By Vanessa Packer
Photos courtesy of Naomi Pabst

“WHEN I DO A READING FOR SOMEONE IT’S AN INTUITIVE READING, WHAT I LOVINGLY CALL “TAROT THERAPY”, Naomi Pabst explains over tea in her West Village home. The professional intuitive boasts an impressive resume including twelve years teaching at Harvard and then Yale. For over a decade Pabst has helped her clients step into greater clarity, learn the art of self mastery and move beyond the problems of their past through her work as an intuitive therapist. “It’s my own intuition and life coaching all together,” Pabst continues. In her customized sessions, she brings thoughtful insight and guidance with a deep interpretation through her tarot card reading. “My work is helping people to get their high-beam headlights on, so they can have much better command of life, more self assurance, more clarity, and so they can make better decisions”, Pabst clarifies. In one-on-one appointments, group sessions, or her newly launched online platform offering a Seven week Self Mastery Course, the intention of her work is to assist you in rising up to a higher plane of thinking, vibrating at a higher frequency, and ultimately loving yourself and your life inside and out. From deconstructing the quantum reality, to optimizing energy flow, bonberi delved into the metaphysical with Pabst as she took us through her work and the healthy habits that keep her at the top of her game.


Your background is academia. You earned your PhD in the History of Consciousness and the and then taught at both Yale and Harvard. Was there something that clicked or happened that you decided to do more intuitive work with more of a spiritual leaning?
It happened over a long time, over the course of a few years. My two year old daughter showed signs of being psychic. I was never opposed to any of that stuff but I wasn’t necessarily into any of it. I started to do research because I felt foolish for not knowing more about my daughter’s gift and trying to rationalize or explain away the psychic insights she had. Ever the good academic, I set out to research matters of the metaphysical and mystical realm. In the process of researching it I awakened my own abilities. I would read about something and boom I would be able to do it. Almost like remembrance, like they were dormant skills and now they were awakened. I was compelled to use these abilities. It was more than an awakening, it was a calling.

Where did you begin?
Palmistry. Reading palms.

How did you get into tarot?
The tarot opened up for me a whole world of expanded awareness. It was as though five new horizons had opened. It was like learning a whole new high vibrating language, and I really loved it. It’s magical, its enlightened, it omniscient, it’s really powerful and that is why I became obsessed with the tarot. I started out researching it like everything else. It was all an elaborate research project that stuck.

Was intuition always part of your practice?
The intuitive consulting was always part of my practice. When I do a reading for someone it’s an intuitive reading, what I lovingly call “tarot therapy.” It’s my own intuition and life coaching all together. That’s the best I can define it. It’s a little academic, a little spiritual , a little intellectual. It appeals to smart, savvy, ambitious people who want to make a difference in the world, or are already doing so. It really helps to get to the complexities and the heart of whatever challenge the person might be facing.

What guides the tarot? What are you tapping into?
It’s all a big mystery, because we are dealing with the invisible, so there is only so much we can describe. In a sense it does come from God, it comes from the zone where God resides. It’s difficult for humans in our three dimensional reality to understand that. It’s the quantum reality you tap into.

So how would you define quantum reality?
The dimension beyond our own three dimensionality, it’s technically our home. We are actually limited in human bodies. We come here almost as a tourist trip and incarnate as a three dimensional being, and then we go home to multidimensional reality. Some have said there are as many as 11 dimensions over there, some say five. The quantum reality is the dimension beyond the duality of the Earth.

So what are we experiencing here on Earth?
The duality of life, which means everything that lives eventually dies. Everything on this planet has a polarity. For everything that’s true, the opposite is true as well, which is why everyone argues. What’s good to one person is not necessarily good to another. They are both good and bad at the same time. That’s duality, and that’s what we choose to experience, and that’s why we come here as humans. The quantum reality is beyond that.

So what is it that you are tapping into?
Everything where I tap in is in the white light, a place of love, a place of omniscience and of all knowing. It’s a place beyond time and space. Which means that all things can be known without impediments. The future can be seen now, the past can be seen now. The truth is that everything happens beyond time. I’m tapping into that ‘beyond time.’ My work is helping people to get their high-beam headlights on, so they can have much better command of life, more self assurance, more clarity, and so they can make better decisions. It’s just about having greater illumination on our paths – you don’t want to ruin the beautiful suspense of life or live in guarantees.

