When the Veil is Thin: Navigating the Sacred Space Between Worlds

The calendar is loud right now—deadlines, holidays, the churn of doing—but the season itself whispers, slow down. We’re leaning into that cue with a restorative, heart-forward conversation about remembrance, ritual, and the thin-veil days between October 31 and November 2. Instead of chasing more input, we practice three slow breaths to tell the body it’s safe to feel, then we explore how cultures like Día de los Muertos and Samhain invite us to honor ancestry without fear. From there, we get practical: how to build a simple altar from objects you already own, and how to develop an “energetic language” of signs, songs, numbers, and sensations that turns coincidence into communication you can trust.

Nikki shares personal stories—a car radio springing to life with the one song that mattered, the way a chill along the arms can confirm a quiet hello—and she keeps it grounded with tools you can use today. You’ll get two journaling prompts for lineage healing and daily guidance, a morning routine that clears static so subtle signals can be felt, and ideas for asking clear, playful questions that invite unmistakable replies. Nikki talks about grief honestly, too: how longing and love can coexist, and how humor and consent set healthy boundaries in spiritual work. Pets even make a cameo, reminding us that perception is wider than we’ve been taught.

If you’ve been craving connection, clarity, or just a gentler pace, this conversation offers a calm path forward: breath, remembrance, and repeatable practices that help you listen across the veil. Press play, try the prompts, and tell us the first sign you notice.

Listener Reflection Questions:

1. What endings or transitions am I being invited to honor this season?
2. How can I create space to connect with my ancestors or lineage in a way that feels supportive?
3. What inherited patterns do I want to release, and which ones do I want to carry forward?
4. What rituals help me feel grounded when the veil feels thin or life feels uncertain?

Thanks for listening to The ModernZen Collective Podcast.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Season’s Intent
• 1:21 Month of Restoration Overview
• 3:07 Guided Grounding Breath Practice
• 5:29 The Thin Veil Explained
• 8:38 Energetic Language and Signs
• 10:36 Building Ancestral Altars
• 14:10 Personal Stories of Connection
• 17:01 Journaling Prompt: Carrying Wisdom
• 21:18 Sensing Subtle Energy
• 24:14 Morning Space to Receive
• 27:16 Playful Requests and Confirmation
• 30:14 Grief, Comfort, and Humor
• 33:06 Daily Collaboration with Ancestors

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:13

Hi, I'm Lizzie. And I'm Nikki. Have you ever felt that your life was missing purpose, joy, or disconnection? Welcome to the Modern Sun Collective Podcast, where we embrace holistic living for joyful purpose of life.

SPEAKER_02: 0:38

Mind, body, spirit, spirit, speaker, culture, eventually, together we aim to guide, educate, individual speakers transform their lives.

SPEAKER_00: 0:48

Join us weekly on the Modern Zen Collective podcast and elevate your mind, body, and spirit. And now on to today's episode. An invitation to slow down, replenish, and honor the rhythms of the season. In a world that glorifies hustle, we're choosing to rest, we're choosing to reflect, and we're choosing to restore. And we're inviting you to join us. All months long, we'll explore the many ways restoration shows up, from reclaiming rest as resistance to reimagining self-care with our special guest and practitioner collective member Marnie Hines, to navigating the sacred space of late October when the veil between worlds feels thin, and finally weaving renewal into the everyday rituals of your life. Alongside these conversations, we'll also guide you through cozy practices like meditation and yoga nitra to help you embody restoration in real time. So grab your blanket, light a candle, and join us for this month of rituals of restoration. Let's restore together.

