[00:00:00] Speaker A: Once I decided to shift and actually make a change, you have to decide to make that change. You have to decide to want to go down this path. That's actually the real first step, just deciding, I'm going to do this.
Then everything changed for me.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: Today on supernormalize, we have Anastasia Anastasio, an LA based tarot reader and spiritual coach whose journey from struggle to empowerment is truly inspiring.
This is a short one because we actually got so dense the information, but you'll find it actually quite revealing in different sorts of ways. And Anastasio speaks to stuckness and how we can actually move through that. So enjoy the show.
Welcome to supernormalized, Anastasia Anastasio.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Thank you for saying my name correctly.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: I practiced.
So, Anastasia, you've had been through a lot with your earlier life and had a lot of stress upon your being because you really didn't recognize who you are by the sound of it. Can you tell us about all around that and maybe share with the audience how you are processing all that information and how it was actually affecting you in your normal life?
[00:02:57] Speaker A: Yes. So when I was younger, I would think I was about three years old. I did start seeing spirits and feeling energy, and I knew I was different, but I also didn't know that everyone else couldn't feel the same energies that I was feeling. There was a lot of confusion in my childhood because of this. There was a lot of self doubt. There was a lot of guilt because I also grew up in a christian household, and I didn't really know exactly if the gifts that I had were good, quote unquote good. So it was kind of hard for me to process a lot of my spiritual gifts. I was younger, and if I'm honest, I don't think I really, truly processed them until Covid hit in 2020. So it took me a long time to really own my gifts and own my abilities, and that was just because I needed to stop running away from them.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Yeah, right. That would have been rough. Definitely rough. I mean, when you. When you feel like you can't really share your gifts, then there's a bit of. It feels like you feel suppressed in some ways.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: I do think so. I think that you're always missing something and you don't know what that something is, and it feels like there's something that is bigger than you that you're missing the picture of. And I think for a really long time, I was very depressed and I was very anxiety ridden because I was running away from my spiritual gifts.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I know exactly what you mean, when I grew up in a household that didn't really accept the information that I was processing, I had the same sort of thing happening, and, like, I. I tried to share with my friends. For me, it was, like, normal to have spirits around and to be in contact with spirits and.
But no one else could see him, and that was. That was the strange part. And I thought, you know, for me, that just seemed normal. And, yeah, you know, processing those energies, having to shut them down and suppress them, it actually did make me depressed as well. So, you know, and going through that as a child, it was pretty damn hard. And my parents would, like, basically super normal. Like, what I mean by that is, like, they were so normal. They was like, now you're just dreaming, you know?
[00:05:16] Speaker A: Yes. I would be like, oh, I saw this spirit in my room at night, and then they're just like, no, you. That was just in your dreams. You weren't awake. I'm like, no, I was very much awake.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: Yeah, that's tough. So having to shut that all down in your personality and your way of being around people, what happened for you?
[00:05:38] Speaker A: I think I lost my sense of self. I think I didn't know who I was, and I was asleep for a really long time. And I know that they say spiritual awakening, and I really do feel that once I tapped back into my spirituality, I was awakened. It almost felt like I was just floating through life and not really grounded because I didn't know who I was. And when you're just kind of floating by, life kind of passes you.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's. Yeah, that's right. And for me, it manifested in stages of anxiety and depression and. Yeah. That happened to you, too. Yeah.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Yes, definitely.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: Yeah. And how did you and your family deal with that at the time?
[00:06:25] Speaker A: You know, I keep reflecting on this, and I don't know if my parents or my family knew how depressed I was, so it was very internal. It was a lot of me journaling and listening to really sad music. And my favorite song is dust in the wind. And I'm just very, like, an emotional kid, but I kept everything pretty private, and I hung out with other people who were depressed who were, like, 1213 years old. That just became my reality to the point where I didn't want to change it because I was so accustomed to being depressed, being sad, and it was just who I was.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what you mean. I actually didn't even know that I was depressed. I actually found for myself that it was like I just was just numb, and that's the way I experienced the world was in this sort of numb sort of state, and I didn't really find my way out of that until my early twenties when I started to do meditation. And that sort of helped me on the way through. So what did you do to actually find your way through that?
