Helpful Tarot Love Readings

Whether you are a tarot pro, a tarot enthusiast, a tarot client, or merely curious, you know the trope. There is a perception that the primary consumers of tarot readings are the lovelorn.

There are real reasons for this. There are many, many cautionary tales of psychic addiction that stem from the pain of uncertain relationships and the false belief that a tarot reader can tell you, for certain, the destiny of your relationship. There are an equal or greater number of people who rely on wisdom from tarot to help them navigate difficult situations with great success.

We humans tend to over-spiritualize romance, often to our detriment. I think that is because so many of us are driven, either by hormones, societal conditioning, or genuine desire, to find a workable relationship. At the same time, workable relationships can be hard to find, and hard to maintain.

When an attraction or connection with another person catches us, it can feel spiritual, whether it is or not. That crush, or new relationship, or amazing sex, can be captivating. That sense of connection with another human generates for us all sorts of questions. Where better to take those questions than to your own tarot deck, to a friend with a tarot deck, or to a professional reader?

Skillful work with tarot can indeed help us with all aspects of navigating relationships. That includes finding love, choosing a partner, building a healthy relationship, ending what doesn’t work, healing problems in a long-term relationship, healing from a breakup, and handling the grief of widowhood. Yet, tarot in the hands of naïve or manipulative people can sometimes make things harder.

How Unskilled Tarot Hurts Us in Relationships

Sometimes people stay in abusive relationships because they believe that tarot told them they were meant to be together. Sometimes people mourn the ending of an unhealthy relationship because they believe tarot told them that they were soulmates, or that their lost relationship was their only possibility for partnership.

I have seen readers encourage clients to believe that a spiritually ordained ‘soulmate’ relationship would be without any conflict or difficulty and would not need any maintenance work to prosper.

I have seen readers give false hope to clients for relationships that are obviously over, never to return.

These are but a few of the ways that unskilled use of tarot can hurt us in relationships. In this age of livestreamed collective tarot readings, there are also those who conflate a collective reading on YouTube or TikTok with a specific one-on-one reading. This can lead to a great deal of misunderstanding and misguidance for those already in emotional turmoil.

How Tarot Can Help

Good practices in relationship readings require asking the right questions and managing expectations.

Collective readings on social media can be fun, interesting, informative, and even profound. However, do not assume that the collective reading about “where your relationship is going” is necessarily a valid piece of helpful information for your individual situation.

Do not assume that the future of a relationship is always predictable at all. Love is a choice that each partner must make every day. It may be impossible, in a single reading, to predict what two people will choose each day for the rest of their lives.

 “Will we stay together?” “Is he the one for me?” “Is this the right relationship?” “Is this my soulmate?” are very often not helpful questions, or questions that can easily receive an accurate answer.

On the reverse side, if the cards clearly suggest that a person might be dangerous or abusive, and you have other substantiating information or history, it might be a good idea to trust the cards and use caution, no matter how attached you may feel in your heart. If this is the case in an ongoing relationship, asking the cards about options and solutions can be very helpful.

When we ask, “What does this person feel about me?” or “What does this person think of me?” we may get a valid answer that is helpful. Or we may get an answer based on a passing thought or mood. Even in very stable relationships our moods and feelings can shift from moment to moment. A snapshot of a particular moment might be misleading. Asking that sort of question could also be a gross invasion of privacy.

There are many questions we can ask of the cards to help us navigate relationships.

A single person may receive great counsel by asking, “What can I do to attract the right partner?” or, “What can we know about the possibility of a new relationship for me in the near future?”

Tarot can be helpful in vetting possible candidates. A reading can give us a heads-up about potential good matches, and those who might be incompatible and inappropriate.

When you want to access the potential of a new relationship, a two-question reading is helpful. Ask “What is the worst this relationship could be?” and “What is the best this relationship could be?”

Another helpful question to ask any time in a relationship timeline is, “What can I do right now to make this relationship the best it could be?”

In a relationship, tarot can help us improve communication with our beloved, and can help us meet their needs, and get our own need met. “How can I help my partner?” can be a great question to ask. “How can I communicate my concerns to my partner in a way that they can hear me?” is another helpful question.

Tarot can help us know when it is time to leave a relationship, and how to heal. Tarot can keep us in communication with our loved one in spirit after they leave this earth.

