My morning meditation took me to a memory of when I was 17 years old and in college. I had a dream, the first dream I ever had in which I could see faces, of my boyfriend making out with another girl. The "feel" of this dream was different. It bothered me deeply all day. My friends tried to assure me that it was just a dream, but I couldn't shake the feel of it. After my classes that day, I drove the 45 minutes to his house. The girl from my dream answered the door and I was dumbfounded. Speechless. I physically could not speak. There were so many emotions running through me at that time. He was not there, she was friends with his younger sister, two years younger than I, and running her mouth. Her first words to me, as she looked me up and down in the way that teenage girls do, were, "You must be Crystal." Then she went on to say, "Well I've been seeing him for a while and I might be pregnant." I just stood there a little dizzy and varying from wanting to punch her in the mouth (I was feisty then) to wanting to throw up. It was when she said the next words that clarity hit me hard. She said, "I just want him here right now to say which one of us he wants." I looked at her, laughed, and said, "You can HAVE him!" I walked away with my head held high, got in my car, and sobbed the whole 45 minutes home.

The next day, with swollen eyes, I came to a realization of how much that dream taught me. I had always had feelings about people and had sometimes had dreams that came to fruition as well as many déjà vu incidences. Most psychics will tell you that it is very hard to be psychic with yourself because of the emotions that are all tied into a situation or relationship. I had a feeling that this boyfriend was a cheater, but had ignored the signs. Fortunately, my guides would not let me keep ignoring the signs. The  "crispness" of this dream and the ability to see the faces was all new to me. It opened up a new way of seeing for me as well. The whole experience showed me  to trust my gut and not to be talked out of my feelings. It was an unfortunate experience, but it taught me so much about discernment when it comes to personal relationships and friendships. I have learned to ask the hard questions, even when I know the answer and don't want to hear it, to trust my gut, and let it be if it doesn't feel right. It is not always easy to walk away, but I am thankful for this gift.

What special gifts have your guides given you to help you with discernment?

                                                                             Sisterhood

When I was a little, I was never really close with girls. As I got older, it continued. Looking back, I think that being psychic made me overly sensitive to their judgment of how I looked, what I was wearing, which boy I was friends with, or whatever other hundreds of reasons girls come up with to not like another girl. I never understood that feeling around girls, so I mostly stayed away from them. I did have a few close girl friends as I was growing up. Mostly they were girls who didn't get along with other girls either. Sometimes we grew apart and sometimes they did me wrong, which took me right back to questioning why I was even friends with them in the first place. I was mostly friends with boys. And lots of them. They were simple - they were either your friends or they weren't. Sometimes they became more than friends. But for the most part it was simple. And that's how it was into my adulthood.

When I was in my twenties and was explaining this to a dear second cousin of mine, she told me, "Honey, one day when you are older, you will appreciate the company of other women." I didn't question her,  I simply took what she said and tucked it away for later. She always had these little gems of knowledge given in a non-judgmental way similar to the way my grandmother gave advice. I must have known that one was special because I remember the scene and the words exactly.

 I am now at that "one day." Somehow, over the years, I have accumulated a tribe of sisters. Some I have known longer than others and some I have known for many lifetimes. These sisters are there for me through all of my emotions - happiness, sadness, triumphs, disappointments, self-doubt, curiosity, silliness, seriousness - and they all, like human guardian angels, come forth with different attributes and advice that make me a better me. I have my go-to sisters for specific reasons. The ones that will tell it like it is and know me well enough to call me on my wrongdoings. The ones that help me plan my dreams. The ones that I "work 'til we drop" and "laugh 'til we pee" with. The ones that just call me because they feel something isn't right. The ones that will cheer me on and cry with me all in the same sitting. I have learned how to be there for them both silently and on the forefront. I have fought side by side with them and for them through their struggles. We may not talk every day, but we know that each other will be there at the drop of a hat if asked. They are not all related by blood, but nonetheless, these women are my sisters. I may not have had this my whole life, but I cherish every moment I have with them now. Thank you, Ladies!