[00:07:38] Speaker A: Yes. So, as I mentioned, Covid, was the time where I found my spirituality. And it's only because I was on social media a lot, and I saw this woman was posting tarot readings, and I bought a deck of tarot cards. And in LA, in Los Angeles, the whole city has been shut down. Had been shut down for, like, four months. My friend came over, and I was like, do you want a reading? I've never touched tarot cards in my entire life. And she's like, yeah, let's do it. So I pick up the deck, and the words just start flying out of my mouth. It was like I was made to read Tarot. It was very strange to the point where the next month, I learned tarot, and I got it down enough to start a business. So I started my business. When I did that, I was on the fast track. I started to learn meditation. I started to learn Reiki. I started to just, like, really learn how to ground myself in this reality, build spiritual routines out that felt really nice and all that stuff. So it really comes down to building spiritual routines and practices that started to make me feel more connected with myself.
[00:08:49] Speaker B: Where did you think all these intuitions were coming from to actually help you on your way?
[00:08:54] Speaker A: I knew they were coming from my spirit guides. I knew they were coming from my higher self. It's like there was this light bulb that turned on as soon as I got that deck in my hands, and I was like, oh, I actually, like, know all of these things already, so I think that it was more of a remembrance than anything else.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: Okay. What deck was that at the time?
[00:09:14] Speaker A: That was the mystic Mondays deck.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Mystic Mondays. I don't know that one. Okay.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: I have a lot of decks next to me right now, but not that one.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: So would you say that you were actually living in a space where you were stuck before that? And what did that mean for you?
[00:09:33] Speaker A: I was a middle school english teacher, and I got three master's degrees, and I was just on a hamster wheel. I thought I was just going to be a college professor. I was very, very unhappy with the Los Angeles public school system. I was extremely stuck and stuck in my relationships, stuck in the work. I just was very unhappy. It took me a really long time to realize how unhappy I was because I was constantly filled with anxiety because of the stuckness. And once I removed myself from that stagnancy, then I was able to kind of look retrospectively at my situation and think, oh, man, I was not in a place where I was able to see the future.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Yeah, right. Because you were so caught in that place of unscentedness. Really.
How did your diagnosis of bipolar disorder influence your approach towards energy management and healing?
[00:10:41] Speaker A: That's a good question. And it's really funny, because that's what I've been thinking about lately and kind of struggling with understanding lately my bipolar disorder diagnosis. At first, when I started all the spiritual practices, I was thinking, well, I think that this bipolar diagnosis is just. I don't know how to protect myself from all the energies that are around me. So I'm picking up energy from this person, I'm picking up energy from that person, and I'm keeping it as my own, and I think that is how it manifested. So, some days I was feeling really high. Some days I was feeling really low, and that's just because I was not sitting in my own energy. I was sitting in everyone else's. And I did not learn how to spiritually cleanse myself. So now that I do spiritually cleanse myself, I am struggling with the diagnosis of it, because I'm like, well, was it really just all spiritual all along?
[00:11:38] Speaker B: Right, right. Okay, so you think maybe then, in that case, you were experienced, like, a spiritual sickness, like a longing?
[00:11:48] Speaker A: I truly believe that those of us who are very strong empaths can take on energy from other people. And if we don't know that we're carrying it, then it just clouds so much of our lives. When I do reiki on some clients, I can see the energy from other people that is on their body, and I'm just like, whoa, none of this anxiety, none of this worry. This is actually not yours. This is everyone else's. And once we clear it, then they're able to kind of come to how they really feel.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: What does that you think that says about society that, you know, people aren't supported in their connecting to their gifts?
