So, you've reached out to your spirit guides, you're working your way through your spirit notebook, you're meditating, asking and still...nothing. 

You don't feel like you're making a connection.

What's up with that and what's really going on?

That's the topic of today's Soul Circle:

Do you have a question for me? 

I'd love to hear from you.

The Soul Circle is back and today's question is about how to maintain or deepen your connection to your guides (with a bonus question about clearing crystals):

Learn more about Your Spirit Notebook here and Spirit Ally Sessions here.

Do you have a question for the Soul Circle?

This is my beautiful friend Nishaan. 

She’s a spirit sister, and our friendship is a warm illumination for me. 

Nishaan is a gifted massage therapist, herbalist and aromatherapist. She’s one of those people who, when you are in her presence, you feel completely seen and accepted and cared for. 

We’ve gone on some perfectly delightful, fairy-filled adventures together and this year, Nishaan is launching out onto another. You can read about the journey she’s embracing in 2013 here.

While Nishaan is away, I have the honor of keeping watch over her space.

Beginning this month, I’ll be seeing clients for spiritual and energy work at her Nourish office, here in Lexington. I’m so happy - just deeply happy - to be able to work out of this beautiful space. When I walk into the door of the building, I feel at peace. As I walk up the stairs, I feel the energy lift and change. As I open the door to the office, I feel my heart bloom and my feet anchor to the earth. 

There is powerful, loving, healing energy already moving in this space - Nishaan’s voice and the voices of her essential oil allies and the work she does to serve the world. It’s an energy that feels in harmony with mine.

I spent quiet time there today, arranging crystals and feathers and sitting in meditation. 

I called in my angels and guides and made an offering.

I'm stepping into a new beginning of my own.

I'm working from within this space, honoring this space, and honoring the work itself.

I'm trusting in my heart's guidance, rooted in the moment, open to the flow of journey.

I miss my friend, but I'm inspired by her adventure. And I'm grateful to have this sacred space where you and I can meet.

I offer 60 or 90 minute intuitive guidance and spiritual energy sessions for women. If you'd like to book an appointment, or talk about how this work may enhance your life, please contact me. I'd love to share this journey and this sacred space with you.

These posts are titled Coffee With the Guides because it's true description. I have conversations with my spirit guides all the time and often, it's when I sit down with a cup of coffee and begin my day. I've decided to share some of these conversations with you to illustrate what it is that I mean when I say "I talk to my guides." 

The guide stepping forward for us today is Beatrice, who defined herself last time as "a watcher."

LL: Thank you for speaking with us today.

B: As always, it is my pleasure.

LL: Do you have a message for me or my readers before I begin with questions?

B: Only love. Live from an attitude of love. That is always our message.

LL: And what does it mean to live from an attitude of love?

B: Open instead of closed. Willing instead of fearful. In remembrance of who you are and what this is.

LL: Who are we and what is this?

B: (Laughter) You are light made physical. You are eternal. This is opportunity.

LL: When I'm working with people who are seeking this sort of communication with their own guides, one of the most common questions I hear is, "How can I tell real guidance from my ego, wishful thinking, or just making something up." Do you have an answer to that question?

B: You say there is no reason to fear what is called imagination, yes?

LL: Yes.

B: That is a good place to start. In the imagination, one is free.

LL: Do you have any other advice about this?

B: Whether communication comes in vision, thought, or some other form, it is felt in the body. The body is the human vehicle. Too often souls move away from the body in an attempt to connect to the spiritual. I fact, the body is a spiritual vessel. True guidance, as you call it, is felt in the solar plexus, in the blood. It is known rather than supposed.

LL: In the blood?

B: You understand that sensation, yes?

LL: Yes, but I've never thought of it in that way before. 

(pause)

LL: When I was younger, my communication with my guidance was often clouded by anxiety, and I have clients now who struggle with anxiety. This makes listening to the body difficult, as the body is often sending fear signals that can't be trust. Do you have any advice about how to listen accurately during anxious moments?

B: We would say to notice the breath. Shallow breath is the root cause of much deception, yes?

LL: Yes, I know what you mean.

B: Breath is the carrier of information through the blood.

LL: So, deep breathing?

B: Deep breathing, as you call it, is essential for all communication and understanding.

LL: And if that doesn't work?

B: Some messages must be considered at a distance, not in the moment of crisis. True guidance will come again and will be felt physically.

