Just to let you know, I started this in April 2017 when Doreen Virtue was newly born again and had said negative things about the Ascended Masters books and decks. I see that The Doreen Virtue/Jesus conversation has flared again, making me want to continue working on this piece to share my take on it…

So, I’ve been coming across some really interesting information and debate in the New Age Spiritual Community concerning Hay House author and angel guru, Doreen Virtue.

(Newer post here about her A-Z List of New Age Practices to Avoid)

In the past few years, as many of you know, Doreen Virtue’s work and she, herself – as a brand and celebrity – have skyrocketed. She kind of cornered the angel market and held the reputation of the Queen of Angel Work for the past 10 years or so.

Personally, I have read some of her books and I own a few of her decks. I even volunteered for her in Salzburg, Austria and in Zurich, Switzerland. I met many beautiful friends and business colleagues through her work and at those events. I’ve found her teaching style to be very easy to follow and, I think, well set up for people who are just starting to work intensively with their intuition and with different entities.

Angel work, too, struck a chord with me. I’ve written about my experiences before and find the energy of the angels – or whatever you want to call them – soothing, calming, and just plain nice. When I call on the angels, I feel protected. When I ask the angels for signs they are with me, I often get something totally funny and totally distinct and totally meaningful to me – something that makes me laugh or feel just a little less alone in the Universe.

Some might argue that angels are portrayed as fearsome beings in the Bible, so I am not sure if what I am working with is truly angelic, but whatever – the energy is, to me, calming and healing. (ha-ha! I might get some kickback for this statement.)

I know that I often felt like an outsider in the angelic community, though – or kind of like a double agent of sorts. You see, many people who follow Doreen prefer to keep things on the lighter side. She recommends being vegan, shunning hair color and chemicals, and doing everything one can to remain in a “high vibration state”; I’ve been working on integrating my spiritual side with my earthly side. I curse and sometimes eat meat. I’m not always the most gentle soul in the room.

I am finding power in anger and expression and being REAL – not just (feeling like, to me) shining beams of rainbow glittery light on people who were pissing me off. When I work with sensitive people, I find more success in gently encouraging people to be more powerful and making some hard decisions, not just focusing on the positive in life, glossing over the uncomfortable things in life and especially in the people around them.

So, I’d been feeling that there was something lacking for me in Doreen Virtue’s teachings (like spiritual bypassing that many have been talking about lately) and I backed away from Doreen Virtue, her work, and her teachings. I had gotten what I needed from her message, and I decided to happily pursue my own path – one that diverged from the one that Doreen Virtue spoke about and embraced.

To me, spirituality is a distinctly personal journey. We all come across teachers and gurus who influence our spiritual path. Some of my own have included Wayne Dwyer, Tool (the band), Robert Anton Wilson, Caroline Myss, Gena Thomashauer, my mom and friends, TV and pop culture, art, Terence McKenna, acid experiences, and the Beatles. No one is right, no one is wrong. Everyone is doing their own thing at their own level, and that’s OK.

I know that I might come across a book, CD, or video that will help me to go to the next level, and I don’t cling to the creator of that work for long-term spiritual guidance. I allow my spirituality to evolve and flow in a natural way – and I know that others evolve and grow and shift as well.

So, back to Doreen Virtue and her recent spiritual evolution that included a baptism and turn toward Jesus-centered Christianity, to which I say, “Even though it isn’t for me, more power to her if it makes her feel more spiritually connected and true to her beliefs.” Doreen has always said she is aligned with Christian beliefs and has referenced those many times in the past. If she is born again, then good for her if it takes her to the next level.

The problem that many people have had with this in relation to a message that she sent out (in both video and audio format) that was quickly removed from the internet…. Basically put, from what I understand, she said that some of her followers had “demonic, dark” energy around them as did some of her former work, including the Archangels and Ascended Masters book and the Ascended Masters deck. She actually advised people to burn their copies of these books and the decks associated with them.

I wish I could find links to what she specifically said (from what I understand, moderators for her pages have been busy scrubbing any mention away), but I know that it had a really profound impact on many of the people in the community that she, herself, had built – many people who felt like outsiders in general society had found a comfortable home within the angel community.

For many of those people – especially those who didn’t necessarily vibe with the Jesus angle – it felt like a mixture of being betrayed by their leader and also being singled out as evil and bad, which stung some of those people to the core.

Aside from that, Doreen’s audience IS (or was) multi- cultural and denouncing gods and goddesses from different faiths or backgrounds kind of burned. Learning about different deities and their characteristics felt like bringing people of all faiths together. Declaiming them seems divisive and totally anti-what-I-thought-her-message-was-about.

And there was some sort of denouncing tarot readings and mediumship, too. Hm. Personally, my love for tarot started long before I ever heard Doreen’s name, volunteered for her, and my CACR™ certification is just one small piece of my tarot background and education. When people talk about their certifications being worthless, they might be purposefully overlooking the experience of the class and the content there – which likely added to their tarot practice.

There are those in the tarot community who love her and those who despise her. And really, as I mentioned before – her path is her own biz.

Apropos biz: Many people think her rebirth to the Christian faith is just a business decision – a way to pander products to a different part of the market. If it is, so be it. I almost laugh when I think about someone “selling out to Christ” – even though I know it is a thing. And I know that born-again Christians are popular now and they do have money to spend. But, as I said before, whatever. This is her thing and she can teach those who are interested in hearing what she has to say.

To sum up my feelings about Doreen Virtue’s Christian Conversion, the only thing that bothers me about it is the fact that she made people who she might have once built up feel bad. While her spirituality is, was, and will be her business, she probably should have given a LOT more thought to her words and message during her transition. She could have found different things to say than words like “denounce”, evil, false gods, etc., and not encouraged her team to scrub conversations or people to burn decks and books. A little bit more gentle and light would have been more appropriate.

That’s just my opinion, though.

Each of us has a different and unique spiritual path to follow – even those who are celebrities or gurus. Doreen Virtue embraced her Christian background and made some very public statements about some of what she used to teach. Ultimately, she has every right to follow her own path, but she could have parted ways with those who didn’t fit with her new beliefs in a more constructive manner.

I’ve written a new blog post here that covers her A-Z List of New Age Practices to Avoid: Disappointed In Doreen Virtue

What do you think? How do you feel about Doreen Virtue’s statements and how she handled the change?