Have you established your sisterhood yet?

Every once in a while I get an email from Sound Cliff Writing Spa. This was created by a friend of mine named Stefanie Lipsey, whom I met a few years ago at a goddess class. Stefanie is a writer and has this great  website that offers free writing prompts, among other creative things. As I was reading Stefanie's latest post, she posed a question: "What have you done to nurture yourself lately?"

This question triggered something in me. What HAVE I done to nurture myself lately? Why is it that I always put others before myself, even when it comes to my own health? Why do I feel guilt when I try to change that? Somehow, over the years, I have come to think of nurturing myself being equivalent to indulging myself. Is it from working so much? Perhaps. Is it from the patterns of my parents passed down to me? Perhaps. So what am I going to do to change this?

In my analytical mind, I analyze first. I know that "all work and  no play makes Jack a dull boy", so why do I feel that I need to work to the point that I forget to nurture myself? As an energy worker, I know what this does to the spirit, I counsel clients about it all the time, so why don't I practice what I preach? Growing up, my parents were always working. The only vacations we ever went on were to see my grandparents in another state , and
when we moved to that state, there was no family vacation at all. Don't get me wrong, I do not see this as deprivation by any means, but I know for sure this had to affect my work ethic as an adult. Even my hair and nail appointments have turned into bartering sessions so that I don't feel guilt about spending money to take care of myself. So again, what am I going to do to change this?

First of all, I am going to schedule a time (ha! SCHEDULE) once a month for just a "me" day to do whatever I want. If girlfriends want to come, even better. It can be a movie, a lunch, a massage, but it is just going to be me and no guilt. Secondly, I am taking back my hair and nail appointments as "me" time. I will still barter (I am not seeking nurturing THAT badly!), but I will read them after my appointments, not before or during. Lastly, I am going to look at those Groupon/Living Social getaway specials a little more closely and start buying the most affordable ones that I know my family will enjoy and start going on those little getaways (on my days off of course).

Nurturing yourself is important, and I had forgotten that. Life is an adventure, it truly is, and I am going to start making it more so. Thank you, Stefanie, for reminding me of such! Now for you, Dear Reader, I pose the
same question to you : 


What have you done to nurture yourself
lately?



Blessings and Love,



Crystal

Fu Hsi was a philosopher who later became emperor of China. He also is known as the father of feng shui as we know it today because he used the energetic principles and applied them to buildings and dwellings. Feng shui is the arranging of items in areas of your home to create the most balance with the energy within. This balance also takes into the consideration the elements, the directions, and the energy of the people who live within the home. There is also a map, called a bagua map, which correlates each section of the home with different areas of your life.

Why would you want to do feng shui in your home? Everything has energy. The energy of the land, the energy of the belongings in your home, the energy of the people who lived in your home or worked in your building prior to you, has the tendency to affect the environment. You want to clear out all negative or unnecessary energy that is in the spaces you inhabit, and create a loving, energy free-flowing environment. Feng shui helps you to do so.

There are many different skill sets involved with feng shui, and it can take years to learn them all masterfully. The purpose of this blog post is to provide you with some quick tips to help get the energy moving freely throughout your home. If you feel this is too monumental a task, start with the room in which you spend the most time, or start with the room which is for the area in your life you want to work on first. Some people would want to work in the relationship corner first, some people may think the abundance corner is more important. Whichever you decide, start with baby steps.

First, clear the energy of the room. I would put down sea salt on the floor overnight and sweep it up the next day and throw it out. Then set to cleaning up the room, decluttering, throwing out anything that is unneccessary and organizing what is left. I would also take a hand bell and ring it throughout the room to clear the energy . Then next thing I would do is to bring in a plant that best suits the area. A money plant, a pointy leaf plant, a bushy leaf plant - you can look up which is best for the specific area you are clearing. I would also decorate the room to balance the look, trying to represent earth, air, water, fire, metal, and wood.

