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.

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Demographics for Professional Tarotists

Demographics: the statistical characteristics of human populations (as age or income) used especially to identify markets (Merriam-Webster)

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A recent online conversation in a group for tarot pros got me thinking about demographics. Specifically, how the cards speak to one demographic, versus another.

The conversation caused a little heat. There was one person who found the whole concept of referring to clients in regards to their economic demographic highly offensive. In fact, she called the practice “unprofessional”. That made me laugh, because I really can’t think of an industry or profession that doesn’t rely on demographics for product development and marketing.

I thought about this person’s ire for a while. If I stretched I could see that, when viewed a certain way, quantifying the economic and cultural traits of a particular group of tarot clients could, from the outside, seem a bit like the racial profiling that makes driving while black, or flying while Muslim, feel so dangerous in certain places.

The important difference between profiling and demographics is this. Profiling involves making a judgement about someone based on their presentation. Demographics help us understand a person’s environment. In tarot, this helps us interpret the cards, and word our interpretations, in ways our clients can hear and understand. Profiling is negative judging, while demographics offers us the opportunity to more clearly sympathize with our clients.

When reading for an individual in a private reading setting, I have no need or desire to know about their culture of origin or economic status; what is pertinent to our discussion will show up in the reading. I have at least half an hour to spend with the person, so I am confident I have time to delve in and discover who this person is.

For me, demographics become helpful when I am hired to entertain a particular group of people. Schools, corporations, small businesses, chambers of commerce, military organizations, nightclubs, casinos and other groups commonly hire tarot readers to entertain at various functions, from retreats to proms to appreciation days.

These events are a fast-paced cattle-call; doing 5-minute readings for many people who have never had readings, or who have no real interest in readings, but will do it because it’s part of the party. To succeed in this sort of environment, you must be quick, you must be on-point, you must be funny, gracious and thick-skinned.

Because the audience is not bought in to your process, each sitter is a potential skeptic who will delight in proving you wrong. This makes reading in this environment very different from psychic fairs and festivals where all things esoteric and metaphysical are revered, and your client wants you to succeed.

It is in this environment where understanding your demographics pays off. Many times, whether your reading is considered “on” or “off” will be determined, not by the quality of your information, but by the way you present it. For example, you may understand your client’s relationship dynamic perfectly, but if you use the wrong gender pronoun when referring to the partner, your reading will be considered “off”. That person leaves your table shaking their head, everyone else in line sees that, and the rest of your night becomes more difficult. Once you have lost the crowd, it’s hard to win them back. This has never happened to me, but I have seen it happen to a few of my reading partners at large events.

Early into the event, you may notice the same cards coming up for everyone in your group. This may give you a clue as to the nature of your group. This is helpful, because, many times, the agent who books you knows very little, other than when you should show up, what you should wear, and when you’ll get paid. It’s also true that you can’t ask too many questions in an environment like this, without some wise-ass saying “You’re the psychic, you tell me!” In this sort of environment, your cards will give you straight answers – the people around you may not.

I’ve seen a group of lawyers and their spouses all receive the Justice card. I’ve seen a group of college loan officials each receive the Six of Pentacles. By paying attention to trends from reading to reading, you can often get a handle on the demographics of your group quite early on in the process.

When it comes to economic demographics, your interpretation of the cards can change significantly. When reading for folks who are not very wealthy, it’s easy to spot financial difficulties, and they will be plentiful in the room. When reading for the wealthy, the same cards will come up to indicate the need to make different business decisions, rather than a worry about paying the rent.

The key is to understand your crowd well enough, though intuition, observation and the cards, to make sure you interpret the cards from a perspective that makes sense to them.

When reading for an individual, I think it is best to never make assumptions based on what a person presents visually. The couple holding hands may or may not be an actual couple. The woman with very short spiky hair may or may not be a lesbian. The person dress in rags may be a billionaire.  I find I do better when I rely more on what I see in the cards, and less on what people show me. This is one reason I like telephone readings so much!

At the same time, effective tarot work with large audiences requires a sensitivity to the demographics of the group.

There are other ways that demographics impact your tarot business. One, of course, is the nature of the community to which you market, and their relative openness to tarot in general. The other is about advertising. That is, how you can appeal to your target market, or how you can attract your neighbors to your local practice.