So who are you speaking with when you tap in?
The quantum reality is not just a place but there are beings there. When I do a tarot reading I’m connecting to spirit guides, angels and ascended masters, what I call my council and your council sitting down together. We have a spirit team guiding us through our lifetime, and when we do the tarot we connect with them. They give the guidance through the cards.

How did you come to understand that?
Through study and through meditation, white light meditation. You get there from being a seasoned meditator. Everybody through the process of meditation would be able to access quantum reality, it just takes time and practice. I don’t encourage people to try to see the white light because it’s enough to just radically relax and get still in every aspect of your being. However, if you do become an advanced meditator, contact with the quantum reality will just happen to you. You’ll just see it and connect to it effortlessly. It’s not something to try for.

How do you keep yourself from absorbing the energy of the person when you meet with clients?
My intuitive gift is claircognizance, which is to know things it would seemingly be impossible to know. It feels intellectual to me. I don’t take on the person’s emotions, because when it comes to the messages I impart, I simply give what I get. The messages come through me, not from me. I’m just the messenger, I don’t internalize it. I can feel challenged by the message I have to give, but it doesn’t stay with me as long as I’m taking care of myself and meditating. The white light energizes me, and I feel great after. I’ve never been drained by it. I’ve learned what my outer limits are with how many clients I can see per week.

What are some of the benefits you’ve noticed from meditation?
Inner peace, and a real letting go. Connecting to who we truly are, rather than the performance of who we are, our identity. You get beyond that into your true self. Your soul’s essence comes out when you can connect to the source. Meditation and the tarot can connect you to the same place, a source that will feed you information. Tarot is an intentional way of conjuring that up, but meditation leads to the same place through no effort of yours. It has all these healing benefits obviously, but it leads you to the same arena.

When you talk about vibrating frequency, what do you mean by that?
We all have a frequency because we are made of energy. The higher we are vibrating, the more magnetic we are and the more in our authenticity we are. The more we are in our own personal greatness, not by society’s standards, but by our own definition of that. In terms of what we value, are we embodying that? When we are living a life in accordance with our values and innermost truth, we can call that self mastery.

What is self mastery?
Self mastery equals loving your life, loving yourself and has to do with being in your truest and most authentic version of self. Honoring your inner dictates. What your inner knowing is saying to you. Your own truth, opinions and feelings. It’s a matter of your inner power.

What does the path to self mastery look like?
There’s a protocol. It includes stepping into our power and splendor, becoming more magnetic, healing ourselves (and we all need healing), and dialing up our intuition. It also includes getting to know ourselves better and accepting who we are. Self-mastery, once again, is about being in your truth, loving yourself, and loving your life. There are steps to learning how to really beam love onto yourself. Learning to love yourself actively. We tend to love ourselves passively; we all say we love ourselves. But actively loving ourselves is a game-changer.

How would you define self care?
Self care, ideally in it’s proper care, is the doing aspect of self love, the practical aspect.

How does self care fit in?
Self Care necessitates that we are able to honor our own desires and stick to our intentions on our own behalf. It’s also important to get in touch with yourself and really understand the type of self care you really need. Self care includes care of the entire mind, body, heart, and soul unit. If you care for that unit, you will step into greater levels of well being and quality of life, and you will become more empowered and more magnetic. Your intuition will also improve through this process.

Where does vanity fit into that?
There is room for vanity, but if it is for that alone most of us won’t be able to sustain it a self care regimen that is pandering to our vanity alone. I’m not opposed to vanity but if you are doing your self care for only superficial reasons, it’s not the best use of your time, you probably won’t have enough motivation to actually follow through.

What’s your philosophy when it comes to motherhood?
Mothering as you. We go into this bizarre performance of motherhood, when we should just be ourselves.

What about your philosophy on a healthy, balanced diet and life?
The best formula that I would give is an 80/20 ratio of being super mindful, eating alkaline and really honoring your sacred vehicle that is your body through nurturing it with life force food and food that will energize and nourish you, while keeping you functioning at a high level. So much happens through diet, so much of our well-being is linked to diet. Food and movement are all connected to mind, body, heart and soul. It’s all energy flow. Being physically healthy alone doesn’t equal happiness, nor does it equal beauty, clarity or confidence. You do have to nourish yourself on other levels. Having downtime is important. We are so over stimulated these days. We need stillness and we need downtime, that’s just as important as what you eat.

