Month: January 2020

spiritualgrowthadventure

The Accidental Tarot Reader (Or I didn’t see that coming!)

Life can take us to places we don’t expect or plan for, but which turn out just right.

I had developed a decent ability in healing, and wanted to make my services available in central London. So one day I visited a shop that I knew had rooms above to hire. I began to talk to the manager when a tarot read came down stairs followed close behind by a client. The tarot reader exclaimed to the manager that they couldn’t read for the client, that it just wasn’t working. Without thinking, I said, “I’ll do it!” The client said, “Yes”. The manager gave me an annoyed look, gave me a pack of tarot cards, saying, “I hate people who interfere.” The customer and myself went upstairs to a room with a few other tarot readers in cubicles.

We sat opposite each other at a small table, the client, a woman about forty years old or so, shuffled the cards, gave them to me and I laid them out in a pattern.

I had a deck of tarot cards at home but the pictures were more a complicated collage of images, more Californian than traditional. Old style images didn’t give me too much to go on and strictly, I didn’t know their meanings in a traditional sense. I had practised a little on friends before with my pack, though hadn’t considered doing readings as a job.

I went for it anyway, and told a story based on the feelings and impressions I picked up from the images on the cards. The reading was fun and it was a great success. The customer was happy and I got paid. The Wednesday after the manager phoned me up and asked me if I would be a tarot reader in the shop. The next Wednesday, I was there.

This all started with not having an open third eye, nor was I aiming to open it.  I was given some advice by a healer to chant Om as an exercise to clear all my system as well as my chakras. First 20 minutes a day for a week. Then 40 minutes every day for the next week, and then for an hour.

I was in no rush to open my third eye. I had heard stories of people pushing it too far and ending up seeing much too much energetic phenomena, which for the unprepared mind can be scary. The astral levels can be split into the lower, middle and upper. Experiencing a lot of lower astral level phenomena due to an open third eye and no training in tuning your third eye (rather like tuning into different radio frequencies), is something to be avoided.

With chanting and meditation, I began to just “know” things about people and situations, and see things around them. Friends would ask me to tune in about issues for them.

To give readings in the shop, I experimented with different patterns of cards so that I could tune into specific information in depth, such as relationship issues, or issues to do with business and projects, or the qualities of individuals and organisations.

Working with clients, at first I found I was taking on board any negative energy they brought along. They were getting a healing while I got that energy. I soon learned how to clear negative energy and offer it up for transmuting and releasing. I learnt how to protect my aura better. Working as a tarot reader was a great opportunity for me to get good at handling energy. I also learnt how to clear and close my third eye and give it a rest.

I tried to apply positive thinking rather than be fatalistic. I didn’t give a reading with the mindset of, “it’s fate and this is the result”. I looked for options and the best scenario. To my way of thinking, if I was giving a reading about a client, I regarded them as having an actual timeline, and also some probable timelines that could happen if they put some time and effort, basically energy into them. I also considered they had some parallel timelines that were slightly different.  It was like giving a reading but saying, “and here is the small-print, and this is what can be altered and changed with some application…these are the options”.

A basic spiritual rule is, “energy follows thought”, and putting energy into something creates a small, or a large result.

The readings told people what the current situation was, what were the available options, what seemed to be the best option, then we looked at what steps needed to be taken in what they thought, and what practical steps should be taken, to get onto the optimal timeline.

It’s like looking down a path, considering what it is like, then seeing how it splits into different paths, and choosing the best path and identifying how it needs to be traveled, to create the best possible future.

It was very enjoyable. After a while, I was giving the readings faster than I was turning over the cards to see the pictures. So I gave up using the cards.

After that, I started to run workshops to help people to develop their intuition, and showed them how to look after their energy should they choose to work with other people.

For FAQs about meditation, click here.

If you would like to know about online meditation and courses that are available, click here.

spiritualgrowthadventure

I’ve got a feeling

A demonstration was often used in an Aikido class I went to. A volunteer was asked to firstly think of times when they were unhappy, low on confidence, upset, or irritated and angry. They then walked past close by the Sensai (instructor) who put his arm out in front of their chest to block their progress, and the volunteer ended up being stopped. The volunteer was then asked to remember happy times, when they felt great and really confident, and when they had achieved a goal. They walked by the Sensai again, who once more put his arm out to try to stop them, but this time, they could keep on walking and brush him off.

