I met Rena through a mutual friend in Northern Virginia.  She wrote the book “The Would Be Medium” and self-published it.  I have always wanted to publish myself, so last year she graciously met me for lunch, told me about her experience and shared some of her favorite writing books.  I really enjoyed reading her book.

Her book is about her experience taking metaphysical classes all over the world with well-known international teachers.  If you are new to this, read her book, because she gives you an idea of what’s out there and what she has learned through her experience.
A year later and now I’m interviewing her for my blog.  Talking with her feels comfortable, like I’m talking to an old friend.  Also she looks at the big picture and I like that! 

SG: Tell me about you and your business.  How did you get started? 

It all started with the publication of my first book in January 2016. From there, I began to write an article each week (blog) on my website sharing additional experiences that aren’t in the book. I hope to inspire others to explore their intuitive abilities.
 
I have a day job, but this year I want to start offering readings and consultations.  I attended three events last year, giving me the opportunity to give readings all day.  I like to call them soul readings now, which was inspired by my friend and mentor Jackie Osborne. Generally speaking, I hold all questions until the end, and don’t like to have any information about my client before the reading. If all goes well, their questions are usually answered during the reading. I draw a diagram out and envision the client’s chakras, going down one at a time, relaying any information that I receive. 

SG: Who are you helping and how?

Right now I primarily assist people through my book or the articles (blogs) on my website. If someone reaches out and asks for a reading, I will give them one. It works really well when we are compatible vibrationally. I have come to realize that I need to be doing this work in order to feel fulfilled.  I can’t just dabble in it anymore. 


SG: Who inspires you?
My friend and mentor  Jackie Osborne. She is an Intuitive Consultant who opened up a new shop in Nyack NY last year called the Open Spirit.  She keeps me moving forward every time I want to throw in the towel.
 
Also, the authors Sanaya Roman and Dwayne Packer inspire me.  They wrote a book called Open to Channel that I read 10 years ago but I didn’t understand it at the time.  Inspired by Jackie, I recently picked it back up and got so much more out of it!  When I was finished, I started Part 1 of their Light Body series. It has been game changing for me. It has allowed me to experience the high vibration that I craved but couldn't find on my own.

SG: What’s the most important thing a teacher or mentor taught you and why?

That this work is not about me, it’s not about us (psychics, mediums, healers, etc.).  It is about being of service to others. It’s definitely not about what serves our ego.

SG: When was the first time you realized you were different, especially spiritually?

I knew from about five years old.  I would hear and see things that nobody else did.  My brother Peter (who since passed) never questioned what I saw or heard.  I always wondered if he had the gift too.
 
SG: When was the first time you decided to find out what your gifts were and how to use them?

In 2004, I got divorced and I had a lot of free time to myself, this is when my gifts came back.  Spirit would not leave me alone! 

SG: If you could give advice to your younger self about your gifts, what would you say?

Own it! Disregard what other people say and explore it and search for answers.

SG: What advice would you give to someone who just discovered their spiritual gifts?

Run at it a hundred miles an hour.  Embrace it.  I would give that person my book (The Would-Be Medium) in hopes that it would demystify the intuitive arts and inspire them to keep going.
 
Don’t worry what other people think.  It’s your journey and it’s about you, not them. 

SG: What part of your gift is your favorite and why?  What is your least favorite and why?

I love talking to Spirit.  I love that I can see them clearly as if they were standing right in front of me.  I being a part of the healing process.  I love communicating with beings that I never knew existed, light beings without form.
 
My least favorite part is that I have to surrender and completely trust that Spirit will be there when I need them. It really is about faith and trust.

SG: What is the funniest thing that happened to you regarding your gifts?

I was in a bar and one of the servers was pregnant.  I had a few beers and I was feeling tipsy and then the baby started talking to me!  Without hesitation I told the pregnant server, your baby wants you to stop smoking because she doesn’t like it.  The mother said, “Oh my God, I will stop!”

SG: Why do you think the Creator gave us these gifts?  And what are we supposed to use them for?

I believe that we have these gifts so that we can realize that we are not alone, or separate from one another.  We are infinite beings, connected like a million tiny lights that originated from a single light source. Life goes by so fast, to use our talents and abilities towards love and healing. 

SG: Why are we here?

