Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – Automatic Writing by D.G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

In case you missed my recent post in my Spiritual Awareness series at Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine, I’m sharing my post on Automatic Writing

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Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – Automatic Writing by D.G. Kaye

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Explore the spiritual side of our natures as D.G. Kaye shares her experiences and research into this element of our lives.

You can find part thirteen of the series: Meeting People for Reasons and Seasons

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spiritual awareness

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Welcome back to my Spiritual Awareness series. Today I’m going to talk about opening our sub-conscience and experimenting with Automatic Writing.

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Are You Familiar with Automatic Writing?

When I was younger and I’d first heard of Automatic Writing from reading books about metaphysical, angels, and spirit guides, I was intrigued to learn that some people could have the ability to write from the sub-conscience, and/or guided by spirit or a higher power.

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So, what is automatic writing?

The formal name for automatic writing is psychography – the ability to produce writing from the sub-conscience through divine guidance, and spiritual or supernatural source while under a calm, trance-like or alert state. This isn’t to be misconstrued with ‘free writing’. Spirit is invited in with an unconscious mind – a gateway to our higher selves.

When finished writing, you may be left with isolated words and phrases and most likely, no cohesiveness, but that’s when it’s time to reread and ponder. It may be easier if you write down a question on a piece of paper so you can focus on the question. It’s best if you can keep your eyes closed to focus on intent or question, but if you can’t, or if you peek in and out, just remember to keep writing, don’t look back on what you’ve written. No stopping the thought process. Your conscience and/or concentration may get in the way in the beginning of the process, but you must keep writing, no matter what comes out, even if totally off topic, or random and nonsensical words come out.

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How to prepare for automatic writing:

First, we must decide on a medium. Most people prefer freehand writing and most automatic writing is done freehand, but if you can type as fast as you think, feel free to use the computer. Then, clear your minds. Sit in a place free from distraction and focus on your thought or question. You can use meditation to obtain this calm, or whatever method most comfortable to bring yourselves into a calmed mode to enable receiving the messaging. Focus on a topic or question you’d like to write about.

Next, call on an entity, higher power, your spirit guide, or an angel to help you channel whatever it is you are focusing on in your thoughts that you hope to write answers or stories about. You may feel free to ask, “Who is here?” You can acknowledge a higher power in spoken word or by thought. When you are seeking guidance from higher powers it’s always advised to invite them in with a pure heart to also make sure you aren’t inviting in any dark entities.

Close your eyes, breathe deep till you feel relaxed (or meditate to get there) then think about a topic or question you hope to be given divine guidance to write about. Have a notebook in front of you and pen in hand. Focus on your topic, put pen to paper, and let your hand guide the pen – almost in a similar way a Ouija board works.

What do you want to write about? Maybe it’s a problem that’s been on your mind, a recurring dream you’ve been having and wanting to make some sense of, even a story-line idea you may be wanting to write about can be your focused writing intention.

Preparing for the writing:

You should set a timer for this exercise for anywhere from 10 minutes (recommended minimum) to a half an hour. This helps with not being distracted by wondering how long you may have been writing, because with closed eyes to keep from distraction, you won’t be checking your watches.

Closing our eyes helps to keep the focus on our intent so the mind doesn’t get caught up in what is actually being written. This prevents edits or cross-outs from diverting our train of thoughts. Remember, if your mind does drift off topic, keep writing whatever it is that comes to mind – even if it’s whatever thought came to mind that threw off your original thoughts. Our minds entered this state with a clear mind, if jungled thoughts should interrupt the stream of consciousness, then perhaps that’s what was needed to be written.

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After the timer goes off, relax for a few moments. You should close the session with thanking the spirit who guided your writing. Then go ahead and read what you’ve written. What you wrote may not make immediate sense and you can highlight thoughts and words from the writing that may potentially lead to further writing once you’ve spent some time analyzing what you wrote. . . Please continue reading at Sally’s Smorgasbord.

Source: Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – Automatic Writing by D.G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

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©DGKaye2023

Talking #Intuition with D.G. Kaye – Leaving The Door Open #blogshare

I was thrilled to be invited over to Melanie’s blog at Leaving The Door Open. After Melanie had read my article I’d written on Intuition for Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine in my #Spiritual Awareness column, Melanie emailed me and asked if I’d come over to her blog for a little Q and A to learn more about intuition.

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Talking Intuition with D.G. Kaye

I just finished a book where one detective asks another about a suspect. “What does your gut tell you?”

A few days later, I watched a show where a woman is upset when she hears her friend’s boyfriend stole some jewelry. “I knew something was off with him all along.”

They are both referring to intuition and it’s very real; even if people don’t always recognize it.

I recently read a thought-provoking post on this topic written by D.G. Kaye. She is the author of seven books and is also a popular blogger. Her biography and links are at the end of the post. I encourage you to check them out.

I knew that I wanted to explore this topic further with her and reached out. She graciously agreed.

Hi Debby! Thanks for sharing your wisdom here today.

Hi Melanie. Thanks so much for inviting me over to talk about intuition. I hope I can help.

How do you define intuition?

Intuition is an inner knowing. It’s like a nudge from within, like not knowing how you know something, but you do. Inner guidance from within, a pang, a gut feeling. It’s the ability to know something without proof. It can be referred to as a gut feeling, instinct or a sixth sense. Intuition is connected to our soul, which is connected to a higher intelligence. Our egos come from the brain, where intuition comes through our heart center. Hence, the old saying – follow your heart, not your head.

Do you think that there are intuitive and non-intuitive people?

