Spotify Wrapped is here, and one of its new 2021 features is "Your Audio Aura," a reading of your two most prominent moods as dictated by your top songs and artists of the year.
Spotify collaborated with Megan Michaela Firester, a celebrity psychic medium and aura reader known professionally as Mystic Michaela, to create these personalized auras for users. On Spotify, every song you listen to is categorized into various moods on the backend of the streaming platform. Firester then assigned each of these moods an aura color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or purple) that correlates to the music a listener vibes with most.
The result? Your very own aura photograph based on the music you listen to.
But if you have no idea what an aura is, we've got you covered. Mashable got Firester on the phone to answer all your questions about auras and how they intersect with music and social media.
Mashable: What is an aura?
Megan Michaela Firester: An aura is an energy signature around each person. It's the energy you give off. Some people call it a vibe. You don't even have to see an aura to feel one. Everyone can feel other people's vibes. I just happen to see the color. I see as five main aura colors, and most people have a combination of two.
How do you read an aura?
When I look at somebody, I see the colors around them. It's like a filter of your life. We all walk around with a filter around us. And that's what an aura is. It controls how you communicate, what motivates you, what job you should have, [and] how you work out.
When I look at somebody, just because I've been doing it so long and I see the colors of someone's aura, I see how they're shaped and how they're put together. Usually, it's very metaphorical. If there's rips or tears in the aura, there's maybe some insecurities or things going on, sometimes people hide their aura colors, and that's the parts of yourself that you're not comfortable with or you're insecure about.
When I look at somebody, I see the colors around them. It's like a filter of your life. We all walk around with a filter around us.
So the way that I see the aura, and how it's placed around them, usually tells me a lot about what's going on with them subconsciously.
So, is an aura like a personality test?
They're like personality types. Knowing your aura can help you understand your own authentic motives, which can propel you forward with the most success in life. The path of least resistance is really the way I like to approach all my readings, it's like, you've been doing it the hard way — let's just do it the way that flows naturally from you.
What's the appeal of an aura reading?
Anytime you get some sort of insight into yourself, you start asking yourself questions. Like, who am I? Does that make sense? Does that resonate? Where does that show up in my life? Even if you don't agree with an aura reading, you can think about why you don't agree with it. It's really important to have these conversations with yourself because a lot of times we're too distracted to have them. The appeal is having a context in which you can look at yourself from a new perspective, kind of outside of yourself, and inward, which can spark new ideas and motivation.
What are the five main aura colors?
The five main aura colors are red, blue, yellow, purple, and green. And then there are three aura colors that I won't see not as much, which are turquoise, indigo, and pink.
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Can the music someone listens to give you an idea of their aura?
Yes, for sure. Some of us like to swim in our feelings. Some of us have too many feelings, and we listen to music to calm us down. Sometimes we lack motivation, and we listen to music to pep us up.
Do songs have auras, or does the aura of the artist come through?
That's a great question. We think of Taylor Swift, her aura is yellow [and] purple. Yellows are very organized and curious. They're constantly seeking self improvement. She's always doing those, like, hey, figure out what album I'm dropping next with all these clues, and yellows love to figure out clues. They're like little detectives. Purples are very explosive, creative, intuitive, and rebellious. A lot of her music is about going through what happened and dissecting it. And also being creative about it, which is very yellow-purple. She's very direct in her music, too. She's like, this is my experience. This is how I experienced it. This is about me, this is what happened to me. That's why people connect to her.
SEE ALSO: Spotify Wrapped's latest feature reads Your Audio Aura
A lot of times artists will put their auras or explore their own auras in their music without even realizing it, and as listeners we're just along for the ride.
And are people attracted to certain artists because they have the same aura as them?
Yes and no. I think it depends on who you are and what you're looking for. A lot of us have this tendency to go find ourselves in other artists, but some of us are searching for a different vibe.
How does aura influence mood?
When you're in a mood, that's a vibe. And there's so many moods: there's romantic, there's wistful, there's reflective, there's introspective, there's anxious. That vibe is felt by other people, like when you've met somebody who's anxious, and you're like, "Oh, I feel that."
Every song really does create a mood, and that correlates to how auras are because people are moods. Music is the perfect vehicle for transporting an aura.
So every song really does create a mood, and that correlates to how auras are because people are moods. Music is the perfect vehicle for transporting an aura. Every song was created from an artist's aura, an artist's mood, an artist's vibe. You're sitting in other artists' auras and seeing how they speak to your own aura. That's the audio aura experience.
Do you think Spotify Wrapped's Your Audio Aura will inspire more people to get their auras read?
If anybody thought there was too much aura stuff before, now it’s going to be all over the place. I’m excited to see people make their own interpretations and have these conversations. It’s a great conversation starter. I think more people will connect now and have fun conversations and make cool, creative art. It’s going to blow up.
Why do you think auras have become so popular on platforms like Spotify and TikTok?
Colors are friendly. They're easier to conceptualize than learning astrology. People love colors. I've noticed that somebody's favorite color is usually their aura color. I see people attracted to their own aura colors for comfort and inspiration. So I think it comes natural to us. And it makes a really cool picture. That's the other thing: aura photography has made it really popular.
Have aura readings become even more popular this year?
Yeah! I started in 2013, and nobody knew what auras were for years. Now, I think it's TikTok, really. Everyone is on there and like, "Here is your aura." It's great because a bunch of people now know what the word means, but like anything, it's gotten watered down a bit. And that's fine. To be transferable, it has to be watered down a bit.
Auras can be looked at as cool colors around me, or they can be looked at the way I like to look at them: as a lens to see yourself in a way that can be extremely introspective, reflective, and awakening.
