Not all psychics, fortune tellers, healers, or tarot readers in this new age era are really out to help you as much as they are out to take your money. The following are some of the things you should watch out for when you are looking for guidance, advice, and/or spiritual healing (this could even apply to those who seek to apprentice themselves to an experienced psychic or healer).
When you are seeking help, guidance or healing from someone
and the issue of what their services are comes up, please watch out for the
following warning signs. If they insist that you need to spend more money than
you are comfortable with to get the help you are looking for, step back from
the situation and think about it. If that means saying you'll come back
another time, that's just fine. Whenever you become uncomfortable about
something always stop, give yourself time and space from the person's
influence, and think about what it is you are really looking for. For
example, say you walk into a shop and it says palm reading $5 on the
door. You might think to yourself, "Well, I have an extra $5 why don't I
go for it, it might even be fun!" So you walk into the shop and tell the
reader what you want. The reader looks at you and maybe fiddles with
something that looks interesting or arcane in his/her shop, and then informs
you that you really need something other than what you came in for because her
spirits, guides, or your aura told him/her so. Don't get sucked into buying something you did not even come
in for. It is expected that you know basically nothing about fortune telling,
and that is what will be used against you. If they do not have information
available for you to browse about their business, testimonies from their
clients, or if it is live and they won't even sit down and explain their
business and abilities, leave. The same applies for on line, even without
'in the same room' contact the psychic after your wallet and not your well
being can try to impose more on you than you wanted. 
One of the
most common ways scamming psychics and healers can try to
talk you out of your money is to force your dependence upon them by making you
scared. This is called coercion, and it is a sure fire sign of a
"psychic" or con artist without any ethics. These are the most common and
the most dangerous infiltrators of the psychic community--unfortunately they
give all of us a bad rap. Let's look at things realistically. We
all want to be better than we are inside and outside. Anyone who sits
there exploiting your vulnerabilities and flaws to tell you that you are cursed
or doomed is playing upon human nature and the human psyche. That is not
the invocation of psychic powers. It's merely tormenting someone by
playing with common fears. If you are overweight, the psychic tells you
that you want to lose weight (WELL DUH!), but unless you let him/her guide you
or heal you you'll never improve. That is stating the obvious and turning
it against you to trap you into another uncomfortable situation. Other
common themes are "happiness" and "love." Unless you let me guide
you/heal you you'll never be truly happy or you'll never find love etc.
Those are horrible things to say to someone! Even if you tell yourself it
doesn't matter, you may think about it sometimes and wonder and worry if it's
true. Not because you are weak, but because that is what people tend to
do. Scammers know that and they know that is what will drive you back to
them. Then they charge outrageous sums of money (I mean several hundred
to thousands of dollars!) which you sadly pay because of your mental
distress. If ANYONE you are going to for guidance tells you that you are
cursed or doomed to be unhappy, alone, unsuccessful or unattractive unless you
let them guide/heal you (for a hefty price), get out of there
fast!
We can fulfill our own prophecies, and if we believe anything strongly enough, good or bad, that is what we make happen. If you think you are cursed, it really will look like you are having some awful luck because you'll be fixated on what goes wrong. If you tell yourself that spending $2000 for an aura cleansing made you all better, you will probably focus more on the positive; therefore, it will look like it worked. You have more control over you than anyone else, save of course, the Divinity you believe in. (Trust yourself and/or trust your Higher Power in the fact that unless you are so dismayed that you really believe you deserve to be the victim of a curse, which only makes you seem cursed, you are NOT cursed!)
If you believe in magick and you truly
think people can or do curse you, consider it from the angle that magick is the
manipulation of the power and vibrations around us. Focusing upon the
'vibes' and directing them to harm or help another is in some sense a play of
will and faith. Your own will and faith can overcome the influence of
another's. If you don't want to recover from something that made you
sick, no amount of magick or medicine is going to make you better. But,
if you find that someone else truly sought to harm you with magickal influence,
feel free to participate in whatever it is that will make you feel protected
(which could be as simple as emotionally charged prayer). Your protective
ritual is your way of reimposing your will and faith upon the energy around you
thereby taking the influence away from the other party. In other words,
you can keep your money and fix the 'curse' yourself. Besides the fact
that anyone who spends their time and energy trying so hard to hurt others is
going to be victimized by their own projected hate in the end anyway.
