New Video: Angel Card Reading & Discussion

The Lessons of Compassion: Letting Passion Define Our Path

Animals are important to me.  And I find the atrocities committed against them hauntingly and deeply disturbing. 

No meat is served in my house.  I keep a vegan diet as does my oldest son. My middle boy is vegetarian.  My boyfriend and youngest child are almost, but not quite vegetarian.  Our varying levels of commitment and the welfare of animals are something we talk about from time to time.

During one such recent conversation we acknowledged that a person can be vegan and still complicit with a wide range of crimes against humanity and the planet and, in some cases, animals as well via other (non-food) avenues of consumption.

Fuel consumption and large chain bargain store shopping were cited.  I had to admit that the family member making this point had hit a bull's eye.

Our family is not unaware of the issues associated with materialism.  We repurpose things like crazy.  We have a garden.  We avoid processed food.  We also buy things at stores we should not be supporting.  We drive everywhere because we are always in a hurry.  We turn up the heat when we could just as easily put on a sweater.  We turn on our air conditions when we should be living in harmony with the seasons.  

We have a coal stove for extra heat.  We have no solar unit. No wind power.  No rain barrel.

We tax the planet and support actions which we cannot in good conscious agree with.  Our goal is to shift the balance away from these practices and I think that we will be successful to a degree. That is to say, our changes in these areas will probably be limited.

While we may modify our behavior, it is very unlikely that we will give up gasoline, or natural gas, or coal or large chain bargain stores completely anytime soon.  Even though we understand that by supporting these industries we are complicit with practices we do not approve of.

Which raises an interesting question.  Why do some causes push our buttons and propel us to action, when others do not?  Why do some protest for the planet while others focus on a single habitat or community or breed?

Our particular passions are, in my opinion, clear evidence of our soul level programming.  To be passionate about a particular cause is not to say that our cause is superior to others or that we are, in ourselves, in any way superior to others.  It is only to say that this cause belongs to us.  That it is a thing that we have been charged with. 

Not everyone is activist but we can all lead by example.  In my world view, the crimes committed against our fellow earthlings are something for which the whole of the human race should feel accountable.  In your view, something else may strike a more resonant chord.  

And while none of us are confined to single act of good conscience, I believe that we should all lead with our heart.  I believe that by expressing our own passion, we express our soul level reason for being and that this is why we are here.

Our life mission is rarely one dimensional.  And it is my opinion that most of us are charged with a number of highly significant tasks.  The time and energy we can devote to each is always to some degree limited.  To me, our mission here seems not unlike our day job.  Certain responsibilities are assigned to us and it our job to incorporate them into our day.

We  must not underestimate the affect we can have. 

We Are Born Knowing

This video reminds me that we are born knowing the essential spiritual truth of things. Much of that truth gets lost along the way. And then, if we are lucky, something like this comes along to remind us!

Communing with the Divine and the Sleep Temples of Spirit

The Spiritual Arts Institute was founded by psychic, author and spiritual teacher Barbara Martin and spiritual teacher and author Dimitri Moraitis.  Martin is a clairvoyant who has devoted her life to aura reading and working directly with spirit and she shares what she has learned freely in all of her courses.

I have been privileged to take part in two Spiritual Arts Institute courses, Change Your Aura, Change Your Life and Communing with the Divine.  Courses are taught via MegaMeeting with live audio and video.  I found that the added dimension of video made the class come to life and allows students to better connect with each other, as well as the instructors.

In the Change Your Aura class I learned a great deal about Martin's approach to meditating with divine color and light, a form of meditation which I have been doing for some time now.  In Communing with the Divine, Martin shared her experience of spiritual hierarchies - the topic of her upcoming book.  While I found the placement of Jesus in this hierarchy somewhat outside of my own personal belief system, I did very much enjoy the information given on angelic energies and the suggestions provided for working with those energies.

Communing with the Divine also covered dreamwork and accessing the other side through dreams - a topic of great interest to me as my most coherent and, in many ways, most evidential experience of the other side occurred during dreams.  

I can honestly say that my contact with the sleep temples / learning centers, passed loved ones and my own spirit guides are among my strongest experiences of spirit to date.

My favorite part of Communing with the Divine was the information Martin and Moraitis shared on the sleep temples of the spirit realm and the guided meditations aimed at accessing these temples.  We were advised to set our intention on a particular realm at bedtime which I found quite helpful.

