The Sword & The Swan: Angels & Gods Among Us

What you’re about to read will challenge you. It may enrage you. It may confound you. It may give you reason to feel joy, or anger, and for some it may lead them to turn away from me, my story, and what I offer forever. It will be unbelievable to some. Others will believe it, others will believe parts of what they read here, and yet it is guaranteed: whosoever reads this will have their beliefs and convictions challenged.

Please know: I loathe dogma, or what I would consider strict religious or spiritual belief. I see dogma as the idea that “My understanding of spirit is right and yours is wrong.” We see too much of that in organized religion, and even in the New Age world, and I do not offer that up here to you now. I believe a person’s spiritual experience and the way they make their way through this world should be just like their sexual experience: theirs and theirs alone. A person’s spiritual path is a highly experiential one and one that is their own.

I present my story here as one that may expand your horizons, not define them. With that said, the stories presented here may rock some boats and I offer no apology for that. I honor the spirits who surround me by sharing these stories in hopes they help others.

Another warning: this is a long story, or a collection of stories and experiences that build upon one another. I often compare my life to a combination of the Twilight Zone and Indiana Jones, where I have odd and wonderful things happen to me that lead me down various paths of discovery. This is no different. I will tell you that what I offer here is an example of what my life consists of. Take it to heart or dismiss it completely - I know the people who should hear this will hear this. And please, stay with it - it’s long, yes, but there’s a reason why I share with you and I believe it will help those people who read all the way through and follow the suggestions I offer near the end.

I am an expert in nothing other than my own experiences. When I share my personal experiences, I do so for a few reasons. First, I blessedly have so many wonderfully peculiar experiences that I feel it’s important to document them. Part of my journey has been the wonder of showing people that the world of spirit does indeed exist, and it interacts and overlaps with our world in so many different ways. I also share my experiences because I feel people will benefit from them, and this is true of the experiences I’m about to share here.

If you’ve ever met me, if you’ve ever had a reading with me, I would hope you know that I’m as down-to-earth as I could ever hope to be. Every day I do my best to shun arrogance and to cultivate humility - I know the gifts I have are actual gifts, and not just some genetic fluke. I know that the gifts bestowed upon me by Spirit make me different from others, and yet I will always do my best to remember that I am not better than others. In this field, I see arrogance and conceit on a regular basis, and while it is repulsive to me, I see it as a reminder of what not to grow into. For that I’m very thankful. While I do not prefer to use the word “healer” to describe what I do, people do indeed find healing, and as those in the healing arts would hopefully tell you, it’s always good to have a mirror.

Many of you know, those of you who have followed along on my journey, that I found this path a few years ago because of work that I did around ancestry and genealogy, and prior to this unfolding, I was very much just a guy who just liked scary movies. And really, I still do! I always have, ever since I was a small child. The season of Hallowe’en is my favorite season and will forever be. I can remember my 2nd-grade teacher marking on schoolwork I did back then with something to the effect of “Great work - but you are so macabre!”

Prior to this unfolding, as I said, I was just a guy who liked scary movies. Also, I wasn’t spiritual or religious in any way. This is important, especially considering the tales that I’m about to share here. My parents were working-class, my mom a waitress and working in factories, my dad a construction worker. They were both from farming families and neither of them had time for religion or spirituality. My dad didn’t much care, and when my mom thought she was doing her motherly duties by exploring churches in our area, she grew disgusted that they would only tell her why the other churches were wrong and not why their church was right. Again, this is important context as what I’m about to share here could be misconstrued for the ramblings of someone who suffered the trauma of religious systems.

For quite some time in my life, since about the age of twelve, I’ve had serious issues with religions of any kind. As a gay man, I’ve suffered the wrath of society and culture telling me that I’m an abomination - and most of this has come from those who would claim to espouse the teachings of Christ, of love and compassion. I’ve had quite the journey around religion and only within the past few years have come to judge people by their actions and not the religious label they wore. There was quite a while in my life that if I found out a person was a Christian or anything of that flavor, I would automatically assume they hated me and looked forward to seeing me burn in the flames of Hell.

I still meet those people from time to time.

Now, I understand that there are people who feel that way and yet claim no ties to religion, and there are people who are very religious and feel nothing but love towards me and my husband. I don’t care what people’s religious expressions consist of, so long as they don’t consist of doctrines that hinder or oppress the lives of others. I’ve come a long way and while I’ve had major problems with the Christian and Catholic religions, I believe it now to be childish and spiritually-infantile to completely discard and reject everything about a spirituality as vast and old as Christianity. I can no longer think that every drop of wisdom or teachings, every person who came from those faiths, were evil or nefarious by default. While I did indeed think that for a long time, I recognize that now as a response to the trauma I received while growing up within those frameworks. I’ve come to realize that Christianity is a tool, and not a weapon specifically - and just like any sort of tool, humans have a way of twisting them into weapons of destruction and oppression.

It’s a messy, messy world, with an even messier history created by super messy people.

With these explanations, I hope I’ve set a foundation for what’s to come: that the world of the Dead, the world of Spirit, is one that’s relatively new to me, and for all that I’ve had so much happen to me while stepping into this role.