There are plenty of books and websites to help, the most important tip I would give is to start small, and if you get overwhelmed, do it in small chunks. There are different schools of thought (as with most things) with the bagua map, and which items work best for specific intentions. Do what resonates with you. Most of all, have fun with it. You certainly don't want to be putting frustrated energy into the clearing of your home.

Here are some quick tips:

~ put some sea salt in a small bowl and place in rooms to clear the energy. Throw out salt and replace every 2 months.

~ if you have a water feature like a fountain, fish tank filter, or even a waterfall for a pond you have outside, make sure the water is flowing towards the middle of the house. Water represents money and abundance, you want that energy flowing in, not out.

~ if your bathroom is in your abundance corner, be sure to put stones (pretty decorative ones are available at home stores and maybe even Target or Walmart) in the sink and put the lid down on the toilet when you flush it.

~ fill your bathroom with live plants

~ have fresh cut flowers and plants throughout your home to brighten the energy

~ on your desk, put fresh cut flowers to the left of you and your phone or cell phone to the right of you to bring in more clients, money, abundance, etc.

~ make sure your front door entry (the outside and inside) is clean and free of debris.

~ make sure your back door entry (the outside and inside) is clean and free of debris

~ make sure you can open all doors all the way open, with nothing blocking the way (jackets or robes hanging on hooks or things behind the door)

~ mirrors are great for dark or small rooms, do not place them directly opposite a door or window, avoid mirrors opposite one another, keep mirrors in the bedroom to a minimum, if you have stairs that lead to the front door, put a convex mirror above the door.

~ hang wind chimes by your front door to disperse chi. If the wind doesn't  blow them, make them chime yourself as you walk in and out the door.

Below is a sample diagram of the bagua map that I use from feng-shui-vibes.com:

Good luck and have fun!

Blessings and Love,

Crystal

Reincarnation and Karma ~ March 24, 2013


I have always been one to believe in reincarnation. I don't really know why, it just made sense to me and therefore resonated well with me. I never understood the dynamics of it, but even as a young child I believed that I lived prior lives before. Growing up, I even had "dreams" or perhaps recollections of these prior lives, sometimes as men, sometimes as children, sometimes as older women. I don't know how to explain how these dreams just "felt" different than others, therefore I knew they were glimpses from past lives. I have read about lots of different accounts of reincarnation and watched videos or news reports about people who remembered uncanny facts about their past lives. I even read Edgar Cayce's transcriptions of his recordings regarding past lives and how sometimes the same people would come into a new lifetime with different roles with one another. It wasn't until I started studying Kaballah that I started questioning certain actions and karma and reincarnation. I have always been apt to over think things, and sometimes that makes me skeptical about a lot of things. There have been many occasions where I look at the facts on both sides and honestly don't know what to believe so I walk away with uncertainty about a subject matter. I have had many discussions with well-read and very spiritual people who all have their own theories about reincarnation and karma. When I read about different scenarios of karma and reincarnation in my Kaballah studies, it made me question the cycle of things and why they happen.

Consider the story told in both Yehuda Berg's and Karen Berg's books about a student who asks his teacher about karma. The teacher tells his student that if he wants to learn about karma, to go and sit by the tree across from the bench in the park. The student goes and soon sees a man sit down on the bench with a brown paper bag. The man looks at his watch, quickly gets up, alarmed, and takes off leaving the brown paper bag on the bench. Another man comes along, sees the brown paper bag, opens it up and pulls out wads of money. He is surprised and takes the paper bag and goes running away. A third man comes along and sits on the bench. The first man comes back with a look of worry on his face and starts yelling at the man on the bench and asks him the whereabouts of his paper bag. The third man states he knows nothing about a bag, but the first man beats him up anyway.

The student goes back to his teacher and tells him of the day's events. He tells his teacher that he does not understand what a man losing his money, another man taking what is not his, and a third one getting wrongly accused and beaten for it has to do with karma. The teacher replied, "Ahh, but you see , in a past life the first man stole money from the second man and the third man was the judge who declared the first man innocent."

