Support, don't Destroy.

Friends, pagan, Wiccan, HooDoo, Druid, whatever....please listen to an old woman who has 42 years experience as a professional psychic and Druid.

Every 5 – 8 years I see the same thing happen in the metaphysical and even, believe it or not, in the Fundamentalist Christian churches. We go from having open psychics, workshops, meet-ups, businesses and whatever your grouping is: church, grove, coven in every city with a growing audience, clientele and social circle to maybe one business, psychics hiding in the closet, hidden groups of 2 or 5 people meeting in dark corners in less than a year.

The last time this happened was 2008. I know from personal experience that the most popular and successful company hawking their flawed wares knew exactly to the day when the market was going to crash because they timed their last sales push to the minute. They also bankrupted stores across this country, leaving them with merchandise they paid more for wholesale than was now being sold for in mass market bookstores. I tell you this because you should not feel like this is an isolated movement by a couple of psychic condo commandos. It is nationwide and it effectively destroys everything we spend 5 to 8 years building and it is afoot again, right on schedule.

Step one is to break the community apart from within using the oldest trick in the book. We need to police ourselves because there are evil people doing bad things in our community. There are con artists in every single profession. We don't have a disproportionally large number though you would think there was one on every street corner. There must be over a hundred psychics doing legitimate readings in my county and there are two groups of “gypsy fortune tellers”. Newsflash: the cops are on to them. They know they are trafficking in humans. They are slowly and carefully creating a case against them and just like the Marks in Miami, they will meet a jail cell and be forced to give millions back to the people they cheated.

These people fire bomb each other. Do you really want to go up against them? Maybe I should ask if you want your home and business burned down and to wind up dead. Let the police do the job of policing. That's what they train for and get paid to do. It's not what you do and the old excuse of the poor mundanes can't take care of themselves, insults you and them.

Trying to play Psychic Condo Commander, does nothing for our community. If you want to get rid of the non-psychics, those poor deluded people who had one experience that seemed psychic and set up shop, the way you do it is through education and through providing an exceptional service. I have people come to my shop and say, he's a nice guy but not psychic. The “mundanes” as you call them, know real psychics just like they know the difference between playing piano in a bar and being a concert pianist. They also know con artists. Give them some credit. Face it, either your predictions come true or they DON'T. If they don't, people do not return and spend money on you.

Even the people who get conned know they are being conned. No woman looks in the mirror and sees someone marginally attractive and thinks the guy with a Barbie doll on each arm leaning against the Corvette is going to fall madly in love with her and whisk her off to Paris for a life of luxury even if some psychic is telling her that. She may buy the love spell but she knows it isn't going to work. I have women tell me they knew when they spent 25,000.00 on a love spell, it wasn't going to work and they did it any way.

I know one person who scared people into sending him between a few dollars to a few hundred a month. He doesn't know he was recorded, the recording was taken to the cops and the cops in that state reached out the cops here and he is being watching. Someone always goes to the cops and the fraud division sets their sights on them. They don't need you playing cop. You just bungle it up for them.

So, instead of trying to set everyone in the community at everyone else's throat, let's try something new. Don't try the old 'if you have nothing to fear' crap on me. It gets to the point in a couple of months that even when your best friend takes you out for coffee, you afraid you will be the next victim of the psychic police mafia and you are walking on egg shells watching every word. That is very stressful and psychics don't preform well under stress. What we need to do is support each other, not tear them down and particularly not on Facebook, people. I constantly say if you want to know what I am doing, ask me. And if I know, I will tell you. Some days, your guess is as good as mine.

Not every person wears the same style clothes. Not every person likes the same food. Not every psychic is going to click with every client. You like some people. You don't like other people. It is simple. Often the client tells tales just because they didn't like or click with the psychic. Some times the psychic has already discovered the client is delusional and it may take you a few weeks to make the same discovery. So, take most of what you hear with a grain of sand and a wait and see attitude. You never know when the person may have issues with the person and not the psychic and be out to ruin their reputation and if you are honest, you will admit it has happened to you.

While we are admitting these things to ourselves, you also have to admit that you are suspicious some people in our field are out to destroy the whole community and I am going to tell you, you are right. That is why this happens every few years on schedule like a bad case of the flu. The people who finance this have deep pockets and they troll the communities for someone respected, personable and needing money or with something to hide. I saw guy go from 2^nd hand beat up car living in a trailer park to Cadillac, condo on the intracoastal and TV ministry in ONE WEEK. The guy didn't even believe in any God. It's not just us, that get this treatment.

