It's also less complicated than you imagine.

As we approach Halloween, and "The Day of the Dead"  - All Souls Day, and All Saints Day, I'd like to speak a little bit about Spirit Mediumship as an intuitive art form, as well as a mental and physical energetic practice. 

I have a great fondness for this time of year... Halloween? I love it, simply for the wonderful childhood memories of dressing up as a pirate, or a gypsy (one or the other) and seeing all my neighbor's mothers at the door handing out candy.  I was the youngest kid in my neighborhood, so I kept trick-or-treating going long after most moms expected it to stop!

As an adult, Halloween became the day to celebrate the birth of one of my favorite people...Simon Dennis.  Simon is known for throwing GREAT halloween birthday parties with an artistic and literary slant.  Were else could I be asked to dress up and re-inact or scarey bits of literature?  Where else can I scare the crap out of people with H.P. Lovecraft recitation?

Next, I love, love, love... All Saints Day, (November 1) and All Souls Day (November 2) - I love them for their energy, for the feeling that "Yes, something is happening here with the spirit world." and I love All Souls Day because it is the anniversary of my Reiki Master initiation, which took place 20 years ago this Sunday.     

I wasn't a Spirit Medium (other than being a physical medium as a Reiki practitioner) when I became a Reiki Master, but someone in spirit must have known I would become one, because the day for my initiation was picked by spirit, and a little over 2 years later, I became a Spirit Medium.  I now provide more mediumship sittings than Reiki treatments. 

But both Reiki and Spirit Mediumship are closely related as energy work.  

In spirit mediumship, the spirits exist only as energy - they no longer have physical mass, and physical form.  In Reiki, the healing is done only by energy - it has no physical mass or physical form. 

In order to "channel" Reiki - one must be attuned to the Reiki healing energy - in short, be able to connect with the healing energy so they can directly transfer that energy to a person, animal or situation in need.  In order to give a Spirit Medium sitting, one must be attuned to the energy of the spirit giving the message, so that they can transfer the information (initially received in the form of energy) that the spirit wishes to relate about their survival beyond the physical.

Sounds simple, right?  No, not really... it's complicated by the fact that every spirit medium, and every spirit, has a different energy.  We are all energetically unique beings... and my energy is not like yours... is not like the energy of the person in spirit who wants to give a message to you.

Because it is NOT simple, most spirit mediums who have received training in a spirit mediumship circle - will find that they have beings in spirit who assist in the process of energy matching, these beings are called "Spirit Operators" in traditional spirit mediumship.  The Spirit Operator acts as a sort of short term advisor and mediator of "energy" between people (and animals) in spirit and the spirit medium.  If LOTS of people want to come through... the Spirit Operator can also act like a bouncer at a hot new bar... sorting out who goes first, and then assisting the spirit in connecting their energy with the energy of the medium, and vice versa. 

Because the initial energy matching process is a process, and it doesn't usually happen instantaneously, the Spirit Operator will advise spirits on how to "most easily" connect with a particular medium.  I am a medium with a very strong sense of the physical body - because I am also a medical intuitive and physical energy healer, so spirits will often first give evidence of who they are by a quick visual message (I looked like... and I wore this type of clothing... and my general demeanor was...)  and then they may immediately follow this up by sharing the physical sensations they experienced at the time of their death... so for example, if the person had an aneurism, I will feel I am having an aneurism, If the person in spirit was on a ventilator at the end,  I will feel I am on a ventilator...

What spirits, spirit mediums, and spirit operators are not usually easily able to do is to give you exactly the message you told the person in spirit you wanted to hear.   Why?  Because the whole process of communication is dependent on how the spirit and the spirit medium are able to most easily connect energetically... so for example, if you tell your Uncle Henry that you will "know it is him" because he tells the spirit medium to tell you about his favorite fishing hole in North Carolina where you and he would spend hours fishing in the summer...  Uncle Henry is probably not going to be able to relate this information to the spirit medium.   At least not at first.  

Why?  Because it's both too specific and too abstract, and there isn't enough "energy" around it to make it "pop" as the first part of a spirit medium message.   

It's also not necessarily what Uncle Henry wants to talk about... and trust me, when someone on the other side wants to talk about something, and they know they only have a few minutes to share it is with you through a medium, they will tell you what they want to tell you...  not tell you what it was you told them to tell you.

So, the complication comes in with the initial part of any reading because energy is still being matched... if you are expecting the first thing to pop out of the mediums mouth is a narrative about how much Uncle Henry loved fishing at the hole in North Carolina with you.. you can pretty much stop there... 

Be aware there is a LOT of energy work going on between the medium and the spirit and the spiritual realm, and with you... and if you are attempting to silently dictate what your message from spirit SHOULD be... it's just not going to work out well. 

You don't have control over the process, the medium doesn't have control over the process, and even the spirit giving the message doesn't have control over the process, because he or she has to figure out how they work best with the medium... and most people in spirit are not in the habit of working with a medium - most sessions are going to be with spirits who are just learning to give messages, and these spirits really DO NOT have control over the process.

But other than that... spirit mediumship is fairly simple.  You don't need a bunch of people sitting in a circle holding a seance... you do need a quite space, not interrupted by children, noise, dogs, cars... You should not be travelling in a car, train, bus, or plane when you have your sitting... and... if you keep your expectations open and simple, you may be very surprised by the amount of information that does come through from your loved one in spirit.  Simple expectations, with a simple desire to connect for the sake of connection... these two things help create the richest, most life affirming, experiences of spirit communication.

I hope you will consider reconnecting with your loved one's this All Soul's Day... keep them in your thoughts and prayers, write them letters, light a candle for them, take flowers to them in the cemetary, or cakes, or candy... ...or have a spirit medium sitting.   

It's all good.

It's All Souls Day!