SPEAKER_02: 3:07

We're closing out the month of October. We're closing out a lot just from that physical standpoint. It's also a reminder that we are reconnecting, restoring ourselves, honoring the cycles of life. And then we have this beautiful time between worlds where our connectedness or connectedness with those on the other side really gets a lot deeper and we are able to clearly connect. So today in this episode, we're going to talk about this, do a few practices just to help you settle in and feel like you're in this space and really feel like you have that inner connection. So let's begin taking a deep inhale and exhale for three rounds, just settling yourself, releasing anything that happened so far today or this week, or whenever you are listening to this. When we take these long inhales and exhales, we are relaxing our nervous system, telling our body that right now is safe and becoming present. And when we do threes, mind, body, spirit connection. So take those long, slow inhales and exhales. And as you make these three inhales and exhales, make them your biggest of the day. And if you can, close your eyes. And just feel that grounded connection. Like your body is pulling down to the earth. And visualize that you are getting grounded and connected to the earth. There's a ray of light within you, and it's pulling you down towards the earth, and then it's anchoring you. Going down into the earth and anchoring you in the crystalline structures. And as you are there anchored, start to bring your energy up, keeping the anchor there and bringing with it all the nutrients, all the wisdom, all the energy from Mother Gaia, from the earth, and bring it up into your heart space. And take one more inhale and exhale. And open your eyes if you are able to close them. So let's talk about this time. This time between October 31st, November 2nd. There are many different traditions, um, many different civilizations, and and um those that think about, talk about, express this. I know for me, the way that I was brought up, All Souls Day was a big day that we had in terms of church, etc., on the day after Halloween, on the first. There's also Dia de los Muertos, which of course um we know more about because that's something that we've seen um in movies like Coco, and it's more readily out there for us to understand. And it's just something that I I really love the energy of Dia de los Muertos, just having that um that energy of the altar for your family. And we'll get to that, we'll get to that soon. And there's also um Celtic tradition that that talks about this as well. So this time here, um, we are what is known and talked about of having a thin veil. So this veil, this veil is the energy between worlds. So the energy between worlds is what keeps us from seeing a lot of, you know, ghosts or or things like that, or um, energy balls and spheres rolling around, or just even seeing the energy of air and seeing the energy of your words, seeing the energy all around you. Energy is everywhere. And we are living here now, in the here and now, as you were listening to this in the 3D. This is where we are. And when we have a family member, a friend, a pet, whoever, cross over, they cross over into a different dimension. So, what I've learned from my spiritual teachers that believe in and I've had spiritual teachers from many different facets and walks of life that look at things from a yogic perspective, from a shamanic perspective, from a Buddhist perspective, from a Christian perspective. Like there's this all over, right? It's all over. Um, so when I what I've learned really from most of my spiritual teachers that really resonated with me, that I felt like, aha, this is this is the truth, is that when someone dies, they're just in a different dimension. They're still here. It's always, you know, my mom would always ask before she passed, where's where's your dad at? I wish he was right here. And I would say, he is, he is right here. Like he's here. We just can't see him, but we can talk to him. And it's just a new energy of communication when you learn to communicate in a way through worlds, through dimensions, which is more of an energetic communication. And even when I was channeling, I believe it was like a year ago, my guides told me that there actually is going to be an energetic language. It's just going to be like learning Spanish or English or whatever it might be. It's an energetic language. And that is something that's going to be taught in schools. And it's something that we are going to know how and what to do. So this time now with this veil, the veil is, I don't know, we'll say it's thicker than what it is now. The veil is, you know, not super thin throughout the year. Uh, and we get this beautiful time now to be able to have the veil be so thin that it's easier to communicate and easier to access and easier to get in touch with who has crossed over onto the other side in a way that is light and of the light, from the light, for the light, for your highest good and highest evolution. So this is a time to really understand that we're all interconnected, whether someone is here or not here. They're always still with us. And there are spiritual laws and universal laws out there, which means that the ethers, the um those that are not here, out there in the ethers, not on this earth plane, we have free will, so they can't