Spirits: Mediumship in the Modern World
In our weekly Way of the Witch Saturday Social Club a few weeks ago, we started talking about spirits after a guided meditation meant to open our intuitive channels. As we chatted, I saw a spirit walking around a group member’s house. I only saw a shadow, but from that, I knew everything about the spirit. She was an older woman from the early 1900’s and she had a particular type of bun in her hair. I found a picture online that was a reasonable facsimile of the spirit I saw and shared it with my fellow witch. She exclaimed it was her grandmother that I was seeing! I don’t usually talk about mediumship in my daily life, for obvious reasons, but I am a Medium.
I grew up in a haunted house in the suburbs of Los Angeles. The house I grew up in had an interesting history. My house and the house next door had started out as one mansion, built in 1917. They were split into two homes in 1939, and the house, even with its size, always felt severed. And we shared our half of the old mansion with two spirits, both of whom I met as a small child.
The Spirits in my House
When I was 14 years old, something happened that eventually brought me to witchcraft. I was alone in the house, my parents at work and our foreign exchange student out with friends. The old woman in the rocking chair that lived upstairs in my room started talking to me. She usually talked to me at night, asking for a cup of tea or to fetch her book, so I wasn’t afraid. This time I accidentally channeled this spirit. When I came back to my body, I had written a message on the bathroom mirror; her message. I ignored the old woman after that, afraid of what else she could do. It wasn’t until I was 16 that I picked up my first book on witchcraft and protection spells from a store in Santa Monica. That first trip led me to a lifetime of learning and the practice of witchcraft.
If you aren’t lucky enough to just see spirits walking around your house (and I say that with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek), and would like to see and talk to spirits, I have some tips for you.
Remain Open to Spirits
Communicating with spirits takes all of your senses. Don’t force yourself to try to see them. Sometimes they don’t want to be seen. Be mindful of the way a spirit is trying to communicate with you. I once went into my girlfriend’s house and a woman with a strong southern accent started talking. I told my friend that her mother was in the room and was talking to me. She asked me to prove it, and asked her mother a question only she would know the answer to. She never doubted me after that. Please note that you can’t always understand what spirits are trying to say. Some spirits mumble, some speak their native language, some speak very quietly. When you can’t understand, say what you hear anyway, sometimes it helps loosen up the energy.
Be Ready for Surprises from the Spirit World
Speaking of senses, Clairalience is a real, powerful type of intuition. That’s when you can smell a spirit. I could smell the fragrance of my grandmother’s old-fashioned lavender soap in my house after she had passed. A dearly departed friend once let me know she was there by lighting a ghost doobie in my car! With my windows closed and my AC on, my whole car suddenly smelled of marijuana, and our song came on my playlist. So while you may not see them, spirits will let you know they are there.
Share Everything
If you believe you have opened a dialog with a spirit during a reading, make sure to to share everything that you hear and see with those around you. It does not have to make sense to you because the message isn’t for you. Once, during a reading, I received a very clear vision of horses running on a muddy road. A female spirit said “Apples. Tell her apples!” As a psychic reader, I thought she would write me off as a fraud if I said that out loud. But the spirit woman was insistent. So I reluctantly told my client everything that I saw and heard, apologizing for the strangeness of the message. She cocked her head and told me that made perfect sense. It was her aunt who she used to visit on her farm in Washington!
So remember, the message isn’t for you, it is your responsibility to convey all that you see, hear, smell, or taste.
Be Patient
Developing your mediumship, particularly if you would like to “see” the spirits in physical form takes time and practice. It also requires your trust and that you always have protection spells with you, as well as a sense of grounded fearlessness. Be patient with yourself. It took me 16 years before I learned to protect myself, and communicate with intention and I’m still learning patience! My hope for you is that you learn much faster than I did the gifts that come from mediumship.
If you’d like to join our Saturday Social Club, join The Way of Witch Online Community and ask me questions about my experience growing up as a medium, I’m always available for a chat!
