Ep. 005: Debi Garrett | Reiki, Records, and Reading the Signs
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This episode has RANGE; from a surprise royal visit, to a moonlit moment that changed everything, to a potentially 'heavy' question we (probably) all grapple with from time-to-time.
Debi Garrett is a Reiki Master Teacher and Standards and Governance Ambassador for the UK Reiki Federation, who also works with Human Design, Tarot, and the Akashic Records. She's also a best-selling author and a medic. So it really shouldn't be any surprise to learn she's an MG in Human Design.
Speaking of HD, we break down why it's such a helpful framework for self-discovery, dive into Debi's own self-discovery story (including the signs that lit the way), and even dip our toes into a mini human design reading for Amanda (can you guess her type?)
TLDR; You are going to love Debi's vibe.
In this episode:
Right place, right time, Royal Family (~3:00)
Debi's sun, moon, rising, and human design type (~5:10)
What Human Design actually tells you (it's less about who you are and more about how you operate) (~6:00)
A crash course on the Akashic Records (~11:45)
The moonlight moment that kickstarted a new life (~21:45)
Celtic shamanism, the Sídhe, and why everyone wants to be Irish (~26:00)
How Debi reads the "signs" in her own decision-making process (~30:30)
On the fear of "jumping into the wrong timeline" and sitting in the messy middle (~33:15)
Her personal signs: songs she hates, birds of prey, and an unexplained parade of white cars (~40:15)
How she protects her energy as a medic without shutting down (~50:00)
Live mini-reading: Amanda's HD type, profile, and authority (~53:15)
Book Recommendation:
Debi recommends this one even if you have zero Reiki background. It lays out the deeper philosophy behind Reiki, which is applicable to all of us.
Did you know all of our guests recommend books to enhance your intuition?
Find this one and more on our book recommendations page!
Free Resource:
Find your own human design type on the Jovian Archives free chart calculator.
Connect with Debi Garrett:
Facebook: @thedebibarr
Instagram: @rocksnrituals and/or @debigarrettart
Website: rocksnrituals.co.uk
If you like this episode, let us know! Rate us, leave a review, subscribe, follow us on IG @therewillbesignspodcast... whatever feels good.
Your support matters to us. (And so do you!)
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There Will Be Signs (Intro) What if the universe is in a constant state of sending you feedback? Welcome to There Will Be Signs, a podcast that celebrates the stories, synchronicities, and strange nudges that remind us there's more to life than what we see. Here we'll talk to deeply intuitive guests and offer practical ways to connect to the magic, whimsy, and unseen helpers that exist around you every single day — because you are supported, dear listener. It may not always feel that way. There will be signs.
Killian: All right, welcome to There Will Be Signs. Hello, Amanda. How's it going?
Amanda: Hello, hello. All good — juggling, as we said.
Killian: Good. Yeah, we were just talking offline about our schedules and how crazy they are. It's that time of year, I guess.
Amanda: When is it not that time of year?
Killian: It's always that time of year. So today we're going to do a quick intro because of our schedules and juggling. I did want to mention, I was really inspired by our last conversation with Tami the numerologist. I've been thinking a lot about numbers, and I'd love to have her back at some point — you could dive so much deeper than we did. There are so many more questions I have now.
Amanda: It was a long session, but a good long.
Killian: It was a very good, very long session. So excited that's out there. And I'm also really excited about today — we have Debi Garrett, and we're going to be chatting with her. She's based in the UK. She's a Reiki master teacher specializing in Usui and Usui Holy Fire Reiki. She's the Standards and Governance Ambassador for the UK Reiki Federation, one of the largest professional Reiki bodies in the UK and Europe. She also works with Human Design, Tarot, and the Akashic Records, helping people remember who they are and what lights them up.
There's more — she's the bestselling author of The Call of the Sacred Rebel, where she shared her own story of sovereignty and personal revolution against the norms of society and her traditional upbringing. She's also an artist, a mum of two children, a devoted "cat slave" (as she says) to her rescue cat Raven, and a long-term volunteer with St. John Ambulance NI as emergency ambulance crew and soon-to-be emergency response driver.
So — she's got a lot going on.
Amanda: She's putting my juggling to shame.
Killian: I know, she's doing it all. All right, without further ado, let's chat with her. I'm really excited to hear more about her story.
Amanda: I don't even know where to start. I think we need an eight-part series just about Debbie.
Killian: I know. Let's welcome her in. Hello, Debbie!
Debi Garrett: Hi, how are you?
Killian: Good, how are you?
Amanda: Morning!
Debi Garrett: Good, I'm good. I was volunteering with St. John Ambulance, so I was out this morning. We had a surprise visit from the Royal Family — we didn't know they were coming. I was covering a craft fair, and then the King and Queen of the country just showed up.
Killian: Wow!
Amanda: God — Debbie, Killian was just going over your resume, and I was like, how does this woman sleep? She has so much going on — and then you casually drop that you saw the royal family today.