[00:12:27] Speaker A: What do I think? I think it.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: What do you think of it? Okay. What do you think about society, then, in. In that case? Because, I mean, if everyone is being suppressed in their connection to their gifts and their. Their way in the world, what do you think that says?
[00:12:41] Speaker A: Well, that's a great question. I think that says that if everyone were connected with their spirituality, first of all, we would be treating everyone very kindly. We would be treating ourselves very kindly. We would be treating others and the universe and the world with fairness. I think we would have stronger values, and we would also be less anxious, less depressed. One of my favorite books is by Jonathan Haidtley, I think, and it's the anxious generation. And he talks about how everyone is anxious. Now, it's not a spiritual book, but it is. The fact of the matter is politics, the external landscape of where we live at right now, everything just makes us feel so anxious all the time. But if we all had spiritual practices to ground us, imagine what the world would look like. It would be slightly a utopian society.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Yeah, right. So it actually sounds like that what you're describing there too is also your understanding of releasing people from repression. And you call yourself a bit of a past life repressionist because you actually help to identify that with people.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: Correct?
[00:13:47] Speaker B: I do, yeah. Nice.
Can you explain what past life regression is and how you use those to facilitate healing?
[00:13:57] Speaker A: Yes, past life regressions. I think everyone on this planet should do past life regression therapy, because everyone is walking around with past life trauma that they need to release. And when we do past life regression therapy, we are not only identifying what happened in our past lives, but we are also releasing the pain that comes with those past lives. So, for example, I had a client who was trying to find out why she always feels so anxious around men. And we looked through her past lives and we found that she was a man and she did not do good things. She was very bad to women. So it's almost like that past life guilt moves into this lifetime, and she's still carrying that guilt, but also that fear surrounding men, because she knows what, in her mind they were capable of that in that past life. It's very fascinating. So once we release that, she was actually able to find a lot of liberation.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: When you did your past life regression, then how was that for you?
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Oh, man, I've done a lot of them. One of them was, the most notable was me being in Spain. And I was stoned to death because I killed my husband, because he murdered bulls. He was a toreador, and I felt that I could communicate with the animals. I had empathy for the animals, and also he was just a really bad person to everyone else. And being stoned to death was very traumatic. I felt it on the left side of my body. I always carried pain there. Once we released that past life, the pain on my left side of my body never came back.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: Wild. Yeah.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: So those things can carry across many generations.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: Yes. That's what. Exactly what I mean. And lifetimes.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I read a study on that was done on some rats where they actually did some proof of this. And what they did. Yeah, yeah. What they did was they got some rats, and then they attached an understanding that a certain sound would mean food. And then after a long time of making that sound and attaching that sound to, you know, to food and their experience of food, then they turn that into, like, a shocking sound. Right. So then, you know, these rats had been bread to also then understand that, oh, this could be scary, and then, you know, because of this sound as well.
And then three generations later of those same. That same.
Those same rats, they exposed the, you know, the baby rats to that sound, and they all reacted the same way, and it's like they've never heard the sound.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: That is wild.
[00:16:44] Speaker B: That's just absolute proof. I only read that the other day. I got to find it again because it was so good. But, yeah, it's just proof that trauma can be, you know, cast through generations and cause effects upon us. And no one knows how that works, but, you know, it works.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: I would love for you to send me that.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I've got to find it. I got to find it because it was so good.
Okay, so how do you blend different approaches, like tarot and Reiki within your holistic approach?
[00:17:13] Speaker A: So what I did, as I've mentioned, I'm kind of a learner, and I'm just. I like to learn things, and I learned everything when I started my spiritual journey. I learned tarot, I learned Reiki, I learned past life regression therapy, how to be a spiritual coach. I learned how to host retreats and all that stuff. What I did was I learned all these things, and I put them in one package so that everyone can get a little bit of everything in their healing process.
