Star Light, Star Bright

A couple weeks ago I attended and participated in Gaia's Temple's Winter Solstice ritual.  Besides being the ritualist who called in and released the spirits of North, the element of Earth, I also lead a guided meditation.

Solstice, if you're not familiar with it, is the observance of the point on the Wheel of the Year where days start getting longer and nights begin getting shorter. In Earth-based religions this is seen as the birth of the Sun and is normally a boisterous celebration of the return of the light.  There is a reason Christmas is also celebrated at this time of year amongst so many other festivals of light.

This year was a little different. With the recent elections there is a general sense, at least in the circles I frequent, of added heaviness and darkness -- the rising to the surface of such fear-based belief patterns as misogyny and racism -- which required a more somber tone for not only tuning in to the returning light of the sun, but the necessary return of the personal light and power of each one of us to heal these dark waves washing up around us.

The following is an adaption of the meditation I shared that night, and is my gift to you, toward that vision of awakened, empowered, light-filled passionate people changing and healing the world. This meditation is largely based on and inspired by the teachings of Sandra Ingerman, in particular her book and workshops entitled "Medicine For The Earth." In fact the quote that appears in the body of the meditation is hers: " It is not what you do, but who you become that changes the world."


Solstice 2016 Meditation

Close your eyes and take a deep breath.

Take another and connect to the earth, feeling grounded and safe.As you take another, in your mind’s eye and find yourself looking into a large, dimly-lit room which you realize is your heart.

In the center of the room you see a chest that is emitting a soft glow. Walk forward to get a closer look, and open the chest, releasing a brilliant light that fills the room.

From the bottom of the chest floats up a small star that hovers, twinkling before your eyes.

This star is your own light, your own essence. This is the pure Divine light and love of who you were when you were born, and it is the pure Divine light and love of who you came here to become in this lifetime.

Your light has been covered over and hidden for long enough. It is now time to reclaim your light. It is time to shine. The time has come for you to become the light that you were meant to be because “it is not what you do, but who you become that changes the world.”

Now gaze into your star as you would gaze into a flame, and ask in your mind the question, “Who am I to become?” Continue to look into your star as you await an answer, which may come in an image… a scene…  words or feelings…

…Now that you’ve received an answer, and even if you haven’t, with your eyes still closed I want you to reach out in front of you, with your physical hands, as if you are reaching for that star.

Once you have the star in your hands, begin to slowly draw it back to you until your hands are resting on your chest, holding there the tingling, buzzing ball of light.

Now, again take a deep breath.

And exhale, emptying your lungs of air, then…

Inhale, drawing the light into your physical chest…

And as you exhale again, feel your ball of light settling into your heart.

As you continue to breathe, feel every breath fanning the flames of your tiny star, causing it to burn bigger and brighter until it radiates from every cell of your body. Feel it lighting up every atom as if each were a tiny star of it’s own.

As you get lighter and brighter, feel your light radiating out and filling this room… Then filling this city… Then this country… And then this planet. Congratulations, you just changed the world! 

This is who you came here to be. This is who you are. You are a star. It is in radiating this light that your very presence raises the vibration of and heals the world. Doing whatever brings you joy connects you to this light. Feeling that joy is your gift from the Universe.  Expressing and radiating that light and joy is your gift to the Universe. Every act done from this center of light, this center of love, heals and changes the world exponentially. And as every atom of your body was lit up from your one tiny star, when we shine our light we ignite the light of others around us.

Now, with your light still blazing, slowly and at your own pace, begin becoming aware of the physical room where you are... Feel yourself returning to your physical body... Feel the chair or floor beneath you… Wiggle your fingers and toes… Pat your legs… Stomp your feet... And when you are ready, open your eyes. 

An Affair To Re-Member

Recently I spent one of the most intense periods in the 'Non Ordinary Realities' of shamanism I have ever experienced since I began my shamanic path.  I was beginning the fourth and final session of my Two Year Shamanic Teacher Training with Sandra Ingerman, and up to this point there'd been nothing special to set this time apart from our previous times together. Little did I know that was about to change.

