Welcome to my personal blog.
Here you will find my musings, thoughts and observations, all inspired by my experiences as a full-time professional tarot reader.
Oracular Anomalies
For the Tarot Blog Hop, a discussion of why tarot readings go rogue, and what to do about it!
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When Readings Go Rogue
Welcome to the 2015 Imbolc Tarot Blog Hop. Imbolc is a Fire holiday that celebrates creativity, and the coming spring. For this round of the Blog Hop our wrangler, Karen Sealey, of Pure Blessed Tarot, is really working our creativity!
She has asked us each to discuss a time where we noticed something off, or unexpected, in our divinatory work, an “oracular anomaly”. This is a topic I write on often, and I can’t wait to see what my fellow bloggers have to say.
After more than twenty years as a full time tarot professional, I have seen my share of strange cards and stranger readings. Like all tarot readers, I have seen the cards come up in ways so poignant they make me cry, and my client with me. Also, like all tarot readers, I’ve missed things, and had a few things turn out differently than I had expectedly.
Since I care a great deal about customer service, I’ve spent a lot of time mulling over what went wrong on those few occasions where I’ve missed something that should have been obvious.
After all these years, I still believe the cards never lie. However, I know the reader sometimes gets it wrong.
For my contribution to this anthology that is the Tarot Blog Hop, here are three of the reasons tarot readings go rogue, and some possible fixes.
1. Experience makes a difference.
There are some great young readers out there. Heck, some of us were young readers once. However, readers, like all professionals, learn from their mistakes. It’s easier for more experienced readers to sniff out important subtleties. Sometimes the difference between the energy of a new couple being excited about meeting each other and the energy of everlasting love may be hard to distinguish, for instance.
A seasoned reader has a better chance of detecting, either by nuances in the cards or their perception of the energy, these important differences. That’s because we got it wrong a few times, and learned from our mistakes.
Unfortunately, there’s no fix for this one, except time and patience.
2. Degrees are hard to detect.
I’ve seen the Tower come up to predict a terrorist attack, and I’ve seen it come up to indicate coming down with a cold. Sometimes we see dark cards, or get a bad feeling, because tragedy really is looming. Sometimes those same cards and feeling indicate an inconvenience, or a momentary discomfort.
The fix for this is to read further. Ask more questions of the cards, either by interpreting further or by pulling more cards. Try to narrow down the nature of the approaching problem, and the degree of severity. Ask questions, too, about possible approaches, and ways to best get through or around the impending difficulty. Don’t get so hung up by the intense nature of the card that you neglect to dig deeper into its meaning.
3. Sometimes people don’t want us to see the truth.
There are reasons you may not see that your client’s new girlfriend is keeping devastating secrets. Some people really are good liars. Basically, if they believe their own BS, the cards might reflect their confidence more strongly than their deceit.
If your client feels no reason to be suspicious, you might not pursue the matter, even if a card like the Seven of Swords gives you reason for concern. Often, as readers, we don’t want to upset our clients. If they assure us everything is fine, it’s hard for us to push the point. Generally, I think it is a mistake to let our clients railroad us. On the other hand, no one appreciates or benefits from a doom-and-gloom psychic.
The key here is, if you get the feeling that something is off, or that the client may not have the whole story, ask more questions of the cards. You can even ask questions silently, pull cards and reflect on them before speaking about them to the client. This gives you an opportunity to pursue possibilities to which your client might be resistant, or about which you may be hazy due to the energy of the person or situation. This way, you have an opportunity to get the full picture, even if someone doesn’t want you to see it.
Sometimes, too, our clients are just not ready to hear and accept what's coming. I think sometimes the Universe gives the client the comfort they need at the moment - not by lying about the ultimate outcome, but by minimizing the discomfort of the path to get there.
Overall, the cure for rogue tarot readings is to read more – more cards, more introspection, more time, more focus, and more intuition.
We can become frustrated, insecure and confused when, after a series of hits, we have a miss. Often our clients forgive us more easily than we forgive ourselves.
Nothing – no system, no tool and no person, is perfect. Imperfection is the nature of the human experience that is so perfectly expressed in tarot.
Imbolc 2014 Tarot Blog Hop: Tarot, Healing and Creativity
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Imbolc is also known as "Brigid" or "St. Brigid's Day." Brigid (often pronounced “Breed” or “Bride”) is the most tangible deity to me. I’m rarely comfortable putting human form to Spirit, although I love legends, myths and stories about deities. But Brigid, the triple Goddess of smithcraft, poetry and healing, feels almost corporeal to me.
Each Imbolc I journey in meditation to her forge. She takes from me my burdens, and transforms them into the tools I need to create my future.
When I was a very small child we lived next to Mr. Petty's blacksmith’s shop. Sometimes Mr. Petty would let me come in to the dark, hot, dusty shop. I would hold my aunt’s hand tightly, both excited and afraid. I remember the huge bellows, the heat, the sparks and flames. I remember the sound of his hammer, and the glow of the hot metal as he worked.