If you have questions about love, romance, and relationships, tarot can provide helpful answers, but only if you have the skill to ask the right questions and interpret the cards thoughtfully, or if you find a good, intuitive, intelligent tarot reader to do those things for you.

If you are reading for yourself on your own relationship, it is helpful to remember this. No matter how intuitive you are, no one should fully trust their intuition when it comes to matters of their own heart. It is almost always impossible to discern the difference between desire and intuition when we are in the throes of heartbreak or attraction.

Follow your heart, certainly, but keep your head, and attend the wise counsel of tarot in a way that is healthy and healing. It is better to use the cards to help us make wise decisions, understand our feelings, find solutions, and know our options.

Many relationships feel like fate and destiny, but only a few of those truly are. Even a relationship that is a brilliant match can suffer from neglect and poor communication.

Many people think that the cards can help us know our fate. I think the cards do a better job helping us understand ourselves and those around us so we can make good decisions for the best possible future, in love and in life.

Should We Even Try to Predict a New Year? Of Course, We Should!

Making predictions for the upcoming year is a basic function for psychics, seers, and cartomancers.  In the 1990s it was commonplace for local newspapers to contact my colleagues and me to get our thoughts on the upcoming year for an entertaining article to run on January First.

Now there are more blogs and fewer newspapers. There are probably even more people wanting to get in on the fun of psychic speculation.

There are quite a few clients who like to have readings in December or January to look toward the year ahead. I remember at this time last year being quite confused by what was showing up in people’s cards for 2020. Cancelled trips, working from home, home-schooling the kids; how did any of that make sense?

What became really clear for me in retrospect is this. It is impossible for one to predict what one cannot imagine.

At this time last year, even though I was aware of the strange new disease that had emerged, Wuhan seemed very far away. I could not imagine that Western nations would be over-run by a sometimes-deadly virus. Even as we saw Italy devastated, my personal worldview suggested that good old American ingenuity would find a way to contain the threat, just as was done when Ebola made its way to our shores in years prior.

As much as I pride myself on being able to read with objectivity and compassionate detachment, my inability to imagine what would unfold in 2020 made my predictions for individuals more valuable than for the planet.

I am not alone in this. I think most of us find it easier and more helpful to read for people versus nations.

A few experiences from those moments a year ago sit with me, making me examine the way our inner guidance can work.

Late in 2019, I moved into the largest office space I have ever occupied in my entire career. It immediately became a thriving community center. Just a few months later, I had to temporarily cease having classes, meetups and in-person readings. I remembered how strongly motivated I had been to make this move. I had felt pushed. At the time I interpreted that cosmic nudge simply as business advice for growth.  Toward the latter half of March, I realized that the Universe wasn’t pushing me to grow my business, but to preserve my business.

I was being positioned for the first time in my career into workspace with my own rest room, and my own door. Not having to share hallways and facilities with building mates made the pandemic much less stressful. Being able to temporarily turn my conference room into a private exercise area was a much-appreciated bonus when the gyms were closed.

I received another interesting nudge from the Universe last December. Typically, early each December I will create a special new year opportunity for my clients. As 2019 was ready to give way to 2020, I tried hard to think about what the new year program for 2020 would be. The name of the year lent itself so well to the idea of clear vision and moving toward a new decade. Yet, I was completed unmotivated to create a new year program, opportunity, or offer. For the first time in a few years, I decided not to do this. Once again, as March rolled around, I realize my guides had protected me and my clients from what might have been a difficult and unnecessary exercise.

What I learned from all this was important. Sometimes we have to trust the psychic nudges we get, yet we won’t know their importance or reason until later.

I see this in the cards, with clients, all the time. It will feel imperative that I tell a client a particular thing, although I won’t be able to tell them the why of it. After some time passes, the why becomes clear.

I have always known this to be true in the readings I do for others. This year I saw clearly that this same truth applies to the guidance I receive for myself.

For those of us who are diviners, whether professional or casual, the ritual of doing a personal reading for the new year, or having one done for us, is an annual rite of passage.

There are many techniques for a new year reading, and each can give insight, hope and inspiration as we make our way into the future.

But what about reading for the nation, or the world?

Of all the readers I know and know of, no one person seemed to predict the full weight of global pandemic, social unrest, and all the other rarities 2020 had to offer.

Perhaps the value of a reading for the planet, or a nation, is not to give a news report in advance. Perhaps the value is simply to give a bit of a weather report.