The more you understand the nature of the group of people to whom you are marketing, the more effectively you can share you message with them.

Social media offers us many opportunities to market and advertise. This is different than the print ads I used to purchase when I first started. However, the key concepts are the same. You need images and copy that appeal to the right people. Without that, you have wasted time and money.

I remember my first successful ad campaign. It was in Putnam, CT, in the early 1990s. The paper was the “Putnam Shopper”, a free weekly ads-only rag. If you wanted to buy, rent, promote or sell something in Putnam, you put it in the Shopper.

I had run a few ads with limited results. Then, my manager created an ad that made the phone ring all day, every day.  The add was a picture of a Victorian-era woman in a dramatic woe-is-me position on a sofa. The copy read, “Thinking about calling a psychic hotline? Call Christiana instead!”

With that image, and with that copy, I had managed to tap into the current mood of Putnam. It made sense. Putnam was a lovely New England mill town filled with Victorian architecture, and filled with woes due to the closing of many factories. With a picture and a few words, I had identified their style, their heartache, and their need for a bargain.

Had I thought about the demographics of the town when I first started advertising, I may have more quickly and cheaply hit on the ad that worked.

Fast forward twenty years, and the premise is still the same. When we run an ad on a social media platform, we have the opportunity to fine-tune the demographics. That is, to choose who will see the ad.

When we consider demographics in our marketing, we are abler to identify our best clients, and draw them to us.

When we consider demographics in a group entertainment situation, we are abler to provide the tarot experience that will leave our clients calling back for more.

Psychic Handicap is a Real Thing

Many of us refer to psychic abilities as “gifts”, even though there are those who find their natural psychic ability to be more of a curse than a gift.

Like many people, my own intuitive abilities are inherited. My mother was well aware of her psychic nature, and consciously and admittedly tried to ignore it, because it scared her. I think many natural psychics do the same.

Part of the reason that natural psychic ability can be scary is that, untrained, intuitive people naturally pick up on the biggest energies that loom around them. Often, the energies that are biggest, or “loudest”, if you will, are the ripples of energy created by tragedy.

While many of us work hard to develop our psychic abilities, and are dismayed when we don’t feel we are connecting to the spirit world the way we want to, there are many who find their psychic gifts a burden.

Those who pick up on deaths they can foresee but cannot prevent often wonder why they are given such devastating knowledge. They long to shut down their psychic vision, and to escape from their role as constant witness to tragedy.

My own gifts are very empathic. In my younger years, before I discovered tarot, I was burdened by my ability to clearly see the inner turmoil of strangers around me. I wasn’t always able to discern that the discomfort I was feeling didn’t come from me, and didn’t belong to me. This is a very typical problem, and, again, can make psychic abilities feel burdensome and undesirable.

Psychic ability is something that can be developed. What surprises people is this fact. Those who are most in need of psychic development are those whose natural psychic talents are strongest.

Why would people with strong natural abilities need to work to develop those abilities? Because without study, discipline and direction, our natural psychic abilities truly are difficult to understand and manage.

Often, I meet people who are in distress because of disturbing dreams that predict unpleasant things. They simply want the dreams to stop, and aren’t very happy when I tell them that the way to make things better is not to avoid their psychic nature, but to dive into it.

If you are plagued by disturbing dreams, precognition of disaster or feeling the pain of others, you may be in the unfortunate position of dealing with a handicap that makes it hard for you to function normally, but does not appear in any medical journal.

Psychic handicap is a real thing, I assure you.

Some psychic people feel the need to sequester themselves from other people. Others have a hard time driving a car, because they can foresee ever potential possibility every minute. Often, psychic people deal with anxiety and depression at a clinical level.

These problems are worsened by the fact that, when, we have these experiences, we often question our own sanity, or find our sanity in question by others.

Often people wonder why they are seeing what they are seeing.

Sometimes there is a specific purpose. However, most of the time, the answer is simple.

A naturally psychic person is like a radio antenna, and will pick up on whatever energy waves are present. Often, the most painful things are what make the biggest waves.

Training and development can help a naturally psychic person control and utilize their tendencies. That same training and development can assist anyone with an interest to develop their own intuition and psychic abilities.

