February 10^th 2013 (Thursday)

Tonight I learned that a reading can be given using any and everything, including crumpled paper and flowers.

It was unusually quiet for a Thursday, in fact only five of us plus Greg the facilitator showed up for our regular meeting with spirit at Oak House. On account of the low numbers, and at the request from one of the group, we did a practical session, akin to the Monday ones.

Greg said the best way to connect with spirit is through meditation, but accepts that some people want to practice the art of giving readings to others. After our opening prayer he said we could have a go with cards, but before we did that he demonstrated how you can give a reading from a flower.

Picking a long stemmed artificial poppy from a vase he showed how the three open blooms at varying heights could represent decades in a person’s life, or relationships, or children. If children, the two that were still in bud could represent unborn children, either in spirit or yet to come.

The foliage and flowers started halfway up the stem. If the whole flower from stem to tip of bloom represents the person’s life this could show that his/her life didn’t really take off till midway through. For example a forty-year-old’s life would have taken off at about twenty. If representing children it could show at what age they had or lost children, etc. I was spell-bound (if you’ll excuse the pun) because I could see the applications of this for writing workshops. Whole characters could be created from a flower, with believable back stories. Imagine what you could do with a bouquet – a whole dynasty.

‘Do we have any paper?’ he asked and suddenly began looking around. I thought he was going to ask us to write something down, similar to our activity with Mary in Session 7. But no. He crumpled a sheet of plain white A4 paper and told us it was possible to do a reading from it. I think the look of disbelief on one or two faces prompted his to ask us all to crumble paper. Maybe I was still looking sceptical because he took my piece of paper and proceeded to give me a reading, pointing out things that are very true and relevant in my life at the moment.

‘How?’ I wanted to know. He beckoned me to take the seat beside him and showed me the creases and indentations that looked like pictures to him.  Using his intuition and his understanding of his symbology he was able to make sense of my life. The point he was trying to make was that the messages do not come from the prop you are using, they come from spirit, and therefore any prop will do. We all develop a preference – but in the absence of a prop, if we really tune in to what spirit is trying to tell us we don’t need anything. And to be honest, some of my best readings have come from people who don’t use props. But I guess this is after years of experience and total trust. He did one other reading before saying, ‘Now you all get a chance to have a go.’ And have a go we did, with very surprising results.

On my partner’s paper I saw a face with sunken eyes and a very sad frown. My thought were that it was a very unhappy looking ghost but I didn’t know how to say this to her. This is something I’ve yet to learn. How to formulate statements positively and ask questions sensitively to make sense of what I’m seeing.

I first described the face then asked, ‘Have you had someone die recently?’

My partner sort of nodded, but to me it looked like she’d lost more than one person and wasn’t sure which I meant.

‘Is it a man or woman?’ she asked.

As soon as I said ‘man’ I knew it was the wrong answer, and desperately wanted to change it so it would fit. But we have been warned against this. We must go with what we get, even if it doesn’t make sense to the person at the time. If we swap and change we will never learn to trust, and that’s what it’s all about.

I got a few more little wins by using a side of the paper to represent her coming year. The folds represented where things would not go as smoothly as she’d wish and the straight edges when they would. According to her scrunched paper she’s in for a good summer.

As I became a little more confident I saw an aeroplane, a sea-horse and furrows on the face’s brow. I surmised the aeroplane meant travel but didn’t know if it was her going somewhere or someone coming to her. Hadn’t a clue what the sea-horse meant and the furrowed brow was actually saying ‘don’t be sad at my passing.’

‘OK let’s have a go with the cards now.’ Greg called the exploration of folds and creases to an end.

We changed partners and my partner and I worked with a set of angel affirmation cards. I felt much more at home with them. Maybe it was because I’m used to using cards, or because I’d gained some confidence from the paper exercise (if you’ll excuse the pun), but I was able to give a very meaningful account of the card for her.

‘In the summer I’ll show you how to read fresh flowers, how to read shrubs, and how to read leaves.’ Greg said. Roll on the summer.