It has been a rough couple of years with the intense initiations of losses -- deaths, dreams, identity, power, relationships -- and as I sat in our luminous circle, feeling stronger and more empowered than, possibly, I ever had before, I was able to see those releases and trials as part of my training rather than extraneous things that kept randomly happening to me while I was trying to complete it. In that moment I could actually be grateful for those experiences of diving into hell and back because I had weathered the storms and, not just survived but was beginning to thrive in a world awash with possibilities and opportunities that my tenacity and resilience had opened up for me. So this was my mindset as we settled into exploring the main focus of the week -- Death and Dying -- one of my favorite shamanic subjects.

To familiarize our students with what it's like after death, so that they have some idea of what it's like for the spirits they work with on the other side who have neither body nor ego, one of the first shamanic journeys we do in teaching about death & dying is a dismemberment journey. This is a journey where a helping spirit or power animal breaks down your body (in the spirit realm) until you are nothing but spirit, before reconstructing you, usually either filtering out inharmonious elements or inserting a medicine object, such as a particular crystal, to increase one's personal power and well-being. Admittedly these can be gruesome and shocking if you don't understand what is going on, but for me they've become pretty run-of-the-mill, many times even requesting one from my spirit guides to help clear me of unwanted energy or confusion, or to reset me to my default settings. I had no idea how different this one would be or how it would change me...

So we began our journey and, arriving in the Spirit Realms, I waited to see who among my guides would show up for this task. It didn't take long for me to see Amaranth, my unicorn guide, casually walking up to me, his head bobbing with each step of his cloven hooves. Of course it would be him, I smiled to myself. One of the things we would be exploring this week was merging with a spirit helper, for which we were assigned to bring a mask and regalia. I had brought my unicorn mask, which I'd doctored up with bells and feathers and beads, so Amaranth would be the one I'd merge with, and it seemed very appropriate for him to show up at this his point. Before I could finish appreciating the congruence of his appearance, with a sudden, single, forward thrust of his head, Amaranth ran me through the chest, his horn piercing my heart completely and extending out my back. So unexpected was this that I physically gasped, not from pain for I didn't feel a thing, but the shear surprise of the act.  Pausing only briefly, as if to allow my mind to catch up with what was happening, Amaranth then threw his head back, his horn ripping up through the top of my body, which just dissolved into powder, raining to the ground around me. A few side to side slashes, ala the Mark of Zorro, finished the bottom part of my body. As my unencumbered spirit hung there in the air, looking down at the pile of dust that had formerly been my body, I glanced over at Amaranth and there, still skewred on his horn, was my heart. Tenderly he laid it atop the mound of powder and withdrew his horn. I gazed at my heart lying there, a hole bored all the way through it, and I began to sob, physically where I sat in the room with my shamanic tribe. 

Taken aback, I tried to stifle my teary sniffles, thinking, "Why am I crying?! Dismemberment is a happy thing! What's wrong with me!?" But there was no holding it back, and I decided it was best to literally flow with whatever comes up. Then as the tears continued to run down my cheeks, it dawned on me what the point of this particular dismemberment had been. All at once I realized how much I'd been holding inside this past year or two -- Grief, pain, anger, sorrow.  All the things I hadn't previously allowed myself to feel began to move, flow, and finally release through the openings Amaranth had created in my heart. And so for a very long time I sat and did nothing but feel the waves of emotion washing over me, tears washing away years of hiding from and of holding back my true feelings, my true self. 

Soon -- too soon though it'd seemed like an eternity -- it was time to begin wrapping up the journey and return to awareness of my physical body sitting cross-legged in the physical room somewhere in 'Ordinary Reality.' So Amaranth stepped forward from where he'd been quietly waiting just out of my conscious awareness and began the process of putting me back together, of "re-membering" me. He swirled his head in an ever widening circle, faerie sparkles and pixie dust dancing off the tip of his horn (I swear I heard the words, "Bibbidy-bobbidy-boo!"), and in kind the small pile of powder danced and swirled in correspondence until the dust devil it'd become coalesced into my body, and I stood embodied before my unicorn companion again. I was fully embodied but for one thing -- my wounded and punctured heart.  It now hung in the air in front of me where I could see that the holes, as well as several cracks and battle scars, had been filled in with gold. 

There is a Japanese art said to have begun in the 15th Century, called Kintsugi, which repairs broken pottery by gluing the pieces together with a lacquer infused with powdered gold. In so doing the damage is aesthetically incorporated into the piece as part of its history, making it more beautiful because of the breakages. This was my heart. Apparently Amaranth is partially Japanese... Could this have anything to do with the appearance of my Kirin helping spirit shortly thereafter (see my previous post For Kirin Out Loud)? 

