What Tarot Readers See About the World

What Tarot Readers See About the World

What Tarot Readers See About the World

We tarot readers are known for what we see about people. It’s also true that, as a full-time tarot professional for more than two decades, I have been in a position to see societal trends from a unique perspective. I am sure this is true of every busy reader over time.

I had been working as a reader full time for fifteen years when the Crash of 2008 happened. Many people asked me if the Great Recession was something I had predicted. In a weird way, it was.

Back in the first few years of the new millennium, in my office in Central Village, Connecticut, I remember seeing client after client asking about the new homes they were planning to purchase. As I looked at their cards, all I could see was financial difficulty and loss. “I don’t think you can afford this house at this time,” I said gently to at least three clients a week in those few years. Each time, their answer was the same. “My loan has already been approved”. Their reassurance never made me feel better; the cards were very clear. The term ‘predatory lender’ wasn’t yet in our collective vocabulary. Logic told me that if the bank said they could afford it, they were okay. Should I tell my clients they would be better off trusting their tarot reader than their financial advisor? My ethics wouldn’t allow me to suggest that. In hindsight, perhaps I should have found a way to question those loans more stridently. Yet, the few times I did, clients looked at me as if I were crazy.

When the Crash hit in 2008, the memory of all those readings came rushing back. Suddenly, those same folks who had so confidently dismissed my fears for them a few years back were now calling to discuss their new situations; homelessness, short-sales, under-water mortgages and layoffs.

Another sad example of how what’s happening in the world shows up at the tarot table is the devastation of the opioid epidemic. When I first started reading professionally in the early 1990s it was rare that I spoke with someone who had lost a family member to a drug overdose. Things are a little better this year, but over the last few years I spoke with one or two people a week who had suffered this tragic loss.

Many of us do readings about the state of the world, but it’s hard to do such readings without filtering them through our own fears, opinions and beliefs. It’s interesting to note that, if we read for a lot of people, we are de facto performing a reading for the world, over time.

Another sad trend I notice is that year after year, corporate America becomes less and less geared to the well-being of the workers. I wish I could say that I see this trend turning around, but so far, it’s not.

I see trends that I view as positive, as well. There are fewer parents at my table distraught over their children’s sexual identity, or that their kids are marrying outside of their race or religion.

I am often impressed by the younger people I see at my table who are insightful, intelligent and hopeful for their future. Those young people give me hope for the future of the planet.

I suppose we all view the world through a lens given us by our profession. I’m glad that my chosen vocation offers such a crystal-clear view, not only of the individual, but of our society as a whole.

Energetic Cures for Obnoxious Neighbors

Whether you live in an apartment or out in the country, there is always a chance that your peace at home will be disturbed by your neighbors.

Often, when usual attempts at resolution don’t work, folk remedies such as protection magick and Feng Shui become reasonable options, even for people who don't normally seek energetic fixes.

Tarot clients ask me, in desperation, what to do about their horrible neighbors. Often these problems can be solved on an energetic level, but we have to change our energy by changing our attitude about the problem, first.

Here are some suggestions that often work.

1.       Don’t give the problem the weight of your anger.
If you spend time and energy on moral outrage, you are adding fuel to the fire. Your outrage may be justified, but it doesn’t help. Recognize that the problems might stem from cultural differences, mental illness or a host of reasons more complex, and more deserving of compassion, than your neighbor simply and willfully being disrespectful.

2.       Install better barriers.
Robert Frost was correct when he said “good fences make good neighbors”. If you have the wherewithal to make some structural changes that will give you more privacy, security or peace, by all means do. When you do, do it with gratitude rather than resentment. Be grateful that you have the ability to make this change, rather than being angry that you found the change necessary.
This technique also has an internal component. The more internal barriers you have against your anger and frustration, the more quickly you will be able to resolve the situation.

3.       Discover the magickal properties of salt.
Whether you use black salt, pink salt, sea salt, kosher salt or a packet you saved from McDonald’s, salt is a great way to energetically discourage people from coming into your space. Sprinkle a line of salt in front of your doorsteps, and around the perimeter of your property. Do this regularly. As you do, think about how much you enjoy your home, and what you want the energy of your home to be.

4.       Install mirrors.
The idea is to reflect your neighbors' energy back at them, or, to cause them to see themselves as you see them. Install a mirror of any size, either outside your home facing the neighbor, or, inside, on the wall (or floor or ceiling) that faces the neighbor, with the mirror facing in, toward the neighbor. You can be creative about how you do this. The size of the mirror is not important, but a round or octagonal mirror is better than a square or rectangle.

