there that I got involved in. I had just become a licensed spiritual practitioner within CSL, which is you know, like a a step before becoming a minister and a wonderful um way of being in the world and supporting people as well. So I um when I got I got really involved in that CSL as well, and it was a smaller community, I mean, you know, it's the island of Oahu. And um they sent me to a leadership conference in LA to represent the church, and I like next thing you know, it's like I am I have the church office in my studio apartment. I'm speaking, you know, uh when she needs someone to cover or become a few. Oh, they really brought you in. They were like they were like young blood, you know. Yes, and and the minister retired, you know, a a few years later after we left or handful of years later, you know. So she was kind of yeah, at that point of like, yay, you know.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Let me find someone.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Yes, and so it really gave me though the opportunity to experience that. I felt like that was almost like my internship in a way. Um but I still remember the first time I spoke, um, like gave a Sunday message, and that was a a different time, but I was a practitioner student still in Chicago, and there was a a new thought center up in Milwaukee that was looking for guest speakers. And I bring that up because after that first time when I spoke, I was like stepping off the stage and sitting back down, and I I my mom was there and I kind of looked at her and was like, uh-oh. She's like, what? I was like, I really liked that. I think I'm gonna be a minister. It's like that getting by the bug by the theater bug. Oh you know, I felt that about the the ministry and giving the talk and all that. And then when I spoke for the first time at Bodie Spiritual Center in Chicago, um, again, I was a practitioner, not a minister. I don't know. I I I was a ministerial school dropout, that's another story. And then I like finished up later. And anyway, so um, I can't remember where I was and if I was a minister at that point. I think I was I had started back classes to to actually finish now. But anyway, the first time I spoke in Chicago, and I'm walk up on the as I'm getting from my seat up to, you know, I've just been to introduced, I hear this voice, or I just have this knowing. And this isn't something that happens to me a lot. Um, but it was like you were born for this. Oh my god, I love it. Yeah, this is so beautiful. And it just felt like like so. That was just another one of those moments.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

Holy shit.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

So the calling has come in various ways in different moments, but there was some there was a specific time that I remember standing in the ocean at this beach and where we uh kind of first lived, and it was like I and I don't know, it was like this it was uh again, I kind of got that message and in that way it was like a this could be yours, like this church, this center right there, like this could be yours. In Hawaii. Yeah, like you could it and and may and I felt like there's so many different paths, right? And I was like, okay, but I don't know that I want this church, you know, like living in Hawaii was a whole other experience, and I felt very isolated and I need to be more grounded, I need to be like in the woods, in the you know, by the ground community with a lot of people around and not feel like I'm like floating on this island in the middle of nowhere.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

So I don't know. Yeah, I know I totally get it. Yeah, because it is an island like away from everything else energetically. Yeah, and I really felt that.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

I felt that I can imagine in an interesting way. So yeah, but I remember saying at that time, oh wow, like this calling thing is a real thing. Like I did you know, until I experienced it, and I still couldn't quite put it to words, but I knew in that there was something in that moment that felt like got in your body. And I can't remember if it was before or right before or right after that they sent me to the leadership um conference. It may have been before, and then I go to this leadership conference, and then um I felt I was feeling so isolated and just like couldn't find my people, didn't fit in in Hawaii, like this whole thing. Then I go to the CSL Leadership Conference and I'm like, oh, and it's at Asilomar, which is Oh love. A lot of history, it's beautiful for everyone.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Yeah, Big Sur California. There's nowhere more beautiful than Asilomar.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

And so this Asilomar State Park is like sacred ground to you know, folks in our movement, because Dr. Ernest Holmes, that's where he would gather people on retreat. And he did the famous Sermon by the Sea right there. So leadership conference is there. I'm like with my people, and I feel I'm like, oh, this is what I've been, you know, missing, or some, you know, and it's a leadership conference, so it's spiritual um practitioners and ministers or you know, board members or you know, and yeah, just felt really like this is where I'm supposed to be. Heard a couple of ministers speak, heard someone speak, and I was like, that's supposed to be my teacher, and I'm gonna be a minister, you know. And I just think I have these moments where I just see it and I say it. I like I go, so I did, I went up to him. I'm like, I'm supposed to be, you know, I was like, I I feel like you're supposed to be my spiritual teacher and I want to be a minister. And he was like, Great, I just started up a new class, da-da-da-da-da. Come. And so it's like move my whole life. I moved my whole life many times um following that guidance. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

