The Soup: Why We See What We See

Inspired by a recent conversation with my friend and colleague Alexandra Sorgenicht, who shared this story:

“There is a story about two women who order the same vegetable soup at a cafe.

One woman’s soup arrives first—simple, plain, unadorned. The second woman’s soup arrives later—but this one has a garnish of fresh herbs and a beautiful ceramic bowl.

The second woman laughs with delight. “How lovely! A gift from the kitchen!” The first woman doesn’t laugh. She tightens. “You ordered that on purpose to make me look bad.”

Two bowls of soup. Two completely different worlds.

Alexandra continued, “The second woman saw an unexpected, and joyful, gift. The first woman saw a comparison that put her at a disadvantage.”

As Clairvoyants, this is the most important lesson we can learn about pictures - and we have to learn it again, and again, and again as our practice deepens.

We do not react to what happens. We react to the picture through which we perceive what happens.

In the story, the woman who felt slighted didn't just have a bad day. She had a filter of scarcity and comparison running in her space - which means this is her entire reality. Everywhere she looks, she perceives things through this filter. The soup was just the trigger that lit up the picture.

For clairvoyants, this distinction is everything.

When a client or student gets angry at something that happens in a practicum reading or class, or on a personal level when a friend makes a comment that stings, or when you feel a sudden drop in your certainty at work or in relationships - you have to ask: Is this the soup? Or is this my filter?

Sometimes a conflict is just a conflict. But often, it is an internal picture seeking an external expression to be reinforced or validated. Your pictures want to assert their control, they want to influence - that’s what they are meant to do.

In discussing this dynamic recently, I was able to see this for myself in a much deeper way. Alexandra continued to share, "Sometimes a later rupture announces itself long in advance. The question is: Are you willing to see what you see?”

We might have a sense that something is amiss, something is off, or there’s a misalignment with someone long before it becomes real. We sense a change in the dynamic or tone of a relationship when the pictures change, like a side projector. Sometimes the person on the other end doesn’t even realize their pictures have changed.

This is because we are always reading pictures in people’s spaces - even when we’re not consciously doing it. We might sense that something is about to come to the surface for someone else - or for ourselves - before it actually does. The trick is to trust your intuition and address the shift in energies before they “blow up.”

In our held experiences at the Academy, like practicums, we talk about "blowing pictures." This isn't just a conceptual exercise - it’s very, very real. Like visceral and physical. Because it is how we identify and then release or discharge these energy constructs from our aura so we can see the soup for what it is - just soup. Finding neutrality and learning how to work with your pictures allows you to have direct experiences rather than reinforced drama that only validates “what you know to be true.”

If we don't identify these energy constructs and clean out our spaces, we don't actually experience the world around us, or see the truth of a thing, which often times is much simpler and more neutral than we think. We only see our past reoccuring, or things that were told/given to us, and our pictures, repeated ad naseum - influencing and determining what we can see and have.

Next week, I’ll be going a bit deeper into this dynamic by talking about what happens in interpersonal relationships when pictures are misaligned and get stimulated between people - like the ladies at the cafe in the story.

Alexandra is hosting a four week class this winter at Art of the Seer, 🌺 Temple of Her: The Power of Embodied Womanhood - it begins January 26th. (You can participate live or through recordings.)

Join a free introductory session on January 19th to learn more about her point of view, style of teaching, and see if it’s a space you’d like to participate in.

Pair up with a reading partner and exchange 30-minute Clairvoyant Readings together. Practice both giving and receiving as a way of deepening your experience and relationship to this topic.

The Reading Topics:

Healing Focus: Give the readee a healing on their 6th Chakra (Third Eye). Help them get neutral and release the specific picture/filter you identified so they can see their present reality clearly, and have a direct experience of it, without the overlay of the picture. What does this change in their havingness?

Sometimes something is too charged to feel safe being vulnerable in interpersonal spaces with it at first. If this is really stimulating you, you can work this energy in meditation using your tools, or in moments of embodiment and pause throughout your day.

Next time you feel a flash of irritation or judgment today, stop and ask yourself:
"Am I reacting to the soup, or am I reacting to my picture?"

Don't try to fix it. Just name the picture. "Ah, I am looking through the filter of 'They don't respect me' right now." Naming it creates space. And in that space, you get your freedom to react truthfully back.

Tell me in the comments: What is one "filter" you know you have running in the background lately? What changed when you got neutral to it?

Sometimes we need to write it down to get it out of our aura. People learn, experience, and process energy in a variety of ways - visually, auditorily, conceptually - and here at AotSA, we validate all those different forms. If you process through writing, take 10 minutes with your journal to "audit" a recurring picture in your space you’ve come across using this template.