Vera Nadine is one of those lovely people whom I've met only in cyberspace. We discovered each other's blogs, became regular mutual commenters, and occasionally ran across each other on other sites that share our passion for spiritual writing and clever observations about leading the life of a "lightworker." When I was having some technical difficulties with my site at one point, Vera even offered the help of her webmaster for troubleshooting. Who says you can't have true friends you've never met in the third dimension? And that, I guess, is the point.

Having devoted herself a few years ago to being a spiritual counselor to others, Vera has put her naturally-given gift as an intuitive psychic channeling guides from other dimensions, using her "connection to the divine and understanding of the magic of Universal Love in order to assist others in this realm who wish to find their own Higher Self." When you ask Vera to do a reading, she will eagerly help with any issue you feel the need to address but she especially likes guiding people to their truth, their Will with a capital W.

No one can tell you what is true (and never trust anyone who thinks that they can). Only YOU can KNOW if a truth is true for you. I share my truths in the hopes of bringing you closer to finding your own.

My wish is simply to guide you to your own inner light, to better your understanding of the energy of love that is within you so that you may use that love light to better the lives of others and the energies of this world.

A few weeks ago, I was approaching my birthday and feeling like I needed some insight into the direction my life was heading. My own meditative practice and communication with my spirit guides had become rather stuck and I thought I needed some help to get to the information I was seeking. I turned to Vera for help and she did a reading for me.

The way Vera works is that she asks you to send her a question pertaining to your spiritual path that gets to the crux of what you want to know. She also asks for a photo of yourself and brief background information on your situation, life, etc. Then she sits down to rewrite the question in several forms; this helps to elicit a good response from the guides. She schedules a time in an evening and sits down to channel guides, recording the session while she's working. Sometimes the guides that come through are Vera's guides who come to her with information about the person on whose behalf she is working. Sometimes those who choose to speak to her are angels or ascended beings who have something helpful to offer the querent. Often, since Vera is channeling guides for someone specific, that person's guides actually come to her with messages for their guidee. The result is truly fascinating.

In her reading for me, two guides appeared who identified themselves by name - way cool, I thought. I'm not entirely sure, but I think that the guide who did most of the talking was an ancestor who has come to me as an unidentified woman in many of my own meditations and shamanic journeys. The other guide, who appeared more briefly, Vera identified as a Goddess-type being - perhaps an ascended soul.

One of the things that's very satisfying about having a reading with Vera is that she provides MP3 files of her channeling session so you can actually hear her speaking with the guides. This is followed by another audio file of commentary that she records later explaining her experience during the reading and other impressions that she as the psychic took away from it.

If you have never done shamanic or meditative work that teaches you how to connect with spirit guides, or like me your spiritual phone line isn't giving you a dial tone, then I would definitely recommend working with Vera. She is smart and compassionate and very good at creating an experience that will help put you on the right path toward self discovery and positive change. My witchcraft teacher believes that everyone has guides, it's just that those who are not taught how don't know how to access them. Working with Vera would be a great way to make an introduction!

Vera also has a great blog wherein she writes of her experiences and wisdom that comes from her spiritual work.

Ever the fan of Blogickal, Vera kindly offered to give my readers a 40% discount on readings. This offer is good for the next two weeks. Just enter this code when you are ordering a reading on Vera's website: BGCKL08.

I interviewed Vera about her psychic gifts and how she came to be a spiritual counselor. The contents of that interview are below.

Continue reading "Vera Nadine, Intuitive Psychic"

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 10:28 AM | Comments (1)
Category | Magickal Miscellanea

A while ago, I wrote a post discussing scientists' claims that a world without bees is a world without chocolate. So I found it incredibly synchronistic when recently Luna introduced me to Help the Honey Bees within a couple of weeks of my most favorite chocolate company promoting special bee chocolates for Mother's Day. Mother Earth. Bees. Chocolate. It all connects.

Available only for another few days, Burdick Chocolates is offering Chocolate Honey Bee Rounds:

These beautiful gold rounds are filled with our limited selection of chocolates celebrating the sweet themes of honey and roses. They feature our scrumptious Honey Bee, piped from a honey ganache and finished with dark chocolate, almond almond wings and white stripes. Our Bee Truffle is a rich honey, sauternes wine & dark chocolate truffle, hand-piped and finished with an edible gold bee. Scattered throughout are Rosehip Tea bonbons topped with candied rose petals.

I can scarcely imagine anything that sounds more delicious! And the lucky person who finds one of two Prize White Honey Bees will win a monthly delivery of Burdick Chocolate for a full year.

Let's hope that the honey bees stay around longer than these chocolates.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 10:16 AM | Comments (1)
Category | Frolickal

Luna turned me on to this honey of a site: Help the Honey Bees.

Here you can learn all about the plight of our honey bees, how to save them, and even create a honey bee avatar for yourself. You can make bee portraits of your friends and send them via email, which in turn alerts them to the plight of the honey bees. See how nicely that works?

When your friends receive their Bee-mail, they will learn:

1. Honey bees are responsible for pollinating one-third of all the foods we eat, including many of our favorite fruits, nuts and vegetables.

