Page 28 – Musing Mystical

Persephone’s Oracle, by Jennifer Heather

Persephone’s Oracle, by Jennifer Heather
Independently Published, 22 cards, 29 pages, January 2023

Persephone is my goddess archetype, and during the fall, I honor her annual descent into the Underworld to sit on the Iron Throne as Queen of Shadows. As the Sun enters the Venus-ruled sign of Libra, where Saturn is exalted, it is a time for evaluating our relationships and honoring our commitments. I see Persephone as the Virgo Harvest Maiden, led by her psychopomp Mercury into the cavernous Great Below with the Golden Scales of Libra in hand, ready to renew her infernal vows with Hades and share in his judgment of the dead, balancing his Saturnine sternness with her Venusian grace and compassion.

This year, I was thrilled when my Hadean partner surprised me with Persephone’s Oracle as an Autumn Equinox gift. The creator of this deck, Jennifer Heather, is based in the UK and sells this oracle in her ObsidianSirenShop on Etsy. I love supporting Etsy creators, and this deck, as well as her Aphrodite’s Oracle and Hekate’s Oracle, have been on my wish list for a while.

Persephone’s Oracle is a shadow work deck consisting of 22 cards and a slim guidebook devoting a full page to interpreting each one. The entries also include journal prompts to facilitate shadow work and deepen self-knowledge.

In the introduction chapter of the guidebook, creator Jennifer Heather says, “Persephone’s Oracle is symbolic of the journey towards wisdom as experienced by the archetypal maiden descending into the Underworld to face the unknown terror of darkness,”¹ and the cards “depict the transition of the maiden to maturity and the lessons obtained along the way.”² If the cards are read in order, they begin with card 1, titled “Innocence,” relating to Persephone’s beginning as Kore, the innocent Flower Maiden.

The first five cards in the series contain uplifting messages about connecting with your inner child, letting your light shine, and spending more time in nature. The tone shifts with card 6, titled “Surrender,” which speaks of the trauma of Persephone being abducted by Hades in the meadow and carried down into the Underworld, a terrifying ordeal which she had no other choice but to accept. The series continues through various aspects of Persephone’s process of individuation as she is transformed by her journey through the Underworld, and returns to the surface in card 22, titled “Ascension.”

One of my favorite things about Persephone’s Oracle is that the cards are graced with the masterpieces of a variety of famous artists, and the name of the painting, the artist, and the date it was produced is given in the guidebook, so each card is like a mini art history lesson. For example, six cards feature the Art Nouveau paintings of Alfons Mucha, and French Symbolist Odilon Redon’s work appears on four cards. My personal favorite is Proserpine by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1874).

I immediately connected with this oracle, and as I shuffled, I asked for a message from Persephone. I felt her gentle, loving energy radiating from the cards. “Cycles” jumped out of the deck, which advised me to “harmonize and flow with life’s rhythm.”³ The painting on this card is Autumn by Alfons Mucha (1896). Autumn is depicted as a nymph with long, flowing auburn hair and a crown of chrysanthemums upon her head. She floats in a vineyard, harvesting grapes. The grape vine is sacred to Dionysos and I see Autumn as one of his female followers, the maenads. I imagine her pressing grapes beneath her bare feet to make wine, the blood of Dionysos. Her flower wreath is significant because the ancient Greeks wore chaplets of chrysanthemums to ward off evil spirits.⁴

According to Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, mums are protective solar flowers associated with the element of fire. He claims that imbibing an infusion of chrysanthemums is a cure for drunkenness. When worn, he says the flowers protect one from divine wrath, and growing mums in the garden repels evil spirits.

I decided to explore the journal prompts in the guidebook by pulling a tarot card for additional guidance. I chose the journal prompt: “In which areas of my life do I resist change?”⁵ I pulled the Nine of Knives (Nine of Swords) from The Tarot of Vampyres, my current go-to shadow work deck.

The Nine of Knives depicts a moonlit vampire in a torture chamber, holding a dagger and licking blood off her fingers. There are meat hooks hanging on the wall behind her, reminding me of the Sumerian tale of the descent of the goddess Inanna into the Underworld, where she was killed by the Queen of the Great Below, her shadow twin Ereshkigal, and her corpse was hung on a meat hook. The Nine of Knives brings “change through torment” and indicates that “an enemy is projecting their phantoms onto us.”⁶

Like Persephone, I resist change when an attacker is attempting to force it upon me. I think this is true for most people, because no one wants to be forced to change against their will, but sometimes we can be our own worst enemies. While some cycles, like the changing of the seasons, are a natural part of life, others, like addictions, negative behavioral patterns, and cycles of abuse are meant to be broken, and hitting rock bottom can be a catalyst for positive transformation. Like the Underworld journeys of Inanna and Persephone, a painful change that is forced upon us can liberate us by destroying a false sense of self and initiate our metamorphosis into a new, more empowered and authentic identity.

The chrysanthemums on the “Cycles” card represent protection from evil spirits, the shadowy phantoms that others project upon us. Flower medicine is one of the gifts of Persephone. Pulling these cards prompted me to get a pot of vibrant orange mums for my front porch, and to press a few flowers in my grimoire for future protection spells.

Persephone’s Oracle is an insightful tool for shadow work and self-discovery, and a great complement to tarot. The paintings stimulate the imagination, lending themselves to additional interpretation. Just as Persephone found her latent powers and the hidden aspects of her personality during her dormancy in the darkness, and bloomed with the renewal of spring, we can do the same by embracing the cyclical rhythms of our lives, and the archetypal journey from darkness to light.

The Rosebud Tarot, by Diana Rose Harper

The Rosebud Tarot: An Archetypal Dreamscape, by Diana Rose Harper and illustrated by Amanda Lee Stilwell
Red Wheel Weiser, 978578638093, 78 cards, 96 pages, June 2023

In The Rosebud Tarot, Diana Rose Harper and Amanda Lee Stilwell have created a beautiful deck of cards that captures a new way to look at Rider-Waite-Smith symbology.. In their own words it is “an archetypal dreamscape.”⁵

Victorian, Jane Austen, pastoral, and other similar words come to mind when one first flips through the cards. But then, there is a jarring reference to an African queen or the man on the moon. The symbology takes many, many turns – each one more interesting than the last. Pop culture, movie references, and geographic points also play roles in the deck.