Debi Garrett: Yeah, I saw them for about three seconds and then somebody got overexcited and fainted, so I had to go deal with that. I missed most of it, but we saw them arrive. It was interesting because none of us knew it was happening until the very last second. That's been my day. What about you — is it morning for you guys?
Amanda: I had oatmeal with some berries. It was good.
Debi Garrett: Nice, nice.
Killian: Slow, casual morning. Not quite the same, but fun. It feels kind of exciting to be looped into a memorable day for you.
Debi Garrett: Yeah, indeed. I was doing a favor — I wasn't supposed to be on duty, and then somebody needed it covered, and it was like, "okay, I can do it."
Killian: Isn't that funny?
Amanda: And look how it turned out.
Debi Garrett: That's how it turned out. It's all good.
Killian: What an apropos example of right time, right place — you don't expect to be somewhere, and then you decide to help somebody out, and something fun and special happens.
Debi Garrett: Yeah.
Amanda: We were talking about that in another episode — you make one choice and all these other things change. Debbie was able to answer the call this morning because she wasn't cleaning berries and eating oatmeal. She answered the call, and this whole other day happened rather than what could have happened.
Debi Garrett: This whole other day happened. Yeah — otherwise I'd be sitting at the computer all day.
Killian: What part of the UK are you in?
Debi Garrett: I'm in the north of Ireland — a bit of a unique political situation. We're part of the UK, but we're also part of Ireland. It's an interesting spot.
Killian: We love to ask our guests about their sun, moon, and rising when we kick off. Do you know your three?
Debi Garrett: Yeah, I do. I have a Capricorn sun, an Aquarius rising, and a Gemini moon. My astrologer laughed when she told me — she said, "Capricorn wants to build it, Aquarius wants to rip it down, Gemini just wants to talk about it." Just like — yeah, that's it.
Amanda: Yeah, that's exactly right.
Killian: And what about your human design? I know you're trained in it — what's your human design?
Debi Garrett: Yeah, I'm a manifesting generator, a three-five. Again, a little bit of everything — which probably explains the resume, because I like to do lots of things. I can't just be doing one thing. What about you guys?
Killian: I'm a manifesting generator as well.
Debi Garrett: Cool.
Killian: Gosh, I forget — it's the "role model" one, the six-two. Do you know your human design, Amanda?
Amanda: I have no idea. I've actually never heard of human design before today, and I'd benefit from learning it — but I've never heard of this.
Killian: There you go.
Amanda: I'm kind of the part of this podcast that has less intel and will happily represent those who are less informed about some topics.
Debi Garrett: Yeah.
Amanda: And will need to get that intel for themselves.
Killian: Earlier in the journey.
Debi Garrett: Yeah — so before we dive into anything specific, you work with human design, Reiki, and the Akashic Records, and Tarot, right?
Killian: Most of us know about Tarot, and we've had an episode on that. But I'm curious if you could explain — Reiki's pretty well known, but human design and the Akashic Records — could you give a description of those?
Debi Garrett: Sure. So human design, if we start there — human design is a fascinating tool. It doesn't tell you who you are, but it tells you how you operate and how you move through life. It's about your wiring and your natural way of moving through this earth walk that we're on. It combines astrology and your birth chart along with aspects from the I Ching — there are 64 different gates, and it can become quite complex. There are also aspects of the chakra system in there. So there are three or four big aspects collated together to create what's called the body graph.
The body graph has nine energy centers. We all have all of the chart, all of the time, because it's all there — but depending on your time of birth and where the planets were, it will light up certain parts of the chart, which indicates how you best move through life, and whether you're a manifesting generator, for example — that's your "aura type." There are five aura types. Manifesting generators and generators make up about 70% of the human population, with projectors, reflectors, and manifestors making up the rest.
It's really interesting because, depending on your design, you may find — like me, and potentially you, Killian — that you like to be doing lots of different things, and when something lights you up, you feel inspired and just keep going. Whereas if you're a manifestor, you can maybe start something and run out of energy for it. Brilliant with ideas, maybe ahead of your time — but then you run out of steam and move on to something else. So you may have been accused as a child of never finishing anything, or of being lazy, when you might just need some extra rest.
Projectors love to teach and share their wisdom and expertise, but only if they're invited to do so. They also need more rest periods than generators and manifesting generators — so they too may have been told they were lazy or not committed. It's interesting when I start picking through people's charts with my clients — I'll say, "give me your birth details and I'll have a look," and it helps me understand how to work with them best. Because depending on how they're wired, they make decisions with their heart, their sacral, their head, or need to talk it through first — we have different types of authority. It's a fascinating subject.
Amanda: It is. I feel like any company would love to have this done for employees, to see how best to work with people and where to put them.
Debi Garrett: It would be fabulous for that — where to put people for their natural way.
Amanda: And that makes it easier on the person, the workflow, and brings them to their highest self. I will look mine up after this call.
