Susan closes her eyes and bows her head to say a blessing over her pizza before we begin. She grew up in a Christian church but her spirituality has grown to incorporate other practices as well. She has meditated throughout her life and thinks that is why some things come to her more easily than others, such as hypnotism. She offers reiki and hypnosis to clients, but mostly she reads people’s astrological charts. That is her favorite thing to do, her true passion and calling. And I wanted to learn more about how it worked.
How did you first get into astrology? Was it on your chart? (hee hee)
It actually is on my astrological chart but I hadn’t read it until after I started practicing astrology! It really began when I was about 8 or 9 and I saw the book: Sun Signs by: Linda Goodman at a bookstore and asked for it for Christmas. My parents gave it to me but couldn’t believe I was going to read this big text book. Yet I did, because it was one of the first book’s on astrology written in laymen’s terms and easy to understand. As I read my family’s signs, I saw it matched what my parents and family acted like. I thought, “Yes, that explains why they are doing that!” But then I put the book away for a while.
When I moved to Atlanta and didn’t know anybody, I joined a free study group through Edward Cayce’s ARE program. In this group, we talked about dreams, meditations, and other like-minded things. And so when a meditation center opened up near me, one of my friends from the group and I went to a meditation class. Then I saw they had astrology classes and that book came back to my mind. So I started taking astrology classes there and I was hooked! By the time I finished the intermediate astrology course, people were coming to me for readings. I was telling them to go away because I didn’t feel like I knew anything. It was one of my spiritual teachers, a professional psychic named Ben, who told me that I had a real gift for this, and he spread the word about me.
I finally gave in to do a reading, because this woman wouldn’t stop asking. I told her I was just a student, but Ben had told her not to take no for an answer. When I met with her, I was horrified! The reading ended up taking 3 hours and 45 minutes, but only felt like 15 minutes. Stuff just kept coming up and I would have read for her even longer if I didn’t have to pick up my car from the shop before closing. I was really into it. So I kept doing readings but it took a year or two before I felt confident doing it. I would be so scared that my hands would shake, and I would keep them under the table so nobody would see. I was thinking, “who am I to tell them what to be doing with their life when I am a total wreck?” But one day, I realized my hands stopped shaking. People were confirming that what I said was true for them, even though sometimes they weren’t telling me until a year later.
My practice has expanded almost against my will. I still get nervous when I have to speak in front of a class or group. It does not come naturally to me and I railed against it. I was forced into it because financially I couldn’t afford to push away opportunities. But really it is something my soul needs. It is my edge and how I keep growing. So now I do talks and classes as well. In fact, the biggest challenges of my life have been the biggest blessings. The challenge of not knowing where or when my income is coming has taught me to live in faith.
I’ve had friends who have received readings from you and have experienced more than just a reading of their chart. Can you tell more about your other gifts?
Yes. What happened was that as I did the work, more and more started opening up for me. Like sometimes spirit guides or passed loved ones will come in during a session. The first time it happened, I didn’t know what to do and I was kerflunked. I saw my client’s spirit guide just come in and sit down in the chair. I didn’t know they could do that! And then 2 more came in. My client had to calm me down. And my client was saying, “Just see if there is anything they want me to know.” And eventually I calmed down long enough to listen to them.
Sometimes I don’t know where the reading will go, but I have to be open and not try to control it, because it is what the client needs. I remember the first time a spirit of a loved one came in. I was reading for a woman, and man came in with the energy of a father. I tried to ignore him. But he kept saying, “I’m not leaving until you tell her that I love her.” I didn’t want to say that. I mean, who would believe that? I felt like if I was going to get a message from the beyond, it needed to be something to make that person believe it was real. I would need something specific, like the will is buried under the third brick in the basement. I wanted something that you could prove, so I wouldn’t seem fraudulent. But the guy wouldn’t leave me alone and I got pissed off. So I finally blurted out, “Your father wants you to know that he loves you.” As soon as I said it, she burst into tears. Unbeknownst to me, her father had died 3 weeks previously, and she had not been able to get to him in time to speak with him. She had only wanted to hear him say that he loved her one more time. It was a big lesson for me. It was humbling for me, that it wasn’t up for me to decide which messages were important enough to put through.
Yet, I know you said that you have to be discerning. How do you protect yourself from dark energies getting in during a reading?
At the beginning of the session, I hold hands with my client and say a prayer of protection for me and the client. And then my spirit guide is always there with me during the session. The guides help me. There have been times that I was physically too sick to stand, but I could stand up and feel well during a reading as if they were holding me up, and then I collapsed again after the reading.