Diana Rose Harper is a tarot reader, astrologer, energy worker, writer, and mentor. She considers herself a diviner who is “deeply immersed in the symbolic languages of myth and poetry.”⁷ She lives in Southern California. Harper’s website is: https://ddamascenaa.com/

Amanda Lee Stilwell is an artist and witch who practices various types of magic. Her art is a combination of digital collage elements and includes graphics from pop culture, vintage imagery, and ritual altar spaces. She currently lives in Chicago. Learn more about Stilwell at: https://amanda-lee-stilwell.tumblr.com/

Harper begins the guidebook with a brief tarot history and structure of a typical deck before how the suits in this deck differ from the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith deck. She discusses a bit about the elements of the suits and then dive into the Major Arcana. She also shares beautiful poetry inside the stories woven for each of the Major Arcana Cards.

The deck is a nice size and easy to shuffle with small hands. The card stock is a nice weight and will hold up well to repeated use. I love the matte finish, which complements the vintage look. The color palette is subdued overall, with tiny pops of bright colors on selected cards. The cards have borders, with a large bottom border that holds the name of each card.

Harper and Stillwell have chosen to use unusual symbols for the standard swords, cups, wands, and pentacles of the Minor Arcana:

Air: Swords = Shears
Water: Cups = Watering Can
Fire: Wands = Staff
Earth: Pentacles = Pots

The court cards also utilize unusual monikers:

Page = Curiosity
Knight = Velocity
Queen = Generosity
King = Sovereignty

This note helps the reader with the court cards:

“We highly encourage you to uncouple mainstream gender from your tarot practice as much as you can, is it will greatly enhance and improve your interpretations!”⁸

I love the way that the full color guidebook is arranged. Each Major is displayed on a double page spread in the front of the book. Near the back, the pip cards are grouped together by number on a double page spread. All of the 2’s (water, fire, air and earth) are shown on two pages and so on. The court cards are similarly grouped at the very back of the book. This style makes navigation easy and effortless.

I dove into the allure of The Rosebud Tarot and did my favorite Mind-Body-Spirit spread with the deck. My question was simply: What do I need to know for today?

I drew 2 of Fire, Generosity of Earth (Queen), and 10 of Earth. From these cards, I divined that I was armed with guidance to light my way, fortified with love and strength in family and a “gleeful legacy.” In fact, the 10 of Earth was my favorite card in that spread and the creators had this to say:

“Incarnational delights create a gleeful legacy, the joy of being shared across both time and space.”⁹

The cards are playful and yet pack a punch! I enjoyed the guidebook messages so very much, yet I also got lost in the imagery and allowed myself to welcome my own intuitive hits. Harper includes a spread called The Rosebud Blooms, which features eight cards in a design that looks like a rose. It can work as eight cards, or you can use it simply as a three-card spread. I chose the three-card option for one friend who asked about the upcoming Aries Full Moon.

The three card spread features:

1. Sweetness at the center: the very heart of the matter
2. Stem: the structure holding things up
3. Root: an important underlying factor

For my friend, I drew the Tower, Hang-up (their version of Hanged Man), and 8 of Fire. From these cards, I learned that although the current chaos my friend is going through is rocking her world, she can stay present and go within to get a new perspective. Finally, she focuses on consistent movement that feels right in her heart. This is the affirmation I created for her:

“My life magically rearranges itself when I am present and open my heart to a new view, honor my desires and go forward.”

She wrote to thank me for the reading and shared that she is currently considering moving ahead with taking new coursework and adding to her work as a yoga teacher.

This deck would be good for an intermediate reader or seasoned tarot reader. I feel that it might be too challenging for a new reader who does not have a good grasp on the names of the pip cards or court cards. Anyone who has worked with Rider-Waite-Smith symbols would enjoy this deck and the fun graphics and rich poetry and prose of the guidebook.

I really enjoyed working with The Rosebud Tarot. I liked learning new symbols for the pip cards and court cards and feel that this new information adds to my knowledge base and divining skills. I can see myself using this deck for client readings.

Undreaming Wetiko, by Paul Levy

Undreaming Wetiko: Breaking the Spell of the Nightmare Mind-Virus, by Paul Levy
Inner Traditions, 1644115662, 416 pages, May 2023

In the modern (mis)Information Age, a collective madness has possessed the mob through mainstream media. “Fake news,” conspiracy theories, and pernicious lies spread like wildfire across the internet, confusing the masses. Identity politics and outrage culture further divides people and eats them alive. Author Paul Levy calls this psychic disease that has infected humanity wetiko (pronounced “wet-tee-ko”), named after an evil cannibalistic spirit in Native American mythology.¹⁰

Levy’s vision of wetiko is informed by the integration of Buddhism, Jungian psychology, Gnosticism, western politics, and his personal traumatic experiences with “archetypal evil,” which manifested in his abusive father. By creatively appropriating the name wetiko, Levy found a potent way to personify the cross-cultural phenomenon of psychic blindness wreaking havoc on humanity.

In 1981, Levy had a shamanic initiation and spiritual awakening that was catalyzed by the trauma of abuse, during which he was hospitalized multiple times and misdiagnosed with manic depression (now known as bipolar disorder). Being institutionalized only traumatized him further, and these experiences made him conscious of the dreamlike nature of reality, opening his eyes to the psychospiritual illness of wetiko through firsthand experience. Levy broke free of the abusive psychiatric establishment and became an art teacher and wounded healer, assisting others in spiritual awakening as the founder of the Awaken in the Dream community, based in Portland, Oregon.

Levy has been writing about wetiko for more than twenty years, and has created his own acronyms for describing this elusive phenomenon. In his first book on the subject, titled The Madness of George W. Bush: A Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis (2006), he referred to what he would later call wetiko as “malignant egophrenia, or ME disease,” because it clouds one’s self-perception, or identity.¹¹ Levy expanded upon these insights and adopted the name wetiko in Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil (2013) and Wetiko: Healing the Mind-Virus that Plagues our World (2021). He also detailed his personal traumatic experiences in Awakened by Darkness: When Evil Becomes Your Father (2015).

In his sixth and latest book, Undreaming Wetiko: Breaking the Spell of the Nightmare Mind-Virus, Levy says that “finding the name for what is afflicting us is like a deliverance from a nightmare,”¹² and “the cure for wetiko is to see it.”¹³ Naming this phenomenon objectifies it, calling it out into the open so that it can no longer hide in the shadows.

Levy asserts that wetiko is highly adaptive and has thrived on the internet as a “techno-virus.” ¹⁴ I was instantly hooked on this book because it gives a name for a psychic contagion I have observed online. I unplugged from the matrix of social media about a year ago and one of the main reasons I deleted all of my accounts was to protect my mind from the sensory overload of advertisements and other people’s opinions. I felt like I was being psychically drained every time I logged in, so learning about the “mind-virus” spread by the wetiko spirit objectified the overall bad vibes I was sensing when I was on socials.