I’d classify intuition as a sixth sense. We all have the ability to recognize our intuition, but we all haven’t learned to develop it. Meditation can help if you ground yourself and clear and quiet your mind to get in tune with your inner calm. Be more aware of people and circumstances around you, a higher sense of awareness will open up within when we clear and calm the ‘white noise’ within.

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Can you explain a bit about the “brain-gut” connection as it relates to intuition?

I’m glad you mentioned the ‘brain-gut’ relationship. In my article you read a few months ago for my bi-monthly Spiritual Awareness series at Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine, there is a gut reaction dubbed, the little brain (in the stomach) that sends signal to the big brain, the enteric nervous system (ENS) communicates with our brains. I shared the link about this discussion in a Johns Hopkins article by Dr. Jay Pasricha, neuro-gastroenterologist.

Did you know that the gut and the brain have a direct relation to stress and worry? It’s not a myth that emotions we experience are linked to the stomach – hence, that butterfly feeling we get in our stomachs when we feel scared, worried, or excited. These are good indicators of the ‘gut instincts’ we receive when something is off or in contrast, when something feels great. When things are feeling off it’s a warning sign to investigate our feelings to help us decide whether they are temporary moments or warning signals.

As I was reading your information on intuition, it clarified something for me. There are two categories of intuition. There is the application of it in the everyday, in making decisionsThere is also the feeling of immediate apprehension, a warning like the prickly feeling at the back of your neck which is often labeled a “sixth sense.” 

Do you have a personal example of either (or both) type of intuition when “listening to your gut” was extremely helpful?

My alert system seems to be finely tuned. Let me just preface this and say that when I get the warning feeling, I may not always know where the trouble is, but often I do, and even when I don’t, I’ll still feel there’s trouble somewhere. Like the time I was putting on my makeup getting ready for work when I was in my early twenties, when suddenly, a sadness came over me and tears welled up in my eyes and a feeling came over me that something happened to my father. I couldn’t shake the feeling. Within minutes, my sister called me to let me know my father had a heart attack and she was one her way to pick me up on the way down to the hospital. Some things just stick.

 In other more everyday living, when something bad is coming, a cold chill runs through my body, to the extent that my teeth start chattering, despite warm surroundings. I don’t necessarily know what it portends, but it’s never steered me wrong, so I get feeling quite uncomfortable when that happens.

And when having to make a decision about something, I’ll get a little caution pang in my stomach if I’m choosing wrong. To me those warnings feel like a little tug on my intestines. Alternatively, sweaty palms, heart racing and/or a ‘butterfly’ fluttering within are also common gut reaction signs.

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Do you have any thoughts regarding the term “female intuition?”

Both males and females undoubtedly can have fine tuned intuitions. However, typically women often have the innate ability to focus on tuning into self, because we are the nurturers and are well acquainted with tuning into the needs of our offspring. Women are said to possess a more intrinsic intuition and more in tune with their emotions. Experts say this is because women are stronger at reading body language and facial expressions.

A thought comes to mind here Debby. Almost 30 years ago, I was heading to a very large women’s formal lunch to kick-off the school year. My son was in kindergarten which meant he was home by lunch time.

I hired a sitter from a service because it was hard to find one as most sitters were in school. She arrived, we discussed necessary details and I left. I made it around the corner, turned into a drugstore parking lot and headed back home. My sixth sense was screaming not to leave him with her. Of course, she was very surprised. I paid her the full amount for the day and she left. I don’t regret that for a second. I “read” something about her I did not like.

Is Déjà vu connected to intuition?

Déjà vu comes from the French phrase – already seen.

Déjà vu is a triggered moment that reminds us of something we’ve already seen, done, or been, whereas intuition is an inner alert system that usually indicates something we feel should be done in the now or future. Déjà vu is a feeling of familiarity. It is said that those who’ve experienced déjà vu are intuitive. Experts have also said that déjà vu could mean a feeling of already lived the moment – possibly from another life. That explains when we meet someone we’ve never met, yet feel we’ve met before. Most likely because we knew them in a past life.

Your post on intuition is part of a broader Spirituality series. What draws you to this topic?

I have been fascinated by spirit, afterlife, psychic phenomena, and white witchcraft since as far back as I can remember. I began reading psychology, self-help, witchcraft, and spiritual books ever since my curiosities in those realms flourished in my late teens. My mother, one of her sisters, and my maternal grandmother all had strongly developed psychic intuitions. I had always felt I had a sense of inner knowing, but nobody in my family talked about it much, and definitely, never helped me develop mine. But it was when I was sixteen years old that I had my own first encounter with spirit that fueled my curiosity about there being more than just this physical world we live in.

I read a quote online which states “intuition is a wise part of you operating on your behalf.” It sounds so reassuring that we have this internal guidance system and yet, many of us don’t trust it or diminish it. You have said this is because our ego is getting in the way. What do you mean?

Ego is our fears, doubts, overriding our inner boss that directs us to do something, something like the devil in our ear telling us to do or say something that is done with impulse instead of stopping and questioning our soul for an intuitive response. Ego is self-talk. We tell ourselves something and we act on whatever we talked ourselves into. Whereas intuition is our inner guidance from a higher power where we know what we know, we don’t have to talk ourselves into making an ego decision.

The voices in our heads are ego, whereas intuition is our instinctual voice, more like an emotional intelligence. Intuition is our instinctual voice of reason, ego is the one that causes us to second-guess our decisions, which usually causes over analyzing and ultimately, creates the confusion in us when we are making decisions.

I just want to pause here because your comment about going to that place “where we know what we know” ties into a thought I had as I was thinking about the decision-making component of intuition. First, Steve Jobs shared how he often leaned on his intuition to get to that place of new ideas. Clearly, it served him well!

