Beyond the veil

Two women sit across from each other in a dimly lit room. On the table between them rest three decks of cards, a notepad, and a box of tissues. “Is there anything you want to focus on?,” asks Cindy Pentecost, a woman with sand-coloured hair and glasses.

“I know what I don’t want to focus on,” says the woman across from her. She’s in her late seventies and heard about Cindy from a woman in yoga class.

“I know you’re a medium,” she says. “My husband died and I’m not ready to talk to him.”

Cindy agrees. They’ll stick to tarot cards. Cindy picks up a deck of cards and begins a rhythmic shuffling.

It’s a grey November afternoon in Cole Harbour. Between a pet grooming salon and a Bank of Montreal is Into the Mystic, a metaphysical shop that sells crystals, oracle cards and cauldrons. A quiet room is where psychics, mediums and tarot readers meet with clients. Colourful tapestries hang on every wall of the room. Next to Cindy is a table with a small collection of crystals on display. Incense and patchouli hang in the air.

“Let’s talk about relationships,” Cindy says.

“It’s encouraging to think that I might have one,” replies the woman. She leans forward in her seat, her eyes following every movement of Cindy’s hands as the cards are placed in meticulous order.

A man has recently entered the woman’s life. An old friend. A tinge of uncertainty is present in her voice as she tells her story.

Cindy, pointing to three cards face down on the table, says, “This is you… This is him… This is how you see the relationship.” A sense of a man rises in her mind. Guided by intuition and knowledge, Cindy translates the meaning of the cards. She concludes that the man is stoic, healing from the past, and closed off to love.

Cindy looks into the woman’s eyes. With the candor of an old friend, she says it plainly: “There’s no romantic future here.”

“I totally believe you,” replies the woman. Her demeanour has changed; she seems suddenly at home. Cindy has earned her trust.

The woman leans back into her seat. A cell phone alarm rings ー  their time is up. The woman heaves a deep sigh, and rises to her feet. “At least I know it’s not him,” she says with a laugh.

She slings an oversized purse over her shoulder. On second thought, she sits back down. She tells Cindy that when she was 20 she visited a psychic who told her she would have four men in her life. Almost sixty years later, she holds on to this anecdote like a box of old letters. A promise of love, tucked away in the back of her closet. Cindy smiles.

The woman prepares to go. “Namaste,” she says, with a bow. She leaves through the beaded curtain.                       

The 884

A psychic medium is widely believed to communicate with spirits and relay messages to the living. Recent polls suggest 44 per cent of Canadians have some belief in the paranormal. Online in Canada you can find 884 psychic mediums.

Tarot readers, witches, astrologers, and mediums practice different spiritual disciplines and all fall under the category of mysticism. People seeking advice from mystics vary in age, religion and level of faith.

We cannot, of course, see inside Cindy’s mind. This being the case, much of the information in this story is coming from her.

Even if you have never had your fortune told, and don’t plan on doing so, you may be interested in learning what a Halifax medium has been up to over the past month…

The people who visit Cindy would love for her to be right about everything. She tells them their deceased loved one is okay. She reminds them that the universe has their best interest at heart; all they need to do is have faith.

The nature of Cindy’s work elicits questions. The concept of making a living as a professional medium may seem far-fetched ー but to Cindy, it’s honest work. It’s what she was meant to do. She says she makes around $30,000 a year.

Cindy is relaxed. She never seems to be in a rush. Spend time with her, and you might be surprised to find her strikingly normal. If you met her at a social gathering, you probably would not guess her day job. She loves group workout classes, listens to ’90s alternative rock music, and spends time with her teenage son. She appears to like the people who come to see her. She wants to help them through one of life’s greatest enigmas ー death.

For Cindy, trusting the universe is as easy as breathing. She cultivated this trust through guided meditations led by instructors on YouTube. She journals and practices manifestation, using positive affirmations and visualizations to foster tangible results. She follows her intuition, goes on long walks and avoids paying attention to the news.