I believe strongly that we all visit the other side in our dreams and this is, in my opinion, the reason why sleep is so essential to our psychological well being.  When we sleep, when all of us sleep, we return to the realm of spirit we call home.  

We dream of other things of course and may even, in my opinion, visit lower spiritual dimensions from time to time.  It is the time spent in the higher realms of spirit, however, which helps us remember our essence and access the divinity of our own immortal soul.

Starting tonight, I will be reinstituting Steven LaBerge's lucid dreaming protocol and blogging on the results.  My intention is to consciously access the realms of spirit I have previously experienced on a spontaneous and too intermittent basis.  I sense that this will be an excellent complement to my current process in developing mediumship.

Developing Mediumship: Discernment in Spirit

I have been attending a psychic development circle led by spiritualist medium and teacher Gloria Weichand.  The group meets once a week at The Spirit Education Center located in the Pocono mountains and is within reasonable driving distance of my home.  How great, and completely unexpected, is that?

Tonight was my third meeting (my first was at Gloria's other meeting site at the Journey Within Spiritualist Church in Pompton Lakes NJ).  At each meeting so far, Gloria has provided a different and very thought provoking learning experience.  

At my first meeting we paired off for exercises in mediumship.  At the second we worked with auras and mediumship as a group.  

At last night's meeting we again worked in pairs.  Our exercise was to make eye contact and write a series of psychic impressions down in our notebook, followed by a series of impressions from spirit.  The lesson of the exercise was to learn to discern the difference between information obtained psychically and that obtained directly from spirit.

I was somewhat less accurate in this exercise as I was the previous week but I did learn a great deal.  My psychic impressions came to me in an intuitive way - that is to say I felt or knew the information I gave was applicable and for the most part it was.  

My mediumship reading however came in a much more sensory fashion.  By this I mean that I received impressions that were in one instance audible and in all others visual.  For example, I clearly heard a name which was the middle name of my partner's aunt - a stretch.  I also clearly saw a property which was not immediately familiar to my sitter and a glass paperweight which belonged to his grandfather.  

While this specific difference will not necessarily apply to others (we all process psychic information differently) it helped me to see the difference between my own soul knowing and the information provided by spirit.

What's more completing this exercise taught me a bit about how to relay information.  Looking back on my notes I realized I had added to my original vision, including left brain perceptions which quite possibly interfered with my partner's ability to identify the information.  In regard to the property for example, I specified a house in the country when I was really just seeing tall grass which could have just as likely meant an unkempt yard or vacant lot.  

I would have done better describing the bungalow style house I saw than I did by assuming since we were in the country, my partner was from the area.  He and his family were originally from Brooklyn! 

Learning mediumship is a gift of course, in the way everything we are given here is a gift, but it is also very much, in my opinion, a process.  And I feel fortunate to have found a place where I can come to understand how this process works for me.  

Studying mediumship is helpful, of course, and I have just begun "So You Want to Be a Medium" - a book Gloria recommends with the expectation that it will be very instructive.  But I also feel that, psychic development being such a personal process, discovering our own process must to some extent be personal as well.  That is why the type of exercises provided at The Spirit Education Center are so very helpful.

In doing these exercises, I believe that we are working directly with spirit and that if we apply ourselves, spirit will provide us with the understanding we need to strengthen our connection with the other side.

To learn more about Gloria and The Spirit Education Center, please check out her website at SECAS.biz or tune in to her monthly radio show The Medium's View at blogtalkradio.com/TheMediumsView!

The New Age Review Radio Show is Moving to a New URL!

I began The New Age Review Radio Show not because I wanted to do radio but because I wanted to open my throat chakra and develop my spiritual voice. 

Speaking out can be a problem for me in almost any capacity.  I was an extremely sensitive child reluctant to voice my opinion in any venue outside my fairly small comfort zone and I carried this liability into adulthood as well. 

The first show I scheduled with intuitive (and next week's guest) Jenny Seick was on the chakra system.  I prepared for the show by reading Liz Simpson's wonderful book The Book of Chakra Healing.  As I reviewed the solar plexus chakra, the seat of personal power and self-esteem, I became suddenly and violently ill with severe stomach pain and nausea UNaccompanied by any objective symptoms (such as vomiting or diarrhea).

I cancelled that show, but I did the next one even though I found it extremely stress provoking.  Over time the shows became easier and I found myself beginning to enjoy doing them.  When Edgar Cayce's ARE begin providing me with some of their wonderful author's to interview, I realized what a wonderful opportunity the show was.  I have learned so much from my guests and I'm thrilled to say that I will be continuing The New Age Review at a new URL called Spirit Radio.

