A Technique for Dream Interpretation with Tarot

I have a method I use for dream interpretation with tarot. This method has been very helpful and successful over the years. My method relies on the theory that “dream dictionary” interpretations have limited value because of the cultural and experiential differences between us. Yes, archetypes are real. However, the idea that a specific item appearing in a dream would mean the same thing to each and every person makes as much sense as believing that a tarot card would mean the same thing in each and every reading. It just doesn’t work that way.

I had been wanting to share this technique for a while. The thing is, it’s a hard technique to teach without a clear example. Luckily, I just had a request from a friend for help figuring out a weird dream she had. She has agreed to let me share the dream, and my interpretation, with you.

My friend is a Florida-based tarot reader. I have shared the dream in her words, with her permission.

I hope that the next time you have an interesting dream to interpret you might try this technique. If you do, please let me know how it goes!

The Dream

The dream takes place in a residential community that I have never seen but was my home in the dream. The dream has three parts.

In the first part, I receive a visit from an acquaintance whom I know, in real life, to have recently died. She and I were friendly acquaintances in life. She came to my tarot classes and we served together on an advisory board of a community in which with both lived. I assume the setting of the dream is inspired by that fact.

In real life, I had just seen on social media that this person (I will call her Mary) had passed away. While I had not seen or communicated with her in almost ten years, I was, in real life, saddened by the news of her death.

In the dream, Mary comes to visit me at my home. She is driving a golf cart, as I remember her doing in life. She is using oxygen, as she did toward the end of her life.

I tell her I am glad to see her but am surprised because she is dead. She tells me that she did die but is coming back for a little while. She is weak, so I have to help her up the steps. I am surprised by how little she weighs.

In the next section of the dream, she is stronger, and not using the oxygen tank any longer. We are sitting outside together, and there is a large black fuzzy spider, about the size of my hand. In real life, I don’t like spiders. This is also true in the dream. Yet, in real life and in the dream, I try to be kind to spiders and recognize their value. I tell Mary that it is a huntsman spider and is harmless to us.

Then, I see something on Mary’s face, and realize it is the body of the spider. I see that the spider has removed its own legs and tied them in a bundle. I flick the spider’s body off Mary’s face, and it begins to reattach its legs. It seems to psychically tell me that this is a normal thing for this type of spider to do. I tell Mary that, and she does not seem alarmed.

Then, a few minutes later, I realize that the spider has taken its legs off again, and its body is attached to my face. Its body is oddly metallic and square, although it didn’t look that way when its legs were attached.

I flick it off my face, it reattaches its legs and scuttles away.

Throughout this ordeal I am surprisingly calm, even though I am aware that I don’t like spiders and that this spider is behaving oddly.

In the third part of the dream I am to give tarot readings at an event at this same community. Mary seems to be fully recovered and is interacting with people in a normal way. It seems to be common knowledge that she was dead and is now alive.

I am on an open porch, setting up my tarot table. As I take my cards out of their pouch, I see the cards are all mixed up with a bunch of empty clothes hangers. This upsets me a great deal.

Once I am set up to read, some folks come to talk to me, but they don’t react to me in a normal way. No one wants a reading, and no one has much interest in what I am doing.

People are sitting at picnic tables, so I take my cards and try to strike up conversations with people at the tables. It turns out that they all have tarot decks, too. Yet, they have no interest in speaking with me about tarot. They have no interest in their own tarot decks.

That’s where the dream ended.

It seems significant to mention that Mary died of chronic lung issues, unrelated to coronavirus. Yet, I had this dream during our current quarantine, at a time that I was particularly worried about the coronavirus and the effects it might have. My sense is that this dream is related to my fears about the pandemic.

The Dream Interpretation Reading

My technique involves pulling a card, or a few cards, for each aspect of the dream in order to understand what the symbols in the dream mean to the dreamer. I also pull some cards to ascertain the importance of the dream. After all, some dreams are highly significant, others are more mundane. Some dreams are prophetic, or healing, or problem-solving, Other dreams are direct communication from those in spirit. Other dreams are simply the product of stress, or of the food we ate before bed.

Overall, what is the nature of this dream?

Six of Cups reversed.

