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SPIRITUAL MESSENGER

Higher Love is the playground of Astra, a spiritual author and creator devoted to making spirituality accessible, understandable, and - above all - enjoyable.

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Born Eleanor Snare, Astra (they/them) received their first spiritual experience in 2004, after being dragged to a Christian youth festival by a close friend. Raised with a disdain of organised religion and the idolisation of rationality and logic, Astra responded with fear to the sensations of divine presence that emerged during the worship, feeling so overwhelmed and confused they were compelled to leave the festival immediately.

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It wouldn't be until more than a decade later that Astra was ready to receive their spiritual awakening, after grieving the death of their fervently Protestant grandmother and the breakdown of Astra's relationship, health and career. Sitting on Glastonbury Tor after participating in a heart-opening shamanic sound bath, Astra finally recognised that there was something beyond this material plane; something that had been calling them for a long, long time. 

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Over the following years, Astra stayed true to their cosmic blueprint, experimenting with spiritual practice in an attempt to develop a faith without dogma, which stood up to critical analysis, and which could hold the weight of their childhood neglect, sexual trauma, late-diagnosed neurodiversity, and periods of deep depression. In doing so, Astra explored methods from Celtic and Ancient British spirituality, Hindu kirtan, Quaker silent worship, shamanic journeying, tropical astrology, divination with Tarot and the I Ching, Human Design, crystal healing, Christology and Bible studies, plant medicine, Law of Attraction, and ecstatic dance forms. 

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In 2024, after travelling in Europe, Astra spent time living in a Hare Krishna monastery, where they had a moving audience with Svayam Bhagavan Keshava Swami and a profoundly healing vision while practising japa. Following this, Astra became part of an intentional living community in rural Wales for six months, tending to the vegetable garden each day, raising chickens and caring for the community's children.

 

These grounded experiences were the final necessary pieces in Astra's expansive exploration of faith. With them came the realisation that the spiritual life is of most meaning when it is offered in service. Through divine communication, Astra was given their new name, and the unequivocal understanding that they are here to be a spiritual messenger; an author and creator with the single aim of bringing you closer to God, whatever or whoever you define that as.

 

Astra's work expands your appreciation of life, your generosity to others, and your readiness to receive what you have been deeply yearning for since you arrived here on the planet: the direct and undeniable experience of unconditional, higher love.

Learn & Expand

In-depth, unconventional resources for all stages of your spiritual journey.

books • ebooks • self-paced courses • audio lectures • workshops • live experiences • & more

2025

  • Launched Spiritual Summer Camp, a short course in fundamental spiritual practice

  • Publication of The Soulful Pricing Playbook

  • Designed and facilitated Master Your Mindset three-day intensive for creative practitioners with Bradford Producing Hub

  • Facilitator Thrive Business Builder with Nadia Essex

  • Speaker HerSanctuary Women's Evolution

  • Facilitator for Amazon and AXA

  • Completion of Diploma in Shadow Work

  • Move to London

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2024

  • Facilitator for Paws in Work on inclusion, women's mental health & coping with change

  • 1:1 coach for Bradford Producing Hub's Creative Confidence programme

  • Travel in Europe

  • Staying with the Hare Krishnas

  • Living on rural Welsh commune for six months

  • Given new name: Astra

  • Launched Soul Messages, a daily SMS-based spiritual reminder service 

  • Launched Cacao Love Club, a six week women's programme to develop relationship skills

 

2023

  • Designing a Dream Career, Obstacles to Creating the Career You Want, Developing the Right Mindset for Your New Career, and How to Create a Career that Helps Others expert audio talks (Bookboon)

  • Subject matter expert and course creator of Power Skills micro-learning package for international e-learning provider Virtual College

  • Speaker NXT 45 inaugural men's wellbeing residential event

  • Designed and facilitated Know Your Worth and Future Artists, Future Planet day-long intensives for Bradford Producing Hub

  • Part-time Online Tutor for Falmouth University

  • Completion of Trauma-Informed Coaching certification with Dr Susanna Petche's Trauma-Sense programme

  • Completion of neo-Tantra Practitioner training with Academy of Modern Tantra

  • Launched My Body, My Home, an eight week course to develop body intelligence and somatic healing

  • Begin selling prints of spiritual artworks

 

2022

  • 'How Do I Feel About This?: Reflections on the Emotional Experience of Teaching in Art Education at a Time of Ecological Collapse', The Industrialisation of Arts Education (Palgrave Macmillan)

  • Finding Your Professional Purpose: 10 Questions to a Fulfilling Career (Bookboon)

  • Bringing Our Selves to Work presented at LAU Learning, Teaching and Enhancement Conference

