We’re looking forward to introducing you to Sonya Shannon. Check out our conversation below.
Sonya, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
Meditation is the key to everything in my life right now. We are bombarded with distressing news, conflicting opinions on passionately-held issues, and so much pressure from all directions.
I like to meditate first thing in the morning, using a mantra (chant). The sound vibration reorganizes my body on a cellular level, focuses my mind, and connects me with deep peace.
Some of the chants I do are 62 minutes long. On a restless day, I get impatient to start my day or stretch my legs. But when I keep coming back to the mantra, the eye position, and my motivation to experience clarity and serenity, the restlessness melts away.
I disappear into the infinite present.
When the meditation is finished, I feel renewed, like my true self again, instead of an urgent to-do list and a swarm of unresolved concerns.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I offer one-on-one readings using the Transformation Oracle deck, which I channeled, along with other tarot decks and divination methods. Reading for people, helping them navigate life and see what’s going on below the surface, brings me great joy.
It’s always heartwarming when my regulars return with surprise at how helpful and accurate the readings turn out to be.
Once, early in my career as a reader, a twice widowed woman came to me, wondering if she would ever have another life partner. When I pulled cards, I saw that she would, and that it would be someone she already knew. At the time of the reading, I felt nervous because what if I was wrong? I hadn’t yet learned to trust the process. About a year later, that same woman showed up, accompanied by an older man. Hugging this man, while both beamed with smiles, she couldn’t wait to introduce the mate I predicted: her high-school science teacher!
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
When I was eleven years old, I had a mystical out-of-body experience. A girlfriend and I were playing on a monument with stairs that led to the sky. I climbed to the top and had what can only be described as a vision, similar to Joan of Arc’s. Though I wasn’t clinically dead, I went through the veil to the other side of reality, the way we do when we die. The strangest thing about this experience was how natural it felt, much more natural than being alive. I could hardly believe I’d forgotten what it is like to be absorbed into the One, to have access to all time at once, to know anything and everything!
This moment changed the way I look at life. It took away my fear of death and helped me know I could access that infinite dimension by getting quiet inside and letting myself “dissolve,” as I do in meditation and when I read for people.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
I’ve gone through many struggles in life – sexual harassment and gender-based unequal pay at work, rape, bankruptcy, foreclosure, and unemployment, to name a few. Suffered relationship challenges ending in two divorces before my current spouse. Also dealt with health problems including parasites, scoliosis, dysentery, and a bad case of COVID — plus recurring mental health issues like codependency, depression, anxiety, and PTSD. I have immigrated, moved from the sticks in Ontario, Canada to New York City to Boulder, Colorado and adapted to different cultures.
One day, when I was really lost, at my friend’s urging, I was guided to create the Transformation Oracle deck. Honestly, I did not want to create just another “angel” card deck. But the very next day, I downloaded the names of all 44 cards in the deck, plus the visions for the artwork! My connection with Spirit was strong, and I knew I had to get this product ready for the fall metaphysical fair in Denver. By the grace of the universe, everything came together in time and I started selling the deck and artwork that autumn. Each card in the deck called on challenges I had faced and help me put a positive, hopeful spin on them.
Right away, people asked me if I was a reader. I was so shy then, I said no. But I realized there are lots of talented psychics out there and decided to start teaching folks how to read the Transformation Oracle. As soon as I taught others, I realized I could read for them, too. That’s how my reader business started!
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
For me, kindness and compassion tops the list of beliefs I will never surrender. When people were kind to me, especially during my darkest hours, their caring, love, and help shone through and gave me hope.
It’s easy to be cruel, nasty, indifferent to others. Media thrives on gossip, schadenfreude, judgment, and blame. People buy guns because they live in mortal fear of what others might do to them or those they love.
But the real power of human beingness is to still care about other people, especially those who are trying to hurt you, who disagree violently with your opinions and values. Those people are in pain. They are disconnected from the fact that we are all in this life together.
I try my best to show kindness, compassion, and gratitude whenever possible, even when it feels scary or very difficult. No matter what, I do what I can to care for people regardless of differences in religion, politics, or gender-identification. I imagine the world from their perspective and open my heart to their circumstances.
In my view, kindness and compassion can make greater changes in the world than any destructive force. Being kind and compassionate can be harder than any other behavior or attitude. After we leave this planet, all that is left is our soul. I believe it really matters what we think, say, and do to one another. There is no escaping those consequences in the after-life.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
We all die, yet most people shy away from death, especially their own. I believe it’s important to live with conscious awareness that life ends. There’s no getting out of this fact!
Facing your own mortality head-on brings you deeply into the present moment. People often live in a state of distraction, whether through whatever they are doing on their smart phone or wherever their thoughts may wander. We tend to live in the past, re-playing old tapes in our heads, or in the future, worrying or daydreaming about what’s yet to come. We are not present as life passes through us in the eternal present, so we miss opportunities to make changes in our life, to witness ourselves and others without preconceptions, and to dwell in a kind of bliss and gratitude that are the birthrights of all beings.
Knowing that death advances closer with each day, each moment, each breath has the power to open the heart and mind and bring us into the fullness and preciousness of life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sonya-shannon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonya.shannon.artist/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonyashannon
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sonyashannonartist/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0AWc37kRkRdkX4WlL9uGKA
- Other: https://sonyashannon.substack.com/
Image Credits
Original artwork by Sonya Shannon, https://sonya-shannon.com.
Photo of Sonya Shannon (over black) by Katherine Marie Photography, https://katherinemariephoto.com/