Here, I want to speak to you about angels and the very tangible experiences I’ve had with them. “Angel” is such a loaded word, for many reasons. I have always known the word angel, with my limited religious exposure, as the “soldiers” of God, the winged beings in the white gowns with halos over their heads. Now, with my experiences, I know that couldn’t be further from the truth. My experiences with these beings began a couple of years ago, when the angel Gabriel paid me a visit, and if you haven’t read that story, you can here: https://www.joshsimonds.com/blog/sanctity

It was less-than-pleasant, to put it lightly, yet a visit that I sorely needed. In fact, it was one of the most intense spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental experiences I have ever been through. It’s still hard to believe it looking back on it.

The word angel comes from the Greek word “angelos,” or “messenger.” According to Wikipedia, angels are defined as the following: “An angel is a supernatural being in various Circum-Mediterranean religions. Abrahamic religions often depict them as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include protectors and guides for humans and servants of God… Humans have also used "angel" to describe various spirits and figures in other religious traditions.”

From my experience, I’m not sure how much the spirit or being we would refer to as an “angel” is different from a god, goddess, or deity. I am not one for strict dogma or restrictive religious belief, so I tend to keep my definitions simple. I consider them “super” spirits, much more powerful than the spirit of a human. In my work as a medium, I call our Ancestors & Beloved Dead “umbrellas” - in my mind’s eye they are like rays of light that hover over and near us, protecting, guiding, and healing us as much as they are able. These “super spirits” known as angels are what I would consider the umbrellas of our umbrellas, and us at the same time, those living on Earth.

Again, it’s far more complicated than that, I’m sure. As with most matters of Spirit, I’m not sure if we’re capable of understanding fully how their world interacts with ours. We probably won’t have full understanding until we’re where They are, wherever that is. And even then, we may not have full capacity of how vast and complex that existence is. It’s difficult to even comprehend fully the vast complexity of the human world while we’re here. With that said, I know that our “umbrellas” exist - both our Beloved Dead and these super spirits who are protective, benevolent, and compassionate towards us and our existence.

After my interaction with Gabriel, I had another, far more subtle experience with another one of these angelic beings, one of these super spirits. This time it was with the being we would know as Michael, and while many people have preconceptions of what this being is and what he’s responsible for, it seems that my relationship with him is developing in a very unique way. Here’s a blog accounting how I was introduced to him, in case you haven’t read it: https://www.joshsimonds.com/blog/butterflycross

I must reiterate here: I am someone who must be shown something in a tangible manner to believe in it, for all that means. Again, I point back to the fellow who didn’t believe in any of this “spiritual stuff” and only stepped into this role when I was presented with undeniable evidence. Throughout the years that I have done this work, I have also been introduced to several other “super spirits,” including Hecate, Freya, Kwan Yin, Vishnu, and the Native American Corn Mother. Interestingly, other than a few personal relationships that spontaneously happened with some of these super spirits, I would encounter these beings through readings that I gave to people. As “umbrellas” of our “umbrellas,” some of them seem to connect more to some folks than others. Kwan Yin, for example, a Bodhisattva of the Buddhist faith, made herself known to me when a random woman from Singapore found me for a reading. I would not have known Kwan Yin, I don’t believe, until one of the people who fell under her umbrella came to me.

I bring up this characteristic of mine so I can share with you that I’m not making any of this up, that in no way are these experiences feeding into any sort of personal or religious agenda. To be perfectly frank, I think that’s probably why they’re happening to me. So, just to make it clear to anyone reading here, when I refer to the word angel/god/goddess I do so in a non-dogmatic way. There are people who draw distinct lines between “angels” and “deities,” or gods and goddesses. For my purposes here, I just refer to them all as “super spirits.”

After being introduced to Michael via my divination, after being introduced to the idea of the Butterfly Cross (seriously, read that blog above if you haven’t) I soon found him popping up into my work, over and over again. Once I was shown that the Dagaz rune, or the Butterfly Cross, was a symbol of the energy known as Michael, it began falling in rune castings in very blatant ways.

When I am in a reading with someone, these “super spirits” seem to have a frequency or flavor that I can pick up on, like they’re in some people’s lives more than others. It happens a lot to me for Catholics, and it’s not that Catholics are in any way more right than others in their world view or that they’re shown preference to by these spirits. I actually think that’s because the culture in which I live is a predominantly Christian-centric one, even when people like myself do not actively participate in those frameworks. I’ve seen people have these beings around them with no religious structure, and I’ve seen devout Catholics be completely void of any sense of these beings. If there’s a standard by which these beings show up in people’s lives, it’s not because of the spiritual label they were or under which steeple they sit on Sunday.

This is very much the way my readings work. I don’t know...until I know. This is true for all of my psychic mediumship, and why I believe these gifts blossomed in me when they did, in my late 30s. I believe that I had to build up enough of a symbol library, enough emotional experiences from which to relate, so Spirit could “speak” to me when showing me messages. It’s like when the Spirits of the Dead share with me their living relative needs more Vitamin C and floods me with the taste of oranges...oranges and their taste are now the way Spirit says “Hey, tell them they need Vitamin C!” Once I knew what the feel of these beings felt like, I could sense them around a lot of people.

That’s the best I can explain it - a simple knowing.

When I say these spirits have a frequency or a flavor, what I mean to say is that they have a “flavor” about them in the same way that Winter, or Summer, or Autumn has a flavor. If you’ve ever stood in the woods while snow is falling in the middle of Winter, there’s a flavor to that. If you’ve ever stood in the middle of a meadow on a bright Summer day, you know there’s a flavor to that as well, a feeling. When I encounter these spirits during readings, they have these flavors as well.

