When I was in high school, I had an unusual art teacher named Mrs. Anderson (we called her the Big A). She was older, funny and had a thick German accent. One day, she told me that she did “Chinese Face Reading”. Intrigued, I asked her what my face said. I don’t remember much about what she said except she hated my long bangs and said I needed to “stop hiding myself”.
I have not had long bangs in years nor have I been in hiding. In fact, recently Megan Potter of Limitless Living had no problem seeking me out on Twitter. Megan is a fellow tarot reader but also does life coaching and Chinese Face Reading. She offered to give me a face reading and I jumped at the chance.
And I was not sorry! She blew me away with her insights. The reading was uncanny in its accuracy and more importantly, the facial features that I hated turned out to be a very important part of my personal makeup. This gave me the ability to be a bit more compassionate towards myself as well as less critical of my looks! Megan and I talked about plastic surgery and how personal problems show up in the face (check out her blog post on Charlie Sheen for an example), which fascinated me. I decided that this information was too interesting to keep to myself so I asked her if she would agree to an interview for my blog. Here are her answers to my questions:
1. How do you feel Chinese Face Reading can help people?
Face Reading is like Tarot in a lot of ways. They are both divination systems that can be used in a lot of different ways, depending on the practitioner (one of my classmates is adding it to her fertility acupuncture work, others are coaches, healers, and average business people). And like Tarot what the client can get out of it is really only limited by what they choose to take from it. Chinese Face Readers were really the first counsellors and personal coaches.
One of the things I love most about the work is the unlimited possibilities it offers to my clients. I’ve had people laugh and cry, and have seen light bulbs turn on and fireworks go off during a session. I’ve sent people away with hope, direction and confirmation and literally watched people’s energy rise while I talk to them.
It is almost impossible to describe to you just how powerful it is to have someone reflect your nature back to you. In a world where who we are never seems to be good enough and very few people take the time to really SEE the people around them, I offer a kind of healing that is almost unheard of in our culture. Not only do I see you (and reflect it back to you), I believe in you – I think what makes you who you are is amazing and want to help you maximize it.
Basically though, Face Reading offers three things:
It can give Direction. This work doesn’t pull rabbits out of hats, but it definitely provides clarity and direction. A lot of people come to me about new direction in their work and I can confirm if something will or won’t suit them, what kind of work they should avoid, or what opportunities to take hold of. This kind of direction is invaluable and useful for the rest of your life.
It’s Healing. One or two client have told me they spent years in therapy to get to the information I gave them just looking at their eyebrows and noses. (Which by the way is another reason I love this work – it digs right to the heart of the matter). Like I said, being seen and embraced heals something in us that most of us may not realize was even broken. It can also be useful in acknowledging and healing emotional hurts we’ve been carrying around for years. (I like to offer my clients an energy clearing to help this along.)
More than that though, face reading can allow the same kind of energy healing that acupuncture and Feng Shui offer – in fact, my teacher calls it Feng Shui for the Soul. Part of my work is to identify where in the Five Element Cycle your energy has gone out of whack and offer you homework that slowly works to tweak it all back into place. This helps to heal, but to also get us unstuck, to renew, or to refine too.
Finally, above all else, this work is Empowering . Imagine the fire that can be lit under you by having someone spend an hour telling you:
“Yes, that’s exactly perfect for you….”
“Of course you feel that way, I totally get that…”
Having someone rave about how your dreams are just perfect for you, that you really are an awesome friend/boss/teacher, and that who you are is exactly who you should be is one of the most inspiring and encouraging experiences out there.
I believe we all need people to be our personal cheerleaders, so that’s a big part of what I offer my clients.
2. If something negative shows up in a person’s face, can that change if they change their attitudes/behavior? In other words, if you change your behavior, will that show up in your face?
Well, I’d like to get clear on this “something negative” thing first. In my work as a tarot and a face reader I’ve had people tell me they are scared to come to me because I’ll tell them something bad. My work is absolutely not about flogging a dying horse – we get enough negative in our lives, we don’t need anyone else to point out what is wrong with us. Besides, that’s not empowering at all. So, I approach the “negative” in a different way.