Killian: We will look yours up. I'm curious — I remember digging into it fairly deeply for myself and forgetting some of the specifics. What I didn't realize, because I wasn't familiar until recently with the I Ching, is that the gates are related to the I Ching. That's really interesting to know.
Debi Garrett: Yeah.
Killian: It does seem like a marriage of a lot of different frameworks.
Debi Garrett: It really is — it brings in the Kabbalah and the Tree of Life, because that's the shape of the body graph. It brings in aspects of the I Ching too, depending on the chart you use — you can have a mandala-type chart that lights up in a different way. It's a fusion of all these types, and there's an evolution of it happening now called quantum human design, which is opening up different energy centers and terminology. It's really interesting — it's in its infancy at the moment, and it's good to watch how it unfolds.
Killian: That's really cool. And what about the Akashic Records? Tell us a little about that.
Debi Garrett: The Akashic Records would be more of a secondary skill set for me — I use it more for myself than for clients, although I do take clients into the records too. Think of it as the repository, the information bank, of all your experiences for this lifetime and all lifetimes — past, present, future. All potential is there. It's almost like the quantum field that exists for you. Some people like to vision it as a library where you can go pull through the books and find information. Other people see it as a supercomputer, like a massive internet of all your experiences.
It's a place where there's unconditional love, no judgment. You can go in there and feel at peace. You access your own records, and you have a gatekeeper that protects your records because it's confidential information — you don't want just anyone going in and rifling through what Amanda did in 1604 in another life. It's about accessing the wisdom that's there for us in a space of non-judgment, pure love, and compassion for yourself and the experiences you've had. It's a space where you can find healing, find guidance, chat with your spirit team, your guidance team. It's a beautiful place to hang out. I would open the records and journal, sit and write, because the records fade off your energy too — it's not a passive experience, it's not just "tell me all the things." It's a conversation. It's an exchange with your guides and your soul.
Killian: I took a class a while back on the Akashic Records. Do you use the same kind of opening prayer or gateway opener? What are the various ways to get in?
Debi Garrett: There are loads of different ways to get in, because ultimately the Akashic Records are not outside of you — they belong to you, they're yours. You can access them through a guided meditation, through working with an Akashic Records guide like me, who helps you walk into them, or through intentionally setting the intention and creating that sacred space for yourself. The opening prayer is a beautiful way because it takes you from ordinary reality — whatever you've been doing all day — and shifts gears into a different space. It helps you consciously work with them. A lot of people work with them unconsciously without realizing that's what they're doing — if you're communing with your guides or checking in with your tarot or oracle cards, you're often pulling information from the records, because it's your information already in you. It's your highest self pulling that information in.
Killian: Would you say consciousness in general is linked to the Akashic Records, or is there more outside of them? Is collective consciousness the Akashic Records? How would you differentiate the two?
Debi Garrett: I believe the Akash, for me, is this collective — there is a collective consciousness and collective wisdom there. I'm sure there are other spaces too — I've trained in shamanism, I've journeyed to different alternative realities. There's a debate as to whether the Akash is everything — is it potentially the entire quantum field from which everything originates, in which case it is everything there is? Is the Akash source? Is it a room we visit, an intermediary between us and source? I don't have those answers, and I don't feel the need to go looking elsewhere. I feel such a connection in there.
Amanda: People say they're not using their whole brain — I really feel like that right now. Like I'm not using my whole soul and brain to tap into these files and records. And now I want to.
Debi Garrett: Yeah, what I love about the Akashic Records is that because they're part of your soul's wisdom, you don't need to go ask someone else — you can tune in yourself. But then it's about, do you trust that? Do you trust what you get? Because a lot of times we get the signs, the downloads, the intuitive hits, and then we immediately second-guess ourselves. That's where working with a guide can help — my job is to go with you into your records and assist, either going in for you with your permission so we can pull information, or guiding you through to help you see what there is to see. That's my preferred way, because I prefer to let the client lead rather than go in with my own filter and projection — because if we're human, we're going to project, even if we say we leave everything at the door.
Amanda: Debbie, how did you become a guide?
Debi Garrett: I actually trained in the Akashic Records just last year. I'd been interested in them for a decade or more but hadn't formally trained — I'd been in and out myself, reading books, going to workshops. One of my Reiki masters, Melissa Ney-Moss, is massive in the Akashic Records field — she's the queen of the Akashic Records.
Killian: We'll be talking to her soon. Wow.
Debi Garrett: If you want an episode on Akashic Records, she's the queen. She has the most beautiful soul. She was running a program called Soul School and put out invitations to teach people how to access the records for themselves and for others, with psychological interventions built in. I worked with her for six months last year going through all the trainings, experiences, and attunements. Melissa now has a fabulous new modality called Akashic Reiki, born from her work with Holy Fire Reiki and the Akashic Records — I'm sure she'll talk to you about that. That's how I got into the Akashic Records as a guide, but I'd been interested for many years. When I was working with shamanism, I saw the correlation between the different realms in the shamanic worlds — the lower, middle, and upper world — and the upper world felt very Akashic in its vibe to me. There's overlap and layers, but I think that happens across all the different modalities — no matter what tool you're using, it's all accessing the same stuff.