Levy believes the best cure for this collective mental illness is to remove the mask of forged identity and get in touch with our true selves. Creative self-expression helps us connect with our authenticity. Like a stagnant pool of water mirroring a cloud of blood-sucking mosquitoes, the rise of social media and online influencers has given wetiko an internet breeding ground to further brainwash, confuse, and distort the perceptions of the masses, encouraging escapism through social media addiction and comparison to others instead of turning us within to seek the truth of who we are as individuals. Social media encourages identification with a false, filtered public persona, which is reinforced by how many likes people receive on their vacation pictures and selfies. Social media touches people’s deepest insecurities and exploits them.

We can’t connect with our authenticity if we hide behind filters and deny the flaws, secret pain, and traumas of our shadow selves. I believe the New Age Movement has also been hijacked by wetiko, because there is a toxic denial of negativity in this popular spiritual community in favor of love, light, and positive vibes only! which encourages complete denial and repression of the shadow aspect of the psyche. This kind of delusional spiritual bypassing and willful blindness gives wetiko a safe space to flourish and spread like cancer.

Wetiko is nourished by darkness, and thrives in our unconscious blind spots. Willful ignorance and denial makes us complicit in its devious workings. When we do so, Levy claims we are conspiring in the murder of Christ, crucifying the living light within. Embodying the salvific light of truth is the only thing that can restore our sight and liberate us.¹⁵

In Undreaming Wetiko, Levy reveals that this mind-virus originates and proliferates through abuse. Unresolved ancestral trauma, family curses, and child abuse are the gnarled poisonous roots of wetiko that burrow deep within our subconscious minds. When we incarnate into our family line, we inherit and unconsciously channel the collective ancestral trauma, giving it an opportunity for liberation through physical manifestation.

“Like a toxic entity,” Levy says, “this unprocessed trauma becomes an ancestral spirit that penetrates and insinuates itself into the core of the child’s being.” ¹⁶

This passage struck me as particularly illuminating, as it implies that part of our life purpose is to heal the unresolved ancestral trauma that was imprinted upon us at birth. This means it may manifest in our lives in such a way that we are forced to recognize and consciously work through it in order to fully process and resolve it. However, if we are unconscious and sleepwalking through life, we may become possessed by this spirit of ancestral trauma and recreate the abuse, thus perpetuating the cycle.

I resonated deeply with this section because I feel like I am alchemizing at least three generations of trauma through my maternal bloodline: the ancestral trauma my mother experienced and passed down to me, my personal trauma, and what I unconsciously projected onto my own children because of my unhealed wounds and life challenges.

“When parents repress their unconscious and do not responsibly do their inner work,” Levy says, “it radiates out into the family environment and infects the children, who will be compelled to live out the repressed, unconscious, unlived lives of the parents.”¹⁷

This psychic projection of unresolved trauma and emotional issues is what causes multigenerational family curses.

It’s easy to place blame on an abusive or neglectful parent, but I feel it’s important to recognize that they may have been overwhelmed by the radioactive psychic material they were attempting to transmute, and passed some of it down because it was simply too much for one person to handle. I believe that was the case with my own mother, who confided in me about her intense trauma, and believed she had broken the family curse over me in the name of Jesus. However, when she placed her palm upon the crown of my head and spoke in tongues, I felt the weight of that curse, and I believe my mother inadvertently transferred the burden of whatever she had repressed and denied onto me.

There is, however, hope. According to Levy, as we heal ourselves, we heal our entire family line. This is very reassuring to me, because I fear it’s too late to mend any damage I may have caused my own children while my wounded self was raising them, but this indicates that any private healing work I do now will benefit everyone in my family line, both past and future. Time is nonlinear, and as multidimensional spiritual beings, our healing work radiates throughout time and space, benefiting not only our direct lineages, but also the entirety of the human race.
Wetiko works through our blind spots. To see them, we have to be honest with ourselves about whether or not we are acting out or condoning the abusive behavior we are trying to heal within ourselves. This is what makes healing work so difficult. By being touched by abuse, we have absorbed and internalized it, and it can unconsciously seek expression through us.

So we have to be truthful with ourselves about how the abuse we have experienced is manipulating our own behavior and worldview. This can be really challenging because no one wants to identify with something that harmed them, and no one likes to admit they have the potential to cause the same harm to others. In fact, according to Levy, it’s important to not identify with it, which can cause feelings of despair and thwart the healing process. A delicate balance must be struck between owning our shadow impulses and not being defined by them.

Truth-tellers are one of the greatest threats to wetiko. When we share our emotionally-charged survival stories, and other people become angry and attack us, they are speaking for wetiko by reenacting the very abuse we are shedding light upon. Wetiko wants to silence us, and becomes embodied through our unhealed attackers, who attempt to shut us down and bully us when we speak our truth.

This can be re-traumatizing for us, but it can also be an opportunity to recognize that our words have deeply touched their own unintegrated and unconscious wounds, and we should not take their projections personally. Knowing that their perceptions of us are being clouded by their own unconscious wounding, which has been triggered, or re-activated, by our stories, we can deflect their projections and be more firmly grounded in our own truth.

Undreaming Wetiko is an essential text for those who are deep-diving into shadow work and healing ancestral trauma. I feel it validated a lot of my intuitive realizations about family curses and intensified my personal healing work by compelling me to journal more about my traumatic experiences. Levy’s insights have also helped me to identify the shadow projections I have absorbed from my parents that are not a part of my authentic self. I will likely reread this book in the future because there is a lot of excellent information that may require additional readings to fully metabolize. For those who are open and receptive to its teachings, Undreaming Wetiko is a phenomenal book that will assist in transformative healing breakthroughs and awaken the divine light within.

Real Sorcery, by Jason Miller

Real Sorcery: Strategies for Powerful Magick, by Jason Miller
Weiser Books, 1578638003, 256 pages, July 2023

Sorcery, the wielding mystical powers and tapping into otherworldly energies has captivated human imagination since the dawn of time. It is no wonder that sorcery has been a popular subject in literature, movies, and even video games. But what exactly is sorcery? How does it work? And can it really be practiced in the real world? These answers and more can be found in Real Sorcery: Strategies for Powerful Magick by Jason Miller, who assures readers that magic is real and with consistency and dedication everyone has the ability to become a sorcerer.

I was drawn to Real Sorcery because I knew that Jason Miller had lived in southern New Jersey, where I currently live, and connected with the “spirit of place”; he’s well known in the magical communities around here. I’ve always enjoyed his “keep it real” style of writing and the frank way he shares his magical insight. While I’ve been on his email list for quite some time now, which I highly recommend as an introduction to Miller’s work since he leads group spellwork and offers live classes throughout the year, the only book of his I have read previously is Financial Sorcery. Given that Financial Sorcery absolutely shifted my mindset in regard to wealth, aiding me in finding more lucrative jobs and creating a better financial situation overall, you would think I’d have picked up his other titles, such as Protection & Reversal Magick and Consorting with Spirits.