The journey with this being named Michael is one that’s really expanded my horizons. I understand these beings aren’t Christian or Catholic spirits, and at the very most, some of the philosophies in those religions line up with their motives, mainly being that of love and compassion. As I’ve been exposed to beings of these angelic or “super spirit” frequencies and flavors that aren’t typically known as angels, I understand that these beings can appear in different mythologies and religions with different filters. As far as I can tell, and again I am very frank here that my exposure and experience is limited at best, there seems to be a reason that some of these “super spirits” seem to interact with us - I believe it’s because they recognize whatever spark of spirit resides in us and they also know that the world we live in is difficult. People suffer on a mass scale and I don’t believe that’s the purpose of our time here on Earth. I believe they recognize the Human Condition is one of mostly pain and suffering, and to speak plainly, it shouldn’t be.

As much as I can, I “toss up” to these beings a communication of sorts; call it prayer, what have you. There’s a philosophy around angels (and spirits in general) that their very being permeates every part of existence. When you study consciousness itself and see how it’s a vibrational frequency that interacts with reality, and that reality itself may very well be consciousness made manifest, it’s easy to see how these vast consciousnesses can interact with ours. I’m not sure if everyone’s mental capacity works in this way but I believe they probably do. Just a brief dip into the idea of quantum physics can show you how our consciousness and power of thought interact with reality itself. In fact, I may be so bold to say that I believe there are some spirits so powerful that there’s nothing you can hide from them: not your thoughts, not your heart, not your emotions. I do not believe all spirits have this power, but I do believe many of these “super spirits” do.

To put it simply, and to run the risk of sounding more crazy than I already do, I do speak to angels. I do speak to gods and goddesses. As I said above, there are spirits of such immense power that puny individuals such as humans can’t keep anything from them; not their thoughts, not their emotions, not what lives in their hearts. And now that I recognize what’s been going on with me for the past three years I’ve been a professional psychic medium, I’m not afraid to say it - these beings speak to me, and through me, and I say that as humbly as I possibly can. When I can look at a person and know they suffer from eczema, when they have knee problems, when they have back problems or shoulder problems, and then when I’m offered up a treatment or solution that may help, I do believe this wisdom and healing energy comes from these higher powers.

I’m about to give you several examples of what I mean and please remember: I’m that guy who needs tangible evidence, and as much as these beings know this, they’ve given it to me. So when I have these beings make themselves known to me, when I hear the word or feel the flavor that means angel to me, I have to “toss up” to them this communication: “Guys, show more of yourselves to me because I’m not going to be thumping any Bibles.”

I say this here with respect for those who value the teachings of Christ, which I essentially see as the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. There is much debate around how Christianity has been turned into a weapon for hurt and oppression, and that’s not what this is about here. I reject strict dogmatic thinking of any kind because I know it limits us - for all of my work with Spirit, I know this: no one has ever gotten religion right and no one completely understands what the Spirit World is like. I can’t get behind dogma, I can’t get behind folks who believe they know what the will of our Creator is like, and I especially cannot get behind religions that are used to hinder or oppress. I say that here with a keen sense that what I’m offering up here may indeed fall under this category!

So when I “toss up” these communications, when I pray if you will, I do it in the interest of doing Good Work. I know that my path as a psychic medium is more than just “fortune-telling” or “opening up the phone lines to the Dead.” I see what I do and the role I play between the Living & Dead, the Corporeal and the Incorporeal, as a sacred act. In fact, my work with Spirit has led me to adopt what I call the Four Pillars of a Life Well-lived. These Four Pillars are what’s repeated to me over and over again - a timeless wisdom that focuses on Love, Joy, Peace, and Togetherness. You can see what I have to say about those pillars here: https://www.joshsimonds.com/blog/fourpillars

When I say I’m here to do Good Work, I believe I am, and for as sanctimonious as that may sound, that will forever be my compass. Again, what I do is not fortune-telling or future-casting, though that may play into it from time to time. I always focus, every day, on serving spirit so that I may heal others and that was my focus long before I stumbled upon these significant energies. I always ask myself: Will time spent with me in session lead a person to feel better than they did about themselves and their life than when they first sat with me? Do people find peace and healing, to whatever degree I can offer them? For all of that, I believe that these “super spirits” (some of them at least) have our best interests in mind and they’re benevolent and compassionate of our human condition. I’ve also made it known to them, as best I can, that I’m not going to operate within the limitations of dogma or religion that carries these painful histories. I just can’t, and they seem to know that, as they’ve shown me exactly what I’ve needed to know when I needed to know it.

For example, as I make my way through these experiences, I’ve had this feeling that these beings make themselves known in various world religions and mythologies. This is especially true of the Egyptian gods. I can’t tell you why I came to know this, I just do. I think it’s really just part of sitting in their flavor or frequency: these beings that we would call angels, especially Michael, were known to the Egyptians as their pantheon. So just like I sat with the knowledge of the Butterfly Cross, and how the rune Dagaz was a symbol of Michael, I also sat with this. I didn’t really pursue this, didn’t really jump down any rabbit holes, until it was absolutely necessary. I sat with this knowledge and knew that another piece would fall into place when it was time to. I just went about my business, having faith that a piece of the puzzle would fall into my lap as needed.

