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Perspective on my Reading with John Edward

By Home Menu, Mediumship, Spiritcaat Writings, , , ,

by Lisa Larson

evolveI recently had the good fortune to be unexpectedly interviewed by John Edward on his membership show, Evolve. (I have asked for permission to share the segment but have not yet gotten response. I’m hoping to hear back from them soon. It’s no longer available through Evolve.) However, because of this unexpected interview, where I was suppose to have had an on-air reading, I was blessed to get a private reading from him instead.

As many of you know, I am an animal communicator, and a psychic medium myself. I love doing both. When taking an advanced mediumship class with Lisa Williams, I realized not only how much I love doing mediumship, but also wanted to make sure that my mediumship did not interfere with my profession working with animals. There was, in fact, a part of me that wondered if I should be doing just one or the other.

I became a medium because I woke up and literally heard a voice in my head tell me, “You need to become a medium and a healer.” This was at a time when I had no particular connection to or knowledge of either. It’s not like I had just lost someone in my life and become enamored with mediums or anything, I knew nothing about energy healing, I just simply heard the voice in my head. (In fact, when I told John Edward about it, he said, “Oh, okay. I get it. I get it. It’s like being anointed by the mafia. You’re in it for life.”)

And that was the crux of my dilemma. Even though my animal communication practice was taking off, and I love doing it, I wondered if I should be setting the mediumship aside. But I just couldn’t go against, the “Godfather’s” wishes. 😉

When I was having my reading with John, we talked about this. John is not so hot on the number of people he sees jumping on the bandwagon to learn mediumship because they’ve seen him as a TV personality, not understanding the true significance of the craft. I’ve read this in one of his books, and our conversation played that out. (I believe he thought I might be one of those people, before I explained how I got into it.)

There’s nothing about mediumship that I equate with fame and fortune. When I was a professional musician, I dreamed of that, of course. That’s what musicians do. With mediumship – not so much. In some ways, it seems far too personal. Not that I don’t want personal success in my field, it’s just kind of an odd concept to me for what I do.

We talked about the importance of having a specialty, and in all honesty, I agree with him. (I do, of course, understand people needing to make ends meet. They need to offer what they can if they are legitimately qualified. After all, I did tarot for 30 years, so I still teach classes now and again, and still do an occasional reading for my loyal clients who understand how I use tarot and are not looking for me to ‘tell their future.’) But the conversation stuck with me. “Why would I have been ‘told’, in no uncertain terms,” I’ve asked myself, “to follow this path if it were not the path I was suppose to be on?

Having the reading with John was eye opening for me, not only for the reading itself, but for the auxiliary things I have gained from it since. He was every bit as accurate as I would have expected.

dad in uniform(I do wish I had told him I specifically wanted to hear more from the other side, because I really did want to primarily hear from my dad, and feel a little bad that I ‘missed my chance.’ I know, however, I probably got exactly what I was suppose to have. Not to mention that even mediums get ‘psychic amnesia’ when their getting read. He kept mentioning a “P” name and I can’t believe I didn’t tell him it was my cat, ‘Puma’ who was with my dad.) :-p

That aside, in the reading, I learned some great things confirming personal stuff in my life, and some hopeful things about my practice. But what I learned from the experience itself, was so much more.

For one thing, through the years, I’ve learned an awful lot from watching John Edward work. He’s always been my favorite medium, because I feel he has a sense of grounded-ness and ethics that I identify with in my own personal and professional life. That was confirmed for me in the conversation we had, which was a real treat, talking to someone with a ‘professional colleague’ tone to it, which I don’t have much of, because I don’t know that many mediums with similar points of view.

It was interesting to me being on this side of the reading because, while my ultimate goal is always to be as good of a medium as him, my goal has never been to be a carbon copy of him. (Always shoot for the moon, otherwise we limit ourselves). Yet, until I was on this side of the reading, I wasn’t sure how my style really differed, or if I had gotten to that point in my professional development where I had even developed my own style. It was kind of cool to see that I have.

