 Self Portrait 2017
Laurie Anne King Laurie Anne King Psychic Medium Laurie Anne King Photography |
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Author: Susan Pomfret
Photos: Laurie Anne King, as credited November 2018
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Laurie Anne King is a psychic medium. “I don’t read minds,” she’s quick to point out. “Or palms, or tea leaves. We all have intuition so we are all psychic to some degree.” There are a few circumstances that can hinder one’s innate ability to make full use of their psychic senses. Lack of development is the largest factor, Laurie Anne explains. Failure to thrive due to the repression of talent at an early age is another.
Laurie Anne was very fortunate. She knew she had a psychic ability as a young child, being able to see, hear and sense things that other people did not. The response she received from her mother when she began sharing her psychic experiences was one of support rather than disbelief. Her mom was very spiritual, she says, and had experienced psychic readings herself so she had a rudimentary understanding of where her daughter was coming from. When she was 14 years old, Laurie Anne studied with a renowned psychic master and further developed her natural talent through meditation and psychometry.
As an adult, her psychic reading business developed further through the addition of optional energy work for her clients. "It was a natural progression, really," she says. She went on to study at the Upledger Institute, achieving advanced levels in CST (craniosacral therapy) and SER (Somato Emotional Release Therapy), alternative healing fields which she has now practiced for 25 years. The methodology combines elements of osteopathic and soft tissue work, influencing the nervous system as well. Its purpose is to create a natural self-connect within the body, thus healing it. Laurie Anne still offers this service at her home in Campbellford.
When someone is dedicated, they use all the skills they have available to achieve their best work. Although Laurie-Anne offered both psychic readings and alternative therapy independently of each other, her clients found that their combined use was often a perfect fit.
Her photography career wasn’t born until much later, although she had enjoyed dabbling in it as a hobby. It was living in Australia that fired her desire to explore the medium to its fullest potential.
Her photography career wasn’t born until much later, although she had enjoyed dabbling in it as a hobby. It was living in Australia that fired her desire to explore the medium to its fullest potential.
Camila Beach, Queensland, Australia
Although they met when both were living in Toronto, her husband Darryl was a native of Australia and the couple moved there in 2003 with Laurie Anne’s son and daughter in tow. Their home was “way back in the bush” near Queensland where she developed a new appreciation for the vistas of nature. “I was a kid from the city,” she recalls. “I wasn’t used to the landscapes, the seascapes, the skyscapes, always being able to see the horizon. It changed me.”
Despite their enjoyment of life in Australia, Laurie Anne returned to Canada for the sake of her teenagers, recognizing that their style of living wasn’t in the best interests of teens eager to explore everything that life had to offer. It meant that husband and wife spent some unwanted time apart, but the couple made it work. Darryl eventually joined her in Toronto and they remained there until their return to Australia in 2009 as empty-nesters. They planned to return to Canada to share their golden years following retirement.
Laurie Anne and Darryl, shortly after his cancer diagnosis, 2017. Photo by Life Portraits
It was not meant to be. Darryl died on March 31, 2018 at the age of 57. Before his death, Laurie Anne and Darryl celebrated a lifelong dream and renewed their wedding vows on the beach in bare feet.
After settling their affairs in Australia, Laurie Anne returned to Toronto where her daughter and son still live. She has three grandchildren.
Her goal was to find the perfect location to live this new chapter of her life, preferably somewhere close to the water. She chose Campbellford and moved here in October.
“I found the rolling hills of Northumberland very powerful,” she says. “And the water recharges my energy. Once I experienced the Trent-Severn treatment, I knew where I wanted to be.” Her introduction as a resident was beyond all expectations. “I’ve met so many beautiful, open, kind people here. I’ve never felt so embraced in a new place.”
“I found the rolling hills of Northumberland very powerful,” she says. “And the water recharges my energy. Once I experienced the Trent-Severn treatment, I knew where I wanted to be.” Her introduction as a resident was beyond all expectations. “I’ve met so many beautiful, open, kind people here. I’ve never felt so embraced in a new place.”
Michelle Magder
The stars seem to be aligning for Laurie Anne. She met a soul sister while searching for a make-up artist to assist with photography projects. Michelle Magder came into her life at a good time for both of them. Another fairly new Trent Hills resident, Michelle moved from Port Hope to Hastings a couple of years ago. She has been seeking both an outlet for her skills as a certified make-up artist and a path that will allow her to grow. Their partnership is a perfect complement. As well as make-up and hair artistry, Michelle is developing her role as assistant by learning about the art and the business of photography.
Laurie Anne actively works as a psychic medium, offering readings for individuals and partners in love or business. A reading, she says, can inspire one to pursue a self-empowered process of transformation through renewed connection with the true and total self.
Her photography business offers contemporary and lifestyle portraits. She also enjoys landscape and travel shots, animals and evocative study projects like her 2014 series of Local Characters Environmental Portraits in Queensland, Australia and her candid photographs from a trip to Thailand in 2016.
Her photography business offers contemporary and lifestyle portraits. She also enjoys landscape and travel shots, animals and evocative study projects like her 2014 series of Local Characters Environmental Portraits in Queensland, Australia and her candid photographs from a trip to Thailand in 2016.