  • Co-creator A learning game to navigate the challenges in fashion branding and communication education online poster presentation at Future Scan 5 Conference

  • Reviewer for Organisational Aesthetics journal

  • Consultant for Indeed's report on diversity and belonging in the UK workplace

  • Speaker Guild HE Sustainability programme Teaching and Learning

  • Speaker EAUC Scotland Realigning Curricula for the Future

  • Completion of Sensual Embodiment® Facilitator training

 

2021

  • From Here to There: Art education's role in imagining climate change-resilient communities online poster presentation at Climate Exp0

  • Critical Place-Based Pedagogy for Art Education: An SDG Alternative? presented at LAU Expanding Communities of Sustainable Practice

  • Co-author Problem-based learning as ethical enquiry in fashion branding and communication education presented at Global Fashion Conference Poland

  • Co-author A Simple Vista – Cultural Variability as a Dialogue Between Students presented at International Visual Methods Conference: Decolonising Design

  • Speaker Mental Health Awareness week at creative communications agencies

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2020

  • Speaker Pebble Magazine’s Future Fest

  • Completion of Life Coaching Diploma

  • Completion of Journal Therapy Diploma

  • Launched root & branch a 12 week self-development audio course for artists and nature lovers

  • Launched Letters from My Home and Heart, a subscription service of creative personal development by post

 

2019

  • Created and produced Sex Tapes, a sex positive poetry event for Leeds International Festival featuring seven sex-positive poets and raising funds for SARSVL Leeds

  • Category winner of Vênoor's London Design Week poetry competition

  • Poetry performances at Cocktails and F**k Tales Pride night 

  • Keynote speaker University of Leeds Design Futures

  • Completion of Foundation Level Nonviolent Communication

  • Part-time Senior Lecturer at Leeds Arts University

  • Travel in US

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2018

  • Co-author of ‘Residencies’: mixed methods research investigating fashion through place presented at Global Fashion Conference London

  • Quit teaching and leave the UK indefinitely to travel in Colombia and Canada

  • Poetry performances at Leeds International Festival, Artonomy and various open mic nights

  • Awarded 3 month group residency with East Street Arts, exploring site-specific responses to 'hot house' and Leeds' own Tropical World

  • Selected to participate in an alternative (and poetic) audio description tour of Leeds Art Gallery for people with visual impairment, created by Shoddy, a disability arts charity

  • Second place in WeArtFriends poetry competition

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2017

  • 30th birthday and spiritual awakening with shamanic sound bath at Glastonbury Tor

  • Completion of introductory shamanic journeying skills

  • Begin writing performance poetry

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2016

  • Using ikigai to develop a creative employment programme for graduates presented at LAU Expanding Communities of Sustainable Practice

  • Co-author of Luxury brands and their role in eco-innovation diffusion presented at Global Fashion Conference Stockholm

  • Visiting lecturer at London College of Fashion's Centre for Sustainable Fashion

  • Nominated for University of Leeds Partnership Award for Innovation

  • Awarded Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

  • Begin coaching

  • Attend first crystal healing workshop

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2015

  • Human Sustainability in Fashion Education presented at Fashion Colloquia Milan

  • Part-time Teaching Fellow at University of Leeds

  • Designed and ran creative employment programme for final year undergrads based on concept of ikigai

  • Launched own business providing copywriting and communication for marketing agencies and small independent businesses including photographers, personal stylists, PR agencies, textile designers, fine artists, and graphic designers

  • Completion of home herbalism course

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2014

  • Finalist ModeConnect’s International Fashion Writing competition

  • 'New Young Writers on Wool: My Life in Jumpers', Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture

 

2013

  • Digital fashion consumption and its effects on buying habits presented at Fashion Colloquia New York

  • Solo travel for two months in Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Australia

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2012

  • Communications Specialist and Copywriter, Vista Ltd. - wrote and pitched £1.5m internal comms event, managing multiple pitches each week writing ~10k words for clients including Marks and Spencer, BT, Unilever, TSB, Aviva, TalkTalk, ASDA and NatWest

  • Winner Best Specialist Blog at Blog North

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2011​

  • Graduation from MA Social History of Art (Distinction)

  • Thesis on Fashion blogging as a site of labour and production on the fashion commodity chain

  • Creative Lead and Content Writer, Stickyeyes - designed agency’s first Pinterest strategy, bra-fit quiz and multiple content campaigns for lifestyle clients including ghd, New Look, Redcats, Shop Direct and Eastpak

  • Published in local and national press including The Culture Vulture, Leeds Guide and Guardian Leeds

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2009

  • Began blogging

  • Graduation from BA Design and Applied Arts (2:1)

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© 2025 by Higher Love & Astra Soulfeather.

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