10 SIGNS YOU MIGHT BE FUTURE TRIPPING

Hitting the crystal ball so hard you can’t make a move without psychic intervention? Sounds like you’re future tripping, says Victoria Cox

the numinous ruby warrington victoria cox future tripping

I still recall my first psychic reading with incredible clarity. At first, I was skeptical. I held my cards close to my chest and answered any leading questions as briefly as possible.

But within minutes, goosebumps covered my entire body as she informed me that my beloved grandmother had come in from the ether to say hello and was looking after our cherished family dog. The psychic even nailed the name and breed!

I was hooked. And so over the years, I found myself going back for more. And more … 

My psychic gave me the courage to follow my soul mission as a writer and to make some pretty drastic changes in my life, all with the confidence that I had the support of the Universe behind me. This was all good stuff. The problem was, eventually, there was a gaping chasm between my dreams and my reality. To get from one to the other required action, yet I was paralyzed and fretting over a life I had yet to create. I was focusing on the future at the expense of the present. In short, I was future-tripping.

Have you found yourself getting swept up by the romanticism or sheer excitement of discovering what lies ahead? Use the 10 signs below to diagnose whether you’re seeing a psychic for the right reasons, or are simply future tripping on your own destiny …

>>>

1/REGULARITY: How often do you get a reading? Generally speaking, as long as you aren’t becoming dependent on intuitive advice, one or two readings a year should suffice. Any more than that and it’s time to start asking whether you are using psychic guidance as a crutch, and thus disempowering your own free will.

2/REPETITION: Are you asking endless questions about the same topic? We all have times of uncertainty in our lives and it is incredibly easy to fall into the trap of scheduling multiple readings until you get what you deem a satisfactory answer. Instead, remember that a good psychic reading takes time to unfold and let yourself sit with the answers from one reading for a while.

3/REASSURANCE: Seeking out psychic guidance in the hopes of reassurance is never a good idea. Especially when the search for reassurance comes in the form of asking when Lady Luck will start smiling on you again. Ultimately, this takes you out of your own personal power and leaves you sitting around waiting for life to get better instead of making things better for yourself.

4/REASONS: The reasons you’re getting psychic advice are often more important than how often you are getting it. What are you really seeking from a reading? Is this just a thinly disguised attempt to control everything by knowing everything?

5/RIGIDITY: If your sole intention in a psychic session is to receive that defining answer to a specific question, disappointment will surely follow. If a psychic is legit, the information communicated doesn’t come from them, it comes through them, and they have virtually no control over what they’re being spiritually guided to convey. You’ll receive what you need, not what you want. Two very different things.

victoria cox ruby warrington the numinous future tripping
Image: Harper’s Bazaar

6/REVEALING: Much like a first date, revealing too much too soon can be a recipe for disaster. Remember that you’re paying a professional for their time. Allow them space to do their job and lead the discussion where it needs to go so that it may serve your highest good. If in doubt, ask the psychic if you may elaborate to underscore a certain point.

7/EMPOWERMENT: Remember that the true purpose of a psychic is to help guide you through a life issue, and to empower you to make your own choices as a result of this guidance. It is most definitely NOT a comfort blanket to protect against future fears. Ask yourself whether you are seeking constructive advice on an important life question, or simply seeking a salve for your anxiety.

8/PSYCHIC-SHOPPING: Much like seeking out a therapist, when you find an intuitive that you connect with try to stick with them for a while. Developing a working relationship with one psychic helps you to build on what you’ve already discussed, digging a little deeper each time. If you find yourself hopping from one to the other in search of new material, you’ll likely end up running in circles and driving yourself insane!

9/MAKING IT FIT: Predictions can feel wondrous (if they come true), but they can also be a minefield of epic mind-fuckery. No one can really know what will happen, even those who tap into their intuition as their professional calling. The danger lies in trying to make your life work around a prediction. Trying to force a certain situation to play out any differently than it is meant to runs contrary to the natural laws of the universe and should be avoided at all costs.

10/EASY ANSWERS: The best intuitive should provide the caveat that they can’t see everything. If you find yourself being told what you should do, run for the hills. True professionals will help you find your own inner truth and offer deeper perspective on it. It’s not their job to hand you easy answers. The point is to learn to rely on your own intuition and inner wisdom.

As we try and quell our anxiety about what happens next, the most important thing to remember is that we are masters of our own destiny. Life is really about every single one of us evolving our souls through the experiences that we uncover along the way. Whether or not we choose to seek psychic guidance about these experiences is entirely up to us!