We are here to learn to love each other unconditionally.  Until we see ourselves as one, we will remain in this place of separation, pain, and suffering.

SG: What do you wish that people knew or understood the most about you?

I am a spiritual person.  I look at every living thing around us as alive and with feelings. And that I passion for all things metaphysical and paranormal. 

SG: What do you wish the world would know or understand?

You are a small piece of the whole.  We are all one.  Stop judging, blaming and segregating. 

SG: What do you envision the world will be like in the future?

We will be able to communicate telepathically.  There will be no more hunger or war.  We will live in our own personal heaven.  I believe we will make it there, eventually.
 
You can find Rena on her website www.renahuisman.com and you can purchase her book on Amazon.

I had another a-ha moment yesterday, I've been getting a lot of those lately.  What has been working for me is talking with like-minded friends about life and it's leading me to a lot of these aha moments.  So I was inspired to write this blog post, I hope it helps you understand how many of you are healers...just by being who you are!

I realized something about myself and many members of my family, even friends, today.  Many people alive today were born to break a cycle within their families.  Talk about being born healers!  I am not talking about just this lifetime but I am talking about ancestral healing.  Healing that transcends generations. 

What am I talking about?

When I conduct a healing session with a client, I approach it multi-dimensionally.  I understand that you are a soul in a human body and that time is just a construct on Earth.  Only on Earth do we have a past, present and future.  The reality is that everything is happening RIGHT NOW.  So when I receive past life information it’s really “another life” happening right now.  It’s not happening in the past.  Same thing applies to a “future” life that is happening right now.

How can we do all of this? Imagine your soul as being humongous. One day your soul says, “I want to experience something different.  I want to live apart from the Creator.  Everything I learn will be downloaded back to the Creator so he knows what I am experiencing.  In fact, I don’t want just one experience, I want thousands at once.”

And then your soul splits into thousands of pieces into thousands of lives on this planet and many others. 

And you, right now?  You only have a piece of your soul within you.  Knowing this, I understand that there are many lives affecting you right now.  When I conduct a healing session, these lives come up for healing or knowing. 

Now let’s talk about our physical bodies.  We have DNA that we have inherited from our ancestors.  Within this DNA are all of the lessons, experiences and unresolved issues from our ancestors.  What does this mean?  If a lesson was not learned, if healing was not experienced, we carry it down the line generation after generation. 

A few years ago, I had an opportunity to heal something in my ancestral line. I got a chronic sore throat that wouldn’t go away.  After a month of normal medical tests and no relief, I knew that the cause was not a physical one.  It was a symptom of energy blockage, which can stem from another life (“past” life), the current past or your childhood, or a cause related to Spirit.  I saw a healer who told me that one of my ancestors had a “block” put on any descendent who attempted to practice psychic and mediumship healing abilities.  The healer said it wasn’t done malevolently but as a form of protection…because the ancestor had the same abilities and was kicked out of her family for it.  The healer removed the blockage and my sore throat was healed and I continued with my work to this day.

Are you still with me?  I hope so, because this is not easy to explain but the story is so rewarding!

I and every single one of you carry the DNA of our ancestors and whatever does not heal gets carried down from generation to generation.  Here some examples…

1. My mother grew up very poor in the Philippines.  She broke this cycle by not getting married young and not having many children (like her older sisters did), moved to the USA and earned her bachelor’s degree.  She broke that cycle of poverty.  Not only that, she helped most of her brothers and sisters get here too!
2. My father grew up in New England, but also poor.  In addition, his father, my grandfather, was an alcoholic (who knows how many generations back that goes).  My father broke that cycle. Another cycle he broke was the many generations of ancestors who lived their lives in New England going back to 1600s. He moved to New York City and married a Filipino woman.  I mean, how shocking!
3. My friend had a mentally ill mother.  Although emotionally and physically abused as a child, my friend became a very different mother.  She’s nurturing, kind and loving.  She broke the cycle of mental illness and abuse in her family.
4. Another friend has a father with severe hoarding tendencies.  Her home is neat and uncluttered.  She broke that cycle.

You see what I mean?  Have you broken the cycle in your family?  Are there multi-generational problems in your family that stops with you?

YOU ARE A HEALER.

