afterlife
The Halloween Ghost In The Art Gallery
A couple of decades ago, I was opening a new location in downtown Santa Fe for the owner of a chain of art galleries. As a gallery director by profession at the time, I was excited for this opportunity. Furthermore, it was an interesting location from a metaphysical perspective, due to its previous occupants. Once upon a time, it had been a part of the local bus station, and it was directly across a former burro alley from one of Santa Fe’s oldest hotels.
I noticed a subtle, yet potent energy in the gallery space from the beginning of the endeavor. Clearly, some spiritual entity was attempting to direct the gallery through me, and had other ideas about what kind of art should be displayed here! Of course, it did not match the kind of work the absentee owner had in mind. But I was being pushed psychically to consider more traditional pieces, as opposed to the contemporary focus that the living owner required.
An interesting event happened when I hired a contractor to build some art storage, which was also to serve as a divider between the showroom space of the gallery and the office area. Every time the contractor would work on the new art storage bins, there would be a kind of rustling noise after he left. It was unmistakable, yet every time I would try to locate the source of the noise it would stop, as if by magic.
Memorialize Loved Ones With A Remembrance Table
I have a remembrance table in my home where I display framed pictures of my grandparents, as well as some of the possessions they passed on to me. My eclectic collection also includes a few candles, angel figurines, some essential oils, Grandma’s favorite perfume, grandpa’s favorite cologne, as well as two trees on either side of the table, which I always decorate for the holidays.
My grandparents really enjoyed the holidays. They especially celebrated Halloween and Christmas, their two favorite holidays of the year. The other holidays were also a great time to be at their house, but Halloween and Christmas were always the best!
I believe having a remembrance table, or ancestor altar, really helps to connect us with our loved ones, after they’ve crossed over. I personally don’t worship my ancestors, but I do honor them. You don’t just have to make a remembrance table at a loved one’s funeral, or at weddings or family gatherings. You can make it a permanent part of your home decor, and have it there all year long.
I love the idea of the remembrance table because a funeral should not be the only time you celebrate the life of a deceased loved one. It’s a great way to honor them and the wonderful memories you have to create with them when they were alive.
I’ve put special photographs from different times in their life that were especially joyous and memorable. Family was everything to them, so many of the pictures also include other relatives, such as uncles and their other grandchildren.
The Mediumship Messages That Matter The Most
After the passing of a loved one, many people turn to psychic mediums for confirmation that their deceased loved ones have transitioned safely into the Spirit realm.
Typically, during a mediumship reading our deceased loved ones will relay evidence through the psychic medium to prove that they are the ones communicating from the Other Side. This may include references to jewelry, or other personal possessions, they have left behind; mentions of the things they enjoyed while in the living; places they used to love going to; shared family memories; as well as very specific personal information, like their first or last name, date of birth and passing, and so on.
It’s always very rewarding to create this psychic link to connect with a deceased loved, because much information can flow through in such a short amount of time. Sometimes our loved ones offer guidance and advice to better our lives, and even predictions about forthcoming events in our lives.
Some mediumship clients are concerned that they did not get the opportunity to say goodbye, or show their love and gratitude to a loved one while they were still in this life. Some clients are also curious about opinions their deceased loved ones may have regarding current issues in their life.
For example, if there is family conflict about an inheritance, they may want to know how the deceased loved one feels about it, and what advice they may have to offer on the matter. Most of the time the departed loved one will encourage the family to strive for peace, compassion and forgiveness, but the rest of the decisions are usually left up to those in the living.
The material things we are so attached to in this life, are typically of no interest to our deceased loved ones. They have moved on from this material world, and have more important matters to address when they communicate during a mediumship reading. Our deceased loved one want us to know they’re okay, but in my experience what seems to be most important to them is our spiritual growth while we are here. I can’t be sure of why this is, but it seems to have to do with lineage work.
The Unseen Spirit World Around Us
While traveling this summer, I stayed at in a vacation rental home on the coast of Oregon. It is an older house which has been completely gutted and redone from floor to ceiling. It has every finishing touch you could imagine and is across the street from the beach.