Killian: Which is why I think it's so fascinating that you were drawn to human design too — a marriage of so many different modalities. Different language, same energetic. I have so many questions — where do I start? I know you have a really interesting story about how Reiki found you — I'd love for you to touch on your journey, how it started.
Debi Garrett: Sure. I'd never heard of it — I was just a normal person. Normal in inverted commas. Still normal. I hadn't encountered it as a young child, though I'd been quite spiritual — I didn't know that was the word for it, but I was aware of energy and the presence of spirit in the house. My parents were a bit older and very Christian, and I learned quickly that this was not going to go down well, so we kept it quiet. My father passed away when I was 14 — a sudden death that shocked me to my core. At that point I did the teenage thing of throwing up a wall of protection — nobody's getting close, I'll keep my head down and get on with life. I didn't want to rock the boat for my mum, so I kept the rebellion behind the wall. Got married, had kids, got the job, did all the normal stuff.
I was holding down a job, had a couple of kids, and I was the main breadwinner — I was working in IT, in technology, and earning twice what my husband did. Suddenly I was made redundant, and I thought, what am I going to do now? Just prior to that, after the birth of my second child, I'd fallen into a bit of depression. I knew I wasn't fulfilled, wasn't happy — I was on that hamster wheel like everyone else: eat, sleep, work, repeat. I was taking antidepressants, looking for answers at the bottom of a bottle of wine and not finding them. In hindsight, that was a lot of signs coming my way — "ding ding, you're not happy" — but I had tunnel vision, just getting on.
Then the redundancy came, and it felt like a real tarot moment — like somebody had ripped the rug out from underneath me. I remember saying to my husband at the time, "I've been made redundant," and he said, "What are you going to do about it?" And I went — oh, okay. I think subconsciously I realized this was not going to end well. That night I stayed on the sofa in the living room, and I could hear him snoring through the floorboards upstairs. I was so cross, so upset, I didn't know where to put myself. There was a little gap in the blinds, and the moon was shining through, and it caught me — that was my wake-up call. When did you forget who you were? When did you stop writing? When did you stop drawing? When did you stop having fun? When did you start taking life so seriously?
I didn't know. But in that moment I knew no one was going to rescue me — I had to do it myself. I picked myself up, dusted myself off, got another job just to make ends meet. But the seed had been sown: I never wanted an employer to do that to me again, and I wanted to work for myself. I went back to my first love of crystals and crystal healing — I'd always loved crystals, had no idea what they were for, just thought they were shiny. I trained in crystal healing alongside my job — working all day, studying crystal healing in the evenings. That opened the door to aura and chakra work, which started pointing me toward this thing called Reiki. And when I found Reiki — when Reiki found me — it completely transformed everything. Those big walls I'd built started coming down. When I did my master training back in 2012, the walls came crashing down. From the outside it must have looked like I'd lost my mind — I quit my job, left my husband, ended up with my best friend, who's female. We're still together.
Amanda: Yay!
Debi Garrett: It was like I was finally given permission to be me. Reiki handed that to me. That's kind of how Reiki found me. From there it opened all the other doors — to shamanism, to tarot, to human design, to the Akashic Records. It's the foundation of everything.
Killian: It's the snoring.
Amanda: It was the snoring.
Debi Garrett: It's always the snoring.
Killian: That was very powerful for me — I felt full-body chills when you said the moon hit you. My eyes are still stinging. That feeling of "when did I lose myself" is such a common one — it's like the signs were so loud you had to listen. It's like you were saying, "okay, I see you now."
Debi Garrett: Yeah.
Killian: I have a somewhat selfish question about your Celtic roots, because I have Celtic roots myself. I'm in the US, so I'm far removed, but when it comes to shamanism, I've been doing some research and there's such a rich, magical history that is Celtic. When you learned shamanism, was it with a Celtic lens? Can you touch on how your ancestry speaks to your work?
Debi Garrett: I didn't initially train with a Celtic lens. I trained with a shamanic practitioner from Northern Ireland, who had trained with someone from Ireland — but she'd been trained in traditional shamanism, with very much a Native American flavor to it, and also an Andean, Peruvian flavor. So it was a mix of the Americas being brought in, and it's fabulous. Once I got into it, I started thinking — surely we as Celts must have our own. There's an awful lot of arguments about cultural appropriation and taking things from other traditions. But shamanism is a human tradition — the oldest practice. There are shamanic artifacts dating back hundreds of thousands of years, from very early humans practicing connection with the land. So it doesn't matter whether you're a Celt, an American, an Aborigine, or from anywhere in the world — human beings have a direct connection. We're all on an earth walk from the start.