She says she is in close communication with her spirit guides. About a dozen spirits have acted as guiding lights throughout Cindy’s life. She has a strong relationship with her “main guide.”

The term “spirit guide” originated in the late-19^th century spiritualism movement and is similar in concept to a guardian angel. She discovered them through guided meditations, and converses in her mind with her main guide every day. In her mind’s eye, her main guide has a long white beard and looks a bit like a gladiator in the Roman Empire. When doing a medium reading, ie. communicating with spirits, she counts on his protection from dark entities.

Cindy says every person on the planet has spirit guides. Many people assume Cindy is religious, but she doesn’t agree with the human-made rules that drive organized religion.

She never encounters angels, like some mediums claim to. When she asked her spirit guides why, they replied, about all human beings: “You’re the angels, on earth.”

Cindy believes things will work out in her life. She believes money will flow to her. The right people will find her; the wrong people won’t. When clients come to her with problems, she encourages them to adopt the same attitude. Most clients who want tarot readings are struggling with relationships, careers or money. When someone wants a medium reading, they are usually dealing with grief.

“Some people can, like, pick up and move on from a death,” Cindy said. “Other people can’t.”

This is why she believes her work is important. “People just need to know that our souls live forever.”

During medium readings she channels the spirit’s personality. Sensitive spirits overwhelm her with joy and happiness, making her cry; sarcastic spirits make her laugh. She becomes a vessel for their energy. She relays a message from them: they’re proud of you, they’re sorry, they forgive you.

Tears and calm

In the back of the Neighbourhood Witch shop on Barrington Street, past the crystals, witch’s altar and wide assortment of herbs, a young woman is perched on the edge of a purple velvet love seat. She’s waiting for her reading. It’s her first time visiting the East Coast, and the past few days have been cold. The damp cold that you feel in your bones.

The warmth of the fireplace radiates. A framed painting of black cats reading tarot cards hangs on the wall. The woman enters and sits opposite Cindy. She doesn’t remove her coat or her hat. Tears line her eyes.

Cindy begins. Pencil in hand, she scribbles between the lines on a notepad. This takes concentration. She keeps her eyes down as she taps into communication with the spirit world. Scribbling on the paper in front of her, she is gathering information. Inside her mind, she’s asking the spirit questions to evoke different scenes, feelings and sounds. The woman watches as Cindy moves her pencil furiously, covering the page.

Cindy feels the presence of a feminine spirit. A woman who was wise and kind. Describing what she sees out loud, Cindy asks, “Is this your grandmother?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, she loves you so much she’s going to make me cry.” Cindy dabs her own tears with a tissue. She tells the woman her grandmother has no regrets and had fulfilled her life’s purpose. The client manages a soft smile. Comforted by the idea of her grandmother being at peace, she’s ready to continue the session.

Cindy brings in the next spirit. She closes her eyes and sees a very beautiful young woman.

“Was this a friend?,” Cindy asks.

The client disagrees, shaking her head. “No,” Cindy says. “More than a friend.”

A lost love. Six years ago, this woman passed away in a tragic accident. Cindy tells the woman her partner is doing very well on the other side. She’s at peace, but sorry she had to leave so soon.

“Does she know when I’m thinking about her? Can she feel it?”

“She hears you all the time,” says Cindy. “Pay attention to the signs.”

A dime on the sidewalk. A white feather. A flickering light. Tiny signs that stop you in your tracks and flood you with memories of someone you lost.

The woman’s face is flushed, but her eyes have dried. She looks calm. With a deep breath, she stands to leave.

“You look much more relaxed,” Cindy says.

The woman agrees, braces herself and heads back into the cold.

Staying grounded

The first spirit Cindy ever saw was her grandfather. He was a kind man with 10 grandchildren.  Shortly after his death, when Cindy was 8, he began to appear in her dreams. His presence brought her great comfort. She started to sense him while she was awake, feeling his presence in the room.

Telling her mother about this, Cindy was told she was lucky. Her family, in Sydney, Cape Breton, had strong Scottish roots – and believed her ability was special. 

