ancestors
To The Beat Of My Own Drum
I am in the process of moving home. While going through years of stored stuff in the attic of my old home, I found a Christmas gift that my parents gave me around the age of four. It was a little drum, intact, with sticks to play to the beat of my young heart. I am sure there were many times my parents thoroughly regretted buying a four-year-old a drum to bang on!
To my surprise, throughout the house, I also found a total of eleven more drums. All different sizes and kinds. And it is safe to say I can still make a joyful noise with each one (although my family might consider this debatable).
In the summer we spend a lot of time at Camp Etna, one of the spiritualist camps here in Maine. We have two small cottages here – one that we live in, and another I use as my office. Some of the drums I found are kept in the office cottage, for my clients to enjoy.
Why the obsession with drums, you may ask? Well, drumming has always been a form of great stress relief for me. You can release pent up emotions, by beating the drum as hard or soft as you wish. It feels good to express yourself through the primal beat. Moving to the sound of the beat seems to make doing most tasks easier. Drumming is just plain old-fashioned fun, and people around the world have been moving to the sound of drums since the beginning of time.
Drums are also a very useful spiritual tool. In energy work, for example, I use drums to get in touch with the heartbeat. We also host a drumming circle here, at least once a week. Young and old come out to participate, and everyone in the area is invited. It is a spiritual activity that helps to unite the community. One person sets the intention, and the beat for the circle, and then all join in. It is wonderful to see the smiles and joy the drumbeat brings to faces.
Anyone can learn to play the drum. With people being at home much more these days, if you have always had the desire to learn to play and instrument, it is a good time to try the drums. With all the information technology we have these days, there are many courses and tutorials available online for one to learn drumming techniques in the comfort of your home.
Astral Travel To Your Favorite Destination
Traveling to sacred sites has always been something I love doing, ever since I was a young girl. There is something undeniably magical about visiting a spiritual place that has much lore or mystical history associated with it. Some of my favorite destinations include Mount Shasta in Northern California, Sedona in the Verde Valley of Arizona, and Machu Picchu in the Andes Mountains in Peru.
These sacred sites are all home to powerful energy vortices and ley lines in the Earth’s electromagnetic field, containing more metaphysical energy than ordinary places. Visiting here feels as though you have stepped into a different dimension, or another place in time. Millions of people around the world travel to these locations in search of enlightenment and healing, gaining a broader perspective, raising their awareness, or simply to have a special spiritual experience.
With the advent of Covid-19, few people have had the luxury lately of air travel and long-distance trips. Many spiritual travelers are feeling frustrated and trapped. Some are going stir crazy not having the freedom to travel anywhere in the world. Even local excursions and short-distance trips are challenging these days. I enjoy traveling in the Mount Shasta area, for example, since it is not too far from where I live, but I am reluctant to stay over in a hotel during this time.
However, spirit recently reminded me that I could still travel to my favorite sacred sites by way of the astral realm. It made me think of the Celtic concept of the immram, which refers to the taking of a soul journey, a sacred pilgrimage, a wonder voyage to a sacred site where the soul needs to go. Spiritual seekers and metaphysicians have been taking these inner voyages on the astral plane through the ages.
We are not limited to the physical body or the mundane world. In the same way we can physically visit a physical place of interest, we can also journey there on the astral plane. Traveling in this way, we can journey anywhere we want to, while remaining in the physical comfort of our own home.
What Is It Like To Be Psychic?
I have been asked many time what it is like to be psychic? I have always felt this to be an odd question, because in my mind I am just an ordinary human being, the same as everyone else. We are all born with our own particular gifts and talents. Mine just happens to be a sixth sense.
Everyone of us is unique in our own special way. I just happen to have certain psychic abilities. I feel I was given these gifts to help people, to offer them insight and guidance from the spirit realm.
In the time of the European witch persecutions of the 16th century, and the American witch trials of the 17th century in Salem, people like me were often called ‘witches.’ At the time it was the only understanding people had as to why someone would know things they are not supposed not know.
Throughout human history people like me have been honored and appreciated, but also mocked, shunned and persecuted. People tend to fear what they do not understand, and it continues to this day. Many people remain skeptical of psychic and paranormal phenomena. To them it just cannot be real. I can assure you it is.
Many more people in the world actually have psychic abilities, but because it is so misunderstood, they just do not know it, or they simply choose not to recognize, accept, or use it. These gifted individuals ‘know’ or ‘sense’ things, but choose not to call themselves a ‘psychic.’
Using Photos As A Psychic Reading Tool
Everything within and around us is all about energy. Even physical matter is just ‘condensed’ energy vibrating at certain frequency. Similarly, everything we say and do, each one of our thoughts, feelings, and actions has its own energy vibration. Every person also has a unique energy signature of which we leave traces on everything we come into contact with.
