Lola Babalon

Lola Babalon,
Astrologer
and Psychic Consultant

Using tools from palmistry to astrology, this psychic consultant helps clients see the bigger picture from her cozy mountaintop spot in Topanga.

“I love palmistry because it’s so direct,” Lola Babalon says. “There’s a sign, it looks like this, it means that. All you have to do is put it together.” The ancient art of palm reading is just one of the ways this mellifluous German expat collects information that her clients can benefit from. She’s also an astrologer and psychic consultant, who loves toeing the line between real world information and messages from beyond, which she poetically describes here, along with an explanation of her journey and the why behind what she does. “My intention is to be present to what is needed at this time,” she says, “and to be a peacemaker on all levels.”

How would you describe what you do?

I love helping people understand themselves and handle the challenges in their life more easily by understanding the bigger picture. I combine astrology, palmistry, and various visionary tools, such as the tarot, to read people and to connect with what is going on with that person. I find that it’s very helpful for people going through major changes to have some sense of direction.

How did you discover palmistry?

When I was 18 I was a nursing student, and I met a doctor from Ghana who read my hand and blew my mind. [Laughs] He predicted all kinds of things that happened very quickly; my life changed altogether. Within the next two years, I met two other palm readers. The second one said, “You should be doing this!” That was just what I needed to hear. I went full-tilt into studying it. The German masters on the topic said, Palmistry, it’s a science. There is no woo-woo about it. But as soon as I started to get good at it, I tapped into this whole other sense of spirit connection where I suddenly knew these things with a type of certainty that had nothing to do with my personal experience.

Can you describe the first few times you had this connective experience?

The palmistry books I was studying at the time opened all these possibilities about the planets and the kabbalah and the chakras and yoga. The spiritual path is a curious thing that unfolds as you start walking on it, and it was like that for me. Sometimes I’d be sitting down in a reading with somebody who would have a specific question. I would start figuring them out on the rational plane, and then I would just feel this shift in energy of total knowing coming through, which sometimes would also come with a change in my voice. But I now feel that I am not a channeler in that way, because I like to keep one foot in the real world and have both my psychic faculties as well as my grounded, practical, real-world German-Capricorn sensibilities also be intact. That enables me to be a better translator. The traditional definition of a witch—or a shaman, from the Russian point of view—they call it hagazussa and it means “the one that sits on the fence.” The trick is to straddle that divide between the visible and the invisible and to find some way to communicate or help somebody in whatever goings-on they might be experiencing.

What is a typical session like?

My preference is to meet in person. Usually I will take down your birthday and take a look at your planets beforehand. The funny thing is, when I look at the planetary picture, there’s always a reason for why somebody needs to have a reading right now. [Laughs] Then we sit down together in my cozy little mountaintop spot in Topanga, and we get into those things. I often start by giving an overview of what I see going on, and then I specifically get into relationships and relationship patterns, like why we are attracted to people that are showing up, and why we engage in these different dances, some of them more painful than others. Often we go into what might be going on in their families and with their parents, and how the patterns they grew up with may or may not have served them in their own personal growth. Sometimes there’s information about past-life patterns or achievements and how they might lead us into what is coming easy to us now or where the growing curve is. I also pull out some tarot cards, which will expand on those things that have been uncovered. And then there’s a sense of timing that can help people understand what this current astrological cycle is about and when it’s going to ease off.

What do you hope people take away from a reading with you?

Most people take away a great deal of clarity and comfort. I’m not here to tell them what to do or what’s going to happen, even though I do make predictions. I am here to help people help themselves and to tap into that part of knowing they already have. If I am seeing something, it’s very often something they already know and just need to hear. I believe that we are all spiritual beings walking in this physical manifestation, and the more we can trust and listen in to our own hearts, our own essence, and do the best that we can with the tools we’re given, that is the kind of thinking that will help us collectively grow and heal and wake up and help each other.

Text by Lisa Butterworth
Photos by Heather Culp
Lola Babalon