LL: In the solar plexus?

B: That is where you feel it, yes.

LL: Is it different for other  people?

B: Each has her own language to be discovered.

LL: Do you have any last piece of advice for anyone who may be reading this and wishes to discover her language?

B: Begin.

LL: Thank you for being here, Beatrice.

B: Thank you for being here.

If you are learning your language or seeking to establish regular communication with your guides, I have some resources that may help: 

Your Spirit Notebook is a downloadable course designed to assist you as you build a practice of written communication with your guidance.

A Spirit Ally Session is a one hour consultation with me, conducted over telephone or Skype. During our session, I will share with you the four primary energies stepping forward right now and you can engage in a dialogue of spirit, just like this one. 

Learning to communicate with my spirit guides changed my life, and it's my pleasure to walk with you as you open to your guidance, as well. 

The magic began on the way to Nashville. We saw a total of seven hawks along the Bluegrass Parkway (each perched in a tree on the right side.)

Red tailed hawks are Interstate hunters, so while I don’t typically see them when I’m driving around, it’s not uncommon for people to spot them in the trees next to the highway. I knew instantly, however, from the first sighting that these hawks were sign for me.

They were a connection to my male totem, the falcon, and they held a message that I could feel like a steady beacon in my body. 

Focus, the hawks told me. Stay true. Speak.

I knew that the hawks heralded a new passage for me. They indicated stead fast action, a falling away of confusion, the courage of authenticity.

Each time a hawk appeared, I felt something pop lose in my heart. One right after the other. Hawk. Hawk. Hawk. It was incredible. 

Could focus be my word, I wondered? But no. It was too hard edged. Too serious.

And what about the number? There were seven hawks, and that felt significant. 

Seven is a mystical number, symbolizing wisdom, the seven chakras, connection. It speaks of spirituality, the inner self, inner strength, rebirth, individuality, purpose, psychic abilities. It's the number of the natural healer, the mystic, non-conformity, sacred vows. 

That night at Lockeland Table, I enjoyed the best meal I’ve ever had and topped it off with a special cocktail: The Lavender Lemondrop. The fact that it tasted a bit like my bathwater (lavender) only made me love it more. It was soothing and delicious.

Bliss, I wondered? Was bliss my word? Almost, I thought. Bliss was close, but still a little too something.

Kundalini Rising

The next day, we visited our favorite Nashville stores, including Cosmic Connections. As I browsed around the crystal room, I was drawn to the chrysopal. I couldn’t stop looking at it, holding it. There was something about this stone that was in complete resonance with me and when I held it, I felt a deep peace.

I bought some, along with a few pieces of hemetite and a big beautiful blue agate.

That night, we walked past protestors “God doesn’t want you to enjoy rock-n-roll...” into the Bridgestone Arena. A few years earlier, it may have bothered me, but I felt only compassion for the young man who yelled at me, “God wants you to tear up your tickets and go home!”  My heart opened to him. How painful it must be, I thought, to believe in a judging God. I knew that he and the others like him were there because they genuinely believed they were delivering a message we needed to hear. I blessed them silently as I walked by. Genuinely, I wished them well, and it felt good to be in harmony with myself and the world.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect from an Aerosmith show, but what I got was more magic.

Steven Tyler surprised me. He was vital. Alive. 

I left there feeling that I’d been reconnected with a long buried piece of myself. I felt vital and alive.

Tracy and I ate late night drive thru food and I didn’t feel guilty. I just savored the deliciousness of it and remembered what it felt like to be young, young, young. 

I found that youth in myself.

And it was fun.

Grace

On the road between Nashville and Memphis, I checked my phone and read about the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. 

It was impossible to fathom. 

My heart ached for the children, their families, their heroic teachers, but I didn't post a response. I didn’t feel there was anything that I could add to the conversation, the outpouring of grief that I saw in my facebook feed. I prayed silently, privately, for love. 

I could only watch some of the news coverage that night. I closed my eyes and saw everyone involved in the tragedy bathed in loving light. I gave into to softness, forgiveness, compassion. I realized that this is what we can do when we feel hopeless. This is something we can always do, that love is an action. 

The next day we went to Graceland.