And then, just when I needed tangible proof that these angelic beings were also known as the gods & goddesses of Egypt, they gave it to me. A woman scheduled a remote reading with me a few months ago, and as I know people will cross my path as needed, I didn’t really question it as I have appointments that happen all around the world. When this woman’s session rolled around, I asked her (as I do everyone) how she heard about me. She told me she was a therapist and used to have Facebook but she deactivated her account because she didn’t want to be part of the platform anymore. She needed someone’s information so she reactivated her Facebook page and when she logged in, however briefly, she saw me there. She had never received a reading in her life, intentionally so, and yet apparently just seeing me on Facebook made her want to have a reading with me.

As we dove into this reading, I could feel these angelic energies around her. I bring these beings up to her, as I did with the understanding I provided above (I’m not a Christian, I’m not proselytizing or pushing agendas) and told her I could feel them all around her. I even asked if she or her family were Catholic, and she laughed, saying no, telling me she was Jewish. We laughed a bit more together and I told her that I had asked her if she was Catholic because I felt that flavor again. It’s interesting to think that I associate this flavor with Catholicism because it’s just been the type of spirituality that I’ve encountered most in readings.

Then, after she clarified her and her family’s religion, I had to tell her something else and just knew that it would somehow apply to her, I again got that inner knowing that I had to share it with her. Not only did I have to tell her these energies were around her (as they often are around healers and therapists and people doing Good Work) I had to mention the connection to Egypt - again with the “Hey, I don’t know why I have to tell you this but I have to tell you this and I know it’s strange!”

When I mentioned Egypt, her face went blank and she sat up straight, and as best as I could tell via the video chat, she paled.

She then told me that her mother was born in Egypt.

That was all the confirmation I needed. A woman, whose mother was born in Egypt, who I could sense these energies around, randomly found me and signed up for a session with me. I knew at that moment that she needed to see me for whatever clarity I could provide her as much as I needed to see her.

I said at the beginning of all this that my life is very much a combination of the Twilight Zone and Indiana Jones. The Indiana Jones piece refers to how I am constantly digging through history and mythology to make sense of the pieces laid before me, just like they were in this session. An interesting article here, one that supports the idea that the beings we would refer to as “angels” are also the gods & goddesses of Egypt, can be found succinctly written here:

https://trfueo.pressbooks.com/chapter/the-heavenly-angels-of-egypt/

You may want to take a break from this to read that post. It’s very interesting, to say the least, not just in terms of my story and what I currently find myself in the middle of, but in historical, mythological, and spiritual terms as well.

This wasn’t the first and only experience with an Egyptian deity that resonated with this angelic flavor. Recently I hosted a digital benefit gallery via Zoom Video Conferencing for a local nonprofit (I host these monthly.) Now, instead of hosting them in-person, I offer them digitally, and just like my in-person sessions I’m guided by whatever forces help me to move from little screen to little screen, instead of person to person. During these group sessions, which really sap my energy moreso than individual readings, I was creeping up on the 90-minute mark and could feel it. Again, those forces that guide me hold me close and give me the signal that my work should wrap up before I deplete my reserves too deeply. I was providing (what I thought) was the last reading of the evening when I got the message to offer one more...just one more. I went back to the computer screen and got the urge to go up to the upper left-hand corner and speak to the person there.

It was a friend of mine. Not a close friend, mind you, but someone I’ve sat with in session before. And then, in front of dozens of people watching, I had to give them some awkward messages. The first being that they had work to do (she’s an author) and she had to work on that new book of hers or that sense of unease with her would increase. She did indeed have a gnawing sense of unease that seemed to exist outside our general collective unease and anxiety. What I’ve found (through personal experience even) is that if we’re not using our voice as these benevolent spirits would have us, they’ll put the “pinch” on us, creating a sense of unease and anxiety within us - but really, only if we know what we should be doing and not doing it. I am told over and over again in session that once I tell a person something special to that effect, they’ve then entered into a covenant with the Universe, per se, and if they do not move towards what’s been suggested, the Universe will put a pinch on them.

The awkward part of this conversation happened when I had to tell her that I felt these flavors around her and that I saw a winged being over her, as well as her family and their home...awkward because I had to speak of this in front of dozens of people. Had to. A peculiar process for me while I’m in session is that if I’m passed a message, I have to say it or nothing will come after that. Now remember, I don’t see angels as specifically winged beings, yet this spirit showed herself as specifically winged. And then, I saw a clear image of an Egyptian goddess with her arms outstretched, with wings below her arms. Then, I heard the word “ISIS” specifically. I saved that for later, as I had to sit with it for a bit. During this live group session, this friend of mine then confirmed she had a spiritual event where she “saw” a winged being around her. And this situation continues to weirden. I don’t really know the Egyptian pantheon at all and had no idea if Isis was a winged goddess. After the session I did some research and found she indeed was depicted with wings. While researching her, I found she’s a goddess of Mothers (this friend is a mom!) and she is known to heal the sick - this friend of mine is a cancer survivor! Isis is also known by some to be the goddess of the Moon.

Which would then come into play the next day, when this woman’s mother (who was also in the digital session) reached out to me, happy to hear about this connection between her daughter and Isis. Her mom told me that when she heard of her daughter’s diagnosis, she prayed daily to the Moon to heal her daughter.

To the Moon!

And Isis is the goddess of the Moon and healer of the sick!! I don’t believe in coincidence and I don’t believe this is coincidence. This was just another small story, a miracle in fact, that proved to me these beings are around us, help us and heal us as needed, more than we’ll ever fully be aware.