To me, that suggests that the dream is based primarily on the dreamer’s upset at her friend’s passing. Given that her friend was a tarot student and they lived together in the same community, and the dream is based in a similar community, this makes a lot of sense. The Six of Cups can also refer to the dreamer’s concern about the coronavirus; wondering when and if things will return to normal.

Is there any deeper spiritual meaning to be derived from this dream?

Page of Pentacles

This dream is probably more a product of current anxieties and worries. Yet, there could be practical, helpful things to be learned from the dream.

What is the significance of Mary’s return from the dead, and increasing health throughout the dream?

Eight of Wands

Things are moving very quickly in the dreamer’s world, and, though times feel uncertain, good things could be coming at any moment, and more swiftly than expected.

What is the significance of the odd spider in the dream?

Ten of Swords reversed

The spider is creepy, but easily overcome. We can interpret this to say that the dreamer’s real-life anxieties can also be overcome. The spider, like the coronavirus, is unlike anything the dreamer has seen before. Yet, in the end, it goes away.

What is the significance of the spider removing its legs?

Six of Pentacles

We can do amazing things to receive and give help when we need to. We can ‘remove the legs’ of scary things to give them less power. We can remove scary things that try to attach themselves to us.

Why is the spider’s body metallic?

Queen of Swords

This may have to do with technology. The dreamer told me that she is using a lot of new technology during quarantine. She is unsure of her abilities to use it well, so this also causes a bit of anxiety.

What is the significance of the clothes hangers mixed in with the tarot cards?

Seven of Cups

Our dreamer is allowing anxiety to create confusion and dark imaginings that are clouding her spiritual focus and intuitive flow.

What is the significance of the fact that the attendees all had tarot decks?

Magician reversed

Our dreamer worries that her knowledge and skill might lose its helpfulness during this crisis.

What is the significance of the fact that the attendees had no interest in readings?

Four of Cups

Similarly, our dreamer worries that, in the face of illness and death, her spiritual skills and knowledge might not be equal to their task.

Summary

The dreamer is entirely correct in her belief that this dream is inspired by her fears regarding our current crisis. The important message comes from the return of her friend from the dead, and the departure of the spider.

It is normal to worry about the current pandemic and to wonder if one is capable of managing such a crisis and surviving it. Yet, in this dream we see life conquering death. And we see miraculous occurrences, and we see scary things going away.

Our dreamer must acknowledge her spiritual power, and her power to withstand the challenges of these difficult times. She must be strong in her knowledge of her tools and her ability to use them. Our dreamer must have faith that these scary times will go away, just as the spider did.

That the Eight of Wands presented, and that a spider has eight legs, suggests that things may be back to normal in the eighth month, which is August, or perhaps even sooner, in eight weeks.

Archetypes in Action: How Tarot Updates Itself

Archetypes in Action

How Tarot Updates Itself

I feel as though I spend half my life waiting for updates to install on my many devices. I understand the need for this and try not to complain too much. Updates are necessary to respond to changes in security threats, user needs and machine capabilities. Recently, I have seen some social media conversations that suggest tarot needs to be updated, perhaps for metaphorically similar reasons.

Updates and revisions to sacred texts often cause acrimony. I remember in the 1970s that the Evangelical teachers at my private Christian high school hated the then-modern “Good News Bible” that my father, a fairly hip United Methodist Minister, revered.

As sacred texts go, tarot differs from the Bible in many ways, not the least of which being it is made of pictures instead of words. Another difference is that in tarot, multiple interpretations of the cards, both in art and divination, are welcome.

There are many tarot artists who seek to ‘update’ tarot by using modern images, and working to make the image more inclusive, and more reflective of our diverse society. There are many tarot authors and readers who do the same, finding within the cards interpretations that reflect our modern lives.

I submit that the reason it is relatively simple for an artist to create modern versions of our beloved tarot characters, and for readers and writers of tarot to find new, modern interpretations, is that archetypes are timeless.

I sometimes think that, as the world of tarot has grown exponentially, many new tarotists have focused more on tarot images than on tarot archetypes. This is reflected in much modern tarot art that takes significant liberties in the depictions of the tarot archetypes. It happens to the point that some tarotists worry this might encourage a potential loss of universal tarot understanding – that our beloved archetypes might slip away in the sands of time.

Our understanding of those archetypes has already changed over decades – that’s part of the ongoing living process of tarot. Yet, many of us don’t want there to be so much change that we lose cohesion to the point that tarot becomes any random oracle.