Maybe that is why Brigid, Goddess of Smithcraft, is so real to me now. Maybe Brigid had marked me, a six-year-old girl with hair the same color as her own, even then. Maybe Brigid arranged my trips to the blacksmith shop as a way of forging a connection between us.
In all the years I have celebrated Imbolc and read tarot, never have I devised a spread for my journey to Brigid’s Forge! This year, I’ll correct that.
Brigid’s Forge Three-Card Tarot Spread
Card one: The path I must take.
The journey to Brigid’s forge is the journey to release emotional burdens, to transform hurt into something valuable, and with it, to create something new. This card represents the mindset of this journey – what I must consider prior to the journey, or how I must prepare myself.
Card two: The burden I carry.
This card will speak to the hurts, disappointments and sadness I carry with me that no longer serve me.
Card Three: Brigid’s gift.
Brigid takes my burden in her forge. Heating and hammering, she forges it into something useful for me. This card will speak to that gift, and how I might use it.
Here is my interpretation of the cards I received. The deck I used is Ellen Dugan’s "Witches Tarot."
The Path: Karma (Judgment)
In Witches Tarot Judgment is renamed "Karma." That it falls in position to denote my path to the forge is pretty amazing. My path is my calling, and unavoidable. I am summoned to the forge. I bring with me the knowledge, wounds, failures and accomplishments of my past, fully ready to receive closure and rebirth.
The Burden: The Fool
I love the Major Arcana cards here – Judgment followed by the Fool is very powerful. The Fool clearly represents the burden I carry. On one hand, I am healed and evolved enough to be very cognizant of my spiritual journey and to be unburdened by worldly concerns. On the other hand, my natural Fool-like state causes me to live in a way that is very different than the norm. I accept and appreciate my journey, but I am sometimes burdened by the difficulties that come from being so different from societal expectations. The trick of truly being the Fool is to have no fear. Fear is my burden.
The Gift: Queen of Wands (Reversed)
For years the Queen of Wands has been my significator, specifically in regard to my spiritual path and my work as a tarotist. The Queen of Wands usually represents my highest ideals of who I can be and what I can achieve.
Sometimes I lose focus and fall short of what I know I can do. I think the reversal on this card reflects that disappointment – my next book isn’t getting finished quickly enough, I have so many projects to do and so little time.
Brigid’s gift is to help me be me, better than before. Brigid’s gift is to help me stay on my path and achieve what is already in motion, with greater passion and energy. At her forge, Brigid transforms my fear into confidence.
Picture at top: Brigid, from "The Goddess Oracle" by Amy Sophia Marashinsky and Hrana Janto.
Tarot Blog Hop Imbolc 2014 Master List
Welcome to the Imbolc 2014 Tarot Blog Hop. We are an international group of tarotists who write together on a specific topic eight times a year. Here you will find a list of particpants and links to each of the blogs. At the end of the list is an explaination of our topic, which is "Tarot, Healing and Creativity."
1. Maureen Aisling Duffy-Boose http://tarotwitchery.blogspot.com/2014/02/tarot-blog-hop-2014the-seer-bard-healer.html
2. Louise Underhill http://www.priestesstarot.co.uk/2014/02/tarot-blog-hop-tarot-healing-creativity/
3. Chloe for TABI http://tabitarot.blogspot.com/2014/02/getting-creative.html
4. Bonnie Fernandes http://tarotsalve.com/2014/02/01/imbolc-blog-hop-tarot-healing-and-creativity
5. Ania M http://aniam.co.uk/blog/incubation/
6. Karen Sealey http://pureblessedtarot.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/throw-momma-from-my-brain/
7. J Jordan Hoggard http://jordanhoggard.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/tarotbloghop-imbolc-sanctuary-of-self-creating-the-making/
8. Morgan Drake Eckstein http://gleamingsfromthedawn.blogspot.com/2014/02/tarot-and-healing.html
9. Stella T'arot http://www.usgamesinc.com/tarotblog/2014tarotbloghopimbolc/
10. Stacey Carroll http://thetarotoraclewitch.blogspot.com/2014/02/tbh-divination-healing-and-creativity.html
11. Alison Coals http://alisonsalembic.blogspot.com/2014/02/tarot-blog-hop-imbolc-2014.html
12. Chloe for Celtic Lenormand http://www.celticlenormand.com/2014/02/imbolc-blog-hop-making-of-songbirds.html
13. Christiana Gaudet http://tarottrends.com/content/imbolc-2014-tarot-blog-hop-tarot-healing-and-creativity
14. Arwen http://tarotbyarwen.com/?p=17623
15. Olivia Destrades http://firstearthtarot.blogspot.com/2014/02/imbolc-blog-hop-feb-2014.html
16. Shauna Aura Knight http://shaunaaura.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/outcome-card-tarot-blog-hop
17. Joy Vernon http://joyvernon.com/Blog/tarot-healing-and-creativity
18. Sharon Cumming http://sharoncumming.blogspot.com/2014/02/tarot-healing-creativity.html
19. Chloe http://innerwhisperscouk.blogspot.com/2014/02/imbolc-blog-hop.html
20. Joanne Sprott http://cosmicwhisperstarot.com/2014/02/01/breaking-through-imbolc-tarot-blog-hop-2014/
21. Joanna Ash http://sungoddesstarot.blogspot.com/2014/02/Welcome-Spring-Through-Tarot-Healing-And-Creativity.html
As the wrangler for the Imbolc 2014 Blog Hop it was my responsibility to set the topic. Here is what I gave the group.