:)
Another quasi scam which I have casually observed seems to be
the naming of spirits or guides which aid the psychic with his/her
readings. Now, in my personal experience, I believe if we open ourselves
up there are truly spiritual influences that help us. How else could I
feel and understand or see and hear what someone in Australia is going through
while I'm in California? Granted, that could be written off as just a lot
of coincidence or the unity of the human spirit (meaning all people pretty much
go through the same stuff no matter where they are), but I prefer to take less
credit for myself as merely an intuitive person and belief that some of the
information comes from a source outside of myself. However, the naming of these
spirits with accepted figures of great importance is something that bothers me,
and I would ask those who seek out psychic guidance and advice to keep this in
mind. If someone tells you that they are channeling God, I mean THE GOD
you might want to back away slowly and head for the door or click that chat
room closed!
When someone says they are channeling or receiving information from the Divine Creator of the universe (be it by whatever God and/or Goddess name you believe in who is/are the Originator/s of creation), it puts whatever they say in a context of absolute truth. That's not quite fair or even terribly reasonable. We're humans and there is no way we can understand with all of our limitations fully what a God or an Angel knows. We may get part of the story or a metaphor or a picture, but never the absolute, universal, irrefutable truth. If someone tells you that they're chatting about you with God and you need to do everything they say (e.g. give them all your money or perform such and such services for them), I suggest you just get away from them before you become guilty (as those with a strong religious background might) and feel that maybe you should believe it.
Part of the above also applies to those who talk to Angels. I am not saying they are not really talking to Angels, in fact, I hope they are :) But, our naming of spirits is really just our limited human way of applying parameters around something greater than ourselves. Angels are well known because we have stories about them and what their different abilities are, same thing with Saints, so if the spirit who comes to help has those attributes which we can understand in the context of an Angel story or Saint story, it makes sense that that is what they would be called. If the spiritual guidance makes us feel good, we want to equate them with something we think is equally good like an Angel or Saint. Whether that is what they truly are or not, I honestly don't think any of us can know for 100% certain as long as we are mortals in the physical realm (that is what faith is for).
These are just my personal feelings, but
I think we all have spiritual guides and they will come to us in the form that
we are consciously able to handle the best. They could be animal totems,
Angels, Saints, departed friends and loved ones, or simply beings which
we consider spirits that aren't really named or given a 'face' as we normally
consider it. I wanted to mention this simply because I don't think you
should let the name of the psychic's guidance make you believe they are "more
true" (e.g. because Michael is such an important Angel in the Bible) than
someone who considers their guide to be a dolphin. What matters is how
the psychic interprets the information the guide shows/tells them and how it
applies to you. :)
Now for what most of you may have been skimming down the page
for, the commentary on
which so many of my clients are looking for.
I'll start by giving a cut and paste of a letter I wrote to a client when she
asked me about her "soul mate:"
"I wish you luck with your endeavor, but please I must warn you for the sake of my own consciousness. Soul mate is a catch phrase now a days...soul mate...and 'issues' are probably the most pop culture words in our psychoanalytical lives. I'm going to ask you not to buy into it. I don't know if our souls are one unisex entity before we are born and then severed male and female as we come into the world (which is what the term soul mate implies). But, I do believe in a form of the Jungian theory (on male and female relationships) that we can seek out our Anima (female counter part) or our Animus (male counter part) in this world. I do not believe that there is only ONE Anima or Animus for each person. The Anima or Animus is but an external projection of our own complimenting male or female half that exists in our mind. If I am an indecisive female, then I would hope to find a decisive male to help "balance me out." If I am a giving male, then I need to find an accepting female who can appreciate and reciprocate all that I would have to offer. I hope it is clear what I'm getting at:) In other words, we search for personality types which compliment or mirror our own attributes and needs. So, never ever limit yourself!!!
No matter what
anyone tells you, including me, take it with a grain of salt.
In a universe so great and
vast, which is possibly limitless, I hate to think
there is only one person who
can make you feel complete :) Think about it . . . "
I cannot help but worry when I receive request after request of people wanting to know about something they call a "soul mate" and the tragic exclamations that they will die without them. NO! That's not the point people! Whoever came up with the term soul mate was probably using it to poetically express great love for someone who suited him/her very well. That's fine and that's great, and I know the bible alludes to the idea that if you keep yourself on the right path the right man or woman is going to be there waiting for you (again that is really just a form of poetry). Poetry and poetic ideas, when the poetry is well done, express our highest thoughts and feelings, but we are NOT meant to live life as a perfect yet static poem. You are NOT doomed if you do not marry the person who you think was just right for you. There are a lot of people who could be just right for you, after you get used to them.