But if we support each other, we reduce the number of vulnerable people to be picked on and used, because when they (those doing this) get the desired result, you will be living in a camper because it is all you own and you also will have a legal gag order preventing you from warning anyone else. They will throw you away like last year's garbage.

So how do we support each other? When you decide to hold that psychic fair remember you are running things. Bring in the psychics you know are honorable, hard working people and leave the con artists and borderline schizophrenics at home. It's better to have a few good people than several dozen half baked psychics. Use your fair to educate people. Print out handouts explaining your fair is providing a SAMPLE of what a psychic reading is and that is why the price is lower. Then, don't go too low and always set time limits. People like to pay in one location, know when they are going to get their reading and how long it will take. People are busy and their time is as valuable as yours. People hate to stand in line in this country. So have a sign in table, a schedule for every psychic and keep the people out of the reading area because you never know who is listening and who knows who. If you are a store, remember you are making your profit off selling product and the psychics are really advertising.

This doesn't mean several of us can't get together and have little fair or you have an open house. Just about every Saturday, I offer abbreviated readings for 20.00 in the parking lot. They are short and to the point. It lets those who have no experience with me or readings, get to know me and experience a reading. It lets my regular customers drop in and get that one question answered when they don't need a whole hour reading. It doesn't hurt anyone. You can do the same thing as an open house if you don't have a store and work at home. Keep things fun.

Educate.....that should be in capitals. Tell people the one free question or 10.00 card reading is a con to separate the gullible from the skeptics. They can go through a 100 people for free because the con artist is looking for the one they are going to fleece for thousands of dollars. They can pay thousands of dollars in license fees out of petty cash because they fleece people out of a minimum of 15,000.00 each up to millions. How do you think they can afford an office on a main highway in a business district and a big car and several security men on 10.00 readings? Do the math.

Tell people flatly the 200.00, light 7 candles in 7 churches will bring back that lover is a ruse. First off, are there actually 7 churches you can light candles in where you are? I'm in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and there aren't. Actually most churches down here use LED votives because of fire ordinances and heat.

If your money needs cleansing, why not just take it to the bank and have them give you new money? If I thought that dollar, it's been a slow week, in my wallet was cursed I'd just spend it or get it exchanged at the bank.

Be honest. Some times the spirits talk and some times they seem to be on vacation and Uncle Harry isn't any smarter dead than he was alive. Not everyone has a past life as a king or queen. Not everyone will be able to access their past life. Some times the Universe refuses to show us the future. Be honest and tell people that. They need to know we are just people who have a TALENT.....we don't have anything more special than a concert pianist, a baseball pitcher or a surgeon.

It is not a 6^th sense. It is an augmentation of the same five senses that everyone has. You see more, hear more, feel more, taste more and smell more. That's all. Everyone has those five senses but only around 18% will have any degree of psychic ability and some people will actually be negatively impacted. They are the clumsy people who don't ever have a clue about other people and are black and blue from running into coffee tables. It is just like singing. Some people can't carry a tune in a bucket but most people can sing. There are only a few that are going to make records, be on stage or sing opera. The distribution of talent is the same across everything: doctors, lawyers, plumbers, singers, musicians, artists, mechanics, engineers, cooks and Indian chiefs.

People need to know that it takes years of study to become an astrologer or a Tarot reader. I started studying the Tarot at 16 when I saved up for my first deck and I studied and practiced every night because it beat homework. I don't think I was truly competent until I was 23. I spent 2 years in class, yes a real class, learning the basics of astrology. Then you interned under an astrologer and maybe after 5 years of study and internship, you got to actually interpret a chart. Admittedly, a lot of that time was spent learning the math and constructing a chart because we didn't have computers but it was long time and a lot of learning to know whether aspect a or b was the most important. People need to know that your psychics have put in as much time as most people spend on a B.A. learning their craft. I know, I have a B.A. and it was easier than Tarot Cards.

People need to know they are paying for the psychics' time. If a plumber fails to unstop your toilet, you are still paying for him trying to do it. If you get a second opinion from another doctor, you are still paying the first doctor for his opinion. You are paying for time and expertise and if you don't like the answer, well, you aren't paying for the answer. You are paying for the process.