One of the best ways to begin psychic development is with a tool of divination, such as tarot. As you learn to work with the energy and the symbols, you also learn to direct your own energy, and to ask specific questions of the Universe. This will allow you to receive more information that is actually helpful. It will also help you make sense of the information that isn’t specifically helpful or pleasant.

Other great techniques include meditation, chakra work, and lucid dreaming.

Once you find ways to control  and develop your abilities, you will begin to appreciate them as the gifts they are.

Awaken the Heart with the Element of Air

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Welcome to the 2016 Midwinter Tarot Blog Hop. This time around our wrangler is Joy Vernon. Joy has managed to stir the seasonal themes of Imbolc, Aquarius (and thus the Tarot Star) and Valentine’s Day into one huge cauldron.   From this, she has distilled our theme, “Awaken the Heart”.

She posed a question I have pondered often, about Aquarius and the Star. Aquarius, though an Air sign, is often called, “The Water-Bearer”. Many traditional tarot images depict the Star in this way as well, as the traditional Aquarian water-bearer. I was shocked when I first learned that the Star is related Aquarius and the element of Air, rather than to something more watery.

An astrologer friend explained it to me. “That’s not water she’s pouring,” my friend told me. “It’s starlight!”

It’s much easier to understand the Star, and the Aquarian "water-bearer" energy, when we think of the water-bearer as one who is pouring starlight, that is, heaven’s healing light, onto the land.

“Healing” is one of my favorite key words for the tarot Star. Another is “fulfillment”, and another is “great sex”.

It’s important to note that these may not be key words we typically associate with the Minor Arcana Air cards, the dreary and dreaded suit of Swords!

Indeed, as we look at all the Major Arcana Air cards, we can get a fuller and more balanced idea of the Air energy in tarot, and discover that it is not as bad as the Three, Nine and Ten of Swords would have you believe.

We also discover that all the Air cards can be vital to the mission of awakening the heart, healing the heart and finding love in all its forms..

The Major Arcana Air cards are the Fool, the Magician, the Lovers, Justice, and the Star. In these cards we see adventure, decisions, learning, communication, ethics, fulfillment and love. Love? Yes, love.

Generally, we see “love” as a thing of Water, or even of passionate Fire. We think of Air as mental stuff – our thoughts, our decisions, our words, our beliefs, our ideas and our integrity. So often those dark Swords cards appear to point out dishonesty, harmful beliefs and negative thoughts.

However, if both the Lovers and the Star are cards of Air, mustn’t we acknowledge the role of the element of Air in awakening our hearts?

Beyond that, might we more quickly and easily heal and awaken our hearts with conscious use and understanding of the oft-maligned Air element?

Could the suit of Swords depict the things that we need to do and to avoid to keep our hearts whole? What lessons can the suit of Swords teach us about love?

Ace of Swords – Always tell the truth.

Two of Swords – Make decisions with which you can be at peace.

Three of Swords – Avoid infidelity.

Four of Swords – Take needed time to rest and retreat, to heal and recharge.

Five of Swords – Pick your battles wisely.

Six of Swords – Be logical in your relationships.

Seven of Swords – Learn to trust, and to nurture relationships with trustworthy people.

Eight of Swords – Recognize anxiety for what it is.

Nine of Swords – Acknowledge your worries and fears.

Ten of Swords – Have the courage to love again after heartbreak.

Obviously, each of these Swords cards has classic interpretations that may be more pertinent in a reading. At the same time, part of the value of tarot happens when we study the cards and consider their lessons for us.

What then, can we learn about love from the Major Arcana Air cards? I would argue that these cards, in numerical order, form a perfect primer for the awakened and loving heart.

The Fool tells us to be willing to take risks.

The Magician tells us to consciously learn about ourselves, our hearts and the people we love. The Magician reminds us of our ability to manifest love in all its forms.

The Lovers reminds us that our happiness in love will be determined by two things – our ability to make good choices and our ability to communicate. Our integration one with another is never simple, and requires some thought, regardless of how much heart we bring to the table.

Justice reminds us to treat each other, and ourselves, fairly.

The Star shows us what is possible when we awaken our hearts to love.

