What is a quality Akashic Record reading? 5b/6: DISCERNING MIND

This is an addendum to my last post about the quality of open mind, and it also addresses much of what I wrote about presence earlier in this series about what elements go into a quality Akashic Record reading. While the ability to release or at least temporarily put aside the chattering of the mind is critical to ensuring a quality reading, I did not want to leave you with the impression that the mind does not play any role in a reading.

To the contrary, your mind is a fine instrument that the Records will, indeed, use to every advantage. Part of this is in how the Masters, Teachers, and Loved Ones will send you images that will stimulate your existing store of knowledge. (An example of this in my work is when they send colors. Those often—thought not always—relate to certain chakra centers.) This is a really interesting topic in itself, and will surely give more examples in the future.

But what I’m more concerned with today is how the mind is a complementary and equal partner to the receptive faculties of the reader. I cannot speak for trance channels,* but as a conscious channel, I most definitely employ my mind to make dozens and dozens of decisions during a reading. Offering a reading requires a constant dance between receptivity and activity, between yin and yang. I receive the flow through my awareness, but it does not get transmitted to the client without my active participation in the flow.

Under the best circumstances, the flow of a reading is an open dynamic between a seeker, the Records, and a reader. The reader is a go-between and interpreter in this sacred event, but is also its conductor in the fullest sense of the word. The conductor is not merely a passive conduit; she also orchestrates the entire interaction. While the seeker’s intention structures the backbone of the reading, part of how the reader fleshes it out is by being discerning in her choices and actions.

CHOOSING TO STEP DEEPER INTO THE FLOW

You might think that “opening” to the flow is a passive skill, as indeed receptivity is, but getting to “the deep end,” so to speak, requires making the choice to do so, and actively moving in that direction. The flow of the reading increases as the reader is able to lean further into what’s coming through, and eventually step right into the flow instead of passively witnessing and reporting from a distance.

I think this can happen along any and all of the internal or subtle senses, but it’s easiest to imagine it from a visual sense. When an answer begins to flow to me as an image, it often begins as a picture that I sense apart from myself. I am the subject regarding an object. The object might appear static at first, but there is almost always a motion to it.** It becomes dynamic and three-dimensional. By this I mean that the object literally starts to move and/or more of its symbolism opens up to me through my other subtle senses. (I’ll get an emotion, a feeling in my body, an association, etc.)

An example is when I see a landscape, and I start to describe the setting to the client and the impressions I am getting from looking at it. My words and the client’s receptivity to them increase the flow of the energy, and then suddenly I find myself moving through the landscape as the seeker, and suddenly aware of what that feels like physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

Another example is when I receive a static image and I know that the full meaning of it has not yet come through. If I am patient and it still isn’t opening up, I can regard is as three dimensional and choose to step around it and see it from another perspective.

CHOOSING HOW TO STEP DEEPER INTO THE FLOW

When a reader gets stuck she has several options for addressing the situation. Sometimes the Records will guide me toward my next step, but other times I know I have to rely on my own discernment to figure out where to turn my attention and how to attend to the situation. These are just some possible options for when a reading feels stuck:

1. take a breath and lean further into that silence and stillness to find the next motion;
2. ask the Records for clarity;
3. engage the client with a follow-up question (sometimes from the Records, sometimes from my own mind);
4. ask the client to take a breath or drink some water;
5. move away from the client (in the case of an in person reading) to get away from the client’s anxiety and/or get the stagnant energy flowing;
6. get up and start moving (in the case of a phone reading); or, if all else fails,
7. rest in the truth that in this moment there is no answer.

MANAGING THE DETAILS

While it is great practice to describe everything that you’re getting as a reader, when it comes to handling imagery, I wouldn’t take this to its logical end and bog yourself and your client down with every last detail. Returning to the example of a landscape, you say what jumps out in your awareness. You will get a sense of the degree of detail you will need to go into, both from the Records and also from your sense of the client’s reaction to your description. If you get too caught up describing every last blade of grass and rock you see, you will lose yourself in the details and miss the thread that will pull you through the flow. Should this happen, step back and take a breath.

Sometimes you might choose to hold back on details because you’re not sure if it’s you or the Records (see below!), you didn’t think they were important, or thought the Records were simply being redundant. You will know if you’ve made the wrong choice because the Records will nag you! It will weigh on you and get in the way of the flow. I have had to apologize to a client who had started asking her next question and return to an earlier one because I just couldn’t “shake off” something the Records had sent through that I judged to be extraneous.

I have also had a friend call me back after a reading was over to say that the Records kept bugging her to tell me something she had neglected to tell me during our session!

MANAGING “YOU” OR “THE RECORDS”

As I mentioned above and in the post on presence, the Records will tap into your own knowledge and experience during a reading. Sometimes it’s easy to discern whether an answer is coming from you or the Records, but when it’s not, you will have to choose how to handle the situation. Again, you have options and will have to make a choice in the moment:

1. Ask the Records, “Is this coming from me or you?”
2. If you are still unclear, tell the client, “I’m not sure this is coming from me or the Records, but…” Remember, especially in the beginning of your practice, the rule of thumb is to trust that everything you are getting is coming from the Records, even if it feels like “your” memory, knowledge, etc.
3. If it feels like it would be too much of a digression from the main flow (not topically, but energetically) or you believe it’s coming more from you than the Records, but still believe it would serve the client, save it for after the reading.
4. Hold your tongue entirely if you think it’s just coming from your own opinions, judgments, and beliefs, and would not help the client.

I hope this addendum on the discerning mind has been helpful! In the next post we’ll talk about my favorite component of an Akashic Record reading: open heart!

*The most famous example is the “Sleeping Prophet” Edgar Cayce, who tapped into the Akashic Records while unconscious, and gave readings he did not remember.

**One exception is if it is just a flash of something that is immediately comprehensible to the seeker and requires no development.