I also found a quote from famed scientist Jonas Salk who said “intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.” And that’s interesting because scientists live in a world of “proof”, but it took intuitive thinking to get there! I just thought that was an interesting dichotomy.

So, intuitive thinking is an incredible asset. Can you share any tips for strengthening someone’s intuition?

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We all have our ‘first instinct’ intuition, we just may not realize it. In order to get more in tune with our intuition, we have to learn to resist our own ego giving us sometimes conflicting information. Please visit Melanie’s blog for my tips on developing intuition.

©DGKaye2023

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – Learning to Trust Your #Intuition by D. G. Kaye

Welcome again to my most recent article I shared at Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine in my Spiritual Awareness series – Learning to Trust Your #Intuition. Do you often find when it comes to making decisions that you are conflicted by what your head (ego) is telling you, as opposed to what your gut (heart) is telling you? In this article, I go through how our intuition works, and how we can better develop our own intuitive inner alert systems.

Explore the spiritual side of our natures as D.G. Kaye shares her experiences and research into this element of our lives.

You can find part Eleven of the series: Karma – The Law of Cause and Effect

spiritual awareness

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Learning to Trust Your #Intuition

Welcome back to my spiritual awareness series. Today I’m talking about our intuition, and how to connect with it, learning how to pay attention to it.

Do you struggle with trusting your intuition? Do you feel pangs of anxiety when having to face a big decision in your life, fighting the inner conflict of the two sides of the coin when you know something is off, yet, you don’t know whether you should trust your inside warning system or if you should just simply wave off your concerns as your imagination?

What is intuition? There are a plethora of descriptions and explanations for intuition. But the basic mechanics of how it works is with our natural instinctual reaction – memories usually trigger something from a past lesson, which the mind often overlooks. In the same way we know when there’s danger around, intuition our 6th sense, is automatically activated within us.

All of us have been in these predicaments at various times in our lives. And I’m sure many of us tend to wave off our worries, sometimes allowing the chips to fall where they may because we’re just too afraid to make an executive decision. But often, letting the chips fall where they may because of self-doubt will lead to a negative outcome. So how can we help ourselves become more assertive when it comes to making a decision about things we don’t really want to think about but aren’t going away? We must take a step outside of our worries and delve into the elements of our dilemmas looking at them from a different perspective.

Sometimes removing ourselves from the equation helps us take a better look at facts objectively, and this will help immensely. Nobody ever made great decisions while under duress, and by distancing ourselves from our own inner turmoil will aid in giving us a little breathing room, which in turn helps us to use better logic rather than feeling pressured by staying stagnant in the worry vacuum or making grievous decisions based on fear. When we aren’t consumed with constant worry and we take a breather, we allow our minds to calm and can feel and receive our intuitive messages better while not remaining situated in the immediate inner conflict.

Another way to help us assess our inner feelings is by journaling. Yes, it works! By allowing all our thoughts and concerns to pour out on paper not only relieves the pressure out of our heads, but when reading it back to ourselves we can systemically point out to ourselves precisely what is eating us, and sometimes even find our answers through our own words for resolution.

Did you know that the gut and the brain have a direct relation to stress and worry? It’s not a myth that emotions we experience are linked to the stomach – hence, that butterfly feeling we get in our stomachs when we feel scared, worried, or excited. These are good indicators of the ‘gut instincts’ we receive when something is off or in contrast, when something feels great. When things are feeling off it’s a warning sign to investigate our feelings to help us decide whether they are temporary moments or warning signals. If you are interested in reading up on the true explanation about how and why our gut signals us when something is off, please read this informative article about the brain-gut connection – the enteric nervous system, also known as ENS, which explains the scientific link to the brain/gut connection.

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Learning to trust your intuition

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We’ve all had that ‘familiar’ feeling, often labeled as a déjà vu moment when our instincts pick up on a remembered moment from the past – which doesn’t necessarily mean the triggered sense of familiarity occurred in our present life, but perhaps from a past life? Déjà vu translates to ‘already seen’ from French. It’s a common term we all use when we come upon a moment that feels so familiar, having us feeling as though we’ve already been in or experienced that precise moment, quite possibly from another place and time, as it’s an inexplicable feeling without an exact recollection of where the experience was first felt. . . Please continue reading at Sally’s blog

Originally posted: https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2023/01/16/smorgasbord-blog-magazine-spiritual-awarenesslearning-to-trust-your-intuition-by-d-g-kaye/comment-page-1/#comment-659056

©DGKaye2023

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – How Do You Know If You Are An Empath – The Signs by D.G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Today I’m sharing Part 4 in my Empath series over at Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – How Do You Know If You Are An Empath – The Signs. My next series will be on the topic of angels.

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – How Do You Know If You Are An Empath – The Signs by D.G. Kaye

Explore the spiritual side of our natures as D.G. Kaye shares her experiences and research into this element of our lives.

You can find Part Three of the series: Empaths and Energy Sucking Vampires and Narcissists

spiritual awareness

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Welcome back to my spiritual empath series. This is the last part of the empath series. In the three other episodes, I’ve talked about empathic communications, how to shield from negative energies, and energy sucking vampires. In this part, I’m going to share tips to help you decide if you are indeed an empath.

First, I’d like to share the two different definitions between empathy and sympathy. These two words are often misconstrued.

Meanings defined by Dictionary.com

Sympathy –  Noun,

– the act or state of feeling sorrow or compassion for another

Empathy –  Noun,

– the psychological identification with or vicarious experiencing of the emotions, thoughts, or attitudes of another

If you’ve been following this series, you have already gained some information about being an empath and all the good and bad that come along with being one. Often referred to as both – a blessing and a curse.