Even though we both have our moons in Aquarius (which, according to him, allows a certain detachment when doing emotional readings) by his own admission, he is not an extraordinarily touchy-feel-y person when he reads. Me? Eh-no. My readings consist of, of course, the evidence and the message, but I’m all about diggin’ down and dirty if that’s where people need to go.

Before he knew what I did for a living, he said, “You seem like a metaphysical person. It looks like you do some sort of counseling or motivating people.” That’s exactly right. Many of the readings I do end up with some real heart to heart exchanges. After my reading with John, I realized, “that’s okay, because that’s me.”

Since every reader filters through their own frame of reference, I have always believed that the universe guides people to the reader which will help them best. This reading drove that point home for me in a way that was very enlightening to my own style. For a long time I questioned whether it was ‘okay’, for instance, to show emotion with a client when one of their pets transitions, or to cry with them, (I feel I know a lot of these fur-kids after working with them for so long), but as many people have told me, ‘that’s what makes you, you.’

I just had lunch today with a mediumship client who I believe was able to find me for that very reason. I feel blessed to have been able to bring her father through in a very significant way. Furthermore, I was able to relate to a very specific situation in her life that her father brought through. It was a situation that many people may not have personal knowledge or awareness of. It doesn’t mean that another medium she might have found wouldn’t or couldn’t have brought her loved ones through, but for whatever reason, I believe, she was led to me because I had a specific frame of reference for what she was going through and what her dad was talking about.

Lisa-and-VidaI had thought about this woman after my reading with John for that very reason. When we had the conversation about having just one speciality, I had to ask myself again, ‘why was I chosen to do this, when I speak to animals so often?’ Thinking of this instance helped answer that somewhat, but what really drove the point home was a reading I had with a dog just a few days later.

I don’t even remember what behavior we were working to correct, what I do remember was that the woman’s mother and father would not let me talk to the dog until they said what they had to say. They came through by showing me a car fire and someone who had nearly died. The woman confirmed that her sister had been in a car accident where her car caught fire and she miraculously walked away. Her father came through to tell his daughter that he was there, that he helped her sister walk away from the accident. It was very important to him that she know this.

After we spoke to her parents, I was easily able to continue on with the conversation with the dog. It hadn’t occurred to me before this, however, the number of times a spirit comes through during a communication with a pet, but this instance showed me why I’m suppose to be both animal communicator and medium.

Just as the woman most-likely ended up with me because she and I had a common experience that enabled me to understand messages her father was giving her, I believe there are people who will come to me for their pets when there is also something important that they need to hear from their human loved ones on the other side. Many people will do anything for their pets, even if they are skeptical, but for whatever reason, they may not ever think of contacting a medium, so their pets do it for them.

Furthermore, while I might feel those energies if I were just an animal communicator, just as mediums might pick up animals when they are talking to human spirit, my ‘initiation’ into the ‘mafia’, serves a purpose, allowing me to add another level of connection when the situation calls for it. (That same week, I connected a dog with his departed human father, who was also the brother of the woman who called me, who is now the dog’s new person. So not only was I able to connect the woman to her brother as a medium, I was able to connect the dog to his dad as both a medium and an animal communicator.)

I know that this is not the path that most people take, nor should they try. In some ways, I didn’t really have a say. Once I began communicating with animals, there was no question I was on the right path. But for the mediumship, I knew I was suppose to be doing it, I just didn’t understand why, considering my work with the animals. So while I may not have really been able to hear from my dad in the way that I wanted to from John Edward (not that I needed proof, I just miss my dad) I probably got exactly what I needed, which is what this is all about.

I do believe that, like John Edward says, people get what they need, whether it be a personal message or through watching someone else get a reading. And I believe that they also get what they need by the universe guiding them to the people who might be able to ‘make the penny drop’ for them, for whatever reason, through whatever frame of reference.

