Three Truths about Teaching Tarot

I love teaching tarot, almost as much as I love reading tarot. I have taught tarot in some really interesting places, from military bases to churches, colleges, adult education programs, international tarot conferences, festivals and naturist resorts. Modern technology now allows me to teach online, for students worldwide.
I like to think I am always developing as a tarot teacher.

I also think that teaching tarot is unlike teaching most things since the student will never (and should never) do it exactly as the teacher does. Each tarot reader must find their own tarot style – it’s the teacher’s job to assist in that transformative process.

Beyond that one defining truth, here are three other things that are true for me about teaching tarot.
 

1. Everyone benefits from learning tarot. Most tarot students will never become professional readers, and that’s fine. But tarot will help each student discover more about themselves and the way Spirit works in their lives.

2. Learning tarot is about learning spiritual lessons. As much as learning card interpretations, tarot study is the study of the cards’ spiritual lessons for us.

3. A variety of tarot decks in the classroom, or the student’s collection, is a good thing. I believe in comparative tarot. If we can see the way many different artists and traditions depict a card we will develop a better understanding of tarot overall.

Would you like to study with me? Email me to discuss the possibilities!

Twenty-Two Life Lessons from the Major Arcana

Tarot is a teacher. Each card bears lessons for us. As we learn the cards we are wiser for their messages. As we work with the cards we learn specific lessons about circumstances in our lives, some are unique to the individual circumstance and some are universal.

Each card teaches so many different lessons. Arguably, the Major Arcana cards are the wisest teachers in the deck. Here are some of the lessons I learn from them.

The Fool: Life is a journey and no one really knows where they are going. Have fun and figure it out as you go!

The Magician: Keep a good inventory of your tools, skills and abilities. Never stop learning.

The High Priestess: Be still. Sometimes silence is the best teacher.

The Empress: All things thrive when you nurture them. Choose what you want to grow in your life.

The Emperor: Honor your responsibilities.

The Hierophant: Know your own authority. Seek the proper authorities when you need to.

The Lovers: The right connections bring balance, the wrong ones don’t.

The Chariot: Be in charge of your own life.

Strength: Don’t be a bitch.

The Hermit: Don’t be afraid to be alone.

The Wheel of Fortune: Bad stuff happens. So does good stuff. Deal with it.

Justice: Do the right thing. Do it even if other people aren’t doing the right thing, and even if nobody’s watching.

Hanged Man: When you can’t change your circumstances, change your attitude.

Death: The only constant is change.

Temperance: Don’t expect perfection. Strive for the perfect blend.

Devil: You must face your fears, unhealthy habits and unpleasant truths.

Tower: That which is built on a faulty foundation cannot stand forever.

Star: All healing is available, always. Healing may not come in the form you expect.

Moon: Not everything is as it seems – look deeper.

Sun: Don’t hold back. Bring your best game every day.

Judgement: Get over it.

World: Take a larger view. The larger your perspective the more peace you will have.

Those are some of the lessons I’ve learned from the Major Arcana. What the Major Arcana taught you?

It's About Time: Seven Tarot Cards that can Indicate Timing

The concept of time comes up quite a bit in tarot reading. We have questions about the future- when certain things are likely to happen, or how long something might take. We also have questions about strategy – finding optimum timing to launch a project, for instance.

Many readers have particular systems for predicting timing. In some systems each Minor Arcana suit is associated with an increment of time. Wands for weeks and Cups for months, for example. In other systems each suit is associated with a particular season.

Regardless of the system you use, there are some tarot cards that speak to timing as part of their possible interpretation. Here are of seven them.

Aces: Overall, Aces suggest something happening now, immediately, very soon, and suddenly.

Eight of Wands: The Eight of Wands indicates swiftness. Things should be done quickly, and are likely to happen quickly.

Nine of Pentacles: The Nine of Pentacles suggests you have all the time in the world at your disposal.

Knight of Swords: The Knight of Swords is another card of speed. This card suggests things happening swiftly, or the need to be swift.

Knight of Pentacles: The Knight of Pentacles can suggest a delay, or a slower pace than would be preferred. The Knight of Pentacles asks for an abundance of caution, rather than a speedy delivery.

The Hermit: The Hermit is “Father Time” and suggests patience. Nothing will happen quickly, nor should it.

Temperance: Temperance is considered the card of “Time.” Temperance also suggests patience, and reminds us that things can only happen in their right time.

Tarot often foretells future events, although most of us would be quick to say that the future is not always predictable and that future predictions are not always the best use of tarot.

If we understand that some cards will come up in a reading to act as modifiers – adjectives and adverbs – we can see the need for patience and the need for speed when we create or predict our future with tarot.

Is it time to have a reading?
I'm available to read for you by phone, FaceTime or Skype, or in person if you happen to be in the Tampa area. Call or text 561-655-1160, or email me!

Getting Real

I’m fascinated by the way we use the word “real.” “Real” can mean “authentic.” We sometimes use the word “real” to describe people who seem honest and unpretentious.

“Real” can also mean “true” and “existent,” as in “Faeries are real.”

“Real” can also mean “exemplary” and “definitive,” as in this Facebook meme I found today.

“A real woman can do it all by herself, but a real man won’t let her.”

A recent blog post gone viral on the Derniere website by E. Mackey, entitled “An Open Letter to Women: What Men Really Want” spoke a great deal about “real men” and “real women.”

I let myself get sucked into the comment war on that post. Along with many, I needed to point out the fallacies E. Mackey was enthusiastically promoting.

The thing I wanted to say, but couldn’t figure out exactly how, was this.
We can’t suggest that a particular behavior or attitude makes a person “real.” When it comes to gender, we can’t even say that physiology reliably denotes reality.

The word “real’ is hurtful in blended families. “But she’s not your real daughter.” “You’re not my real father.”

People have been throwing around the word “real” as a way of creating division for a long time. In church you might be accused of not being a real Christian. The same could happen at a Pagan event; group members might decide that you are not a real Pagan.

I’ll bet this comes up in every community. He’s not a real philatelist. She’s not a real nudist. He’s not a real Republican. She’s not a real feminist.

"Real" and "not real" are categories we use to judge each other.

How do we decide who is real? How is it we are audacious enough to try to rob an individual of their very being, denying them their sense of identity?

Sometimes people ask me if tarot is real. Those are the words they use. “Is tarot real?”

As a joke I usually pick the deck up and examine it. “Yup, it’s real.”

I know that’s not what they are really asking, though. They want to know if the experience that comes from tarot is valuable.

And maybe there’s the problem with the word “real.” It also means “valuable.” “These earrings are real,” means they are highly valued. A “real man” is a man who is valuable.

The problem is, it’s all subjective because we value different things.

We are all real. We all have a right to own the identity that feels real to us. No one should be able to take that way. Real men do all sorts of different things. Real women do all sorts of different things.

We can choose the sorts of people we want in our lives. But we are not choosing between real and unreal. We are choosing what works for us. Everyone has a right to be considered “real,” whether we are behaving in a way that a particular person finds acceptable, or not.

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.

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