>>>

Victoria Cox currently resides in NYC. She has written for Amanda de Cadenet’s “The Conversation,” Tiny Buddha, Elephant Journal, LifeHack, The Lady Project, Dumb Little Man, Sivana Spirit, and The Numinous. You can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, or via her website.

MOVE, SIT, WRITE: 10 REASONS TO WRITE AND MEDITATE EVERY DAY

As she prepares for her Move, Sit, Write tour of the US, Tatum Fjerstad explains how learning to write and meditate every day is about sparking a conversation with your higher self. Artwork: Brian Lynch

Tatum Fjerstad on the Numinous

Call it an exercise in trading comfort for terrifying uncertainty (she does, in this brilliant blog post), but when something broke in Tatum Fjerstad in December last year, the only option was to pretty much quit what she’d been doing and start again. Which looks a lot like setting off across America to teach her twin (okay triplet) passions of yoga, meditation and writing – a.k.a. her Move, Sit, Write tour, which will take place in 15 studios in seven states, beginning March 3 in Portland, Oregon.

Up until this point, Tatum had been making her life / career decisions a lot like: If I do this, people will think it’s cool. If people think it’s cool, then I’m cool. If I’m cool, people will like me and then I don’t have to work so hard to like myself because everyone else will be doing it for me.” And if you too suspect, on any level, you might also be living this life: “Get out now,” she advises. “It will bring you to a very dark place where you will feel so very disconnected with your own wants and desires that you’ll start to have bleak feelings about how we’re all just atoms bumping into each other and everything is meaningless so what’s the point.” Our point, in general, precisely.

It’s been through her own move, sit, write practice that Tatum has learned to re-connect to and value her sense of self – and since it’s often our own wounds that lead us down the path to our dharma, who better to guide others to do the same. Here, she shares 10 reasons to write and meditate every day…

For more details of Tatum’s Move, Sit, Write tour check out her Go Fund Me page  or book tickets at Tatumfjerstad.com

1. Take An Inventory: When you create the space to listen to your patterns by meditating on and writing down whatever is bouncing around in your head, you (and only you) can decide what you want to keep and what you want to release. This doesn’t happen after one go at it. You have to do it every day.

2. Own Your Shit: When things are rough, this practice can help you get super clear on your hand in the matter. All of us are walking around with a LOT of baggage, no matter who you are, and we can’t unpack it by ignoring it.

3. Sleep Harder: I started meditating twice a day everyday and journaling once in the mornings almost a year ago. Since then, I have had some of the best naps, dreams, and deep sleeps. When you give yourself the time to slow down during the day, your body settles much easier when it’s time to do so.

4. Deeper Connections: When you become a better listener to yourself, you become a better listener to others. It’s a lot easier to put your phone down during a conversation and make eye contact with another person if you know how good that feels when you do it for yourself.

Tatum Fjerstad on The Numinous

5. Forgive Freely: This soft quiet practice initiates the nurturing of your inner teacher, who happens to be pretty benevolent, empathetic and compassionate. You’ll start to be more lenient on yourself and that will trickle down to others because you’ll realize that we’re all doing the best we can with the tools we have.

6. Treat Yourself: So many of the people I teach think this sort of work is too indulgent or they say they don’t have time. If you have time to scroll through your Instagram feed in bed in the morning, or wash your hair every day, you have enough time to get up a little earlier and do yourself this favor.

7. Increase creativity: When you sit and watch your thoughts and freely write them down you are sitting at the seat of creativity. You can’t force that shit. It has to come on its own with space and sweetness. What better space than writing and meditation?

9. Inspire Others: The longer you do this, the more your friends will want in. They will see your softness emerge and they will ask for your secrets. Share them.

Tatum Fjerstad on The Numinous

10. Get it Out: Omg, it feels so good to write a bunch of shit about someone who is pissing you off. It feels WAY better than telling them this stuff and then immediately regretting it. I’ve solved entire friendship dramas without speaking a word to them and having the conversation with myself until I was done with it. Sometimes that takes a few days, sometimes much longer.

11. Be Your Own Best Friend: You know that feeling when it’s whatever-night-of-the-week and you don’t have any plans and everyone is doing cool shit and you feel like a big loser full of FOMO? That goes away because you’ll start to really love those cuddly moments with yourself when it’s just you, a good book and some great music.