My new and improved heart floated toward me and disappeared into my chest. I hugged Amaranth and kissed him on the nose as the return drum beat sounded again, and looking into the depths of his liquid eyes, thanked him before turning my attention toward my physical body.

When we were back and grounded once more in 'Ordinary Reality' we were given a break because of the tendency of this to be an emotional journey. I didn't need much prompting before I was outside lying on the grass and crying again, letting the earth receive and transmute the remaining pain and emotions that streaked down my face. I allowed her to cradle my body, and I breathed her healing energies up directly into my heart. There have been very few times before that I felt so open and vulnerable, yet so safe and loved at the same time.

The intensity of this initial journey set the stage for the rest of the week, with countless transformations, shifts, and changes to come that shattered former beliefs about myself and who I was. The seed of who I was becoming was planted, and the cast-off emotions and thoughts fed that blossoming flower of a shaman I was growing into, rising out of the compost. This journey was pivotal, and perfect for integrating everything I'd learned and experienced up to that point as I stepped into my power. It was definitely an affair to re-member. 

                                       My heart with cracks and holes infused with gold. 

For Kirin Out Loud

                             

It started a few days ago, though I'm not sure how it exactly began. Being endlessly fascinated by words and puns, I suddenly found myself pondering what a Shroud of Kirin (instead of the famous Shroud of Turin) would look like. I mentally wrapped my hypothetical Kirin, a very dragon-like Japanese unicorn, with a death shroud in various ways, contemplating different positions for my beast and how its image would impress itself upon the white cloth.

To aid me in my research, I found some images online from which to draw, in order to familiarize myself with the basics of the Kirin form. One particular drawing of a roaring, gaping-jawed head would not release me from its hypnotic gaze, and that evening when I attended a meditation group, each time I closed my eyes I saw the liquid form of the Kirin undulating before me, it's fearsome face close to my own. Then, in half-remembered dream-like flashes, it was joined by companions who swooped and twisted and swirled gracefully about each other as if in an underwater ballet, their manes and whiskers flowing about them like muppet hair. 

And that wasn't the end of it. The next day I had to get a new phone, and as I was talking to the store worker, I noticed something...

"Is that a Kirin tattoo on your arm?"

"Yes it is! I'm surprised you knew that. Most people don't"

...Yeah. When a Power Animal wants to be noticed, they know how to get my attention.

So I read a little about them, finding out the basics, but feeling I needed to know more, particularly because I had decided to feature Kirin in my weekly "Totem Tuesday" post on my Perching Wolf Studios page on Facebook, I realized I needed to talk to Kirin in person. So I journeyed. 

The rattle had hardly commenced its rhythmic beat, with which my brain had just barely begun to shift into entrainment, when suddenly a huge Kirin face loomed, almost nose to nose with me. I was startled at the size of the head as well as its abrupt appearance before me, and simultaneously I felt engulfed in that sense of awe which accompanies being in the presence of royalty. 

...No. Not royalty. The presence of a god. 

I bowed before him (I think I called him "Your Excellency") and said what an honor it was to stand before him. He replied by telling me I need not bow and that he was here for me, at which he closed his eyes and lowered his great head over an extended cloven hoof. As I watched this display of humility, I just could not get over his size. I guessed he would be a relatively large animal, having read comparisons to deer or oxen, but he was HUGE. He reminded me of the Luck Dragon from the movie,  Neverending Story. He also reminded me very much of the Chinese Dragon dance costumes I'd seen, in size, appearance, and in the way he moved.

He rose upright again, towering over me, and though he stood in one place, he seemed to be in constant motion. His massive head bobbed and swayed back and forth, and looking at his body was like watching a single point in a river with its surface riding the tireless rise and fall of its waves. Perhaps it was the distortion of the air from the heat of his body. Is that why they are often depicted surrounded by flames? His energy was much more dynamic than the stable, earthy energy of Amaranth, my Western Unicorn spirit guide. 

Finally, my sense of awe having receded just enough for me to form cohesive thoughts again, I asked him what his medicine was. Why was he here? 

"As I said, I am here for you. I am the guardian of thresholds, appearing when one has crossed a particular initiatory point and stepped into authority. I close the door behind you to the old paths you needn't experience again. I am the harbinger of the arrival of a new dawn, ripe with endless possibilities."