Luckily, like the titles just mentioned, Real Sorcery was recently republished with new commentary on Miller’s original text; in this case, Real Sorcery is the updated version of The Sorcerer’s Secrets: Strategies in Practical Magick (2009). The additional text from Miller adds a new layer of depth to the previous work, inviting readers old and new to see how his thoughts have changed (or not) over the past decade.

The content itself is rich as ever, filled to the brim with practical advice for readers wishing to learn more about how to take their magic practice to the next level. What I like most about Miller as a teacher is that he expects something from his students. He writes:

“If magick is a fantasy for you, then of course you want it all to just jump to life because of how magickal you are, but if we accept that Sorcery is real, with everything that implies, then that expectation should dissipate like fairy dust, revealing the truth that it takes work to get good at things, and that discipline and persistence will outperform natural talent at every turn.”¹⁸

Miller reminds the readers that magic is real, but so are certain conditions of our reality. Therefore, instead of relying on magic alone, his strategy is to work with the conditions in play rather than against them. And it goes without saying, this often takes a heap of self-awareness, willingness to learn from one’s mistakes, and resilience in the face of disappointments. For some, this might feel like a stripping of enchantment from their practice, but for many it’s a reassurance that with time and practice, one can improve their sorcery.

“Part One: Basic Training” is dedicated to teaching readers the basic magical foundation he operates from as a sorcerer, and it’s certainly eclectic! What stands out about Miller’s imparted wisdom is that he isn’t afraid to learn and work with various magical systems, as he recognizes the universal similarities that underlie different traditional systems. I want to frame it as a distillation of many great truths into a workable system for readers, but I say this without implying it’s reductive in any sense. In fact, I find his approach extremely liberating, and it helped me to see how the magical working of different paths and traditions are all working with the same planes and principles.

“Part Two: Strategic Sorcery” has chapters focused on various types of magical workings: divination, influence/persuasion, finance, protection, love/lust, and more! All the sections have information that is both magic and mundane, making it easy for readers to employ Miller’s wisdom in their practice at their current skill level. While sharing spells, chants, and other general “how-to” guidance, such as gesture and vocal commands and creating altars, Miller imparts so much first-hand knowledge of his own experience. I find this invaluable as a reader; I want to hear the stories of magical workings gone right and wrong to have a more well-rounded idea of what the heck I’m doing and the myriad of potential consequences.

While there’s plenty I’ve learned from this book, the current takeaways that are still churning in my mind are the reminder that I can determine my own magical ethics – Miller absolutely works in the gray area, leaving room for readers to decide what workings they’re comfortable with – and the concept that I don’t have to obsessively protect myself. For all I’ve learned about protection magic, Miller was the first person to acknowledge that too much protection and defense can actually hinder other types of magical working, such as spirit communication. These two insights overall seem to be pointing to a rebalancing of my current workings, giving me the confidence to venture into a new magical landscape.

For those of you ready to delve into the secrets of sorcery and explore the fascinating world of magic, Real Sorcery is a wonderful place to begin. Miller provides a wonderful foundation to begin your sorcery path or enhance your current level of skill. From the different types of spells and rituals to the potential benefits and risks of practicing magic, Miller cuts through the fluff to provide clear guidance. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is serious about starting or furthering their magical practice.

Old Stars, New Light by Daniel Guirchovitch

Old Stars, New Light: Astrology, Tarot and Runes, by Daniel Guirchovitch
Daniel Guirchovitch, 979-8987826300, 597 pages, April 2023

As someone who has studied astrology and tarot for over a decade, it can become quite boring reading the same reiterated information over and over again. While these descriptions of the characteristics of Sun in Capricorn or the Lovers card can provide insight at times, more often than not, it feels like there’s a general script being stuck to, ensuring the card is conveyed in the “correct” way. As a natural rebel and information seeker, I yearn for a fresh perspective on the esoteric arts. Old Stars, New Light: Astrology, Tarot, and Runes by Daniel Guirchovitch provides just that, and reading it over the past months has revived my passion and curiosity for the celestial insight and divine knowledge accessible when we extend our perception and invite in wisdom from beyond.

This book is unique in the span of time it took to collect the material and the methodology of how the information was obtained. For over 26 years Guirchovitch spoke with Elias, energy personality essence channeled by Mary Ennis, about topics related to astrology, tarot, and runes. Elias is fascinating, and I recommend learning more about him and Mary’s process of exchanging energy with him before reading the book by looking at the website www.eli asweb.org. There’s plenty of interesting transcripts and audio records you can read dating back to 1995. I really appreciate how the website is so well organized, making it easy for viewers to see the topic of each session.

Guirchovitch describes:

“The book reflects my journey to become a professional reader, which included a spectrum of challenges ranging from self-doubt, to re-examining the fundamentals, to learning to synthesize multiple factors and to flow with the interpretations.”¹⁹

The content reads as a dialogue between Guirchovitch, who goes by his first name Dan in the book, and Elias in a style of Socratic questioning, the thoughtful dialogue between the two exposing new truths and unraveling frames of mind to see beyond limited perception. As a reader, I gained just as much from Guirchovitch sharing his viewpoint and the questions he asks as I did from Elias’s thought-provoking answers.

Sometimes the dialogue is short and sweet, just a few sentences back and forth. Other times Dan shares an elaborate idea or perception with Elias and Elias shares his response, which ranges from a one-word agreement to a paragraph-long explanation.

Here’s a little sample from the section from Chapter 32, focusing on rune casting and other applications:

“Dan: So the divination aspect of the Runes, as in describing and helping to fine-tune situations, helping people to find the most beneficial alternatives.

Elias: Yes. Yes. Giving information, in a manner of speaking. They can be used for scrying. They also, because there is that element of magic, they can be used to be collectively expressing a type of intuition. Which, if you are defining intuition correctly, intuition is that communication that answers questions. Even if you don’t know you are asking a question, your intuition is answering your questions that you might be leaning into subjectively, or that you might be expressing an energy that is moving in a certain direction.

Now this is NOT precognitive or expressing predictions. But you can engage in a particular direction, and although you don’t necessarily see some aspects of that direction that involves the future that you are already engaging, and you may not see that objectively, but that doesn’t mean that you aren’t already engaged [in] doing it. And your intuition can actually express that. Therefore, that may also be some of the questions that intuition is answering at times.