MEDITATION ARTIST: AN INTERVIEW WITH BIET SIMKIN

The girl making meditation the new nightlife, Biet Simkin shares her spiritual practices and how her higher self embraces the shocks of life with Kiran Gill

Biet Simkin on The Numinous
Artist: Viki Forshee

The Numinous: You’ve experienced a lot of loss in your life, including the death of your parents and daughter, and you describe these events as shocks that have connected you to your higher self. How have these shocks aided you in your spiritual journey? What advice would you offer someone going through a similar experience?
Biet Simkin:
Life is beautiful, but it wasn’t created to be a whole experience. It was broken into millions of shattered parts for our exploration. This is why we sometimes see the beauty in the shattered glass, and at other times the grief and rage. My advice for anyone at any time is to listen, listen to that inner voice and stay close to it. “This too shall pass,” is what they say. And eventually it does, and you will realize it was all worth it. In my life I actually remember experiencing ecstasy around these shocks. My higher self does not want a boring life. Only my mechanics or what some people call “ego” wants it all to be easy. My soul is interested in challenge and loss. My soul is interested in heartache and fear. Get interested in what is breaking you, look closely, it is in the center of these things that your grace can be found.

TN: Your father was a shaman/psychotherapist from Russia. How did his work and beliefs influence you as a child? In your present work, how do your father’s beliefs influence you?
BS: As a child, his influence aided me in being lazy, poetic and curious. He always insisted that I do whatever I want. Being the sad and confused child that I was, having just lost my mother, I didn’t want to do much but sit around, make art, eat snacks and cry sometimes. Eventually, this lack of structure led to rock and roll, drug use, world travel and many lovers. And finally, his passing eight years ago led to a complete shift in being, rendering me a most disciplined and focused entrepreneur in a healthy relationship, with a healthy diet, sober life and perpetual tangos with joy. I am his daughter; I continue his legacy of mixing fun with art and spirituality. The real icing on the cake of his legacy was laughter, and I carry that on.

TN: You have previously described yourself as having a “strong sensual energy.” How have you cultivated this part of your identity in a society that frequently represses and condemns female sexuality?
BS: I do not pay attention to that stuff and consider myself rather masculine, actually. I never really bought into the whole gender thing, it seems kind of silly to me. There are so many feminine men and masculine women….what is gender anyway? I am sexual because sex energy is the highest energy we have on Earth. It is love energy and it is the force with which we create. I consider myself a creator, and to me that is about the sexiest thing a person can remind themselves to be. I think all people want to create, so when they see someone doing it they get excited!

Biet Simkin on The Numinous
Artist: Frej Hedenberg

TN: You advocate for a more emotional meditative experience that encompasses beauty and gratitude. Why is that? How does this differ from more traditional meditative practices?
BS: My work is more than that of just a meditation teacher. I am an artist who realized that utilizing meditation and space (artistic space or otherwise) could transmute the state of a human being, so the next obvious action was getting human beings into beautiful spaces where I could assist them in transmuting their state! Everything about my work differs from anything else out there because it is an experience created from my inner world. Just like a Kubrick film is different from a Spielberg film. In my film, my work is about exploring the emotional center in a super intellectual way. I like to marry these two, and I do it well. People often comment in their testimonials that there is wit in my work. I believe that part of what makes my meditation experiences so emotional is that I laugh a lot and don’t take life too seriously.

TN: Likewise, you speak of cultivating “divided attention” throughout your day. What is “divided attention” and how does one master it?
BS: Divided attention simply means placing your attention on many things at the same time. So, one would experience the music in the room, their hand on the tea, the tea itself, and perhaps the people around them, and do that all at the same time. This helps slow down time. As it is a difficult practice, it is the ultimate practice. It’s easiest learned in a group or from a teacher, but it must be done out in the world.

TN: What are some of your greatest tools in your spiritual tool kit? Do you have a daily spiritual practice/ritual? What is it?
BS: Listen to your inner voice. It is telling you what to do and you do not listen. When you listen, you will hear it give you clear direction. My daily practice is obedience to this voice. Come hell or high water I will pursue what serves this voice within me. This means I do all the things you would imagine someone does who guards their higher state: I meditate daily, I work out, I pray, I journal, I see friends, I help people, I laugh a lot, I make love, I eat sustainable healthy food, I sleep well…It sounds kind of boring I guess, but it actually sheer ecstasy! Also, I practice gratitude as a way of “being” not “doing.” It is in being in a state of gratitude all day that everything I experience gets transmuted into food for my higher self.

To learn more about Biet and her work visit BietSimkin.com, and follower her on Instagram @guidedbybiet. Biet will be one of the featured instructors at SoulLOVEFest in September.

HOW DO I LOOK? BEFORE YOU GET BOTOX, READ THIS

This is the transcript of a conversation with magical energetic aesthetician Maureen Dodd that talked Ruby Warrington down from the Botox ledge. Literally. Until a few weeks later that is…but enlightenment is a work in progress, right?

