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    • Crystal Ball Reading for Beginners: Have No Fear

      by Alexandra Chauran

      (Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

      What if you literally saw God, Goddess, an angel, or a fairy with your own two eyes? If this happened to you in a dream, in church, within the confines of a magical circle, such incredible visions would be appropriate. If, however, this happened while you were driving to work and you swerved off the road to avoid a pixie or Gabriel's horn, you would likely rightfully find yourself in the psychiatric ward of your local hospital. Everything in between is a big old gray area, and not one that feels comfortable to explore.

      For that reason, as a professional fortune teller, I have many friends and clients who gush excitedly that they love fortune tellers, scrying, and divination, but that they could never do it themselves. How could this be that I've heard people who are obviously intuitive and open-minded about psychic arts tell me that they feel and see nothing when they attempt to do the work themselves? This is especially strange considering that such people have more access to step-by-step instructions like those in my book, Crystal Ball Reading for Beginners.

      It isn't that visions can't be seen by everyone. People who say that they can't see things when they try often either don't know what to look for, or simply don't actually want to see anything supernatural with their own eyes. After all, who hasn't had the experience of catching spooky shadows out of the corners of their eyes and wishing for a bright light to chase them away? Inviting a hallucinatory encounter may seem like a step toward madness. Many wannabe psychics ask themselves: How will I know I'm not crazy?

      Fear of "becoming crazy" or of not being able to see anything at all are the reasons why I recommend crystal ball reading as an incredibly valuable and versatile practice. Firstly, having a tool in which you can see whatever "crazy" things that you want, without spooky visions bleeding out into your mundane life, allows the beginning reader and budding psychic a chance to relax and allow whatever amazing revelations there are within the crystal ball to come forth. When the visions seem frightening or overwhelming, the crystal ball can simply be set aside for a time when the reader feels more ready. Some people really do see images inside the crystal ball as clear as in a television set. Others only see the visions on the inside of their eyelids, in the mind's eye, and that's okay, too.

      The second amazing virtue of the crystal ball is to provide inspiration to those people who really don't believe that they would be able to see any visions at all. To see why this is true, you may need to see a real quartz crystal ball in person. It isn't just a translucent sphere, like a marble of glass. Each real quartz crystal ball is blessed with countless tiny imperfections throughout. On the clear backdrop of the crystal's surface and interior, you'll see white wisps frozen forever in time within the crystal ball. When the crystal ball is turned in the light, those small imperfections may appear to be different colors along the light spectrum, and will be all different shapes depending on how you turn the crystal ball. In fact, it may seem quite impossible to see one of those imperfections the same way twice. This property is exactly how you can be inspired to see things in the crystal ball.

      Even those who don't boast of great creativity can literally see shapes in clouds. If you can lay on your back in the grass and see clear shapes in the clouds almost as if somebody had sculpted them to look like a rabbit, a car, or what have you, then you can also see visions in the crystal ball. The tiny white and rainbow shining imperfections in a crystal ball speak to your intuition in the same way that clouds speak to your imagination. The shapes you see may tell a story, or have personal meaning to you. Or, you can use a book like Crystal Ball Reading for Beginners to help you know what you should be seeing and paying attention to and understand how to interpret your perceptions into full crystal ball readings.

      The crystal ball exercises the part of you that sees your intuition expressed in a visual form, while keeping a safe boundary between your psychic practice and your everyday life. For that reason, I find it to be a more valuable tool for the budding fortune teller than other forms of divination (such as tarot cards) or more difficult scrying tools such as a mirror or a bowl of water, which may not already have inspiring shapes swirling around in them. As you practice, you may find that the actual tiny flecks that inspire you to see shapes in the crystal ball allow you to see other fleeting visions within the crystal ball itself that are more akin to real visions right before your eyes. Seeing things in the crystal ball is possible for anyone when you know what to look for.

      If you're still too worried to pick up the crystal ball, knowing that you can put it down when you no longer want to see things, then you can take comfort that seeing intangible things does not make you "crazy." In fact, the American Psychiatric Association requires that other problems besides hallucinations or delusions be present before a person can be diagnosed with a mental illness. For example, you must have a severely dysfunctional life, such as not being able to work, have a relationship, or care for yourself in order to be diagnosed with something like psychosis. In addition, to be diagnosed with something like schizophrenia, your hallucinations would have to be happening all the time for a period of six months, not just whenever you looked inside your crystal ball.