have open communication with us all the time from them coming to us first. We, with our free will, can ask for it, can command it, can request it, can open conversation, can bring up signs, can talk about how when I see a blue bird, I know it's my dad. When I hear this song, I know it's my parents. When I see this angel number, I know it's it's them saying hi. So we get to have our own energetic language, which is what we'll be taught in schools eventually. We get to have our own energetic language, and that language can be specific for who we are communicating with. And a beautiful time to access that and even play with that is this time now that we have from when you listen to this, it'll be before that. You can prepare. We'll have a meditation for you to listen to on the 31st as well for Dia de los Muertos. But this is the time for you to play with that energetic language and what it means for you and how you can access and communicate with those that have crossed over in a very light, airy way. So I want to talk a bit about that the altar. I I love the idea of having an altar for those that have passed. And it doesn't need to be a grandiose candles and beads and pictures and tchotchkis and whatever, right? That you want to put on. It can be that. It can be as grandiose as you want it to be. It can have as much fanfare as you want it to have. And it also can just be some pictures that you love of who passed away with maybe something that remembers that you remember them from, like a ticket to a movie you went together or a um a stone from the garden from their house that you sold. You know, something that has that spiritual significance. And for me, I have a, I'll call it an altar. You know, it it is it is photos of my mom and my dad, photos of my grandparents, uh, photos of um my boyfriend Kyle's uh grandparents and and uncle, um, and photos of my dog, my dear, dear dog that I'm sure you've all heard me talk about Marley, who I consider one of my guides, as crazy as that sounds, she's definitely one of my guides. And then I have other things up there that remind me of them. When we sold my parents' house, my brother and I cleaned out a lot of things, and a lot of things had a lot, had deeps of significance for me, whether it be, you know, two turtle dubs that my mom had on the counter in our kitchen for many years, and actually they were in our dining room and living room, or it was a a stone that I really think creates that energy and and allows me to feel even more deeply to them. Or even when I travel, if I travel and I see something that reminds me of my mom or dad or even Marley, I'll buy it and I'll put it on my altar. And if you've seen the movie Coco, you know that they have these altars and the altars, you know, show up and show you, you know, this remembrance and this honoring of who was here before us and this honoring of um our lineage. And, you know, through through right now, through epigenetics, we know we are all interconnected with our blood relatives. We are also interconnected. We have their mannerisms, we have their trauma, we have all of these things within us. So it's only natural for us to have this interconnectedness with them after they've passed on and gone to a different dimension. And this altar is a beautiful way to do that. So I wanted to bring that up because it's something that I do and something that can even increase, you know, how you're doing your communication and what that looks like for you while the veil is thin. And when we talk about communicating and we talk about this energetic language, whatever yours might be, we get to make it our own for what works for us. And the soul that was here in the physical body has a very similar personality on the other side. They're not quite different, you know? They're they're their lighter version, I would say. There is a lot of dry humor on the other side, which I appreciate because my friends call me Chandler Bing. So I very much appreciate dry humor and that there's dry humor on the other side. Things aren't so serious over there. And the personality that you feel and have from a friend or from a family member or even from a pet, that's their soul. That's their soul being authentic. So when they go to the other side and they remove the earth suit, the bodysuit, they are still their soul. So that personality is still there. So you get to tailor what and how you communicate with them based on your personality and their personality. You know, for example, when I lost my mother and my father, they loved music and they loved dancing. And that's, you know, a big part of their them when they were in their 20s. They went dancing together. And anytime we're at a wedding, they like cut up the dance floor all night. They just love dancing, especially dancing in a partner, like the partner dancing, the waltz and things like that. So when they my dad first passed away, I made it important to me and inside myself, Dad, this is, I want to hear songs from you. Like this is important for me. I'll know that you're around me if you play songs for me. And there were certain songs that we had as a mother, uh, as a father and a daughter. There were certain songs that we had that I absolutely knew that was my dad when it came through. Songs from my childhood, songs that he liked, um, artists that he liked, et cetera. So this was something I really, really