Part of the Aikido training was to build up the capacity to stay centred, calm, positive and confident. When this happened the Ki (or chi) energy could keep flowing like a torrent. This was useful in the Aikido class, but it was also useful in daily life, as there are things that happen in life that can knock us off centre, there are things that people can say or do, that can send negative energy our way. Having that ability in the first instance to stay confident and centred is really great. As is the ability to get back quickly to the point of balance having been knocked off our emotional balance.

I remember times when I have felt happy and confident in the past, and from an energy point of view, that has helped my positive energy flow, and then I have surprised myself in what I have achieved, which has made me realise that perhaps at times I have limited myself. I can recall times when I have felt down, and lacking in confidence, and then really, I didn’t do much, and slid into feeling the victim, and being self-pitying, and then going into blame and resentment. All of which are fairly useless things if you want to get on with life and enjoy it, and live the way you really want, as it places the power to be yourself and be happy outside of yourself, which means you can’t change things. When you own it, you can change it.

The aikido, and many other lessons in life have taught me that how we feel is up to us. The power to have positive feelings is not “out there” with someone else, but inside us. With a change of heart, and a change of mind, we can have positive feelings and confidence, and let our positive energy flow. If you like, it helps us connect with our Ki (or Chi), or however else you would like to phrase it.

Simple.

I’m sure there are people who actually believe that. In many situations it is simple to shift your feelings and thoughts. But in other situations something else has to happen. If a child is upset do you tell them that they have everything inside them to change the feeling and thoughts and be happy, and leave it at that? If someone is struggling in water do you shout at them and tell them they have the power to save themselves? If someone is depressed do you say something like they only have to choose happiness or some other facile words? If someone is knocked to the ground in an accident do you say to them they have all they need inside themselves so they can get up?

With upsetting or angry or sad or depressing feelings, or just feeling down, sometimes people need a hand rather than a simplistic answer. Emotions is emotional energy in a person’s aura and chakras. Sometimes there is a lot of it, sometimes the energy is very sticky, sometimes it is attached to a doorway onto a memory that is repeating in a loop as with trauma. Help is required. Comfort, and time needs to be given. With a child, they sometimes need holding and soothing words for the energy to shift and for them to be happy again. A common sense solution from someone with the spiritual capacity to share some love is what is required in this and other situations.

Someone who is down or depressed can greatly have their spirits lifted by someone giving them some support. It could be simple support, like being taken out into Nature, out of the usual environment, or given the chance for physical movement which can help shift the energy.

With past trauma, then continual support might be required, along with healing or therapy to shift the emotional energy, and heal the past trauma and close the door on it.

When feelings are not influenced by past issues, how we feel is affected by what we think. People who think positively, or who deliberately use positive affirmations, will have emotions that match that. Conversely, anyone who thinks negatively will have emotions to match that. So if someone habitually thinks they are a victim, or think that other people (the government, “they”, the media etc) are in control of their lives, or who think something terrible is going to happen, or that the world is an unsafe place, then their emotions will be the output from their thoughts. But people can be in charge of their own minds, and are free to deliberately think the thoughts they want to.

There could be two people in the same room, one with positive thoughts about life, and one with negative thoughts, and as far as they are concerned, life accurately reflects back to them their thoughts, as they focus on what they believe to be true and ignore that which doesn’t match their thoughts, as they simply can’t perceive it. Same planet, but apparently different realities.

Thoughts and feelings do affect health as well as how much life energy people express, and so affect life and what it reflects back to them. Also, on a spiritual level, energy follows thought, which shows up in everyday life.

What do you feel about that?

spiritualgrowthadventure

Asking God or the Universe can make you happier

Spirituality can be very practical and it can encompass all aspects of life. It doesn’t need to be compartmentalized away from everyday life, and many people know this, and work with their spirituality in life all the time.

There is a lot of information and knowledge that people consider is spiritual in nature, though it might not apply to everyday life. For instance, how does knowing that energy is all around us help or influence how we live and what we do? Some people talk about portals, gateways and vortices, and consider information about them as important, or regard themselves as being “awakened” or “enlightened” (and others not). There are a whole bunch of other ideas to be found under the umbrella of spirituality, and people take on board those ideas they want to and reject those they don’t agree with.

What I’m interested in right now is how spirituality is linked with everyday life and how it helps people live and be happy and fulfilled. If you go on social media, it is easy to come across people on spiritual groups who are depressed or feeling miserable, or who are angry and some who are aggressive and attacking others.