With that in mind, I went back, once again, to check the reading I did for 2020 on my blog.

When doing the reading, I had already chosen not to predict election outcomes, nor to put my thumb on the scale of any controversy.

In this blog post, dated December 27, 2019, I had a conversation with tarot, predominately about the bitter division I saw in the United States, and how that division might play out in the coming year.

The final question and its answer strike me as particularly interesting.

Will we still be so divided by the end of 2020?

Cards pulled: Hierophant reversed, The Fool, Wheel of Fortune Reversed

Answer: Change is coming. By the end of 2020 there will be more concern for those who are less fortunate, but that may be because more people will be facing misfortune. There will be less respect for authority, religion and government. There will be more youth voices heard, and a new energy will replace the energy of division.

When I look at this question and answer today, a year later, I am struck by a few things. That the three cards I pulled were all Major Arcana seems to speak of the enormity of the events of 2020.  More people are certainly facing misfortune in ways I could not have imagined when I wrote this.  There certainly is less respect for authority, religion and government, in so many ways, and for so many reasons. And, in our election, there were more young and first-time voters than ever before.

You can read last year’s blogpost in its entirety and see what you think.

What sort of reading shall I do for my nation this year, as we say goodbye to 2020 and welcome 2021?

This year I have become fascinated with the way the cards can supply a question, as well as an answer. For this new year reading I will pull a card and use that card to phrase some questions. Then, I will pull three cards to supply each answer.

The card I pulled at random is the Ten of Pentacles.

This card speaks to me of health and wealth, two things that have suffered greatly in 2020. Yet, it also speaks of ancestry and legacy. In 2020 we came to a new depth in the discussion of our nation’s history, and how our history has led us to where we are.

The Ten of Pentacles is also about real estate. As I am writing this there are many people across our nation in peril of losing their homes.

The Ten of Pentacles is about family. At this moment, there is a continued contentious debate about what the makeup of a family can or should legally be.

I can’t think of a better card to ask the most important questions of this moment than the Ten of Pentacles. It is also true that 2021 is the official start of the new decade, and so a Ten is particularly appropriate.

Question One: Will we win the battle against the current health crisis in 2021?

Cards pulled: The Hanged Man reversed, the Star reversed, the Two of Pentacles

My interpretation:

These are not the most optimistic cards, but they do represent a good start on our journey back from the pandemic. The Hanged Man reversed suggests that we will do what we must do to take control of the situation. Yet, with the Star reversed, these two cards together might describe the many disagreements that surround what our responses and behaviors should be. Individually, the Star reversed might speak of the one thing we can all agree on, which is how tired we all are of our current circumstances.

The Two of Pentacles might suggest that things will come into a better balance. I could even see the Two of Pentacles as representing the two vaccines that are currently approved.

Yet, these three cards together, though hopeful, remind us of the very long road that is still in front of us.

Question Two: What will our economic situation be in 2021?

Cards pulled: The Four of Cups, the Six of Pentacles, the Ace of Pentacles

My interpretation:

While the Four of Cups clearly illustrates how devastating 2020 has been for many individuals, families and businesses, the two Pentacles cards are extremely hopeful. Together, these cards seem to predict optimistic financial recovery.

Question Three: With so much division over social and family issues, will we find a way to honor everyone’s needs and live together in better harmony in 2021?

Cards pulled: Page of Pentacles, Ten of Pentacles, Four of Wands reversed

That Four of Wands reversed stands out for me. It makes me think about marriage equality, and the battle lines drawn around issues of family and gender.

My Interpretation:

The Ten of Pentacles seems auspicious, since it was also the card that came up at random to devise these questions. To me this is a reminder that it took us many hundreds of years to get to where we are now. It will take a while to find our way forward.

The Page of Pentacles reminds us of two things that are always true. First, young people are our future, and will shape the world. Young voices give us hope and will bring needed change.

We won’t solve all our problems in 2021. Yet, with the help and guidance of our ancestors and our progeny, we will forge a way forward.

We needn’t be psychic to know that 2021 will bring us challenges that we didn’t anticipate. Often the value of a predictive reading is to help us gather the tools we will need to face whatever comes. At the end of last year’s reading, I drew a clear conclusion that the ultimate division was between love and fear. If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that we must chose love over fear, each and ever time. Of course, what that means to the individual will depend on that individual’s world view.