You offer different readings and packages. What have you found to be the most helpful for clients?
The 4 readings a year package is the most beneficial because you can go so much deeper into your chart and your life. If you receive a reading every 3 months, then you can directly apply it to your life, instead of having me look so far in your future and then forgetting about it when it comes along. It helps you understand things more immediately in the moment and how to respond to it.
What are people’s biggest blocks to this work and how do you handle it?
Many feel like it is being gullible or being taken advantage of to pay for a reading. I have had some husbands of clients who didn’t want to get a reading because they weren’t sure they believed in it. But they gave permission for their wives to give me their chart and then tell their wives what I found. So some people are curious but they don’t want to look like a fool. And I follow ethical guidelines. I won’t read anyone’s chart without their permission. And I won’t read for anyone under the age of 18 unless their parent or guardian is there with them.
Others fear that it will make them or a loved one having a reading do something. Like a boyfriend thinking his girlfriend will leave him because something I told her in her chart. But I don’t tell anyone what to do. And I don’t have any superpowers to make anything happen just by saying it. I am just giving my best reading based on their chart.
The other thing is that I read charts from a Karmic Soul perspective. This looks at how your past-life experiences and gifts could help you in this life. If someone doesn’t believe in reincarnation, then they don’t have to think of it like that. They can just think of it as experiences from their childhood, birthright gifts, or something else. Many still find truths they recognize about themselves in the reading. And for some, the visions I get of their past lives, when I meditate about them, has given them an explanation for something in their lives. Like I had a vision of one woman as a farmer’s wife and mother of 8 kids in Ireland in the 1700’s. Her life looked like hard work and she died relatively young. When I told this woman of that vision, she started sobbing with relief. She was in her 30’s and had felt like there was something wrong with her for not wanting to marry and have kids when that was what all the women in her family did. This idea gave her comfort that there was an explanation for it and it was okay to live this way. So it is all about what helps people.
What is the most rewarding part of your work?
When I am reading for a client and I see their eyes light up, something I said made a difference. And you can see it. Several times a client has told me, “Susan, my reading with you changed my life.” And that is a profound feeling. To think that the reading helped give them something that was missing for them. It is helping to heal the world. I am contributing to helping them build a better life…to be happier, stronger, or have more power. It is the sweet spot. There is nothing that can replace that…it is the best feeling!
Would you mind sharing any predictions you have for the rest of this year along the lines COVID, the election, and the economy?
I have read the United States astrological chart and so I have some ideas. Each place, each business, even your pets all have astrological charts. Many astrologers don’t want to say their predictions because you can be wrong and then it is out there for everyone to see. I can see the energy of what is going to happen but not necessarily the specifics. Like I could predict in January that Trump’s presidency was going to be ruled by health. But I didn’t know if that was his personal health, something to do with Obamacare, or what. I had no idea about COVID at that time. So take these predictions with a grain of salt.
Here are my predictions. I think COVID will still be going strong until December but we will start to have a handle on it 2021. I think it will linger until December of 2021, but we will be more in clean up mode next year. There might be a couple hot spots but not a lot. The real problem will be the economy. We will just begin to see the effects of what COVID did to the economy next year and we will be in a recession. The Black Lives Movement will turn more into a Economic Equality movement. Some major changes will come out of this movement. As far as the elections, I believe Biden will win. I think it will come as a surprise and a big upset to Trump and he will fight it. Like he will rally his followers and blame it on Russia or something. But I think something will happen to the president in October that makes his ratings go down. (At the time of this interview back in August, she predicted that the president might get COVID and the VP would have to take over. She had also predicted in advance who Biden’s running mate would be.)
And I have never seen so many astrological things happening in one year before. Month after month after month we have crazy astrological stuff happening. Venus is in a sign for 4 months instead of 3 weeks. Mars is in a sign for 6 months instead of 6 weeks. Saturn and Pluto come together in Capricorn which hasn’t happened since the 1500’s. Instead of 4 eclipses, there are 6 eclipses. You can’t catch your breath before the next astrological thing is happening. So these are unprecedented times. But I believe it is a time of growth, that will be uncomfortable for a while, but will bring good changes.
Susan offers free horoscope predictions on her website each month. No need to sign up for a newsletter or anything. And she posts info about the moon on her Facebook page each day. Check it out!
About the Author: Julie Glaser is a healer who creates sacred spaces for people to share, release, and grow. She’s in the habit of being in awe and wonder and writes to share her own experiences and curiosities with other inquisitive souls in the process of transforming.
Spiritual Direction and Healing Touch Energy Therapy 