Discovering True Value

Did you know that you can be paid, I mean actually paid- in money, in gifts, in gold, and treasure, by the spirit world?

The first time I heard this, I was in disbelief. I had gone for an acupuncture appointment with a wise witch woman- now close friend, Monica Mata Gilliam- that ended up being more like an exorcism. She looked at me with sparkling eyes and said "Have you ever heard about two beings, in one body?" and proceeded with a series of verbal clearings aimed at breaking contracts between my spirit and other beings. (I will be writing more about this initial experience soon.)

After that, these acupuncture sessions ended up being like mini courses in Spirit Awareness. Very quickly it became clear to me, and her too- that we shared a deep sensitivity for the Spirit world. By simply asking questions, and remaining present with my awareness- I was rapidly learning this old language of receiving- which was a language I had been taught to reject. Receiving what my body was telling me- along with what portion of my "thoughts" actually belonged to other people (or even other beings). I am incredibly grateful to the tools of Access Consciousness and Talk to the Entities- which became my springboard, my baseline, and my guidelines to fall back to when "things got weird"- and trust me- they did.

One of the first things that Monica shared with me- was the tool of asking "Truth- who's talking right now?" You know when your mind keeps running and running full of thoughts that seem useless or irrelevant to your present moment? Saying "Truth- who is talking?" or "Truth- Who does this belong to?" was like this lightning bolt of awareness to my system. Almost immediately awareness would come with that question- and about 99% of the time, it wasn't ever actually me.

So, when I started asking- I began learning that a lot of what I was "hearing" and assuming to be "my own thoughts"- were other beings talking. Sometimes they were speaking directly to me, and other times it was just something I had tapped into because of this ability to tune in and "help out". Turns out that this unconscious drive to "help" was actually creating more problems for me. Not much of a surprise, right? 

Monica could see that I was basically an entity database- it was like I had a long line of spirits out the door waiting to come and tell me their problems, have me gift them my awareness and maybe even if they were lucky they could get me to do there biddings.  So she gave me some tips.

"Tell them when YOU are prepared to talk. Set up a meeting. A time. And- have them pay you."- monica

"PAY me??"-me

I was in total disbelief. At that point, I was still very uncertain about this whole "spirit" thing anyway (I was hearing the voices of a lot of negative conditioning that wanted to keep my awareness on lockdown. When you become more conscious- you become aware of all the icky stuff too- the demons, the ancestral ghosts, the things you've been carrying that it's time to let go of…)

She assured me it could happen. She said - "Ask them to pay you, or ask them to bring you more paying clients. " and left it at that.

So, a few days after, I tentatively began playing with my new "tools" of awareness.

I was so frail in my certainty- since so many voices or rejection, so many opinions of others, and a lot of voices of disbelief would come in anytime I asked. My solution? Use my pendulum.

I had been playing with the pendulum and seeing how it operates with the energy of the heart. Shortly after receiving my pendulum as a gift, I had a dream where I was using it and a beam of energy came out from my heart chakra, straight to the stone of the pendulum itself. The dream showed me that the pendulum read the electromagnetic field of the heart, along with the bodies pulse, and this energy was it's conductor.

I knew that if I still couldn't trust my head,  I could most certainly trust my heart.

I knelt in front of my altar- at that point a small cardboard box covered with a floral wrap and some beautiful crystals and dried plants on top.

I began asking:

"Are there any beings who wish to talk?"

The pendulum swung vertically out from my heart- indicating a Yes.

"Who is it?"

The pendulum can only answer Yes or No questions, so basically I was using it to verify what I was receiving. I heard a name, and saw the face of a a small man with knobbed features-

"Is it a gnome?'

The pendulum swung Yes again.

What happened next was pretty peculiar. The pendulum began changing it's course, and I realized that it was being reset by this little person spirit. He was attuning it so that I could ask him Yes and No questions directly through it. He showed me his version "yes" and his "no" on the pendulum- which was actually different directions than mine.

I was playing with all of this, and with the new boundaries that had been taught to me, so I asked him to pay me for talking with him.

I got that he was a little upset about this.

Haha!

In the Otherworld, the spirit realm, or you could even say- on these astral planes-

Payment does not always translate.

He told me he was "paying me" through this lesson of awareness.

Still, I persisted, not giving up  on my homework.