What will 2021 teach us? I pulled one more card to answer that question. The King of Swords is the card that appeared. The King of Swords is the exemplar of honesty, trustworthiness, clear communication, truth and intelligence.

In difficult times, we often hide from the truth by cloaking ourselves in myth. 2021 will teach us to find and accept what is true, and truth will be our way to a better future. We will do that by learning to speak with each other, and listen to one another.

Happy New Year to Everyone!

Three Ways Tarot Helps Us

We so often think of tarot as a tool of simple fortune-telling. We want to ask questions like “Will I get the job?” or “Will he call me?”

 Sometimes when we use the cards to peer into the future, we find the process helpful. Other time, fortune-telling with tarot can be confounding and disappointing.

When we try to use the cards to predict who will win a sports match, or an election, we are often confused by the answers we get. I really do believe that the cards always speak truth. Yet, the future is not always predictable because the future is not always set. The actions of people can change the trajectory.

Very often future predictions about events in our immediate sphere of influence can help to inspire us, or caution us, or prepare us. Predictions about sports outcomes, and even political outcomes, should be relegated to entertainment. These sorts of predictions should not be the proof of the value or efficacy of cartomancy.

There are many tools of divination, and many card decks that are used for cartomancy. Tarot is, and has always been, my preferred tool. That is partially because tarot offers help even beyond divination and fortune-telling.

I see at least three ways that tarot can be helpful to us in life. The first is simply in the contemplation of each card. The study of tarot carries the same benefit as the study of any spiritual text. Each card can offer life wisdom that we can take to our heart and use at any time, much like the Bible verses I memorized as a child in Sunday school.

Divination is generally what we think about when we think about working with tarot, and it is one of the ways that tarot helps us. When we divine with tarot, we have the ability to move past predictive fortune-telling and into areas of person growth, self-understanding and strategic planning. The depth of information we can receive in tarot divination is only limited by the questions we ask, the techniques we use, and the understanding we develop. The deeper we dive into tarot as a whole, the more transformative our divination experiences can be.

The third way tarot helps us is in magic and manifestation. Over the years I have come to see the use of tarot to create our future as even more important than the use of tarot to try to see the future. Each card carries an energy. With these cards we can consciously embrace the energies we want in our lives, and consciously remove those we don’t.

These three utilizations of tarot, contemplation, divination, and manifestation, are all more effective when we take time and energy to study, learn, and deeply embrace and understand the cards. When we do this we allow tarot to be a wonderful gift, and a wonderful guide, in the journey of life.``

Is This the One? The Truth about Relationships, Tarot and Predictions

Is This the One?

The Truth about Relationships, Tarot and Predictions

It’s more than a stereotype. It’s a reality. Tarot readers from beginner to pro find themselves reading about love relationships; their own, their friends and their clients. This goes beyond tarot to include all methods of divination and psychic work. We employ many tools and techniques to help people understand each other, foresee when the right person might arrive, when a relationship isn’t worth trying to save, and when a person is actually ‘the one.’

I’ll speak from the perspective of tarot here, since that is the tool I prefer. However, what I am going to say applies to all attempts to predict the outcome of a new love relationship.

Also, truths about relationships apply whether the relationship is comprised of cisgender or transgender folks, or whether the relationship is same sex or opposite sex, or a couple or a polyamorous pod.

It is absolutely true that tarot, in the hands of a good reader, is an amazing tool to give us insight into our relationships. A good ‘couples reading’, while not therapy, can increase understanding and communication, and can offer new ways to grow as a partnership.

A tarot reading can help us navigate dating by taking unlikely fits off the table early, and by potentially predicting the timing of more interesting possibilities. A tarot reading can help us figure out what we want in a relationship and assess our readiness for love. A tarot reading can help us understand our feelings and give us an opportunity to figure out strategy in handling difficult situations. A tarot reading can help us heal from heartbreak, learn from our mistakes and look forward to the next adventure in love.

In all these ways, tarot has rightly earned its reputation as the panacea of the heartbroken and hopeful. In my book, Tarot Tour Guide, there is a whole section dedicated to using tarot to read for romantic relationships. However, after twenty-five years of fulltime professional reading, I have come to the conclusion that there is one question we just cannot answer with tarot, nor with any other psychic or predictive tool or method.

That question is, when asked at the beginning of a relationship, ‘Is this the one?’ That question can be phrased a lot of different ways, such as, ‘Will this definitely work out in the long run?’