I did start getting interested in Celtic shamanism — not formal study, but a lot of reading. Amanda McCrimmon is a very well-known Scottish shamanic practitioner — if you haven't spoken to her, you should, I'll get you her details, she's fabulous. I started following her work and understanding there's so much more from a Celtic point of view. Interestingly, my personal heritage is Ulster Scots, not Irish as such. But the more I've tapped into the history of Ireland — my son is currently teaching himself Irish so he can speak the language, and as he's been doing that he's explained to me why we say certain things in Northern Ireland that come directly from Irish. I've gotten more intrigued with this deep connection to the land and Irish roots — honestly, I think everybody wants to be Irish.
Amanda: I do not, according to my blood work — well, allegedly, extremely Polish.
Killian: Amanda's very Polish through and through.
Debi Garrett: I love it.
Amanda: But I love the mysticism that surrounds that part of the world. I find it fascinating.
Debi Garrett: There's a lot, because as I explored shamanism and these different things — Reiki opened the door to a treasure trove of "what else is there, what else can I play with?" I actually took a course in Fairy Reiki, working with the fairy kingdom, because the fairies are a big thing in Ireland — none of us mess about with the fairy folk.
Amanda: No. Same thing with Iceland.
Killian: I've also learned in the last few weeks that fairies aren't necessarily little tiny creatures — they're human-sized, which surprised me.
Debi Garrett: No, or bigger — they can be up to seven feet tall. They're called the Sídhe. S-I-D-H-E. The "she."
Killian: Well, thank you for indulging me in that.
Debi Garrett: You're welcome.
Amanda: I want to talk about that forever now. We need another hour.
Killian: We do. Okay, let's shift gears back a bit. In the work you do, you're tapping into a number of different energies — Reiki working on an individual, the Akashic Records at a higher level, and human design as the map. How do you tap into all of this to make decisions every day, big and small? How do you interact with all of this knowledge for your own life?
Debi Garrett: My Reiki practice is a daily thing. As a Reiki teacher, I think if you don't walk your talk, you've no business teaching other people. I give myself Reiki daily — it's an intrinsic part of what I do. Even when I'm volunteering in the ambulance, the Reiki is with me, always on. I take it for granted — it's as natural as breathing.
Where I sit with decision-making is I tend to use tarot a lot for working things through. I don't use tarot as divination or fortune-telling — it's about knowing yourself and understanding yourself, and that's massively important for all my work. The way I use it is the one place I'll lean into AI. AI is a great tool — it has its faults, its problems, environmental issues, and as an artist I don't love it because it's not cool from that angle. But from a pattern-recognition and tracking point of view, it's very good. I've created a tarot journal in my AI assistant where I put my own interpretations of my cards, and it logs them for me. Then it tracks patterns and says, "do you realize you had this card here, here, and here?" and I take that into my human coach, and we talk about it. So I have real human beings as coaches, but I use digital tools for pattern recognition. Between tarot, journaling, and my coach — that's how I make decisions.
If something's big, I'll take it into the Akash and sit in the Akashic Records to explore the potentials — because it's not just about finding out what happened in past lives for awareness, it's also about tracking timelines: if I follow this path, what happens? If I pull this thread, what happens? If I make this decision, what opens up for me? You can find that kind of information in the Akashic Records too, which is fascinating. You can try certain things on for size and see what fits.
Killian: Something that's been coming up for me lately is a fear of accidentally jumping into the wrong timeline — making a choice that's gotten me down a path I'm disappointed with. How do you ensure you don't feel trapped or stuck in a certain outcome?
Debi Garrett: What that tells me is that as human beings, we have this intense desire to control and understand exactly how everything's going to work — and this is rich coming from a Capricorn. We don't like sitting in the unknown, in that space between what is and what could be, when the path isn't clear. It's uncomfortable and we don't like it. That question tells me you don't like the messy middle — you want to know exactly how this is going to work out.
Killian: I do not like a messy middle.
Debi Garrett: What I say to my clients is: what's the invitation for you here? What's the invitation to explore in this messy middle? Because life doesn't work in certainties like that. I don't believe we ever make mistakes — everything is an opportunity for learning, growth, and evolution. We don't make a mistake and get stuck there forever — it's "okay, what does this teach me?"
Amanda: I'm with you, Debbie. I don't think you're ever in the wrong timeline, Killian — I think you're exactly where you're supposed to be, and it'll lead you to something else you're supposed to be doing.
Debi Garrett: And I think when we remember who we really are — that we are sparks of divine source energy expressing itself as Killian, Amanda, and Debbie right now — what can possibly go wrong? Essentially you are the source energy, the God energy, the goddess energy, the creator, great spirit, whatever you want to call it, expressing itself as you right now. If you want to take it to a scientific point of view — from a quantum point of view, there's infinite potential. Depending on the choices you make, when that observable reality collapses into itself, it becomes a set of probabilities, and that becomes the golden thread you follow through your life. I believe you've made a decision on your soul plan, your life purpose, before you came here — and if you continually follow what lights you up, follow the truth of you, then I don't think you make mistakes. Even if something's apparently "wrong," it'll teach you something that pops you onto another path.
