She took out a note card and a box of watercolors and began to scribble with a paintbrush soon, a thick smudge of violet emerged. At the end, she asked: “What do you want? Don’t get analytical just start pulling the feelings.” I told her that I wanted to feel inspired, as if I had new realms to explore. She did a brief oracle card reading that focused on the fear and uncertainty holding me back. Susanna also said several variations of “You are seen and you are experienced in this moment,” and honestly, I’d happily pay $225 just to hear someone say that and mean it.

“Pieces that have a story are so important for you.” I needed to be more playful, to show on the outside how creative I am on the inside.Įven leaving colors and their associated vibratory qualities aside, those ideas resonated with me. “Something in you needs to be honored-a creative energy,” she told me. I needed to think about what kind of image I wanted to project, and what would make me feel comfortable and happy. What wearing new, brighter colors can do, she said, is temper the negative aspect of these tendencies. But I’m not projecting magenta, she said instead, I’m putting out blue-caretaking energy that depletes and depresses me. Magenta is a rebellious, wild-card energy, and red is intense-magnetic and repulsive-and impossible not to notice, like a stop sign. My innate energy, Susanna told me, is a mix of red and magenta. This all sounded wonderful, albeit potentially expensive. And now that I actually knew who I was, I wouldn’t feel like I was putting on a costume when I got dressed-I’d just feel even more like myself. Susanna diagnosed me with a disorder she calls “hot girl hangover”: At 25, I was cute enough to make whatever outfit I threw together seem passable at 38, I was going to have to put in effort, even though I felt like doing so less than ever.īut Susanna claimed that there was a way to recapture the enthusiasm I’d once brought to my wardrobe. In my early twenties, I sometimes changed outfits several times a day just for fun, imitating whatever celebrity, classmate, or magazine image I thought was cool at the moment. Where were those boots now? I’d left them behind many apartments and several lifetimes ago. How did I dress when I was first starting out as an adult, and when did that change? I flashed on a memory I hadn’t thought about for years: my 25-year-old self, in a pleated skirt and knee-high Frye riding boots, clomping down the hallway of my first publishing job. Her questions required genuine soul-searching. Then she told me what she had intuited about my color energy, including the pain she sensed I held. Susanna dimmed the lights and led me through a guided meditation, tracing the movement of an imaginary ball of light from head to toe. I was wearing a plaid button-down, jeans, and brown desert boots, which was as close as I could get to making an effort on a drab winter day. On the day of the reading, I spotted Susanna across the room, radiant in a pink belted jumpsuit and vertiginous clogs the color of matcha, topped with a taupe linen work coat. Through her company, Aura Wear, she’s also a stylist who pairs clothes with vibes, helping people match their wardrobes to their energy and “call in” whatever they’re craving.

She believes these halos of energy reflect our innate way of being in the world and whatever we’re currently going through, whether it’s the “green” of aīreakup or the “orange” of dealing with a high-energy toddler. Susanna, it turns out, is an intuitive energy reader, meaning that she perceives visible auras and their colors. Was Susanna a spy? A therapist? A Republican political strategist? When I saw her the next morning, I rushed over to get answers. The possibilities set my imagination whirling. This reticence piqued my curiosity some of the girl bosses I’ve met there barely say hi before cheerfully downloading their entire CV into your brain.

I asked her what kind of work she did, but she demurred, implying that she didn’t have time to explain just then, but I could come find her later if I was still curious. I met Susanna Merrick-Klinkbeil while waiting for the phone booths at The Wing in New York’s SoHo.

Uncertain aura definition