Therefore, if someone needs to clear from this lifetime, from this generation, from the present to childhood, we will do Reiki, we will do tarot, we will do higher self meditation so they can connect with their higher selves and spirit guide meditations to connect with their spirit guides so, so that they can heal and learn all the information that they need to heal from this lifetime. Then we go back into past lives and do past life therapy. So it's very all encompassing to make sure that we're healing every aspect of ourselves.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: Can you give any stories of successes that you've had without identifying those people?
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Absolutely. I've had a lot of different clients who've come to me with just a lot of self doubt. And so I think that when they go through my program and they are also even just doubting spirituality, they get a reiki session from me, and then they can feel the energy moving through their body, and they can feel the chakras opening up. So I had this one client who was very cynical of spirituality, even though she joined my program, I think everyone's a little skeptical. When I did the Reiki session on her, she was just floored. She did not even know what the chakras were prior to our session, and she saw all of the colors as I was doing the energy session. And by the way, it was a distance. So she was at home and I was at my house, and we did the session. Then after that session, we did the meet your spirit guide session. She literally spoke with her grandparents, and she had a very, very cathartic response, just crying uncontrollably because she knew she was speaking with her grandparents because I had guided her to do that. When we did the higher self activation, she felt that she was connecting with a higher version of her. Then we did the past life regressions, and we went through three different past lives where she definitely discovered why she was so doubtful of herself. She was a mother who never did what she wanted to do. She only did what everyone else wanted to do, and she didn't feel happy in that lifetime. So that's why she has a lot of self doubt in this lifetime. And. And then we did the tarot training, and then she learned how to read tarot for herself. So that was literally taking one client through the entire program, and that's basically what happened with that one client, right?
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Wild. Yeah. Cool. Cool.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: I was going to ask you about your experience with extraterrestrials.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: I love it. I'm glad.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: So tell us about what happened for you there.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: Yeah, this always comes up on podcasts, and I love it.
My experience through my spiritual awakening really started when I connected with the Arcturians. The Arcturians are a star family, the extraterrestrial family that are the blue people. They're the ones that are like the teachers.
I have had such wild experiences with them that there's no doubt that ets are real. For example, when I had a past life regressionist come to my house, we did a higher self activation, and he spoke with my higher self. The Arcturians came through in my room. I'm completely sedated and in a hypnotic state. The Arcturians are speaking through me, and the past life regressionists is talking to them and asking them questions.
I have this recorded. I've also seen them in my meditations. They've come through in.
They've come through through other people. I had a client message me and say that the Arcturians told them to message me, told him to message me so that he can learn from me. And that was the most. That's the latest experience with them. It's literally just blows my mind every time I think about it.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: And what messages do you think the Arcturians have for everyone?
[00:21:53] Speaker A: Then everyone asks me this question. I think the message is that we need to.
We need to be better at trusting in ourselves. That's a really big one that they're always telling me. We also need to be guides for everyone else. I think the Arcturians want us to level up. They want us to become better versions of ourselves and not hold ourselves back from stagnancy. The Arcturians literally want us all to raise, to, like, the new earth. Right. That new earth collective mindset of kind of what we were talking about earlier. Like, everyone in the collective is kind of up leveled and intact with their spirituality. I think that's ultimately what they want. They want to raise the vibrations so that everyone on earth is happier.
[00:22:43] Speaker B: Okay. That's a good message.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: So what encouragement would you offer people who are doubtful about exploring their spirituality or practices such as tarot readings?
[00:22:56] Speaker A: I love this question because one thing that I always mention is that spirituality is the study of yourself. It is not about tarot cards. It's not about crystals. It's not about candles or any of that stuff. So I think once people start to wrap their mind around that idea, it's literally just getting to know myself, realizing that I'm powerful, realizing that I have the gifts to create my own reality, then it becomes less scary. What do we do when we're doing spirituality? All we're doing is reflecting on ourselves, journaling, meditating, sitting with ourselves. Right. It's all about us. When we do tarot, then we are connecting with our spirit guides to gain guidance about us. Spirituality is about self improvement. So I think that once people start to think about spirituality in a way that's not like, oh, that's like, that's too woo woo. Then it'll be easier to grasp.