It's interesting — I always wanted to be a teacher, or a nurse, or a doctor. I went through my whole school and university career with the intention of becoming a teacher, and that didn't happen. I remember thinking, "well, what am I here for? I'm supposed to teach." Work I've done in the Akashic Records has shown me I've been a teacher many, many times. Every job I went into, I ended up becoming the trainer.
Amanda: Right, it's a version of a teacher.
Debi Garrett: I was training them. Then I became a Reiki teacher, a spiritual teacher — and I'm a volunteer medic, so the medical side came in too. I've got both things I said I wanted to do in this life, just in a non-traditional way. So I don't believe there are any mistakes. "Timeline hopping," "quantum loops" — I think it's just a trendy term, human beings wanting to escape the craziness of 21st-century Western life.
Killian: I feel like I've gotten caught in that trend of "how do I hop out of this timeline, this timeline is crazy." But I heard you say it's really about getting to know yourself and looking inward. So tell me if I've got this right: once we're acting from our true desires and authentic self, we can't really go wrong. But if someone's acting not from their true self — maybe from family pressure — I think it's easy to feel grief that you haven't always been listening to yourself. And that's not a mistake, right? That's part of the lesson.
Debi Garrett: It's not a mistake. And that's what I love about human design — it gives you your "self" theme and "not-self" theme, so you can see clearly when you're not acting as yourself. Manifesting generators and generators get really frustrated if we're not acting in accordance with our true desire. Manifestors get really angry. Projectors get bitter and cynical and pissed off. So many of us as human beings don't always live life on purpose according to our highest desire, because we're human — we're here to make mistakes, to understand what it feels like when things go wrong. I lost my dad at 14, my mum passed away four years ago, I've been through divorce, redundancy — it hasn't been a bed of roses, but every one of those things taught me something, and they've all led me to where I am now.
Killian: Do you have signs that consistently show up in your life — a through-line, like an animal symbol, or a birdsong, or a song?
Debi Garrett: Birds, for me — and songs. Spirit is very funny — it'll give me a song, usually by an artist I don't particularly like, since I'm into rock and metal, not pop. I'll get just one line of the song. When I was deciding whether to stay in my job or commit to doing this full-time as an entrepreneur, I kept hearing the Gwen Stefani song, "What are you waiting for?" That phrase kept appearing in different things — I'd see a magazine article about time, and think, "okay."
When I was first awakening to my spirituality, I used to see magpies everywhere. I've always been open to signs from the animal kingdom, birds in particular. Now, when things are going well and I'm on the right path, I see birds of prey soaring, and I think, "that's going to be okay." And random things I haven't figured out yet — right now, whenever I'm making a decision or about to change direction, I see white cars everywhere. Every car is white, and I think, "have they run out of paint at the car factory? Is this a blank canvas?" I'm still trying to work out what that one means.
Killian: I like that. It sounds like you're a clear audient — do you hear things mostly in your mind's eye when you're channeling for the Akashic Records?
Debi Garrett: I sense it, and I do see as well — I'm relatively visual — but it's usually through hearing, and I'm quite clear-sentient too, so I feel sensations in my body, which is interesting when you're having a past-life experience that's not so nice. With the records, I find I get so much more out of it if I speak it out loud as I'm going, so it's definitely a sound thing for me. Then I write it or record it as I go, because that exchange of energy matters — rather than just sitting and waiting, where you sometimes just see the back of your eyelids and think, "well, this is useless."
Killian: I've heard that writing can really help get it through — just free writing. That's really cool. Amanda, I'm sorry, I've been asking all the questions.
Amanda: No, I'm taking it in — and honestly, in the back of my mind I'm like, which type am I? I'm very curious. Don't forget, next on your list today —
Killian: The human design!
Amanda: Where am I?
Debi Garrett: Go to Jovian Archive — anybody listening who wants to find out, go to Jovian Archive, that's the original. There are a lot of different types out there, but that's the 100% original one. If you Google that and go in, you can get a free chart that gives you the basics. And obviously if you want more detail, Amanda, give me a shout — I'll put you in the right direction.
Amanda: I love that. My mom and I were both Pisces, and she'd always check our horoscope in the morning and call me — as a child, or as an adult — to say "today's going to be rough" or "there's a fun surprise coming." At that point in my life, it was always just, there's this one way to know about yourself, your sun sign — that's it. And then time goes by and everyone's like, "do you know what time you were born? Let's do your chart." And I was like, what's a chart? And then you learn about all the placements, and now I feel like I'm the one constantly learning — Killian's way more advanced than I am, and I'm just like, yeah, me too, I want to know.