When we speak of ‘the one,’ we are speaking of the one we want to marry, or the one we have been waiting for, or the one with whom we can share life in the long run. A complication to this is the number of people who absolutely believe that there is one particular person for whom they are destined, and whom they are destined for. This belief may cause someone to ask, ‘Is this my soulmate?’

While a spiritual connection or past life connection may appear in the cards, there would be no way to ascertain if there is a good long-term future with someone, even if that person appears to be a soul connection.

A great relationship, even in the beginning, does feel like destiny. It is possible there is spiritual intervention, or a sense of spiritual rightness, that makes a great relationship opportunity happen. It is also possible that we meet the same souls from lifetime to lifetime, causing us to feel a sense of connection, karma or destiny with a particular person, whether that turns out for good or for bad. Yet, the idea that in all of the seven billion people in the world there is only one that you can love, live with and make a life with doesn’t make mathematical sense.

The idea that our partnerships are ordained by a higher power and all we have to do is find the right one and the rest will be simple abdicates our personal power and responsibility in a way that feels unhealthy and unrealistic. There are times in life that we absolutely must trust a force great than our own. Our choices in relationships are very often times for us to be proactive rather than surrendered.

When people have a clear connection, attraction and desire to be together, and neither of those people are obviously seriously emotionally unhealthy or personality disordered, there is always a chance that they can build a life-long relationship.

Tarot can help people with strategies on how to do that in the healthiest, easiest way, and can point out the possible pitfalls along the way.

In the beginning, any relationship may feel like destiny, or seem spiritually ordained. Yet, love at first sight is only a good story when told many years later. That new relationship energy is powerful and causes us to feel things that may not stand the test of time.

Relationships develop over time. How they develop depend on the choices the individuals make every day. The possibilities are astronomical, and therefore, unpredictable.

I have seen love make crazy people sane. I have seen love develop in the most unlikely times and places, and between the most unlikely people. I have seen very well-matched couples lose their connection unexpectedly as priorities shift and communication breaks down.

If you and your tarot cards are faced with a question about the advisability of a relationship, or the long-term prognosis of a new relationship, you can get helpful information without trying to predict the unpredictable. More importantly, you can refrain from giving information that might cause a person to stay in an unhealthy relationship longer than they should, or that might cause someone to walk away from something with actual potential. Instead, you can give helpful information about navigating the emotions, personalities, and possibilities at hand.

The best method I have found for this is to either create a custom spread, or to ask a series of questions and pull a card or two in answer to each question.

Whether using a spread or a dialogue method, the type of questions would be the same.

When reading about the future of an exciting new relationship, here are some examples of the questions that will yield the most helpful information.

Who is this person?

(It’s good to pull a few cards for this question. Look for personality traits, issues and concerns in the cards you pull).

How does this person feel about the relationship?

What does this person hope for from this relationship?

(I know some people have an ethical issue about divining other people’s feelings. My take is that we are constantly speculating about what other people are thinking and feeling. Speculating with tarot at least gives us a basis that can keep us grounded and healthy in our thinking.)

What is the potential for compatibility between these people?

What personality flaws/quirks does this person have that could make a relationship difficult?
(With this sort of question, it is good to do a card or cards for each person in the relationship.)

What is the worst-case scenario that could arise from this relationship?

What is the best-case scenario that could arise from this relationship?

What can be done to mitigate likely problems in the relationship?

What can be done to foster the best aspects of this relationship?

Spiritually, why is this person in your life? Why are you in this person’s life?

What is the reason for, or the source of, the strong connection we are feeling?

Generally, if we are asking if a new lover is ‘the one’ it’s because we don’t want to waste time on someone who isn’t. Perhaps we have been hurt in the past and want to avoid pain. Yet, even the best relationships can lead to heartbreak, and even the worst relationships sometimes bring us to where we need to be.

Tarot can often tell you if someone isn’t the one. The only thing that can tell you if someone is the one is the passage of time.

Checking in with the Divine: Our Natural Divinatory Process

Today I spoke at a ladies’ luncheon. It was just a short half-hour presentation.

It’s a challenge to speak to a diverse group of people who are not necessarily bought in to tarot. It’s also one of my favorite types of audiences.

My primary focus was not me, nor tarot, but rather about divination in general, and that we all do it.

Divination is the practice of seeking knowledge of the unknown, through signs, symbols and intuition. I like the word because it has, at its root, the word “divine”.

