A few months ago, in May, 2006, my primary Guardian JT informed me that one of my spirit guides - Julian - had completed his assignment and was interviewing guides on my behalf for a replacement to serve the next step along my Shifting Path. So, I've been anticipating the arrival of a new celestial assistant to work with me on the launch of Shift Your Spirits.

A new voice in my channel

About 3 days ago, I heard a new voice in my channel - a distinctly cheerful female voice who seemed to be always answering the phone.

No, it's not Ernestine

I could hear her saying things like

"Thank you for calling Heaven..."
"This is [an angel?] speaking..."
"How may I direct your call?"
"If you know the ext. of the party you are trying to reach..."
"For a complete directory of..."

Sometimes her dialogue was downright comical, like an SNL skit about Heaven's receptionist - like Lily Tomlin does Ernestine costumed in a glittery, white Joan Crawford uniform on the set of Frenchy's Beauty School Dropout dream sequence from Grease. I felt this affirmed the addition of my ether.com phone system... But, for some reason, I was having an uncharacteristically difficult time discovering my new spirit guide's name.

Julian comes calling and quickly moves on

It was only seven/eight months ago, in January 2006, that Julian had showed up and I went through a similar investigative process trying to determine what his assignment might be. Julian was immediately forthcoming with his name; he introduced himself, but then disappeared behind my scenes, without ever discussing what exactly he was working on back there. "Oh, no..." I thought, my first reaction one of dread. "What's he doing here?"

In my experience, the appearance of a new guide in my posse is cause for at least an Orange Alert - it means, invariably, that some possibly disruptive life event is about to occur.

Change rears her head - and both her faces:

the cruel destructive glare
and the gracious creative glance.

Change is the only agreed-upon constant in the Universe.

It takes continuous effort, but I eventually learned to focus on asking Questions, and to leave finding Answers alone -- to begin to obey the simple directive "Go with the Flow."

No matter what else I may be willfully manifesting, I keep my cosmic wetsuit hanging on my batpole - forever prepared to go surfing, at a moment's notice.

My Tower Meets The Wrecking Ball

Julian's verbal silence in my channel and his tendency to be always out of the office whenever I asked the Guardies about him filled me with anxiety.

My general conversations with my guides at that time were met more often than usual with "All is as it should be." This is intended to be a comforting, catch-all response - on good days, I leave them to their business, and thankfully turn off The Micro-Manager - on bad days, I unfurl the Red Flag and start wringing my hands in panic.

Or shuffling my Tarot deck for distinct clues that won't dissolve or distort in the swirly noise of my emotions...

For a few weeks back at the beginning of the year, I couldn't pull a card that wasn't The Tower. God help me - I knew whatever turn of my path Julian was scouting would soon require a serious change of vehicles - at worst, a firetruck; at best, if you can accept it, a U-haul.

That's a story for another time, but it was a chapter that featured a total change of physical environment. A sudden and major relocation.

Julian turned out to be a professional mover.

Now that he has executed my exodus from Atlanta, he seems in a hurry to move on, to go pull down other people's Towers and teach them how to act like his totem Butterfly.

To make another one of my long stories a little shorter

I finally figured out who this Celestial Receptionist is and what she's here to help me with. Her name is Angela - you can see how I might lose the word in a music of metaphor. We concentrate so hard on interpreting Messages from multi-faceted symbols, signs, and poetry dense with shades of meaning like feathers on a wing... It throws me when they toss anything literal on the table right in front of my face.

"Thanks for calling Heaven. This is Angela speaking - How may I direct your call?"

Angela is linked to an Akashic Directory of spirit guide names and their extensions, and she has been sent to help me man the psychic switchboard, process a heavy volume of calls [emails, in this case], and connect as many people as possible to the party they are trying to reach.

So bring it on.

Angela assists me in accessing charts -- the Akashic Records -- when I perform Spirit Guide Readings.