Here we are:  July and its festivities are here.  This month is about looking to what we were doing in the past that worked for us.  When I do these insights I pull two cards from my deck I created, called the Words to the Wise Oracle.  It’s not a tarot deck but a deck for inspiration.  A gentle nudge in the right direction for our focus.  The card for this month was Eastern Influence and it talks about thinking back between 3 to 5 years ( give or take )  in our lives to something we were doing at that time that helped us in someway.  It normally is some kind of “habit” or almost “ceremony” you did that centered you and gave you clarity.  Could have been an author you were reading consistently.  Perhaps you used to make time to go for a walk every morning before going to work. Maybe you are returning to similar career or home you had then, but something that healed you or got you through is important to you now.  Somehow, it will help you with your life today and this card encourages you to blend these two realities together and you will gain a better balance.  It doesn’t mean for you to try to duplicate the past:  but it does suggest there was something about that “way” that worked for you and by re-visiting it you will find a key to bringing some sense of soundness to your present situation. This rarely means returning to person or ex lover though, but would suggest more,  to examine what you learnt from that situation and how you managed to come through it.

By Shanon of Seraphim’s Keep

Religious or spiritual beliefs are always a potent subject.  They affect all of us, both by their presence and absence, and whether we know it or not, we are always re-evaluating them and responding to them.

Every occurrence in our lives makes us question: requires us to take note in some small way, and from there, base our future decisions.

June is going to be a month of shaking out the “tried and true” beliefs and re-evaluating them against where we are now in our lives.

Are these truly your beliefs or what was passed on to you?  Are they something left over from another time and place that has long since left your life, but until now,  you really hadn’t noticed that they were perhaps enslaved by them instead of empowered?

June is a sturdy partner for rejuvenation. For redefining.  For standing strong is the face of adversity and owning what you believe.  And starting, June, these beliefs will truly be your own.

They will be beliefs that work for you and you can live by and direct your life through.  They will be beliefs that won’t be shackled by guilt but celebrated by our freedom to choose.

To choose who to love, how to feel, where to focus our dreams and visions and maybe more importantly, what to believe in as this is the core essence of who we are in the world in our highest and most divine form.

The only fool is the one that closes their heart,

It takes courage to love and wisdom and a belief that God is with you,

Because of our connection to God we have agreed to give others a chance to love, to love God and to love us:  it is only by our willingness to open our hearts and put ourselves at emotional risk can this occur.

Sometimes they fall short:  no matter how hard we try:

But God has not failed to see every effort or moment you put into loving “one of his flock,” and God has not let your pain go unheard by the divine’s heart.

Of course, that knowing, does not stop the feelings we have as humans.

But just know, loving is one of the greatest challenges God will ever ask of us, and as great as the highs, are the lows.

But I believe being in service to spirit includes having the courage to love…

So I salute you…….

So take time to consider anything about yourself that you feel is a little “off” or “weird” and examine it as an opportunity to bring about change and growth in your life and love.

Hang in there!  At some point winter will end.  But many of us are waiting for something that will never come and that is the “perfect time” to do something.  The right time to start that book,  the right time to talk to that person, start a diet, leave that relationship,  get off the couch and start exercising.  Do any of us really want to count the wasted moments and years of our lives, putting things off for the “right time,” like there is some outside force controlling us and we are just waiting for that force to provide us with this right time.  People: it doesn’t exist.  The right time is not a future date.  The right time is the moment you decide that you are sick of “not having” and are ready “to have” and that you deserve it.  The “right time” comes when we realize that being happy or successful is not something we get in line for and all the more deserving people go first. No!  The “right time” is not an external occurrence, it is an internal occurrence. The “right time” is the moment you are ready to accept love and appreciation from the universe, or God or the divine, which ever from it might take for you.  The “right time” is not rated on a merit system.  It is not governed by how much time you have but how much time you are willing to make for you in your own life.  The “right time” is letting go of all the shortcomings and obligations in your life put on you by PEOPLE and start honoring the responsibility you have to the “magic” that created you and start making time for you to be happy.  To feel joy and regain your curiosity.  To trust the process of doing something just to experience doing it and not let the weight of accomplishing it weight you down to where it will never be the “right time.”