The word ‘empath’ is often thrown around loosely, and often misconstrued with other spiritual terms pertaining to psychic abilities. But plenty of empaths live among us, many you may know, and many you may never have guessed are empaths. You may detect from some friends or family who cannot watch a movie containing scenes of violence (like me), one in your circles who acts like a mother hen, always willing to help, or the one who is first to take care of a sick loved one. These are your typical empathic people who hold a great amount of compassion as they have the ability to feel other people’s pain and struggles as though it were their own. Besides the people empaths choose to help, they are extremely vulnerable to selfish, psychopathic, and narcissistic personalities who will attempt to drain them dry for as much giving and attention they can get.

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Below are some telling signs to help you find if you too are an empath:

  • You are very perceptive and highly in tune to the energy and vibes around and feel an inner knowing about something that just feels amiss . . .

Please visit Sally’s blog to discover the telling signs you may be an empath.

Source: Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – How Do You Know If You Are An Empath – The Signs by D.G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

©DGKaye2022

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – How Do You Know If You Are An Empath – The Signs by D.G. KayeExplore the spiritual side of our natures as D.G. Kaye shares her experiences and research into this element of our lives.

xWelcome back to my spiritual empath series. This is the last part of the empath series. In the three other episodes, I’ve talked about empathic communications, how to shield from negative energies, and energy sucking vampires. In this part, I’m going to share tips to help you decide if you are indeed an empath.

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Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – Communicating Through Spiritual Energy – #Empaths – By D.G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

I was recently invited by Sally Cronin to begin a new spiritual series at her Smorgasbord Blog Magazine. I used to write articles for our Fey blog that Colleen Chesebro used to run, but life was getting busy for Colleen, and she was running a few blogs, so something had to give. I had copied all my articles before Colleen closed off that blog over a year ago, but I also moved my blog platform back to WordPress last fall, and somehow during the migration of my material, my spiritual posts were half lost. So I’ve been revamping and rewriting in this series. Last week, I shared the first post in this series on Empaths and Communicating Through Spiritual Energy. I hope you enjoy reading.

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – Communicating Through Spiritual Energy – #Empaths – By D.G. Kaye

Explore the spiritual side of our natures as D.G. Kaye shares her experiences and research into this element of our lives.

Empaths and Spiritual Communication through Energy

Thanks for rewinding my spiritual series, Sally, which I’d originally written for my Sisters of the Fey blog, which is now out of circulation. Written in 2020, but no doubt still applicable.

Perhaps it’s these crazy times we’re all living in, but for people who are Highly Sensitive Persons also known as HSPs, and for those of us who are empaths with similar traits, I’ve found these last few months, and in particular these last few weeks of world-wide protests for justice, weighing me down with a heavier than usual load to carry, emotionally.

For us sensitives, we are uber sensitive to the energies emitted when the hurt in the world becomes insurmountable. For empaths and HSPs, we don’t necessarily have to be directly in front of one person to pick up energies. We can also take in the collective. And I can tell you, absorbing too much of the negativity going on in the world can be very affecting.

Empaths are ultra-compassionate people, and it’s no surprise that we are feeling way too much in this time of the world.

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The question has often been asked – what is an empath, and what makes empathy different from sympathy? So today I’m going to break it down.

Empaths can literally feel the emotions of another. An inner-knowing through a feeling of invisibly transmitted energy, is how I’d explain it. I suspect every empath has their own unique abilities about how they receive messages, just as many sensitive people, including psychics and mediums, feel spirit using one particular sense.

For example, I can sense when spirits are around me by a sudden drop in my body temperature to downright shivering, no matter the degrees it is in the room. I also sense spirit by scent. I don’t see or hear ghosts, but I sense their presence when the room I’m in suddenly begins to feel very chilly to the point that my teeth chatter as the rest of me shivers. I can smell a distinct odor of Export A cigarette smoke just as I always did when my father entered a room and when he now visits me from ‘the other side’. I get the same feeling when a mysterious waft of a certain sweet scent of perfume fills the air when my Aunty Sherry pays me a visit. Not surprisingly, I’m the only one who can smell these visitors if I’m not alone.

But I digress, I was talking about receiving empathic messages before I got lost on the ghostly messages, lol. My superpower? I like to say, I read souls. I can read and feel emotions – yes, goodness, anger, sadness, evil and every emotion in between. It’s not always a good thing, that’s for sure, but it does come in handy for sizing up situations. How to explain?

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empath communication

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How does an empath absorb the emotions of others? I can only speak from my own experience, and the best way I can explain it is – In person, it only takes a few minutes for me to sense emotions from looking through the eyes – beyond the eyes, into the soul, so to speak. Body language and words also transmit energy. Certainly, we’ve all heard some of the old clichés like – ‘the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife’. That example of thickened air is a good indicator of what an empath picks up on whenever encountering negative energy. Empaths can feel the emotions given off by others. Like I previously mentioned, I would describe it as an energy transmission – communication through absorbed energy.

I am like a sponge or a Bounty paper towel, and have therefore, learned through the years, where to keep myself away from to avoid absorbing certain energies from attracting to me. Again, hard to explain, but I’m sure almost every one of us has had a superstitious moment in life where we’re convinced there is a black cloud hanging over us, or have once felt that someone has cast an evil spell on us or maybe we just plain feel like bad luck is surrounding us. These examples are what an empath feels when we pick up negative energies about a person. And that person doesn’t have to be physically in our presence for energies to bounce off us. And not to mislead anyone, empaths pick up both good and bad energies – no discrimination. It’s just that attracting the negative energies are harder to repel. And it’s no surprise when an empath is accused of being ‘moody’ that an energy can certainly have us changing our minds like the wind.

