Another all female week, in fact, if we continue at this rate we’ll become a closed group by default.

‘Before you get comfortable I want you all to go outside and pick a leaf from the garden,’ Mary instructed us. So off we trundled spreading out like hunter dogs across the garden, and returned with our catch which most of us placed under our chairs.

After a brief opening prayer which was the task of our newest member, Mary launched into our first exercise, colour ribbon reading. It’s an exercise we’ve done before and I wasn’t too fazed when I had to go first.

Although we had been paired up using Mary’s crystal colour coding, we had to give the reading in front of the whole group. My partner was the newest member, and I was grateful because I knew very little about her.

She choose a turquoise strip. Because I’d also seen her leaf which was a very delicate multi-fronded acer one I was already aware that she was a multi-faceted person, and as turquoise links to creativity I felt on pretty safe ground to tell her she was very creative in several different areas.

I’m also becoming a little more confident to use what I know of things like body language to do readings. Also using my NLP training is becoming easier because I’m not as tense about actually giving a message. If nothing else these circles have helped to build my confidence in using all the skills I already have, in addition to the new ones I’m learning.

I picked up on her perfectionist nature, her unwillingness to ask for help because everyone perceives her as being very strong and not needing any. There were other things too, one of which must have come to me spiritually because I couldn’t work out how I knew.

When it came to my turn I choose orange, and was the only one that hadn’t chosen a colour that I was wearing.

I was pretty impressed by her reading, given that she also knew very little about me. Other readings also demonstrated degrees of accuracy.

Our next task was to do a reading for each other using the leaves we’d picked. I worked with a different partner. I’d heard it was possible to do a reading from a leaf – in fact from anything – so was quite interested to see what I would make of the very floppy leaf my partner handed me.

That was the first thing I used in her reading, the fact that she was feeling a little wilted, but that it was of her own doing as she had difficulty with delegating.

As she’s one of the more established members of the group I was very pleased when she said,

‘You’re definitely getting better,’ and continued to repeat this at intervals as I proceeded with the reading.

‘Looking at the way the veins go to the edge of the leaf. I’d say you’re a completer finisher. You like to see a job through. But looking at the number of veins I’d say you often take on too much and get frustrated with yourself because you can’t complete them to the standard you want. Or you try and do them and wear yourself out.’

‘You’re definitely getting better,’ she said emphatically.

‘Looking at the way this leaf comes to a sharp point I’d say that your tongue can be very sharp sometimes. Your words can be very cutting.’

‘I’m working on that,’ she said. ‘I’m learning to just let some things be, not take them personally, and just let people carry on with their foolishness.’

‘I’m not sure how to say the next thing…’ I hesitated.

‘Just say it as it comes,’ she encouraged.

‘Well, the shape of this leaf is your natural shape; the weight you’re carrying is not you.’

‘Oh my God, do you know I never used to be this big. I’ve just agreed to start a new diet on Monday. I’m going to be eating…’

‘Actually what I’m seeing is that you don’t need to diet. What you need to do is focus on the things you want to do and have fun doing them. Don’t take on too many things and get frustrated and eat a result. Do things that you really enjoy and you will raise your vibration to a very high level. When you’re in that state your body will regulate itself. That’s part of the problem with diets. People get so focused on food that they forget to enjoy themselves, and the more they focus on their weight the more of a battle they have with food.’

‘So are you saying don’t focus on the diet?’

‘Yes. I used to be three stones heavier than I am now, and used to diet all the time. You know –  the classic yo-yo diet. It would come off, and then go on again. Then I noticed that it was when I was unhappy that it went on. It took a while but I re-programmed my brain, and now my weight is pretty constant.’

It was time to switch over and for her to read my leaf.

‘There are five major projects you’re working on at the moment, and looking at this tiny hole in this part of the leaf I would say that one of them is not going as well as you’d like, but it’s only a little hiccup.’

‘Only five?’ I joked.

‘Major ones,’ she said.

‘You’re quite a balanced person, but you too need to look after your energy,’ she said as she held the leaf between both her hands. Then she appeared to go off issues to do with the leaf.

‘September is important to you. So is October this year. And July is very important, especially the 7^th.

‘Yes, all of those make sense. My birthday is in September, I’m taking a trip in October and I’ve been trying to make up my mind whether to go to an event on the 6^th or 7^th of July,’

‘Go on the 7^th,’ she said empathically.

Because we’d run over on my reading to her, we had to stop there as Mary was calling us back.

We shared our experiences in the large group. Four of us carried out the exercise; the other two had a deep and meaningful discussion instead. The other pair also had a lot of success with their leaf reading.

Just before we closed someone asked if we could all just pull one card. Mary got a pack and spread them on the floor.

Mine was SEDNA – Infinite Supply. All your needs are taken care of for today and all of your tomorrows. I smiled.

Have you done any leaf reading? Can you see anything else in these leaves?