You might not realize it but we are playing roles.  Perhaps your mother brought all the worst family traits into her life right now so that you could be born with the ability to heal THEM ALL.

Amazing right?
​
You are a healer and you broke the cycle!

Kasia and I are members of the same Facebook group Soul Savvy Entrepreneurs.  I made an offer to anyone in the group that I would be happy to interview them.  Kasia said yes :)

SG: Describe you and your business.  How did you get started? 

The Universe’s frying pan whacked me on the head. My first job was very logical and soul sucking.  Then I started to do art and language work.  I trained in linguistics, Reiki and Hawaiian spiritual practices. It was a journey of self-discovery that didn’t come naturally to me.

SG: Who are you helping and how?

I teach what I learned. 

I am an Intuitive that excels in helping women help themselves.  I remove the energetic imprints of trauma and toxic stories from their bodies.  I then channel a piece of art for them and I call it the Soul Tattoo which captures their purest essence. 

My art inspiration came to me suddenly.  I would be driving the car and all of sudden see these images and I couldn’t drive anymore.  I had to stop and write them down.  Now I take the time to connect and receive these images safely in my own space. 

SG: Who inspires you?

My husband, who has a good sense of who he is and gets stuff done.  My two children, who are so patient and they are really raising me.  The musician Bryan Adams, because I love his work.  Wayne Dyer because he was my first mentor and taught me how to help myself.  And finally, Oprah, because she gives to others and knows how to receive as well. 

SG: What’s the most important thing a teacher or mentor taught you and why?

To love myself more and not less.  Life is hard because we withhold love from ourselves. Be kinder to yourself. 

SG: When was the first time you realized you were different, especially spiritually?

As a child, I knew I had some gifts but I shut it down.  I was born in Poland, which is a very Catholic country.  Life caused my gifts to be hidden and forgotten.  Clairvoyance is my strongest gift; I can see angel wings around people. 

SG: When was the first time you decided to find out what your gifts were and how to use them?

I discovered my gifts again after my daughter was born 13 years ago.  I suffered from postpartum depression.  It took me 10 years to heal and feel safe.  Now I’m enjoying myself and creating art. 

SG: If you could give advice to your younger self about your gifts, what would you say?

I would buy myself a chai latte and insist that I love myself.  Love more not less.  You can’t be sad enough to make someone happy, you have to be whole. 

SG: What advice would you give to someone who just discovered their spiritual gifts?

Take your time.  You don’t have to start a business or help people right away.  Have fun with it.  It’s not a burden.  Enjoy the gift and take your time then the path will be revealed to you.  If you force it, it will shrink and disappear.  This kind of work reminds you that you are whole.  Stay grounded. 

SG: What part of your gift is your favorite and why?  What is your least favorite and why?

First, I love the flowing energy and how people can feel it. Source flows through me and the static clears.  Second, I never know what my art will turn out like.  I actually have a hard time giving my artwork away, and my clients pay for them!  Third, it’s fun!

My least favorite part is the pressure I put on myself to figure out and do the business end.  The challenge is to take my beautiful gift and put it in the “business box.” 

SG: What is the funniest thing that happened to you regarding your gifts?

When the images for my art started to come through, I would be doing things like brushing my teeth and get the message to “stop now.”  It would happen at the weirdest times. 

SG: Why do you think the Creator gave us these gifts?  And what are we supposed to use them for?

Now is the time to have fun.  Play with energy and see what it feels like.  You are supposed to share your gift with others.  Humanity needs our gifts.

SG: Why are we here?

We’re here to experience ourselves in this form. Spirit made the physical, it’s just as good as the spirit form, and it’s the same. 

SG: What do you wish that people knew or understood the most about you?

There’s no one way to be.  I am a science and spirit geek.  What you see is what you get.  I am an open book.  I have to be me. 

SG: What do you wish the world would know or understand?

It’s OK to love more.  You don’t have to be on guard.  Love is so much stronger than fear.  If you want the President of the US to work on behalf of love, send him love.  Love it and let it go. 

SG: What do you envision the world will be like in the future?

