FOLLOW THE ADVICE, TRUST THE PROCESS: ANOTHER BEDROCK OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
In my years of being a diviner, it is always an interesting phenomenon when someone comes for help that they say they want, but then resists or rejects the advice and guidance given. It can trigger a battle of egos if I am not careful with said client. But once I move past that, I have asked myself what is really going on? That’s what this post is about.
Sometimes, I think it is a lack of understanding a client has about certain spiritual traditions. I try to mitigate this by being up front about how my brand of divination works, the tradition it comes from, and the character of the spirits when they give advice. Many times people are surprised to learn that ATR traditions are not like fair-style fortune telling. That a person may have an issue or query they want answered, but ATR spirits see and go deeper and point to root causes, causes which may or may not be related to the thing the person wants to know.
Sometimes I have seen that a person wants answers, but don’t really want to do any work to address their situation. People will in fact expect a reader to do the work for them. Some readers are workers, some are not. And just because a reader is a worker doesn’t necessarily mean they are the person to do the work for you. AND I have also had it happen where, even when I am willing and able to do spiritual work for someone, either their spirits or my own will block me from doing so because that person has to do it for themselves. The reason for that is often connected to the first thing I said, about root causes.
Here's the thing: if a reader is new, and has not been practicing very long with spirit-work, their spiritual sight might be limited. This could mean the advice they give is wonky. This is why people like me who teach others will advise a student to spend a lot of time connecting with their spirits, learning the tool, and infusing their divination practice with a lot of intuition to see beyond the literalness of the tool’s symbology itself. All of that part just takes time and practice and disciplined usage of said tool. There is no shortcut to this part.
Aside from this kind of “newbie” person, there is no reason to doubt or reject advice given during a reading off-hand. The reader is not just connecting to their own spirits; they are connecting to you, your spirits, and the energy of the situation you are bringing. That means they are not just working on a self-level, but in the moment of consultation they are tapped into several levels of the client’s reality to get answers and insight. I am highlighting these things because they are important to keep in mind when you ask someone for a reading.
The last thing I want to bring up was something I learned 15 or so years ago. I was going through a rigorous chaplain training program that takes a year. It’s called CPE, and in addition to learn the art of chaplaincy, you are doing an inordinate amount of self-work and internal processing by yourself and in small group. My year of that training was rough. There was a change of leadership in the department right at day one. There was a splinter group within my cohort that passive-aggressively politicked to get our first training supervisor fired. And there was a massive lack of trust between all of us trainees. I met with the targeted supervisor for my weekly one on one session and lamented that all the dynamics of this, on top of how grueling the training was, made me really doubt if this was for me.
He was a very blunt East Coaster, like me. But in that moment he looked at me with gentle eyes and told me that he saw the hard work I was doing in the program, and that all the drama I was experiencing was how the professional workforce in healthcare is, generally. He said it was preparing me for the bullshit I would deal with in my career, so it was the best learning environment for learning how to deal with it and protect myself. His final words for me to just trust the process, regardless of how hard it got.
His words have stayed with me all these years. They are words I often tell clients. I return to his wisdom often in my life when I have to undergo something that is unclear or uncertain how it will end up. Even in my relationships with my core spirits, I cannot always see where they are leading me. But I trust them, because the places they HAVE led me have made me a better person. So I encourage people to have this mind of openness when you receive a reading. See where it leads you, and try to enjoy the ride of your journey.
