Predictions Are Just Potentials
I spent a couple days at the Temple Heights Spiritualist Church/Camp in Northport, Maine recently. This was the first year I had ever been there and my first time invited to be a healer with any organization. I was convinced I wouldn’t have a single client sign up but agreed to attend to help a friend. I am happy I did it - not only was I wrong about my own prediction of the future, but I met some lovely people and heard some fascinating stories. Many of the people I spoke with had been with this church for decades.
One of the funnier anecdotes was about an old reader who has since passed away. Someone was saying they went to the reader in a group and some of the people in the group received some great insight and others did not. One of the women who did not was told she would be getting married in November. Novembers came and went and she never did get married. When the story was told, all of the other readers laughed and said “bah! You can’t predict the future. Anyone who says they can, you should run away.” And, they are right. Readers and even astrologers cannot predict the future with any certainty and anything they can tell you is not an absolute. They can only see and report on the potentials that are available to you as of that moment.
I have seen many people ask what is coming down the line (I am guilty of this question myself) or what is going to happen with this situation (guilty of this too). These types of questions are born out of anxiety, obviously, and a lack of faith. When we ask these questions we give over our power to create whatever it is we want and to choose the emotional experience that is best for us.
This road can take us to the very viral and very disempowering trend of believing that if we don’t get everything we want to “manifest” that we have a block or we did something wrong, or that we are wrong. This is garbage. Manifesting isn’t like placing an order at the drive thru where you drive up to the second window and you get exactly what you ordered or your money back. It’s more complicated than that. And, the Universe doesn’t deal in specifics. In her new Tarot Card Companion book, Victoria Maxwell says “Fortune telling is over; now, we’re carving out our own destinies” This is the right attitude to have.
I have been reading a book called True and False Magic by Phil Stutz and Elise Loehnen and its largely about taking actual action and how that’s the magic sauce in having a meaningful life. I think we have forgotten this along the way to the spiritual and wellness industries becoming mainstream. I think we would also like to believe that we don’t have the power to create and are at the whims of the Universe because then we aren’t responsible for any negative outcomes - unless someone is trying to sell us a course or an outrageously priced coaching session or reading. Then it is our fault and we need to sign up quick!
I recently did a card reading on myself where I asked a few questions related to the new moon energy a few weeks ago. It was a brutally honest reading and even though I didn’t like it - I needed it. I needed the reminder that we aren’t at the whim of Spirit or whomever is out there. It reminded me that in order to change what I was experiencing (or, more accurately, change my worry about what I was experiencing), I needed to change my stories and I needed to do the things I said I would do. Without that work from me - the potential future can’t manifest. Well, I suppose one potential future can manifest - the one where nothing changes.