It will be a good place, especially if you have the courage to be non-conformist.  The tide has already turned.  The world is going to be OK, once small choice at a time. 
​
You can contact Kasia on her website www.kasiarachfall.com
 

I met Marianna on a Facebook Group called Savvy Soul Entrepreneurs.  I am always fascinated by other mediums and psychics because our process and approach can vary. The fun part about interviewing people like Marianna is, they give you little tidbits about you as the interview progresses.  Like at one point she stopped and said, did you know were were Oracles in Greece together?  Why no, but that sounds like fun! :) 
​
SG: Describe you and your business.  How did you get started? 

I’m from Belarus, the Old Republic of Russia, where the Nazis invaded. 

I am a Psychic Medium that can communicate with all spirit.  I am also an empath, healer, reader of past lives, I can lift curses, and perform psychopomp (move lost spirits into the light). I also make and sell jewelry.  

I started my business Buddha Light Blessings three years ago.  I’ve been communicating with spirit my whole life.  I offer an on line course called “Releasing the Fear,” with more to come, like the Abundance of Ariel. 

SG: Who inspires you?

The Buddhas and the Temple that I am a member of inspires me.  The Buddhas were there to welcome me at the Temple.  The Temple is secret and based on Chinese teachings.  I attend Dharma classes there.

Three years ago I got thyroid cancer and after that I was blessed in the Temple I was healed.  The energy through my throat chakra was not flowing. 

SG: What’s the most important thing a teacher or mentor taught you and why?

I don’t take classes or read books for my training; it would muddy the waters, so to speak.  I just know.  I follow Doreen Virtue, James Prague and Louise Hays. 

SG: When was the first time you realized you were different, especially spiritually?

I was a weird child and my grandmother told me to stop using my gifts.  From age 11 to 26, I was closed to Spirit and I had a lot of health problems as a result.

SG: When was the first time you decided to find out what your gifts were and how to use them?

I have always used my gifts.

SG: If you could give advice to your younger self about your gifts, what would you say?

Open up sooner and don’t be afraid to use your gifts.  I could’ve helped so many people and avoided being sick.  Pay attention; don’t study business but psychology instead. 

SG: What advice would you give to someone who just discovered their spiritual gifts?

Protect and ground yourself.  Ask that divine beings place a protective light around you.  Connect to heaven and earth.  There are good and bad spirits.  Call Athena for protection.

SG: What part of your gift is your favorite and why?  What is your least favorite and why?

My favorite part changes, but I love talking to Spirit.

My least favorite part is the demonic spirits.  One time I saged a business and didn’t notice that there was a demon on the property.  It followed me home and things started to go wrong.  I will never make that mistake again.  In retrospect, I should have scanned the area first before saging it and once seeing the demon just left.  I prayed to the Buddhas and they removed it from me. 

SG: What is the funniest thing that happened to you regarding your gifts?

When I was a college advisor, one day a bee entered the office. Not meaning to, I said out loud “get out of here, bee” and it left.  People were stunned.  The student I was advising quickly left.

SG: Why do you think the Creator gave us these gifts?  And what are we supposed to use them for?

We EARNED these gifts from many lifetimes of work and practice.  We came here with a mission and a vow.  Our lives don’t go right if we don’t follow our vows. 

SG: What do you wish that people knew or understood the most about you?

I am genuinely here to help. People need to allow me to go with the flow because I forget the details [When receiving information from Spirit, it’s easy to forget it unless you write it down]. 
​
SG: What do you wish the world would know or understand?

Energy and how it works.  How your thoughts manifest so quickly.  We can change the universe.  Be consistent!

For lightworkers out there, we took a “vow of poverty” in the past and that’s why we struggle to make money doing what we love.  We have to believe we are worthy. 

SG: What do you envision the world will be like in the future?

The economy will get better because of our current president.  His mindset changed and shifted around the time he was elected and he’s going in a different direction. 

You can contact Marianna by visiting her Facebook page www.facebook.com/groups/buddhalightblessings or her website http://mariannaysmith.com/

Jerrod Reader aka Papa Hood is a self-described sorcerer.  I met Jerrod in the now defunct Facebook Group Modern Mystics.  Every week, we had a featured mystic and one week Jerrod was featured.  He practices a lot of magic that I hadn’t even heard of before.  Even now, talking with him I don’t ask him a lot of questions about the different orders because there seems to be a lot.

Although I am a Medium/Healer and Jerrod is a Sorcerer, a lot of the work we do overlaps.  In the end, we are just practicing Mystics here to welcome the dawn of a New Age on Earth.

