The Tools and Skills of a Psychic Reader

Every psychic reader is different. They have different abilities and tools they use and specialize in. Knowing what skills and tools your reader uses can help you choose a reader with which you resonate better.

For example, if you don’t like tarot cards, but the reader you sit with almost always uses them, you will either need to request the reader not to use them or find a different reader.

This article aims to go over the abilities and tools you’ll most often come across. Hence, you have a better understanding of them.

Straight reading is when a psychic gets information with their natural abilities without using a particular tool. Some readers only use straight reading skills, but the majority of readers will also have at least one or two tools that they also use to help get and give insights.

Here are the most common straight-reading abilities you will encounter.

Clairvoyance: Clear seeing. This is the psychic ability of sight and is connected to our psychic eyes. Clairvoyance allows the reader to see what can’t be seen with the physical eyes. It also provides visions to the reader of the past and future.

Clairsentience: Clear sensing. This psychic ability is most closely associated with psychic touch. Clairsentience allows the reader to feel something in their physical body. For example, if a person broke their arm or is in danger of breaking it, the reader may feel what seems like a physical break in their own arm. If a spirit has passed away from a heart attack, the reader might feel pressure in the chest or pain radiating along their left arm.

Some also combine empathic ability with clairsentience. I usually consider clairsentience and empathic ability as two separate skills. The empathic ability allows a reader to pick up unstated emotions.

Clairalience: Clear smelling. This is the psychic ability of smell and is connected to our psychic nose. This ability allows the reader to smell things that are not physically present. For example, a perfume or cologne a deceased family member used to wear. The smell of chlorine in water or gasoline helps identify locations of importance.

Clairaudience: Clear hearing. This is the psychic ability of hearing and is connected to our psychic ears. This ability allows a reader to hear conversations with spirit guides and other things that are not physically present. Sometimes this is just in the reader’s mind, and other times they hear something with their physical ears despite the fact it isn’t physically present.

Claircognizant: Clear knowing. This is the psychic ability of the mind and is connected to our psychic brain. This allows a reader to “just know” certain things they should not know.

Channeling: The ability to communicate with spirit guides, angels, and ascendant masters to pass along important life information.

Mediumship: This is also called spirit communication. It is the ability to get information and messages from deceased people and to validate their existence in the afterlife.

Every medium is a channel, but not every channel is a medium.

Psychometry: This is when a reader holds an object and gets information from it. That information may be about the object’s past or those who own or have previously owned it.

Beyond “straight reading,” are a variety of instruments a reader may use to help get and give information. Not every reader uses every tool. Most readers combine one or more tools with their straight reading abilities. Still, some readers only use a tool, and some only use straight reading abilities.

Here are some standard tools that readers may use in their sessions.

Astrology: Astrology is the art and science of using the planets and stars to make predictions, evaluate personality traits, and determine the best avenue for interacting or dealing with others. Astrology usually requires the date, time, and birth location.

Automatic Writing: Automatic writing is when a spiritual guide, your higher self, an angel, or the Divine acts through you to write or draw. It can occur through mental inspiration or by one of these spirits physically taking over the hand and making it write or draw.

Crystals: Many believe that crystals hold within them various attributes and powers. Owning or carrying a particular crystal blesses you with that attribute or power and thus makes life better for you. Similarly, some readers will read stones/crystals by closing their eyes and randomly choosing one or letting you choose your own. The crystal chosen is then “read” by attribute or power, and it thus gives insight into a question or you and what you need to focus on.

I-Ching: A Chinese system of tossing coins or sticks and interpreting how they fall. This is very similar to the old idea of “casting bones.” The Wisdom of the I-Ching can also be used in numerology and as a general philosophical way of viewing life.

Numerology: This is the art and science of using numbers to gather information and insights. Typically, the date of birth and the full name is analyzed and used to discover things about personality, life path, soul’s desire, etc.

Oracle Cards: These are cards that have various symbols and themes associated with them. They include angel cards, animal cards, fairy cards, medicine cards, Osho Zen Cards, etc. Most of the time, a single card is drawn, and that symbol is used to pass along valuable insights or make predictions.

Palmistry: This is the art and science of interpreting the lines on and shape of the hands and fingers. It can determine such things as love, career, happiness, etc. It can both see how these things have been in the past (usually the left hand) and what they appear to be becoming in the future (usually the right hand).

Playing Cards: A standard deck of playing cards can be used similarly to oracle cards and Tarot cards. Each suite, court card, and its number represents something different. Drawing the cards and reading them helps to give insight into the past, present, and future.

Runes: Runes are symbols traditionally painted on stones or rocks. Different cultures have different rune systems. The most popular tend to be those that come from Scandinavia. Most rune systems were initially intended as a language system. Over time, they have become associated with predicting the future.

Scrying Tools: Scrying is looking into something and seeing a vision. The eyes make shapes and images out of what is being looked at. Those shapes, images, and pictures are then interpreted like you would a symbol in a dream. Popular things to scry into include clouds, crystal balls, tree bark, stones, a bowl of water, and even the eyes.

Tarot Cards: Tarot cards are symbol cards usually broken into two parts. The Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana includes primary archetypes such as the fool, the empress, the hanged man, the high priestess, etc. The Minor Arcana consists of the court cards of the four suits and each suite’s number cards. Tarot can be used in making predictions, uncovering unconscious thoughts, as a psychological tool, and as a magick tool.