Spirit Radio is also on BlogTalk and it boasts what I consider a great line up.  The New Age Review will continue to air on Wednesdays at 8PM ET / 5PM PT.  The Anthony Quinata show, with phenomenal international psychic and author Anthony Quinata, will air Thursdays at 9PM ET / 6PM PT.  And at a time and day TBA astrological counselor and former New Age Review co-host Anna Swora will be sharing her insight in her very own episode!

Please check out our website at SpiritRadioOnline.com and follow us on BlogTalk at blogtalkradio.com/SpiritRadio.  If your on FaceBook, please consider visiting our page, facebook.com/SpiritRadioOnline, and give us a like.

And thank you to everyone who has followed The New Age Review and encouraged me in my journey to find and share my voice!

Psychic Reading with Channeler Kim O'Neill: My Message from the Angels

Emily Post

The true test of any psychic reading is time.  And it was time that tested my psychic reading with angelic channeler Kim O'Neill.

I knew a bit about psychic medium Kim O'Neill before my reading.  I had reviewed her wonderful book, The Calling: My Journey with the Angels, and interviewed her on my radio show, The New Age Review.  I was impressed by both her writing and on-air presence and had no trouble saying that I was.   

I less sure of what I should say about the reading I had with her in October of 2012.

I was the winner of Kim's monthly free reading contest and Kim graciously extended this half hour reading to a full hour as a thank you for my support of her work.  

I had intended to blog on the reading right away but I found some of Kim's predictions perplexing.  A few seemed highly unlikely.  I wasn't sure how to evaluate the information Kim had given me.  I could not say that she was wrong.  But I couldn't say that I believed her either.

My opinion on that has changed.  And while I won't share Kim's reading in its entirety, I do want to cover a few of the highlights.  

Kim predicted that I would live into my nineties and this was resonant to me immediately.  In her first book, How to Talk With Your Angels, Kim suggests that everyone knows the age that they will pass and asks the reader to name that date.  My intuition was that I would transition well into my nineties.  I even remember writing it inside the margin of the book.  This was a validation.  Something I could easily accept.  That was not the case however with some of the other information given.

Case in point.  Kim told me that we would not move into our new house until March or April of 2013.  Something which seemed incomprehensible to me in October 2012.  After a series of small but reoccurring issues with the renovations (which Kim predicted) we moved into our new home at the end of March 2013.

During my reading with Kim, I was told the names of my spirit helpers, one of whom Kim named as Emily Post.  She said that Emily and I had a great deal in common which I thought very unlikely.  So unlikely that I promptly dismissed (and forgot) the information.  Lately however, the name 'Emily' has been coming to me when I participate in psychic development circles.  I know it is not related to the person for whom I'm reading but it there anyway and after relistening to Kim's reading, that coincidence prompted me to look up Emily Post and learn the following:

Emily Post was the daughter of architect Bruce Price and Josephine (Lee) Price of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (the area in which I happen to live).  Her life, while privileged was marred by scandal, and she divorced her husband after his infidelities caught the intention of blackmailers, the legal system and the press.  She went on to write several works of fiction, magazine articles and other pieces and her wildly successful book of etiquette.  Of etiquette she said, "Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use."

Not a play by play of my life, of course, but a few significant similarities are present.  Am I convinced, as of this moment, that Emily Post is one of my spirit guides?  Possibly not but I find it increasingly plausible.

Kim strongly advised me to set aside my nonfiction manuscript and return to fiction.  Something I did not want to do!  My idea for writing a spiritual nonfiction is that sharing my own journey might be of help to others which I believe is a worthwhile endeavor.  Be that as it may, the book refuses to come together.  Earlier this week, after over a year of struggling with the nonfiction piece that would not be written, I have decided to return to fiction.  It is as if a great weight has been lifted from me.  And with that weight lifted, I decided that it was time to write this review.

No psychic is one hundred percent accurate one hundred percent of the time.  And I didn't expect that of Kim any more than I did of any other reader.  What I found most difficult to believe about her reading however, and what likely colored my entire perception of what she said, was the success she assured me I would have with my spiritual fiction and the difference I could make in the life of others through writing.

And while I did not verbalize this lack of confidence (or much of anything really) during the reading my lack of faith in myself was an issue Kim addressed at length.  She reminded me that I am more than my personality and that my soul has come a long way from the shores of Atlantis to a mountain overlooking a small town in Northeast Pennsylvania.  And today listening to her reading for the first time in over six months, it occurred to me that she just might be right.