That said, there are two kinds of “negatives” on a person’s face. The first, is when a person has the kinds of lines or markings that indicate a deficiency or imbalance in an element, or a particular pattern that comes from the lower octave (or shadow side) of their element (or even worse, another element). For example, on my Charlie Sheen blog post we talked about the anger lines on his face (two lines between his eyebrows). We expect all people of his nature to develop them, but how deep and large they are and how early we see them develop, talks a lot about how big this pattern for anger is – and how good he is at finding a healthy outlet for it. For someone not of his nature these are a warning sign, but for Wood people, it’s not as bad.
The second thing that might be seen as a “negative” is when an innate facial feature (nose shape, chin size) reveals a weakness or tendency we don’t like. So, for example, my visible nostrils tell you I easily spend my energy and money – not normally a desirable habit. While a receding chin can be the sign of someone who struggles with expressing their will or with being a victim. These are innate traits that our soul was born with or learned through experience. It’s not so much like with the lines where you learn a new behaviour – my work is NOT about getting rid of your weaknesses. Rather, these kinds of things are more about awareness, about watching for them and not letting them choose how you’ll behave. It’s about working with and maximizing this part of your nature.
Yes, for sure, things like lines, markings, and even eyebrows correct themselves as you deal with the internal issues that caused them.
If you have a marking that tells me your father didn’t do his job and bless your power – well, you can learn to bless your own power and see that marking fade away.
The innate features (chin, nose, etc) I’m not sure. I know that you can choose how you are going to relate to that trait, and that may, over time, affect the feature. But remember, this isn’t so much about what you do right or wrong, but about how you relate to your nature and the experiences that brought you here. So, whether it’s that your chin grows in or whether you learn to look at it differently – to even be proud of it and all it has taught you about life, I believe you’ll always be rewarded for your effort to change/maximize your weakness.
But the short answer is yes, all changes to behaviour, attitude, and beliefs affect your face in subtle and not so subtle ways – because you are affecting the author of your face – your soul!
3. How did you learn to read faces?
Well, I discovered face reading through a Youtube video where I saw a face being read by Jean Haner (http://www.wisdomofyourface.com).
I wasn’t so much fascinated by the face reading itself actually, but by what Jean had to say about the soul writing itself on your face and how external changes, like plastic surgery, and internal changes (like forgiveness) impact each other and the face.
I bought her book, Wisdom of Your Face, within the week. I practically devoured it and started having epiphanies about myself and my work before I even got into the meat of the face reading.
What really won me over was that it WORKED – I could not only see my son and husband in the descriptions, but sharing it with my husband allowed him to have some of his own epiphanies and make some changes towards his own happiness.
I bought every book I could find on Amazon (but didn’t find another one as good as Jean’s) and then finally took the leap and went to California to take Jean’s training. I knew less than a day into the basic four day training that I HAD to take the Practitioner training (which I’ve now finished) and am now interning with Jean Haner for full certification.
4. Where can someone learn to read faces?
There are two simple places to start, the first is with Jean Haner’s books: Wisdom of Your Face and Wisdom of Your Child’s Face, which are readily available and full of great information. The second thing I would recommend beginning with is by getting a face reading yourself. Both of these are a great introductions to the work.
Then I offer Five Element workshops that teach the foundational philosophy that Face Reading (and other forms of Chinese Medicine) are built on. The workshops include a little face reading, but then take you deeper into the elements and your life. They are a great place to really get some foundational information, so that if you decide to take Face Reading even further (with someone like Jean) you can concentrate on the facial features and just add to your elemental knowledge (studying in face reading requires studying both things and it’s a lot of information to take in and assimilate). I’m also doing some corporate training with the basics of face reading that I offer to organizations and businesses.
