Over the past few months, I’ve gotten Tarot readings and astrological tips about how I should approach my love life. So when the platform Keen invited me to get a reading from a professional psychic, of course I said yes. I’ve been single for a little over a year, and though I’ve been on plenty of first dates since my last breakup, I’ve been on only a few second dates — and zero third dates.
Although friends often urge me to “just give him a chance,” I feel like if I’m not excited or at least curious about seeing someone again, I shouldn’t waste their time, or my own. I’ve tried it before, and I’ve never felt “meh” about someone on the first two dates and then had that develop into stronger feelings on the third, fourth, or fifth. Though I’m not expecting love at first sight, I at least want to think “Ooh, they’re cute” and have an interesting first date convo. But should I be listening to my friends and not my instincts? I hoped the psychic would help me find out.
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I exchanged a few emails with Alison Shine, an intuitive medium with expertise in love and relationship readings. I didn’t tell her much about myself — simply that I was looking for guidance with my dating life, and that I hadn’t had a reading like this before. Instead of working with Tarot cards or my astrological birth chart, Shine communicates with spirit guides — both her clients' and her own. Over the reading, she described them as similar to guardian angels with “best friend energy."
Over the phone, Shine began by asking about my experience with psychic readings and explaining how she works, then said she was tuning into my energy. First, she told me that she sees a connection to the internet, so I should go ahead and keep using dating apps. She said that she sees a match for me who has a lot of feminine energy — they could be any gender, but they’ll be emotionally expressive. They'll also be an extrovert, a good fit for my introvert self (which she correctly called). This person will have a similar career — not necessarily a writer, but they'll work in a creative field. “I don’t see you with somebody who’s in business or a traditional, logical type,” Shine said. “This is a very open-minded free spirit.”
Shine added that she also saw a connection to labels, specifically Myers-Briggs and astrological signs. “You know when you meet someone and they’re like, ‘I’m an INFJ, I’m an Aries’? You’re the non-label type, but in this situation the label is great, because it’s an awesome icebreaker.” She also saw a connection to some kind of performance: a comedy show, or performance art.
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Shine said that my spirit guides told her there’s “divine timing” at work: “The portion between your last relationship and now feels very career-focused.” (Correct: I started working at Refinery29 in February.) She also saw a connection between my personal life and work life: “There’s a lot of passion there. The spirit guides want you to write a little more about yourself, so I feel like that’s going to continue to evolve.” Along with writing, she told me I’ll get deeper into spirituality. At 11:11 a.m., the spirit guides told her my “soul purpose message”: “Helping people feel understood and accepted."
But most significantly for me, Shine stressed that I will feel an instant connection with my future partner. “I see you meeting this person and it’s instantaneous,” she said. “There’s a gut feeling of, oh my gosh, I can feel this intensity between us. It’s like when you meet someone and you feel like you’ve met them before. Your spirit guides want you to know you are supposed to be in a relationship where you know immediately. They really want you to trust your gut.”
Plus, luckily for me, “it’s gonna happen quick,” Shine said. “Look for someone you have that immediate, fiery connection with. It’s okay to feel like you’re exploring and weeding out who you’re not into. But you are going to find somebody and it’s going to happen quick. Move towards what feels easy, where you don't have to think too much.”
Shine also told me that she sees a water sign around me — and I’m a Scorpio, a water sign. When I told her that, she said that this, along with some of her other insights and the 11:11 moment, are “what I call evidence or validation: things that really hit home to you, where you’d say, ‘oh, that’s accurate.’ It’s about you getting little pieces of information so you know, ‘oh wow, there’s something to this.’”
Whether or not there really is something to this — and the reading had me thinking there might be — I’ll be following Shine’s advice. After all, if my spirit guides want me to trust my gut, who am I to say no?