I vacillate between two moods here. Do I trust the process and trust that the truth of tarot will keep itself, nurtured by the tarot historians and scholars in each generation? Or, do I give in to a sense of unease that, in a sea of “Divine Child,” Ancestor,” and “Master of the Head” cards, we will lose the Hierophant. That’s ironic, of course, since “Hierophant” itself is a modern renaming of the original Major Arcana Five, the Pope.

Creative tarot depictions work to define the archetype even as they redefine it. Archetypal assignment tarot decks help us find the commonality between different depictions. The central energy we find as we compare depictions is the archetype in its present moment.

The Goddess Tarot Deck

By Kris Waldherr

For example, the Magician in Kris Waldherr’s Goddess Tarot is Isis. In Lisa Hunt’s Animals Divine Tarot the Magician is Cerridwen. When we look at Isis and Cerridwen together, we can try to find the central themes that relate them to each other, and then connect that theme to more traditional associations like Hermes, the number one, the element of Air, Mercury, the path from Kether to Binah, and keywords like “tools, skills and abilities andtrickster”. If we are able to do that successfully, then our tarot knowledge, and tarot itself, is on a firm foundation.

Animals Divine Tarot

By Lisa Hunt

My primary thesis here is that, regardless of imagery, tarot can stay relevant to a changing world without major overhaul, because of the way the archetypes speak in divination. For example, in our modern world, our automobiles are very important. While there were no cars during tarot’s inception, the Chariot has come to signify our vehicles, and our issues of transportation.

Computers and the internet easily appear in the Pages, and some of the Swords cards. Even the World can now speak of the World Wide Web. There is nothing in modern life that tarot can’t depict. The dating app Tinder looks to me like the Seven of Cups, while Bumble sometimes shows up as the Queen of Swords.

I’ve seen these spontaneous tarot updates happen relative to locale as well. I first started reading professionally in Putnam, Connecticut, right as the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Casinos were becoming some of the largest casinos in the world. I started noticing that the Wheel of Fortune would appear for casino workers, those hoping to be employed by the casinos, and those who were developing gambling addictions.

The question is, how do we come to know modern meanings for ancient cards? The answer is, the cards tell us!

There are three important ways to consider modern meanings for your cards. One is through communication with other tarotists. As we share our stories, we share our oddball experiences with the cards and our offbeat card interpretations. When we keep these stories in mind, sometimes they pop up in our memories to inform a particular reading. When that happens in a way that is accurate and helpful, that new meaning will forever be a possibility whenever we see that card.

The second way is to look through your deck with an imaginative eye. Think about what cards might mean. Then, when you see those cards in action, you can see if those modern alternative interpretations might be pertinent.

These two methods for learning new card meanings illustrate a reason it is so important to have in your practice real-time readings for others; it’s a solid way to confirm the truth in the cards.

The third method of allowing tarot to update itself is simply to pay attention in readings. As you look at the cards, let your intuition lead you to what they might be saying. Over time in your practice you will remember the first time a particular card gave you a new type of message. After that, the possibility of that message with be present every time that card appears.

In this way we grow as tarotists, and tarot grows with us. When needed, each card has the ability to express its archetype in a new and relevant way.

How to Discover your Inner Tarot Reader: An Eight-Point Guide

What is a tarot reading? Is it simply the process of interpreting some cards pulled at random?
Yes and no.
Any tarotist, and any tarot client, will tell that that something special happens in a good tarot reading; something beyond the recitation of standard card interpretation. A tarot reading is a process during which information is received, connections are made, truth is heard and inspiration happens.

A tarot reading is a separate thing from both the tarot cards and the tarot reader. A tarot reading has a life of its own.

The question is, how can you make this process, the process of tarot reading, happen? Of course you must study, and learn your cards. But you also have to practice actually giving readings. And, if you wait until you really feel like you know your cards inside out you’ll wait forever. You have to jump in and start using your cards. Here are some of the important points you’ll want to consider as you discover your inner tarot reader.

Point 1. Understand this important truth. There is no one right way to perform a tarot reading. It’s good to try different techniques, and even to invent techniques.

Point 2. How much tarot knowledge you may have is not as important as your ability to tap in to your intuition and to be an open channel. When you go to your cards it should be second nature to breathe, focus, ground, center, pray, create sacred space, invoke elements and entities, meditate, or do whatever works for you to make sure that you are in the proper space to give a reading.