Our only defense is an educated consumer and in the end, the more educated the consumer, the easier our job.

So, if you don't like a presenter at a show, don't attend or don't go to their lecture. But, don't smear the event and the presenter all over Facebook, because you aren't winning any points, you are just giving the enemy ammunition to shut everyone down. The same with other psychics. These silly little wars are destroying everyone not just the guilty. I read some of these things and wonder how anyone in the general area makes any money after people read this stuff. After last years VooDoo wars I was beginning to think the qualification for being in that religion was insanity.

Have a little compassion. People fall in with the wrong people. I know more than one psychic who goes from marriage to marriage looking for a man to promote them and what they get is worn out and used up, dropping from exhaustion and then they repeat the cycle until they have no talent left. If a guy pitches 12 hours a day, that arm wears out and it may not recover. I have actually been pushed in a commercial environment to do so many readings my hands could not shuffle cards for a couple of days and I have carpal tunnel syndrome from it. Miss or over use your ability and you will lose it. If you lose it at the top of your career, you are going to try to fake it and you will fail. We all know the failures. Don't be afraid to ask if you can help and don't be afraid to ask for help. Know your limits and know the limits of your profession.

Support rather than tear down. Clients want to feel good. You want to feel good. No one can feel good if they think they are constantly on trial. So let's try to avoid losing everything this cycle, refuse to embrace the holier than thou and get together and have some fun and support. We can do this. This time we CAN change the world for the better.

And please try to remember, at least for now, in this country, you are innocent until proven guilty. If someone has not been proven guilty in a court of law, they deserve the same benefit of the doubt you would like to have. If some people were actually guilty of what they accused, they would be in jail by now. The cops aren't stupid and they read the books. The cops are always somewhere and always looking for a nice collar to earn a reputation. Remember that.

Beware the Snake

I awoke this morning to have a little ditty running through my head which should be the anthem of the Middle Class: “We want our piece of the pie!” I know that not how the old TV jingle goes but it should have.

The pie is the infamous pie chart showing who really controls the majority of the wealth in this country.

The top 3% control 84% of the wealth in the country.

Let me explain this simply. If we have a representative from the 3 economic classes: the top 3%, the middle class and the poor standing in line to get paid one dollar, the rich guy representing 3% of the people will get 84 cents. You, the middle class, will get 11 cents and the poor guy will get 5 cents. Keep in mind everyone is working at a job for this money, some harder than others.

Is this the New World Order the conspiracy theorists tout or is it something else, something far more evil and far more older?

Woodrow Wilson actually said this and started the conspiracy theory doctrine of the New World Order being created via the Federal Reserve:

“Despite these warnings, Woodrow Wilson signed the 1913 Federal Reserve Act. A few years later he wrote: I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”

More warnings were published by FDR but this is the most famous is; ““A financial element in the large centers has owned the government since the days of Andrew Jackson.”

Even the head of the FBI for so many years, Hoover, said, “The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.”

The only real hint to what this conspiracy may be is from FDR in a letter to Charles Davenport written in 1913. Charles Davenport was the then head of Department of Genetics:

“Society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind.... Any group of farmers who permitted their best stock not to breed, and let all the increase come from the worst stock, would be treated as fit inmates for an asylum.... Some day we will realize that the prime duty, the inescapable duty of the good citizens of the right type is to leave his or her blood behind him in the world; and that we have no business to permit the perpetuation of citizens of the wrong type. The great problem of civilization is to secure a relative increase of the valuable as compared with the less valuable or noxious elements in the population... The problem cannot be met unless we give full consideration to the immense influence of heredity...”

And finally: “I wish very much that the wrong people could be prevented entirely from breeding; and when the evil nature of these people is sufficiently flagrant, this should be done. Criminals should be sterilized and feebleminded(sic) persons forbidden to leave offspring behind them... The emphasis should be laid on getting desirable people to breed.” also from FDR.

These quotes set of a maelstrom of conspiracy theories to be unleashed on the public that is so complex and so extreme that no one really has any idea what is going on. These quotes and ideas led to the forced sterilization of anyone with an IQ deemed to low, the mentally ill and those who just weren't the right color. These quotes led to the rise of the so called Aryan Race eugenic theories, slavery and the white man's death grip on the idea that he is somehow superior even though he knows he is not, not really. The superior species is the man with the money, not the survival nut living on dried food surrounded by guns. It's the guy in the Penthouse being waited on hand and foot with his choice of pretty mates.

