Aspenite combats big-box Black Friday with local Holiday Wellness Fair

With Black Friday fast approaching, members of the Roaring Fork Valley community can shop for the holidays locally and intentionally at the Holiday Wellness Fair at Craft Wellness in Basalt.

The event, aimed at providing an alternative to standard Black Friday shopping with offerings from healers, mystics, coaches, and other valley providers, will be open to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 28. Hot chocolate will be available for the kids, and while most of the fair is outside, the immersive spa area will take place indoors.

“Black Friday is this term that’s been created by big, large corporate businesses,” Sheridan Semple, feminist astrologer, certified astrology life coach, and The Aspen Times’ Moon Mondays columnist, said. “It’s a unique gift-giving opportunity for people here to support our local community and know what’s out there.”

Semple will be talking astrology with anyone and everyone at the fair who might be interested.

A $2 donation is suggested for entry, which will automatically enter the attendee into a holiday raffle with prizes including a private breath work session by Allison Alexander, a five punch pass to Craft Wellness for yoga or sauna, a 30 minute Astrology Reading with Semple, massage oil and candle from Rae at Traceplant Medicinals, a permanent jewelry piece and full Reiki session for human or animal from Jessica Barnum, Magnesium mist by The Sacred Headwaters, a Magic by Mellie Session, and more.

Lauren O’Neill, director of media and global experiences for Aspen Shakti and owner of The Sacred Headwaters, is the creator of the inaugural event. She will participate with The Sacred Headwaters for Internal Systems Facilitation and Energy Alchemy sessions.

“I’ve had this vision for this wellness fair for the past couple of years,” O’Neill said. “It’s always about going deeper for me. I don’t want this holiday to just be supporting mega corporations.”

O’Neill originally got the idea for the fair on a road trip with her best friend to Asheville, North Carolina. The two stopped through Wilmington, North Carolina, where they attended a mystic fair at a local brewery that both catered to O’Neill’s expert interest and created an “approachable” environment for her friend, who was initially more of a skeptic.

After experiencing that fair, O’Neill began to envision what might be possible. Now, years later, the Holiday Wellness Fair will feature a diverse range of offerings that include Reiki Healing, Shamanic Astrology, Tarot Readings, Tuning Forks, Apothecary Products, Acupuncture, Coaching Sessions, Art and Jewelry, Breathwork Facilitation, Sound Healing, Bodywork, Sauna Services, Yoga and Movement, Cacao Rituals, Dreamwork Facilitation, Animal Therapeutic Services, and more. 

Those who attend can get a tarot read, test functional mushrooms, enjoy a reiki healing session, sip some elixirs, listen to live music, or immerse in sound healing and apothecary item samples to find inspiration for gifts, both for loved ones and for the self.

“We want to reshape the easy trends of purchasing gifts from mega corporations with supporting Local Creators and Practitioners, and reshape the types of gifts we offer our friends and family — such as the gift of a healing touch or intentional craftsmanship,” a flyer for the event states.

The aim is to cultivate what O’Neill calls the “gift of intention.”

“It’s such a different way to gift something to someone,” O’Neill said. “It’s so much more potent (to say) what matters to me is the healing of the people I love, that when they receive a gift, it offers them something that came with care.”

This fair is the first step toward creating a movement of reciprocity across the valley. O’Neill said she hopes to cultivate an atmosphere for practitioners to operate from a place of devotion rather than obligation, where that energy can then be reciprocated by individuals who want to purchase offerings not for routine gift-giving but because they care about these unique experiences. In that way, it encourages practitioner passion for their healing modalities.

“That reciprocity is the foundation of the creation of it,” O’Neill said. “If we’re going to be consuming, how can we be mindful in that consumption?”

O’Neill also credits Shianne Wright and Dri Liechti of Craft Wellness with bringing this vision to life.

“I really would love to highlight how, as soon as I put this idea out there, they responded and were so willing to do it,” O’Neill said. “​​From me, Shianne, and Dri, this is an act of devotion. We believe in the rewriting of this story of how we consume.”