I can rarely enjoy a magic show anymore. I worked for a short time in the office of a wonderful mentalist and good friend (as well as a greatly respected mentor who helped me break into the psychic entertainment business.) Once he twirled the stem on a pocket watch, handed it to me then guessed the time that would be read when I opened the watch. He did it TWICE even! Then, I noticed something about the watch….and he snatched it back and said, “I will never let YOU look at that watch again!” He and I grinned at each other.
I guessed his secret. Over time found out about many other secrets he had (which I will never tell.) So now when I see a magic act, I can pretty quickly figure out at least some of the ways they are getting their miraculous results. Sometimes I can still enjoy the show anyway; an axiom of stage magic is not that the trick is difficult but that you make it LOOK like it is difficult.
People assume that a psychic, even (or maybe especially) an entertainment reader, is a mentalist also. (I almost said “Just a mentalist” but mentalism is a very difficult magic art to perform. I may know the tricks, but the sleight of hand that allows them to happen? Reading the “tells” that my friend can see so easily? I still can’t see them.) I have had people insist that I am fishing or using tells to see what they are thinking then telling them and amazing them. Actually, that is not true. Usually, when I do have a chance to “amaze” people with something like that, I usually tell them outright what I did. I don’t want to be mentalist, I am a psychic. I read the reality around them in the Akashic records. Akashic records are controversial. There is no solid book or thing I can point to that says, this is real. All I can reply on is results.
I use tarot cards (and occasionally palms) as pictures to free associate off of. I see the Ace of Cups and I see happiness, 10 of swords and I see fear, etc. Put several together (or if I am reading palms, several lines that make a form of graphic for me) and I see a message about someone’s life. I say I can’t see what the future WILL be, that is for you, the seeker, to create, but I may be able to give you information, because I can see what is AROUND you. So, people ask about love. I can’t see the lover coming but I CAN see the expectations they have about a lover that may contradict other expectations they have. They want to be a huge success, but also have time to be at home most nights with a lover. Really? Will I get into the college I want? If the applications are all in, I can probably see it, since I can see how they compare to other applicants. Which is the best choice for me about this decision, this way or that? I can lay down cards and see what information I can give them about it. It isn’t a parlor trick, or mechanical.
Some people talk about Magic vs Magick—with a K. I like that idea. Magic is mechanical, done with gimmicked objects or a LOT of skill at manual manipulation but with a different set of mind skills than Magick. Magick is all about the power of the mind. We “Magickians” use the power of the mind to feel emotions, find out information in the Akashic records and sometimes bring to ourselves opportunities we want or need, create original art or a technique that was never done before
You don’t have to be a psychic reader or even an artist to be Magickly creative. Many years ago, a pilot discovered a new technique to land a plane in an emergency. It was quicker and safer than any system used before. He was in a flight simulator dealing with a serious emergency and when he had landed, the people watching were amazed. He got the plane down in a way that was NEW. People said they didn’t think landing a plane would work like that but it did. I truly believe because he was totally in the moment (in a flow state as it were) he opened to the Akashic record and pulled together several ideas into a new one.
The biggest obstacle to reading the Akashic record is feeling that there must be ways to get somewhere and only those ways work. I feel that if you have a goal you want to achieve you must let go of the path (and the time table) that gets you there. Instead, envision the goal. Think about it often. Talk about it. See it in your head. But let go of how to reach it. This doesn’t mean, don’t work at it. You must strive toward the goal, but the way to get there may not be what you expect.
To use myself as an example: I had made a goal: make a living as a tarot reader. I worked at psychic fairs for a few years but I was less popular than the big names, which would go home with an appreciable amount of money at the end of the weekend. AND the very best would tell me they also had several private clients they saw during the week. I just wasn’t doing so well. Once, after I had gotten my money and paid the (nominal) table fees for future dates, I had just a dollar left. I was also a little nervous about burning out my brain with too much reading. So I continued at the psychic fair, learning all I could, and working with a mentor who taught me about how to strengthen my psychic abilities and to delete belief systems that blocked me from seeing reality in the Akashic record. At last, the day come that I had a chance to work a party as a reader and I found my niche. THIS was a way I could make a living reading tarot. Not the way I assumed it would be, but a fun way that works for me. I had reached my goal. But only when I let go of insisting on a path that would get me to that goal, did a path open that I had not thought of.
It wasn’t magic, but it was Magick: I had a friend who was a puppeteer. She happened to recommended me to an entertainment bureau. They happened to called me for a party they were having. It happened I had a friend who could sew me a “gypsy” costume. At the party, it happened that this mentalist was doing walk around card tricks and he was impressed by how much the people were enjoying their readings. The mentalist asked me out to coffee and told me he had been looking for an opportunity to “pay forward” his own success and wanted to help me. He taught me how to contact agents and get my name out as a psychic entertainer. The rest, as I like to say, is history.
Magick is sometimes nothing more than a cluster of coincidences, but what is coincidence but the power of the mind allowing us to pick up and put together the opportunities we need to get what we want? Magick tied it together because I wasn’t trying too hard to make the path go where I thought it must go. Instead, I was open to what would come and the path opened to new opportunities.
ONE CAVEAT: You goal can be “success” or “I want to be very good at X,” but to say I want to be a star or famous doing X is not a goal worth aspiring to. You can’t control others and make them LIKE what you are doing, Facebook not withstanding! So don’t wish to be a star or a famous ___ (fill in the blank.) Wish instead to be a Working _____ (whatever you want to do.) Being a “Star” or the very top person in your profession involves too many factors out of your control: fashion, other people’s preferences, sometimes just plain random luck. You may make it to the top of your profession but there is no predicting that. Strive and I can assure you, you will get better or even very good at what you want to do, but top of the line? Work towards it, but never assume that will happen.