A good example of picking up collective energies is when we’re watching the news. There really is no good news on the news and by watching too much sadness, our energies become ‘empathetic’ to the pain and sadness of others. My heart gets heavy, and my concentration is shot as my heart prefers to lead my mood. Just as when we’re around a celebration and our hearts are full, we’re going to feel joyful because that is what surrounds us. And those good energies are like refueling from being drained from other bad energies. It’s a cycle for an empath, but there are ways to help deter attracting those energies by learning how to shield.

Empathy is different from sympathy in that having sympathy is more of an offering of condolence as we may feel sorry for someone because of their loss, but we do not feel that person’s actual grief as an empath can by taking in the griever’s actual feelings and emotions. Our own bodies can feel the pain of others – as though we’re walking precisely in their shoes.

Some may think it must be so cool to have this ability, but honestly, I’d rather not have it. Being an empath isn’t something we typically train to become, but rather, it’s an inherent or unconscious developed trait. Psychics, spiritualists, witches, and earth angels are more notoriously known for having empathic abilities, but one doesn’t have to be any one of these in order to be an empath.

Being an empath is sometimes referred to as ‘a gift’, but it’s not always a gift. Many people are empathic. And many more may be but are not aware of their ‘gift’, and some are often hindered by it.

It’s been asked many times, does one just become an empath? Is it inherited? Is it learned? Well, I’ve heard various takes on the subject, but one thought of interest stuck out to me: Some empaths don’t realize that their desire to help others sometimes stems from a lack of nurturing as a child, resulting in an unconscious need to help others. I think that’s just one possible method of how a person can be transformed into an empath subconsciously, and despite there being a ‘how to’ for almost anything available, my personal feeling is that teaching someone to be empathic would be like trying to teach someone to become a psychic. We can read all we want about the subject and watch Youtube videos, and gain lots of insight from doing so, but one cannot simply just ‘become’ an empath or a psychic. Dr. Judith Orloff, Psychiatrist at Psychology.com explains how genetics and trauma can aid in playing a part in becoming an empath, in her article where she explains this a little further.

What’s it like being an empath? Well, let’s say you’re watching a depressing movie or reading a sad part of a book and your feelings are touched by what you’re reading and/or watching. You may be feeling anger, disgust, elation or any other emotion from that movie or book. The writer of the story has done a great job of painting a story and bringing the characters to life when they can evoke these emotions and the reader is drawn in and can almost feel what the character is experiencing. For an empath, we don’t require someone to narrate their feelings to us, we sense and feel the emotion. Sure, if someone shares something affecting that happened to them, I can immediately take in how they’re feeling as a result of that incident, often no words are required. It’s a vibe and energy someone gives off and that energy is transmitted into their personal space. An empath only has to look into someone’s eyes to pick up on emotion – unspoken emotions. There is definitely more than meets the eye, to quote an old cliché – ‘the eyes are the windows of the soul’, because they definitely are.

An empath is a receptor for the energy. Someone not as sensitive to these energies wouldn’t be an empath, and subsequently, wouldn’t even be able to take notice of someone around them with a hidden emotional issue unless they were informed. And sadly, it’s sometimes difficult for an empath to shield or shutdown so as not to absorb these energies. Shielding is a protective measure that is learned, it’s the virtual putting up of an invisible wall to repel the energies to keep them from penetrating into us. With that I’ll add that one doesn’t have to be an empath to learn how to shield themselves 

Empaths are usually open targets for energy vampires (suckers) because we take in other people’s energies. Our compassion can sometimes exhaust us when we encounter too much needy energy at one time. Needy doesn’t necessarily always mean the vampire is intentionally reaching out to us, but, because we are susceptible to other people’s energies and feelings – means we can sense the needy energies. We receive the feelings through energy. This is the reason I refer to these types of people as vampires – because they suck out and overwhelm our own energies as we begin feeling their pain or sadness. . . Please continue reading at Sally’s Smorgasbord

©DGKaye2022

Source: Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – Communicating Through Spiritual Energy – #Empaths – By D.G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Native Spirit Oracle Card Reading

And now for something completely different. Today I’m going to share a reading I did for myself a few days ago. I think many of you who visit here know my blog can be a bit eclectic, and sometimes random when not posting book reviews, writing tips, or rants in general. And I also know that many of you know I’m quite spiritual, tossed in with a little witchy and a little psychic, as you’d know from some of my other posts, like Sisters of the Fey articles I used to write for. But today, I wanted to share a reading I did for myself with my Oracle cards. Yup, I read cards and Runes too. Surprise!

 

 

Personally, I prefer working with Oracle cards to Tarot cards, possibly because I find them easier to interpret. I have four different sets of Oracle cards, as many readers often do. Some resonate more to me on certain days than others, but my real favs are my Native Spirit Oracle cards, which I used in this recent reading. This deck really speaks to me.

 

I’ve been learning and working with the cards for a few years now. Until these past few weeks, I had no desire to pick up the cards, especially when my husband took ill. I didn’t need to read anything about what was in store for me at that time I knew doom was impending. But ironically, I recently have become curious again about what spirits have to tell me. Maybe I’m looking for direction, but I felt a need to pull out the Native cards only. Incidentally, I’ll sometimes bring other decks into a reading, but this time I didn’t, and the reading still took me well over an hour after setting the scene and stopping to write in between interpretations. All these decks come with little booklets that interpret the cards meaning and message, which we the reader use as guidance to help interpret what we see.

 

I turned on some meditation music, cleared the room of stale energy by burning sage and incense, lit a white candle, set up my altar with my husband’s photo, surrounded by crystals, then waved my selenite wand over the cards to cleanse them, and asked for my spirit guides and angels to protect me in white light and only good spirits to be around. Then I shuffled the cards. Every reader has their own style of drawing cards. We shuffle them and ask our questions. I usually prefer to use three cards, then more if I feel I need elaboration on an answer. I let the cards choose me. As I continue to shuffle and ask my question(s), a card, two, three will either fall from the pile or stick out from the rest. Those are the cards I begin with. The others, I cut the deck in half and draw from the top if I feel I need another card or so.

