Doreen Virtue: An Appreciation

Most people will know of Doreen Virtue as the original Angel Lady. Her books and inspirational lectures are famous all over the world, and her Angel cards are used by readers who want to inspire and encourage. Many people the world over own a pack of her cards and use them for daily inspiration – this writer included.

However, it’s one thing to know the work but it’s quite another to be allowed a glimpse behind the work into the mind and heart of a person who has worked so hard to bring inspiration and support to the world. For example, Doreen has been sending out inspirational emails about the recession and other world crises for a long time in the hope of supporting people through these difficult times.

Doreen lives on the beautiful island of Hawaii, which for her is both paradise on earth and living her dream. She and her family have settled in a place where she loves the location, the weather, and the warm ocean water in which she loves to scuba dive. So hooked is she on scuba diving that she takes her kit with her wherever she goes; diving is her relaxation and one of her stress busters.

Doreen finds the culture of Hawaii suits her as she feels it’s non-materialistic, spiritual and relaxed “everyone drives and walks slowly”. As a vegan she enjoys the bountiful fresh fruit and vegetables grown on the island in air that is virtually pollution free.
She has chosen to hold all her psychic development courses on Hawaii as “it’s a great location for giving readings as the lava rock and ocean energy promotes psychic abilities”.

You may feel from reading this that Doreen has achieved her dreams easily, but as with many spiritual workers that is not the case.
She was fortunate enough to grow up with understanding parents who always encouraged her to follow her heart and instincts. Despite this good advice she admits that her life has had some “twisty-turns”, but by and large she has followed her joy non-stop throughout her life.
Part of the joy has been and continues to be the “high of channelling and connecting with God and the Angels”, and she gets a great deal of insight and “sure-fire knowingness” about life issues. She also loves meeting people at events and especially book signings where she can connect individually and at least have a brief chat.

She loves hearing of other people’s Angel experiences and encouraging them to follow their dreams.

Although Doreen is a 4th generation metaphysician her family did not understand her clairvoyant abilities, both her parents are very psychic but they didn’t really understand the gift of connecting with spirit especially as their religion – Christian Science – discourages mediumship and doesn’t focus much on the Angels.

This was quite difficult for Doreen as a child as she could see spirit but couldn’t communicate with them as she didn’t know how. She found it frightening and didn’t even know how to describe the experience as it felt “out of context with the rest of my life”. It was only as an adult that she started reading books about mediumship that helped her to understand her experiences and consciously develop her abilities.

This is not to say that Doreen and her parents were at odds, they encouraged her whenever they could and one of her favourite childhood memories is of her father hiding objects around the house and encouraging her to use her gut feelings and intuition to find them. This really helped her to trust her gut at a very young age.

Yet she didn’t find working with her psychic abilities easy and there were times that she obviously felt very alone. She admits to having denied her psychic abilities for some time saying “When I would deny my psychic abilities, I used alcohol to dampen my feelings and inner voice. That’s when I’d make decision which would get me into difficult situations, such as getting involved with harsh people because the alcohol had sedated my inner knowingness which would normally have steered me away from harsh relationships. Now, I’m completely sober for many years and my new relationships are love-based instead of fear-based because I can clearly hear the inner warning signals when a harsh person enters my life.”

Clearly Doreen has put the experiences gained during the difficult times to good use and woven that understanding into her work. You can’t view the support and inspiration in everything she does without knowing that she understands suffering and wants to do everything she can to help her readers and students avoid it.

We asked her what she would say to children and young people who may be thinking about spirituality and accommodating it into 21st Century living.

Her answer was “Trust your gut! Trust your intuition! Trust your inner voice! Always follow your inner guidance even if other people are telling you differently. And please treat your body with lots of love and respect. Your body is such an important vehicle which affects your energy levels and moods. Chemicals are toxic to sensitive young bodies so please keep your diet as pure as possible. If you’re in emotional pain call upon Angels for support and comfort. Don’t use drugs or alcohol (including caffeine or cigarettes) to numb yourself, because your feelings are important guides that you want to be always aware of.”

This is such simple advice and yet profound and powerful. Especially in encouraging young people to view their bodies as a vehicle that needs nurturing and protecting as it nurtures and protects the soul whilst on this earth, rather than as something that has to be perfect or the same shape as everyone else.
It would be possible to make the mistake in believing that Doreen has always focussed her work on the Angels but actually she is a qualified psychotherapist who practised in hospitals in Nashville and San Francisco, and at a number of outpatient centres.