My reading gave me some confidence and clarity on my purpose, which is why I was blessed to have been able to get a reading from him. I will always strive to be as accurate and as quick as he is, I will always strive to be the best I can possibly be, but I thank him for helping me accept and understand that my style is my style and, in that respect, I don’t have to strive to be anything else. Thanks John. 🙂

12 Things You Can Do After Your Pet Passes

By Ask Caat, Grief, Home Menu, Interviews with Professional Animal Communicators, Spiritcaat Writings, , , , ,

missyI was blessed with the opportunity to be unexpectedly interviewed by John Edward last week. He asked me to give him 3 things someone could do once they have lost an animal. I will give 12 here. Some are for the benefit of the person, some the benefit of the other animals in the house, (if applicable) and some both.

1. Remember that your fur-baby is around you. They are just not wearing their clothes anymore.

  • Talk to them. They will hear you.
  • Look and Listen for them. They will contact you. Through a song, through a smell, through a butterfly or something significant to you.
  • Think of them. They will feel your love.

    • 2. Have some sort of ‘memorial service’.

  • Light a candle, play soft music and have everyone around who loved them talk, or someone read a poem. VERY IMPORTANT: include your pets who have lost their pet buddy
  • Light a prayer candle every night at the same time your fur-family member passed, until the candle is gone

    • 3. Create an alter for a specific amount of time. You can include things like:

  • a candle
  • your fur-family member’s favorite toys, collar, etc.
  • perhaps your fur-family member’s ashes until you decide what you want to do with them

    • 4. Create a memory shadow box. You can include in things like:

  • A lock of their hair
  • Their favorite toy
  • Their favorite ‘woobie’
  • Their collar
  • Anything that you would like to keep and will memorialize them for you

    • 5. Go through your photos

  • Create a photo collage or photo album of your fur-family member
  • Create a photo blanket or pillow, through something like Treasure Knit
  • Create a hard back photo book of your fur-kid through something like iPhoto
  • Have a professional painting or drawing done
  • Get a purse or tote made with a photo of your animal HERE

    • 6. Have a cast made of your fur-baby’s paw

  • Some places offer this at the time of euthanasia. If they don’t, ask
  • You can put it in your shadow box

    • 7. Plant a tree (or plant or flower) for your furbaby

  • Plant it in his/her memory
  • You can bury the ashes and plant the tree on top of the ashes

    • 8. Write in a journal

  • Write to your fur-kid
  • Write about him/her
  • Write a poem about him/her
  • Write anything you want, but write. Your baby will hear you

    • 9. Create a website for your furbaby

  • Start a blog or social networking page about your memories
  • Share your photos and memories with other animal lovers

    • 10. Talk to someone who understands. Not everyone understands the depth of what it feels like to lose an animal who is a family member. If you don’t have friends or family who can support you:

  • Join a pet-loss support group
  • Call a pet-loss hotline
  • Find pet-loss forum online
  • There is a list of resources HERE

    • 11. Buy yourself a squishy stuffed animal. (If you know someone who has just lost a pet, buy them a squishy stuffed animal.) 🙂

  • To some of you, this might sound silly, but no matter how old you are, what gender you are, don’t let your ego tell you it’s not ‘okay’, or make you feel ‘silly.’
  • A stuffed animal acts as a ‘physical surrogate bringing you closer to your fur-baby’s spirit.
  • They can feel the emotion and energy when you hug that surrogate, which not only helps us emotionally, but also opens the door to allowing you to feel your baby’s presence in other ways.
  • Stuffed animals are not just for children anymore, they are for the child inside us who needs the love and comfort only an animal will bring.

    • 12. Don’t get a new pet right away.

    Not only for you, but for your animals who have lost their fur buddies. Take time to work through your grief, and allow them the time to work through theirs. dog-smallUnless an animal is placed in your path, which may be a gift or sign from your departed animal, it is usually better to get to a place of normalcy before bringing a new family member into the house. You will more often find that by doing so, you can create a stronger emotional bond with the new animal without them feeling the pressure of trying to live up to another animal’s memory (whether you think you are doing it consciously or not.)