“Botox is cheating yourself, not anybody else. There’s a way of seeing ourselves where we don’t even notice the little lines that’s completely different to what we’ve been taught. That’s what energy is. That’s what this new wave of consciousness that’s coming in is all about.

Beauty is different now. It’s not about how porcelain your skin is, it’s about seeing beyond the obvious to the true depths of beauty. We really are mystical creatures, and yet we keep defining ourselves by a three-dimensional image.

Do you ever meet people who are completely free of that, and who are just shockingly beautiful? Because in their presence you feel free of any external expectations. We all want our mother, husband or boyfriend to tell us we’re beautiful, and if you can see the divine beauty in everything, then everybody IS beautiful.

People who’ve had work look distorted – and it becomes addictive. It’s like drinking a cocktail to make you feel better, but what is the drinking fixing? Before you get Botox consider this – the fix has to come from within. If somebody feels beautiful, I guarantee they’ll look beautiful. That’s when it becomes a spiritual thing.

We limit our thinking about healing all the time, by not considering how it works on the grander, infinite scale. Do we really believe in our full potentiality? And it’s the same with beauty. Why would you judge yourself, or deflate yourself at any age? Where does that come from? The biggest evil in the world is how we belittle ourselves.

I think this hyper visual world we’re in is a phase, at some point we will all be asked to forget about these petty concerns and think about how we can come in with our full essence. Like what does it really mean to embody LOVE? It won’t be about how good you look in a selfie.

That’s all I’m interested in, the idea that we all realize we are all as valuable and beautiful as each other. Soon somebody will take it to the next level and end that conversation. In the meantime, it’s a total test. And glamour is also huge business. But it’s not reality, and a very small facet of humanity.

Fear of ageing is because mostly people are afraid of getting unhealthy and dying, because we all know that beauty comes from how you see yourself and not caring any more about what men, or other women, think. But embodying that really is a precarious little platform.

But just like you create any other success in life, you create it on the inside. I think the soul shines through regardless of what procedures you’ve had – it’s the soul that’s luminous and larger than the physical body, and somebody’s who’s really radiating light, body and soul, they’re ridiculously beautiful.

If you’re truly in love with yourself and your life, and God or whatever, you couldn’t possibly think you were anything less than beautiful. I’ve never once looked at my daughter and thought; “yuk!” – so why are we so hard on ourselves?

Sure it’s about eating right every day, relaxing, being purgative of all toxins. But essentially it’s about the relationship with yourself – there’s no escaping your face. Natural healing is always about a belief in something that’s untangible, surrendering to the idea that your body knows what to do if you can just get out of the way.

Our bodies can heal from open heart surgery, yet we don’t we believe we can get rid of a few little lines organically and deeply from inside…what’s wrong with us?

Botox is a little poisonous Band-Aid. It’s like being bitten by a snake. Beauty beyond Botox is about a complete shift, and lifting your consciousness to where everybody is beautiful. It’s about dropping narcissism, the self-obsession that goes beyond ordinary awareness and becomes distortion. Can’t you do something better with that energy?

Stop thinking about the way you look all the time and just actualize yourself beautiful. It’s like dressing up for Hallowe’en – just do it, just be it.

The whole Botox question become so silly when you think about just how magnificent we are – like, who cares about some lines on our face? Honest to God, what is wrong with us? What is that? Maybe it’s a calling to a higher level of consciousness. After all, life is full of initiations.”

Maureen Dodd is Director at Spiritual Wellness and Energy Therapies at The Ash Center.

INTUITION 101: HOW TO BE YOUR OWN PSYCHIC

Last week at the Golden Bridge yoga center in NYC, Gahl Sasson, a.k.a. the Cosmic Navigator, hosted an evening called Becoming Your Own Psychic. If “intuition is like a muscle, you have to strengthen it,” Ruby Warrington reports on a practical session that was sort of like a workout for the third eye.

The evening kicked off with a round of names and signs. Why? “We can’t do this without water. Intuition is ruled by the water signs, Pisces in particular.” In fact, wherever Pisces shows up in your chart, “is where you will benefit most in life from what your intuition is telling you.” For me (an Aries but with six planets in water signs throughout my chart), I have Venus (romance, taste, personal style) in Pisces in the 3rd house (communication, friendships, community). No wonder I just did a psychic closet clear out, and my friends often tell me they’ve just been thinking about me when I call.