And this idea that these beings are presented in other religions was confirmed for me again, shortly after my reading with the Jewish therapist. I had a reading with a man who has Indian heritage, his father being from India and his uncles being brahman, or priests of the Hindu religion. Around this man was the four-armed, blue being that sang of this angelic power, and that was the day that I felt Vishnu’s power - prior to that, I really had no idea who Vishnu was. I had to ask this person who the four-armed blue god of Hinduism was, because their power surrounded this man, just as Winter would if he were to stand in the middle of a snowy forest.

In another session soon after that one, where I again felt this frequency and flavor, I gave a reading to a woman from Toronto, Canada who was part of a First Nation tribe there. During this session, I felt this power singing through a spirit that I felt to be “Corn Mother.” Indeed, there was a veneration of a goddess or great spirit known as the Corn Mother where this woman was from, and according to the local mythology, this being was very much a “Mother” figure, holding children and those who work with children close.

This woman’s profession?

A social worker, helping children and families in her local tribe.

In both these cases, in both the case of Vishnu and the Corn Mother, I had no prior conception of their existence. I am no student of Hinduism, I am no student of Native American lore...and I believe my experiences are more powerful for all that. I am more of a clean slate that these beings can present themselves through. It’s interesting in a way that I prefer a blank slate when I give readings in general, in that I want to know as little as possible about people before I sit with them. I want no prior knowledge or influence, and as I am not a well-read student of mythology or history, it makes these experiences all that much more powerful.

This journey with these angelic beings, these deities, continued to unfold, and continues to unfold. This power of Michael was so significant in my life I had to do some research - remember that part of my journey that’s like another Indiana Jones movie! I had done some research after learning about Michael and the Butterfly Cross (seriously, read that blog if you haven’t) and the history of Michael throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia. Apparently, there’s something called St. Michael’s Line or Axis, a line of churches, temples, and mounts that range from Ireland down through Europe and to Israel...all existing in a straight line. See more about this phenomenon here:

https://archaeotravel.eu/?p=1355

Several of these churches were built on top of temples dedicated to Apollo, the Greek god of the Sun. There’s so much history out there about Apollo and how the Christian religion co-opted other deities and traditions from pagan religions. Yet, there are many correlations between Michael, the archangel of the Sun, and Apollo, the God of the Sun. I have done some rudimentary research into this but haven’t dived in, and again I wonder how my being so busy that I can’t do a ton of reading helps me to remain a blank slate, one upon which tangible experiences will be that much more powerful. And yet for all this lack of substantial research, my world is full of synchronicity after synchronicity around these beings, and Michael in particular...and here’s another one.

As you would have read in my blog about the Butterfly Cross, I have a morning divination of pulling a rune and a Medicine Card. One morning a couple of months ago, I pulled Ansuz, the rune of Odin, the rune of “breath, communication, wisdom” - literally, the word of a god, or the word of god. Alongside this rune I pulled the Swan card, which means Grace. After I pulled that I went on with my day, as I would any other day. I went to our store in Littleton, NH where I have my studio space and before I began my readings for the day, I told my husband Isaac (who handles merchandise for the store) that I wanted to get a Michael statue.

However, I didn’t want to get an angel statue - I just couldn’t get around the imagery of it, and I couldn't get around the idea of Michael as the “vanquisher” or the slayer of the dragon. I couldn’t get behind that image as I believe it was developed as propaganda for Christians who had to vanquish that which wasn’t part of their belief systems. For all that, I wanted an image of him to which I could make offerings and provide thanks - at this point I had begun to see miracles, literal miracles, unfold around this power. Whatever and whoever this power was, he had made himself known to me in my life - and in the lives of others - in such a tangible way that I wanted to show my gratitude.

After I asked about statues, Isaac logged me into one of our wholesale websites we use for the store and I did a quick search for Michael statues. Nope, all angels with swords, slaying dragons. Then, I went to search for an Apollo statue and the first one I found...was Apollo riding a swan.

A swan.

Another synchronicity that literally made my jaw fall open. I had no idea about Apollo and his connection to the swan. A quick search yielded the results that Apollo was thought to ride a swan through the sky and in some circles, he was seen as a psychopomp or a courier of the souls of the dead. The swan has an interesting connection because there’s mythology around them that their most beautiful song - their swan song - happens when they know they’re going to die, as they know how beautiful the Other World is and rejoice to move there. As a person who deals with Death and the Dead on a regular basis, I didn’t take this connection lightly.

And yet I know this being, this god, this angel as a being that’s been filtered through the ages by other societies and religions. I know this just as I know which way down is, or that it’s Winter when I’m standing in the middle of a snowy field - I just know it. As humbly as I can say this, as a psychic medium there are just some truths to which I’m privy. I don’t know how or why it works, but it does, in just the same way that I can be near someone - or even on the phone or on video chat - and know that they have tennis elbow, or plantar fasciitis, or an aching tooth. I just know, and really, that’s all I need to know.

As I’m someone who has gone through a lot of genealogical and ancestral research, the history of my ancestors is very important to me. That’s why, when I started to get the message a few weeks after this Apollo business, that my ancestors worked with this Michael energy, I didn’t take it lightly. All my Ancestors are of northern European heritage and I don’t believe I have any Ancestors that worked with Apollo, though of course I could be wrong. So, I threw it “up” to them in the way that I do for them to show me. For all the knowing, for all the faith I may have around these workings, I still am the guy that needs to be shown. I need tangible evidence...and They don’t fail to deliver that, when asked.