Laurie Anne's daughter, Elizabeth, Queensland, 2016
The marriage of psychic ability and photography creates a unique perspective in the world of commercial photography. Laurie Anne’s portraits strive to capture not only a beautiful moment in time, but the very essence of the subject being photographed. Realizing that the personal and revealing depth of her images had the potential to offer something extraordinary to support her spiritual feminist beliefs, she developed the concept of “journey portraiture” in 2015.
Rensina
“It began before that with a friend of mine in Australia,” she says. “Rensina was my muse.” Although not fully developed at the time, the concept of authentic portraiture of mature women was born and became a passion. Some time later, Laurie Anne decided that the insights gained from a psychic reading would add an unprecedented dimension to the work, allowing her to present the most authentic image of the subject’s self.
“My dream portrait is with a woman who has misplaced her self worth with everyone else’s needs and now hides when a camera comes out. Through a wardrobe consult, professional hair and make-up and contemporary styled portrait, you are reborn, reclaim self-love and embrace the essence of who you are and your beauty," she explains on her photography website. “I believe making beautiful portraits of mature women honours the archetype of the wise woman and is essential to nurturing modern feminism.”
The Resurrection of the Crone Project
Sister crones celebrating at Clairview Beach. Jane, Laurie Anne, Glenys
The Resurrection of the Crone project is a raw photographic portrait series based on the intimate journeys of older women as they connect to and celebrate their inner crone. The intention of this project is two-fold, explains Laurie Anne:
“To look beyond the modern day trappings of today’s ideals of unnaturally perfect and youthful beauty, and to reinstate the culture of female elders being perceived as not only beautiful as they age naturally but having deep substance, gifts of experience, self-acceptance, clear wisdom and therefore being a great and valuable asset in today’s society.”
Weaving, 2015
The term crone carries a negative connotation and has done so since the 14th century.
“[In ancient times, the female] was revered as one all-encompassing mother goddess who controlled birth, death, and rebirth. As patriarchy began to arise after 7000 BC, this concept began to change as women themselves became increasingly under the dominion of men,” Anya Silverman writes. “The one mother goddess image was split into three aspects reflecting the stages of women’s lives – maiden, mother, and crone. The crone goddess represented the older woman aspect of a woman’s life.” This article, entitled The Ancient Crone, was published online at cronescounsel.org.
“[In ancient times, the female] was revered as one all-encompassing mother goddess who controlled birth, death, and rebirth. As patriarchy began to arise after 7000 BC, this concept began to change as women themselves became increasingly under the dominion of men,” Anya Silverman writes. “The one mother goddess image was split into three aspects reflecting the stages of women’s lives – maiden, mother, and crone. The crone goddess represented the older woman aspect of a woman’s life.” This article, entitled The Ancient Crone, was published online at cronescounsel.org.
Martha, "adorable and wise"
Vocabulary.com explains: “Since the late fourteenth century, the word crone has been a term of abuse describing old and bad-tempered women. It traces back to the Anglo-French word charoine, meaning dead flesh.”
According to Wikipedia, “The crone is a stock character in folklore and fairy tale, an old woman. In some stories, she is disagreeable, malicious, or sinister in manner, often with magical or supernatural associations that can make her either helpful or obstructing. The Crone is also an archetypal figure, a Wise Woman.”
Laurie Anne King’s mission through the Resurrection of the Crone project is to change societal perception of crone back to its original interpretation, that of a mature woman with aged beauty, wisdom and substance, a tremendous asset to society due to her depth of life experience.
The project began with a small selection of images which were released for International Women’s Day in 2016. The works were featured on ABC Open, a blogging site to which Laurie Anne contributed, and its affiliates. Several women’s magazines including Harmony (India), Bokekh-Digital Rev (Hong Kong) and Yours, a subsidiary of Women’s Weekly (Britain), picked up the story and details of the project were subsequently shared widely on social media by women’s consciousness groups. The eventual outcome was envisioned by Laurie Anne as a photo exhibition and/or a coffee table book, originally anticipated for completion by International Women’s Day 2017 or 2018.
Despite an enthusiastic foundation and reception, the project ground to a halt when Laurie Anne’s husband Darryl was diagnosed with cancer in 2017. The couple had been married for 14 years at that time.
Laurie Anne is eager to reactivate the work now that she’s settling in to her new home. The Resurrection of the Crone project is, once again, a perfect blend of every tool available to its creator to maximize the impact of her art and her message.
This is a message we need to see.
This is a message we need to see.
Links
Laurie Anne King Psychic Medium, www.laurieanneking
Laurie Anne King Photography, www.laurieannekingphotography.com
Laurie Anne King Photography on facebook, www.facebook.com/laurieannekingphotography
Laurie Anne's article in ABC Open introducing The Resurrection of the Crone Project, March 2016
Video made by Laurie Anne on Journey Portraiture in 2017
Laurie Anne King Psychic Medium, www.laurieanneking
Laurie Anne King Photography, www.laurieannekingphotography.com
Laurie Anne King Photography on facebook, www.facebook.com/laurieannekingphotography
Laurie Anne's article in ABC Open introducing The Resurrection of the Crone Project, March 2016
Video made by Laurie Anne on Journey Portraiture in 2017
Images by Laurie Anne King Photography