[00:23:56] Speaker B: What about those people that are listening that maybe, you know, are a bit scared to actually take that first step? I mean, you know, when you're right in it and, you know, you're. You're feeling that stuckness and you're not really sure what you're doing with your life. And you're probably addicted to all sorts of things because of the way society functions. You know, like, you're addicted to your devices, you're addicted to your relationships, you're addicted to food, you're addicted to. To, you know, how people see you and things like that. What's a simple first step for people that are like that, sort of stuck, that don't realize they're stuck, but they can feel that inkling because they're listening, for example.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: Yeah. I'll give you the first assignment that I give all of my clients in my coaching program, which is write down all of the negative thoughts that you have on a piece of paper or in your phone throughout the day, throughout a week, on post it notes, wherever you need to put it. So you're going to write down any cognitive distortions, and if you don't know what that is, you can look up feeling good by David Burns, and he really talks about what those are. And then you need to figure out why you are stuck, because the negative self talk will begin to point you to that area.
Once we do that, then we're able to pull ourselves out. So this may not sound like a spiritual suggestion, but it is. Because, like I said, spirituality is reflecting on the self. We need to figure out what our ego is saying to us. So that's the best first step. What are you. What are you really telling yourself? Let's work on that.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: Yeah. You could ask yourself the question, if.
If you were capable of change, then how would you think that might start?
[00:25:43] Speaker A: Right? Right. And exactly like, looking at everything, I think if we're capable of being so hard on ourselves, we have to think of the opposite. Right. We are so capable of being very good to ourselves. I will mention that when I was very depressed and very sad and very stuck, I never wanted to be a happy person. And I one time told my best friend, I don't want to be one of those happy people who's just like, life is always good. Look on the bright side. Because that just did not resonate with who I told myself I was for so long. The narrative that I carried, once I decided to shift and actually make a change, you have to decide to make that change. You have to decide to want to go down this path. That's actually the real first step, just deciding, I'm going to do this.
Then everything changed for me. And now I'm very happy to be this very, like, happy. Look on the bright side, positive person. I still embrace my shadows, but I focus on the fact that I think everything is going to work out in the way that it should.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: Yeah, right, right. I was going to ask you that. Are you a happy person now? So you've already answered that one.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: I do sad like everyone else, but then that's when I know that I need to do my shadow work.
[00:27:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I think we all have dark days, and actually, they're a part of a normal part of life, and. But recognizing for what they are and not, you know, jumping to conclusions and trying to find something to worry about is the best way can, you know, you can always move through those things. It could always even be just like a transit, just whacking you from a planet. So, you know.
[00:27:23] Speaker A: Absolutely. And I also like to say that, first of all, I really recommend that book feeling good by David Burns, because they. He really talks about how to get rid of those cognitive distortions, like jumping to conclusions and all that stuff. And then second, I think it's really important to just realize that the spiritual journey is not all rainbows and sunshines. In fact, at first, it's very bright and happy, and then you start to get a lot of repeated numbers, and then you start to start to see a lot of synchronicities. And then everyone kind of falls into this dark night of the soul. And once you get into that dark night of the soul, we pull ourselves out and we're back in the spiritual journey. But guess what? It ebbs and flows. So I've had about three dark nights of the souls since I've had my spiritual awakening four years ago.
[00:28:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I can attest to that, too. I've been through quite a few dark nights of the soul, and all of those have built upon each other so that I've had more resilience in life, and I can, you know, see better ways through. And, you know, I'd say I'm 99.9% happy person most of the time. So that's. That's a good thing.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: That's really great.
[00:28:35] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. It's good.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: Higher than my number right now.
[00:28:40] Speaker B: You'll find a way through. I know that because you're already on the path. So that's a good thing.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm just, like, just coming out of another dark night of the soul. There's things that I just did not see coming. A lot of triggers from my past that, like, you think that you're done with, and then they come back up because it's eclipse season, right?