The way I see it, if following some spiritual ideas make your aura grow and glow and look vibrantly healthy, then they are great ideas. If they help you to approach life in a way that your life works and you are happy and fulfilled then they are great spiritual ideas. We are here in physical reality for a reason, and when we have great spiritual concepts to live by, then we look energetically great, and life works. Life is a great place to test ideas out to see if they actually work. Caveat: if we have some negative karma to go through and so balance out from previous lives, we might not feel good and life might be bumpy, but at least we are going through the process of balancing, which is healthy in the end.

Even in cases of going through the negative karma, useful spiritual concepts can help us get it that it’s not all God’s fault, and we avoid just basically showing we don’t understand about karma. Useful spiritual concepts can instead help us to have inner strength and recognise and bring in the support that is actually available.

This isn’t new stuff, and it isn’t a secret (although if anyone wants me to wrap it up in mystique and say it’s exclusive and charge them a lot for it I can).

Basically there is God, and in fact our souls are all bits of God (which is why after a while, a long while of being through many lifetimes on the spiritual journey, the soul actually really gets it and thinks “I AM God”, but the focus right now is on everyday life).

Gods loves us totally though it might not feel like that because of karma and how rough it feels sometimes as we go through the negative karma, although unpleasant and painful situations can focus us on God. If life was pleasant all the time, the usual result so far has been for souls, for people, to forget about God. Perhaps this might change.

With God loving us, we can ask God for things. We can ask for advice. God knows us better than we know ourselves. God also knows what it is we actually need in order to be happy. God knows what physical things we need, and why. God knows the best ways to be to be as happy and as healthy as we can be. God knows the job or jobs we need to do in order to be happy and “successful” whatever that is going to mean for us. If you run your own business, well, there are people who consider God as their go-to business partner for ideas and solutions. People ask for things in meditation, and notice any responses which may be visual, or something spoken, or an image mixed with a feeling. They don’t force a response, they just open, relax and wait, or let the response pop in as they go through their lives. It helps to have the space and time to be receptive, so being on the smartphone all the time is the opposite of smart.

Some people find it difficult to relate to God, so they put out their request to that nebulous idea of “the Universe”, and let “the Universe” give them feedback. Makes you wonder if “the Universe” is something to do with God, perhaps.

The above is deliberate and conscious asking. Putting the thought out deliberately. But there is something else happening at the same time. There is a lot of thinking going on that isn’t deliberate. There might be habitual patterns of thinking happening as well, all…the…time. There might (will) be thinking going on subconsciously. These thoughts might be at odds to the deliberate thinking and requests going out.

Now energy follows thought. So when you think something strongly, and particularly if you think something habitually and repeatedly, a lot of energy goes out with that thought to God, or if you prefer, to the Universe. God, or the Universe if you like, gives you back what you think. So if you give out mixed messages, then the results coming back are not going to be clear.

Unhelpful habitual and subconscious thinking is like a long train travelling at speed. It keeps on going. As do your thoughts. You can change your thinking by deliberately thinking more helpful thoughts, repeatedly and over a long period of time. It’s a bit like putting the brakes on that long train. It takes a while for it to slow and stop, then go in the direction you want. It’s not impossible, and other people have done it, by being persistent and never giving up.

The other way people have quick results regardless of what they think about the situation or themselves is by believing. They believe that for God, anything is possible (so long as they ask for what God knows is right for them). They have faith. They know that God can deliver. Without necessarily knowing about it, the use or invoke the Law of Faith, which overrides any negative thinking and, it is done. So people who have faith in some kind of Higher Power are likely to have a life where things just happen for them. They ask for something, let go of the situation, and let God get to work, knowing God does it in the right time and right way.

Having this knowledge and this ability to Trust, to have faith, makes life a whole lot more fun, and relaxing. The key to this is just discussing things with God or the Higher Power or the Universe, and then asking, then letting go of the how and the when, and being happy and trusting. Is that so hard?

Now there are other things that make a person’s aura grow and glow. I’ll mention them here but maybe discuss them later. One, no gossiping, which discolours your aura and gives you unpleasant cordings and a bad case of low vibrational aura. Two, thinking positively of people and yourself brightens things up. Three, forgiveness. Four, gratitude; count your blessings. Five, giving, which might be money, gifts, a smile, positive words, or some help. Six, give yourself time to recharge. Seven, do the things that you enjoy and make you feel happy and excited.

Time for a New Prosperity

There is a new book about Prosperity. Click here to find out more…

For FAQs about meditation, click here.

If you would like to know about online meditation and courses that are available, click here.