YOUR VÉZELAY GUIDE
My name is Clara Goodheart. I am an Englishwoman with a deep spiritual connection to Vézelay and the surrounding area. After visiting the Basilica of St Mary Magdalene every year for almost 20 years, I finally knew it was time to move here.
Living close to Vézelay since 2019, I experience the beauty, power, peace and light that is here, and love to share this special sacred place with those who come to visit it.
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I am an experienced tour guide; I used to live in Paris and have shown many people around that beautiful city. I am also a trained spiritual companion, a former nun and hermit, and an ordained interfaith minister. I also have a doctorate (PhD) from the University of Oxford.
I speak many languages of the Heart and however you conceive of the Sacred, I will be able to connect with you and share the specialness of Vézelay with you.
I have explored many spiritual traditions and have a deep knowledge of the Christian tradition and its symbolism. The Basilica of St Mary Magdalene is like a precious book written in stone and light. I will give you the tools and understandings you need in order to approach it, to read its message, and to receive the sacred realities it is offering to us.
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I will answer your questions about St Mary Magdalene's connection to France, why relics of holy people are kept, why go on pilgrimage, and what a medieval pilgrim would have experienced in Vézelay.
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I will also show you the hidden paths in and around the town, the back streets and those lovely hidden corners that you might not discover on your own.
My guided tours are for everyone: visitors, pilgrims, spiritual explorers, lightworkers, those on holiday or on retreat ...
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They are a 'time out of time' when you can truly slow down, release the many distractions of modern life, and rediscover a sense of your own inner centre and your own connection with all that surrounds you.
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The tours are both inner and outer pilgrimages, and I love to make them fun, interesting and informative for everyone, and to leave you with a sense of having reconnected to something precious within yourself and in the world around you.
Clara Goodheart
Thank you for the amazing visit of the Basilica you provided to my friends! They came home absolutely awed by your presence and knowledge. I will contact you whenever I plan to come to Vézelay again.
Pierrette, France
It was a pleasure to meet you and spend the afternoon together in Vézelay. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and found it of great value. I would recommend you without hesitation to anyone looking for a guide of Vézelay.
Kara, USA