Point 3. How you begin your reading is up to you. You can ask a question, or start with an overview. You can lay out cards in a spread, with designated positional meanings, or a pattern with no specific positional meanings.

Point 4. How you interpret the cards is up to you. The techniques you can use range from classic interpretations to allowing yourself to intuit your reading based on what you see in the images and how they make you feel.

Point 6. There are correlations between tarot and astrology, numerology, Kabballah, the Four Elements, and other esoteric and philosophical systems. You can use any of these you want in your interpretations, or none at all.

Point 7. However you arrive at your card interpretations, you must interpret the cards based on the position in a positional spread, the question, if indeed a question was asked, and the surrounding cards. These contextual concerns are what makes the ultimate difference between a reading that feels personal, specific and on-point, and a reading that feels general and uninspired.

Point 8. Keep your personal opinions out of the mix. This can be difficult. You will form opinions based on what you see in the cards – that’s the point. But you will probably have other opinions too, based on your own personal experience. No matter what the subject matter, interpret the cards and give the reading. Leave your soap box at home.

When you enter into the process of tarot reading, you will tap in to internal resources you didn’t even know you had. When you find your inner tarot reader, you will also find your inner confidence, creativity and spiritual connection.

As you can see, there is no one right way to do a tarot reading. However, you must have a sense of what techniques work for you, and how you, personally, perform your best readings. Practice, study and innovation are all important parts of learning to give a great tarot reading!

If you are truly interested in being the best reader you can be, make sure you check out my upcoming premium webinar, Sharing Wisdom – Reading for Others!

Be an Ambassador for Tarot

When I first became a tarot professional I was surprised at the number of local organizations who asked me to speak at their meetings.

In the first two years of my career I was the guest speaker at a Rotary holiday party, a TOPS (Taking off Pounds Sensibly) meeting , a high school honors psychology class (I was a student’s senior project) and a hospital ladies auxiliary luncheon.

This was a part of my career I hadn’t planned for and didn’t expect. Luckily, my involvement in youth activities in my church and school had prepared me to avoid being nervous speaking in front of a group; or at least to cover up my nervousness with a smile.

Fast-forward twenty years. I don’t rely on local business as much as I used to. Blogs and webcasts have a wider reach than small-town clubs do.  Nonetheless, I still make myself available for speaking engagements. Recently I spoke at a service group luncheon and a library event.

The interesting thing about these kinds of speaking engagements is that they allow me to present tarot to people who are tarot-naive, and who have some misconceptions about it.

I also speak at tarot conventions, metaphysical fairs and churches, of course. Those kinds of events are fun and rewarding, and require a different kind of finesse. There, you really are often preaching to the choir.

If you are a tarot pro or hobbyist with enough Leo in your chart to warrant your presence at a podium, consider making yourself available to speak for local groups in your community. It’s fun, it’s good for business, and, most importantly, it allows you to be an ambassador for tarot.

Often I am dismayed at the way the public at large perceives tarot, and tarot enthusiasts. Often, tarot pros drive me to sarcasm by complaining about unfair business laws, or their clients’ misunderstanding of their abilities. These inequities affect me, too.  Rather than rail at how hurtful, ignorant and unfair it all is, let’s try to create change!

If the public at large understood tarot, and understood our profession, our jobs would be easier. Rather than letting shysters and frauds define our field, we have a chance to define it on our own terms, simply by being more visible.

There are two important things to remember when you speak about tarot to the public. First, tarot is a vast topic. You can discuss tarot from a perspective of history, art or use. You can demonstrate tarot in action by giving readings during a presentation. You can show cards to audience members and ask them what they see in the pictures. There are infinite ways to present tarot. Find the ways that work best for you and your audience.

Secondly, speaking gigs are easy to find. Check your local library system. They probably have a list of presenters. Find out what you have to do to get on the list. Your Chamber of Commerce might be another way to make yourself known. Colleges and universities also have opportunities for local speakers. The important thing to remember is that once you get your first speaking gig, many more will follow. It’s almost guaranteed that, once you finish your presentation, someone will come up to you, shake your hand, and ask if you can do it for their group, too.