The test of any psychic reading is time and the test of any good reader is their commitment to delivering their truth - no matter how it is received.  As I begin my newest work of fiction, I realize that I have finally begun to accept Kim's message. And after a very long time of feeling stuck, I feel myself moving forward once more.

Where I Sit is Holy by Shaina Noll

I first heard the song at The Journey Within Spiritualist Church. A wonderful experience on so many levels.  It is a bit of a drive for me but one I hope to make at least once a month!

Becomign Masters of Light by Psychic Darrin Owens

"Becoming Masters of Light: Co-Creating the New Age of Enlightenment" by psychic, teacher and best-selling author Darrin Owens is not a lengthy book but it is packed with lots of fascinating info on spirit!

"Becoming Masters of Light" is Darrin's second book.  His first, the best-selling "Reader of Hearts," tells the the story of his coming of age, spiritual experience and, as I understand it, serves as an introduction to the current work.

"Becoming Masters of Light" touches on some of this, well, but mostly concentrates on Darrin's own spiritual truths in regard enlightenment, the law of attraction, spiritual healing, spiritual energy, psychic intuition and the coming golden age.

I found Darrin's emphasis on the individual's role in co-creation, manifestation and the law of attraction resonant with my own beliefs as well as highly realistic.  Like Darrin, I believe that we are here for our own individual and very significant reason and that reason always touches upon sharing our light and creating meaningful change here on the earth plane. 

I especially enjoyed the way "Becoming Masters of Light" addressed the chakra system and the nitty gritty of realizing true personal transformation, and loved the beautiful meditations and healing formulas it contained.  Additionally, I found the author's approach to predictive psychic readings and "the need to know" very much in line with my own thinking and experience.

Even more importantly, I agree that we are all participants in a coming golden age and that our individual participation counts.  "Becoming Masters of Light" provides valuable insights and strategies highly appropriate to this very special time!

Listen to the author of "Becoming Masters of Light," Darrin Owens discussing these topics and more on The New Age Review Radio Show by clicking the player below!

Listen to The New Age Review!

Psychic Sensitivity and the Influence of Environmental Energy

I have always been sensitive to energy.  And by energy, I don't mean energy in the material sense (as in thermal or electrical) I mean the invisible spiritual essence of things - a quality more easily sensed than defined.

This kind of energy, while frequently subtle, is not always so.  Some people, I am sure, sense the energy of everything they approach, while others seems oblivious to the strongest of influences. I fall in between but well toward the sensitive end of the spectrum.  

I sense the energy of the living (and sometimes the dead) as well as most spaces to varying degrees.  Positive places such as forests, gardens, sanctuaries, libraries and certain homes affect me strongly.  Their resonant energies have a fine but palpable vibration which speaks to me spiritually, emotionally and even physically in a language which is not far removed from that of music.

Negative spaces and people affect me in a very different way.  Generally speaking I find that dirty, cluttered areas, large groups of people, some small groups, institutions, anger, resentments and general negativity cause variable but almost always unpleasant reactions in me.  And it seems that I am getting more instead of less sensitive to this type of dissonance.

Case in point, my trip to the New York and New Jersey on Sunday.  Our first stop was The Journey Within Spiritualist Church where we enjoyed a beautiful service, spiritual healing and a compelling display of mediumship.  The sanctuary there has a clear light energy which left me feeling energetic and positive.

We then traveled into the city, had lunch at a wonderful vegan Chinese restaurant and spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the many beautiful medieval exhibits as The Cloisters Museum (pictured above and below).  There were a fair amount of people around all day but I held up well until the way back, when halfway through the city, the energy clobbered me.

All at once, I was exhausted.  Bone tired.   And more than a little demoralized.  Even though my daily at home to do list is far more demanding on multiple levels.  Today, back in Northeast PA, I got hit again as I spent the afternoon trying to work my way through the mess left behind after moving out of our old house.  By the time I got home, I felt nauseous, jangly and very discouraged.

I did a cleansing visualization John Edward recommends in his wonderful CD Unleashing Your Psychic Potential as I showered and felt better after.  Not good enough to navigate around one or two family and relationship issues as well as I should have, but better.  

I am disappointed in myself for not handling things better on a personal level but I also acknowledge how difficult all of this can be.  Something I did not do back when I was trying to be as oblivious to all of this as everyone else apparently was!