Debi Garrett: And this is what I love — if it sparks interest, explore it and see. Human design spoke to me years ago, and I started looking into it and thought, "this is far too confusing, nope." Then last year I decided, along with the Akashic Records — because as a manifesting generator, you have to do lots of things at once — I trained in human design too. Let's do both. It was fascinating, and I chose to train in it because I wanted another way to help my clients — as a teacher, I know people learn in different ways, and they need information given to them differently. Some are visual, some want to listen, some want to get involved — I trained in first aid too, so it's very much, how do we make this understandable for you?
Human design does the same thing — when you get a full chart done, bigger than the free ones online, you find out how you process information, what environment you need to be in to get the best out of yourself, how you digest not just food but information. There's also an incarnation cross that gives you your life purpose — it gives you direction and a steer toward what will bring you the most fulfillment.
Killian: It can go so deep.
Debi Garrett: It really does.
Amanda: As an indecisive person, these tools are very helpful.
Debi Garrett: They're really cool because they give you permission to be yourself, complete permission. You might have been told you were indecisive, but it might just be that you have an open head center, bringing in all this information from everybody — shiny object syndrome. Whereas once you learn your authority, you might have, say, a sacral authority, and think, "if I go — that means it's for me." And interestingly, going back to what you said about team building and offices — whenever you're with other people, if, say, Killian's a manifesting generator and you're a projector, you'd be feeding off Killian's sacral energy, feeling uplifted when you're with her and tired when you're not — because when we're together, we all light up each other's charts, and our energies intermingle. That's what's really fun about it.
Amanda: What I think is so fun, especially now, is that at one point everyone thought horoscopes and crystals were so "woo woo, whatever." And now — maybe it's my algorithm, or what I've tapped into — people are like, "no, this is real, this is important." I like the idea that this isn't just for passing time — it's applicable and can help everybody in a wider scope. I love that you, as a medical care person, apply these very traditional roles in this more uplifted, almost spiritual way. I think that makes it so much more relatable for people who can't quite get a grasp — the logical types, maybe the Capricorns, who are like, "what is this?" And you're like, no, this could be for everybody, this is human. I love that you're bringing that to everybody.
Debi Garrett: Absolutely — people sometimes ask, "do the two things not completely contradict each other? You work in conventional medicine but also alternative medicine — aren't they opposite sides of the coin?" I say no, they're complements. If you're bleeding out at the side of the road, you want a paramedic, not a Reiki healer. Likewise, if you're having an emotional crisis, you don't necessarily want a medic throwing tablets at you — you want somebody who's going to look after your soul. It's a bit of both. Even as a medic, we meet people at their most vulnerable, and they need someone who's going to hold them energetically too, to get them where they need to be.
Killian: Which makes me think of another question — before I ask, Amanda, what's your hour and city of birth? I'm going to figure this out on the side. When were you born, and what time? Don't put it on the internet, though.
Amanda: City of birth is New York City, Manhattan. Time of birth is 6:36 PM — so 18:36.
Killian: Okay, 18:36.
Amanda: My European family would not allow that "6 PM" nonsense.
Killian: Okay — before I dive into Amanda's chart, I have one question for you: when you meet people in a really intense emotional state, you also have to protect your own energy, right? So how do you do that? What's your way of holding space for another person while making sure it doesn't get into your aura?
Debi Garrett: I have an opinion on this — there's an awful lot of nonsense in the spiritual industry about how we must protect ourselves at all costs and close ourselves off. That's a real fear-based energy, and if you're operating from fear, you're going to take in all that stuff. For me, because I practice Reiki every day — every morning I fill myself with Reiki, connect to source, connect to my highest self, connect to the love and unconditional love that's there — there's nothing that can actually harm me, so I don't need to put up a wall between me and someone. But I do need to know what's mine, know myself well enough to notice "I'm feeling a bit off now, that's not mine," and then use my tools to clear it — Reiki, breathwork, whatever you're working with. You can use sprays, call in Archangel Michael, bring in your angels. For me, in the morning, I put myself in what I call a "Reiki bubble" for the day — the good stuff can come in, and I'll give the good stuff out. It's about being a transmitter of energy rather than a receiver, and you get to choose, because you're an all-powerful sovereign being — nothing can be put on you without your consent. I do find myself in traumatic situations as a medic, with very frightened people, and it's almost like my uniform is the barrier. There are times I come home and have to shake it off, forget what I've seen that day — but I have those tools.
Killian: Sounds like you have such great access. So — I'm going to go home and do a Reiki clearing on myself, refresh.
Debi Garrett: It might be as simple as having an actual physical shower — I wash off whatever I've picked up that day, anything that's been put on me without my consent, anything I've taken from other people inadvertently. And then the most important bit — I call back what's mine, call back anything that's been taken from me that day. And then I wrap myself in a bubble of light and say, "thanks very much, that's me."
Amanda: I love that. Maybe that's why I shower at night and sleep so well — I'm like, get it off.
Debi Garrett: Absolutely.