We asked her if her psychic abilities were useful in working with her patients, “I did find that my psychic abilities helped my counselling sessions. My speciality for many years was eating disorder treatment. I’d literally see clairvoyant movies when I’d sit with a client and these movies would show me the root cause of my client’s suffering, and treatment course. As a result my counselling practices went really well.”

“There were some conflicting philosophies between psychotherapy and Angel Therapy ®. In psychotherapy, you start with the premise that something is wrong with your client and you the counsellor have to fix it. With Angel Therapy, you begin with knowing that your client is a Divine being of God who is already healed, abundant, loved, and happy – you help them to realize that state by listening to their Angels’ guidance and through prayer, affirmations, and other manifestation processes.”

“I find that with Angel Therapy, there’s a sense of hope and happiness throughout each session, whereas traditional counselling can involve lots of cathartic pain and sadness. I’m much happier now that I’m doing spiritual counselling rather than traditional counselling.”

Doreen is clearly spiritually inspired in her work and she is careful to stay out of her ego and not take credit for the work of God and the Angels. She will take credit for being disciplined enough to sit down and write books and articles when sometimes she’d rather be outside with friends.

However, the sacrifice is obviously worth it as for Doreen her books are similar to her to the birth of a new child, “I put so much love and care into every book and when I finally hold the end product book in my hands it’s as if I have a new baby – and that’s definitely joyful.”

She feels “really fortunate that I’ve had supportive people in my family and friends who have understood some of the changes that following your joy brings about.” Her sons Charles and Grant have both co-authored books with Doreen and Charles is travelling to Hamburg and London with her this year.

Her son Grant works more behind the scenes helping to run the organisation, and she is proud of the way he handles such a challenging and demanding task.

She is openly proud of both her sons, firstly as people and also for their commitment to working with Angels. She is also very close to her parents and her younger brother

Ken. “My immediate family members are all very loving, positive and spiritual people. I’m very lucky.”

Many people will know that Doreen takes the time to send out inspirational messages that tend to find their way from one email inbox to another. She has been particularly active during these difficult times and tries to encourage people to maintain a positive attitude through the current recession. We asked her to reiterate some of her thoughts for our readers.

“The Angels show me that the recession is the product of a collective mindset where too many people are affirming that the economy is bad and then experiencing this as a result. The economy is neutral and we project our expectations upon it every day.”

“Stop listening to negative media reports about the economy! The mainstream media feeds off of festering fear because that increases ratings and readership. Watch your thoughts and words about the economy. There is no entity called “the economy” which is controlling you or anyone else, it’s a perception of how to spend your money and your time.”

“The Angels say that no one can lose their job as long as they love their job. If you are unhappy at your job, you are likely to lose it – no matter what the economy is doing. Love is the glue that ensures employment. Find a way to love your present job, or go get a job that you do love – either by taking classes; volunteering (this is how I got my first counselling job even when I desperately needed a salary); or starting a part-time home-based business.”

“Develop a “can do” attitude by keeping your mind and body positive. It helps to have a chemical-free mind, believe me! Alcohol creates depression, which leads to lower energy levels and thus lower manifestation and attraction abilities. High energy is the key and this energy is healthiest and most effective when it comes about naturally, through exercise, fresh air, surrounding yourself with positive people, praying, following your inner guidance, and other healthy steps.”

Doreen also says that the Angels can help with ‘financial healing’. “The Angels can help you to eradicate debt, reduce spending, find a meaningful career, and with other practical measures. They certainly aren’t a ‘get rich quick’ method, but they help us to develop a positive consciousness of hope and faith, which we know from thousands of years of sacred teachings, is a key to ensuring that all of your needs are met.

These are perhaps slightly unusual attitudes towards economy and finances to some people, but everyone knows that a positive mental attitude can help you personally, and therefore it would be logical that a collective PMA could bring about national and eventually global change for the better.

When Doreen needs to think and get away from negativity she goes scuba diving. During that time she inhabits a calming underwater world in which the only sound is her own breathing. She finds that negative energy can’t penetrate the salt water surface and she feels cleansed and healed of toxity and “lower energies”. She is a qualified dive master with over 500 dives, and she practices very safe and conservative diving methods. She gets a lot of her inspiration when she’s diving with the fish and dolphins off Hawaii.