No matter which particular style or method of reading, channeling or divination a psychic reader uses, we all receive and interpret different kinds of energies. Most people are not as highly in-tune with these energies. And if they are, they are typically not as well-equipped to understand or interpret it. That is why people consult us.
Some gifted psychics are fully clairvoyant, clairaudient or clairsentient. They have the ability to clearly see, hear or sense energies unassisted. However, most of us generally need some kind of visual, auditory or tactile aid to help us connect to, or gain access to the energies we are reading.
When you shuffle and cut a deck of Tarot cards, for example, or even just sit across a table from your reader, you are introducing your personal energies to the reading – energies you usually don’t even know are there, but which present themselves, through the guidance of external energies, in the information that comes out in the reading.
Multi-Tasking Does Not Cultivate A Quality Life
I’m sure there has been a time in your life when you may have been too active on a hot summer, day without adequately hydrating, or juggling far too many tasks at once without taking a break. While you may have crossed the finish line, or pleased your boss by checking off all the tasks you completed, your sense of well-being was probably rock bottom, and your nerves frazzled. You possibly also questioned whether or not the best version of yourself showed up for life the next day.
Although many of us have found ways to multi-task our hectic lives, research is increasingly showing that effective multi-tasking is in fact a myth. Working on multiple projects at once doesn’t necessarily make us high achievers, or a successful super humans. Multitasking for most individuals merely replaces quality with quantity, and often leaves us feeling overwhelmed and disconnected from our deeper purpose.
As a spiritualist, I make it a practice not to judge how others achieve their everyday objectives and goals. But I do counsel many people who seem to have traded quantity for quality in their lives, and are missing out on the gift of savoring the sweet taste of personal achievement that is purposely focused and uninterrupted.
While old habits are tough to break, each of us has the innate capacity to build new processes within our mind. Psychological tools, such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) for example, can be used to re-program the mind to think differently.
Metaphysics and New Thought spirituality also teaches that through positive thinking we can manifest healthier outcomes in all areas of our lives. Many indigenous peoples also have a long tradition of spiritual practices, such as vision quests, dream interpretation, divination, and rituals and ceremonies, to help seekers find their best path.
The Magical Energy Of The Moon
The Moon has a powerful influence on our lives. Not only does it determine the tides of the ocean and how plants grow, but you may have noticed it also affects our mood! Connecting to the powerful phases of the Moon can bring enlightenment to your life by way of the moon’s cycles and movement. It can shape our lives and the choices we make. Being in tune with the Moon’s powerful energy can bring you greater awareness of body, mind and soul.
Depending how the Sun, Moon and Earth align on a particular day, only a part of the Moon is usually visible to us. The tracking of the Moon’s phases goes back thousands of year in various spiritual traditions and cultural customs. Traditionally, the New Moon is considered to be the start of the month and a good time to start anew. And the Full Moon is seen as a time of celebration, delight, and mystery.
A Full Moon occurs every 29.5 days, when the Earth is situated directly between the Sun and the Moon, making it appear to us on Earth as a complete circle… illuminated and breathtaking! Native Americans relied on the Moon to guide them in daily life. They gave symbolic names for each of the Full Moons, based on the unique events of each particular month of the year.
January – Wolf Moon
The January Moon is thus named due to the cold, snowy winters, when wolves would howl hungrily outside tribal villages, looking for food. January’s Full Moon is also known as ‘Old Moon’ and ‘Ice Moon.’
February – Snow Moon
February’s Full Moon is named for the abundant snow that usually occurs during the month. The snow made it hard to hunt, and food in the winter was scarce. Therefore it is also known as the ‘Hunger Moon.’
The Mythical Mysteries Of Crows And Ravens
Crows and ravens are common in the superstitions of both the ancient Greeks and Romans. Both cultures considered these mysterious birds highly significant in the practice of augury, an ancient divination practice of interpreting omens or prophecies from the observed flight patterns of birds.
In the Greco-Roman world, the soothsayers, known as augers would predict future events by examining the behavior of birds, which was known as ‘taking the auspices.’ Crows and ravens were considered especially significant, both for their ominous black feathers, as well as their flight patterns and eerie behavior. It was believed that if a crow or raven flew in from the east or south, for example. It was considered an omen of good, positive fortune.
Ravens and crows mythology is also found in the native cultures of North America. In addition to being portrayed as tricksters, the intelligence of these birds is often a prominent feature in their characterization. In one Native American story, the raven is described as a shapeshifter who stole a box of light owned by the chief of Heaven, and flew away with it. The raven dropped the box, and light broke into many pieces, creating the stars, the Moon, and the Sun.