While I’ve not given Elvis a great deal of consideration before now, he’s always been a part of my life. My mother was a huge Elvis fan and I grew up listening to her 45s. My next door neighbors had tickets to a show that he died before he could perform. I remember the air of sadness that fell across my little rural neighborhood on the day he died, and I remember a few weeks later, going over to my neighbor’s house to see the concert tickets, which they’d had framed. 

Elvis has always been a part of my consciousness and I’ve never understood, when I see his likeness used in a derogatory manner, the joke. I’ve never really understood what’s supposed to be funny about a man suffering and dying in his forties.

I wondered what it would be like at Graceland. Tacky? A tourist trap? 

None of the above, really.

The house was beautiful and by today’s standards, sort of modest. The interior was warm and immaculate. It was decorated in the sixties and seventies, yes, that’s the style it reflects, but I found it to be sweet. Loving and loved. I was especially taken with the peacock windows in the living room and Lisa Marie’s favorite chair in the Jungle Room, which absolutely would have been my favorite chair, too.

We were there at the perfect time of the year, it turns out, and were able to spend time alone in the house - just us and the security guards. It was impossible to be there and not feel the presence of spirit.

The next day, we went to Sun Studio and I felt energy shift again. Standing in that space listening to recordings of Rocket 88 and Walking in the Rain gave me chills. 

Standing on the X where Elvis Presley stood when he first recorded That’s All Right, Mama. Holding the microphone he held. Well, it was an experience I won’t ever forget.

It felt a bit like a celebration. And a bit like a funeral. And a bit like a seance. 

It was moving.

And it felt good to be in Memphis. To peruse the voodoo section at A. Schwab and sip red wine at B. B. King’s while the house band played Brick House. 

It felt good to eat the prozac cupcake from Muddy’s and walk through the lobby at the Peabody. 

It felt good to be with Tracy, to sleep cocooned in the down comforters of the Westin surrounded by the hotel's signature white tea scent.

The change of venue felt good - the sense of release and freedom and pleasure.

I began to feel 2012 fall away.

White Tara

And then I received an email that contained my Goddess Guidance Word of the Year reading from Amy Palko. I opened the attachment with a hunger. Which goddess was stepping forward for me? What wisdom did she hold?

I was surprised when I read that the Goddess Amy had chosen for me was Tara. 

I’d worked closely with other goddess energies in 2012: Morgan Le Fay, Nut, Sekhmet --I tend to be drawn to goddesses with a dark side. 

Amy’s White Tara, however, spoke to me of compassion and stillness in the eye of the storm. At first, I didn’t know what to make of it (which is so often the marker of good intuitive work.) I wasn’t sure I could find my word within the suggestions: Compassion. Stillness. 

I was on a rock-n-roll vacation, after all. 

My goals for the year were all about power and magic and voice. How did stillness figure in?

I also knew that numerologically, I was entering a 5 year - a year of travel, adventure and freedom, the journey of change, diversity and popping opportunity.

The more I read over the reading, however, the deeper I was drawn into a truth on that page, and the more I was drawn to the word serenity.

And the more I meditated on the word serenity, the more I felt its vibration, the more I understood its magic. I realized that when I held serenity in my heart, I was in harmony with myself. I realized that what I felt when I embraced serenity was good. Alive. True.

Serenity, after all, isn’t passive. 

Serenity is the illuminating, healing breath of spirit.

It is loyalty to the self and compassion for the world, for the act of being alive.

Serenity is acceptance and allowance. 

Blessed expansion.

Pleasure.

Devotion.

Serenity is the absence of mental stress.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt it, the more I realized that serenity was the exact, most perfect word to guide my year and White Tara the perfect companion to walk with me. 

Serenity is my mojo for 2013, my prayer, my altar.

It is from the heart of serenity that I will approach my work, my friendships, my home life, my romance.

In the absence of mental stress.

A New Journey

Since we've been back, I’ve been sitting with Tara and when I do, I feel a homecoming. I am often moved to tears by her soft, steady energy.

I can already feel my 5 year breaking up old ideas, my regular way of doing things. I can feel that I'm stepping into adventure, into uncharted territory. 

I trust that all is well.

Above me, hawk soars.

Within me, breath leads.

Around me, love flows.

Welcome 2013. Welcome, this moment.

When I chose Essence to be my guiding word for 2012, I was hoping to slice through confusion and stagnation. 

I felt scattered and unsure. 

Pulled in too many directions.