 

I felt compelled to ask the spirit guides – Where do I need to be? What do I need to do? Where do I need to go, if anywhere, to find this new life I need to begin living.

 

I laid the first 3 cards face down, then flipped them over one at a time to interpret the messages. I then ultimately, ended up with five cards. The 4th one I drew because I felt I needed more clarification from one of the answers, and the last card literally dropped off the pile, so I had to add it to the story. Below you can see the 5 cards that came to me. And then I’ll share my interpretation.

 

Oracle cards

 

 

The first card on top left is Flowing River, next, the Wounded Healer, and The Trickster. And I’m adding here that the Wounded Healer card comes up for me every single time I use this deck. The next card came, The Shapeshifter, which I chose to elaborate on the Trickster’s message. And then of course, the extra card that fell, I laid on top again over the Shapeshifter. And here’s how it went with my interpretations:

 

Flowing River:  “Forgive yourself and let go.” The rivers are flowing and the flow of life are opening for me. I am no longer swimming against the current. Forgiving oneself and letting go is one of the hardest things for me to do, but spirit is telling me it’s time to stop blaming myself for the more I couldn’t do to save my husband. Logically, I know it was no longer in my hands but God’s, yet, it’s a tough thing this guilt.

 

The Wounded Healer:  Healing energy and life force are flowing to me, so says this card. I’m told I’m a healer who helps others, whether or not I know it. What needs healing now in my life is a process currently being worked on, “The cracks can be where the light enters the soul. You are a healer in the most profound sense of the word.” What needs healing in my life is being addressed by the “inner realms”. “Your strength lies in the difficulties you’ve overcome.” I discover this while I’m seeking how I can help myself, I’m told I’m helping others.

 

I’ve been told by two mediums that I was a doctor in another life and I worked with the Native medicine men in another. It makes me wonder why I’ve always been so fascinated and interested in health and medicine, especially naturopathic. Perhaps this is why this Wounded Healter card always visits me every reading.

 

The Trickster: Immediately, this card made me think of Murphy’s Law – Murphy the trickster who likes to show up particularly in Mercury Retrograde periods, which we are currently in now, and wreak havoc on most communications, reservations, appointments, technology – you get the drift. Things are not as they seem or should be in this time. This Trickster warns not to take everything at face value and to search below the surface, but also to look for the humor in difficult situations. This card asks that I step out of old routines that are keeping me stagnant. It suggested I howl like a cayote to release stagnant energy, particularly more powerful during a full moon. I did. I then asked spirit what did I need to beware of, so I shuffled the cards and asked the question and 2 more cards popped out. The Shape-Shifter popped out along with another – Gathering Your Tribe.

 

The Shape-Shifter: ” Let go of attachment to your identity. See the world around you with new eyes.” That really got my attention because that’s exactly how I feel since my husband died, that I’m seeing things from different perspectives. I’ve been observing the world around me with different eyes. SS says it’s time to manifest my dreams, And for the 3rd time in this reading I got the same message on this card, “This card chose you because it wants you to kow that you’re past doesn’t need to equal your future. Shut off your beliefs and limiting decisions that held you back from fulfilling your highest destiny.”

 

Gathering Your Tribe:  I am loved and I deserve love and support in various forms, they are flowing to me.  Speak truth and once again there’s a repeated message: “Diminish your time with those who do not empower or believe in you.”  It says if this card chooses me “sustenance in all forms” is flowing into my life. “Your people are those who resonate with you.” It says it’s my time to put my needs before others. (At this point I looked up to the screen where I was playing the meditation music on my screen, waves were crashing and a huge beautiful orange butterfly rested on a rock.) The message was telling me that my tribe are my people, and that’s what I always say to all my warrior friends. And then this last quote blew me away, “Sometimes your friends are more your family than your blood relatives.” Fact. And finishes with suggestions -“take classes, share meals, take time to find your people. You will live longer.”

 

I hope you enjoyed my sharing of my Oracle reading. I don’t do it often, but when I feel the cards ‘calling me’, it’s time for a reading.

 

©DGKaye2021

 

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – D. G. Kaye Explores the Realms of Relationships – August 2020 – #Intuition – Do you trust your gut instincts? | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Welcome to my August edition of Realms of Relationships, my monthly column I write for Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Invitation. In this edition, I’m discussing Intuition and tips to learn how to learn to trust your own intuition.

 

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – D. G. Kaye Explores the Realms of Relationships – August 2020 – #Intuition – Do you trust your gut instincts?

 

Welcome to my August edition of Realms of Relationships. Today I’m going to talk about our intuition, how to trust it, and how to sharpen our own intuitive skills.

 

Intuition

 

What is intuition? There are a plethora of descriptions and explanations for intuition. But the basic mechanics of how it works is with our natural instinctual reaction – memories usually trigger something from a past lesson, which the mind often overlooks. In the same way we know when there’s danger around, intuition or our 6th sense, is automatically activated within us.

The term ‘gut instinct’ is often associated with intuition. But did you know there is a physical connection between the brain and the gut? This is no myth. Deep within the tissue of our guts is what’s called the enteric system. There is a scientific explanation for the correlation of things we feel internally, which are connected from the brain to the gut. When my intuition is trying to get my attention, it feels like an intestinal tug in the stomach is how I explain it. Thus, the said correlation between the brain and the intestines is a sign for me.