5.       Manifest great things for your neighbor.
I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but when Jesus said “Love thine enemies” he may have known of this self-interested side effect of compassion. You want your neighbors to go away, or at least to desist certain irritating activities. Rather than wishing them ill in anger, wish them great fortune that will change their circumstances, and therefore yours. Cast a spell, say a prayer or set an intention that will help them, and you, at the same time! A great new promotion that causes an out-of-state move, or a whirlwind long distance romance that ends in marriage, might solve everyone’s problems.

Our relationships with other people always include an energetic component. When language and legalities fail to fix a problem, changing the energy around the situation often will.

Stop Trying to be a Good Person!

We often mentally divide our world into “good people” and “bad people.” We want to be good people. We fear bad people. We try to raise children that turn into good human beings.

We struggle with self-esteem, worried that those around us will discover that, underneath our attempts at goodness, a bad person lurks.

When our kids are small, we teach them good behavior, but “being good” and “good behavior” are not the same thing as being a good person.

The idea that people, rather than behaviors, can be good or bad, is a harmful myth that is long overdue for busting.

What makes a person good, or bad, in our opinions? It’s pretty subjective, and entirely related to culture and context.

You can’t be good or bad at being human. You simply are human, capable of amazing courage, creativity, kindness, generosity, greed, callousness and cruelty.

There will always be people we like, and people we don’t like.  There will always be people who do things we like, and people who do things we don’t like.

There are hurt people, ignorant people, and fearful people. We call these “bad people.” Sometimes they do things we don’t like. Sometimes they do things that hurt others.

There are healed people, thinking people, and charitable people.  We call these “good people”. These people do things we like, and try to help people.

 We can be good at the things we do. We can do good things for the world. We can handle situations badly. We can do things that have bad consequences.  We can have good intentions that result in bad outcomes. None of that is the same as being a good person, or a bad person.

Instead of striving to be good, and worrying that we are bad, let’s strive to be authentic. Let’s work to release the things that hurt us. Let’s cultivate joy. Let’s raise our children to be curious, appreciative and responsible.

Rather than fearing the people that we believe to be bad, or fearing that we, ourselves, are bad, let’s recognize that fear itself is the source of most of the badness in the world.

We are all good humans, because to be good at being human, you simply have to be born.

Perhaps we would all do better at living on the planet if we accepted the flawed beauty of our humanity as the miracle that it is. Perhaps if we stop trying to be “good” and instead focus on being “healed” we’ll have fewer hurt people in the world.

“Good” and “bad” are subjective judgments that don’t mean much of anything, especially in describing people.  When we strive to be good, we are striving for a meaningless and unattainable goal. When we strive for healing and growth, when we work to be authentic, to be kind, to be strong and to be creative, we become capable of doing great things.  We succeed, and we become the people that help the world evolve.

Election Day

It’s Election Day. First thing this morning, I walked to the polls to cast my vote for Mosquito Control Commissioner. There were other things on the ballot, too. Jon Stewart has been having a field day with our gubernatorial contest here in Florida; I can’t say I blame him.

Election Day is always somewhat romantic for me. I remember being a child and accompanying my mother in the old-fashioned voting booth. I remember her telling me about the sacred duty that I too, would one day have.

I brought my son to vote with me. He votes now. The other day he told me that young people would decide the future of Florida. It was a proud moment.

My son votes early. Most of my friends use the mail-in ballot now. I appreciate the shorter lines at the polls.

There is something about Election Day, about the actual process of coming together with my community to cast our ballots, which feels sacred to me.

It freaks me out when people chose not to vote. They often take an air of moral superiority, suggesting that the process is so broken they don’t want to sully themselves by participating in it.

I live in Florida. Believe me; I know the system is broken.

However, staying away from the polls won’t fix the problems. Staying away from the polls only makes the problems worse.

Yes, people died fighting for my right to choose between Rick Scott and Charlie Crist. It’s a sad state of affairs.

But it’s sadder still when people chose not to participate.

My New Ukulele

There’s an exciting new trend sweeping the nation. Have you noticed, over the past few years, more ukuleles around you?

In 2011, the New York Times said the ukulele craze had reached a “saturation point.” That’s when Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam released his solo album, “Ukulele Songs.”

Vedder isn’t the only musician to help spread the fame of the ukulele. The uke may owe much of its current favor to a track recorded in 1988 by Hawaiian musician Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, a medley of Judy Garland’s “Somewhere over the Rainbow” and Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” Over the next two decades, that track was featured in numerous movie and television soundtracks, including one of my favorite movies, “Fifty First Dates.”

Here in my community, we have a “Ukulele Orchestra.” That’s not as odd as it sounds. There are countless uke groups, classes and meetups throughout the country.

I play a little guitar. I mean, I play a normal-sized guitar, but only a little bit. I could have gone the easy way and bought a baritone ukulele, which has the same fingering as guitar.  I decided that learning different chord shapes would make me a better musician, so I got a tenor ukulele.