So things to know about our emotional self are:

The emotional self feels safe when it is able to identify with the person or situation at hand.   Similar to a child the emotional self wants to be liked,  needs to be heard and doesn’t respond well  to any form of judgement.  It is very important when someone is tied to their emotions that things seem fun and uncomplicated.  They do not do well with reality when it confines them or limits their perception of freedom.

When communicating with someone who is  controlled by their emotions, trying to “talk sense into them” is a total waste of time.  All they are hearing is that you don’t respect them,  understand them or care about their feelings and what is important to them and they will dig in and it will be war!

If you feel that you are a very logical and reasonable person then you are probably governed more by your intellect so when you come up against someone in their emotions you will get totally frustrated and instead of trying to bond with them you will alienate them by trying to reason with them to take a rational point of view; preferably yours.  Good luck with that.

When trying to communicate with someone who is an emotional being you need to first speak in their terms.   With emotional people everything relates to the senses not the mind.  Say you are describing the car you want to buy.  An intellectual person will say something like:

I have researched all the data on this car to be sure  it to have decent  gas mileage, and from what I can determine it’s by a reputable dealer and will have a good resale price for when we want to upgrade later.

an emotional person;

I love this car.  It can go really far on a tank of gas so I will be able to get from home to the ocean for less than $10 so i can spend what I have saved on lunch.  This brand has great colors and fabrics in the interior so it feels wonderful when you are sitting in it.  It’s engine make a great sound too,  so it is really exciting to drive!  And sales man has the same type of dog I have,  how neat is that.

Now these are extreme examples.  What you ideally want is something in the middle,  a blend of the emotions and the intellect.

To get anywhere with someone who is emotional you must find a point that you can bond on, emotionally.  They have to trust that you are ‘like them’ enough to not judge them and disregard what they are invested in. Once you have done that then you can try to introduce some logic to them,  again from the point of view of the senses and what would be fun.

So,  you need to get your emotional friend to go to the doctor and they don’t want to.  Stating all the dangers of not going and the fact that they need to take care of themselves will not work.  Coming more from the point of view that you know it’s scary and you will help them find a doctor that they like and when you are done you can go for ice cream or to do something fun to celebrate will be a lot more successful.

Our intellect feels safe when it is financially provided for.

Emotions feel safe when they know they have others that like them and understand them.

For easy translation:  Spirit is also called the Higher Self,  Emotions are also known as the Smaller self and Intellect is also known as the Middle Self.

Higher Self or Spirit

The higher self is not motivated by our needs but by what is good for us as a whole being. The higher self knows the direction our life needs to take in order for us to accomplish what it is we came here to do.  The higher self is not clouded by emotions, and therefore, not mislead by the illusions that can confuse us and take us off our path. It is a powerful teacher and the most direct way to deliver information that will truly make guidance effective.

It can take information and gradually release it into the person’s awareness until they can understand it.

Higher selves will work together as a team. This means if you consciously work from your higher self then your higher self will, in turn, work in harmony with the higher self of others thus achieving the best result for all concerned.

The Higher self often doesn’t relate to the material world, and though the ‘let go and let God’ is a wonderful process, it is necessary to have a balance of the three selves to live within that belief.

Middle Self  or Intellect

The middle self is the bridge between the higher self and the smaller self or emotional self. It is our voice of reason. The middle self gets more involved in the processing of information and helps to keep us centered so we are able to reason.

The middle self is great for appealing to when you want to move someone out of emotion and into reason.

If you are too much in your middle self, you will find that you may lack imagination, flexibility and spontaneity. You will also be over critical of yourself and others. The middle self needs the influence of the higher and the smaller self in order to keep itself balanced.

Smaller Self or Emotional Self

This is a wonderful part of our make up and can be our strongest ally, worst enemy or most damaged and frightened child. Our emotions are extremely powerful when it comes to the way in which we communicate.

The smaller self is a great team player once it trusts you.  If you can get someone (this includes yourself) emotionally involved in something you have a great start on the situation. Once you win the smaller self’s trust and willingness to co-operate, you are then ready to move forward to gaining the trust and co-operation of the middle and higher selves.

If your smaller self is running your life, you will be on an emotional roller coaster and constantly dealing with drama.  The smaller self needs the wisdom of intellect and protection of spirit to be able to make sound decisions that can be put into action in your life.

Who is running your life?