 

Brain/gut connection

 

We’ve all had that ‘familiar’ feeling, often labeled as a déjà vu moment when our instincts pick up on a remembered moment from the past – which doesn’t necessarily mean the triggered sense of familiarity occurred in our present life, but perhaps from a past life? Déjà vu translates to ‘already seen’ from French. It’s a common term we all use when we come upon a moment that feels so familiar, having us feeling as though we’ve already been in or experienced that precise moment, quite possibly from another place and time, as it’s an inexplicable feeling without an exact recollection of where the experience was first felt.

 

Intuition

 

Intuition is often referred to as ‘non-conscious emotional information’. Einstein had referred to it as a gift. It’s a sense of knowing without a rational and sometimes inexplicable fact. Many say that only psychics and mediums are guided by intuition, but intuition is a culmination of all things we’ve learned in our experiences that are stored in the archives of our minds, which quite possibly become the catalyst for our heightened alert system, ignited by a situation that feels remembered. Material retained is deeply buried within us, although we’re unaware of the influence the sum of our memories have on us. . . please hop over to Sally’s blog to continue reading.

 

Source: Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – D. G. Kaye Explores the Realms of Relationships – August 2020 – #Intuition – Do you trust your gut instincts? | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

 

©DGKaye2020

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Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – D. G. Kaye Explores the Realms of Relationships – June 2020 -June 2020 – Empaths and Spiritual Communication through Energy | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

I’m over at Sally Cronin​’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine with my June edition of Realms of Relationships column. In this issue I’m talking about communication through intuitive knowing – #Empathy.

 

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – D. G. Kaye Explores the Realms of Relationships – June 2020 – Empaths and Spiritual

 

D.G. Kaye on Relationships

 

Welcome to the June edition of the Realms of Relationships. Today, I’m writing off course about a different kind of communication – through energy. Perhaps it’s these crazy times we’re all living in, but for people who are Highly Sensitive Persons, also known as HSPs, and for those of us who are empaths with similar traits, I’ve found these last few months, and in particular these last few weeks of world-wide protests for justice, weighing me down with a heavier than usual load to carry, emotionally.

For us sensitives, we are uber sensitive to the energies emitted when the hurt in the world becomes insurmountable. For empaths and HSPs, we don’t necessarily have to be directly in front of one person to pick up energies. We can also take in the collective. And I can tell you, absorbing too much of the negativity going on in the world can be very affecting.

Empaths are ultra-compassionate people, and it’s no surprise that we are feeling way too much in this time of the world.

You may be thinking I’ve gone off the beaten path here, talking about empaths today, but I tagged this column Realms of Relationships because in order for any relationship to flourish and thrive, there must be good communication. And when it comes to communication, an empath – receiver of messages through alternate methods of communication, has good experience understanding communication.

 

empath

 

The question has often been asked – what is an empath, and what makes empathy different from sympathy? So today I’m going to break it down.

Empaths can literally feel the emotions of another. An inner-knowing through a feeling of invisibly transmitted energy, is how I’d explain it. I suspect every empath has their own unique abilities how they receive messages, just as many sensitive people, including psychics and mediums, feel spirit with one particular sense.

For example, I can sense when spirits are around me by a sudden drop in my body temperature to downright shivering, no matter the degrees it is in the room. I also sense spirit by scent. I don’t see or hear ghosts, but I sense their presence when the room I’m in suddenly begins to feel very chilly to the point that my teeth chatter as the rest of me shivers. I can smell a distinct odor of Export A cigarette smoke just as I always did when my father entered a room and when he now visits me from ‘the other side’. I get the same feeling when a mysterious waft of a certain sweet scent of perfume fills the air when my Aunty Sherry pays me a visit. Not surprisingly, I’m the only one who can smell these visitors if I’m not alone.

But I digress, I was talking about receiving empathic messages before I got lost on the ghostly messages, lol. My superpower? I like to say, I read souls. I can read and feel emotions – yes, goodness, anger, sadness, evil and every emotion in between. It’s not always a good thing, that’s for sure, but it does come in handy for sizing up situations. How to explain?

 

empath communication

 

How does an empath absorb the emotions of others?

 I can only speak from my own experience, and the best way I can explain it is – In person, it only takes a few minutes for me to sense emotions from looking through the eyes – beyond the eyes, into the soul, so to speak. Body language and words also transmit energy. Certainly, we’ve all heard some of the old clichés like – ‘the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife’. That example of thickened air is a good indicator of what an empath picks up on whenever encountering negative energy. Empaths can feel the emotions given off by others. Like I previously mentioned, I would describe it as an energy transmission – communication through absorbed energy.

I am like a sponge or a Bounty paper towel, and have therefore, learned through the years, where to keep myself away from to avoid absorbing certain energies from attracting to me. Again, hard to explain, but I’m sure almost everyone has had a superstitious moment in life where we’re convinced there is a black cloud hanging over us, or have once felt that someone has cast an evil spell on us or maybe we just plain feel like bad luck is surrounding us. These examples are what an empath feels when we pick up negative energies about a person. And that person doesn’t have to be physically in our presence for energies to bounce off us. And not to mislead anyone, empaths pick up both good and bad energies – no discrimination. It’s just that attracting the negative energies are harder to repel. And it’s no surprise when an empath is accused of being ‘moody’ that an energy can certainly have us changing our minds like the wind – just ask my husband!

A good example of picking up collective energies is when we’re watching the news. There really is no good news on the news and by watching too much sadness, our energies become ‘empathetic’ to the pain and sadness of others. My heart gets heavy and my concentration is shot as my heart prefers to lead my mood. Just as when we’re around a celebration and our hearts are full, we’re going to feel joyful because that is what surrounds us. And those good energies are like refueling from being drained from other bad energies. It’s a cycle for an empath, but there are ways to help deter attracting those energies by learning how to shield.

