The Woman's Garden
DEFINITIONS
NATURAL WITCH
Someone who was born with their abilities.
EMPATH
Different Empaths have different gifts to offer. For more detailed information, "Empowered By Empathy - 25 Ways to Fly In Spirit" by Rose Roseree is an excellent place to start. Another good source is the writing of Jad Alexander, who was the Founder of and a Teacher at The Empaths Group: The School Of Empath Psychology, an organisation devoted to training up and coming Empaths, and to promoting the development of Professional Empath Consultants. (Jad has now passed on).
I identify most strongly with both of the following descriptions of Empath abilities, as defined by Jad in his research quizz in
"The Book Of Storms".
SHAMANIC EMPATH
You are at one with nature and can speak with animal/plant life. Your powers come from the Sun and the Moon, and the elements. The weather moves with your mind and all of nature is at your beck and call.
HEALER EMPATH
You take in the energy of others and transmute it. You trigger transformation in others and free trapped energy. You are capable of great healing abilities. You walk between the worlds and bring waves of healing energy with your presence.
PSYCHIC
These descriptions, (taken from a series of articles by Alana Fairchild, published in "WitchCraft" magazines 38/40/41, in 2004), are very brief, and are based on the Wiccan belief system. For further explanation, there is an abundance of material available to explore.
- CLAIRCOGNISANCE: The Wisdom Of Fire
The truth of a situation simply occurs to you, seemingly out of nowhere, but all of a sudden, you just know. You cannot try to know something - you will either know it or you won't. If you've heard someone speaking, and know just what they're going to say next, you have encountered claircognisance.
- CLAIRVOYANCE: The Wisdom Of Water
Clairvoyance can mean having visions of people or places, be they from the past or future, symbolic or literal. it can mean receiving information in the form of visions from your spirit guides, or from your own higher self. Some clairvoyants speak of seeing 'movies' run in their minds, for others, impressions are more etheric, such as perceiving chakras and auras, and others (in fact most) will have impressions that register in their mind's eye or inner eye.
It will flow, it will ebb, you will receive one image, then another and another, following each other like ocean waves.
- CLAIRAUDIENCE: The Wisdom Of Air
Inner hearing, or clairaudience,...in which you will hear with your
inner or etheric ears. Have you ever had a song playing over and over again in your mind? That's pretty similar to how you will
experience clairaudience. Etheric hearing is like hearing something clearly, but not in physical sound.
Clairaudients tend to hear the truth underneath what is being spoken, and will be very sensitive to the intonation, tone and quality of the voice. Sounds and words will hold a great deal of power for them and they will often hear what is unspoken as though it were actually said.
- CLAIRSENTIENCE: The Wisdom Of Earth
Clairsentient people are very empathetic. They really feel what you're going through, often physically recording it in their own bodies. They can often tell you with more clarity what you are feeling than you would have been able to tell yourself!
- IN SUMMARY; If you are seething with anger and proceed to say,
"I am not angry", a clairaudient will hear the tone in your voice and deduce that you are angry; a clairsentient will feel the anger emanating from you and deduce that you are angry; a clairvoyant will see your scrunched up face and fists (and perhaps have a vision of steam coming out of you ears!) and deduce that you are angry; and a claircognisant will just know that you are angry.
- TELEPATHY
Have you ever been singing a song in your head and someone else starts humming the tune? Or rung someone who, on hearing your voice, said "I've just been thinking about you". What about finishing someone's sentences for them? These are not mere coincidences - they're examples of telepathy.
Telepathic communication is, in its highest form, mind-to-mind communication that does not involve spoken word, auditory or visual stimulation. There are many forms of telepathy and emotional telepathy is one common form...We discussed emotional telepathy when we looked at clairsentience...
- CHANNELLING: Spirit
The Fifth Element of Spirit surrounds us and moves through us at all times, and many Wiccans refer to this as the Goddess - though you may have your own way of referring to the universal intelligence or life force that is our universe. It is this intelligence that you tap into when channelling answers from your higher self on any topic you require (end of WitchCraft reference).
Channelling is the information coming through you, in one form or another ie you become like a channel for the information to flow/pass through (this last part of the definition was provided by Ann Weeks).
- MEDIUM
Mediums have been made famous by TV shows such as "Medium", based on the life of Alison DuBois, "Crossing Over", with John Edward, and "Beyond", with James Van Praagh. All of these particular Psychics can talk to or see people who've died. Whilst not all Psychics can do this, a Medium is a bridge between one world and the next and all Psychics communicate with the Spiritual Realms in one form or another.