What is a typical day for you like?
I have three kids. A typical school day consists of my husband and I working together to get the kids up and out for school. Around 7:30am the pressure cooker goes off, I try to get in a few minutes meditation before that. Once the kids are out we enjoy the morning ritual, and eat breakfast together. I go to yoga and/or core fusion at exhale. I do that about 4 days a week. I come home and meditate. My meditation practice is central, it’s really important for the type of work I do. Not necessarily for the quality of the work, but it’s more for the quality of my life doing the work. My meditation can be up to an hour. If I don’t have as much time, 30 minutes minimum, but my life is very conducive to the need to meditate, so I need to that that extra time for myself. It’s like what Gandhi used to say, “I have a really busy day today, I better meditate for two hours instead of one.” That’s my philosophy; I need to meditate for an hour if I want to have a truly productive day and if I want to be present for my husband and my kids. I usually drink green juice in the morning, maybe some fruit, I’ll have a salad for lunch in between seeing clients. When the kids come home from school, I have an evening with them, homework, dinner etc, I work a little after and then it’s bed time. For dinner I cook something healthy for the family.

What type of meals do you make for your family?
We are not vegan but we certainly lean that way. My family likes things on the healthier side,  organic of course. Lunch is a heaping salad with a whole avocado in a mix of greens, with flax seeds, cherry tomatoes, and seaweed. I love Sea Snax, I cut them up and put them in the salad. Dinner I usually make something veggie based. They love broccoli, so I make a roasted broccoli with pine nuts, basil and fresh lemon juice. I also do a cauliflower garbanzo bean casserole with mustard and white wine vinegar sauce. Another meal my family all loves is warm quinoa with sautéed mushroom, garlic and a ton of arugula chopped up in it.

Your family eats so healthy
Kids in New York City are subjected to junk food on a regular basis, so I feel like I have to provide them with the healthy stuff. Between birthday parties and school functions they get enough pizza and junk food on their own. I’m not on my high horse with my kids, but when they are hungry I try to give them lots of fresh vegetables, and they like that stuff. I’m far from a purist or perfectionist.

What are some tools or tips you have for busy mothers or busy people in general that they can do to give themselves that self love and self care under time constraints?
I like to call it ‘our need to administer our administration.’ However busy we are, we put on a calendar whatever we would like to happen day by day and then we adhere strictly to the calendar. This also means doing the things, including possibility hiring a babysitter, that would enable us to adhere to whatever is in our calendar. I feel the balance is better in my life when I do the yoga practice, yet therefore spend less time with my kids than is ideal. Doing the yoga makes me a better mom. You have to be willing to make yourself a priority. There’s part of us that wants to chill in our downtime. We have to also work against that I little bit, and shift our perspective on how to use our time wisely. It’s not perfection it’s more like jazz music. It’s really strong infra-structurally which allows it to be so free and creative, coloring outside the lines, that’s how I think our lives can be. If the infrastructure and foundation is there, if the self care is there, that is what frees us up to have these amazing lives while we still allow for spontaneity and impulsiveness.

Do you have a non negotiable of the day?
Connecting to my gratitude for the miracle of life.

What do you have coming up?
I’m relaunching my site. I have workshops on the art of life and love coming up in the fall. I do the one-on-one readings as well as online I have pre-packaged 7-week course.

What is the seven week course?
It’s a seven week journey to you. The first week focuses on magnetizing yourself, the second week is love yourself, the third is know yourself, the fourth week is heal yourself, the fifth week is empower yourself. The sixth week is guide yourself and the seventh week is care for yourself.

What does it entail?
It’s a lecture each week, the intellectual meets spiritual approach I’ve honed in on. I teach you how to step into your truth and your greatness, plus how to create a life that you love and how to really learn to love yourself. This course represents the magic bullet for having what you want and making the contribution to the world that you want to. Creating the circumstances in life that you want and how to outgrow your problems. The course came from 10 years of doing readings for people and finding solutions to the hundreds of problems people want solved. It all takes getting to a higher level, and moving further on the path. Otherwise the problem won’t resolve itself. You have to grow and hone in on greater self mastery, and the truth is you don’t ever stop growing. If you do, your life will stagnate, and then you will feel like a victim of circumstance in living a life of boredom and under stimulation. Once you stagnate for long enough, something big will come along to crack you open. Perhaps, for instance, you will undergo a mid-life crisis. I say bless those things. It’s great when those things happen, a gift to us. As a culture, we can tend to make fun of someone who is going through a midlife crisis, we mock a process that is re-aligning a person on the journey of their life. A midlife crisis is beautiful. It’s something we should celebrate rather than make fun of.

For Naomi’s Green Apple Click HERE

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