If you’ve been following this series, you already know that I aim to provide quality rather than the moving target of accuracy when I offer Akashic Record readings. I will eventually explain what I mean about the pit-falls of “accuracy,” but for now, I’m working through the elements I strive to include in every reading. They are:
- Purity of intention of reader (allowing client’s intention to drive the reading)
- Presence (reader shows up fully without external concerns)
- Peace and stillness (of the reading environment, both external and internal to the reader)
- Open mind (humility, beginner’s mind, discernment)
- Open heart http://mindsonfire.org/2017/08/17/what-is-a-quality-akashic-record-reading-66-open-heart/(courage, trust in the flow, joy of discovery)
In this post I talk about how to bring peace and stillness into a reading. Much of the advice I gave about being fully present applies to this topic, so if you haven’t already, I encourage you to read that post, as well. Peace and stillness, indeed, facilitate this quality of presence in the reader. There are several ways to establish this.
EXTERNAL PEACE AND STILLNESS
On the most superficial level, a quiet environment free of distractions is helpful, especially in the beginning when you are first trying to focus and find the stillness within. Sometimes I do an energetic clearing of my space beforehand (e.g., smudging or crystal spray). I might light a candle a sit in meditation if my mind needs calming. Or sometimes I like to have a crystal or two to keep me company. I encourage you to do whatever small ritual that helps you shift into sacred space.
But believe it or not, it’s not necessary to be in a perfectly pristine environment to give a quality reading. I have offered Akashic Record readings in a room full of other people giving readings, and also in public spaces where strangers were walking by. It’s entirely possible and not at all difficult once a reader learns to focus and drop into absorption.
INTERNAL PEACE AND STILLNESS
When I refer to “peace” and “stillness,” then, I refer mainly to the ability of the reader to cut through mental chatter and find the kernel of truth that lies (or moves) within silence and stillness. One very interesting thing I learned when I was just beginning my studies in the Akashic Records is that readings are offered with the eyes open. The connection is dependent on this for a variety of reasons I won’t mention now. In my work in Dreamers & Schemers, I like to encourage people to try meditations and visualizations with their eyes open. If you can ground, center, and find peace and stillness with your eyes open, while you are talking, and even when you are in motion (as I am in almost every reading I offer!), then imagine the power you have as you go through the course of your day.
INTENTION
So how does one drop into absorption? In stages, of course! I begin first by focusing intention. To illustrate what I mean, let me share a story where this step was even more important to the process than usual. Just recently I texted someone who had requested a reading awhile back to see if she still wanted a reading. I had been meaning to follow up on our conversation but for one reason or another, I felt led to send her the message at that moment, even though I was tired and fixing for a nap. The client texted back immediately and asked if we could start our session in fifteen minutes. I hesitated for a moment because I was concerned about being too tired, but there was a part of me that really wanted to offer the reading, so I decided to take a few minutes to compose myself.
In that time, my mind kept protesting, and I certainly felt fatigue in my body, but I chose to trust my heart’s desire to move forward with the reading. Inside of five minutes, I set up some crystals, lit a candle, and sat to breathe. While breathing I stated my intention to offer my client a quality reading, and asked my spirit guides for support in getting my energy levels up. Then, letting go of my intention, I made the call and proceeded as usual with my reading process. (It turned out to be a great reading—serendipitously timed and shorter than I anticipated, so I was able to take my nap after all!)*
MINDFULNESS
After setting intention, the next step is to gather awareness. This is a very delicate dance because trying to force awareness can push it away. I like to think of it as soft focus, rather than laser focus, so that my peripheral “vision” is expanded, and I can begin to be aware of all the motions of energy coming at me. This includes but is not limited to the “clairs” of intuition: clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, and claircognizance. At heart, this is an exercise in mindfulness—noticing what is coming up in your awareness, and gently bringing yourself back when the mind starts to chatter. (See my post on presence for tips on how to do this!)
CONCENTRATION
Sometimes there is so much energy coming at you that you aren’t really sure what to focus on / what the “point” is. But if you are patient, meaning if you don’t immediately engage your mind and try to make sense of what you are getting, you will notice one detail stand out or call your attention. Because I am very visual, a lot of times I am presented with an image that builds into a scene, and I’m not quite sure what it all means, and then all of a sudden something will jump out at me, or another sense will come in to reinforce the message, and suddenly I have the key to the scene. This is where I engage a laser focus, or narrow my lens, so to speak. But it is a dynamic motion, so really it feels like following a thread through a narrative.
ABSORPTION
Finding that thread to follow is one of the best feelings ever because all of a sudden the entire world around me drops away and I am fully in the dynamic of the answer, rather than observing it from a distance. This is when I find myself most deeply in the Records, and knowing comes to me in multiple forms, including direct downloads where the Records bypass the use of images, words, and even feelings in my body, and give me a complete view of the matter at hand in a fraction of a second. Some Akashic Record readers work this way from the get go, but I had to build up to this, so it feels like nothing short of a miracle when it happens.
DYNAMIC DANCE
I’ve presented this process as if this were a simple linear progression, which it sometimes is, but more often than not you will find yourself cycling back to “earlier” stages of focus. Every time a client asks a new question, for example, I almost always find myself back in the room ready to be mindful about the new flow coming at me. If I had been deep in the Records beforehand, chances are I’ll be able to sink back into absorption more readily.
One thing I never do is try to get to the point of absorption as quickly as possible. In fact, in some readings I feel I barely get to spend any time there either because the questions are coming at me quickly, or because the Records are choosing to send images without much exposition (and it took me a long while, but I finally learned that it wasn’t my job to provide the commentary from my own mind). I used to think that short or “superficial” readings weren’t very good, but then I started noticing that clients weren’t any less grateful for those readings than the ones where I felt like I was really out in the aether for long stretches of time. The point is to go with the flow of the Records, wherever they lead, because whatever is coming forth is exactly what the seeker needs to hear in that moment.
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