Discover Nell Shepherdson’s intriguing journey – a combination of childhood encounters with the spiritual, and a profound reawakening during the eventful year of 2020. With her husband’s unwavering support, Nell’s path unfolded from Yoga Teacher Training to becoming a professional in Reiki and Tarot, seamlessly merging the physical and spiritual realms. Get inspired by Nell’s engaging story in her interview on Psychics4U.net.
Table of Contents
- Childhood Experiences with the Spiritual World
- Teenage Years and Initial Exploration
- Adulthood and Reconnection
- Journey into Professional Practice
- Contact Nell Shepherdson
Childhood Experiences with the Spiritual World
Can you describe your journey from sensing presences as a child to becoming a small business owner offering Yoga, Tarot, and Reiki?
‘Hi, I’m Nell’ These are the first words I ever said to a spirit after years of trying to push my abilities away. This is my journey to where I am now, a small business owner supporting my community with Yoga, Tarot and Reiki.
I can’t say that I grew up knowing what it was like to be psychic, nobody else in my family ever talked about or mentioned these things and nobody around me was even vaguely religious let alone spiritual. But I was always aware of presences, I was always sure that there was this other world close by.
Sometimes I could feel it, something I could slip into it just like falling through a curtain, and I would hear voices and see vague shapes in my mind’s eye. It wasn’t something that happened all the time, but I was never frightened of it.
Mostly, I would have dreams. I would dream that something would happen and then it would a few days afterwards, or I would have full, realistic conversations with people and beings I’ve never met in the waking world. They would give me advice, tell me stories, and make me feel safe.
Everybody interacts with dream characters from time to time, but these felt different, and I could always tell the difference somehow. I was an introverted child, (I am an introverted adult) and I preferred my own company, chatting away to my ‘imaginary’ friends. Even from a young age I found large groups or crowds difficult, and I still do now.
Teenage Years and Initial Exploration
How did your experiences with the book ‘Spells for Teenage Witches’ and your grandmother’s influence shape your spiritual journey and practice with Tarot?
I remember confiding in a few people when I was a little older about my experiences and one year, maybe when I was about 10 or 11 a school friend brought me a gift of this little book, I think it was called ‘Spells for Teenage Witches’ and it contained some visualisation exercises.
I practiced them every day, using my mind to turn the sky pink and the hedgerows orange and sense the lifeforce moving through the trees. This is when I learnt what a true witch was, the kind that has nothing to do with the ones portrayed on TV, and I was intrinsically drawn to it sensing this way of life was an extension of myself.
Then, of course, puberty hit as it does, and my world became about ‘fitting in’. When I mentioned some of my experiences tentatively to newer friends they were quickly shut down and I was made to feel ‘weird’, so I told the presences to leave. I stopped feeling energy, I closed the channel and for a good few years it remained that way.
I would be tugged by glimmers of the otherworld on occasion but it wasn’t until after my grandfather passed away and it was mutually beneficial that I go and live with my grandmother while I was at college. She had sought solace in the church and began to host Prayer meetings at her house. I would sit upstairs usually watching films or working on my laptop while they went on beneath me but, every so often I would hear them say things like ‘is anybody there?’
My grandmother became quite open to this sort of thing and I became very close to her during this time. One day we found ourselves in Waterstones and I was looking at a deck of Tarot cards, the only one available was the classic Rider Waite no-frills deck.
I remember picking it up and turning it around in my hands and then my grandmother coming over and saying ‘right, let’s go and pay then’. She bought me my first Tarot deck without any ceremony or explanation, and this was the start of my journey.
Studying Tarot was a part of me that I never gave up even when I yo-yoed between spirituality and believing in nothing at all. I spent many years diving into the occult for a time before deciding that people would think less of me and throwing everything away – only to end up repurchasing it again when the feeling came back.
I did this a few times, like I would follow the path for a while and then need to cleanse myself of it. Really, I was scared; not of the spirit world but of everybody else, what everyone would think of me, of all the ways it would make me different.
Adulthood and Reconnection
How did significant life events during 2020 influence your spiritual journey?
I had pretty much hit it all on the head by the time I was 25 and looking to start a family, buy a house etc and I had barley given spirits, or anything else like that much thought. Until something very unexpected happened in 2020. The global Covid-19 pandemic. I was three months pregnant with my third child when lockdown was announced in the UK.
I’m not sure what happened but it was during this time that something shifted within me. All those things that I used to experience started to come back in full force, I was able to feel the presences again. I don’t know how or why but suddenly it was like a door had been opened.
At first, I wasn’t sure how to deal with it, I found myself questioning everything in my life, I just didn’t know what to do with myself while at the same time the world had ground to a standstill around us. It took me a long time to push past this and get back to balance and acceptance.
A lot of things happened in a short space of time, not just with my development but also personally and I still question why it happened when it did. But it did happen, and I slowly began to make my way to where I am now.
Journey into Professional Practice
How has your journey from Yoga Teacher Training to connecting with spirits influenced your practice and business?
In the years that have followed, with the support of my husband, I took my Yoga Teacher Training and that helped me harness meditation and understand Eastern philosophy on a deeper level. This then led to an exploration of Reiki and my Attunement which led me to become a professional practitioner and my business has grown from there.
And not just my business in the physical world. More recently I have begun to touch the spirit world in a more tangible way. I am still learning but I am growing in confidence, I believe I have connected with spirits who have approached me in dreams seeking healing and I am communicating with them in my own way.
It’s been a difficult process sometimes, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Everyday is a new opportunity to learn how to juggle, how to listen and how to see.
Contact Nell Shepherdson
Email:
wildingwellness@mail.com
Website:
www.wilding-wellness.com