I knew from my reading that Kirins only ever really appeared at the birth or establishment of a wise sage or a benevolent ruler. I don't know that I'm either of those things, but apparently I had leveled up. This made me wonder -- if he were here for me, now that his message had been delivered would he be off to Kirin-land, or was he going to be around for awhile?

"I'm here to see you through the establishment of this new chapter. I will be your guardian and protector."

"Cool! So you'll be here a while. I should probably know you're name then."

"Zobastenay."

"...How bout I call you Zoe?"

A Life in the Day

Last week I experienced my first Past Life Regression. I've had thoughts and 'memories' that have arisen before that I've attributed to past lives -- miniature flashbacks to a moment that didn't belong to me or this lifetime -- but although I was aware of these happenings on the fringes of my consciousness, until last week I hadn't ever purposely explored them, so when a local metaphysical store offered a class on them, including an actual regression, I jumped at the chance.

After talking about what she does, about past lives, and about hypnosis, the instructor began to lead us on the experiential portion of the evening. She started us out at a place of safety, and thus I found myself lying in the back of my family's RV, which was my favorite place to be when we took family camping trips to various parts of the country when I was a kid. I have never felt as safe as I did in the back of the camper, all wrapped up in a cozy sleeping bag, the open window above my head blowing full on my face as I watched the ever flowing dance of car lights and darkness on the ceiling while my dad drove through the night toward our destination, the muffled voices of he and my mom up front mingled with Chet Atkins' guitar licks from the eight-track player. My blood pressure drops just thinking of that. 

From that point she had us meet and merge with a self of ours from our future, in this lifetime, who has knowledge and experience doing this work. Then as that self we walked down a hallway with a row of doors on either side, eventually being directed to choose a door. The door I was drawn to was wooden and round, like a hobbit door, which easily swung open with a gentle push, and I stepped through.  

Instantly I found myself outside, surrounded by a coniferous forest. I looked around, throwing a glance behind me to see if the door was still there. It was and I smiled when I saw it hanging open from the trunk of a huge tree. I faced forward again, and through the trees I saw a stone house in a clearing. It wasn't my house and, though I wasn't afraid, I knew I needed to avoid it, so I backed away while simultaneously nocking an arrow, just in case... "OH WOW!" I thought, "I have a bow and arrows!" My excitement swelled until I realized that Sherwood Forest was probably more deciduous than this. But still... Bow and arrows!! I looked down at my feet and saw soft leather moccasin boots. I'm Native American, and the house was that of a settler and, though I had no ill will toward them, I couldn't be sure of the same from them. I continued backing away, amazed and almost alarmed at how silent I was in executing my retreat. There was no crunching through the underbrush that I'm so familiar with this present lifetime, but 'back then' not even a snapping twig belied my presence.

With gentle prompting, I moved to a little later in the day where I found myself deeper in the forest at night, lounging against a log in front of a fire where the game I'd shot earlier, possibly a boar, was roasting. Then, as our guide ushers us forward again to the next morning, I find myself at a small river where I drank from cupped hands before dowsing my face and hair with water. 

Then moving to a significant point in that life, I find myself in a teepee, looking into the eyes of my beloved as my heart swells with love and joy. Our backstory is instantly deposited into my mind.  I know that I left my own tribe to be with her and that she is the daughter of a chief, which means it was extra challenging to prove my worthiness for her. Apparently presenting him with 10 buffalo hides that I'd personally hunted and prepared was proof enough of my worth. 

With that thought I flashed back to another point in that lifetime where I saw a huge buffalo not too far away from where I'd snuck up on it at the edge of some trees. It turned and started walking slightly away from me, and when its stride revealed the patch of skin behind the elbow, with sudden certainty I knew that that was the spot where a single arrow could take down the great animal.

My focus returned to life with my beloved, and a scene unfolded of children surrounding me, laughing and playing and wrestling around. As it turns out, we had no children of our own, but, just as I find myself in my present life, I was the adopted favorite uncle to all the children of the tribe. I was the Storyteller and my purpose was to tell of the old ways, to keep them alive in the hearts of the youth who would one day lead the tribe. 

Again we were guided ahead to a significant moment, and l find myself an old man, embracing my beloved beneath a buffalo hide as we stand watching the tepees of the village being taken down and prepped for travel. It's cold, a trace of snow on the ground, and we are being forced to move to a reservation. I am disheartened, as well as concerned for my beloved, uncertain she can survive the trip. I consider staying behind with her, finding a secluded place in the forest where the whites won't find us, but our family talks me out of such an idea, and I see the wisdom of staying with the group. 