A good story; however, it leaves me with questions. The first one being: Does this make them all even? Will these men cross paths in a future life and have karmic repercussions that have to do with taking money that does not belong to them and for beating up an innocent man? Does the cycle continue? Who determines when all is even? God? Is there a special angelic committee? Is there reincarnation for every wrong you have ever made in each life and you have to come back to fix them all? Is there an age cutoff when transgressions start to count? If we can ask for forgiveness of our sins, like some religions believe, then do we still have karmic lessons in the next life? I am sure I won't find the answers to these questions while still in our earthly form, but it sure is interesting to ponder these questions. It is for me anyway.

What are your thoughts, Readers?

Thanks for reading my rambling...

Blessings to you,

Crystal

Grief is an interesting topic for me. I know that people grieve differently and that people react to grief differently as well. I have actually started and stopped this blog about grief several times over the last few months
and I am finally ready to finish it. I have often reflected as to why it was so hard for me to write about something so common. We all have dealt with grief; it is part of our human experience. Through the passing of a loved one, a deep loss or disappointment, grief is definitely one of the heaviest feelings that we can have. I think my avoidance of finishing this had to do with avoiding that heavy feeling.

 As a lightworker, I don’t do heavy well. But that is the point that I want to embrace in this blog post. We HAVE to do something about our grief. We HAVE to work through it and look it in the face in order to process it. There are people who like to be alone with their grief and people who like to share with others at their time of sadness. Some people are really good at coming around and being there because of the basic human need to want to “do
something” to help during a crisis, but many times the person who is grieving is not thought about months later when some of the deeper need for healing is happening. Other people are not so good at coming around because they do not know what to do or say or perhaps they do not want to intrude on a private time.

I never seem to know what to do when a friend or colleague of mine is going through grief. I may ask them how they are doing, but if they don’t want to share or are evasive, I don’t pursue the conversation. Perhaps this is because of the way I deal with my personal business. I am a very private person when it comes to serious matters, so I would rather be alone or with my immediate family members at that time. As a result, I really don’t know what to do other than pray when it is someone else who is not immediate family going through grief. 

As a teacher, over the years, I have had students lose a parent and I have had students pass. In the times when I had a student lose a parent, I just held that child as long as I could and cried with him or her. Having students pass is hard. Teachers all call their students their “kids”.Most of us really feel that way too. They are our kids. Most of the time, we don’t have a relationship with the family, so it is hard to do more than give our condolences. Without knowing the family or the dynamics of the family, many teachers want to do more, but are afraid to overstep our boundaries.

 Recently, my niece that was involved in a tragic accident. She and her family were hit by an ambulance that did not have its lights going and it ran a stop sign and hit her at a high speed. She was pregnant and due to be induced in two weeks. She has extensive injuries to both arms, lost a massive amount of blood, and had to have an emergency c-section. The baby died. 

The grief around this is tremendous. It is for her, for us as  family, and for the ambulance driver. Over the past few days, I have witnessed some interesting ways people deal with the grief. Of course, my sister, who is
one of the strongest women I know, was immediately here from Georgia and helping at the hospital. My sister’s sister, who has unfortunately been through a similar horrific accident, also came down. My niece has had her three Aunts,  whom she never has had in the same room, other than a holiday, at the same time
helping her with different things. We all bring separate strengths with us. We joke with her that she now has three witches with separate powers by her side.

During this time, I have noticed how different people are reacting. Coming from a place of no judgment and just observing, I have noticed how this grief has touched certain people. I see it in the hospital staff and doctors that were in the ER and worked on her and the baby. I see it in the way the nurses lovingly deal with her and speak to her. I feel the grief of the ambulance driver every time I tune in to him. He immediately ran over to my niece and got in the truck with her and stayed there until help came. She said he kept apologizing and when she told him she was pregnant he started crying.

Different people are grieving in different ways. There are people who have not shown up to see her at the hospital since she has been conscious, people who really should be there, and there are people who have been there every day with her. There are people she hasn’t seen in a long time coming in to see her. The media
has been ridiculous, but when asking her how private she wanted to keep things, she said that the media already told the world about everything, she just wanted to make sure everybody knew it was not her fault and she did nothing wrong. The poor kid.