I’m finding that playing uke is a lot different than guitar, but in many ways, easier. Soon, I’ll be joining the uke orchestra for our first meeting of the season. What will it be like to play ukulele with ten or more other people? I can’t help but think it will be silly, and that’s the point.

The uke is a happy, silly, instrument. We could use more happy and silly in the world right now.

I got my uke from Compass Music in Madeira Beach. The owner, Chris Rooney, is a fabulous musician with a soft spot for ukuleles. He helped me narrow down my uke choices by playing old rock songs on each one for me. I have yet to be able to make the uke I chose, a Kala, create any of the sounds he made it make, but I’m hopeful for the future.
Before he put my new uke in its case, he played me one more song on it, accompanying himself with a kazoo. I snapped a picture. You have to love a guy who can play a kazoo with class.

I think the ukulele trend is a good thing for America. Ukuleles are inexpensive, easy to learn and fun to play. Playing music is creative, meditative and social.

My father played ukulele. I remember him in his church pulpit, leading the congregation in old hymns with his uke. At the time, he made me cringe. Now, it’s a sweet memory. Perhaps I can make my kids cringe, too.

I’ve learned a few chords, and am working out the strumming. We’ll see what happens next.

The Cyberbullying we Love to Do

We hear plenty of protest about cyberbullying when it involves teenagers. We are consumed with outrage when attractive women are slut-shamed online.  The fact is, we need to be concerned about cyberbullying. Unlike the bullying of my generation’s childhood, which was brutal enough, it’s hard to escape from cyberbullying because your online persona follows you everywhere.

There’s another kind of cyberbullying. There are particular people who are perfectly acceptable targets to insult, dehumanize and abuse online. If you are having a bad day, you can find a photo of some unfortunate person and unleash whatever mean-spirited attack you want upon them.

Perhaps insulting someone else makes us feel better about ourselves. I may be having a bad hair day, but I look great compared to the fat f*ck in this picture.

Yesterday a radio station posted an extremely unfortunate candid shot of an overweight woman in very ill-fitting clothing. The station wanted to know our thoughts about this person. I was shocked by people’s comments. No one seemed to remember that she was a human being.

Finally, I suggested that this was cyberbullying, and maybe not the kindest thing to do.

I was told, in no uncertain terms, that it wasn’t cyberbullying because the woman was so overweight, and her clothing so inappropriate, that she deserved what she got.

Bullying isn’t bullying when we think it’s deserved? Spoken like a true bully.

It seems the general consensus is, if a person is particularly unattractive, it is not cyberbullying to post unkind things about them online.  Overweight people, poorly dressed people and unfashionable people deserve to be mocked because the sight of them offends our eyes. And so we post their pictures online and share them, so we can be offended, judgmental and mean.

I remember reading a blogpost from an overweight woman whose unflattering Halloween photo went viral. Her experience made one fact very real for me. Our society has made not living up to certain physical standards an acceptable reason to discount, trivialize and dehumanize our fellow human beings.

I blame Glamour magazine for this horrific societal trend. Without the “Glamour Dos and Don’ts” we would never be so desensitized to this kind of cruelty.

I admit that I’ve watched the “People of Walmart” video and laughed out loud. I tried to tell myself it was because of the clever original song.  There was certainly a part of me that felt badly for laughing at picture after picture of bizarrely dressed people, knowing that in many cases I was laughing at the mentally ill, the physically sick, the addicted, and the impoverished.

Public shaming has been a part of our American culture since our beginnings. In the olden days, we shamed people by putting them in stockades in the town square. Now we put them on the internet. Instead of hurling rotten food, we hurl insults.

Maybe it’s time for us to evolve now.

Rolling the Panda

I may have become guilty of passive cultural appropriation.  Or I am learning an ancient Chinese exercise form. Or maybe both, I’m not quite sure.

Here, at my community, there is a “Chinese Wand” class twice a week. Our class leader is an incredibly fit octogenarian.  Like all group leaders in our community, she is a volunteer.

We gather in the still morning at the lake’s sandy beach and engage in a series of seventeen exercises.

The scene is idyllic. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a movie. The breeze rustles in the Florida bamboo as juvenile cranes practice flying at the water’s edge. Turtles bob up and down in the water, occasionally snapping at jumping fish.

From a boom box comes a meditative Asian flute.

A bamboo stick (the wand) is the centerpiece of sixteen of the seventeen exercises. The exercises have exotic names such as “the Twisting of the Snake,” “Peeling the Octopus” and “Rolling the Panda.” I am proud to report that, at present, I am the only person in the class who can actually get the panda to roll.

We count our repetitions with the Chinese elements, raising the chi life force with our breath.

The exercises are just the right amount of challenging. If my instructor is any measure, the exercises are quite effective. Supposedly the precise order and motion of the seventeen exercises work all the organs and muscles.