One day, while sitting in the master bedroom with the door partially open, I thought I saw a white, sheepdog push the door open with his nose to come in and greet me. He looked quite happy with his tail wagging. He was adorable and filled with loving energy. I blinked my eyes and looked again, but he was gone? I then realized I had just seen a dog in spirit, who used to live in that house.
Many people have this type of occurrence happen on a daily basis, but do not understand or trust what they see. Often we glimpse things out of the corner of our eye, or peripheral vision, but most of us interpret this as simply being due to our imagination. We thought we saw something, but there was nothing there when we looked again. Unfortunately, our modern culture encourages us to trust only our logical, linear mind over our intuition.
When Spirit shows up in the form of our deceased loved ones from the Other Side, and this includes our departed pets, we can become aware of them through our psychic senses. People who are more sensitive tend to be able to pick up on the subtle presence of Spirits who come to visit.
Our Spiritual Contracts
Before we come into this lifetime, we design a soul contract. We choose a family that we want to be born to and we plan specific things that we want to accomplish, such as career, relationships, children, and so on. The contract is about our spiritual self and therefore also includes those things that we need to overcome and learn from.
Some of the more important things in your contract may come as a surprise, because often they are those things you do not want to do! This is usually a sure way of knowing that something is contractual. The things we prefer to do, or have done, we’ve already mastered, but the challenges and obstacles offer us opportunity to overcome our fears and anxieties, to step forward and learn more, to grow spiritually.
Some contracts are also much longer than others. Some of us remain here for a long time, while others do not. I doubt anyone knows for sure, but for the time that we are here, we must make every effort to learn and grow from every life experience.
This is also why some of us attract the wrong people, and constantly get into the wrong relationships? In these cases it is often your soul contract trying to teach you to speak up for yourself and claim your self-worth.
When old souls come in, usually nothing bothers them. They tend to take things with a grain of salt. However, when new souls come in, they are often very excited about so many things and can’t seem to get enough done.
The War Veteran’s Belongings
It is sad when someone dies and there is no one around to pick up the pieces; no one there to take care of one’s belongings.
There was an old man who lived in the same building as one of my clients. After the he had passed away, all of his belongings ended up scattered all over the communal storage area in the basement. The boxes had been ripped open and kicked around, and people just picked though his things and looted whatever they wanted, leaving the rest in a chaotic mess.
My client felt bad about this, because when she came upon this pilfered disarray, she noticed some items among his belongings indicating that he was a Vietnam war veteran, including a baseball cap with many pins on it, which he obviously had worked hard for. There were also many cards that people had sent him, thanking him for the gifts he brought back from Hawaii.
He had clearly been a good person, but those that lived in this building with him regarded him as a busy body who was always meddling in other people’s business. Only after he was no longer there did people begin to realize how many things he got accomplished and how many things he had actually taken care of on everyone’s behalf.
Apologies From The Other Side
Departed loved ones have come through to me many times over the years with a message of apology for how they treated me, or one of my clients. There is typically a common thread in these spirit messages: they didn’t know better at the time, but they do now, and they now see things differently. With the apology usually also comes great regret and remorse, acknowledging the pain they caused us.
For anyone who has been on the receiving end of abuse, I have come to believe that there is also a lesson in this. For me, the lesson has been learning to love myself. I was a people-pleaser for most of my life, and to some extent this is probably still the case, but there is a lesson in this too, in learning about self-love and learning to put my own needs first. My experience has been instrumental in enabling me to identify with others, and, in turn, I have become more able to help others the best I can.
I love the teachings of the spirit guide Emmanuel, as channeled by the late Pat Rhodegast. Emmanuel says, “If we were not meant to have done something, we would not have, but that it was all appropriate at the time.” I seem to recall his teachings stating that this does not mean that we should condone the harsh treatment of others.
As adults, we have more choices, but when family and loved ones treat us harshly, we often hope that things would get better, or that perhaps they were just having a bad day. I personally would do just about anything to please them, desperate to get their approval. Others often commented on and in hindsight they were right, but I would continue to hope.