These theories led to something that pervades every inch of society. You are guilty of the thinking and don't even know you are thinking it. You don't even know it starts first thing in the morning and it goes to bed with you. It is the invisible snake in the garden of your mind. It was the first thing a small child questioned in the mountains of West Virginia when the mine tunnel collapsed.

Relatives gathered, worried beyond belief that they had just lost their husbands, fathers and brothers. The Red Cross arrived to give out cups of weak warm coffee. The local ministers arrived to spread the will of God and pick up a few new converts. And the Owner arrived in his big black car to proclaim they were doing everything possible to help. Everything possible was the other miners risking their lives to dig through rock that had just collapsed.

To a child of four or five, used to being alone and observing adults, it was a strange, surreal play unfolding. Looking at the players I had to ask one question, why was the man in the big black car more important than anyone else there and why were the Ministers, reinforcing that lie, because I was pretty sure in the end, everyone died, everyone was equal.

I heard my father say everyone was equal. I heard those same ministers say everyone was equal in “God's” eyes. The warm cup of weak coffee people seemed to think the miners were important and yet, only the other miners had shovels and were digging. Something wasn't right here to a little kid with nothing better to do than ask questions. I had already been told to shut up, so I continued to watch as the man from the big black car got his coffee poured from a pretty thermos into a nice cup by the man in a uniform that drove the car as he sat in the big chair in his heated office above the crowd shivering in tattered coats.

It was as though my eyes captured pictures, little scenes, and then etched them in my memory forever to torment me. The ancient Sumerians and Hebrews had one thing right, the purveyor of knowledge is a snake. Once it finds the opening into mind, it crawls in your brain, curls up and waits for you to get nice and warm and relaxed and then it sinks its fangs in your happy little constructs that keep you sane, poisoning your mind and keeping you up all night.

It was a while before one of the older kids noticed me and came over to see if I was alright since I hadn't moved in a long time. He was one of my hundreds of cousins my own personal snake probably poisoned as so many escaped the mines to go into law enforcement within three letter agencies. Having a captive audience, I sprang and inserted my question in his fertile mind. Why is the man in the office more important that everyone else? That was met with; why do you think that? Well......he's warm, drinking good coffee in an office with someone ready to drive him where ever he wants to go and everyone else is cold, miserable and worried sick. The answer was: he owns the mine.

Hmmmmm....owning a mine makes you more important than anyone else in town except maybe the ministers who had retreated to their cars, engines running so the good church ladies could break out the good coffee and cakes for them that they weren't even giving their crying relatives...so I asked the obvious. Why are the ministers important. They don't own the mine.

Ah yes, the snake had bit my cousin's brain, laid eggs and would multiply every night of his life. At least he didn't have to contend with the Mother Snake, like I did. You see, I would test his theory later that night when we got home.

Grandma started to cook dinner as she always did and I told her she couldn't do that. Wow, that got Mother in a rage and finally Grandma, being the voice of reason asked me why she shouldn't cook dinner. My answer was simple. You own the house. By that time Father had crawled out of the living room, followed by some of the menfolk. He wanted to know more because my brain fascinated him no end. My reasoning was very simple. If the man who owns the mine doesn't do any work and gets his coffee delivered and his car driven just because he owns the mine and if the ministers get special treatment because they tell people God is responsible for people dying in accidents in his (the owners) mine, then Grandma shouldn't have to work since she owns the house.

Remember that look on Rosemary's face when she first sees her spawn in the cradle? It was pretty epidemic around the room except for Grandma and Daddy. He simply said, “Mrs. Bennett, maybe you should sit down and enjoy watching the rest of us work. I think the kid has something here.” Never have so many adults been so quiet looking in horror at one small little girl. You see, the serpent injected me with logic.

For the rest of my life I would question and fight one single thing. Why is some people's work more worthy than others? Then there was its insidious little brother that sneaked around whispered, some people's lives are more important because they own something you want.

After a few revolutions in Latin American countries I concluded their lives might seem to be more important but large numbers of people were waking up to the fact that they wanted their share of what they worked for and they no longer believed their share was to be decided by the person who owned the mine in which their lives were worth less than minimum wage and decided whether they would work or not.