Of course, there are the people who tend to say the wrong things.  I think if my niece hears “things happen for a reason” one more time, she may scream. This is part of the process. We talked to her about people coming from
the right place but saying or doing hurtful things and how to cope. She has a lot of healing to do in the days ahead. She still has a funeral to plan for a baby she hasn’t even held.

Grief. I think that prior to this incident, I was not ready to finish this blog because I had not yet come to a conclusion with which I was comfortable. I think that if somebody is grieving, reach out to them. Let them know you care. If you can’t be there, call. Send a card. Send an email. Send a message via another loved one. Say a prayer. Offer to watch the kids, take the dog out. Ask what you can do. Sometimes all there is for you to do is hold space. However, if you feel the need to run away and avoid the situation, reflect on why and come to terms with it; especially if it is an immediate family member that is affected. That person needs you and the other family members do too.

You truly learn a person’s heart and what they are made of when there is a crisis. What is it that you are made of?


Blessings, my friends.


~Crystal

Earlier this week, I read one of those Spiritual quotes about  mind, body, and spirit. Usually, I read those, they touch me briefly, and I move on about my day. This time, however, I started thinking about how important this
trinity is: mind, body, and spirit. I recently started working out again, as I was 14 years ago when I started dating my partner, Frank. Fourteen years ago, I  was working on my body to undo what having two children and not necessarily taking care of myself had done to it. I was very proud of the changes I had made to it and Frank and I shared the love of going to the gym, which is where we met.

Shortly after moving in with Frank, I started working on my mind.  I wanted to go back to school, which I had put on hold after having my second child. I was working at the Post Office, saw how unhappy everyone was there, and decided that at the age of 24, I was WAY too young to look forward to being that unhappy. I volunteered in my daughter’s kindergarten classroom one day a week and decided I wanted to be a teacher. I spent the next four years working on my mind while raising two children active in dance, baseball, soccer, tae kwon do,
and sometimes having to take on an extra part-time job or two. I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Exceptional Student Education (Special Ed.), a Master’s Degree in Reading, a 4.0 gpa, an ulcer, and I was 40 pounds heavier. 

While working as a teacher, I realized how sensitive I was. I had already been reading palms and tarot cards for friends and family as a fun hobby. However, working with children all day had opened up my sensitivity in a
whole new way. I knew things about them without them needing to tell me. I was a natural healer and quickly bonded with my students who needed the most attention. So much so, that I found myself in an intensive reading middle school classroom with 28 of the most behaviorally-challenged students. The administration knew that I had a knack with these students, so I got the ones nobody else wanted. It made for a challenging time. It was no surprise that I ended up teaching at a dropout prevention high school. At this time, I continued to hone my palm and card reading skills and learned Alchemical Healing and became a Reiki master and teacher. I was also working at psychic faires in the area to make extra money. I was working on my spirit.

Here I am now, 14 years later, and I have found myself realizing the importance of keeping mind, body, and spirit in balance. Nobody had taught me that, but if they had, I probably would not have realized the true importance
of it unless I experienced it. I worked so hard trying to grow each one individually, when I should have been working on all of them in tandem. 

Mind is easy enough – study what you love, study your calling so  you can be the best at what you do and serve your clients/customers/boss with 100% quality.


Body – exercising, watching what you eat, listening to your body when it gives you the signs that what you are taking in is not healthy are all fairly simple (yet easy-to-ignore) ways to take to maintain the health of your body.

Spirit, in my opinion, is even more easy to ignore or put to the side than body. If you are not brought up nurturing your spirit, or have religion forced upon you without understanding why it is good for you, your spirit is even easier to ignore. Many of us, including myself, are not brought up to listen and connect with our higher selves (or as many Christians say – “The God in me”). Fortunately, this is an easy fix. Meditation, going to church   (wherever you worship – organized religion, a non-denominational church, the beach, the park), yoga, enjoying nature, spending time with like-minded people, volunteering, reading books, taking spiritual classes, and many others are great ways to connect your spirit.