Anyone outside of ourselves takes getting used to, even if it feels it came naturally all that was was a smooth period of adjustment. When you are going to buy a pair of shoes that fit nicely in the store, don't you notice that they fit EVEN BETTER once they adjust over time to the curves and impressions of your feet? Anyone who tells you that they know who your soul mate is 100% for sure and will be able to tell you or hint at it, hence, keeping you coming back and paying for more information over and over is just scamming you! This is one of the most popular scams maybe just shy of the curse scam. I understand that everyone wants a "soul mate," but honestly and you all should rationally know this--a relationship is what YOU make it. If you are with someone a psychic told you was your soul mate, then something happens and you break up, what do you do with yourself? Most fall into despair. Some even contemplate suicide! This is awful, and even worse than being told you are cursed because you feel like there is no hope left for you or reason to go on and keep trying. You get ideas stuck in your head like there is no way you could be happy without this person, and that no other relationship could ever measure up to your "soul mate." At this point Red Lights should be An ethical psychic will advise you to also find strength and independence in yourself and not live or die for Mr. or Ms. Right.
The eternal wanting of a an unobtainable perfection is what is driving you crazy and making you full of grief. Any collection of Spenserian or Shakespearean sonnets on unrequited love could probably mirror your depths of despair and praise for what you do not have. Again we are talking about the stuff of poetry. The highest written forms of thoughts and feelings are not supposed to be your everyday life. They are normal things to feel on occassion and clearly have been felt by humans many generations before you and will continue to be felt by humans many generations after you, yet it does not appear to be an emotionally healthy thing to experience every single day. You are looking for someone who completes you, and honestly there is more than one person who could :) If you think there is only one, you cut yourself off from a lifetime of growth and experience which could have made you a wiser and better person. Please don't do that to yourself:) So many seem bent on snagging that one man or woman to the point that they are blind to life, they forget to live! There is more to life than trying to be with someone romantically. Yes, it is nice and wonderful, but it's not everything. For people who are together who feel like they are each other's soul mates that's great, but really what has happened is two people, whose personalities and lifestyles compliment each other have gotten used to each others quirks and love each other so much that the annoying stuff does not really bother them. They may consider each other their soul mate instead of their psychologically projected Anima or Animus, and that's fine, it's a cute catch phrase. Catch phrase is the key term though. If they ever were to divorce or one of them passes on, the other should not give up on life and hope. Every relationship will be different, and it will never be like it was. That is just reality. Accept that and learn to be accepting within a relationship where things aren't as perfect as you like to think they should be, and you will probably find one of your "soul mates" aka Anima or Animus. :)
Just one more thought upon this subject for those who believe they are with their soul mate or have their soul mate in their life but are still overcome with doubts and questions, consider the following. If there was such a thing as soul mates (the severed hermaphrodite soul reuniting in corporeal form), none of these things (like marriage, divorce, break-ups, love and faithfulness) would be a question! They would just be the ideal. That is why it is not what you think. In the scheme of reincarnation, your technical "soul mate" (or person you interact with every lifetime) could be your mortal enemy in this lifetime or your sister. They will not always be your lover/spouse. Yes, there are people who are meant to be together because they are compatable, but it is not carved in irrefutable, immortal stone. There is always a QUESTION somewhere! Even in "perfect" marriages there are questions. You need to learn to be content and accepting with your imperfect self and your imperfect partner (or partner-to-be), so you can work things out between the two of you and become 'almost' perfectly happy :)
Although I am somewhat retired from tarot reading, as I only do it on occassion now, I keep this site up on the Internet because I continue to get letters about this essay that I wrote so many years ago. It is as true now as it was then. I am amazed by how many people have gone through these same experiences. My hope is that others will continue to find the sense of self and will to say no to these con-artists that exploit someone else's natural fears and concerns for their own profit.
-- Sherlyn
NOTE: These are my personal thoughts, observations, and logical arguments. Please read them as such, and any copying or posting of this material elsewhere needs to be first approved by me and to cite that it came from Sherlyn owner of Tarot Readings by Sherlyn with the page's URL linked banner or mini banner.
Please use this banner for your link:
The Midi is "Transcend Me" by Jonathan Bakert