Although the actually etymology of the word is about seeking information rather than actual divinity, I personally like to think about the process of divination as the process of connecting with the divine.

I really resonate with the idea that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. This suggests that we all yearn to connect with something greater than ourselves, whether we see that as communing with our higher self, our ancestors, angels, deities, or a single Higher Power.

Often, when we think of tarot, and other tools of divination, we think only of future prediction. Many people, and many professions, predict the future. Doctors predict our future health, meteorologists predict the weather, financial forecasters predict economic trends, political pundits predict electoral outcomes.

Predictions can be very helpful. They can help us prepare for something, or perhaps avoid or mitigate something.

However, prediction is perhaps not the most important reason to divine.

When we seek answers through spiritual means, we can discover insight about ourselves, about our motivations, about our own skills and abilities, and about our path to healing.

The ancient Greeks inscribed the words “Know Thyself” outside the temple of Delphi. To me, the process of divination is the process of working to know oneself.

One would think that we inherently know ourselves. We have to deal with ourselves every day.

Sadly, we all seem to spend so much time trying to be who we think we should be, or trying to please others by being who they want us to be, that we are often confused about who we actually are. Guilt and shame can play a role in our inability to look in the internal mirror. Sometimes, we fear owning our skills and talents because we don’t feel that we are good enough, or talented enough.

Through divination, we connect with our intuition, with our Higher Self, and our Higher Power. In that place of awareness, we can see our potential, our true desires, and the place where we need to heal.

Many people have a tarot deck, rune set or oracle cards gathering dust on a shelf. With or without these tools, almost all of us have participated in divination.

Do you remember “he loves me, he loves me not”, or bouncing seeds on your hands until only a few are left, to predict the number of children you would have?

As a professional tarot reader, those simple childhood games of divination make me smile now. It’s fun to prognosticate, and imagine what the future might bring.

Sometimes predictions aren’t fun at all. Sometimes we get an inkling that something undesirable is going to happen. Some people avoid tarot readings because they “don’t want to hear anything bad”.

When we receive an ill omen, a predictive dream or some other heads-up form the Universe, that information can ultimately be a comfort, and here’s why.

If Spirit bothers to let you know that something is going to happen, and it happens, you have to accept that there is nothing you could have done to change the outcome, and that there is some rightness is what has happened, even if it doesn’t feel right at the moment.

As we get older, we have more time in the past than we do in the future. That’s one reason that divination for introspection, rather than prognostication, can become so important. As we get older, we come to understand that we won’t always have the time ahead of us to do what we want to do. The energy becomes “If not now, when?” Tarot can help motivate us.

Another reason future prediction is not the best, or most significant use of divination is this. Often, the future is within our hands. What we do today impacts what the future will be. Certainly, there are some things that seem destined, fated, or unavoidable. However, in many cases, the future will be what we make it.

Divination can help us get out of our own way, so we can do the things we really want to do, and create for ourselves the future that we desire.

In this way, divination is not about simply seeing what is, it is about creating what will be.

There are many ways to divine.

Some methods, like tarot and runes, involve what I call “random token divination”. Others, like tea leaf reading, involving interpreting shapes and looking for symbols.

I believe that we all do some kind of divination every day, whether we do it consciously or not.

Perhaps in prayer, meditation or yoga class, we take a moment to check in with ourselves and ask “How do I really feel about this?”, or “What do I really want?” That process is divination.

Perhaps, as we travel through our day, we see a sign in nature – an animal or a flower – and we take that as an omen, a sign of luck, or victory, or approval from a Higher Power. That is divination, too.

Sometimes we look to the sky and see a shape in the clouds that means something to us. Sometimes a song on the radio seems to have a personal message for us.

Many of us have dreams, either sleeping or waking, that offer guidance.

A concern is that psychotic people see signs in everything, and that there is a thin line between being psychic and being psychotic.

How do you know that your process of checking in with yourself, and interpreting the signs around you, is divination rather than delusion?

Basically, if the information you receive is supportive, logical, compassionate and healing, you are in communion with Higher Power. If what you receive is didactic, illogical, or suggests that you should hurt yourself or others, it’s time to see a doctor.

Whether you work with cards, interpret your dreams, or seek insight in meditation, the key to good divinatory practice is know what truth feels like.

We often have physical reactions to truth. If we can tune in to what they feel like, we will usually know what is true for us, and when others are lying.