Dealing with all of the energies and pressures of everyday life can be overwhelming and is sometimes particularly so for those of us who are sensitive by nature.  Some can be avoided and I, for one, intend to think long and hard about any future trips to NYC.  Clearing work is important.  And so is acknowledging and honoring who we are and what we are capable of.

Tonight I am going to listen to ambient music, read The Life Beyond the Veil, have herbal tea, go to bed early, wake up early, do yoga, walk in the woods and have a much better day.

Wishing everyone who has had a tough and overwhelming Monday sanctuary and peace!

Developing Mediumship: Attending My First Spiritualist Home Circle

On Tuesday, I returned to The Journey Within Spiritualist Church to attend my first development circle.  

It is my belief that all things should be done with intention, so I set a specific intention for the meeting that evening - part prayer, part appeal for information from spirit.  'Let this experience show me what I might expect if I continue in this direction.'

It seemed a reasonable request.  The following Saturday, I had attended my first Beginner's Mediumship Class with Joseph Sheil and for that workshop I had set the intention of finding out if I should pursue training in mediumship.  I took the answer I received that day as a yes.  It seemed only fair to ask for a taste of what doing so might be like going forward.

The Tuesday night group was led by medium and teacher,  Gloria Weichand, and attended by a half dozen developing mediums.  I found everyone to be open and friendly and appreciated the time Gloria took to explain her methods to me before the class started.

Gloria explained the importance of symbolism and recommended that asking for spirit for a symbol be a part of my daily meditation - a great suggestion that I have not heard before.  She also encouraged us to set an intention for each meditation and to avoid dialoguing or questioning during meditation as this encourages left brain involvement. All great information I plan to incorporate in my routine.

After a lovely guided meditation, Gloria paired us off to practice psychic reception and mediumship.  While I was not as worried as I had been prior a similar exercise in Joe Sheil's beginners class on Saturday, I remained unsure.  I wondered if I would pick up anything of importance or even anything at all.

Our first exercise was in receiving information psychically.  We were asked to gather information about our partner in regard to past, present and future.  I shut my eyes and waited, determined not to say anything until I was given a vision.  In the darkness of my third eye vision I saw a kitchen, it took shape gradually.  I had the impression of a multi-paned window, lots of counters and possible an island, the suggestion of brick either within or without.

A bit lame, I thought, as far as visions go and told my partner I saw a kitchen and moved on in a hurry.  For the present I received an emotion which was a bit hard to pin down, a sensation of calm or peace that might have just been the energy of the sanctuary in which we were seated.  For future I received the impression of a dark car with light upholstery.

I wasn't particularly impressed.  Just about everyone has a car and kitchen and I seriously doubted that my partner did not.

We went on to the mediumship portion of the exercise.  We were told to get a name (of a deceased freind or family member or anyone associated with our sitter), an idea of an age of death and a manner of passing.  

I saw a flash of rose pink and the word Rose popped into my head.  I clearly saw an abundance of flowers and had the clear idea that these flowers were funeral flowers.  For a moment I had an impression of a lined casket in white or light satin.

Trying to put it together I guess that a woman close to my sitter had passed.  This was incorrect.  She had however lost her father less than two years before.  'There were a lot of flowers at the funeral,' she said, graciously.  'Really a lot.'  

After doing better than I expected to do on Saturday, this reading was a bit of a let down and I was disappointed that I had not been able to get more meaningful and specific information.

We reassembled to discuss what we had received and I was interested to hear the details of the other readings some of which supplied a high degree of detailed information, not all of which made immediate sense to the person being read.  When it was my turn to supply information on the person who had read for me, I found it difficult to remember all the info given and resolved to take notes the next time around.

I asked Gloria about the process of relaying a message and she shared an experience of her own which stressed the important of staying true to your vision. The group ended before my reading could be discussed so I evaluated it and my entire experience myself on the long drive back home.

In light of my intention, everything seemed meaningful.  It occurred to me, not for the first time, that developing mediumship was not going to be easy and that if I wanted to pursue it I was going to have to accept that letdowns and disappointing performances were going to be part of the process.  I remembered learning to ski and to do various types of art.  

I remembered in skiing specifically how thinking 'I've got this' often preceded a fall.  I remembered the point in all artwork when the idea of wresting something of beauty from the materials at hand seemed suddenly impossible and how the only way out of that thought was work yourself through to the other side. 