Actually, I’ll be offering a teleclass this month (March 31st) that’s meant to introduce people to this work and my workshops – it’s a 90min call on your nature: what it is, how to embrace it, including some basics on the five elements and face reading. The class is free and if your readers are interested they can read about it and sign up here: http://www.eepurl.com/c0okg
5. How would plastic surgery affect face reading? Would it change a person’s personality?
The short answer is yes, plastic surgery has a definite effect on your nature.
When I think about what face reading shows I always imagine that I’m looking at an energetic blueprint – your elemental nature is the model that you are built on. You may not always be using it to its fullest potential, but the structure is there none-the-less – kind of like the frame to a building or house.
When you get plastic surgery you are changing the elemental flow associated with that feature. Each feature not only talks about certain traits and reflects certain elemental energy, but it also relates to times of life (years and decades) and to your physical health. So, you can see how messing with your design has the potential to create much bigger waves in your life than you would think.
It’s like changing the outer structure of a house but not changing any of the utilities. So, the power, gas, and plumbing are all still set for the old house causing leaks, overflow, blocks and generally breaking down all over the place.
So, a woman who makes her nose smaller is reducing her tendency to be able to see details (nose trait), lowering her sensitivity to energy (elemental energy), and depleting the power of her forties (time of life). But, she’s also limiting the flow of metal energy into her “blueprint” – her nature was built on a large in-flow here and so limiting it can throw all her other energy out of balance.
Rarely do we see a deficiency in ourselves and fix it tactfully, we tend to go to extremes. When we open the flow of this energy so much more than our blueprint was designed for we create problems. So, when we decide we need a bigger mouth, it can first, push us past the positive expressions of community and connection (the traits associated with your mouth) and right into the lower octaves of neediness, insatiable appetite, etc… and because we weren’t “built” to cope with these lessons it’s harder for us to manage them than it would be for someone with a naturally large mouth.
Not to mention, there are lines and features that you want, but that we often remove; crow’s feet for example are really Joy Lines. When you remove them you affecting your ability to feel and express joy, and also conveying to others that you aren’t a person who smiles easily.
So, when you have plastic survey done, you can take away things you want, add problems you don’t want (or aren’t built to manage), and generally throw the whole system out of whack.
Also, remember, your face is a map of your soul – so changing your face without changing your attitude, behaviour, or soul itself never fixes the problem. I’ve heard stories of people who’ve had face lifts to have all the lines return in a year – or even within months – because they didn’t address the issue. Having a face reading done first can you give you some insight into what you’d be affecting if you followed through on your plans.
If you think you need a face lift, what you really need is a face READING.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Megan’s Bio: Megan Potter spent 6 years working as a Life Coach and another one and bit a
running her own Eco-store, but she was secretly playing with all kinds of
archetypal, and divination systems (like Tarot and Numerology) on the side.
What she really wanted was to know who she was, because she felt a driving
need to fulfill her purpose but wasn’t sure what THAT was. Eventually she
realized that if she wanted to know so much, and if the systems worked so
well, then maybe YOU’d want to know too! Over the last year or two she’s
been working on blending her coaching work with her archetypal system work
and offering them to her clients in unique and practical ways that help them
to fulfill their purposes in the world.
It wasn’t until she finished her training as a face reading practitioner
that everything really came together, but now she’s happily reading faces,
lighting people’s fire, and empowering them to create their abundant lives –
all by following her own elemental nature! You can check her out online at
Limitless Living.ca
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I heartily recommend you check out Megan’s work. It is more than just an art – it is a healing art.
Blessings!
Theresa
Have you ever had a Face Reading? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below!
I’m Theresa Reed (aka, The Tarot Lady). I’ve been a full-time tarot reader for 30+ years — which, in my industry, makes me pretty badass.
I’m definitely not your average Tarot expert — I drop the F-bomb, I quote rappers, and I’m obsessed with pop culture + reality TV. Folks come to me for straight-talk + tough-love — without the woo-woo fluff. 
You must be logged in to post a comment.