The 60's rolled in and a new concept began to take root that had to be killed quickly. That concept was equality, interdependence and the simple fact, yes, FACT, that no one does it alone. You can't build a successful business without customers and suppliers. This is because few people will buy thin air unless it has a religion attached to it. The immediate reaction was a flood of drugs to 'enhance' spirituality. Spirituality cannot be enhance my friends. It either happens or it doesn't. All you are chasing in your drug/beer induced state is temporarily feeling good. Spirituality on top of the mountain often results in you falling down the other side of the mountain on your head.

I was raised to be spiritual but I saw no reason I should do so in a shack, dressed in tatters begging for food in exchange for my knowledge particularly since every day on a black and white TV amid the snow I saw men of god in their fancy suits building their opulent mansions of faith. I had the nasty feeling, probably from that snake poison, that they weren't smarter or more spiritual than I was. As far as I could see, they didn't help anyone but themselves. I was beginning to see the sheep symbolism and I certainly could see the wolf.

But who was the lion?

Oh, I learned that later in life.

I love my cat Trouble A.K.A. Stoner. Every cat in the house starts at the dresser and moves incrementally higher in the room until they get to the top of the glass display case even though they have to enter the room and go to the far corner to start their trek and go around three walls. Trouble is a lot like me. He walks in the room, jumps up and climbs the shoe rack, taking a precarious route across the yarn bag and usually dropping a skein or two, and lands in the same location with less work but a lot more danger because I am about to kill him by then. He takes the direct route, just like I do. It's more dangerous but if you have no fear of snake of knowledge, read on. You are already infected. You might as well learn what with.

You are indoctrinated from birth that the doctor is more important than your mother because his word is law. You will later learn that is because he had more education. By the end of your life you will learn that education doesn't make you smart. Your mother will be learning that woman with the best assets whether they be located on her chest or in her purse will get better care and her little spawn will survive no matter how dumb they are.

Every day, in every way you are being taught that some are more equal than others. That some, because they have more paper or higher electronic numbers, somehow do more valuable work than you do. You may at some point realize that both of you are paying the same amount of money for the same things, they just have more left over. Snake bite!

Is the person doing back breaking work picking up your garbage doing less valuable or just less work, than the CEO of a bank? Think about it. They may both actually have the same education. The garbageman, I mean environment engineer, has a life expectancy of at least 10 years less than the CEO simply because of the wear and tear on his body and less access to medical care. He cannot afford a yearly check up with all the bells and whistles that his counter part can take a week off and check himself into the fancy hospital, with pay, and find out every tiny thing that might go wrong so he can make changes in his lifestyle. You see, the garbageman, let's skip the niceties of environment engineer, only gets to clean up and fall into bed dead tired and hope he doesn't get sick because he has no sick days and anyway, at the end of the year, too much sickness means he is a drag on the company (other workers') insurance policy and needs to be laid off....i.e. Fired. Now if you think the CEO cares if the other workers have to pay more for their insurance keep in mind he is probably getting a kickback from the insurance company. The CEO makes more money in one hour than the garbageman makes in one year. Hence the logical conclusion is the Bank CEO's life is more important than a garbage man’s or yours.

I tend to have a pretty high opinion of myself and just don't buy it. Nor have I ever bought the fantasy that because mine is a “god given talent”, I should not charge for it. The electric company doesn't give me break for “god given talents”. Shouldn't a talent dispensed by a GOD be more valuable than a bank CEO? I mean, I must be divine and she giggles. Save me first...God smiles on me....sure....Who knows, it might work.

So you see, the whole real Conspiracy isn't a New World Order because it is pretty darned old, nor is it the Federal Reserve. I won't argue they may both be tools. BUT the real conspiracy is constant bombardment and reinforcement that just because 3% of the people collect 84 cents out of that dollar for doing little or nothing in real back breaking work like you do every day, their lives are somehow worth more than your pitiful little existence which leads to the second belief that you exist for their amusement. You might want to think about that last one.

Oh, and the sheep lays down with the lion because the sheep thinks the lion will protect them. Unfortunately to the lion, the sheep are cash cows and a snack for later. Guess who the lion is. Go ahead. You'll figure it out, probably too late.

Pretty snake. Nice snake. Let the old Druid rest for a while.