When we divine, not with only an eye on the future, but with an eye on what is really true for us, we make a connection with our Higher Power, and we empower ourselves to create for ourselves the life that we desire.

I was basically able to present these concepts, give a quick hand-reading lesson and take a few questions, psychic gallery style – all within my half-hour time slot.

The job of a tarot reader offers something fun and different every day.  Of course, my primary job is divination, but I also have the opportunity to be creative in a lot of ways. Of course, before I began my talk, I did a one-card divination to ground me, and give me focus. The card I received was the Queen of Pentacles. How appropriate for a ladies’ luncheon!

When Tarot Misbehaves

Everyone once in a while it seems that tarot “goes awry.” The card may clearly indicate one thing and something else may happen. Or eight cards in a nine-card spread all point to one thing, but the ninth card says something different and incongruous.

We all know the old adage, the cards never lie. But once in a while they sure do seem to misbehave.

Here are some things to think about when tarot misbehaves.

1. If you are using tarot predictively, it’s important to remember that nothing is ever set in stone. Things can change, even radically. Our readings are so constantly accurate that when a reading goes rogue we are surprised. Maybe that’s the point, to keep us on our toes and remind us that nobody can ever know the future all the time.

2. Tarot is like a conversation between three people who all speak different languages. Sometimes things get lost in the translation. At the same time, the knowledge that is communicated is always valuable.

3. Sometimes the cards answer questions other than what is being asked. A client may come with a question about career, but their family may be predominant in the cards. Sometimes it seems the cards try to direct us to what is most important.

4. The energy we put into a reading is the energy we get out of a reading. The more focused we are, the more meditative we are, the more information we are able to get. It’s fine to do readings in the spirit of fun, but those readings may not be as deep, meaningful or accurate as those done with a more serious attitude.

5. Sometimes many possibilities are at play at the same time. The rogue card may be a “minority report.” Sometimes the least likely possibility is the one that happens.

6. Each card has many possible interpretations. Sometimes the interpretation you know and use is less appropriate than another traditional interpretation.

7. Perhaps the reading itself changes possibilities. I’m not a physicist, but I understand that in quantum theory something is changed when it is observed. When I perform a tarot reading for someone I often hope that it will be change-making in their lives.
   What if the very act of reading on a topic opens up new possibilities?

8. Tarot is an art, not a science. Divination has a margin of error. While we always need to be aware of this, it doesn’t change the incredible overall value of tarot and divination.

9. Very little on the planet functions perfectly one hundred percent of the time. When something usually functions very well it surprises us on rare occasions when it doesn’t function as expected.

10. When the cards go rogue it may be an indicator of something larger at play, something that will be revealed at a later date. The wise reader knows that sometimes when more of the story emerges the card will make more sense.

11. Tarot seems to go rogue more often if we are focused on future predictions and yes/no answers. Tarot functions most reliably when we ask questions that seek to empower us to create our own future.

No one knows why tarot works; why the cards so often speak such truth. Neither do we know, on the rare occasions when the cards seem to not make sense, if there is not some greater meaning trying to present itself.

In a reading, it is sometimes difficult to say “This is likely to happen, but it is also possible that this other thing could happen instead.” People like definitive answers.

But here is the sweet, sweet truth in all of this. In many situations, more than one outcome is possible. This gives each of us a great deal of power to create wonderful things in our lives. Many times fate and destiny are not as important as clear goals, a vision, and direction. It is in working to build that vision and make a plan of action that tarot is a most effective tool.

How I Made My Predictions this Year

As I do every year, I have issued my predictions for 2014. I do this more in the spirit of good fun than anything else. You can read my predictions on my personal blog.

Here on the Community Blog I thought it might be interesting to share with my tarot friends my process for making these predictions, and the cards I received.

In meditation, I thought about what questions might be most important. I ask Spirit to guide me to the questions I needed to ask, just as I do in a regular tarot reading.

Below, you will see the questions I felt led to ask, the cards I pulled and some of my thoughts about them. Read the published predictions to see how the questions and cards turned into a New Year’s prediction for 2014.

How will history remember the 2014 Obama administration? Page of Pentacles Rx

The Page of Pentacles RX is immature and inexperienced.

How will the first year of the Affordable Care Act go? Three of Wands

Success!

How will the public perceive the success of the ACA? Six of Sword Rx

Hmmm, not so much!