Recently, I’d been made aware of a DNA testing site that cross-references your DNA with the DNA of several archaeological graves from across the globe. Finding out about this site happened much like my other discoveries: completely by accident. I found out, almost as soon as I submitted my raw DNA file to them, that I was related to the Birka Shieldmaiden, a Viking warrior found interred with her horse, weapons, and military stylings on the island of Birka, off the coast of Sweden. As with all things related to my journey, I found this DNA site, and the connection to the Birka Shieldmaiden as soon as I was in need of the information.

Most of you reading this would know that I work with runes, especially those of the Elder Futhark. They were one of the most significant pieces of my spiritual journey as soon as I set out on it. I felt connected to them as if I had found a missing member of my family. For those not familiar with runes, the best way to think of them is as Northern Europe’s very first alphabet, at least according to the archaeological record. They’re an alphabet like our modern alphabet is, in the way that you can write and spell with them, but they’re also an alphabet in the way that Egyptian hieroglyphics are in that each of the symbols represent an idea or concept.

When I discovered the runes, I discovered the culture around them: the Norse culture of Northern Europe. As with any new spiritual path, I found myself immersed in the modern iterations of this culture...and quickly found my way away from it. It seems like many of the modern people who are in modern Norse spiritualities find it an excuse to dress up as a Viking. I’m just not drawn to the modern iteration of this spirituality, as I find myself not drawn to many modern spiritual paths. If people find connection through a path like the Norse one, or the modern iteration known as Asatru, I wish them all well - again, if they find empowerment without oppressing or controlling the lives of others, have at it! I just find it’s not for me, though I do have a deep connection with the runes, and one that I can’t really explain. It’s as if they’re a part of me.

Viking is a verb, in the way that it’s a job - people went a’Viking: pillaging, invading, etc. It’s not a particular genetic heritage. Through my connection to the Birka Shieldmaiden, I found that I am very much indeed related to the Vikings, of the Swedish and Norweigan variety - in fact, my DNA tells me that I’m almost split down the middle between the people most known to be Vikings, the Norse (being the people of Scandinavia, Denmark, Sweden) as well as the Celts. This site, My True Ancestry, told me that I’m basically Orcadian - of the Orkney Islands, the islands directly north of Scotland where the Norse and Celts intermingled. After doing research on those islands, the lore of runes and their archaeological leavings are many and varied upon these islands.

So, after getting the message in the way that I do about my people “working” with this energy that is Michael but known as a different name, I did some digging. And the research I uncovered, the similarities I found, were amazing.

In ancient times, my ancestors worked with a god named Thor. Many know Thor today because of the Marvel movies and the resurgence of the Norse spiritualities, but Thor was much more than a comic book character. After research, I found some similarities between Michael and Thor that has led me to believe they are one in the same being...or at the very least, their stories are so similar that they’re being repeated through different filters. Perhaps they’re the same spirit, perhaps they’re different filters of the same spirit, or it could very well be something else. One of the feelings that I get around these beings is that they’re very much like a flock of birds: as a flock of birds seems to move as one being or consciousness, so is it made up of individual entities or spirits. I also recognize that this being may call himself Michael to me as that’s the major spiritual framework of the land in which I find myself.

The similarities between the story of Michael and his role in Christianity, as compared to Thor’s role in his role in Norse mythology, are too many as to be denied. In Norse mythology, Thor is the son of Odin, the “Allfather.” The Norse would see the supreme creator of the Universe and all of creation as "Odin." The name "Odin" can be compared to the name "Adon," the name that Israelites used for God at the time of their exile.

In Norse mythology, there’s the World Tree, at the bottom of which is the Well of Wyrd, that contains the knowledge of everything. In Christianity, there’s the Garden of Eden where the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil exists. In fact, in Norse mythology, there are the Apples of Idun, the goddess who holds a box with apples that granted the gods their gift of immortality. The goddess and one of the lands of the dead in Norse mythology is known as Hela, a very similar title to the word “Hell.”

Odin created the very first two humans, Askr and Embla. Adon created the very first two humans, Adam and Eve.

Odin had two sons, Thor and Loki. Adon had two sons, or angels: Michael and Lucifer. Loki is a horned trickster god that attempts to usurp Adon’s throne, and Lucifer is a son of God that tries to usurp his throne and rebels against him.

Michael and Thor are champions of mankind. They both have weapons, Michael his sword and Thor his hammer/sword/spear, that are connected to lightning. Michael is known as the angel of the sun, as well as thunder and lightning and in ancient times lightning was seen as the hammer of the sun, brought to Earth. They use these weapons to keep the “giants” or jotun at bay, which may very well be interpreted as chaos itself. This can be seen in the rune Sowilo that both represents the power of the sun and is a lightning bolt.

Michael and Thor both fight in the end times, Michael at the apocalypse against Satan, the great serpent (who is different than Lucifer, incidentally) as well Thor battles against the World Serpent at Ragnarok, the Norse version of the Apocalypse or End Times.

In both the Bible and in Norse mythology, Giants are mentioned. The Bible makes mention of Nephilim, or Giants “in those days,” the hybrid sons of angels and humans. Thor is known to be half-giant and half-god. The word for these hybrids is Nephilim. In Norse mythology, the land of the dishonored dead is Nifleheim, which is a cold and misty land, even said to be the land of ice.