I am so enamored of this exercise form that I did some research on it.  Chinese Wand was brought to America by Minnesotan Bruce L. Johnson, who claimed to have been taught the ancient form in Shanghai during his time in the Navy.

The only information about Chinese Wand comes from Bruce L. Johnson himself. The limited information about the form is explained by a tradition of secrecy. According to Johnson, Chinese Wand was just for the use of the ancient Chinese rulers and their families.

Johnson himself has a remarkable history of fitness, health and healing.  He also has an interesting personal story. He was at one time a psychic mystic. His ultimate conversion to Born-Again Christianity caused him to renounce both mysticism and the practice of Chinese Wand.

There are many who continue to promote and practice Chinese Wand, also known as Jiangan.

It is very possible that Bruce L. Johnson is the Chinese Wand equivalent of Wiccan Raymond Buckland; simply a person chosen to bring a new spiritual practice to the United States.

It is probably more possible that Johnson himself invented the form, and gave it a romantic and ethnically-appropriated origin story.

Regardless, the practice feels good. Many good practices come of ignoble beginnings.

Tarot started as a simple game.

Most of what we believe to be our history was made up to gain sponsorship for exploration.

I do have a nagging question, though.

I don’t have a problem with people making stuff up – everything was made up by someone. But now I wonder how many origin stories that we hold as sacred trusted history are as likely untrue as this one?

On Line Food Sharing

This week NPR ran a story about a food sharing website in Germany. People with extra food (grown, prepared or purchased) are matched with people who need food in their neighborhood.

Here in the US there are other kinds of sharing sites, like ride sharing and house sharing.

Based on some of the problems I’m hearing about with Lyft.com and AirBnB, I can only imagine what might happen with a food sharing site here in America.

Here are four things that would probably happen in the first month of operation.

1. The IRS would hate it.

2. Ms. Jones would be happy to file a lawsuit if Mrs. Smith’s tuna casserole were a bit off.

3. People would worry that some sicko would use it as a way to randomly poison someone.

4. Health officials would shut the site down immediately, having no way to certify the safety of the shared food.

I love that the internet makes so much possible.

I love that people find creative ways to help each other in difficult times.

Food sharing is an amazing way to combat waste and hunger. I hope it works well in Germany.

I also hope I’m completely wrong, and that a food sharing site could and will work here in the United States. It’s a brilliant idea. Why waste food when you can share?

Harness the Power of Words

“This heat is killing me.”

It’s June 2^nd, and summer weather is in full swing here in Florida. I love summer in Florida, but it is hot. My friends, stuck here because of jobs and spouses, wish they could be snowbirds and complain from May to October.

I don’t mind it when my friends complain about the weather, or anything else. But I mind very much when those complaints use exaggerations that invoke death, dismemberment and suffering.

Saying that the heat is killing you won’t actually make you die. The power of words is not such that if you simply speak, an action will occur. Since that doesn’t happen, we learn not to be careful about the energy we invoke.

Affirming over and over that something you can’t control is actually killing you does hurt you, each and every time you do it. It hurts you in two ways.

First, it gives something you can’t control more power over you than it really has.

Second, it surrounds you with negativity.

I get tired of people who avoid negative energy at all costs. Basically, if you live on the planet you will deal with some negative stuff.

But why create more negativity then you need to?

The heat is not killing you.

You won’t die if you don’t get the exact thing you want.

You won’t kill someone you love if they disappoint you.

A part of your body that aches is also not killing you.

We can harness the power of words for healing and empowerment. Why use it to do the opposite?

The Blame Game

When addressing problems large or small, there is a difference between finding a cause and finding fault. Finding a cause helps us fix a problem. Finding fault distracts us so we can't fix the problem.

It seems to be human nature that, when a problem is discovered, the first thing we want to know is "Whose fault is this and how can we punish them?" Sometimes we might have better outcomes if we focus more on solutions and less on casting blame.

I wonder what evolutionary goal we are serving when we are more interested in blame and punishment than knowledge and solutions.

There seems to be something in our nature that divides us. It’s us against them, the good guys versus the bad guys. The truth is, there is more that we have in common than there is that divides us.

Our need to play the Blame Game, and our need to divide the world into good and bad, us and them, doesn’t seem to be serving us.

It doesn’t serve us in our personal lives, and it doesn’t serve us on a global level.

What if we worried less about punishing people, and more about healing people?

What if we assumed that the majority of people with whom we disagree aren’t inherently evil?

What if we came to understand that life is just life? Sometimes things happen and it’s not anyone’s fault.

What if we learned to forgive our own mistakes, and the mistakes of others?

Now, more than ever before, we, as individuals and as communities, have the opportunity to practice conscious evolution. We can pick a path and grow in that direction. What might happen if we chose to grow away from blame and punishment and grow toward healing and acceptance?