Do you have trouble being around people who are different from you?  If you are low key, do high-energy people wear you out?  Do you find that you do the same thing and go the same places because it’s easier? Do you have the same excuses for everything; cost too much, takes too much time, I’ll do it later when I have such and such in place.  This is how our life looks when we have allowed one of our selves to dominate our choices instead of all three of your selves influencing your decisions.

See if this seems familiar:

Your middle self is running the show if you spend much of your time trying to stay realistic in dealing with life. Paying those bills, being very responsible and having no time for fun until that is taken care of.  And then when that is taken care of, there will be something else that has to be done first.  Play never happens.

If your smaller self is in control you may forget to pay the bills because you have been out shopping. Or, you may find yourself so caught up in the drama of life that you are too emotionally stimulated that you can’t seem to come up with a plan to solve the problem. You find yourself spinning your wheels or on an emotional roller coaster.

Or last but not least, your higher self.   Not being grounded: as in; what bills, oh, I need to pay those?

You will find your life will become a lot more fun and productive once you start to work with each aspect of your self. There will be times when it will benefit you to let one self be more dominant, but the important thing is that it is a conscious choice.

Here are some situations which all of us have been in where we allow one self to “run the show” to get the job done. Even though the other selves are still present, we consciously let one self dominate.

1        It’s time to do your taxes so you consciously move into your middle self, the intellect, and get it done.

2        It’s time to play with your kids, so you allow yourself to lighten up and go out and play.

3        You need to “be big” about something and let someone have their way even though you might not agree. You know they need to win this time so you put your ego on hold and step into your higher self and allow.

Being able to let one self “lead” is a good sign that your three selves are clear on what their task is and as a result, you are able to focus and get the job done effectively and easily with your three selves working as a team.

When each of the selves wants to be in charge at the same time there arises an internal struggle. In this situation our life can become a casualty of the struggle and we lose control over the out come of the situation.

Some scenarios could be:

Small self in charge -

You sit down to do your taxes but have to have the television on knowing full well that you are setting yourself up to get distracted so a one hour job, takes three.  And the real kicker is you know that is what will happen and do it anyway.

Middle self in charge –

Perhaps, with good intent, when you play with your children you have an overwhelming desire to point out faults instead of letting it go and enjoy the playtime.

When the spiritual self is not present -

Or, no matter how much you would like to let that person have his/her way you just have to have the last word as they walk out the door even though you know, doing so, will gain nothing positive.

So, what’s going on?  Basically, your three selves are all fighting to run the show and there is no communication between the selves or with your conscious mind so there is no exchange of information occurring. Everyone is fighting over the same bone, and all are only coming away with a piece. As a result, you are having a constant struggle to get anything completed.

Your middle self doesn’t trust your child to have fun because your child is not responsible.

Your child doesn’t like your middle self because it doesn’t know how to lighten up and keeps messing things up by trying to force everything.

Your higher self isn’t heard by either of the others because they are always fighting over who is right, and therefore your spiritual life is getting almost no attention and you feel like you have no purpose.

And you wonder why you can’t make a decision about what you want to do in your life!

In the next couple of blogs we are going to put some of this into action,  get all of the aspects talking and bring about internal peace and external success in your life.

Often when we go and hear someone speak and they get us gunned up and we come out feeling like we can change the world for the next couple of days, and then suddenly reality sets in and it falls away and seems like it almost never happened,  is a perfect example when each of the selves is not equally involved in a decision in our lives.  The speaker appealed primarily to your emotional self.  Their objective normally is to get us so inspired that we over ride the reasoning that the intellect might be wanting to throw at us: the voice of reason,   then you leave go back to your life and then the intellect will start to “shoot down” all the dreams by making it clear that this won’t work because it doesn’t make “cents.”  It is impractical.  It is not safe.

This happens all the time with all of us.  The outfit we had to have that we never wear or returned.  The job we hate but we stay in because  it pays the bills.  The person we love but can’t stand any more.

All of these types of situations and telling you that you are missing one of these essential pieces.

It is either: no fun; not secure, financially or it doesn’t move you towards being happy and a higher purpose.

My next couple of blogs are going to look at each of these selves and further break down their role in our lives.  You will be amazed at how quickly things can turn around once you use this technique in every decision you make.  Once you get your  head around it,  it will be fun and easy to do and their is no limits to what you can accomplish.