In this relation to Runes, they can be used in a very similar capacity except in relation to the collective energy – not simply individual – therefore expanded.”²⁰

While one could certainly read this book cover to cover, it’s also very helpful to use the table of contents and find exactly what you’re seeking to learn more about. The book is chronologically organized into 39 chapters, starting with transcriptions from November 2013 and ending in November 2021. In the table of contents, underneath the chapter number and date, the topic(s) of the discussion is listed. For instance, Chapter 9 May 30, 2016 covers “Aries, Taurus, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Cancer.”²¹, while Chapter 29 January 20th 2020 covers “The Temperance Card.”²²

Whether you’re into astrology, tarot, or runes, I have no doubt the content of these dialogues will leave you inspired, contemplative, and with a fresh perspective on things. So far for me the most revelatory passages were in Chapter 19 May 16, 2019 covering Leo and Aquarius. My ascendent is in Leo and descent in Aquarius, along with my Sun, North Node, and Mercury also there too. I’m still processing and journaling about all the insights from Guirchovitch and Elias about the relationship between these two signs!

What has stood out the most is Elias describing Aquarius by stating, “.. they are not as concerned with outward expressions, therefore they aren’t as concerned with whether everything is flowing, but rather whether they are flowing.”²³ This passage was notable to to me because I feel like I rarely want to impede the flow of others by expressing myself, and I also deeply believe that everyone just lives in their own flow that things work out best. In reflection, my flow is definitely what shapes the landscape of my life and relationships – and I get very annoyed when external forces impede this inner flow!

Not only does this book provide information for self-reflection, it also is an opportunity to get a glimpse into the art of chart reading. Guirchovitch speaks with Elias about different aspects and planet placements, seeking guidance into their meaning. For those who read charts, this content is worth reading as it showcases the process “seeing” an astrological chart and slowly revealing the intricacies of the person through careful rumination on their chart.

For those who are students at heart, willing to see things in a new way, Old Star, New Light will open doorways for you to better understand astrology, tarot, and runes. This is a book one can come back to time and time again for a deeper understanding of their mysteries. Guirchovitch is generous in sharing his insights from Elias with a greater audience, choosing to gift the answers he’s received to readers rather than keep it all to himself. I think this would be a wonderful resource for a group to study together, as the material lends itself to discussion quite readily. But even read solo, these conversations are a starting point into our own dialogues about these topics, which are essential when contemplating and enacting our practice of these sacred arts. Be prepared for the “aha” moments that spring up as you read!

The Cards You’re Dealt, by Theresa Reed

The Cards You’re Dealt: How to Deal When Life Gets Real, by Theresa Reed
Red Wheel Weiser, 9781578638031, 240 pages, October 2023

After following Theresa Reed, AKA “The Tarot Lady” for a number of years, I was thrilled to see The Cards You’re Dealt! The title was intriguing and her reputation as both reader and teacher is stellar. This book did not disappoint. From the first page of her preface on “The Death Cards,” I was drawn in, knowing that along with knowledge I would receive keys to healing as well. Reed’s introduction sets the tone and lights the way for the book, explaining how to use the book, what it covers, and tips to make the most of it.

Reed has over thirty years’ experience reading tarot for clients and is widely known as an expert, speaker, and teacher in tarot. She is host of an online podcast on tarot called Tarot Bytes, as well as Astrology Bytes which features short pieces on astrology. She has written four other books, as well as co-authored a book with Shaheen Miro. (One of my favorite books by Reed is her book Astrology for Real Life.) Her website is https://www.thetarotlady.com/, and she currently resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

This book interested me because of the wide range of questions I get from clients regarding their lives. When I skimmed the table of contents, I knew that Reed was sharing great information for handling the sensitive subjects of life. Reed shares:

“As I said before, the topic is heavy, but this book is full of hope…. This book is balm for the soul when you’re overwhelmed and need to find solace, healing, and compassion for yourself or others.”²⁴

The book is structured in an easy-to-navigate style with a complete table of contents that takes you through the basics of tarot to the Major and Minor Arcana and on to a wide array of tarot spreads. In the section on tarot basics, Reed covers a brief history, how to buy your first deck, what’s inside a deck, myths and misconceptions, and how to do a reading. I particularly love her sections called “Words to the Wise” and “Some Tarot Do’s and Don’ts”. Here’s one of my favorites:

“Do not worry about being wrong or right. This desire will create rigidity or trepidation in your readings. There will always be times when you see clearly and other times when the messages are murky. Do your best.”²⁵

Many people who want a tarot reading struggle with asking the “right” question. Reed has several ideas, including ways to reframe a question to allow the divination tool to share more helpful guidance.

Next, Reed shares information and interpretations for the Major Arcana followed by the Minor Arcana cards. She uses the Rider-Waite-Smith cards for her guide and references the traditional symbolism for each card. Although she references her more than thirty years reading with the cards, she asks everyone to trust their own wisdom when interpreting the cards. Early in the book, she references that it is personal preference whether you read reversals or not. Yet, she includes reversed meanings for each card, as well as a journaling prompt and a practice prompt, which asks for a comparison of the card message to personal experience.

She also gives what she calls a “Pro Tip” for each Major Arcana card and the King cards in the Minor Arcana. This tip takes the overall message from that card and creates a suggestion for the reader to use to improve reading skill, intuition and overall divination abilities. Here’s an example of the Pro Tip from the Chariot:

“The only way to get good at Tarot is constant practice period, not just reading your own daily card, but also reading for as many folks as you can. The more people you read for, the more likely you’ll encounter various situations that will stretch your intuitive muscles and tarot interpretations!²⁶

For the Minor Arcana, Reed does a complete review of the four suits, the court cards, and the numbers (from Ace to 10). She also includes a practice exercise and a pro tip in this section, which precedes the individual card meanings.

Then, in Part Two, Reed adds seven different sections on various life topics, including extensive information on losses. Here, it gets really interesting, as Reed takes you through various spreads for guidance. My favorite spread was the Recovery Spread. Reed shares how to use just three cards to provide guidance for someone who may be recovering from surgery, illness or chemotherapy. Here is the simple layout from page 116:

Card 1: Present moment
Card 2: What do I need right now?
Card 3: How can I continue to support my healing?

She gives an example from her client files and the reader can easily see how the spread works for this issue.

I decided to try it myself, as I was recovering from a brief illness. The cards I drew were:

1. The Tower: Yes, there’s some chaos and upheaval
2. King of Pentacles: A need to balance a time to rest with anything that needs to be done right now. Use your good judgment to plan the next few days, so you can rest.
3. Knight of Wands: Focus your energy where it is really needed and don’t waste it on burning out!