Empathy is different from sympathy in that having sympathy is more of an offering of condolence as we may feel sorry for someone because of their loss, but we do not feel that person’s actual grief as an empath can by taking in the griever’s actual feelings and emotions. Our own bodies can feel the pain of others – walking precisely in their shoes.
Some may think it must be so cool to have this ability, but honestly, I’d rather not have it. Being an empath isn’t something we typically train to become, but rather, it’s an inherent or unconscious developed trait. Psychics, spiritualists, witches, and earth angels are more notoriously known for having empathic abilities, but one doesn’t have to be any one of these in order to be an empath.

Being an empath is sometimes referred to as ‘a gift’, but it’s not always a gift. Many people are empathic. And many more may be but are not aware of their ‘gift’, and some are often hindered by it.

It’s been asked many times, does one just become an empath? Is it inherited? Is it learned? Well, I’ve heard various takes on the subject, but one thought of interest stuck out to me: Some empaths don’t realize that their desire to help others sometimes stems from a lack of nurturing as a child, resulting in an unconscious need to help others. I think that’s just one possible method of how a person can be transformed into an empath subconsciously, and despite there being a ‘how to’ for almost anything available, my personal feeling is that teaching someone to be empathic would be like trying to teach someone to become a psychic. We can read all we want about the subject and watch Youtube videos, and gain lots of insight from doing so, but one cannot simply just ‘become’ an empath or a psychic. Dr. Judith Orloff, Psychiatrist at Psychology.com explains how genetics and trauma can aid in playng a part in becoming an empath, in her article where she explains this a little further

What’s it like being an empath? Well, let’s say you’re watching a depressing movie or reading a sad part of a book and your feelings are touched by what you’re reading and/or watching. You may be feeling anger, disgust, elation or any other emotion from that movie or book. The writer of the story has done a great job of painting a story and bringing the characters to life when they can evoke these emotions and the reader is drawn in and can almost feel what the character is experiencing. For an empath, we don’t require someone to narrate their feelings to us, we sense and feel the emotion. Sure, if someone shares something affecting that happened to them, I can immediately take in how they’re feeling as a result of that incident, often no words are required. It’s a vibe and energy someone gives off and that energy is transmitted into their personal space. An empath only has to look into someone’s eyes to pick up on emotion – unspoken emotions. There is definitely more than meets the eye, to quote an old cliché – ‘the eyes are the windows of the soul’, because they definitely are.

An empath is a receptor for the energy. Someone not as sensitive to these energies wouldn’t be an empath, and subsequently, wouldn’t even be able to take notice of someone around them with a hidden emotional issue unless they were informed. And sadly, it’s sometimes difficult for an empath to shield or shutdown so as not to absorb these energies. Shielding is a protective measure that is learned, it’s the virtual putting up of an invisible wall to repel the energies to keep them from penetrating into us. With that I’ll add that one doesn’t have to be an empath to learn how to shield themselves.

Empaths are usually open targets for  energy vampires (suckers) because we take in other people’s energies. Our compassion can sometimes exhaust us when we encounter too much needy energy at one time. Needy doesn’t necessarily always mean the vampire is intentionally reaching out to us, but, because we are susceptible to other people’s energies and feelings – means we can sense the needy energies. We receive the feelings through energy. This is the reason I refer to these types of people as vampires – because they suck out and overwhelm our own energies as we begin feeling their pain or sadness.

 

energy transmission

 

Don’t forget, an empath can experience happy emotions too, not just the bad and the sad, but experiencing happy and good emotions do not drain us. In fact, they can be quite uplifting. That’s why happy people are so good for the soul. And negative people drain our souls.

There are good parts of being an empath – despite an empath’s ability to attract others’ negative energy, sometimes having that uncanny ability of reading a person’s soul through looking into their eyes, can also come in handy for staying safe and sensing oncoming trouble ahead.

Just as a fine- tuned intuition will save us from making many wrong moves, an ability to be able to learn people’s intentions through looking in their eyes can help us avoid – or at least, prepare us to avoid danger. My internal alert system flashes before me if I’m in close proximity to something scary. If I’m out in public and find myself in a situation among undesirable people, or feeling a little too close for comfort, I have an early chance of escape.

I’ll observe people when they aren’t watching and look into their eyes at an opportune moment. If there’s an exchange of words, I’ll check if a smile is genuine (an empath knows). Eyes speak, so does an ominous silence – like a smile without matching smiling eyes. But I would have to say my finest tuned skill as an empath is attracting people’s sadness. My empathy is my Achille’s Heel. It may not be that someone is intentionally in my energy space, but my radar picks up on those energies. As I mentioned earlier, we don’t have to actually be in a room with someone to pick up the energy, just as we could be watching something on TV that transmits those same energies. For a seasoned empath, we can also read energies from the written word – some things like a commonly used phrase – reading between the lines, reading ‘behind’ the words that emit the true emotion behind the words.

 

I’d like to share an example of an experience I had that never leaves me to demonstrate how the energy thing works with me.

 

The Medium and the broken-hearted woman and my book.

 

About 10 years ago now, I was invited to a private gathering at my naturopath’s office by my friend Charlene, the then office manager at the clinic. Charlene invited a well-known Medium to come to the clinic to perform readings by picking up energies in the room and afterwards, the group could ask the Medium questions. . . please continue reading at Sally’s blog.

 

©D.G.Kaye 2020

 

Source: Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – D. G. Kaye Explores the Realms of Relationships – June 2020 -June 2020 – Empaths and Spiritual Communication through Energy | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

 

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