2. Alarmingly, more than 25 percent of the Western honey bee population has disappeared over the last several winters, threatening our food supply and our way of life.



3. Many of the honey bee deaths are being attributed to a mysterious threat called Colony Collapse Disorder, which causes bees to suddenly leave their hive and die. Unfortunately, not much is known about this new threat.

4. Researchers are working to find a solution to Colony Collapse Disorder, but there are ways that we can all help the honey bees today. Learn more about bees and what you can do to help at helpthehoneybees.com.

I've seen lots of websites about bees and how we need to save them, but never before has one been so much fun. This site so appeals to my sense of aesthetics - I love everything about it - from the pretty graphics to the cheerful tune playing in the background (and I usually hate music on websites). And, of course, the adorable bees! You can download the homepage graphics as a screensaver and listen to the gently blowing breeze and the buzz of the bees right from your own computer. I'm such a geek for this kind of stuff.

So, have some fun. And help the honey bees!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 11:06 AM | Comments (1)
Category | Frolickal

Our community mourns the crossing over of one of modern witchcraft's most treasured elders, Cora Anderson, co-founder of the Feri Tradition, who died on Beltane.

Thorn Coyle says: "Sex and death, the cycle continues. What is remembered, lives."

While it turned out that now was not the right time for me to begin training in the Feri Tradition, my own feelings about spirituality have definitely taken a turn in that direction. As is often the case with those of us who are young or simply new to our practice, we come to it without the honor of knowing some of the great teachers who have come and gone before us, yet whose work and wisdom guide us as we travel our path.

As part of a three-day vigil planned for her, everyone is asked to light a candle to aid her spirit and in her memory. Even from this place so far removed from her in person, I hope it honors Cora Anderson that I add my own blessings to those being offered by those who knew and loved her.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 11:54 AM | Comments (1)
Category | Community & Culture

I found this photo at SFGate.com's Day in Pictures.

"Naked pagans of the Beltane Fire Society celebrate warmer days and nights on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, Scotland. The group's procession marking the end of winter, a revival of the ancient Celtic festival of Beltane, draws about 12,000 spectators."

Wow, that's some party!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 8:27 AM | Comments (1)
Category | Holidays & Rituals

Today is Beltane. I could go on about the symbolic and spiritual significance of the turn of the wheel of the year, when Spring turns into Summer and the land turns green as plants begin to grow and everything reveals its fecundity. I'm more interested in the fire aspect, frankly. What my body and spirit are calling to me to do is revel in the red hot passion of a day that tells us that not only is it okay but it is encouraged for us to go out and boink our brains out and celebrate the beauty of unashamed human sexuality and fertility. If ever there were going to be a time when making passionate love could transcend the merely carnal to become a sacred act, today is it.

Where my head - and seemingly every other part of me - is today is making me feel very Red, the Sera Beak sort of Red, celebrating "The Golden Age of divine booty calls." In addition to her delicious Red Book, Sera has lots to say about getting your spiritual groove on at her blog, Spiritual Cowgirl. If you need some inspiration to make your day Red, turn to her.

What potent blood hath modest May.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Indeed.

Wishing you many Beltane blessings!

~~~~~

And elsewhere in the Beltane blogosphere:

Luna finds a number of ways to celebrate a Happy Beltane

Anne Johnson writes a poem full of Beltane Blessings

Jason Pitzi-Waters wishes us A Merry Beltane at The Wild Hunt

Hecate has a few posts on Beltane

A decent overview of the history and customs of Beltane: link

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 10:07 AM | Comments (1)
Category | Holidays & Rituals

What would the world look like if everyone lived like me? Consumer Consequences is an interactive web game designed to answer that question precisely.

Part of American Public Media's special series, Consumed, which explores whether the modern American lifestyle is sustainable in the long run, Consumer Consequences asks as series of questions about your lifestyle. As you play, it shows you how many "Earths" of natural resources it would take to sustain the 6.6 billion people on this planet if they all lived like you. The graphics that appear onscreen as you play reflect the waste you produce, the infrastructure you require, the energy you consume, and how your lifestyle impinges on forests and other undeveloped land. The program calculates your ecological footprint based on the information your provide, lets you compare your lifestyle with other players, and gives you a chance to modify your choices and reduce your footprint.

How did I fare? Terribly!

Look at that - it would take 4.2 Earths to sustain everyone if they lived my lifestyle. Yikes! For someone who lives in the city, doesn't own a car, walks everywhere for the most part and buys organic food, I certainly leave a big footprint. So what is this city witch to do?

Well, to start I found this article on How to green your life. I also searched for books on the subject and among the many available found these that appealed to me:

Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World

Wake Up and Smell the Planet: The Non-Pompous, Non-Preachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day

Go Green, Live Rich: 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying

The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time

And coming this summer: Llewellyn's 2009 Green Living Guide

It looks like I have some reading to do and some changes to make in my lifestyle! Kermit was right - it's not easy being green!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 8:13 AM | Comments (0)
Category | Purely Personal