    I started by saying, remember that your furbaby is always around you. Don’t doubt that. They have left an indelible mark on your heart, as you have on theirs. More often than not, they have become spirit guides for you on the other side, and many times they will have left so that they can assist you from the other side in ways that they may not have been able to assist you here.

    It’s small consolation when we are missing our beloved fur-children, I have always thought that it was some sort of cruel, cosmic, joke that animal’s life spans are so much shorter than our own, but consider this: Think about how many homeless animals there are in the world, suffering, alone, on the streets and in shelters. In a perfect world, we have all of our animals for the full length of their life spans, so if we live the full length of ours, we will have saved at least 5 generations of animals from the torment of animal homelessness.

    Animals come into our lives for a reason. And as one dog in spirit explained the concept to me, we, in human existence, are given the gift of being able to be physical caretakers for these animals who, in turn, are spiritual caretakers for us.

    We certainly miss them. But what better gift could we ask for from them, they, who continue to be our spiritual caretakers, long after our job of physical caretaker for them is over.

    ~~
    Lisa Larson is an animal communicator and reiki master. You can find her at www.pawstalk.net
    ~~

    Appeal from Lava Lady

    By Home Menu, , ,

    ********
    I rarely post my communications, but what follows is a portion of a reading I did with a person who runs a horse rescue. We were speaking to two horses, both named Lava Lady. One who was a racehorse in the early part of the 20th century, and one, a pregnant racehorse who currently resides in Florida.

    The latter is for sale for $10,000 including her future baby. For the sake of simplicity, we have combined the words of both horses into one. However, the main communicator was the Lava Lady who was in spirit. She was acting as a guide and caretaker for the horse who is still in body, who is highly distraught at the thought of her baby becoming a racehorse. She wants to be adopted by a loving family. The message, however, became bigger than I could even imagine.

    ********
    Lisa: She is showing me her environment and this place looks freakin’ huge! She’s saying the people are nice enough, but there’s no emotional connection whatsoever. It’s almost as though she knows what an emotional connection with a person is, but she doesn’t really have it.  She knows what that connection is because somebody maybe at some point took care of her that way.  The connection that we understand a connection to be is just not there. She does not want to be a broodmare; she does not want her baby to be a racehorse.

    Lava Lady: You (were contacted) were the only hope.

    Lisa: … if there can be something done, and she understands that there may not be able to be, but if there could be, she feels that you (my client), given your spiritual understanding of things, might be able to find a place for these horses.

    Lisa: She says that this is a time in your spiritual evolution, where you bring to light to a wider audience of people, the lives of racehorses, and the kind of lives that racehorses have. People look at them and they get taken care of, and have nice shiny coats and all of that, and they live in nice clean stalls, they think their lives are really nice.  She says “we are nothing but slaves. It’s time that the world awakens to that.”   She’s saying that there is validity to the whole 2012 Mayan Calendar thing, in that there can be a change in consciousness if, number one: people are willing to listen and, number two: there are enough people willing to speak. 

    Lisa: Racehorses have a unique difficulty because they are “owned” by rich people.  That goes back to how they look from the outside as though they are very well taken care of, but they’re not loved.  Not like we think of love. 

    Lava Lady: … For horses as a species to survive and thrive, we need to be heard.  Think of where we came from.  (She’s showing a picture of horses out in the wild.)  Basically this doesn’t exist in this space continuum anymore.

    Lava Lady: We contacted you because you are a friend of the horse. You understand us like no other.  It’s a very dismal time for so many of us because we live in such big bodies, even those who do understand and love us, it’s just different than the domestic animals you have, where you sleep with your pets, etc. 

    Lava Lady: There are a few who are very lucky but relatively few.  If those who were not guided by money could share their love with us things would be far different. 

    Lava Lady: I fear for the species. Breeding, as it is done, is breeding out the beauty of us all, the beauty of our true nature, the wildness of our true nature.  We can be Zen Horsie, as you would call it.  But so much of our lives are constricted.  And if you can help us you can help many.  (The spiritual aspect to this is if she could find the right home, she has a lot she could teach.)