What will happen during the House of Representatives elections?

Judgment

Wow! Better pay attention! Major Changes!

Who will have House majority? Republicans: Queen of Wands Rx, Democrats:  Judgment

Judgment again! Dems take it, based on the strong opinions of voters. Interesting, in the deck I am using the Judgment card is called “Karma.”

What will happen in the Senate elections (33 seats)?  Seven of Pentacles Rx

Does the public feel the Senators do not work hard enough?

How will third party candidates do? Seven of Pentacles.

Ahh, perhaps third party candidates will work harder!

Will the Democrats retain control of the Senate? The Star Rx.  Six of Wands Rx

Wow. Maybe not!

Will Congressional approval rating improve, decline or stay the same? Two of Pentacles Rx

Guess not!

Will Obama’s approval rating (currently 40%) improve, decline or stay the same? The Wheel of Fortune

Anything can happen, but Obama may get a lucky break.

How will the Tea Party do? Ace of Pentacles Rx

Uh-oh! Someone may be out of a job!

Will there be support for a more bipartisan approach? Emperor

Emperor again! It looks as though our leaders will be interested in taking care of their responsibilities in a way that earns our respect! Agreeing to work together might accomplish that!

End of Marijuana Prohibition – What will happen in Colorado and Washington? Two of Wands

Planning for a nice future! Figuring out how it will all work.

Will any other states join them in 2014? The Emperor

Certainly politicians will at least begin the conversation!

How will the US economy be in 2014? Ace of Wands

Nice! New growth, new energy new excitement!

What will happen with China? The High Priestess Rx

China may show disrespect to an American female official, or may suffer a human rights crisis.

How will U.S. - Sino relations be?  Six of Swords Rx

A stalemate, not moving forward, not finding common logic.

What about the Middle East? Five of Wands Rx

Continued struggle due to ideology, but not as bad as it could be.

What will happen in women’s fashion? Seven of Pentacles RX, High Priestess

There will be sometimes when clothes must be perfect, most of the time they shouldn’t require too much work or money.

What will happen with video games? Hermit

Genius at work, but not everyone knows him.

What about the theory that the world is shifting, that we are becoming more psychic and more aware? Four of Wands

Yes, but it is happening in a stable and planned way?

What about the idea that our society is crumbling?

Judgment – for the third time! A lot of people believe the world is in chaos. Because of where Judgment came up before I am thinking about this sentiment creating real changes in politics. I also feel, spiritually, that we must transform and be changed as a nation. This might not be easy, but it must happen.

Is now a time of change more than any other time in history, give or take? Knight of Swords

Yes, especially when it comes to science and communication – things that make the world smaller.

As I see it, the psychic process here happens in two ways – the choosing of the questions and the interpreting of the cards both offer room for Spirit to speak.

There is no one right way to do this sort of a reading – I do it differently each year. My results are usually pretty good.

The biggest challenge for me is that calendar years are so finite, and Spirit is so fluid! Timing is hard in any reading – but to say for sure that something will happen specifically in 2014 versus 2015 is a bit of a stretch sometimes.

My favorite thing about this process is the opportunity for the same card to come up multiple times. In this process we saw Judgment and the Emperor both having a strong showing. To me this speaks of the public holding the politicians accountable.

Predicting an Uncertain Future

Not every tarot reader makes future predictions. But for the ones who do, here’s a thought.

Often clients will ask for a prediction based on their own assumption of what will happen. A perfect example of this was the 2000 American Presidential Election. The question posed of psychics was “Who will win the election, Al Gore or George W. Bush?”

A few psychics had the courage to get it right, predicting that Bush would not win the vote but would be appointed president.

I use the word “courage” because that is what it takes to see past assumptions.

This sort of situation happens every day. Perhaps the question is “I’m going to court on Friday. What will be the outcome?”

The cards show no outcome at all. The reader is confused, and doesn’t know what to say.

That Friday, the court date is postponed.

The cards will reflect the truth. We need to have the courage and creativity to interpret it.

For us, the solution is deceptively simple.

Assume nothing.

Assume that the basic premise of the question may be faulty.

Be willing to ask other questions of the cards, such as “Will there be a winner at all?” or “Will the game be played as expected?” or “Will the meeting occur as planned?”

Your client may be adamant that things will go as expected.

It’s our job to remember that here on planet Earth nothing goes as expected.