My visions had not been especially meaningful but they had been detailed and clear.  I knew that next time I would stay true to them and share all of the detail I received.  While I was not happy with my performance during the exercises that night but I had not sat in the silence and felt trapped in the dark.  'At least,' I told myself, 'I saw something.' 

And this was a beginning, I thought, on what may turn out to be a very long journey.

To read about my experience at Joe Sheil's Beginning Mediumship Class please check out the following entry "The Complexity of Spirit: First Steps in Mediumship at Journey Within."

The Complexity of Spirit: First Steps in Mediumship at Journey Within

On Saturday I attended my first class in mediumship at the Journey Within Spiritualist Church in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey.  Our instructor was Spiritualist minister, registered Lily Dale Medium, spirit artist and SNUI tutor Joseph Shiel and he was amazing!

Sharing from his own very extensive experience, Joseph explained the process and mechanics of mediumship, systems of spirit communication, as well as the ethics of responsible mediumship.

Joseph also stressed the importance of putting in the time, sitting in the silence and only doing the work if you find that you have the ability to deliver clear and evidentiary messages for spirit.  

The Spiritualists as I am coming to know them, are consistent in their approach and so far, I find it highly resonant with my own belief  system.  Evidence is crucial as I see it.  Vague messages not only fail to convince but they may cause a person on the edge of disbelief to decide that mediumship is a sham and, even more significantly, that their loved one has simply ceased to exist - an outcome which no one should want to be part of.

Taking mediumship seriously meant that enrolling in the class was a very big deal to me.  As I have shared before, I am not in the habit of thinking of myself as psychic and it did not, in fact, occur to me until very recently that my own intense but relatively infrequent experiences of spirit have all had the common denominator of being firmly connected to the other side of the veil.  

Prior to this realization, I would have never considered taking a class on mediumship and I remained unsure about the wisdom of attending this class as well.  I believed in the other side certainly - having heard, seen and dreamt of those in spirit on several occasions - but I also felt fundamentally unworthy to be any kind of witness for those who have passed.

Sadly, recognizing that these beliefs stemmed from a difficult childhood and a tendency to compare myself with others did not dispel my well disguised but persistent pessimism about my own spiritual potential.  I spent the night before the class tossing and turning until just a couple of hours before my pre-dawn alarm sounded.

Having done a lot of praying in between the tossing and turning, I continued to pray on the long drive from PA to New Jersey.  "Give me a clear sign," I said out loud. "Tell me if I should pursue this. Let me know if I am wasting my time.  Let me know if I should go ahead with it.  Just let me be sure!"

The class took place inside the Journey Within sanctuary, a beautiful bright space filled with sunlight, soft colors and angels of every description.  I felt at home there and I loved Joseph Sheil's style of teaching.  The information he gave us was comprehensive, understandable and very engaging.  

In addition to the lecture, Joseph gave us several exercises.  The first was a guided meditation during which we were to imagine ourselves traveling through a city, seeing the sights, hearing the sounds and smelling the scents that were described.

At the end of the exercise Joseph asked us what we had experienced.  It made me nervous to report that I had experienced nothing.  Trying to help, I think,  Joe told me that if I dreamt in color, color might be a system which would work for me in my communications with spirit.

The second exercise was a psychic exercise in which we were to describe the images on two cards not shown to us.  My partner, Eileen, was quite accurate.  I made a couple of lukewarm guesses and felt my insecurities soar.  In the mediumship segment of the exercise Eileen talked about someone who might have been my paternal grandmother and I described someone who could have been Eileen's deceased uncle but nether of us felt particularly sure.

Breaking for lunch, Eileen and I sat outside and ate the lunches we had brought from home. We found that we were both drawn to hawks and that each of us saw violet at our third eye.  Seeing that I was discouraged, Eileen did her best to encourage me.

"I'm not sure if this is for me," I said.  "I just want to know one way or the other."  Before we went back to class, I prayed again.  'Please clearly show me, in a way I cannot doubt, if I should pursue this or if I'm wasting my time.'

The lecture continued.  We were given sheets listing the information that an evidential medium must be able to provide.  This included the gender, age of passing by decade then year, physical description, manner of death and other identifying details.  Later in the afternoon we broke into groups of four. Joseph told us he wanted each of us to get eight pieces of specific information from spirit.  

For a moment I felt quite sure that I would not only fail to get eight pieces of information but that I would probably not even get one or two.  Then a funny thing happened.  I noticed green light around the hands of the woman sitting across from me.  I thought about what Joseph had said earlier about color. 