    Lisa: You would be a good person to do racehorse rescue.  There’s a need for it.  Racehorses have such a unique problem when they are rescued, that most of these other places (other rescues) while they are very compassionate, and are very loving, they don’t have the access for understanding, or ability, or consciousness, of connecting and communicating with them, in a way that is really necessary at this point in time to stop this. 

    Lisa: She is concerned that racing is huge part of what is damaging her species. The breeding and what they do to racehorses, is taking away their very nature.  It’s making them something else, to the point where these broodmares have babies and their babies don’t even know how to be real horses in the true sense of the word.  In true soul sense of the word, because they’ve had it bred out of them. 

    Lisa: But she hasn’t had that happen to her yet.  She’s held on with a thread to her ancestral ties, to her nature. They breed the nature out of theses horses to the point that they are nothing but robots.  Then they get thrown away and they don’t even know what to be.  They don’t even know how to reconnect ancestrally. 

    Lisa: And it’s very nice that these racehorse rescues take care of them and everything else, but they aren’t moving that step further. They’re not going to the step further which helps these racehorses come back into the fold of who they really are. No matter how damaged they are … they can still be damaged, and still be touching who they are … but they never quite get there (in some other racehorse rescues) because they don’t do what you (rescue organization) do. 

    Lisa: They don’t look at it like you do. They don’t connect with them in the same way, they don’t talk to them in the same way, they don’t communicate with them in the same way, and they don’t feel them. It’s not saying anything bad about these people, they’re taking wonderful care of them and they’re doing everything they know how to do but  she’s saying “we need something that takes it a step further. We need something that does what you do to help these horses reconnect with their true nature.” These kinds of alternative things are the things that racehorse rescues are not getting.

    Lisa: Now let’s see if there’s a suggestion on how to do this.  That’s a big friggin job!  She’s saying the first step is to set the intention into universe.  (comment made about feeling overwhelmed)  Doing that (feeling completely overwhelmed) automatically puts a limit on it – (by saying) “no we can’t do it.”  She’s says instead of looking and saying “oh my gosh, how are we going to do that!” she says look at it and say, “oh!  how are we going to do that?”  Focus on “we are here, (in this current situation) how are we going to make it better?”

    Lisa: Rescuing horses isn’t just about the starving, the abandoned, etc.  There is emotional rescue as well.  She (Lava Lady) is not hurting, she’s not being abused, she’s well fed, she’s well brushed, she’s well taken care of, and she say’s that in part is the problem.  Because people look at her from the outside and say, “oh my God this horse has a wonderful life,” but here this SOUL is hanging on by a thread to the true nature of what she is.  She wants an emotional connection. She wants love and she wants to feel SOMETHING!  Racehorses don’t feel anything.

    Lava Lady: …this is the reason why we came to you. So many people don’t understand that it’s not about humans; it’s not about the human way of looking at us. It’s about them understanding.

    Lisa: And for some reason, it is so much more difficult for humans to understand horses than it is for them to understand dogs or cats because they live with them. Horses live someplace else, they (their people) see them at a separate time, and it’s not the same.  They don’t seem to understand horses from the same point of view they understand their other domestic animals. (she shows a close up picture of a horse’s eye). 

    Lisa: There is an inherent sadness creeping it’s way into the horse species (she shows a graphic like we’ve seen in the movies of the enemy spreading across Europe.) It’s like a wave of disconnection from self that is becoming an epidemic in horses as a species. 

    Lava Lady: I am afraid that what the heart and soul of a horse IS, will cease to exist. First on an emotional level, and then on a physical level.

    Lisa: She knows you will do everything you can, everything that is possible, and she is now giving it up to the universe.  You can’t do anything without first being aware of the situation.

