In the early 1990's, despite work that I loved, a good relationship and an enjoyable life, I experienced an ever-present longing, as though something was missing from my life. Yet I had no idea what it was or how to find out about it. I went to bookshops with the intention of finding a book that might be helpful.  But this did not happen and a few years went by.

As my home was in Sydney, I liked to walk along a favourite harbour beach and relax in the balmy breeze. One Sunday afternoon in 1996, I drove to the beach for a walk but was prompted to call in and see a friend who lived near there.

Dan is a Public Prosecutor and spiritual healer, he was surprised and pleased to see me and invited me in.  After a while he said, I have an intuition for you – you should meet my friend Sharon.  He didn't know why, but said by coincidence that she was visiting in about half and hour and asked if I would like to have a cup of tea and wait.

Sharon turned out to be a young mother with a small boy and as we chatted she said, Cassandra would like to speak with you. I was perplexed as apart from Dan and Sharon's son there was no one in the room. Giving Dan a look that said, who is this person, what's she on about, I asked who Cassandra was.

Sharon explained that Cassandra is an angel that she channels as a trance medium. "What is a trance medium? Does this angel ask to speak to many people?  And, does this angel really want to speak me?" I asked.

Sharon explained that it was rare for the angel to ask to speak to someone and yes Angel Cassandra did want to speak with me.  As a businesswoman I was not used to having this type of conversation or to meeting angels, so I was sceptical yet curious. Sharon explained, that a trance medium is someone who is able to energetically leave their body and allow a spiritual being to come and use the body as a vehicle to have a conversation with a human.

Sharon explained that I would have to have my questions prepared and ask all the questions while the angel used Sharon's body to speak with me. So when the angel left and Sharon returned to her body, she would not know what had been discussed.

Sharon lived a two-hour drive out of Sydney up in the mountains and despite my misgivings, I phoned the following week and made an appointment to speak with Angel Cassandra.

I drove up to the cottage where Sharon lived.  Then sat in an armchair opposite Sharon who explained that she would go into a deep trance and energetically leave her body.  That the angel would come into her body and speak to me and to switch the tape recorder on at that time.

I watched Sharon go into trance and she looked peaceful.  Then after a while her mouth moved and her throat was cleared, then a totally different voice – resonant, wise and loving came out of Sharon's mouth.  Angel Cassandra said in a most gracious and honouring way, "We come to you this day in love light and truth.  Is this acceptable to you?"

It was of course and we had an intimate discussion about my life and well-being.  I liked her wry sense of humour, that she could see into my inner most self and seemed to know everything about me.  At the end she said, We leave you with our love, our light and our truth. She suggested that I be aware and I would feel her around me in my everyday life.

After meeting Cassandra and the group of angels and archangels with whom she operates, I realised that my heart had been yearning for a connection with something greater than myself. Something beyond my busy secular life, something that nourished my spirit and helped me feel content and happy.

Yet the effect of the meeting was also confronting and initially confusing for me, because as a businessperson, it challenged my view of myself and what is real.   My view of the world, its possibilities and what it is to be human were somewhat limited, in comparison to experiencing an interconnected universe in which helpful and loving beings like angels exist. So the experience with Cassandra was an invitation to be more, to express more and to have more fun.

The impact has changed the course and flow of my life in positive and beneficial ways.   It has brought out gifts like painting and writing that I didn't know I had, and helped them flower and manifest in my life and work.  Also my relationships are more genuinely loving.

Though I have always liked art, I was not an artist.  However I did what I was guided to do and began to paint with these beings. When I began the angel paintings I had no knowledge of watercolour techniques and no drawing skills.  I felt excited at the prospect of painting angels.  Yet at the same time, somewhat anxious not being quite sure how to proceed, I went to an art store and found a magazine advertising a class in watercolour technique.  That technique helped me do the first painting – Angel Aloysius.

I became friends with these beings and learnt that I could trust them. Though I did not understand that the angel being painted was actually painting with me until the fifth painting – Angel Apollo.  The sea and rocks had been painted and the Angel's head and halo, but there was a gap between the head and rocks where the angels body should be.  I was wondering what might happen there and I got the idea to draw a line as though the angel had a cloak or jacket on.  When I started painting the jacket using a range of colours, my hand was moving very quickly.

I watched my hand moving and thought, "I don't paint that fast".   Somewhat perplexed and with the delight of experiencing the hand of the angelic within my hand to aid and instruct, I realised that I was not painting alone.  And, that the idea to draw the jacket had been given to me.  So I came to understand the paintings are a co-creation - the angel and I create the painting together.

When people came to see the paintings at my home, they would look at the angels and like or love them, and seem comforted by the truth they felt from the paintings.  Then the people seem to connect with one or two angels in particular.  The peoples' eyes would sometimes fill with tears as they attempted to understand why they were so touched by a particular angel, or they would excitedly share how that being made them happy, peaceful etc.  Some people asked to come back and be with a specific painting again.

Each person who saw the paintings reacted in a positive way, unique to that person.  And now, the same thing occurs, people share personal, intimate and heart felt experiences of how an angel has touched and changed them.   What has transpired in their lives as a consequence of seeing the paintings and connecting with these angels, and how they feel different – more self esteem, a new business, relationships improving, etc.

It is a pleasure to share people's personal experiences and such fun to hear the stories of how the angels have been assisting.  I love to watch someone's face fill with joy as they recount a surprise, a synchronicity, an angel arrangement that has helped their life.   It is a thrill when there is a message on my voicemail, an email or letter saying, "Guess what happened!"

I've come to understand, when someone sees a painting – they don't just see it, they feel it.  When they experience the feel of the painting and the joy within that comes from being in contact with that angel, it brings an inner peace that they then take to their life, to what they do and to the world.