This obviously contributes to her incredibly youthful and vibrant appearance, something she also puts down to good genes passed on by her equally youthful parents. She also has a clean diet and lifestyle. She has been completely vegan since 1966, does daily cardio exercise and Pilates, and leads as stress-free a life as possible. She doesn’t drink caffeinated beverages or alcohol because she believes that they contribute to premature ageing.

Her lifestyle is obviously healthy but also, and perhaps more importantly – very happy. We can all follow her good advice or adapt it to our own preferences (you wouldn’t catch this writer in a wet suit with saltwater hair), but how can we contact our Angelic helpers in order to receive the kind of joy and support that enhances Doreen’s life?

Doreen has a kit on the market called Connecting with Your Angels and a book called How to Hear your Angels, but she’s put together this handy quick guide just for our readers.

“Everyone has guardian Angels, without exception. These Angels respect your free will, so they won’t push their guidance upon you unless it’s a life-threatening situation.

Otherwise, our Angels need us to give them some sort of permission – such as by asking for help (aloud or silently); praying; affirming; writing a letter to the Angels; etc.

Step 1: is to ask for help. It doesn’t matter HOW you ask for help what matters is that you do ask.

Step 2: is to notice the guidance which follows. The guidance is usually in the form of a gut feeling to take positive and healthy action, however it can also come as an idea, thought, or inspiration; a dream or vision; overhearing a conversation that seems tailor-made for you; or other ways.

Step 3: If you’re unsure whether your guidance is legitimate or not, ask your Angels to give you validation in a crystal clear way. They will.

Step 4: Act upon your guidance. When people complain to me that they can’t hear their Angels, I nearly always find that they are hearing their Angels but are intimidated to change their lives as the Angels are guiding. The Angels frequently ask us to take steps which seem unrelated to our end-goals, such as improving our diet or lifestyle. The reason: the Angels know that if we increase our physical strength and sensitivity then everything else falls into place naturally.”

It’s surprisingly simple when you see it put like that, isn’t it?

Lastly we asked Doreen for the Angel’s take on the whole issue of 2012. “The Angels say that 2012 marks the end of the dependency upon competing against clocks, calendars and other time machines. They remind us that we are not machines and shouldn’t live our lives according to a machine’s (clock’s) rhythms. Many of us have stopped wearing wristwatches and are living by our internal rhythms and inner clocks; this will become more widespread as 2012 approaches.”

The Angels also say that “Quantum Physicist will conduct tests that prove that the obsession with time keeps us locked in third dimensional ‘flat living’. By eradicating the obsession with time we open our minds and experiences to time-travel, soul-travel, and other experiences that many of us are already having. That’s the reason why books and movies about levitation and time travel have long fascinated us – because deep-down we know it’s possible...we’ll just rediscover this truth en masse around 2012.”

Once again a very different approach to a subject that is fascinating - and sometimes worrying - millions in this time and space, and again a refreshingly positive outlook delivered by Doreen and the Angels that might enable us to collectively bring in positive change in 2012 rather than negative.

Doreen will be bringing her positive approach to life to Europe this year, including spending time in the UK in September. She will also be speaking in South Africa and Australia, and possibly Japan.

She has just finished a new deck of Archangel Michael Oracle Cards, so keep your eyes out for them in the shops. Each card has a painting of Michael and a message from him. She hopes that they will introduce many people to this remarkable being who can help us to have more courage, faith, hope and strength. If they’re anything like her other cards they will surely succeed.

Doreen is a gracious lady who answered all our questions with a great deal of thought and dispensed helpful advice in almost every sentence. We’ll certainly try to see her when she comes to London later this year, but in the meantime if you’re lucky enough to see a happy looking lady toting her scuba diving gear on a beach near you who reminds you of someone you’ve seen on the cover of an Angel book, it might just be nice to sit close to her quietly for a short while and absorb some of the bounty from the Angels.

In the meantime, try to contact your own Angels so that you find out how Doreen feels everyday of her life. It’s what she wants for everyone whose life she touches. We’re certainly going to try.

© Deb Hawken - First published in Eternal Spirit Magazine, Summer Solstice 2009