    *****

    ~ For more information about speaking to your own animals, please visit my site: Pawstalk Animal Communication & Reiki

    Horse as a Spirit Guide

    By 1 commentHome Menu, , , ,

    HORSE

    Keywords:
    Freedom, Independence, Strength, Grace, Speed, Power, Travel

    When Horse crosses your path:
    ~ If feeling stuck, it’s time to move on
    ~ You have the freedom to forge new directions
    ~ You have the ability to make changes in your life with strength, power and grace

    Think about Horse:
    At one time they roamed free and in herds. It was the horses’ domestication that was the single most influential event that decreased distance between humans. With strength and power, they carried people great distances.

    Having a physical ‘wide field of vision’, they hold great magical and divinatory power. They are also, in this modern world, bought and sold like property, teaching them, determination, internal strength, spirituality and acceptance.

    Call on Horse energy when:

    ~ You need to clarify which path in life to take
    ~ You need a ‘break from current confinements and restrictions.’ *
    ~ You feel the call of the wind (i.e.: to travel or move forward) but are having trouble finding the courage and strength

    Horse medicine teaches us:

    ~ to broaden our vision, and widen our horizons”.**
    ~ to tap into our ‘inner power’.
    ~ to understand the confines of our circumstances, yet use our own determination and will to change the lives we lead.

    Tarot Card Correspondence:
    ~ The Chariot
    ~ The Sun
    ——
    References:
    — Animal Spirit Guides by Steven D. Farmer
    — Animal-Speak by Ted Andrews
    — * StarStuffs
    — ** Shamanism, Vol. III, Animal Medicine Powers, by Dolfyn (Out of Print)

    How to Choose: Animal Communicator v. Pet Psychic

    By 1 commentAsk Caat, Home Menu, Spiritcaat Writings, , ,

    ~~

    [T]he world of animal communication is experiencing a boom. Everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon. Unfortunately, not everyone who takes that jump is qualified to do so.

    More and more the internet has been flooded with people calling themselves “pet psychics”. But what is a pet psychic, and more importantly, what is the difference between a pet psychic and an animal communicator?

    In simplest terms, all animal communicators are pet psychics but not all pet psychics are animal communicators. It’s an important distinction, especially if you are in need of not only receiving information from your animal, but sending information to your animal. This critical difference is important because if an inexperienced person tries to correct a problem without the proper training, they may very easily make a situation worse rather than better.

    This applies to both behavioral and emotional problems. The process between just connecting to an animal psychically, and actually communicating with, them carries stark differences in technique. I, myself, will certainly use some psychic ability within readings, but its really more to fill in the blanks more than anything else. It is not the focus of the reading.

    Don’t get me wrong, there may, indeed, be many pet psychics who are very competent and have vast years of experience, but what many pet psychics fail to understand, those who have never had any formal communication training, is that animals can be very suggestable and it takes great care, training, experience, and understanding the animal psyche, to give suggestions to them without creating more problems than you are trying to solve.

    Animals who are not communicated with properly may increase behavior such as aggression, inappropriate elimination, or even start exhibiting emotional problems because of lack of the proper way to send information.

    Even those speaking to animals in spirit, while not making a situation worse, may not deliver the same types of messages from your pet. People who study the art of animal communication have a certain understanding of animal behavior, and an experience with the types of messages animals in spirit send. In other words, they know what questions to ask, more so than those who have just simply hung up a “pet psychic” shingle.

    Think of it this way, would you want your primary care doctor to do open heart surgery on you? Of course not. It’s a specialized field. So is animal communication. When you want to speak with loved ones on the other side, you want a true medium who has studied the craft, not a person who may be a good psychic but has no mediumship experience. When you want to get information about your life, you want an experienced psychic, not someone whose only psychic experience is stocking the bookshelves at a psychic book shop.

    It stands to reason, then, that when choosing someone to assist with your pet, that innocent family member who trusts and depends on only you, you want to choose a qualified animal communicator, who has studied the art specifically, understands the dangers and the pitfalls, and has had years of experience speaking with animals, lots of them, rather than someone who has really just jumped on the “pet psychic” bandwagon, to add money to their coffers, because it’s now the “in” thing.

