Anastashia Kunklutl

Anastashia Adore Kunklutl left her body on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 28, 2013, aged 69. Anastashia will be missed dearly by family and her precious circle of friends, including her best friend Gilligan Joy and brother Anthony Rekert. Memories of Anastashia are posted on the Condolences page, including a personal tribute to Anastashia from Anthony.
A memorial service will be held on Sunday, June 29th at 12:30pm, at the Self-Realization Fellowship Church in Victoria, located at 202-2504 Government St (entrance on Bay St).
Born Judith Elaine Rekert, Anastashia changed her names several times during her life. Friends, family and community may also remember her as Amarrah Soleil Lovejoy, or Amarrah Ebony Joy. Anastashia was a spiritual seeker for most of her life, and she set an example for others on the spiritual path with her deep love for God, her deep love for all of Gods creatures, her adherence to spiritual principles, even if that meant great suffering for herself, and her tremendous willpower to overcome all obstacles. She was a woman of great wisdom, and she had a very playful sense of humour!
In her younger years, Anastashia attended the UBC Arts Program, and then she took a course at a business college, but the office environment was unsuited to her free spirit. She had an artists temperament, and was very intuitive. She moved to New York City to learn interpretive dance, where she paid her way as a nanny.
Anastashia had her first experience of God while dancing, which prompted the start of her spiritual search, and soon she found her spiritual path, the church of Self-Realization Fellowship, founded by Paramahansa Yogananda, to which she remained loyal for the rest of her life. Anastashia developed a great love for devotional singing and became extremely proficient at playing the harmonium. She enjoyed collecting and singing many different chants, songs and hymns, and often she improvised, entertaining others in a playful way!
Anastashia also completed a Diploma in Childhood Education at Capilano College, then she moved to Victoria and spent some time educating children. She also began studying the healing arts as a way to help herself and others. She became an expert in Kinesiology, Reflexology and Primal and Modern Dance. She taught Reflexology at Camosun College, and also she taught dance as a way to heal to many students. She was innovative and pushed the boundaries of what is considered appropriate kinds of movement with her expression of dance as an art form.
Whatever Anastashia studied, she became an expert in. She studied many healing modalities, including Process-oriented Psychology, Pranic Healing and Aromatherapy, and created her own holistic health care practice, including nutritional and psychological counseling. She was a very skilled and intuitive cook, and hardly ever used a recipe. She kept her body strong by weight lifting at the local gym several times per week, and enjoyed riding her bicycle everywhere.
Anastashia had a great love for nature, especially for plants and animals, and for a long time she had a large and beautiful collection of natural crystals and minerals. She had a very green thumb, and liked to fill her living space with many plants. She had a few pets over the years, including dogs and cats. Anastashia was also an expert gardener, and was able to transform a plain landscape into a beautiful, healing environment! Her living spaces always had a very nurturing and earthy feel to them. She enjoyed her private space but she also enjoyed spending time with others, and often went out of her way to connect with people, especially those in need.
Anastashia had very significant personal obstacles to overcome that probably would have been very disabling for others, but she worked through her obstacles with sheer determination. She never took painkillers, even for the dentist or surgery. She had a beautiful and sincere smile, a contagious enthusiasm and hilarious laughter that belied her obstacles. She worked on herself continually, and her health improved dramatically as she got older. She worked skillfully with counselors but also spent a significant part of every day working on herself, including many hours per day doing spiritual practices, some of which she had great difficulty doing, but she did them anyway because she knew they were helping her significantly. She was independent, but also she was humble and she was always learning from others. Anastashia was willing to change her mind in an instant when evidence warranted that, and she knew when to ask for help.
Anastashia had a great passion for life and never wasted time. She was always very decisive, and when she wanted something, she went for it! She liked to have fun, and enjoyed many sports, including kayaking, skinny-dipping, river tubing down the rapids in her birthday suit, and bungee jumping! She was married to three men, the latest being her best friend, Gilligan Joy, who was her care giver in the last few months of her life.
Of her birth family, Anastashia was pre-deceased by her father Harry Rekert sixteen years ago, her mother Gladys five years ago, and her brother Winston two years ago.
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