Notes on reading books and people

I grew up an enthusiastic reader, and spent many happy hours with my nose in a book.

I’m grateful to have had parents who encouraged my love of reading, and had it for themselves too. Our house was a home filled with books and permission to create. From the beginning, reading books sparked my curiosity and sense of wonder, as well as my creativity.

As a child, reading was my refuge, an escape, adventure, and a way to learn about the world I couldn’t see in person yet. The characters in my favorite books became my friends, and through reading these stories, I found parts of myself that weren’t necessarily validated or welcomed in my everyday life. I felt seen when I read these stories, and reading them helped me imagine how I could live my life.

I fell in love with libraries at a very young age. It was amazing to me that I could walk into this place, pick out books to read, and after showing my library card, be entrusted with these valuable objects for weeks. It was so exciting to discover a new author and try new genres - if I’d had to buy all of these books I would not have expanded my reading interests so widely. Even as a young girl, I knew to read books written by women, perhaps preparing myself to own my own female voice as I grew to adulthood.

One of my favorite characters was Pippi Longstocking, who helped me see what it could be like to own my space as a girl growing up in a rigid sexist culture. I was in awe of how she didn’t need to explain herself or apologize for simply being, she had permission to exist and be weird. I wanted that permission for myself.

But the very best thing that reading gave me was a burning curiosity, a sense of wanting to know - so much. Why this, and how that? I would read to understand, to know, to disappear into a story. Stories still make me ache, feel, laugh, and wonder.

Reading energy as a clairvoyant

Being a conscious practicing clairvoyant has helped me be more aware of the value of being able to see that which isn’t readily apparent at first sight. As a clairvoyant, I read energy all of the time, it’s become second nature to flex that muscle. I automatically look at the energy of whatever or whoever I meet in my daily life, it’s effortless.

This isn’t the same thing as sitting down to give a reading to a client, for which I will have my space set up in a specific conscious way. I don’t walk around randomly giving people readings all of the time, how exhausting that would be!

What I mean is that by turning on my ability to see energy clearly, I am working with a natural human ability that is intended to make it easier to navigate and create one’s life. Just as reading the words of another person can help me heal, be inspired, and look more clearly for myself, so turning on my own ability to see the spirit of whatever is around me, without judgment, has made my life a lot more interesting and often simpler. Clairvoyance requires curiosity, it insists upon it. A sense of wonder is necessary if one expects to uncover mysteries, and see things that couldn’t be seen before.

It’s simpler because I know how to not get caught up in the drama / overthinking / worry that I used to get stuck in years ago. I can see the energy, and have 20+ years of experience in reading that energy. I can more easily look at a situation or relationship or problem in my day, and start to look for where or what this energy is. As the expression goes, I can read it like a book. It has a story, pictures, and energy.

As a teacher in and the director of the online Art of the Seer training, I teach others the art of clairvoyance. Clairvoyance is an art form, and it will change your whole life if you decide to turn it on and have it for yourself. Just as reading books will change you by helping you see things clearly, and learn important things about people and the world, so too will learning to use your spiritual sight. Once you learn how to see, your spirit opens up in new ways. Once you’ve learned to see with your spirit, the world opens up in a new way for you.

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” – Stephen King