"Can I ask you a question?" I asked.  "Do you do any kind of healing work?"  As it turned out my fellow student was currently studying Rieki.  I felt just a little encouraged.

I was the second of our group to shut my eyes and try to describe spirit.  When I did I saw a woman with dark hair and pale skin.  A field of tall yellow grass and old fashioned rope swing.  She seemed young but I got thirties, then specifically the age 38.  I described the information as I was given it, skipping the rope swing.  No one confirmed or denied.

Opening my eyes I saw that our instructor had come up in the interim.  "You're giving a lot of information," he said, "without asking if it means anything to anyone.  Ask if anyone can take any part of it."

"I think this is for you," I said to the student directly across from me.  "Does any of it make sense?"  She shook her head.  One by one the other members of the group shook their heads too.  

"Try to get more," Joe advised.

I shut my eyes again and let myself drift as Joe had advised us to do, I saw several splotches of deep rose pink.  The letter E.  The meadow grass passed by again along with the rope swing.  I experienced a feeling of gentleness and of peace.  I got nothing on the manner of passing aside from a hunch that the woman I had been describing had been somehow not present for her own death.

Eyes open I relayed the new info but no one seemed to relate.  "Put it together," Joe advised.  So I did.

I described a 38 year old woman, with dark hair and pale skin. Deep rose pink, summertime, a meadow and an old fashioned rope swing.  An E connection.  The sense of not participating somehow in her own passing.  "Ask if anyone can take any part of it," Joe said.

I asked and everyone said no.  I had my answer or thought I did.  Then Joe said, "Well I can.  I can take all of it."

He described his mother who had died at 39 years of age.  She had light skin and dark hair. He didn't tell me her name but he did say that her sister was Ellen.  Next to the house he had grown up in was an old rope swing and he and his brother's had crossed a tall grass field in order to reach it.  There was no rose pink but his mother was known for growing the best roses in town.  When his mom had died, he told us, she had been heavily medicated and largely unaware of her surroundings.

As Joe relayed the information I felt strong slow chills travel from the top of my head to my toes.  

"Try again," he asked.  "Did she die quickly or was it an illness?"

I shut my eyes.  I again got the sense that Joe's mom was not present as she transitioned but no sense of how she had died.  "I don't get the death," I said.  "So I think that it must have been quick."

Joe said that I was inaccurate in this regard and that his mother was sick for some time.  And he went on to explain how my use of the word 'think' indicated that I had lost the connection.  He asked me to remember how it felt when I switched from right brain to left.  

I made a note to remember but all I could think was that I had done it.  That I had given nine separate pieces of information.  That each was accurate or quite close to accurate.  It was miles beyond my earlier expectations.

After the class, I hurried to catch up with Eileen who had been assigned to a different group for the final mediumship exercise.  She was already in her car and about to back out of her parking spot.  "How did it go?" I asked stopping her.  "How did you do?"

"Not good," she said sounding discouraged.  "Nobody could identify with anything I said."

I was surprised.  Eileen had been so accurate during the card exercise.  It seemed unlikely that she would come up cold.  "That happened in our group too," I said.  "I wonder if sometimes, if it was for someone else in the room."  On impulse I asked her, "What did you see?"

"An older man.  Tall, kind of thin.  Red, bleeding into the head, like an aneurysm.  Holding a hammer when he died.  And the letter V."

And while it was not enough information to know for sure, it occurred to me that the man he described could have easily been my grandfather. Harold Van Tuyle.  Tall, thin and strong.  And working hard (though possibly not physically holding a hammer) when he died suddenly of a brain aneurysm on his Northeast PA farm.  

I imagined him as I remembered him, tall and straight in his pressed Dickie work clothes, and too polite to intrude on anyone.

For a moment, I could almost see him, walking around the small groups of students, politely looking for an opening and eventually finding the perfect person to relay his message.  Eileen was not in my group, for that exercise.  But she was the only person I had talked to at length and the only one I would look for after class ended.

As I told Eileen that I felt her message might have been intended for me, I saw her eyes brighten.  Because of our conversation, she left the workshop feeling hope instead of discouragement.

Spirit works with us, as I am frequently reminded, very directly.  Subtle and fleeting as this communication may be, it speaks to us in infinite complexity.  Answering prayers and relaying messages of hope and affection simultaneously in every direction.