Welcome to the New Year 2012. The month of January is about changing the way we see ourselves. About not being fixed in our views.  “This is who I am and I can’t change!”  That view is selfish, it limits you and by limiting yourself you limit others “experience” of you.  You hold them back as much as you hold back yourself.  January is about you finding the courage to change. Let your New Year’s resolution be to become more pliable.  If not for yourself, for those around you.  In the past it was thought that we need to be strong for others and strong meant inflexible:  to be the rock.  Well, newsflash:  rocks change a little every day.  They are transformed by their environment: they are shaped by what surrounds them.  They were “make-up” was created in such a way as to be able to ‘shift”, and so were you.  No human was born to remain frozen in time: in our thoughts, our beliefs, our physical bodies or our environment.  But change takes courage. It takes faith. But in order for us to not only survive, but to truly flourish we must change: we must evolve and what better time to begin than the first month of a brand new year.

It always seems like it is a great way to have the best of both worlds: help people while still doing some things you need to do all in the comfort of your home, but it doesn’t take too long for me to become aware of the confusion many people have as to what psychic ability is.

It stands to reason, with services such as that, 85% of the questions are about love: when will I meet someone,  is my man cheating,   is he thinking of me:  and I have no problems answering those questions as long as the client is okay to hear the answer, but it seems in the on-line environment, that is not always the case.

Many times the response to my “insight” will be:  I have already spoken to 7 other readers today and they said the opposite: and so I politely explain, that is not what I see and perhaps they should continue to read with the other person :  then they hang up on me.

I can actually deal with that.  What I am wanting to set a new dynamic for is the client who starts out with:  I just want a “general or what’s in my future”  reading.

I actually like these readings when I sense that the person truly wants a “general reading,” it is when I get asked this and my psychic “bell” goes off saying: they are looking for something specific and want to see if it turns up in the “general/future” reading.

There is one fundamental problem with this line of thinking: well at least for me.  I am not a mind reader I am a psychic.  If I were a mind reader this line of thinking would be fine because the art of mind reading involves “hearing or seeing” what the person’s personality or ego deems, important.  Like the person who left them or the job that they may want that they want to know about and want to see it turns up in the “general” reading.

But psychic ability  does not “read” the personality or ego”.  Well, I know I don’t.  I know I read their higher self or what spirit deems important,  so when I do a general/or what’s in my future type reading,  you are going to get what spirit wants to talk about  not what your personality wants to talk about so, needless to say,  if that was not your objective for asking,  then you are going to go away disappointed.

In many cases,  the client will just hang up, convinced I wasn’t a “good enough” as a reader to see this  ” whatever it is” that is on their mind.

Actually,  I am a very good psychic,  just a lousy mind reader!

I guess a good parallel would be:  you go to a new restaurant and it has a menu of 3 or 4 pages of choices,  but instead of looking at the menu to see what you want,  you don’t even open it and instead tell the waiter,  “just bring me something.”  When the meal comes, if you are truly open to getting “anything” then your chances are maybe 50/50 of getting something you like and 20/80 of getting something you LOVE.  BUT if you went in secretly craving, chicken or something spicy,  and the waitress brings you a cold seafood salad: will you be happy?  No, you will be disappointed. And whose fault would that be?  And there is also a good chance you will walk away from that restaurant and not return.

Readings are a collaboration of the reader’s ability to “bring through information” and your ability to be clear on what you need to know.  If you are looking for something specific or you have an actual person in mind, share that.   Making ‘your psychic reader” jump through hoops to “read your mind” isn’t proving whether or not they are a good psychic.  It actually only proves that your personality wants the answer it wants and is willing to manipulate the situation to get it.

So, don’t let your personality deprive you of a great reading.  Trust me,  you will still know whether the reader is “on” or not even with giving them specifics about what you want to know or who you want them to look at.

I am not saying,  tell them the answer,  but if you go in to a reading knowing you want to know if the “so and so” still thinks about you: ask, does “so and so” still think about me.  The reader still needs to be able to “tune” in to that person to give you a true answer.  And from that alone, you will know if they can “truly see” or not.

Get the most from the experience and be a c0- creator.  Those who do readings and use their gifts are tools for you to access to help you make the right decisions: don’t limit how effective they can be by limiting the information you can share on what you need help with!