So then after Hawaii, you were you moved. That was did you move back to Chicago? Hawaii.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Hawaii moved to LA to LA to study to do ministerial studies, only were there for nine months. Okay. Didn't resonate with LA.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

Yeah, LA's got a lot of energy.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

Very moving and shaking.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Yeah. Um and I really miss Chicago. So even though I get, you know, I I moved to Chicago as a young adult, and around that time, especially in Hawaii and moved from there and in LA, it was like a heartache. It was like a breakup, you know, and I like miss the city. Such a good city. It is, yeah. It's definitely my favorite big city. Um so following that guidance, yeah, I was in there, but I I we it's a long story, but moved to Michigan after that for a little bit. And then eventually made my way back to Chicago and now Lexington, Kentucky, which I never I mean, when I told some of my friends, we went on this whole road trip, what's next in my journey? Guess what? I'm moving to Lexington, Kentucky. And they're like, they don't know if I'm joking, how to start. And they're like, are you gonna be okay? Because especially from Chicago, you know, you just think Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, whatever. But like there's really amazing side of the earth people here and spiritual seekers, and it's like queer people, you know, we're everywhere. And yeah, not just in the big cities. And my nervous system really needed a slower approach to life. Um I think you know, the only reason I really survived living in the city that long is because of the lake. I love Lake Michigan. Yes, love, and that provided enough of that nature and grounding presence.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

Yeah. I was gonna say, you know, just as you were saying that, I'm like, I know there is a good, very strong queer community in Kentucky. Yeah. So I would love to get into that and discuss that. Um, to share about, you know, uh your identity and how that uh is in your teachings and in your ministry.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Sure, yeah. So yes, here in Lexington, there's um a lot of history specifically around the um drag community, and there is someone from the 1920s named Sweet Evening Breeze. She was known as Sweet. Oh god, yes. Yes. And she would, I mean the 1920s, y'all think picture of this.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

Unbelievable, incredible.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

In Lexington, and a black trans woman walking around Lexington in beautiful gowns, you know. And um she was just someone would just talk to everyone and was really known and like, you know, got to know people uh in the government and you know, different things and and was really respected in the community. And then there were several people that people would come through town and her home was a place kind of of refuge, you know? Um and there's a bar that's still downtown that uh it used to be called like the living room, the bar, uh bar complex um now, but it I can't I'll have to look up, but it was like a place where a lot of even like famous actors and different authors and different people would come and meet up in in kind of in this central location. And there was I recently we we did a a vigil on National Coming Out Day myself and I'm a part of this group called the Lexington Affirming Faith Coalition.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

We just started it about a year and a half ago. Yeah and it has been so nurturing to me to all of us as progressive spiritual affirming spiritual leaders, ministers, clergy, whatnot during these times and in the city and in a state where there is all this anti-trans legislation and even stuff going on at the University of Kentucky and you know places and spaces that used to be I mean we've had the fairness ordinance since you know the 90s here in Lexington. We have all this history right of being affirming and then it is a little bit like a bubble though in the Lexington compared to the bigger state of Kentucky right and so state legislator and all these things passing these things. So that group has been very supportive and we held a vigil I know I'm talking I feel like I'm talking in circles but I am getting all with you okay good group vigil on coming out day yes and it was we called it a vigil of queer joy and mourning right so holding space for all of that because there is um so much to mourn right now in what is happening in our world but there has always been so much to mourn in the queer community going back to the AIDS epidemic and um so the the holding space for that mourning but also honoring our legacy and leaning into we've always been here we always will be here into that uniqueness of of queer joy.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

Yeah I love that because it's like so truthful so honest and truthful like this is what's happening this is here too and it's also a wonderful and it's hard at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

Holding it all and we kind of and it was great you know there's a very progressive Baptist church here. So there was someone here you know Baptist minister we we did the event uh outside on a labyrinth uh that another community has and um Presbyterian Unitarians you know uh a a handful of us that came together to create this evening but I shared a little bit about honoring the legacy and some of this queer history which is why it's even um fresh on my heart and mind um you know right now yeah and the stories of marginalized people standing up against oppressors um you know so that's what sweets did and she had someone that was under her house of drag family that was arrested at the gay bar and um for wearing a disguise is what they officially wrote, you know, being for being a drag performer drag.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Welp that was another delightful chat with the incredible Rainbow Weldon. In part three Rainbow shares about grief, loss identity and what happens when life strips away the roles and people you've oriented around and you're left with the question who am I now? See ya there, Boo. As always this has been the Spiritual Shit Show podcast. My name is Suzanne Soul thank you so motherfucking much for listening and I will see you on the next one darling. Roll it lover