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A New Age Guide
An Interview with author Tiffany Johnson on her new book, Seeds of Thought
by Tim Miejan
Tiffany Johnson represents a new generation that is intent upon preserving ancient
principles and wisdom that make up the New Age. This thirtysomething Minnesota native
is a psychic, healer and speaker who wanted to offer her clients -- and the public
at large -- a quick and easy-to-read guide to accessing inner wisdom, so she wrote
Seeds of Thought: A Comprensive Guide to the New Age (Beaver's Pond Press, 2004).
Tiffany spoke with Edge Life by phone from her home office in the Twin Cities about
her personal journey as a psychic reader and as a new author.
When did you realize you were on a path as a psychic, healer and teacher?
Tiffany Johnson: Honest to God, I never knew anything different.
You are who you are and you've always been who you are.
Johnson: Well put. I started studying this stuff when I was 10 years old. Instead
of going to Nancy Drew at B. Dalton, I would go to the New Age section. All of this
has never not been part of my life. I didn't have a grand revelation. I didn't have
a near-death experience. I didn't have one of those magical, mystical moments. For
lack of a better term, it was something innately within me.
On some levels that makes for a boring story, but on other levels I didn't have to
suffer through those "What's wrong with me?" moments. I just proceeded
with, "This is who I am." I had blonde hair and blue eyes and read Tarot
cards. It was fundamental to who I was.
What books were important to you when you were young?
Johnson: It's embarrassing as all get out, but one of the first books I picked
up -- bear in mind I was 11 or 12 years old and a little hormonal -- was a small
little paperback put out by Llewellyn, Raymond Buckland's Gypsy Love Magick. My first
tarot deck was the Mythical Tarot, which came out in the mid-'80s, and I still work
with that deck. It still smells like patchouli and all sorts of things.
How did your peers react to this aspect of you?
Johnson: I was so blessed by the people who were around me, and I truly believe
they were very much a catalyst for what I was. They didn't think I was weird. I was
so lucky. It was like, "Do you want to play Monopoly or should Tiffany read
your cards?" I'm not a teetotaler, but in high school and college, I never drank
beer and I don't to this day. So I would go to the keggers with my two-liter bottle
of Mountain Dew and my cards. Not to toot my own horn, but I was part of a cutsey,
fashionable crowd, and people just embraced who I was. I was so fortunate.
Sylvia Browne made a comment in one of her books that her friends would just say,
"Well, that's just Sylvia." I got a lot of that, too. It was like, "That's
just what Tiffany does." And as much as I was part of the crowd, having my cards
and doing readings was what made me distinctive.
When you're younger, you have a broader view of imagination and magic and the things
that are unseen. I was never really ostracized or thought of as odd for doing what
I really enjoyed doing. It was a great training ground for me to read for 50 drunken
teenagers, working in that energy and really having to hone in on things.
Who was the first adult who confirmed your abilities and gave you confidence?
Johnson: My mommy! I was 14 and I remember it so terribly succinctly. When I
was around that age, we moved from New Prague to Burnsville. It was the end of eighth
grade going into ninth grade and it was a very awkward time. That summer after moving
I pretty much spent time by myself. It sucked, because I'm a very social person.
So I turned to my Tarot and that aspect of myself and really delved into it.
So I did a reading for my mom, and I remember it so clearly even today. We were at
the kitchen table. To this day, I don't think my mom would profess that she knows
anything about divination in any form, but I read her cards that day and she looked
at me. I swear to God I'll never forget it. She says, "You just told me that
my life is shit, but you're right on."
She had been through a lot. She divorced my biological father after 11 years of marriage
with a 5-year-old daughter, after not working for six or seven years and not really
having any money of her own. My biological father hit her and she had really been
through a lot.
More than you really knew, right?
Johnson: Without a doubt. I was sheltered from a lot of that, and that was a
good thing. So Mom was the first person who really acknowledged my abilities.
I think what's important for all parents is: When you give recognition to your children
-- and I don't care if it's for their psychic abilities, sporting events or an intellectual
pursuit -- you have no idea of how much that means to them. I still hold that experience
in my heart to this day.
To this day, if I'm not feeling good about how a reading went, or if I don't feel
I was making good connections with someone, I default to that day when I was 14 years
old and trusted myself. My mom gave me my first big validation of things that I really
didn't know. From then on, that gave me the hutzpah to go forth and do this for my
friends and not be fearful and not worry about judgment.
Other validation would come, but typically it was after the reading. At the time,
someone would go, "What?" and then two or three weeks would pass and they'd
come back and say, "I met this guy, Brian, and you told me it'd be a "br"
name.
Your book is a primer on the New Age: angels, auras, crystals, dreams, intuition,
meditation, numerology, psychic development, reincarnation, spirit guides and tarot.
How do all of these ideas and modalities connect in your life?
