True story.
I was in my early twenties when my father took his last breath. I was a business major who read GQ. A year later, I was a Philosophy major who read Magical Blend. I wanted answers as to where my dad went and left no stone unturned exploring every faith, energetic modality, and spiritual tool I could find. Many paths full of compassion. Many dead ends.
As memory fades, I don’t recall how I learned of the underground psychic who lived in the woods in rural Ohio. I am not even certain why I sought her out as my experience with those claiming strong PSI abilities had been severely disappointing to that point and I began to feel like the Amazing Randi finding a sublime satisfaction in exposing what I thought were false paths.
The short January meeting itself is still fresh as I quickly realized I had discovered another charlatan. We began with her recording the entire session and asking if I had any questions.
At the time, I was deciding where to live. I had narrowed it down to a cabin outside
Columbus, Ohio, or a loft downtown. I knew a few things, and one was that I was a
Buckeye for life. She informed me that neither appeared to be the path I was on and that I would be leaving the state within the year. Strike one!
In those early internet days, she never asked me anything about myself but proceeded to tell me that my grandfather was standing over my shoulder as my guardian. Could this be strike two? Why not my father? Did she assume it was safe that a 21-year-old still had both parents alive? Even as grandfathers went, she was unknowingly down to a 50/50 chance as my maternal grandfather was still very much on this mortal coil.
Without prompting, she informed me that it was my paternal grandfather placing his hand on my shoulder. Someone I never met who passed 20 years before I was born. She said my dad was struggling to forgive himself for actions towards his family and so his own father was standing in during this period of self-created purgatory. She shared that the greatest gift I could give my father and myself is forgiveness allowing us both to journey forward in peace.
This knowledge was so spot on and improbable, I am surprised it did not hit harder but I still could not get over the fact that she was so wrong about the initial question regarding my future location, so I tossed the tape and her contact information in the trash and moved on, mostly forgetting the whole affair.
A month later I started corresponding with a pen pal living on the east coast, a few months later I went to meet her for the first time sight unseen. Before the year was out, this lifelong Buckeye had packed up and moved out of state to be nearer to her. We have been together for over 20 years now. By far, the most magickal two decades of my life. We live on a street that bears my father’s name. Each day, I see it on the street sign outside our window.
20+ years ago, I watched my father wither away until the shell was all that remained. I saw the loss of a caterpillar disappearing into a cocoon. My eyes were not ready to see the transformation. Butterflies also emerge from those same cocoons.
I met the psychic in January and deemed her mostly a fraud shortly thereafter.
December of that same year I left Ohio for good just as she mentioned. This recollection brought the entire session back into focus.
I am grateful I met someone who could see butterflies.
I love this life and every experience that led me to this very moment. Being a single drop of water is precious. Feeling a connection to all the other drops around me is precious.
Knowing someday I will travel back to the full ocean itself is precious.
Knowledge and communication travel in many forms beyond the rational/logical. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed but can only change forms. Someday the energy that I embody will do the same transition as those that came before me. I am at peace not knowing all the fine print.
Until the moment I take my last breath, I repeat a mantra each day. One that was given to me many years ago in the woods of rural Ohio. “Dad. All is forgiven. I love you.”
Scott Norris a vegan witch and a Reiki Master whose altar consists mainly of
Marvel/DC, Jedi, and Istari pantheons. He believes that expanding our circle of
compassion is the best path towards a potential future of compassion and non-violence.