Sage advice for me, as a person who is always moving!

I also enjoyed her spread on Meeting My Guardian Angel and the section “Creating Spreads Through Conversation”. Rarely do all readings fit a prescribed tarot spread. Here, Reed gives a way to talk with the person and create questions for the cards in the moment. In this instance, the information relates most to those who are in the last stages of life. The way in which Reed discusses death and dying and working with this type of client is very reverent and compassionate. The information is invaluable to readers. The information she shares on grief is also presented in a kind, helpful manner.

Reed writes in a very conversational style, almost as if you are receiving a reading from her. The book is very easy to navigate, and includes resources on grief, death and mental health, as well as recommended reading on tarot, grief, dying, Buddhism, and yoga at the back of the book.

This book would be a great reference book for someone with a few years’ experience reading tarot, as well as seasoned professionals. With Reed’s guide and earnest practice, even a new reader could really improve their skills with the tips, card meanings and spreads in this resource.

Taking a prominent place in my office, Reed’s book will help me with readings for life’s hard questions and provide guidance for situations that challenge people. Along with the cherished decks I use for client readings, Reed will whisper encouragement to me as a reader, as I do my important work.

As she says on the title page, Reed shares that The Cards You’re Dealt is:

“A tarot guide that’s not about predicting the future but about dealing with and healing from the tough stuff we all face everyday: loss, illness, challenging relationships.”²⁷

Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path, by Connie Zweigh

Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path, by Connie Zweig, Ph.D.
Park Street Press, 9781644117224, 273 pages, May 2023

After reading a number of books on shadow work a few years ago, including one by Connie Zweig, I knew I wanted to read her latest book: Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path. Zweig is a retired therapist, former book editor, and author of six other books, including The Inner Work of Age. She has been practicing and teaching meditation for more than 50 years. She is also an expert on ageism and has written extensively on the topic, as well as how mindfulness changes as people age. Zweig is also a wife, stepmother, and grandmother. Her website is https://conniezweig.com/.

Zweig began her spiritual journey at the age of 19 in a meditation class on the UC Berkeley campus and then decided to take a month-long meditation retreat. Following that retreat with teacher training and more meditation, Zweig later became disenchanted with the community and returned home. When she found a Jungian analyst, she began to learn about the shadow and started a ten-year journey to examine her own beliefs and the philosophies of mystical traditions. With her therapist’s help, she looked at her grief and disillusionment with her teacher and his teachings. She also studied, earned her Ph.D. and became a therapist.

Zweig does a deep dive into the shadow aspects of spiritual life and spiritual teachers, including research into almost every spiritual and religious tradition. I was shocked to hear of the widespread emotional and sexual abuse in all religious groups in the US and around the world. She discusses not only the widely publicized abuse in the Catholic church, but also in the Southern Baptist Church and others. She spoke with those who were abused, as well as some of the religious leaders themselves. She also discusses negative meditation experiences and some of the dangers of meditation, from “moderate anxiety to dissociation to psychotic symptoms that required hospitalization.”²⁶

One of Zweig’s goals in writing this book is to provide information that fosters better discernment on the part of the student or parishioner:

“As would be the case with any abusive relationship, if they can detect a warning sign, such as emotional coercion or physical intimidation, they can more consciously choose to stay or leave, to speak up or stay silent. . . . If you are seeing a warning sign, please ask yourself: If I didn’t believe this teacher to be awakened or enlightened, would this behavior be called abusive?” ²⁸

Zweig shares over and over that a student’s “longing for the light evokes its opposite: a shattering encounter with spiritual darkness.”²⁹ This darkness is usually a projection of the person’s own darkness, usually formed in childhood. She shares an example of a man who joined a Pentecostal church and began to fast, live out of his car, and even purchased a billboard for the church. He did all of this at the urging of his pastor to win souls and give as much money as possible to the church ministry. After working with Zweig in therapy, the man came to see the shaming and emotional abuse from the pastor as similar to his own father’s abuse. By healing the shame and guilt, he was able to claim a more conscious relationship with himself and his own sovereignty.

Zweig writes in a very conversational style, as if you are sitting in a coffee shop or someone’s home discussing the spiritual journey. The information is related in a very factual way, with her sources clearly noted and she has carefully done her research. Underscoring the information is her love for meditation and how it has shaped her life. The reverence she shows for the traditions and philosophy of meditation and spiritual practice have fueled her search for the truth and a solution to this type of abuse.

Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path will be enjoyed by the serious meditation student, teacher, or anyone who has an interest in the holiness of meditation and spiritual teachers. Therapists and those who are interested in more information on shadow work would also benefit from reading this book. However, this book would not be a good reference for the beginner student of shadow work.

Zweig Includes a very extensive table of contents, which makes it easy to go back and find different sections. She divides the book into two parts: “Before the Fall: A Guide for Faithful Believers” and “After the Fall: A Guide for Disillusioned Believers”. She also breaks down Part One into “a longing for God”, “a longing for the human beloved” and “a longing for the divine human”. This puts the book into the proper context and makes it easier to navigate.

In Appendix 1 she includes the ASI Code of Ethics and in Appendix 2 she includes the IMS Code of Ethics. This information denotes clear boundaries for both the Association for Spiritual Integrity (ASI) and the Insight Meditation Society (IMS). This work also includes an extensive bibliography and a complete index including many of the people named in each of the chapters.

In Zweig’s own words:

“To sum up, we may meet a teacher’s shadow, we may meet our own shadow, or we may suffer disillusionment with spiritual beliefs or practices. In any case, our dreams of transcendence and communion fade. . . . When the meeting with the Other occurs, the descent begins. It is this loss of innocence and descent to the underworld that initiates us into the mystery and complexity of the human shadow, especially as it is linked to divine life.”³⁰

The Fright Before Christmas, by Jeff Belanger

The Fright Before Christmas: Surviving Krampus and Other Yuletide Monsters, Witches, and Ghosts, by Jeff Belanger and illustrated by Terry Reed
New Page Books, 1637480156, 200 pages, September 2023

I absolutely love the Yuletide season; I proudly consider myself a Christmas witch. There’s such a potency of magic in the air, especially during the darkest nights of the year. But as I’ve grown in my spirituality, embracing the darker side too, I’ve come to learn there’s much more than the glistening of lights, merry festivities, and myths of jolly Santa; there’s a twisted, rebellious side to the season as well. The Fright Before Christmas: Surviving Krampus and Other Yuletide Monsters, Witches, and Ghosts by Jeff Belanger brings the shadow realm of Christmas to the forefront, inviting readers to learn more about the underbelly hidden beneath the glitz.