      So, stop being afraid of seeing things! You won't go crazy. Whether you're someone who has already tried to have visions until your eyes hurt or you're somebody who would scream if they saw a ghost, go pick up a crystal ball and push your boundaries. You'll find out what makes visions so useful and appealing, and why the ancient art of crystal ball reading has persisted to the present day.

      Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2011. All rights reserved.

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    • Double Vision: Dream of Cousin's House

      I had a dream last night of my cousin’s house. I was able to see the hallway to her living room and a part of a couch. I also saw the stairs to her bedroom, and that the bedroom had a sliding glass door. It was also clear that her bedroom was long but not wide. I was able to see this through the sliding glass door from the outside. The weird thing is that I have never been to my cousin’s house, yet when I described her house as I had seen it in my dream, she was as amazed and confused as I was, because my description was totally accurate. Can you explain this to me? (My birth date: 9/14/70) – Marissa

      Dreamchaser:

      Marissa, thanks for asking this question. I know that many people experience this kind of dream, but never say anything because it just sounds so far-fetched. What happened in your dream was your soul left your body and went to your cousin’s house. This is called astral travel. Astral travel is defined as an out of body experience where there is a conscious separation of the soul from the body. Most people who come back from an astral travel experience will talk of being very high up in the sky looking down. I am more like you, Marissa: I go to actual physical places; I do not just fly around in the sky.

      The most interesting part of this to me is that you remember it. We leave our bodies all the time and go away. Have you ever awakened with a start and felt completely disoriented? You might have looked around but you couldn’t quite figure out where you were, even though you were in your own bedroom? You were waiting for your soul to catch back up with your mind/body. Sometimes the opposite happens as well. Our souls will try to wake us up from a scary dream or place, and our mind/body will not cooperate. That is when you can remember trying to wake yourself up.

      I know I repeat myself in this column, and here I go again. Oftentimes when we sleep, our souls leave our bodies and go where they most need to be to heal from today and prepare for tomorrow. From time to time, our conscious minds just cannot deal with situations happening around us. We go to sleep and let our souls do the work. I know when I get stressed or sad, I try to take a nap. At times it is just the fix I need. We do not always remember these “trips.” When we astral travel, however, we do remember, and are aware of the trip as it is happening and after we wake up. Apparently, we can train ourselves to astral travel at will. If you are interested in that, do a search on the Internet for “astral travel.” I suggest you search anyway, Marissa, so that you can learn more than we can tell you here.

      The bottom line here is not to be afraid of this experience, or those you have had before or will have in the future. This is a very normal and natural thing to happen. Your cousin confirming your visit was just that: Confirmation. You needed to know that it is real. When we question the validity of something, spirit will find a way to show us the truth. I think you cannot doubt that you had this experience. Rock on, spirit!

      I wish you exciting travels.

      *****

      Astrea:

      You and your cousin have a telepathic connection. Your subconscious is trying to bring you closer together with this dream. There must be some reason that you need to be in contact with one another on a more regular basis.

      You dreamed of her house at probably the same time she was dreaming of her home. You shared this dream much the same way that people who are in love at a distance share their dreams without ever knowing that is happening. I have known people who have had similar experiences with parents, siblings and exes.

      The advantage you have is that you know now that you can at least receive messages from her. Start practicing. The two of you should set up a practice schedule. Every day is probably too much for people with busy lives, but you can agree on an hour or so three or four times a week. Try to practice at many different times, but keep as many as you can early in the day.

      Buy your cousin a deck of ESP cards and get a deck for yourself. These are the cards that have symbols on them such as triangles, circles, squares and wavy lines. Take turns on alternate days sending 10 cards mentally to one another. Keep a little notebook of the cards you send and the cards you receive. Send on one day, and receive during the next practice session.

      Don’t compare notes for at least 90 days, then send each other your lists and compare what you got right and what you didn’t. See if there is a better time of day. I believe that you will find your accuracy gets stunningly better! By the last 30 days, you should be ripping through those symbols with at least 85 percent accuracy. Remember, 50 percent is normal, even for people who are not connected, so you two should start with a higher rate of accuracy.

      When you find that this is not only possible, but getting easier all the time, depart from your ESP cards and start sending mental photos to each other. Stay with the every other day routine. In about a year, you should easily be able not only to get the correct images, but to be able to “call” each other at any time. You’ll also find windows into past lives and other experiences you and your cousin have shared before this lifetime.

      Sometimes cousins are much closer than siblings telepathically and emotionally. The universe is opening up something rare and beautiful between you. Take the time to practice with each other, and enjoy the benefits of having a soul sister in this crazy world!

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