SG: How did you come up with your business name?

Every picture I posted in social media had me with my hood up, as a result my friend called me Mr. Hood.  Papa is a title I earned, so I called my business Papa Hood. 

SG: Describe your business.  How did you get started? 

After watching the movie Dungeons and Dragons at age 11, I said to myself, ”I wish I knew how to do magic.”  My mom bought me two magic books.  I did more research and read many books.  I couldn’t discuss my interests in magic with anyone because I lived in a conservative area.  Essentially I practice Wicca without the religion and focused on ceremony and ritual.  At 15 I got a computer and started networking with others on line.
 
A sorcerer is not a priest nor am I religious.  I make my own symbols and use them. 

My current business is actually my third.  I have the reputation as the guy that will help people, mainly through spells and rituals. 

SG: Who inspires you?
​
Two of my mentors, Jason Miller, who runs a sorcery business and wrote a book that was a foundation for me.  He does sorcery full time and I am inspired by him.  The other mentor is Clifford Alford who is a Tibetan Shaman and Sorcerer. 

What’s the most important thing a teacher or mentor taught you and why?

There is no cookie cutter service.  Everything, including the spells that I do, has to be tailored to that person. 

SG: When was the first time you realized you were different, especially spiritually?

I started at the age of 12, but I didn’t get a real feel for it till the following year.  I read the book Cults of the World and that opened my eyes to the sorcery world.  My mother was open to it but she was religiously conservative. 

SG: When was the first time you decided to find out what your gifts were and how to use them?

I did spells for myself for a long time.  In my late teens, I started working with a group that now no longer exists.  Using their techniques, I started to affect others by helping and healing people.  I can practice divination on past, present, future and create bindings/curses.  As for the latter, I try to discourage clients from cursing anyone because this creates a karmic debt upon them, not on me.  

SG: If you could give advice to your younger self about your gifts, what would you say?

I would follow certain paths sooner, like the Aghori path.   I would avoid certain people and orders.  I would stick with it and keep practicing.  It’s become such a central part of my life…I am always doing a reading, writing or talking about sorcery. 

SG: What advice would you give to someone who just discovered their spiritual gifts?

Don’t lock yourself into a single system yet, there’s hundreds maybe thousands of magic systems.  Learn the techniques and do your research.  Experiment and find what works best for you.  Follow your intuition and heart and make it personal to you. 

SG: What part of your gift is your favorite and why?  What is your least favorite and why?

My personal favorite is being able to grasp and understand complex subjects from books and put them into words that others can understand.  I am good at teaching magic.  Also I love doing divination because it helps others.  I focus on the present over the past.  The tools I use are Tibetan dice, the Tarot, and wands. 

I'd say my least favorite part is being able to know what will happen to others if they take certain paths and not being able to stop it if they aren't willing to listen.

SG: What is the funniest thing that happened to you regarding your gifts?

Three and half years ago I was alone, living like a hermit.  I had been working with the goddess Aphrodite and I asked her to bring someone into my life in the next three days or I will just live alone.  I actually met the mother of my son within three days.  I am certainly not alone anymore. 

SG: Why do you think the Creator gave us these gifts?  And what are we supposed to use them for?

Everyone has hidden psychic potential.  We were placed here to be the torch bearers and guide people into an open age.  People are more accepting and open, people are marching! 

SG: Why are we here?

To worship the creator and follow his path and bring glory to him.  We are also here to get in touch with our own divinity and become our own gods.  We are equal to God. 

SG: What do you wish that people knew or understood the most about you?

I am not doing this work for the money, but to offer my talent to the world.  I put a price tag on it to reach more people, it’s about helping others.

SG: What do you wish the world would know or understand?

Darkness doesn’t suppress darkness and hate doesn’t suppress hate.  We need to accept others for their beliefs and practice the core belief of love your neighbor and God. 

SG: What do you envision the world will be like in the future?

If we continue with the bloodshed, I envision a world devolving back to where religious leaders are in charge.

There will be some rough patches.  People may not like it, but the only way we can get along is freedom of religion, lack of judgement and acceptance of each other. 

You can contact Jerrod by visiting his webpage www.papahoodsorcery.com or joining his Facebook group the Order of the Thorn.