As the Emmy-nominated host, writer, and producer of the New England Legend series and podcast, Belanger is the perfect guide for a reader’s journey into the hidden characters of Christmas. He is a natural storyteller with a knack for quips at the right time, leaving one chuckling with wicked delight. During a moment of exasperation in hanging his wreath, Belanger started to question the “why” of the Christmas season, leading him “down a dark and sinister rabbit hole”¹ of research into tales of monsters that punish, spank, and sometimes, even eat, the naughty.

Before launching into these tales of Christmas horror, Belganer firmly roots the reader in the history of the yuletide season. Beginning with the Winter Solstice, he paints a picture of how this season of cold weather and little light is good cause for fear. We forget in the modern era just how deadly the winter months can be, everyday a fine line between survival and demise.

Despite the harrowing weather conditions, the Christmas season for centuries has been a time of celebration, debauchery, and merrymaking. Belanger invites readers to the party as he describes Romans dressing up for Saturnalia, the Norse hanging their evergreen branches, English workers wassailing, and more! While the common theme seems to be heavy drinking and revelry, Belganer does a wonderful job describing how the traditions of times past have contributed to aspects of our current Christmas season.

And what a cast of characters you’ll meet in this book! From my personal favorite La Befana, who might clean your house for you, to the dashing beast Mari Lwyd tryin to catch stray souls, to murderous Père Fouettard, there’s no telling what you might encounter as the nights grow long this holiday season. Did I mention there’s also mischievous elves and killer cats too?

There’s even plenty of information about the gory bits of Christian history too, including St. Nicholas’s backstory and feat of reviving butchered children from the dead. Try telling that to some of your more religious family members! Oh wait, I did bring it up at dinner after reading that story in the book, and they all stared at me incredulous, wondering if I had made this up. Definitely some good tidbits of information in this book to pass along!

One thing that I found very interesting is how many of these monsters are making a revival thanks to the internet. For decades, even centuries, much of this monster folklore was confined to the countries of origin. While the characteristics of the monster are still situated in the culture of their origin, as these tales continue to spread, inevitably, these monsters too will adapt to modern times, even in different regions.

For instance, Krampus, who has a very long historical past, including the church trying to eradicate him in the 13th century, became popular again in the 1800s in “Austria, Bavaria, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic.”³¹ Until around 2000 when the tale of Krampus started to spread online, this folklore remained primarily in these regions.

Now Krampus has become a popular folk figure worldwide, and I’ve had the chance to participate in quite a few events in his honor! Last year, there was a photoshoot with Krampus at Scarehouse in Pennsylvania, the annual Krampus festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and the Parade of Spirits in honor of Krampus in Philadelphia. Clearly, my area has been influenced by the Krampus tradition; just Googling “Krampus events” I can see quite a few lined up for this year already!

One more thing to note about The Fright Before Christmas is the design! The book is a hardback cover with one of those built-in bookmarks for added convenience. Illustrator Terry Reed has done a great job depicting each monster so that readers have a visual. Plus there’s tons of authentic vintage visuals (postcards, advertisements, photographs, etc) showcasing what Belanger is describing in the text. It would be a perfect book for a coffee table or as a fun gift for a pollyanna!

All in all, this book is a perfect mixture of delight and horror, history and lore. Belanger gives life to the monsters of Christmas, providing readers with a new perspective on the traditions we enact each year. After reading The Fright Before Christmas, you’re bound to be one of the most interesting people to chat with this holiday season as you regal others with facts about the hidden origin of Christmas traditions. And given that you’re now aware to face these monsters, probably also the person most likely to survive the winter!

For those who like myself feel a connection to these monsters, I have great news: there’s a kickstarter for Yuletide Monsters Oracle Deck! Currently the estimated delivery is December 2023, so if you make a pledge, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to do some spooky Christmas divination. According to the kickstarter, this “40-card oracle draws on the traditional structure of tarot, the efficiency of the Sicilian Scopa Deck, and the whimsy of an Oracle deck.”³² How cool! 😀

Celtic Healing Oracle, by Rosemarie Anderson

Celtic Healing Oracle, by Rosemarie Anderson and illustrated by Susan Dorf
Inner Traditions, 9781644114964, 165 pages, 64 cards, January 2023

An interesting combination of both myth and tradition, the Celtic Healing Oracle card deck by Rosemarie Anderson is filled with healing information and guidance.

Anderson has been studying Celtic traditions since the late 1970’s. She is an author, poet, professor emerita of psychology, Episcopal priest, and award-winning researcher. She is the author of six books, including The Divine Feminine Tao Te Ching, Transforming Self & Others Through Research, and Celtic Oracles: A New System for Spiritual Growth and Divination. She has lived in many different countries around the world, including South Korea, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Ireland. She now lives in Oregon.

The artwork for the cards was created with an art knife and black paper by the artist Susan Dorf. She created the images to represent contemporary block prints. She is well known for her sketches, paintings and prints, as well as workshops in painting and journaling in several countries. She currently lives in Mexico.

Anderson traces her journey to create these cards to a time almost forty years ago when she lived in Germany. Here she visited the forests and woodland creatures and became aware of the Celts and their belief in the interconnectedness of life. Later, she would live in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland and learn more about the Celts and their rich traditions.

The Celts divined answers to life’s questions from the animals, plants, wind, and seasons. Trees and animals had particular knowledge of all things – past, present and future.

In addition to the history of the Celts and their belief systems, Anderson includes tips on how to best use and interpret the cards. For example, she speaks about what to do if the same card shows up time and again:

“If so, watch for that symbol mirroring many aspects of your life. A basic issue, represented by one or more related symbols, may have overriding significance in your life at this time period. For example, you might repeatedly cast one or several manifestations of the goddess in response to a variety of questions, signifying integration of certain of her aspects.”³³

Anderson also includes several different spreads for use with the cards, including the Spiritual Development Spread. This spread features six cards and a variety of questions that Anderson bases on her own use of oracle systems.

I did a reading for myself with this spread and received a succinct answer to a question that I had been pondering for quite some time. The message of the six cards could be distilled into a guidance that assured me that I had all of the tools within me to heal old wounds and take decisive action in future endeavors.

Next, I did a one-card reading for each of the women attending my Sunday Coffee & Cards event on Zoom. For one woman, I drew the Raven card, which speaks of truth-telling and prophecy. She related that the message really resonated, including the portion that said:

“Your present situation may require speaking the truth to clear the way for newness and avoid misunderstandings. Telling the truth is akin to prophecy. It cleans the eye of the heart.”³⁴

For another woman, I drew the Ram-Horned Snake/Shape-shifting card. She related that over this past summer she took a month-long trip to her home state and enjoyed carefree travel plans. She related:

“This ties into my summer so much! Shape-shifting or going with the flow as events present themselves. Don’t wait! I’ve had so many messages from animals and plants lately, too. Thank you for this confirmation.”