 How do you keep all of those in balance? I don’t think there is one answer that fits all of us and I don’t think the answer is necessarily easy either. I know firsthand that the balance is important and I am working on that balance. For now, I am waking up a little earlier and exercising with an online exercise program that I found. No excuses about gym fees, the crowd, etc. I get up and exercise before my body knows what I am doing.  I study what I can to grow my business. I take in as many free online classes that I can and pay for the ones that
absolutely call to me. I surround myself with people who are as hard-working as I am and who are fun. I talk to my guides every morning and every night, and sometimes in the middle of the day too. I spend as much time with my family as possible. I practice feeling what I see and seeing what I hear. I listen when my guides speak and I follow with the faith that they are leading me to my highest and best good.

I think I am finally paying attention to mind, body, and spirit at the same time and the energy and changes around me are reflecting so. If I find an easier way, I will let you know. Please do the same for me!

Namaste, my  friends!

Blessings and Love,


Crystal

Hello Everyone!

In honor of Valentine's Day, I wanted to write something about love. When I pictured love, I thought of hearts. When I thought of hearts, I thought of my father. He and my mom recently came to visit and he ended up needing to have two stints put into his heart. Yes, this topic is very far from Valentine's Day, but it is how the thoughts in my mind work. Something like that, but much much faster. At any rate, thinking about my dad's heart procedure got me thinking about how it "just so happened" that he went in for the procedure that I am sure saved his life.

Without going into too much detail (those of you who know me know that I can make a long story quite longer), my dad had been down visiting and had been complaining about how tired he was getting. It was to the point where he couldn't walk from the Walmart parking lot and into the store without stopping. I was concerned because he has a history of heart problems and had previously had a bypass when I was a teenager. I asked him if he would like to see a doctor down here. He said that he would rather wait until he went back home to see his regular heart doctor. I even offered to try to find out at which heart practice one of my clients worked so that he could see somebody that I knew. Again, he said no. I felt like he really needed to go to the doctor, but knowing my father is a little stubborn sometimes, I knew not to force the issue. Instead, I put it out to the Universe.
 
In my prayers that Saturday night, I said, "If my dad is meant to see a heart doctor, please let her (my client) come in so that he can be examined." On Monday, I was at The Mystical Moon and had just finished up a read and walked out into the store. I looked up and the client was there. We exchanged greetings and she said, "I don't know why I am here, but I just felt like I needed to come in." Well I knew! This worried me and excited me at the same time.  She agreed to see my dad in her office the next day, he had tests run right there, which resulted in worrisome results, and he had a heart catherization and two stints put in that Friday, almost a week to the day that I left it up to Spirit to send the heart doctor to him.

I know that this client was listening to her guides when she was led to the store. I believe that if she had not listened, then my father's heart procedure would have been an emergency one rather than an appointment-made one.

There were two very important things that happened to help this situation: 1. I had faith that I did not need to push the issue, I prayed on it, and the prayer was answered. 2. My client listened to her guides and went where she was led. Those two things are very hard to do in life. Sometimes we push and push because we want and feel a specific outcome when all we need to do is wait for the Universe to send us what is for our highest and best good.

That is my Valentine's Day message to all of you. Whatever it is that you are asking for or wanting, of course you can manifest it, but don't place limitations on it even if you "know" what you want. Ask your guides to guide you. And more importantly, listen when they do. Someone's life may depend on it.

Blessings and Love,

Crystal

Hello and welcome to my web site. The purpose of this site is for you to become more familiar with who I am and what I do. Please look around at the different tabs to see the services and products that I offer. I will also be creating blog posts for you to read at your leisure. I love to write and I love to think (sometimes overthink), so don't be surprised if I accidentally write something profound. Ha! 

I am honored that you are taking the time to look through my site. May you always be surrounded with love and light.

If you have any questions about anything that I do please feel free to contact me.

Blessings and Love to you...

Crystal