But by the time Cindy was attending Saint Mary’s University, more people thought this was strange. Cindy began to think it was strange, too. She decided to focus on her studies.

Her intuition remained strong when she became a surgery unit nurse. Being around people close to death, Cindy says, spirituality comes naturally. “They feel that presence, how the air changes,” she said. “Everything changes when people die.”

After 20 years of nursing she felt she needed a change. Cindy started taking virtual medium courses during the pandemic. She learned how to clearly communicate with spirits while taking care of herself. Angela MacLellan, a well-established medium in Cape Breton, was her mentor. Cindy started reading books about medium readings and spent time observing mediums on social media.

Some information about the spirit world was revealed by her spirit guides.

She read books by Doreen Virtue, a California medium who gained fame and success. Virtue published books and made appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show. (She has since become a born-again Christian and renounces all New Age practices.)

When Cindy was considering opening her own business, the first person she told was Angela. Angela foresaw a wonderful future for Cindy in being a professional medium. Since Cindy trusted her mentor’s insight, she knew her business would be successful.

Cindy’s excitement was tethered to the knowledge that this decision would come with sacrifice. She knew she would risk losing the people in her life who don’t believe. Her then-husband was one of those people. He had mixed feelings about Cindy’s abilities, but was supportive until she decided to open her business. For most of their relationship, Cindy says, she was a nurse and her husband a doctor. For Cindy to venture into this new world would be a major change.

In the spring of 2021 she launched the website Spirit Connections with Cindy. This change led her to have less in common with old friends and co-workers, and had a profound effect on her marriage. Ultimately, she found a new sense of community, with other mystics.

Aspiring mediums on Zoom

Cindy now teaches a medium course of her own. Four aspiring mediums join a Zoom call each week, and learn how to connect with the other side. On a Monday evening, they’re discussing boundaries and self-care. In order to properly do readings, Cindy prioritizes her health. She drinks plenty of water before, during, and after readings.

“Some spirits will really dehydrate me,” she says. The students nod in agreement as she explains. During readings, staying grounded is key.

Cindy advises her students to set boundaries with the spirit world. She tells them not to be afraid, if the spirits are being too forceful, of telling them to back off. During readings, when spirits provide information about their deaths, Cindy experiences physical symptoms. If a spirit died of a respiratory illness, she feels short of breath; if they died of a heart attack, she feels a pain in her chest.

“But they can’t hurt you,” said Cindy. “Because you’re in the human world, right?”

The students stare blankly at the screen.

Cindy says she doesn’t mean to scare them, she just wants to ensure they take care of themselves mentally and physically. She tells her students how she cleanses her energy by burning sage essential oil and a Palo Santo stick (“holy wood” in Spanish). She visualizes a white light surrounding her, protecting her.

A skeptic

One sunny afternoon a businesswoman wanders into the Neighbourhood Witch. Despite her doubts, she pays $23 for a 15-minute tarot reading. She is having trouble making a major career decision.

As soon as she sits across from Cindy she says, “I will be honest. I am a skeptic.”

Cindy spreads the cards on the table. The company the woman works for hasn’t been doing well, and she is uncertain whether to move or stay. Cindy interprets the cards, one by one. The message of the cards is unanimous: find a new job.

The woman pauses for a moment. She looks up at Cindy and says simply, “I like you.”

She goes back into the store and books another 15 minutes of Cindy’s time. Sitting back down, her demeanour has changed. Her mother passed away last year, and she is feeling vulnerable. Cindy softened. She reminded the woman that they don’t have to do a medium reading, they can do it another time, when she is ready.

“No, no, I want to see if you can bring her in,” the woman said. “But if you can’t, then I just want you to stop.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Cindy closed her eyes and got to work. A few minutes later, she reassured her client that her mother is happy in the spirit world. The woman beamed. She took a business card so that, when she got home, she could book a longer reading.

On her way out, she stopped to see the cashier.

“Wow,” she said, “I do believe now.”

About the author

Emily Conohan