Johnson: They're absolutely something I walk in and utilize each and every day,
in some form or another. And it would be that way regardless of my profession. Everything
is interrelated. I utilize every topic I put in the book, and it's innate within
me to do so.
Now, there are many other wonderful tools not mentioned in my book. Astrology is
amazing, but because I wanted to keep this book so short and make a Cliff Notes version
of the New Age topics if I could, I didn't feel comfortable reducing astrology to
three pages in my book. I couldn't do it. Feng shui is another topic that had so
many aspects to discuss.
I felt like I would be doing a disservice by putting some subjects that I have studied
in the book. And frankly, I don't use astrology every single day. So I just put in
the topics that I felt tremendously comfortable speaking on.
Why did you write Seeds of Thought?
Johnson: Because there wasn't one book on all of these topics, at least from
what I found. There are umpteen bazillion books out there on chakras, unheard of
amounts of books on angels, an astronomical number of books on tarot. My students,
my clients, other people's clients and friends and family would tell me that they
didn't have one little book to succinctly dip their toes into that pool and give
them a primary definition of topics related to the New Age. That's why I did it.
I kid you not, I was vacuuming my house and all of a sudden I hear from my guides,
"Write a book." That's the last thing I really wanted to do. My forte is
as a reader and I'm absolutely proud of that. So I look up to my ceiling for whatever
reason and do the, "You've got to be kidding."
And I hear again: "Write a book."
And I did the, "No."
And then I hear, "It's already written."
And then I look up and say, "I beg to differ."
My guides gave me this message, long story short, that this was to be a compilation
of notes I had already taken during all my studies and classes. So it had already
been written. I just had to compile it to get it out there to the general public.
This whole project probably took about three months. That speaks to the divine order
of things.
What role does the New Age play in our society today?
Johnson: I think it plays every role. The New Age plays a role of peace, a role
of serenity, more so than we can even wrap our little minds around. I see people
coming to me on a daily basis needing to find that aspect of themselves, needing
to find their God self, and I think that is what the New Age movement is providing.
It is making it OK to embrace your godliness, or goddessness, or soul center, or
however you want to name it. That's what the New Age movement does. It makes it OK
for you to be free from judgment, and to feel as though you don't have to judge.
It's both external and internal. There are many paths to that center of ourselves,
and the New Age encourages you to do what you need to do to get there. I think it
is the most beautiful thing in the whole, wide world for a person to understand,
that it's OK to do what you feel is right.
What's the biggest misconception people have about the New Age?
Johnson: That we're all flaky and undecided in our spiritual selves, kind of
wandering with an aimless purpose. We're normal people. We go to the grocery store.
We pump our gas. And we don't all have Jamaican accents. I have to vacuum my house
and clean up after my dogs.
What book have you read lately that you would recommend?
Johnson: I'm really into reading Kryon: The End Times. I think it is just amazing.
It's riveting material. I really like Holy Blood, Holy Grail, if you want to take
The Da Vinci Code a step further.
I'm also reading an introduction to the Old Testament Apocrypha. There's some light
reading for you. I'm really interested in reading the lost works of the Bible, like
the gospels of the Essenes. While this has nothing to do with the New Age, I think
that for you to be educated about Christianity, about the Bible and about spirituality,
you have to get into these works. I think the Bible is awesome, but you limit yourself
when you don't consider the books that were taken out, and to not read those is self-defeating.
My intention is not to offend people, but from the perspective of my personal growth,
I absolutely have had to start learning those texts and embracing them. It brings
a whole new level of depth to my spirituality and personal evolution.
Outside of buying your book and attending your study group, what other ways can
people begin to understand more about the New Age?
Johnson: Oh, my. Perhaps a good way to start is by getting a reading. Another
book I recommend to everyone is Ancient Teachings for Beginners (Llewellyn), by Douglas
de Long. He goes more in depth than I do, into four or five topics. Another way to
begin is to hop into a chat room. About.com is awesome. They have so many different
aspects of spirituality that you can really talk freely about. You can just read
what other people are saying about things.
I think it is so important that people diving into this don't feel alone. I hear
this from so many people and it breaks my heart. I was there at one point, too. You
are not alone and there are people out there who will talk to you about these things.
Don't be afraid of it and don't think that you're lessening the integrity of your
own religion. You're enhancing your soul.
Tiffany Johnson's book Seeds of Thought: A Comprehensive Guide to the New Age,
is available at www.readingsbytiffany.com. She also facilitates a monthly metaphysical/healing
discussion. The next meeting is at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 6. For more information,
call (612) 272-2561.
Tim Miejan is editor of Edge Life magazine. Contact him at (651) 578-8969, toll-free
1 (888) 776-5687 or e-mail editor@edgelife.net
Copyright © 2005 Tim Miejan, all rights reserved. |
| January 2005 |
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