Over time, you will speak in front of local policy makers, who will learn from you that tarot isn’t the harmful, scary thing they thought it might be. When asked to raise business taxes on psychics, or to regulate the psychic industry to the adult district, they will think of your smiling face and refuse to pass a law that might hurt you.

That may sound far-fetched, but I know for a fact this very thing happened in the first town I ever did business. It could happen in your town, too.

We have the power to change the way the public perceives tarot. Let’s make it happen!

Stop Fixing the Hierophant!

Modern tarot creators enjoy stretching tarot to fit every possible theme and worldview. That’s a good thing. Tarot’s ability to speak universally, using the imagery of so many cultures, is part of its awesome power.

I believe it is the strength and power of the tarot archetypes that allow tarot this much flexibility. Unfortunately, it is possible to stretch a card so far beyond its archetype that you lose the archetype entirely.

We are all aware of the trend to rename some of the more difficult Major Arcana cards. Death becomes Transition; the Devil becomes Materialism, and so on. We often discuss this trend in terms of the dark cards, the Tower, the Devil and Death.

Another Major Arcana card that often receives this same treatment at the hands of deck creators is the Hierophant. Weirdly, there is generally very little protest when a well-intentioned modern deck mangles this particular archetype.

I think deck creators’ tendency to mangle the Hierophant, and our tendency to put up with it, comes from two factors. First is the way most tarotists seem to feel about Hierophant energy. We don’t like rules and structure. We fear the religious hierophants in our own community who discriminate against us and disrespect us. Of course, we don’t want any of them in our tarot decks!

The second factor is that we seem to lack a basic understanding of the Hierophant. Because we don’t understand him, we don’t see his value along the Fool’s Journey.

I can think of three well-loved tarot decks that, in my opinion, really get the Hierophant wrong.

The first and oldest is Motherpeace, my second-ever tarot deck. In Motherpeace, the Hierophant is a man wearing false breasts, pretending to be a woman. Clearly, sensitivity toward the transgender community was not on the minds of these deck designers when they were creating the then-definitive feminist tarot of the 1980s.

The idea behind this vision of the Hierophant is that the matriarchy is the keeper of true spiritual authority. By pretending to be a woman, the Hierophant is trying to claim an authority that is not his. Trust me, this played better in the 1980s than it does now.

Modern spiritual decks with Pagan and New Age themes often try to “fix” the Hierophant. Tarot of Transformation renamed him “Spiritual Leaders” and used the key phrase “Taking the Hierophant off the Pedestal.” Chrysalis Tarot calls the Hierophant the “Divine Child” and says this in its LBW (Little White Book) to justify the change.

“Most tarot decks title this card the Hierophant, a religious authority figure. In Chrysalis Tarot, the task of spiritual growth is an individual responsibility that requires an open mind and critical thinking.”

To me, this kind of thinking shows an incomplete understanding of the Hierophant and of tarot in general. When we fail to embrace the Hierophant, and all the archetypes of tarot, we become unable to gain the knowledge, wisdom, insight and divinatory intelligence that tarot can provide.

Five hundred years ago, the Hierophant was the Pope. That’s why we see him as a religious authority. When we consider the position held by the Roman Catholic Church in Italy at the time of tarot’s emergence, we understand that the Pope was not just a religious authority, he was the ultimate authority.

Today, the Hierophant speaks to authority in relevant and important ways. To remove the Hierophant’s authority, as the three decks I mentioned have done, removes an important piece of the tarot puzzle, and risks making tarot less effective.

In a reading, the Hierophant can represent the rules and the authority of any “church.” That can be the “church” of medicine, law, or governance, of corporate, educational or military structure or spiritual doctrine.

When we need to submit ourselves to the church of medicine for surgery, we need the Hierophant, a surgeon who knows every piece of the doctrine, rather than a Divine Child who wants us to figure it out ourselves.

When we earn an academic honor, we have become expert in the doctrine of the Hierophant, not the introspection of a Divine Child.

In a reading, the Hierophant can suggest consulting a doctor or an attorney. The Hierophant can encourage your professional authority as a manager or a business owner. When the Hierophant appears to suggest these things, he commands our respect for the due process we all must endure. A Divine Child has no need or respect for due process, achievement, or a learned body of knowledge.

When we understand and portray tarot in a limited way, we limit the power of tarot. Right now, we seem to be inclined to limit the powers of the Hierophant.

