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.

When did you first realize that you had your gift? How did it first occur? How did you respond?
 
I have had some abilities (ie. strangeness) since I was a child.  Check out this post here for some brief info: Do You Have the Sight?
 
My first knowledge of my first guide began in 2001 after the breakup of a relatively short but emotionally scarring romantic relationship. I was sitting at my desk, lost in some useless online escapism and just feeling very low, crying and shaking and wondering what would become of my life now.  I was scribbling on some paper about how any man that came into my life from now on needed to know that I was an untamable spirit and would not bend to his will. And I just began automatic writing.
 
The first energy that came through had a definite chaotic and selfish feeling to it, it did not seem to be of good intent.  So I thanked it for its input and asked it to go.  What came after that was my guide.  She began writing about timeless wisdoms.  (All of which seemed related to the Kybalion, which I had just finished reading the day before.)
 
My guide is a past incarnation of myself and also a facet of my higher self.  At first I was in amazement at this turn of events.  I had never even entertained the possibility of me chatting with my higher self, automatic writing or having a psychic gift of any kind.  In other words, where I knew many people who DEEPLY desired these skills, I had never given them much thought and had always chalked any semblance of them that I might experience up to intuition.
 
What did you do to nurture your skills? Did you seek out a teacher? How did you "train" to do the work you do?
 
My training on the spiritual path began as my own dabbling in my teenage years.  I was told by my father that after my confirmation (New England Protestant) I could choose my own religion.  At fourteen I started looking into Paganism.  The first three books that I read were Marian Green, Natural Magic, Sybil Leek, The Complete Art of Witchcraft, and Scott Cunningham’s A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner.
 
By age 19 I had found a High Priestess of a Wiccan Goddess Tradition who agreed to be my teacher.  Being a neophyte and a college student at the same time was difficult.  But the challenges were worth it for the amount of growth and awakening that I experienced within myself.  I stayed with that group for more than ten years, and only decided for good that I was to walk a solitary path within the last year or two.
 
By the time that the automatic writing started I had already been an ordained Witch for more than three years.  I had already incorporated ritual, mindfulness and the power of one’s word into who I was.  I had seen magic and ghostly activity many times before and had become rather proficient at meditation and the power of intention.  What I am saying is that the concept of spirit contact and channeling was not foreign to me, it seemed quite natural.  Still, it was an unexpected turn of events.
 
As for how I nurtured the skills after I first found them, I would say that I had no one in my circle of loved ones or acquaintances who could help me with that.  I felt the urge to assist my fellow spiritual seekers using my connection, but early attempts to do this were misguided.  I was groping in the dark as to what these gifts were or how they were meant to be utilized.
 
I mostly kept them to myself and used them only occasionally for the first 2 years.
 
It was through much trial and error, as well as sometimes embarrassing flippancy, that I realized the best use of these gifts was whatever I most wanted to do with them.  I did not need someone else to tell me what was best, especially as the people I had queried were people who did not possess these abilities.  I would use my own inner compass (DUH!) to guide me in the implementation of these wisdoms.

Describe your channeling process. How does it differ when you are working for yourself or when you are working for a client?
 
Well, honestly, it doesn’t differ all that much.  Aside from the fact that when channeling for someone else I take an extra second to call out for their guides and ancestors.  Sometimes they come through, sometimes it is my own guides that answer their questions.
 
I used to say that I don’t have a process. But I only thought that because the process occurs so rapidly that it seems instantaneous.
 
What I do when someone orders a reading…
 
The Preparation:
 
I read their accompanying info and look at their photo.
 
I ask myself intuitively what it is that they most want and need answered at this point in their life.
 
I take their one question and make four or five questions out of it.  This helps to get the most detail and guidance about the subject as possible and to address any related issues as well.
 
The Channeling:
 
I sit in a dark room.  Doesn’t matter if it’s dark really, but it helps me see their glowing energy better.  I light one or two candles.
 
My meditation room at present is filled with tapestries, cushions, crystals and candles.
 
My partner turns on the digital recorder.
 
I sit cross-legged on the floor and close my eyes.  I take a minute to visualize my energy growing down into the Earth as roots and up into the universe as leaves.  I feel these energies coming into me and creating balance. 
 
I check that my two guides are standing by and ask them to aid me and to bar anything that seems negative from coming through.
 
Then I state the person’s name and the subject of their concerns (in my mind.)  I ask any guides, deities and ancestors of that person to come forth.  If some come, I choose the one whose energy feels most attuned to the person and situation.
 
If no personal guides come through for them I open it up to my own guides and random helper spirits.  These are ascended energies that chose to remain and help us all with spiritual development.  (ie. Buddhist monks, Mayan Priests, Egyptian Priestesses etc…)
 
Once they are firmly connected to my consciousness I give a nod and my partner asks their name.  He then reads the questions as written, between which these spirits speak very firmly and emotionally and wisely, giving guidance that we cannot always seem to access from our own spirit consciousness.
 
The whole process of a reading lasts from 5-45 minutes, generally 25-30.

What made you decide to devote yourself to being a spiritual counselor?
 
Hmmm…that is a difficult question.  I feel kind of like it decided for me.  The universe has a way of putting us right in the path of our own life purpose so that we cannot help but run into it. ;)
 
Two things that have always been a part of who I am: writing and counseling.  People would turn to me for advice and guidance, again and again, even when I was a child.  There is always the “wise” counselor in any group of friends, I suppose.  In mine, I was it.
 
I did try to do my undergraduate in psychology.  I aced it in high school and I loved studying it.  But, truth be told, I could not pass statistics class and you HAD to pass statistics to become a psychiatrist.  Why? I don’t know, I was gonna be talking to people not running epidemiological tests on them.  So after the third semester of withdrawing from that darned class I switched to a self-designed major in my other love…history and museums.  My masters was in a history-related field.
 
Oddly enough, after five YEARS of trying to get a job in the field I realized that something was blocking me. Should I go on and get a PhD?  Well, my guides had a good long primal scream about that.  “What you are meant to be doing cannot be found in a classroom!”
 
Ahhh, so I am meant to be DOING something?  And I guess it does not involve conserving 17th century furniture then? Right?
 
What then?  What is so unique about me? What do I have to offer?
 
Then it hit me.  What has everyone always complimented you on? Your writing.  And do you love doing that?  YES I DO!!!  And what do people seek you out for?  Guidance and an objective opinion.  And are you good at that? Yes I am, I think. (LOL Not very objective of me.)   Then what is unique about you that you can use as a tool for implementing these gifts in a new and exciting way?  My spiritual faith, my beliefs and experiences in spiritual development and psychic abilities, as well as my knowledge about natural healing etc... 
 
Well then, go do it!!!
 
So that is sort of how it came about.  Some days I see myself more as a spirit channel and counselor, some days I see myself more as a professional writer and (potential) public speaker.  I am still working out how they can be combined as a sole career path.  (I guess that is more of an “in my head” issue than a “material world” issue)
 
I can say that I believe I have helped many people see their own spiritual path and become more confident in the wisdom that is already within them.  That alone is reward enough for one’s efforts.
 
I am cultivating an approach of compassionate service and I work to contribute to mankind’s positive transformation in any way that I am capable.
 
We all live in light and are oneness.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 10:28 AM