enjoyed. And part of that energetic language was I would hear this song out of nowhere when I was standing in line somewhere, or someone's ringtone would be that song. You know, I'm dating myself, but you know, when ringtones were songs. Or it could be, you know, on the radio or um or in a commercial or whatever it would be. Uh, or I see the words of the song like on a on a wall or on a plaque or something like that. And that would really give me that feel good that my dad is saying hi. And then the energetic language is saying, thanks, dad. I see you. I love you. Thank you. Thank you. Good to hear from you, good to see you. And you start to have this energetic language back and forth with them. And this time now, during the veil being thin, what a beautiful time to play with that energetic language. Uh, in fact, when I was having, when I first bought my car, I bought my car in November of 2022. And I no longer have that car, but I had that car and I picked it up. I had it at service and I picked it up and I left and I was driving down the road and I had this agreement with my dad on the other side. You know, we listen to music and this is what we do, and this is our thing, and this is how I know you're around me. My radio was off, and all of a sudden the radio turned on, and it was the Stevie Wonder song that's my dad and mine song. Like that song came on in the car around all the speakers. The whole dash, everything was off, and it just came on. So there's so much magic, too, to this energetic language. And the more that you um that you see the magic and you confirm it, the more that you will receive. Um, so let's do a journaling prompt while we're here. And close your eyes, picture an ancestor or a mentor or even a loved one that has passed, that is on the other side. And take a few deep breaths in, like we started, really settling yourself in, absorbing the information that I said, but knowing that it's in your subconscious, you don't need to think about it or or understand it right now. Right now it's about you and your connection with your loved one. Taking a few deep breaths in, you know. And as you picture that mentor, that loved one, or even that pet that's on the other side, ask yourself what qualities, wisdom, or gifts of theirs do I want to carry forward? What qualities do I feel that I want to carry forward? And then you can also look at it from a healing or lineage standpoint. What patterns or stories are ready to be lovingly released? Like the buck stops with you, this is it. You're stopping this pattern that's been in your family. What needs to be lovingly released? It can take some time, you can hit pause, you can journal on this, you can come back to it later. But that's a way for you to feel the bigger picture about the soul and the essence of who is no longer here, and really understanding from a loving standpoint that that individual was a human just like you are while they were here, and they were doing the best that they could with what they had. And what do you want to carry forward and what do you want to release? What a beautiful question to ask, and a beautiful question for introspection for yourself too, not just your ancestors, for yourself as well. So, ways that you can connect with this energetic understanding and energetic language, knowing their personality, knowing how they were on the earth plane, and then confirming when you have those feelings where you know you've connected. For me, when I start talking to my dog Marley, I get chills all over my body. And they're like, I can tell it's almost as if it's happy chills. A dog is wagging its tail back and forth, very happy that it's getting attention. That's the energy that I feel when I say anything about Marley. And I confirm it and I say, Marley, I feel you. I feel you. That's you, I feel you, thank you. And when I talk to my parents, I feel energy as well. I feel those chills as well, but I feel it in a way that feels loving and more from the energy of protection, energy of we've got you, we love you. And these are subtle energies. So that's why using this time now with the veil being thin to play with these energies and see what you feel. The world can be so chaotic that we don't understand our own energy and our own transistor radio and how we can, you know, vibe or not vibe with something or someone and what we like or don't like because we are so inundated every day with things that might not serve us or that just take up time, and that we can't even test or understand our own energy inside of us and when we feel if something's a yes or a no, or when we feel energy of spirit around us. So if you feel like that, you feel like you're in a way or in a place of chaotic and go, go, go, and not spaciousness and time for yourself, but you want to take this time to activate this connected nature, this being connected with your loved ones out of past. Just create space in your morning when you first wake up. That's the easiest way to do that. Create space when you first wake up, 20 minutes, 15 minutes would be the least amount. No phone, no email, no stimuli, just you and yourself. Maybe you go on a walk, maybe you do your morning routine, brushing your teeth, maybe you make some coffee, maybe you have some water, maybe you go out in the sun, maybe you walk your pet, maybe you stretch, maybe you do yoga, maybe you meditate, maybe you listen to