Killian: Well, I think I know why you sleep so well — it's because you're a projector, Amanda. Your profile is a one-three.
Debi Garrett: So the "1" profile means you're naturally inquisitive — you need to research and understand everything, go deep, ask questions. Because you're a projector, projectors tend to be natural teachers, but it's important that you're given the opportunity, because it lands better if you wait for the invitation to give your wisdom. You may have jumped in before and had it not received well — whereas if you say, "can I just ask, can I just say something," and they say yes, you've got the invitation to share your wisdom. The "3" line means you learn through trial and error — you like to try different things and experiment, because you don't want to just take someone else's word for it, you want to try it yourself.
Amanda: I'll have to look into this. Thank you, Killian, and thank you, Debbie, for reading into that. I really have no idea what a projector is.
Killian: All the projectors I know really like to nap, but I don't know if that's a projector thing.
Amanda: I love sleep.
Debi Garrett: I like to nap too — I'm a manifesting generator, but I'm 51, so I'm allowed.
Amanda: I've always liked to sleep — eight to ten hours a night is my zone. If I get less than eight, I'm pretty useless.
Debi Garrett: Yeah, projectors need that. When you look at your chart, you'll see your sacral isn't defined — that means you don't have consistent access to that center, and the sacral is usually the source of life-force energy. It doesn't mean you don't have life force, just that you don't have a reliable battery all the time — you'll use your energy and then need to recharge. Whereas Killian and I, as manifesting generators, have consistent access — it's like a battery that's always plugged in. The problem is, if we don't wear ourselves out, we won't sleep properly at night.
Amanda: That's so nice for you.
Debi Garrett: It is — but if we don't wear ourselves out physically during the day, we can find we don't sleep at night.
Amanda: I like a life of leisure — I was telling Killian earlier, I started doing a lot of stuff and I'm already like, this is too much for me, I need to take it down.
Debi Garrett: You're living your design. What's really interesting about projectors is you have a penetrating aura — your aura is already 60 feet ahead of you, feeding you back information, and it depends what your authority is.
Killian: I was going to ask about that — solar plexus?
Debi Garrett: Solar plexus is that real emotional authority — you need 24 hours to make a decision. You should not make a decision fast, you need to sleep on it, and you don't want to decide when you're highly emotional or really low. You need to come back to baseline, know what your baseline is, and make decisions from there. It's always important for you to wait 24 hours.
Amanda: That feels right — that's why I say I've been called indecisive, because I can't choose right now, I need a minute.
Debi Garrett: You're not indecisive — you're just tuning into your authority, letting your emotional state settle.
Amanda: And it's usually during my shower that I figure out the answer, honestly — when nothing's on, no music, no one talking to me, no email, just me in the water and the mist and the quiet, and everything clicks. I get answers there.
Debi Garrett: Perfect — baseline.
Killian: Well, thank you for that — I love a little mini reading, just to get the feel for what human design is. I know we're at time, but I have one final question: if there's ever been a book that felt really impactful or changed your trajectory, what would it be — or just a book you'd want to offer to listeners?
Debi Garrett: I don't know if I have a book that changed my trajectory, but one I encourage a lot of people to read — even if they're not Reiki-attuned — to understand the bigger system of Reiki, rather than just the hands-on bit, which is the tip of the iceberg: The Way of Reiki by Frans Stiene. It's the inner teachings of Mikao Usui, the founding father of the Usui Reiki system. There's a massive misconception that Reiki is just this thing you go to a healer for and they lay their hands on you — that's less than 5% of what Reiki actually is. This book is a very easy-to-read, clearly laid out way for people with no concept of Reiki to understand the deeper meanings and the way of life that Reiki becomes, as opposed to just paying a few dollars for a session.
Amanda: Killian, I think we need to start our book club based on everybody's recs.
Killian: I know — I'm hoping to have a page on the site where we just list them all out, quick easy links to a book list.
Amanda: This is an addition to the podcast — another sub-thing.
Killian: Yeah, and I know another thing to add to your list, Amanda — be careful.
Debi Garrett: Yeah, a good thing to add to your list.
Killian: Exactly. Well, thank you so much, Debbie. This was such a delightful conversation, and we really appreciate you being here.
Debi Garrett: You're so welcome — it was lovely to speak to you both. Thank you very much.
Amanda: I know, Debbie, you're so far away — I wish you were closer for a hug. You're so lovely, thank you so much for your time, and for enlightening me and our audience — I think this is so important to share, and I think a lot of people are getting a lot out of it. Thank you.
Debi Garrett: 100% — you're so welcome, it's been a pleasure. Thank you very much.
Amanda: And good luck with all your "busy" things, Mrs. Busy.
Debi Garrett: Thank you — I'm not as busy as it appears.
Amanda: Sounds to me like a napper.
Killian: As a napper — that's true.
Debi Garrett: I don't nap enough, though!
Killian: All right, well, thanks so much, Debbie.
Amanda: Thank you so much.