[00:28:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's what it's for. I think is to pull off the band aid.
[00:29:03] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:29:04] Speaker B: Does magic play any part in your story?
[00:29:10] Speaker A: Define magic.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Influencing probability for events in your favorite.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: Okay. I love candle magic. I love candle magic. It is my favorite thing. I am a fire sign. I have a lot of fire in my chart. I use candle magic only for abundance planning, though. So I will do a little candle spell for making sure that I get a really good client season or making sure that I am filling up spots for my retreat, stuff like that.
The energy in an abundant way. But I don't do, like, and sometimes I'll do spells for, like, my intuition. If I'm feeling kind of low, I'll do, like, a purple candle. Like, I want to be really sharp, but I won't love spells or anything.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: Yeah, right, right. Nice. So you do this mainly for yourself and not for clients? For.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: I. It's so interesting because recently I keep getting people asking, so I might start doing it. I normally advise and I don't do it for them, but I'm thinking about starting to do it for them.
[00:30:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Cool. Cool. Okay, so, Anastasia, so how did you do all this? Did you do it on your own, or did you do it with any help?
[00:30:31] Speaker A: So I definitely had to have some mentors. A lot of it I did do on my own because I was taking all these courses. But it's kind of difficult to learn everything without having that face to face interaction with just one mentor. And once I started working with my first mentor, that's when I actually really connected with the Arcturians, because she's the one who told me about them, and she's the one who gave me all the tips and tools that I needed to learn how to practice my mediumship abilities. And then I learned a lot of other tools from another mentor who helped me with my Reiki. I think you have to work with people. If you look at the tarot deck, you'll see the hierophant card. And it's about the fool who's at the start of the major Arcana learning that he needs other people in order to make his spiritual journey actually move, to move through it in a really great way. There's so much that we have to learn from other people. So finding a mentor is really great when you're starting your spiritual journey to also hold you accountable.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: Did you actually say anything to the universe, like, I need help with this, or did it just come to you?
[00:31:40] Speaker A: That's a really good question. I think it. She just came to me, the first one because I'm one of those people that's like, oh, I could do everything on my own. And I think the universe was like, no, there's. You need a little bit of help.
[00:31:53] Speaker B: Nice. Well, I'm glad you got that help.
What future aspirations do you have for the spiritual gothen and positively influencing the spiritual community?
[00:32:04] Speaker A: Yes. So I host retreats every year. I've hosted one in ojai, california, one in costa Rica, and then one in sedona. I want to host so many more retreats. I want to host retreats all over the world. Multiple retreats a year, maybe three. I would love for the spiritual goth to be a. An umbrella company so that other readers can work underneath me. I love for the spiritual goth to be big, much bigger, so that I can help so many more people. Group coaching, I'd love to doing more of that. My coaching program is like everything to me because I've literally helped change lives with my program and I just want the spiritual guts to touch as many people as possible.
[00:32:49] Speaker B: Wonderful.
So we are coming towards the end of the podcast, and I was going to ask you, can you actually drop some links so everyone can find you?
[00:32:57] Speaker A: Yes. So I am the spiritual goth and on basically everything. My website is thespiritualgoth.com and you can email me
[email protected] as well.
[00:33:10] Speaker B: Nice. All right. Thank you so much for your time, Anastasia, and your sharing of your understanding of what happened for you and how you're actually stepping into the world to actually help everyone. It's been, it's been a pleasure.
[00:33:22] Speaker A: It's been a pleasure to talk to you too.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: Thank you very much. Just, I'll just say goodbye to the listeners. Just wait there.
It's nice talking to Anastasia about her process and her understanding of stuckness and what she does with people in the world. So there's some good gems in there. And if you've enjoyed the show, please like and subscribe. And if you're watching on YouTube, you would have seen my camera whack out. And I went back to the default camera on the computer and it looked really wacky. So sorry about that. But I finally fixed that now for the ending, so hope you enjoyed. Thank you so much for listening. Until next episode, it's bye for now.