When we examine the way our culture processes a tarot card, we understand something about our culture. At a time of corrupt governments, disenfranchised citizenry and economic disparity, none of us like the Hierophant energy very much.

The answer, though, is not to engage in navel-gazing and withdrawn self-discovery. The answer is to earn your own authority, and wield it wisely. That’s the way to change the authoritarian structures of the hierophants that don’t serve us.  At the same time, when you need an authority – a doctor, a lawyer, a priest, you really can’t accept any substitutes.

Sometime the Hierophant comes up in a reading to describe a stubborn and didactic personality. The Hierophant has told me of a client’s dogmatic Evangelical husband, whom she would later divorce. The Hierophant has told me of a client’s spiritual leader who was abusing her sexually. The Divine Child in the same place would not have been able to communicate these things to me.

Our discomfort with the Hierophant is understandable. However, when we remove the Hierophant from tarot we miss the opportunity to explore the dichotomy of this specific energy. When does honoring tradition build our community, and when does it oppress us? When do we need the authority of a body of knowledge, and when is it best to trust or inner guidance?

True enlightenment comes from both studied knowledge and intuitive wisdom. The Hierophant is an important part of that journey. Through studying difficult tarot images, and seeing the ways in which they speak in readings, we learn about ourselves, and our society. The tarot archetype of the Hierophant is complex, and irreplaceable.

Aces, Tens and the Court: Tarot Exercises to Find your Path

Separate from your Minor Arcana the four Aces, four Tens, and all sixteen Court cards, separated by rank. As we explore each number and rank, consider how the suit/element is expressed in each card.

Aces: Aces are a new beginning, the source or the essence of their element. The Ace is the purest form of the element.

Shuffle your four Aces, and ask this question: What is a source of strength upon which I could draw more fully?

Pull one card to give your answer. What card did you receive? What does it mean to you?

Tens: Tens represent a fullness, or the completion of a cycle or a journey.

Shuffle your four Tens, and ask this question: What am I full of right now?

Pull one card to give your answer. What card did you receive? What does it mean to you?

Now look at your Ace and your Ten together. How does your Ace give you strength to help you with your Ten?

Pages: Pages refer to youth, learning and communication.

Shuffle your four Pages, and ask this question: What am I learning right now?

Pull one card to give your answer. What card did you receive? What does it mean to you?

How does the lesson of your Page tie in to the story told in your Ace and Ten?

Knights: Knights refer to coming of age, travel and pursuit.

Shuffle your four Knights, and ask this question: What should I be pursuing right now?

Pull one card to give your answer. What card did you receive? What does it mean to you?

Queens: Queens refer to mature feminine wisdom, and nurturance.

Shuffle your four Queens, and ask this question: What is my source of wisdom right now?

Pull one card to give your answer. What card did you receive? What does it mean to you?

Kings: Kings refer to masculine leadership, and authority.

Shuffle your four Kings, and ask this question: Where should I take a leadership role right now?

Pull one card to give your answer. What card did you receive? What does it mean to you?

Now look at your Knight, your Queen and your King. How do these three energies support you in taking your next steps forward in life?

Take all six cards you have drawn today, and shuffle them. Pull one to give you a final thought. Pay special attention to it’s number/rank and it’s element. What direction does this card give you?

Tarot: Try it Standing Up!

Tarotists, here’s a question for you. Have you ever done a tarot reading standing up?

I’m often hired to entertain at cocktail parties and receptions. Sometimes I choose to stand at a cocktail table rather than sitting at a traditional table.

In the cocktail party setting, keeping the client standing helps keep the line moving quickly. It also allows me to use my body more in reading.

How does one use their body in tarot reading? I can think of two ways. First, the psychic connection happens as energy flows through the chakras along the base of the spine. When we stand, the spine is straight. Our feet are firmly on the floor, connecting us to the grounding and sustaining energy of Earth. As we connect to spirit with the crown chakra, the standing body forms a straight line of energy.
I have to think this standing posture is helpful in handling the psychically-challenging work of tarot reading in a party setting.

The second way I use my body is in expressing the reading. While standing, it becomes possible to act out scenarios and use body language to make the reading more entertaining and understandable.

This weekend I had the experience of performing longer private readings from a standing position. I was working a private party, and the table provided for me was a large, high drafting-type table. The chairs were low folding chairs. It was impossible for me to sit in the low chair and do a tarot reading on the high table – the angle was all wrong.