    So when choosing someone to assist you with your pet, here are some questions to ask:

    • Do you ‘communicate with animals’ or ‘read’ them?

    • Are most of your sessions with animals or with humans?

    • Who did you study with?

    • How long did you practice before going professional and how many animals per week or per month did you talk to in that time? (I would look at around 3 years as a minimum amount of time to practice extensively before going professional.)

    • How long have you been speaking with animals professionally?

    • How many animal sessions do you perform per week/ per day?

    • Is this a “full time” profession? How many hours per day do you work specifically on your business? (This does not necessarily connote an ineffective animal communicator if they are not full-time, some people are just getting on their feet, but it does give you an idea of how much experience they have.)

    • Do you have a website and testimonials to look at? (People taking this seriously should have a dedicated professional looking website to help people understand what animal communication is and how it works.)

    These questions will not guarantee you a good communication, but with them you should have a more clear idea of who to hire and who not to hire when wanting to communicate with your most precious fur-dependent, be it in body or in spirit. And why would you want any less than the most experienced among them?

    For more information on animal communication please visit Pawstalk Animal Communication & Reiki.

    Animal Spirit Guide: Pelican

    By 1 commentAnimal Spirit Guides, , , , ,

    Pelican as an Animal Spirit Guide

    Keywords:
    Forgiveness, Cooperation, Release, Adaptability

    When Pelican crosses your path:
    — Forgive yourself
    — Let go of resentment towards others
    — Let go of that which ‘weighs you down’, be it material, emotional or mental

    Think about Pelican:
    They have that large sack with which to fish. They can fish abundantly with it, but know that it needs to be empty to have the freedom of effortless flight. They swallow the fish and empty the water out of the pouch. They know when to let go.
    Pelicans know how to adapt to the conditions in which they live. Despite their large size, they are deceptively light. This makes them buoyant and they float effortlessly on the water. And although, they may, at times, have trouble taking off from the water’s surface, they persevere, not allowing themselves to get bogged down in the water. (symbolically, water = emotions)

    Pelicans are very social beings. They live in cooperative colonies, teaming up to fish, and they nest away from species with whom they may have conflict.

    Call on Pelican energy when:
    — You feel the need to ‘lighten up’
    — You feel the need to let go of resentment or anger towards another
    — You feel overwhelmed and want to rise above your heavy emotional state
    — You feel the need to keep your head held high, despite your trials and tribulations

    Pelican medicine teaches us:
    –That no matter how heavy our burdens, we will always rise to the top
    — How to forgive ourselves, by releasing ourselves from that which bogs us down
    — How to ‘team up’ with others in harmony and cooperation

    ——
    References:
    — Animal Spirit Guides by Steven D. Farmer
    — Shamanism, Vol. III, Animal Medicine Powers, by Dolfyn. ©1992 Earthspirit Inc.
    — Pelican Facts
    — Animal-Speak by Ted Andrews

    “It’s too soon” means “It’s too soon.”

    By Home Menu, ,

    “No” means “no,” and “it’s too soon” means “it’s too soon.” I just got off the phone with a person who recently lost her pet, who was guilted into adopting a pet from a pet store that works with rescues.

    missyPeople need time to grieve. If someone says “It’s too soon” that means “It’s too soon.” It doesn’t mean that anyone has the right to guilt that person into adopting by saying things like “Can’t you find room in your heart for these kids?” “You’re such a good mother, “ “If you don’t take them, they’ll have a terrible life.”

    This serves no one. It doesn’t serve the humans involved and it certainly doesn’t serve the pets. When people lose a pet they need time to grieve. Giving them a pet as a gift without knowing that they’re ready, or guilting them into taking a pet before they’re ready, many times, means that there will not be the bonding between animal and human as there would be otherwise. It’s simply not fair to the pet or the parent. Either the two won’t bond, or the pets will end up being taken back having been put through another, unnecessary trauma in their life.