I offer these examples up as just a tip of the iceberg regarding the similarities between these two major mythologies. In fact, there are so many similarities between major world mythologies it’s very easy to see how people would have traveled the world, intermingling and mixing their stories. I present the similarities above as a way to show people that these beings are ancient, their stories vast, and it’s very possible that many world religions and mythologies are just repeating some very basic stories from ancient times. I could probably write a book between all these similarities if given enough time and opportunity, so please bear with me if the examples above seem rudimentary.

And if they challenge your beliefs, whether on the Christian side or the Norse side of things, I say good. It’s very healthy for us to have our beliefs challenged, and frequently.

For all of that, I present to you the above recountings as a way to set the stage for what I’m about to share - true and actual miracles. Again, I hope you understand that I do not buy into philosophies or ideas simply because another human has told me so - i need to have tangible evidence in front of me showing me that it is indeed a thing, whatever it is. So when I say miracles, when I say that I’ve seen people pulled back from the brink of death, it is because I have.

One afternoon, I was giving a reading to a woman who worked as an accountant. A very nice lady, she wasn’t overly spiritual or a big believer in metaphysics and had heard of me from a friend. As we were closing in on the last half of her reading, I felt such an incredible negative energy in her home. She lived in an apartment building and the basement in the building was one with a dirt floor, with big boulders making up the old basement. I’m not sure why the dirt floor was pertinent in knowing what I was about to know, but it was. I asked her about the awful energy I was picking up on. It felt like the place had been saturated over the years with really negative emotions, and was steeped in negative emotions in the present.

This woman confirmed this for me, saying that every night at 9 pm, like clockwork, she could feel this awful energy rush her. Everyone in her home would start to feel awful around this time and she just knew that something was making her and her family feel this way...feeding off them, almost. Everything that I picked up confirmed this for her. Then, I had instructions for her, given to me by whoever gives them to me.

I asked her to buy a bottle of oil consecrated to Michael from our store. It was a small bottle and I never recommend things from our store, but in this case I did. Usually I just let folks buy stuff as they need to, answering any questions they may have for me, of course. I told her, as I was told, to take this oil and place three drops on every threshold of every door in her family’s home, praying to this energy as she did so.

I saw her about a week later, as I was between readings and she was perusing in the store. I asked her how things were going in her home and she said she did what I recommended that first evening and they hadn’t been disturbed since. This very down-to-earth woman, this accountant, was very pleasantly surprised that these simple instructions helped her and her family and she expressed her deep sense of gratitude, which was lovely to hear.

Another miracle: some time after that, I had a friend reach out to me in distress. My friend is in her Sixties, her mom in her Nineties. My friend was upset as her mother was having seizures and very unwell - she was afraid her mom’s time was up and that it would just be a matter of time before she lost her mom. I told her, as silly as it sounded at the time (and sort of still does) to simply light a candle and pray for her mother’s wellness.

I can’t tell you why, but when someone sits down and asks for healing (whether internally or externally) and lights a candle, strange and wonderful things seem to happen. I told my friend to do this, with the understanding that I couldn’t guarantee anything, that I’m not a Christian (as they knew) and that at the very least, if it was her mom’s time to go, this great spirit could ease her suffering.

I talked to her a couple weeks later and she told me that her mother not only made a full recovery, but it was like she was two or three decades younger than she was before her sickness. Her energy levels were phenomenal, she was reading and laughing, nothing she had been doing in the recent past. My friend told me her mom’s depression went away and she was so incredibly grateful.

I gave the same advice to a woman whose son was in the hospital, and sadly this woman was fearing the worst: that she would have to bury her son. This would be the second time she would have to lay a child to rest and again, I got that nudge. She hadn’t signed up for a session with me for any particular guidance around this issue, yet I told her what I told my friend: light a candle, call this being’s name, and pray. I again reminded her that I couldn’t promise anything and the worst thing that would happen is she spent time in stillness and she was out a candle.

A few days later, she messaged me and told me her son was out of the hospital and back to work. She also was incredibly grateful, and I told her not to be grateful to me, but to that energy she lit a candle to.

One of the most incredible “miracles,” as I dare call them, happened when I had a reading with a woman in Ohio. During the reading her mother came through, a Muslim who was originally from India. I could also feel these angelic flavors around her, and I also could feel as if her hands were burning. I asked her about this, as she was 28 and too young for arthritis, as far as I could tell. She told me that it wasn’t arthritis but tendonitis. At this particular point in this reading, her mother came through and told her to light a candle, pray to the energy known as Michael, and if he couldn’t help, he would find a spirit that could.

But when she said spirit she also said “djinn.” Now, djinn are a particular type of spirit and there’s a lot of lore and legends around them, too much to share here. This woman, this law student, was blown away because she said she was just speaking to her father that day about her family’s djinn, as her family was supposed to have a guardian djinn and they were talking about this spirit’s name.

I again told her that I couldn’t promise anything, but at this point I’d seen some pretty incredible turn of events, and that she should at least try it. Her mother wanted her to. The next day I received an email from her with the subject line of “Wrist Pain.” Here’s what it said, exactly, copied from her email:

“Thanks again for yesterday! I prayed like you told me to before bed and I asked for my tendinitis and anything else I needed to be healed. I had a dream that a woman turned on all the lights in my apartment, came into my bedroom and said "its done." I woke up and every other night for the past 5 weeks, I'd wake up and my wrist would be electric with pain. It was gone. There's still a little but it's a 10th of what it was.”

