This is a mindset that underpins having a successful reading, and most likely, having a successful life, at least from a spiritual perspective.

While it may not always feel like it, everything that happens in our lives can be viewed as an opportunity to evolve into greater maturity, wholeness and spiritual development. When we shift our perspective to this higher level, we can understand that each experience holds just the medicine we need in every moment to create the healing and happiness we seek.

The guidance that comes through in a reading seems to always hold this understanding as the basis for why things are happening as they are. In this way, it provides us with this wider context and perspective around what’s going on in our lives so that we can identify how we are being asked to learn, heal and grow through any situation. This all feels very loving but sometimes stern or direct if we’re off track.

It all feels like a training ground, but in a reading we have the privelege of communicating with the course designers so that we can master those lessons more quickly and effectively, with less pain or drama.

At this point it feels important and responsible to call out the fact that it’s all very mysterious. There’s a great need for a Reader to have done the spiritual practice that enables them to be a clear channel for the information and to build the psychic structures that harness beneficial energies and filter out harmful ones that might negatively influence a reading.

Nevertheless, what comes through is what comes through. It seems that causality, karma, and all of these intricate weavings of choice and interaction are incredibly complex and it’s beyond the scope of anyone to try to understand it.

This is why is critical to have your own discernment around the information. If what is shared doesnt feel right, you dont have to make it fit. What can be helpful is to clarify what doesnt make sense - often providing more information or digging in more to a problem, more insight can come and some of the most powerful readings can happen this way.

One aspect of psychology that’s helpful to be aware of in a reading is around ‘parts’. In a nutshell, this is the idea that we all have many different ‘parts’ of our personality that each perform a different function, and some are more ‘whole’ while others may be more present to guard parts of us that are wounded or sensitive.

This is just a brief and basic explanation to call out that during a reading, we will very likely be bumping in to some of those more defensive parts of ourselves, as we’re being asked to consider things from a fresh and higher perspective. Often by it’s very nature the guidance is there to challenge you to grow out of your comfort zone, and so there are parts of you that might really resist what’s being suggested.

How do we deal with this? It’s good to stay present with your reactions to the information that’s coming through. Notice when you feel tight, or defensive or ‘triggered’. Breathe, maybe smile. It’s ok. We can imagine we’re holding the hand of the part of us that feels scared or unsure. It’s also a great thing to bring it up in the reading so that we can explore what wants to be healed there. A reading is a safe space where all emotions are welcome.

This brings up the flipside of that, which is while all emotions are welcome, it’s important that they’re expressed maintaining kindess and respect. It occasionally happens that a reading may trigger someone towards abruptness or even anger. It’s nevertheless important to remember that a reading is a very sacred thing, facilitated only with love and your best interests at heart, and that there’s always a way to resolve disagreements constructively.

There’s a couple of problems with thinking of a reading in terms of fortune telling.

First of all, it really puts people off. A lot of people are afraid of having a reading because they’re scared of finding out ‘what will happen’. The main thing about this is you can ask about whatever you want. If you dont want to find out about when you’re going to die, you don’t have to!

A reading focuses much more about what we can do in the present rather than trying to predict the future. That being said, most of the time there does tend to be a clear indication of a suggested path to follow that would be in your own highest interest and those of others. And it often will reveal an associated outcome from following that path, not fully, at least as far as it’s relevant and helpful.

The second problem with thinking about a reading as fortune telling is it tends to lull us into complacency. This is a ‘tell me what happens’ kind of attitude which can often go along with not wanting to take responsibility for your part of the equation. We co-create our futures so its good to be prepared to show up for yourself and the others in your life in a way that is supportive and empowered.

The final problem is more conceptual. Modern science tells us about the illusory and relative nature of time, and indeed past and future are not fixed, solid ‘things’. Everything is happening all at once through our own consciousness, and when we really grasp the implications of that we can start to come into our true power to realise that we are creators of our own reality, past, present and future, in every moment.

Our personal choice and sovereignty are paramount. This is why a reading is not about telling you what will happen, if things were that fixed they would deny that ability to have personal choice. In a reading, rather than locking ourselves into some predetermined ‘future’, we’re instead opening up a greater set of possibilities to choose the future we want to create.

Now Spirit/God/the Universe loves a paradox and here’s one around all of that. There does seem to be a place for destiny in all of this. How that all fits together is complex but just good to recognise as well.

People have engaged in divination for thousands of years and there is an important role for that too. However, it’s very mysterious and no doubt complex from a causal and karmic perspective why any particular piece of information comes through as a prediction, and what the intended impact of that knowledge is meant to have. Even false preditions potentially have an important role. We tend to judge the value of a prediction by it’s accuracy, but when we stop to consider the absolute perfection of every tiny thing that happens, false preditions may play a valuable role as well in guiding our evolution, perhaps as tests or obstacles and so on. While this may at first glance seem like an excuse for a sloppy reading, it seems important to keep an open mind towards the vast mysterious intelligence that we’re working with.