    So people at pet stores who work with rescues, or rescue organizations themselves, or those just trying to place a homeless animal need to understand that “No” means “No”, “It’s too soon” means “It’s too soon”, and “I’m not ready” means “I’m not ready.” They need to honor that, for the sake of the parent and for the sake of the pet.

    Ask Caat: Animal Communication

    By Ask Caat, , ,

    CONNECTING & BECOMING PROFESSIONAL

    3286How do we know when we actually connect with an animal? Is it different for everyone? I’ve tried to remember what I was feeling when I got a correct “reading” but this hasn’t worked very well for me. Do any of you get any specific feeling when you really connect with an animal?

    I can’t speak for everyone, but I can tell you how I do it. I use vibrations. I visualize the animal, then I visualize a sort of radio dial. I tweek that radio dial until I feel like I am “in tune” vibrationally with the animal. There is a definite ‘vibrational convergence’ that I feel when I’ve connected.

    This sounds dumb….how accurate do we need to be before we can become a professional communicator? It seems like most clients want very specific answers instead of generalizations about their animals that they already know (like he seems energetic, friendly…)

    Not dumb. This is a tough question. You are probably more accurate than you think you are. I heard something the other day about knowing and practicing things. The guy said, ‘people practice for confidence, more than to learn how to do it.’ Or something like that.

    I believe that the practice is not only to connect with the animal, but to learn how to interact with people who don’t understand the process, 487px-Ocicat-playingand to be confident enough that when they are saying ‘no’, you can know when or when not to say … “Yes!” There’s a strength in the things that I feel. Some things are a weaker feeling, where I know I may be on the periphery of something, but I’m not quite locking in. Other things, however, are very, very clear. I think I mentioned recently about a cat showing me a sink. No matter how many times the parents said ‘no’, I kept seeing that sink. Trust yourself. I had to go through several incarnations of describing it in certain ways to them, adding more detail each time, before they said, “oh, yes, there’s a sink in there.” (THANK you!)

    Part of your job is to educate your clients before a reading. Some you talk to and understand they get it already, some you have to give them specifics. Wasn’t it you who saw a blue house or something with a dog on the forum? Actually three communicators saw something blue. It wasn’t until I mentioned alternatives to his mom that she recognized a couple of different things that he might have been speaking about. Whatever it was, he sure did want to get that color across. So a lot of it is just the practice of knowing how to present the information in the face of a negative response. Most people don’t do it intentionally, they just don’t know. Of course there will always be the “No, no, no-ers’ but they aren’t worth the time anyway. It doesn’t matter how accurate you are, they won’t believe you.

    Again, confidence is the key. And don’t discount the things you give them that they already know. Those are the most important because those are the things that show your accuracy to them. I make sure to tell my clients not to tell me anything about the personality of the pet, for precisely that reason. forumI lock into the personality (or canineality, or felinality per se) first, so that we establish I am talking to their child. Once you get past that point, the parents tend to relax a bit. It’s those little tidbits of “known items” that you want to throw in every once in a while during the reading, to keep them – and you – understanding that you are connected. That’s what validations are for, and why the animal communication practice forum is so valuable.

    How can I transition from doing my readings by sitting quietly by myself/meditating/calling in my helpers then reporting back to the clients, to doing on the spot phone communications? It must take a lot of practice.

    There are a lot of communicators who don’t do phone communications. They get the info beforehand and simply talk to the animal alone, take notes, and report back over the phone later. How you choose to do it is up to you. It is a good idea, however, to try your hand at phone readings with friends or whoever, to get the feel of it and decide for yourself which is best for you.

    Is there any where to practice finding lost animals? This is really interesting to me.

    Well, that’s a good thing to be interested in, because it’s the hardest thing you can do as a communicator, and not many people like to do them. I don’t. I have done them, but I hate it. We don’t do that on the forum because people are really in grief. I think if you really want to do it, the universe will present you with the opportunity or, you can take lessons with someone who specializes in it.

    Great questions. I believe that everyone has the ability to communicate with animals and if anyone has the drive and the desire to become professional, they will surely succeed. #

    Warmly,
    Caat