So I had my clients sit, and I stood at the table, kitty-corner to my client’s chair. From there I moved the cards around, laying them out, pointing out the images and moving them like puppets around the table. Sometimes I felt like a military general playing out scenarios over a model battlefield.

I was on my feet for four hours. At the end of the party, I felt energized. Think about the posture of the Magician. Surely, this is what I felt like, giving readings at the standing tarot table.

There are limited opportunities to perform tarot readings standing at high tables. When presented with a high table, even unexpectedly, take off your heels and give a full-body standing tarot reading.
As your perspective over the cards changes, your ability to see things might increase. Your standing posture will energize you, and connect you more easily to your psychic guidance.

Is a tarot card stalking you?

It can happen that a particular card might follow you around for a while. We call this a repetitive, frequent or recurrent card. When whatever life situation the card is referring to resolves, the card takes its normal place as one of seventy-eight in the deck.

There are a few ways a card can stalk you. Having the same card turn up for you, at random, in readings repeatedly, is a common phenomenon. If you pay attention, you will notice your recurring cards earlier and more often. Once you notice your recurring card, you can spend time in meditation with it. You can journal about it. You can discuss it with you tarot friends. The one thing you must remember is this. This card is here to help you. Find a way to use its energy to ease the difficulty of whatever transition caused it to appear.

Cards can recur in other ways, too. Sometimes a card might just be on your mind. You might hear songs that remind you of it. You might dream of it. Many tarotists always have a card or two they are currently contemplating.

Sometimes we will see things in the world that remind us of a particular card. The world is full of tarot symbols, both intentional and unintentional. The power of symbols suggests that, regardless of what prompts you to call a particular card to mind, once that card has been summoned it bears meaning for you.

Make friends with your tarot card stalkers. They will help you through hard times. Sometimes they will be the tools you need, even before you know you need them.

Activate a Tarot Card!

I’m reading Rana George’s exciting book, “The Essential Lenormand” as I work to add the Lenormand fortune-telling system to my toolbox.

One of the techniques George describes is to “activate” a specific card to represent a unique character or situation within a reading. The way the activated card appears when the cards are drawn can easily guide the reader to a clear answer.

George’s book is full of aha moments for me. One of them is that I have been activating tarot cards for as long as I’ve been reading and teaching tarot. The funny thing is, I never thought about, spoke about it, had a name for it, or taught it as a technique. It was just something I intuitively started doing, and kept doing because it worked.

One of the great things about being diviners in the digital age is that we can easily share our ideas, techniques and strategies with one another.

That we so often come to the same ideas independently of one another is, to me, an indicator of the veracity of our work.

The next time you are working with tarot to answer a question, try Rana George’s idea of activating a specific card to represent something unique to the situation. See how the presence and position of that card in your reading gives insight that you might not have otherwise had!

An Exercise for Finding Balance in Tarot and in Life

There are many schools of spiritual thought that focus on the need for balance.

In tarot, many of the cards speak of balance.

Many of us experience life as a balancing act as we navigate work, school, relationships, parenthood and well-being.

Our human nature wants this or that, one thing or the other.

Our spiritual nature knows that when we find balance, we find enlightenment.

To help you find balance in your life, and to help you find the ways tarot speaks about balance, try this exercise.

First, go through your tarot deck, card by card, and sort out every card that speaks to you of balance.

Some, like Justice, Temperance and the High Priestess might be obvious. Others you might choose could include Strength, or the Lovers. Don’t forget the Minor Arcana cards, like the Twos, and the Six of Pentacles. Not everyone will agree, so if you do this exercise in a class setting each person’s group of cards will be a bit different.

Once you have your group of cards that speak about balance, look at each card one at a time. Think (or even better, write in your tarot journal) about each card and how that card speaks about balance. What is unique about each card’s message of balance? How can this card help you achieve balance in your life?

Now, take your group of balance cards and shuffle them. Draw one card at random to answer each of the following questions about balance in your life. Replace each drawn card back to the group for the next shuffle. If the same card comes up more than once, pay some extra attention to why that card might be important in your life at this time.

In what aspect of my life am I doing a good job achieving balance?

Where in my life to I need to be better at achieving balance?

What can help me achieve this balance?