Imbolc, also known as Imbolg, Brigid, Brigid’s Day and Candlemass, is the cross-quarter day between Yule (winter solstice) and Ostara (vernal equinox). It is generally celebrated January 31, February 1st or February 2nd.
Imbolc means “in the belly.” This is the Irish holiday of the lambing ewes who herald the coming spring.
This is the holiday of Brigid, Brighid, or Bride, a Goddess so beloved she became a Catholic Saint. The Catholic Church celebrates this holiday as St. Brighid’s Day.
On February 2nd many Christians observe Candlemass, which celebrates the divinity of Jesus Christ and is thought to have some connection to the original Pagan holiday. At this time of year Pagans and Christians often weave Brighid’s Crosses and light candles as reminder that warmer weather is on its way.
Groundhog Day is the secular holiday in anticipation of the coming spring which has sprung from these ancient roots.
There are so many themes one could pull from this rich holiday for a fabulous blog hop. Which should I choose?
I’m going to indulge and divulge my personal connection with this holiday. I am dedicated to the Goddess Brigid, the Triple Goddess of smithcraft, poetry and healing. When I put that all together, Brigid becomes the Goddess of healing through creativity.
As I see it, tarot is a tool of healing, and a tool of creativity. So let’s do this. Let’s write about “Tarot, Healing and Creativity.” (Of course, if you use another tool you can change the “tarot” to “cartomancy”, “divination” or whatever works.)
Handle the topic “Tarot, Healing and Creativity” any way you like. For instance, you could:
- Share a story about how tarot has inspired healing and creativity for you, or for someone you know.
- List ways we can use tarot for healing, and to inspire creativity.
- Discuss the ways we heal through creativity.
- Design and perform a card spread to nurture creativity and healing.
- Discuss specific cards that represent creativity and healing to you.
- Design a healing ritual that uses tarot images.
- Write a poem, create a meditation, do whatever feels right for you.
Divining with Brigid
Welcome to the Tarot Blog Hop. This time around we are wrangled by Aisling the Bard , who has given us a fitting Imbolc topic. She asks us "What is in your belly? What do you wish to give birth to, to nurture, during this new season? What is the Poet, the Healer, the Maker, within you longing to do, to Become?" Each Tarot Blog Hopper is asked to use a divination tool to answer this question.
Perhaps you are joining me from Joanne Ash's Sun Goddess Tarot.
When you finish here, please continue on to Joanne Sprott's Cosmic Whispers Tarot.
If you find a break in the chain, please visit the Master List.
Brigid's Day, or Imbolc, is one of my favorite holidays on the Wheel of the Year. I love rituals that involve fire, creativity and healing. I love the anticipation of the coming spring. Even though I now live in South Florida and no longer suffer through months of cold, snow and slush I enjoy the signs of spring. Just yesterday as I walked along a canal I saw anhinga and ibis each engaged in the dance of love.
I feel called by Brigid, the Goddess of healing through creativity. She is my matron Goddess (note: I hate the term "patroness," and so I simply say "matron." It obviously means the same thing without the sexist overtones).
This holiday not only celebrates the rebirth around us; it celebrates the rebirth that wells up from within us.
And so as we approach the Feast of Brigid I approach tarot and ask my question directly of Brigid, my matron Goddess. I ask her to speak through the cards and answer this question. "To what shall I give birth this spring?"
Tarot is such a precise tool. The first card I pulled at random was the Ace of Wands. The second was the Three of Wands.
Since Brigid is a fire Goddess it is fitting that I should receive two such powerful cards from the suit of fire. The Three seems apt as a reference to Brigid's nature as a triple Goddess.
The Ace of Wands speaks of new creative projects and divine inspiration. The Three of Wands speaks of the success that comes from letting that inspiration take form.
But what form shall it take, I wonder. I pull another card. This time I receive the Page of Swords - the messenger of truth. I often see the Page of Swords as a writer.
I am currently working on two different books. One is my third book about tarot. Another is a more eclectic book about spirituality. I had set this spring as a deadline goal for finishing them both.
It seems Brigid has agreed to support me in these projects.
Hail, Brigid!
And, since Brigid is the Goddess of poetry, here is this year's offering.
The Forge
Circle of love and devotion
Inner spark and blazing fire
Wild dance and somber journey
The forge flames hotter and higher.
To approach the forge takes courage
Anvil and bellows and heat
Bri'id smiles and beckons me forward
Enchanted, I dare not retreat.
Bri'id takes from me my burden
Striking hammer, sparking fire
She tempers the metal of my heart
To heal, renew and inspire.
Thanks for taking the Tarot Blog Hop with us. If you are working backward it is time to visit Joanne Ash's Sun Goddess Tarot.
Or you may proceed forward to Joanne Sprott's Cosmic Whispers Tarot.
If you find a break in the links, visit the Master List.