subliminals. Subliminals are stimuli, but stimuli in a way that it is utilizing your theta brainwave state to be able to grow and engage and get to a place of you getting to your fullest potential. So if you feel chaotic or you feel like the world is so wild right now, you can't even feel these energies inside of you. If you tried to connect with those that have crossed over, just take a day or two, even three days. My guides are saying three days to have spaciousness in your morning. And that's really going to open you up to feel the energy inside of you when you say those things like, hey, hey, Grandpa, so nice to so nice to have you guide me. Thank you for being here. I like, I want you to be around me. If you're around me, can you show me a red bird or can you show me a horse? Or can you play this song, whatever it might be? Or have someone say this to me. You know, that's one that's really fun to do. I want to connect with you. I really, really do, but I might have some apprehensions about it. I might be a little skeptical about it. So I would love for you to have someone say to me, you're glowing, or have someone say to me, I love your shoes. And I will know in that moment that you are connecting with me and I am ready for transmission. And that's how it can be fun because it's so, it can be such a light, airy thing to connect with those that have crossed over. And I'm not gonna lie, I have deep, deep, deep grief for my mom and dad. I am so sad that I don't have my mom and dad around anymore, especially with friends that have their moms and dads, and they were able to be around for their wedding and their kids being around and having grandparents for the children they brought into the world and going on vacations and dinners and everything that goes along with it. I am still, from a human standpoint, filled with grief. And I don't know if that would ever leave, you know. I I and I don't expect it to because they were a big part of my life and I love them so much, and I was blessed to have parents that I did. But it's very comforting to me and very light energy and happy to connect with them in this way because they are happy on the other side and they are joyful and they are at peace. And the other side, like I said, is very light and airy and dry, dry humor. So it's quite nice to release some of that grief when I connect and channel them, or just connect and have gratitude or have this energetic language with them. And it's something that we all have access to, not just those that can channel or say they can channel or connect. We all have this. We all have our crown chakra, we all have our third eye, our spiritual sight. We can all connect with those that have passed, we can all connect with our guides, connect with who you see as your guides here on earth, and as a soul level, we all have this time. Energetic language can be being open to the conversation, confirming the conversation, asking for signs, confirming the signs, asking for songs, confirming the songs, feeling the subtle energies inside of your body when you do confirm something or you do see something. There's that blue bird I asked about. Okay, I get it, I get it. And you can even be funny about it. I see you, I get it, you're here. All right, all right, let's talk. You know, you can be really humorous about it, or if you're serious, you can be serious about it. Do what you feels right for you. For me, humor my go-to, even in awkward situations. So it's no wonder that when I'm talking to those that have crossed over are using this time to be able to connect. I am making jokes and laughing about the signs that they show me and how ironic and funny they can be. If you ever listen to Abraham Hicks, many, many um lots of humor, lots of humor, um, but meh much um with the dry humor, lots of laughs, uh, and just reminding us that it's not that serious. It's not that serious. So using this time to be able to connect is such a beautiful, beautiful time. Maybe you want to use this time to connect by walking in nature and clearing your head in that way and asking for signs in that way or connecting. And you don't even have to ask for a sign. You can just openly communicate to your loved ones that have crossed over and not ask for anything in return. And they are open and ready to receive at any time. As one of my one of my coaches said, they don't have jobs. So they're here for you. They're here to help you. You can even ask them in the morning when you first start your day. I have four things that get done today and I need to get them done. Can you help me? Can you take the weight off on two of these things and find this client, that client, etc., for me today and see the magic unfold. How excited that soul, that energy is to help you, and how you can create that energetic language with them by simply asking them for something. And then if you feel called, confirming it and thanking them for the help that they gave you at the end of the day or when you receive it and creating that back and forth so you have that energy and that connectedness with them. Hell, how beautiful. So let's do one more journal prompt just to allow you to weave this into your day-to-day, whether you do this journal prompt now or in the future. So you can close your eyes again if you have the means and you can right now for where you are listening to this, and take a slow deep breath in.