I told him that I listened to his inquiry, and he had promised to pay, I thanked him for the education, the conversation, and the exchange.

Then, I asked who would like to speak next.

I spoke to ghosts, to fairies, to nature spirits in this way.

I listened to inquiries of lost bracelets, growing plants, missing daughters, angered drunks- flexing my new "muscles" through this practice. I was strengthening my awareness.

I started to learnt that when I felt a pinprick on my finger or toe, it meant a spirit was there. Sometimes it meant it wanted to talk to me. I just had to remember to ask, and never be in conclusion about it, because the moment we make a conclusion we actually limit the energy and stop creation.

Later that evening,  I was putting up new curtain in the kitchen and realized I was missing a pole for the top overlay. I was struggling, using string as a hack. I went into my backyard to look up at the sky and take a breather. The sun was just about to set.

I turned to go back inside, and lying right in front of the steps to the door- was a giant stick.

With out word or thought I burst out laughing.

The stick wasn't there before, when I stepped outside minutes ago.

I knew what this meant. This stick was the gnome's payment.

He was showing me in my minds eye.

I couldn't stop laughing- it was so full of mirth, of humor, and of the good spiritedness that these little people are full of. And also- it was his dutiful payment.

I grabbed the stick, still laughing, ran inside- poked it through the curtain and rested in on the ledge. It was exactly the right size.

2 years later- it's still holding up the curtain in my kitchen. 

Writing this now, it is still absurd, ridiculous, laughable, beautiful, and one hundred percent true.

It brings joy to my heart to see how this little man was and still is to me a teacher.

I was so adamant about being "paid"- so in a state of constant lack that I was unable to receive the true beauty of the moment of communing with this being so clearly, the clearest I ever had in my life. I was afraid, and in shock, because I had been told all my life that such a thing was insane. Truthfully- to be "sane" is to be of "normal mental health" or a "rational mind" and I now have enough wisdom to know that neither of these attributes are desirable in this modern age. This age where the "normal state" is riddled with addiction and a lack of inner knowing. 

Now, two years later,  I talk with the Nature Spirits more regularly. They come to me and we create together. We create poetry, art, and energy fields. The space they live in is full of vitality, and gratitude, it's a very giving place.  Of course, some nature spirits have very strong opinions about the state of the planet, and about humans- which is only natural- as it is our primary home and humans have not been treating it so kindly.

Lately there have been more lessons about money- as I continue to work with the inherent "lack mentality" that comes with being reared in American society.

I was playing with designs for business cards for Nurtured Earth- and the gnomes and little elemental beings showed me not to give away just a card, but to give away a stick. They showed me a little book, on a stick.

I thought this was ridiculous and started laughing.

Then, two days later I went to a workshop at Rosalie apothecary here in New Orleans. It was on bookbinding.

The projects we made? Small books, made out of a leaf- and one on a stick!

I was beside myself, giggling and holding in my laughter so as not to appear too excited about these adorable books.

These spirits kept coming to me- showing me how money is like water. Money is like wood.

To them- wealth is literally in the consciousness of a stick.

It is elemental.

The wood of the trees holds memory, just as water does.

It is like a record- the way our bones have marrow, and DNA- the wood is the land's marrow and it holds it's history inside it's molecules. 

The memory of a trees wood is tied more closely to the land where you live- because, of course, the tree is rooted, where as water is moving globally.

On a spiritual level- trees do a lot to clear the land. Their own chakras work to transmute energies of older dimensions, of planes of hungry ghosts, addiction, and trauma-

To us- it looks like Carbon Dioxide turning into Oxygen.

To the otherworld, it is much, much more than that.

And the exciting thing is- that we can actually help the trees. We can work with the consciousness of the wood, or any part of the earth really- just as a healer works with a body. By being present with the element, our being can co-embody it, or allow our conscious-nesses to merge- and we can as witness, allow these energies to shift.

As we heal our inner world, we heal the outer worlds too.

So what debris remain, calling for you to collect it?

This is not a story about answers. It truly is a story of a beautiful series of moments and lessons in my life- and more importantly so, an inquiry.

What is available to us with consciousness now, that was not available before?

What wealth is all around us, and when we truly acknowledge it, what does that create?

What do the nature spirits have to teach us about the true value of living on this planet?

Are we ready to listen?