Although the cards do not appear to be arranged in any particular order, Anderson numbers the cards. This tool makes it easy to find the guidance in the book, which also features a Table of Contents. To break up the black and white art and type in the guidebook, Dorf highlights the name of each card in green and also uses red type for section titles. Anderson includes a bit of history for each card in a section of invocation. Then, she features a section called “If you drew this card,” where she shares guidance and messages.

The invocation section title is really helpful, as it gives a word or two that contains the overall energy of the card. For example, with my own six-card reading, I received these words of encouragement:

Power – Change – Selfless Action – Wholeness – Honor – Decisive Action

The cards are printed on a nice card stock and will hold up nicely to repeated use. Although the cards are printed with a glossy finish, they do not show fingerprints. The back of the cards is printed in green with a black Celtic symbol, while the front of the cards is black and white with tiny green leaves as accents. The deck is a standard oracle card size with its 3.5 X 5 dimensions.

My favorite card in this deck is #12 Mare – Healing the Wounds of Abandonment and Loss of Trust. Perhaps because I drew this card in the spread where I was asking for clarity, this card really spoke to me of the power of healing the heart so you can be more open and free.

This deck would be good for any level of oracle or tarot reader. The way the guidebook is presented, and the simple design of the cards makes it easy for any reader to utilize. I can see myself adding a one card reading to my intuitive readings or coaching sessions for clients. The guidance is easy to understand and the additional information on Celtic history and traditions enriches the messages.

Anderson also includes a complete “Selected Celtic Bibliography” for those who might want to further investigate Celtic traditions.

In Anderson’s own words, the Celtic Healing Oracle cards provide guidance from a rich symbology:

“Whether you choose a card from the card deck to answer a specific question or create a card spread from the cards, the symbols provide a practical and spiritual perspective into the hidden forces within your nature and present circumstances.”³⁵

I’ll be looking forward to working with this deck in the coming months to learn more about myself, in light of the nature symbols and Celtic traditions.

Through a Divine Lens, by Sue Frederick

Through a Divine Lens: Practices to Quiet Your Ego and Align with Your Soul, by Sue Frederick
Park Street Press, 1644117320, 250 pages, June 2023

Imagine that someone were to ask you to tell your life story. How would it unfold? How would you view the health issues, job losses, relationship failures, and work challenges? Do you view the hardships as trials and tribulations with no meaning other than to impose torture upon you? Or, do you view them as ways to grow, to put you back on your true path that you might have strayed from? Through what lens are you viewing how your life is unfolding?

In her book, Through a Divine Lens: Practices to Quiet Your Ego and Align with Your Soul, Sue Frederick encourages the reader to remember that “every single soul comes here to learn and evolve.”³⁶ She writes extensively about the two lenses from which we can view the opportunities and challenges that come into our life: the ego lens and the divine lens. The divine lens empowers, draws its wisdom from the soul, and shines light. The ego lens is based in fear, in scarcity, and is crippling. The divine lens sees all of us as one, while the ego separates.

Through telling her own personal story and those of others, Fredrick illuminates the benefits to viewing both what has happened in one’s life and what is currently happening through the divine lens. Doing so will not only bring us closer in alignment with divine love and support but will also cause us to become a more awakened being, enabled to “become a beacon of light for those who live in darkness.”³⁷

The first part of the book deals with the ego lens versus the divine lens, touching on real-life issues such as anger and jealousy, anxiety and sadness, perfectionism and stress, addiction and its many forms, fear, and self-doubt. On each topic Frederick deftly touches on how the lens through which we are viewing each of the issues impacts our health, our happiness, and our alignment with a higher good. While it might not seems easy to do the turnaround to view these issues through a divine lens, she pointed shows us how living our life through the ego lens causes hurt, detachment, and continual movement away from our true, unique purpose that each of us has chosen to come to the dense realm of Earth to experience.

She doesn’t leave us to navigate this transformation of moving from ego lens to divine lens alone. She offers questions to ponder, ways to shift our view, and energy shifters. How does one use their pain as fuel? Frederick explains that in detail and offers ways to understand that “pain heals us by giving us a chance to refocus on what’s important: who and what we truly love, why we are here, and what great work will fulfill our Earth mission.”³⁸

Earlier I asked you to think of your life story. Frederick moves the question a bit deeper, from the mundane to asking you to tell you your soul story. The shift is telling the story from a divine perspective versus an ego-based one.

“What moments do you recognize as gifts of opportunity and divine guidance that you did or did not recognize at the time?”³⁹

The second part of the book details the gift of the divine lens including seeing death as transformation, how to use grief in a positive way, using one’s intuition as a guide, finding meaningful work, and returning to our sacred self. Again, Frederick offers guidance in ways that enable us to connect with our higher self, including self-questioning, monkey-mind quieting meditation, prayers, and the power of asking for divine guidance.

She is also a certified Soul Regression therapist. Of particular interest might be the past life regressions that she writes about centering around grief-shifting. Frederick offers a soul story of when she guided a woman about to enter treatment for leukemia to meet with her Council of Elders. She also provides a transcript of another session in which she guided a woman through a past life regression in order to foster self-love.

Frederick concludes the book with a section on numerology because as she writes, “Our souls choose the exact moment, place, and date of our birth because those coordinates create a unique vibration that aligns with our earth journey with what our soul came to experience. These coordinates are reflected in numerology and astrology.”⁴⁰ She shows how to calculate our birth path number including whether or not we possess “master soul” numbers. She goes on to describe what the lessons and challenges of each birth number and the mission our soul intended to fulfill.

I first got to know Frederick through an intuitive and birth path session that she conducted for me decades ago. I’ve followed her work ever since then and can attest that she is an amazing numerologist and spiritual coach who freely shares her gifts. I’ve followed the twists and turns in her life since my first encounter with her and saw first-hand how she shifted challenges and life changes by using her diving lens.

I particularly liked how open and honest she was in recounting the challenges that she faced in life including death of loved ones, changes in careers, money issues, and real self-doubt. Frederick comes out on the other side by shifting the perspective from which she views her life – and that is the path that she encourages us to walk. And encouraging she is:

“It takes just baby steps to break a lifetime pattern of ego-and fear-based learning. Seeing just one painful moment through your divine lens changes everything.”⁴¹

I highly recommend Through a Divine Lens for those looking to see their life through a renewed perspective. If you read with an open heart what Frederick offers through her guidance and insight will truly change your life.