With tarot images, or simply in meditation and invocation, we can welcome the element of Air to blow away the dust of past hurts  and bring healing, opening and awakening to our hearts.

For further musing on this topic, see my Star poem from my 78 Poems Project.

 Also, this topic makes me think of one of my favorite Grateful Dead songs, Eyes of the World, which asks us to “Wake now, discover that you are the song that the morning brings.”

Now, it’s time to see what others did with this interesting topic!

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Performance Tarot: Three Exercises to Help the Tarot Pro Nail it on Stage

Not every professional tarotist considers themself an entertainer. Tarot work can happen in a variety of venues, and with many different goals.

Over the past two and a half decades I have kept my own tarot career as varied as possible. I love deep, personal, introspective readings. I also love entertaining with tarot.

What’s amazing is that, even when the goal of your particular tarot gig is entertainment, there can still be enlightenment and insight each time you pull a card.

What is tarot performance, versus tarot reading? Tarot performance can include stage-work, that is, doing readings on a stage in a gallery setting. Tarot performance can include doing quick live readings for callers on radio and television. Street readers and festival readers are always “on stage”. Tarot performance can also include working the cattle call at a corporate party with enough attitude that people gather around your table to watch, and be part of, the show.

I am sure that some tarotists reading this are already cringing. Because there is so much fraud and chicanery associated with tarot and psychic work, many readers avoid thinking about their showmanship. They are afraid that developing a good stage presence might be too similar to those who use cheap tricks to take advantage of gullible people, or those who simply don a spectacular costume and give obviously fake readings in a party setting.

I’ve had some occasion to mull over this topic of tarot performance recently. I started 2016 with a very special Psychic Gallery performance in a Unity Church. Unlike tarot stage shows I’ve done in nightclubs, this required a very delicate balance. On one hand, I had to be entertaining enough to keep people’s attention for the two-hour performance. On the other hand, these were spiritual people who were there, not for an entertaining evening out, but in hope of receiving life-changing oracular information.

Let’s contrast that with the gig I did Wednesday night. Like most tarot performers, I occasionally work with talent agencies and event production companies to provide entertainment at corporate functions and large family parties.

This was an employee party as part of a sales seminar. The party had a circus theme. There were jugglers, carnival music, a strong man, and three tarot readers. The other two readers seemed a bit bewildered at the gig. Our clients for the evening were primarily men who had no interest in divination, tarot reading or spirituality. These are people who would never typically have readings, or find value in the process.

My fellow readers certainly gave their share of readings over the evening, but a crowd of people gathered around my table. What was the difference? In the corporate party setting, I do quick, hard-hitting readings, but I do them with a great deal of showmanship. I turn those who try to heckle me into my biggest supporters. I say true things about my sitter loudly enough that his colleagues can hear. It’s all in good fun, and it is fun.

At the same time, I am able to give real advice and insight to those who might not have been able to hear it before I developed that rapport with them.

I think, among some tarotists, there is erroneous belief that tarot reading can’t be both entertaining and deep, or that a reader with showmanship is likely to lack substance.

I encourage my students to develop their stage presence as well as their intuition and card understanding. Here are three simple exercises that can help you find your inner star for the next time you find an opportunity to take tarot to a stage.

1. Practice giving deep, involved one-card readings.  The more information you can quickly pull from one card, the more easily you will be able to read in performance mode.

2. Learn ways to interpret the cards in the context of personality. Nothing is more entertaining than having one’s personality accurately described by a stranger in front of one’s friends.

3. Learn to pick out the most important points. Practice by using a large spread, but giving your interpretation of that spread in under three minutes.

Whether performance tarot is happening on a stage, on a street corner or festival, on an FM radio morning show or at a party, it will always have a few things in common. Performance tarot will highlight your personality, and your ability to immediately connect with people. Performance tarot will utilize your ability to read the cards quickly and accurately. Performance tarot will call in your intuition, and allow Spirit to speak through you in ways you might not have expected. Finally, performance tarot will disarm your audience with entertainment, and then astound them with your ability to speak their truth.

Performance tarot isn’t for every reader, but if you think it may be for you, don’t be afraid to use these exercises to help develop your performance tarot skills.