Why Akashic records reader Ashley Wood is our new favourite podcaster
Imagery: Ashley Wood // @_ashleywood
Words: Emma Vidgen // @emma_vee
Ashley Wood first blipped our radar when we stumbled across her podcast Manifest This. Ashley is an Akashic records reader, intuitive and one of our new favourite voices in the wellness and healing space right now. For the uninitiated, the Akashic Records are like a kind of universal energy log that can be accessed through channelling and meditation. Ashley says they’re like “a Google search for your soul.” We all have a record unique to our soul journey, and having someone read your record can offer wisdom and guidance from your universal energies (kind of like your spiritual A-team). The concept and process is fascinating in and of itself, and you can read more about how they work in our beginner’s guide to the Akashic records.
After listening to an episode of Manifest This we were completely hooked. Ashley combines her incredible intuitive gifts with a genuine frankness and vulnerability that is not only refreshing and rare, but truly insightful. There’s no spiritual bypassing here; Ashley’s totally open and honest discussing everything from her post-natal anxiety and her relationship, to her hopes, dreams and the occasional wobbles she has about her business. She’s also passionate about empowering others to reconnect with their intuition, rather than making it feel mysterious or inaccessible (look out for her upcoming course on how to read the records for yourself, coming late May 2019). It was for all these reasons we were so excited to chat to Ashley about her gift, the records and how we can all start toning our intuitive muscle. And here, we share her story.
You’re an akashic records reader but you’re also an intuitive and able to connect with energies that can’t be seen. when did you realise you had a gift?
As a little girl when I was having these dreams and seeing these things, to me it didn't seem like “the other”. It just fit into my normal. I realised that I was tapping into something different that other people weren't by the way my mother would react. She would just say, "Wow, that's weird, that's so weird!"
I did what I could to shut it off because I thought, “I can't tell people about this. They're going to think I'm so weird." There was some shame around it, because I knew it was different and I thought it was scary.
In my community I didn't see that [other people had gifts] other than my grandmother who was my first spiritual teacher. She taught me about tarot and crystals, palm reading and tea leaf reading and all kinds of stuff like that when I was a little girl.
How long did you stay in the intuitive closet?
I would tell my close friends about it. I’d say, "I have a message for you, can I give it to you?" I would share it with people who I knew would support me and respect it and appreciate it and not think I was weird. It definitely wasn't something I ever broadcasted or advertised. It wasn't coming on strong either.
Did your gift get so “loud” you couldn’t ignore it anymore?
I went through periods through my 20s where it would turn on and off and on and off. For a while it was completely off and then it started to turn on again when I got pregnant at 31.
Intuitively I was just hopping into different dimensions in my dreams all the time. I was communicating with my daughter's soul. It didn't scare me anymore. I really don't know what happened inside of me, a shift just happened where I was like, "This is who I am." I started to embrace it a bit more, because it gave me comfort and reassurance. There was still a long journey to accept that this isn't scary or weird.
“I did what I could to shut it off because I thought, “I can't tell people about this. They're going to think I'm so weird."
How did you find the Akashic records?
One of my friends who was a guest on the podcast, Amanda Goodfried, recommended I interview this woman named Morgan Yakus. It took months to get our interview to happen, and in that time we had a phone call where she asked me a lot of questions about myself. After hearing a bit about me she was like, "You need the records!" but I didn't know what they were. Morgan said, "The Akashic records they're going to change your life."
is it true you learned to read the akashic records by reading a book?
Yes, Morgan gave me the name of the book, which is How To Read The Akashic Records by Dr. Linda Howe and said, "Go read this book!" I bought it that day. I read a couple of pages at a time, because I just subconsciously knew that I was treading into deep waters, that as soon as I jumped into this, my life would never be the same. I read it very carefully, but very slowly, I didn't even finish the book, but I was like, ‘This is big’. I just knew this is going to change my life. What was scary is I didn't know what would happen. I didn't know what the other side was. I had no idea what was going to happen other than that it was going to be different.
What was it like the first time you went into the records?
One day my daughter was sleeping, it was a Sunday afternoon. I was laying on the couch downstairs or something and I just heard in my mind, "Go in the records right now." I went upstairs and I sat down on our bed in our bedroom and I did the meditation and said the pathway prayer and opened the records. It was like lightning through my body. It was unlike anything I can even put words to. It was so big and transformative. I did it with my eyes open and I now channel with my eyes closed, but my eyes were opened and I was seeing visions of animals on the wall. It was crazy and I was only in them for a couple of minutes, because then my husband came upstairs.
I hadn't told him what I was doing it. I felt like kind of embarrassed. I quickly closed the records and then I was like, what just happened? I felt high for the entire day. I remember we went to a family dinner that night and I was like, "How do I even talk to these people? I have to go be by myself. I don't know what has just happened." It was big, but it was also like a coming home. Like it was big, but it was comforting and exciting. I knew that I was about to go on an adventure.
do you have any idea what’s coming through when you’re in the records?
When I channel in readings I could speak for 40 minutes straight without taking a breath. That's so not me. We're talking right now and I pause a lot. In the records I don't have to think, it just comes through without a thought at all. It's very interesting and I never listen back on my monthly readings on the podcast. I record them and then I put them out because whenever I remember what I channel it's meant for me. Whenever I don't, it's meant for other people, and I don't really remember what I channel when I do those monthly readings. I just trust that everyone else is receiving them.