One more time we are prompted ahead, though I don't remember if it was to another significant point or if it were specifically to our passing. Regardless, my death in that lifetime was the next significant event. I was even older, and I believe alone now, having lost my wife years before. One afternoon, out of the blue, I just felt this strange sense of completeness, like a gentle bell going off inside. I stood up and walked into the woods. I had been with others at the time but there were no goodbyes, or words of any kind to anyone there. I just got up and walked away, as if someone had knocked on the door and I'd gone to answer it. I found a spot under a tree with a slight concave to the trunk so as to cradle and hold my old body comfortably, and there I sat watching the beautiful rays of the sun setting for the last time through the branches and leaves, feeling an exhilaration and expansion as my life seeped out of my body and into all the teeming life that surrounded me. 

Shortly thereafter our guide called us back to the future. As I immediately began to think about my trip into the past, there was a quality -- a solidity -- to the experience that I recognized from all the shamanic journeying I've done, which, along with that sense of it having a life of its own with the unexpected surprises and insights I received, added credence to the whole thing. This was not simply whispy daydreams and imaginings. This was an experience.

Of course the mind likes to have its own validation as well, so I googled a few things when I got home. I discovered that the place on the buffalo I'd denoted as the most vulnerable was indeed the best spot for a kill, the heart beating directly behind it. Later, as further validation, When telling a friend about this, she said that an arrow, especially prior to modern hunting tips, may not pierce deep enough for a kill, but that when an animal is injured like that, they always lie on the ground for the earth energy to heal the wound, and in this case the great weight of the buffalo would drive the shaft completely into the heart for an instant death. It took me a minute to pick my jaw up off the floor after that. 

The other thing I researched online had to do with the fact that at some point our guide asked us when and where we were, and instantly "Wyoming, 1832" flashed into my head. Well, in the 1800s, 'Wyoming' encompassed a much larger territory than today, and there were multiple tribes in and passing through that area during that time period. The interesting thing is that the significant thing that happened specifically in 1832 was that the Cheyenne tribe split into a Northern and a Southern contingent. I don't know if I were North or South, but this leads me to believe I was Cheyenne, whose tradition it was, interestingly enough, for the man to leave his tribe and family to join that of his wife. 

So, for a relatively short and generalized group session, I'm very pleased with the volume of information and experience I've been able to glean from it. Plus I know it's just the tip of the iceberg, and now that I have the initial foothold into this new area of self exploration, I'll be making many more expeditions into this new 'undiscovered country' of mine. Who knows? Maybe next time I'll find Sherwood!

Turning Up the AC

There is something I do that most people don't know about. I don't advertise it on my website (yet) because, though I have got nothing but favorable feedback, and a large contingent of my clients approach me  specifically for this by word of mouth alone, it has been an area where I feel the least confident. The area I'm talking about is Animal Communication (AC -- get it?). Yes, Doctor Doolittle stuff.

At one point I was in a program where I was training to be an Animal Communicator, but I ended up leaving because I was being pulled in more shamanic directions (he says as if Animal Communication isn't shamanic). But even as I was deepening my shamanic skills, the animals kept communicating.

People kept finding me in dribs and drabs, usually referred by a friend of theirs I'd helped, and I would agree to help them, even though inside I questioned my skills and whether I was really helping. Afterwards I'd always feel exhilarated, a sure sign that I really was doing what I thought I was doing, and my clients would be so grateful, to the point of insisting on sending me money even if at the time I wasn't charging for my services. 

So this has been going on for years as just something I did on the side while building my shamanic business. Then a couple months ago a psychic friend of mine invited me to this weekly Psychic Showcase she goes to, and not having seen my friend for a very long time, I went mostly for the purpose of reconnecting with her, and just to see what this showcase was about. At least that's what I thought I was going for. 

Shortly after arriving, my friend introduced me to the woman who hosts these evenings, and after hugging me, she turned to my friend and said something along the lines of, "So when I cue you, you will introduce him and let him talk about what he does for about 5 minutes or so." 

