This week, Mystic Mag‘s Marko Velimirovic had a chance to speak with Carol Pilkington, an Astrological and Spiritual counselor, who kindly agreed to share some information about her work, astrology, and spiritualism.
When did you first know that being an astrological counselor and spiritualist was your calling and how did it come about?
From the time I was a child I knew I was going to lead a life of service although I didn’t know how that would manifest. In my late teens, I had an astrology reading given to me as a birthday gift and while I didn’t resonate with most of what the astrologer said (she never met me or talked to me), I did feel that there was something to it.
I realized once I started learning astrology that all that astrologers did that read my chart was merely produced a report about the classical archetypal interpretations of the placements of the planets in the signs and where they were located at the time of my birth. She didn’t take me, the one living the chart into account, which is an absurdity and disservice to the client.
Many years later I met a spiritual teacher who also was a Jungian Therapist and used astrology in his therapeutic practice. That is what started me on my own journey of learning how astrology could truly assist a person in understanding who they really are and how they fit into the larger whole of life. I feel that we are all here for a purpose and that purpose evolves as we each evolve. Astrology can guide us in making discoveries about what we are called to be and do. I use astrology as a transformational tool for self-awareness.
The combination of astrology and embarking on my own spiritual awakening helped me understand what was happening to me and how I could actualize fully the potential written in the blueprint or map of the chart. The language of astrology when used and practiced responsibly is so profound in that it can provide assurance that one is not crazy and most importantly that one is not broken nor needs to be fixed. That is how important I feel astrology is to one’s spiritual journey.
I am not a spiritualist, I’m a spiritual counselor, very different. A spiritualist is more similar to a psychic, which I am not. When I was a young child, I had a Divine experience, a download from Spirit that I was Love, and that I am Spirit in the flesh. Some may believe that they are based on what they’ve been told or read, yet it is a totally different thing to have a direct experience of it because then it becomes a knowing. One can only know something through direct experience, anything else is just hearsay, hence a belief.
However, even having that experience, I didn’t know what to do with this information and yet I knew innately that it was true. I still had to go through the human experience that most of us go through in life with its trials and tribulations, its ups and downs, and pain and suffering.
As I grew and evolved through my own transformational process of discovering my own true nature, or more accurately, rediscovering and being able to embody my true nature, the time came for me to give back and show others how they could uncover their own true nature in order to live a more joyful and unencumbered life beyond the traumas and negative belief systems and repetitive destructive patterns.
What services do you offer?
My services include Spiritual and/or Astrological counseling depending on whether a person is open to astrology in the areas of relationships, anxiety, and grief/loss (past or present) as well as a mid-life crisis.
There are certain periods of life when one may experience crises that may be strong enough that one has no other choice but to pay attention and seek help. It could be around the age of 28 to 30, the early ’40s and 49/50, and possibly 59/60. These periods can be pivotal and poignant phases in one’s life that cause one to take action.
What exactly is Mind Mastery Meditation?
In order to master anything in life, we must know and understand the terrain. The mind is no different. We of the western world are for the most part conditioned to always be doing or figuring out things. While this process is not about being passive in any way it does require one to be observant.
In order to be able to see the mind, one must be able to observe the mind. In doing so one has a much better chance of seeing the machinations of the mind in operation. When one puts this into practice something shifts. The moment one sees something fully it can change one’s perspective of who they think they are spontaneous. If one can see the falseness of what one perceived oneself to be ever so slightly, it is a movement forward. And usually, once that happens one wants more.
What is the more, you might ask? It is a clarity that one has never had before. In this process of observing the mind, one gains distance and can begin to see oneself more clearly. This not only affects their own self-perspective but enables them to see another with more clarity as well. That is a game-changer.
What can a person expect from your counseling sessions?
First, let me say that it is a loaded question, but I understand it. Our whole life is filled with expectations which oftentimes lead to disappointment because one usually really doesn’t even know what they are looking for, they just know that what they got wasn’t It.
Therefore, the expectations pile up and so do the disappointments. Having said that, what a person can “expect” is to experience relief from one’s anxieties and validation of one’s feelings and to be equipped with new tools to navigate life with a movement toward living more in the present time. This is all, of course, dependent on the person’s participation and effort. There is no magic pill or wand nor do I profess to be a wizard.
What is the most important detail in maintaining a relationship of mutual trust with customers?
What is most important to me is creating a safe and sacred space where the client is totally free to express their deepest fears and what they may regard as taboos that they keep hidden and are afraid to voice. One needs a place to go where no matter what, they will not be judged or feel further alienated.
What do you love most about your profession?
Ultimately, it is seeing the profound shifts and movements a client makes that reinforce and affirms what I’m here to do.