I was changed by my experience at Journey Within.  Driving home, I realized that  I had a lot to learn about mediumship and that I probably would not receive consistent communication for a very long time. I knew that my confidence issues were serious.  I doubted that I would ever have what it takes to stand up in front of a room full of people and speak out for spirit.

But I knew other things, too.  I knew that love was eternal. I knew that spirit had spoken to me for a reason and I understood that I didn't have to know that reason in full as long as somebody else did.  

And the long road home was different from the one upon which I had arrived.

Angel Cards and Power Animals: Synchronicity Times Three

I attended my first Psychic Circle at Inner Peace Health Healing and Wellness  in Plains Township last night and could not have enjoyed the energy, meditation and kindred spirits more!

I was blessed to be able to provide and exchange angel readings with some wonderful people.  And a funny thing occurred.

I felt called to use my Doreen Virtue Angel Therapy Oracle Cards exclusively, even though I had brought a second angel deck and tarot along as well. Reading for 6 or 7 people and pulling an average of just 3 to 4 cards each, I was surprised to see the Power Animal card pop out in over half the readings!

The presence of that card felt highly synchronistic because at a NEPA Metaphysical Society meeting only two days prior, a member shared some fascinating info on animal totems and I had been thinking about the topic.  

So today I did a little online research on my power animal.  According to MyPowerAnimals.org my power animal is the bear.  I was a little surprised by this because most of my unusual experiences in the wild have been with birds, specifically a heron and a hawk, and I am most strongly drawn to wolves, crows and owls.  

Reading about the bear however, I remembered an experience at Hickory Run State Park when an enormous black bear cruised through a crowded lake front beach.  What impressed me most was the great animal's absolute calm as excited campers scattered in all directions.

The experience spoke to me on sanctuary and the natural order of our planet in a way I have not forgotten.

I'm certain that there is a lesson there for me in that, as well as in the information given on the website, because this is how these things are meant to be explored.

The Bear:  Keeper of Unconscious Knowledge (August 22 to September 22)

"Bear seeks honey, or the sweetness of truth, inside the hollow of an old tree, and enters the cave, or womb, to hibernate, and to digest the year's experiences. Bear seeks answers while hibernating, or dreaming, and then is reborn in the spring. Bear teaches us that to accomplish the goals and dreams we carry enter the silence within. If we choose to believe that there are many questions to life, we must also believe that the answers to these questions resides within us. ~ excerpts from the "Medicine Cards" by Jamie Sams

As Birth Totem Bear, you are an individual whose outer personality is one of quiet observation. As you move through your daily life, there is a noticeable careful study of all you encounter and experience; to sift and sort through all of the stimuli in order to categorize and label each person, action and event so that a greater understanding and assimilation can occur.

Eventually, you will realize that not everything can be understood with the physical senses alone, and the individual soul of another can never be neatly or completely labeled or categorized. Until you can come to the awareness that life is ever changing and that to attempt to understand the process with only physical senses will lead to frustration, you will be stunting your own spiritual growth.

Bear teaches us to respect our natural hibernation cycles. Just as Bear rests during winter and reawakens during spring, we need spaces of rest and rejuvenation. Bear calls us to awaken the potential within ourselves and the power of our unconscious mind. Bear reminds us there is a time for playfulness and a time to be assertive. The power of the Bear Totem is the power of introspection. The answers to all our questions lie within us. Each of us has the capacity to quiet the mind, enter the silence and know.

When you have Bear Totem, you are being guided to a leadership role. You must be fearless in defending your beliefs.

The Bear also encourages you to exercise your abilities as a natural healer.

People with Bear Totem are considered by many as self-sufficient, and would rather stand on their own two feet than rely on others.

Bear's medicine includes solitude, wisdom, change, and communication with Spirit. Bears are associated with trees, which are natural antennas, linking the Heavens and the Earth.

The symbolism of the Bear's cave reflects returning to the womb of Mother Earth. [A Cave is an archetype for the mind - sleep - returning to higher consciousness.] This also suggests a strong feminine aspect, one of nurturing and protection. Bear cubs, born in the early spring, can spend as many as seven years with their mother before reaching maturity.

The Bear is the Keeper of the Dreamtime, and stores the teachings of dreams until the dreamer wakes up to them. People with Bear Totem will be quieter during the winter months. However, they must awaken in the spring and seek whatever opportunities are around them."

~MyPowerAnimals.org

* Sadly my search for black bear images yielded many pics of  hunters posing with their prey.  How can this be changed?