*GULP!*

So much for just relaxing and observing -- It was showtime! So I found myself standing in front of a room full of strangers, including a panel of professional psychics, talking about Shamanism and Soul Retrievals and such. I'm always surprised at such times by how much I really do know, and the confidence with which the words come out of my mouth. 

"But you talk to animals too, right?" Inquired the hostess. Crap! How did she kn...? Oh!... Yeah... Psychic duh!... 

"Yes I do," I answered in a decidedly more sheepish voice than the one that had previously been speaking from my lips. 

So for a few more minutes I talked about Animal Communication, almost apologetically, before finally getting to sit down and relax again. "Phew!" I sighed with relief. Showtime was over -- Or so I thought. 

The showcase ended and people began to disperse, so I went up to the front table, where the psychics sit, to hang out with my friend. We'd been sitting there talking for maybe five minutes when, from out of nowhere, the hostess just sort of materialized, took my hand, and dragging me behind her said, "C'mon, you have a couple of readings." Show time was not over. 

She steered me to a table where she said, "You can do them here." Then slipping some cash into my hand said, "This one is ten minutes, and the second is fifteen."

So I did two readings, out of the blue, and made a little extra money on the side. I was pleased with myself for rising to the occasion, but boy, did I ever breathe a sigh of relief when it was done! 

A few weeks later I returned. Again I was going mostly to see my friend, but thought if I could do a couple more readings, that would be great too. As it turns out, my friend couldn't make it, but encouraged me to go anyway because she had a sense that something important was going to happen for me there. 

I'd been a little anxious lately and thought, if nothing else, I'd get a mini reading that might give me some insights on why. When you arrive at the showcase, you pay a few dollars and in return receive an envelope, upon whose corner you write your date of birth, then place something with your energy inside it.  These envelopes are given randomly to the various psychics at the front of the room who then, while eating their dinner and such, write mini readings on the envelopes based on what they pick up from the date and contents. 

My envelope handed in, I found a seat near some friends of my friend, that I'd met the first time I'd come.  They both prompted me to tell the hostess of the event I was there so I could do readings.  At first the hostess didn't remember me, but then said, "Well, why don't you sit up there then?" Indicating an empty chair at one of the psychics' tables. 

*Gulp!*

I took my seat, reassuring myself that I did have my Medicine Cards along, as I always do, and I could always just pull a card or two for each envelope, giving each one a mini card reading.  So that is exactly what I did for the first couple envelopes I was handed. Phew! I got this!  Then came the announcement that made me shrink down in my chair -- "And Patrick does Animal Communication so anyone who has pets you'd like him to talk to, make sure you let me know when you give me your envelope."

Because I need a photo to tune into a particular animal, people were going to have to bring their cellphones up to me when I called out the birthdate on each envelope, so I could see a picture and then read live on the spot. There was absolutely nothing I could do to prepare. There was nothing for me to write without a photo to connect with. I sat there helplessly watching my stack of envelopes grow ever higher, while those of my peers steadily and casually diminished to nothing.

I was pretty close to the tipping point into full unbridled panic. I thought about getting up and whispering to the hostess that I was sorry but I just couldn't do this, then just walking out. I also thought of running screaming from the room. Still I sat. THIS must be the 'something important' my friend had predicted so, as anxious as I was, I had to see it through. 

The dreaded moment came and it was my turn to stand up. I read the first envelope's date and a woman walked up to present me with her phone. Deep breath. I looked at the cat in the photo, surrendering to whatever the process is in my mind that lets me connect to another soul.  I paused. I broke out into hysterical laughter. Laughter broke out sporadically through the room. The hostess looked at me with a nervous smile and asked out loud what we were laughing about. Suppressing another giggle, I took another breath and announced, "He said, 'Who the hell are you?!'" The woman next to me got a big grin on her face as she nodded saying, "Yep! That's him!"

With each envelope my anxiety decreased and my confidence increased. Again I felt the authority rising into my voice as over and over people signaled the authenticity of what I said, some with laughter and nods, others by breaking into tears. So much in the flow was I that it didn't even bother me when one or two of my fellow psychics made comments to make me think they were feeling displaced and jealous by the time and attention I was giving and receiving, which was but a result of the nature of the readings. 

Once it was all done, alot of people came up to me to thank me in person and hug me, a couple of them still wiping away tears. I found my way to the hostess and thanked her profusely for letting me sit at the big kid's table and do readings. Then I headed home, thinking to myself, "I probably should list Animal Communication on my website."