Do you see why I wanted to get a statue of this being? Do you see why I wanted to offer thanks to a being who not only showed itself to me, but also brought about significant change? I’m still having a time wrapping my head around it all. People like to claim that this Michael spirit is the slayer of “dragons,” or bad spirits. It’s amazing to see the amount of healing that has come around for people just by asking for it. I would venture a guess to say that if Michael/Thor was ridding the world of any monsters with his sword/hammer, it would be the chaos and entropy that haunt our lives. The monsters this being seems to fight are the agents of chaos, truly: pain and pestilence. That’s not to say there aren’t evil or nefarious spirits - that would be foolish - but I feel like if Michael or Thor were slaying any demons, or jotuns, or monsters, it would be the common maladies in our lives that ail us.

As much as I’ve given this advice to people about lighting a candle and seeing what happens to the monsters in their lives, I’ve only done this once for myself. Earlier this summer I was having quite a bit of problems with my time on social media. Normally, I use social media as a release, a bit of fun to spice up the doldrums of the day. Instead, I was having a hard time with what people were sharing, especially in regards to politics. People who I thought were smart were sharing posts and articles that weren’t. People were flagrantly showing off their racist tendencies, people were falling for blatant propaganda without a lick of critical thinking skills.

Due to these displays of reactionary social media posturing, I was hurting. I was having a hard time and I know a part of that was feeling the hurt and frustration of a lot of other people. I was lashing out in anger, not only on social media but in my real life, as well. So, one night I lit a candle, called this being’s name nine times (nine being a magical number) and asked for healing.

I should have been more specific.

I received healing alright. I just had no idea it was healing that I needed on a truly fundamental level. That night I went to sleep and it wasn’t until early in the morning, right before I woke up, that I had some very significant dreams. I dreamt that I found myself as a 5-year-old. Now, I have the best parents a person can ask for, yet when I was 3 or 4 and knew I was gay, I also knew that I had to hide that fact. For as good as my parents were and still are, I knew they wouldn’t understand or accept this part of me, so I shoved it down deep, away from everyone.

So, when I found myself as a 5-year-old in my dreams, my little blonde self with hair so light it could have been white, I picked him up and gave him that love I missed at that age. It’s funny that this was literal inner child work. I believe we should all be loved unconditionally for what and who we are and yet I didn’t know I needed that healing, I didn’t know I was that desensitized to this pain, until I was able to hold my 5-year-old self and give him that love I was so desperately lacking.

It was the first time in my 41 years that I woke up, crying.

And when I woke up, crying, I could feel this 5-year-old’s arms under my armpits, holding me dearly, even as I lay there awake. I had asked for healing before I went to bed and I received healing, certainly, a healing so deep and profound that I had no idea I needed it until it was given to me. Since then, it feels like I have set down a burden I had no idea I was carrying.

So yes, miracles. Magic and mysteries so vast that I can only document them as they happen to me. I know in this work that I am nobody special, that I am just a fellow who does this work and acts as this lens more often than other people do. With that said, I do not dismiss these happenings, these signs, these portents. I am so grateful that these powers, these spirits, see it fit to interact with me, to interact and bring healing and protection to those who ask for it.

I would never assume to understand or know the motivations of these powers. I will be so bold as to make the assumption that they help Good People, and yet that even borders on pretentious sanctimoniousness. I believe (and again, could be wrong) that these beings do not help those who hurt for the sake of hurting; I do not believe that rapists, murderers, sex traffickers, etc. receive the blessings as Good People do. I do not say this to push an agenda around morality - I am not here to tell people to be good, to do good. I think most of us have a fundamental understanding of right and wrong.

If someone forced me to identify the motives of these larger and greater spirits, I would say that they recognize the Human Condition, as we live it now, is rife with suffering. I believe that most of the world struggles in some form or fashion: hate, war, fear, hunger, pain of all kinds.

And I do not believe it has to be this way. I do not believe it should be this way.

Again, I am not proselytizing for any sort of religion or philosophy, other than the principle of Doing Good for Others. I do believe that some of these greater powers, the ones that recognize our inherent goodness, do not want us to suffer. I do believe they also believe in those Four Pillars of a Life Well-lived. While we are here on Earth, while we are in these human shells, we should focus as best we can on Love, Joy, Peace, and Togetherness.

What are we all going to be wishing we had more of as we lay on our deathbeds?

Thank you for staying with me for this long journey - I told you it was like a combination of Indiana Jones and the Twilight Zone! I also promised you that I would share all this for a reason, and here it is...I would ask that if you have any sort of pain or hardship in your life, if there exists any sort of pain or hardship in the lives of those you love...light a candle.

Light a candle, one that will burn out in a single sitting. When you are in front of that candle, call any of these greater powers that you may identify with: Michael, Apollo, Thor, Isis, Kwan Yin, Gabriel, Vishnu, the Corn Mother. Light a candle before you go to bed, call upon these powers with both your voice and heart, and ask for the change you would like to see in your world, and in the world of those you love.

You do not have to sit in prayer while the candle burns, just call upon these powers with pure intention and gratitude and then ask for that which would bring healing. Ask for that which would help you find peace in your life. These experiences, these miracles to which I’ve been privy, only help to reinforce in the heart of this skeptical believer that greater and wiser powers are at work around us, always.

I don’t know how or why they help us, I can only venture simple guesses based on my experience. But I know they do help. And I know that some of Them love us, like we love others around us. These beings seem to carry swords and hammers with which they vanquish the horrors that some of us face, and it seems that these weapons are forged with the most powerful force in the Universe:

Love.