SPEAKER_01: 27:40

And as you exhale, visualize your loved one.

SPEAKER_02: 27:56

Enjoy this energy of your loved one that is past. And then as you are here connected, say to yourself or write in your journal. Thank you for your guidance. What message do you have for me today that can serve my highest good? And you can write and let the page flow as you write and receive the messages. Or you can take it a step further and finish that sentence by saying, I ask you to write through me. And do automatic writing, which is something that is a beautiful way to connect and have that energetic language. Just start writing with your pen. You can write, write it out, even write, I don't know what to write, and just keep writing. You might notice your handwriting changes. You might notice you start writing in different languages. That happens too when you start bringing in ancestors. So you can write here, have them write through you, or just ask for what message do you have for me today? And receive and enjoy and open that channel. What a beautiful, beautiful channel that we have, and how powerful and how magical we all are. We are all so magical. And we discount ourselves. We don't think that we have this magic inside of us, but we do. We have the entire universe inside of us. We are pure stardust. And we have the means to be able to connect to these other dimensions. And you can even tell your guides or your ancestors you know, that's a little too much for me. Like right now, I'm on the earth plane. I need you guys to dial it back a little bit. Or let's go a little bit more. Give me more. I want to lean more into this spiritual connection. My Q. Curiosity, what's out there, the ethers, other dimensions. You get to dial it up or down, up or down. You get to decide how you want it. And that comes from your communication, your language with your ancestors, and then your confirmation saying, Yes, I received it. Thank you. I appreciate it. So know that you have this power inside of you. Yes, it could be fine-tuned and taught and coached by a coach, and you can step into your voice and step into this area inside of you that holds your spiritual knowledge, your Kashic wisdom, and your interconnectedness with your loved ones, their DNA, even when they cross over. Yes, you can have someone help you with that. But know that you innately know, you know, as a soul, you know that you have the energy inside of you to be able to connect and be able to ask questions and be able to feel their energy and then start that energetic language. And how amazing it is for you to have this pure magic inside of you. And what a beautiful time to really step into this pure magic during this time when the veil is thin. Maybe even watch the movie Coco, but when the veil is thin, step into this magic and feel it and communicate and ask questions and know that your ancestors, your loved ones, your pets, they are there for you. They are right with you all the time. If you have pets now and you see them looking in corners, they're seeing the other dimensions. They can see, especially cats, they can see through dimensions. So when they look at something, don't be freaked out. Because you know how cats act. They can tell you when they're freaked out. They're not freaked out, they just see what's happening in another dimension. They know that someone else is here. So take this energy, take your magic, step into it, enjoy. And you don't have to just do this here at the end of the month. You can do this at any time. There is just this time in particular, the most potent time is October 31st to November 2nd. But anytime through the month of October into November, you have this more robust energy with the veil being thinned to support you as you begin your journey or even step more into this journey of connecting with the other dimensions and those have crossed over. So thank yourself for staying through this episode, learning about it. Your ancestors, thank you, your pets that have passed, thank you. This energy is here for you at any time. Come back to your journal prompts, enjoy the connecting, enjoy what it means for you, and create your own energetic language because you are going to be light years ahead when it actually becomes a curriculum that everyone on earth learns. Sending you lots of love. Thank you for staying until the end. I wish you the best, and we'll see you on the next episode.

SPEAKER_01: 33:04

Bye.

SPEAKER_00: 33:13

Thank you so much for spending time with us on the Modern Zen Collective Podcast. This podcast is at the heart of everything that we do, created to guide, inspire, and walk alongside you on your journey. If you're ready for more, explore our Practitioner Collective, a trusted resource of experts in healing and wellness to help you deepen your practice or fast-track information. Be sure to join our email.