There’s even a theory that Pisces was actually the first sign of the zodiac, and that all the others are just a figment of Pisces’ potent imagination. And in fact, any activity that gets you closer to your inner Pisces is a good way to get your intuition (“the ‘tuition’ that comes from ‘in’ side us”) flowing – “so go for a swim, take a salt bath (“a little temple of Pisces”), take a yoga class or read some poetry.” Particularly before bed. Pisces also rules our dreams, so tune in just before you set sail for the land of nod and expect much more clarity when you try to interpret whatever messages your sleeping psyche has for you.

And never forget, the opposite sign to Pisces is Virgo. By being fastidious with our daily habits and our analysis of the world around us, and working to maintain good health through diet and exercise, will we create the right internal environment for our intuition to flourish.

There follows a series of practical exercises, drawing on cultures from the Kabbalah to the Aborigines to the C.I.A. (yes, really) to flex your psychic muscle.

THE DREAM QUEST
“Pose a question to your higher self while you’re asleep, and you brain is not impeded by logic.”

  • Refrain from drinking alcohol for three days prior to your quest
  • Refrain from eating food four-five hours before you go to bed
  • Right before you go to sleep, pose a very specific question to your higher self. Use the words; how, when, where, what…(as opposed to why)
  • Drink half a glass of water, and go to sleep
  • On rising, drink the rest of the water and immediately write down what you can remember from your dreams
  • If you find it difficult to remember what you saw, set your alarm for four a.m. to interrupt your dream mid flow, and write then
  • Repeat for up to seven nights, until your answer is revealed by the symbols in your dreams. Think, how do the images feel to you, and what do these feelings relate to?
  • For extra insight, find a poem that relates to the most potent symbolic messages by plugging them into Google

THE ANGEL IN A CUP
“Use this to allow your higher self to locate something that’s gone missing.”

  • Take one angel, and one glass
  • Holding the glass out in front of you, ask the angel to hop in, and then place it upside down on a table to trap the angel inside
  • Search for whatever it is that’s missing – your keys, your passport, your child
  • As the boundary of the glass creates “focus” for your psychic energy (represented by the angel) you will likely hit your target in record time
  • Release the angel and let it fly away

DISTINGUISH INTUITION FROM FEAR
“How do you know if it’s your gut or your fear telling you to act? The sensations can be similar so train your body to tell the difference.”

  • Download some music you know you will really hate. For some people this might be gabber house, for others, anything by Justin Bieber
  • Force yourself to listen to it, loud
  • Take note; where do you feel the sensation of disgust in your body? What does it feel like?
  • Repeat with a piece of music you really love
  • Take note; where do you feel the sensation of pleasure and happiness in your body? What does it feel like?
  • Remember the difference between your physical experiences of aversion and attraction. This is your body’s way of communicating what you need to know

(N.B. this experiment can also be conducted using food)

THE SORTES VIRGILIANAE
“Named for the ancient Roman poet Virgil, when mystics would use passages from his Aeneid to predict the future.”

  • Chose a book you feel emotionally connected to, or that resonates with you in relation to your situation
  • Pose a very specific question to your higher self
  • Open the book at random, and select one sentence from the page
  • Using this passage,  work with your intuition to find the answer to your question

AUTOMATIC WRITING

  • Take a blank piece of paper and a pencil
  • When you are very tired and by the light of a candle, spend five-10 minutes writing down the first things that come into your head
  • Without reading what you have written, go to sleep
  • Repeat for 30 days
  • Only at the the end of the 30 days, read everything
  • Circle the things you have no recollection of writing down, and string them together to create a message or poem from your higher self

DEVELOP YOUR INTUITION, C.I.A. STYLE
“In 1995, President Clinton revealed records of a C.I.A. investigation into the validity of psychic activity by the intelligence community, instigated as a counterfoil to similar activity by the K.G.B.”

  • Close your eyes and relax deeply
  • Focus on a background
  • Focus on a colour
  • Focus on a symbol
  • Focus on a smell
  • Focus on a sound
  • Think, are there water, plants, people, food or animals in the picture you are creating?
  • Think, are there round shapes, patterns, hard edges, is the image soft, linear or cloudy?
  • Open your eyes and draw the picture your higher self has created. This is where you will find your mark.

Like any muscle, with your intuition it’s a case of use-it-or-lose-it, so practise these techniques regularly. Start an “intuition diary” to make a note of symbols, noises and smells that light a psychic spark in you, so you can track the daily workings of your higher self.  After all, who doesn’t want know how to be your own psychic?

You should also be aware that as you open up your own energy field and begin to blur the boundaries of time and space, you’ll become more susceptible to negative vibes sneaking their way in along with the insights you now have access to. So here are some practical tips for creating a cosmic force field to protect yourself as you delve into the unseen.

www.cosmicnavigator.com
@gahl1