Carrying far too much that didn't belong to me (other people's expectations, the way other people work in my field and their ideas of what the work is, other people's emotions, other people's lives, the stories of my past), an unquenched desire to write, and fears imbedded in my DNA by the near and distant past.

I wanted, when I held the word Essence, to strip away all that didn't belong, all that held me back. I wanted to dive into my deepest heart and do the work I came here to do.

The message on the Essence Soul Coaching card:

I had no idea, when I held that card on New Year's Day, how important "Discover the stillness in the center of the cyclone" would be to me this year.

There were events set to unfold that I had no way of stopping. I felt them - had felt them in my bones - for some time, but I couldn't quite name them, and didn't know the shape they would take. 

These events, when they came to pass, challenged me at the core, but they also showed me I possess a strength far greater than I knew.

This year, I watched a few of my closest friends move through turmoil, tragedy, suffering. I walked with them as far as I could, but stepped away when I had to. (I learned how to love while protecting my own energy.)

There was grief this year. 

I have cried until my tears formed a river to carry me onward.

And there was tremendous joy and wonder.

There were opportunities for me to stand up for myself, speak my truth, and refuse to apologize for who I am.

I have journeyed a lot this year, in the deep underground, and I held counsel with my guides in the Elemental world. 

My animal totems, the fairies, my spirit guides - they have gathered around me, given me medicine, held my mirror.

They have shown me that my work is wild and free and magical. It is an active, shamanic form of Reiki that I practice (not clinical, not mainstream), and when I conduct readings, I'm not just using my intuition, I'm operating as a channel.

They showed me that whatever shape my work takes, what I long to do is show you how to make your own connections. I want to light the path for you so that you can hear your own guidance.

They have shown me that when I have felt blocked as a writer, it's because I've been avoiding the deepest, darkest truth, and they have shown me there's no reason for that avoidance. 

I've learned this year that even when the worst happens, there's nothing to fear.

And I've been shown grace and miracles in abundance.

I've been lovingly introduced to my teachers. I've been gently guided to fully embrace my Earth-based spiritual practice, my altar work, my connection to the Goddess, the me that has always been me. The me I have sometimes pushed away.

I was broken apart this year and reassembled. 

And even though there was a time a few months ago when I wasn't sure I wanted to work at all, I'm working more now than I ever have. I'm looking forward to being in an absolutely beautiful new space with my in-studio clients next year, and my distance work has become a fertile, blessed adventure.

I am a spiritual channel, a free-spirit, a writer, a loving partner to a beautiful man, a devoted pug companion, a magical aunt. I'm a friend. I am a practitioner of shamanics, a light bearer for my ancestors who weren't permitted to shine their lights, a questioner of truisms, and a crafter. I am the high priestess of my own heart, a wearer of wings, a daughter of the moon and the earth.

I am a lover of this life, this universe, this journey.

That's my essence.

I thank you, with every fiber of my being, I thank you for being here, for walking with me, for watching me do the essence dance.

There's newness coming in January and when I think about it, my whole body breaks out into a smile. 

In the coming weeks, I'll be sharing more with you about my rituals for release and the invitations I'm making for the new year. There will be announcements and there will be love.

And there will be you and me.

Much love and many blessings to you.

Did you choose a guiding word for 2012?

What did it teach you?

How do my allies in spirit show up for me? What does it feel like to communicate with them? That's the topic of today's Soul Circle. Please step inside...

So, how about you? How do you sense your guides?

If you have a question for the Soul Circle, please send it my way. I love to hear from you!

As always, thank you for joining me for this practice. 

*A special note to Chad. I just noticed that you also requested a card for Stephanie. Hers isn't on the video so I'm pulling it now  - it is Silence (another repeat card) and her question is, "What do I need to hear?"

Big love and holiday sparkle to each and every one of you!!

XOXOX!

It's the last Monthly Oracle of the year.

I'm pulling cards tomorrow, December 1, at 11 a.m. eastern, and giving you a question to take to your journal.

Click here for details about how to watch the live event, and if you'd like for me to pull a card for you, please leave your first name in the comments or join the facebook event page. (You only need to sign up in one place.)

See ya in the flow tomorrow!

Today's Soul Circle question is about what happens when we learn of or witness the suffering of an animal. What does it mean to have a deep soul connection to the animal, to feel compelled to help? And what can we actually do?

Do you have a question for the Soul Circle? I'd love to hear from you!