What May Be
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It’s May First, and time for the Beltane Tarot Blog Hop. Our wrangler, Karen Sealy, has tasked us with exploring the word “may”, as it relates to tarot.
For me, “may” relates to tarot in three ways.
First, the month of May has some significant tarot associations for me personally. In the US, we celebrate Mother’s Day in May. The very first psychic fair I presented (Christiana’s Psychic and New Age Fair, circa 1996) was held on Mother’s Day. We had a line out the door of the King’s Inn in Putnam, Connecticut. From there, our roving band of readers, healers and vendors traveled throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts for several years.
I’ve also enjoyed reading tarot at various Beltane festivals over the years, and celebrating Beltane with my tarot friends.
The second type of “may” has to do with predictions in tarot readings. Every reader has their own prediction methods. Some readers chose not to make predictions at all. I am a predictive reader, but I recognize that predictions are not the single, nor primary, value of a reading with me.
Sometimes, I can see a story unfolding very clearly, and that story becomes reality, verbatim. Sometimes the story will unfold with minor differences than what I had predicted.
Sometimes, I get the sense that something may or may not happen. Yes, it’s possible, maybe even probable, but’s it’s definitely a “may”, not a “will”.
When that happens, I pull more cards to see what the client could do to push the situation in their favor.
Truly and literally, whenever we make a prediction, no matter how sure it feels, we can only ever say that it is something that MAY occur. Certainty only comes after the event has either happened, or not.
I know a few of my clients wish this were not so. They want the guarantee of a set future. If such a thing were possible, our actions, and our free will, wouldn't matter.
My third and final “may” is the asking of permission, as in, “May I?”
So often I see cards come up in a reading that give the client permission from the Universe to release something, or pursue something. This can be tremendously empowering.
Often, I think permission to do a needed thing is as helpful, or more, than a prediction that a thing may happen.
In the merry month of May, our divinatory pursuits are infused with the Beltane energy of fertility, youth and bounty. At this time of year, it is easy to to hopeful for all the wonderful things that may happen.
For me, tarot is always about exploring those possibilities; the things we may do, and the things that may be.
