Who Are the Mothers in Tarot?

Mother’s Day got me thinking about how important it is to be able to identify one’s mother in a tarot reading.

My favorite Freudian joke is “If it’s not one thing, it’s your mother.” Basically, every parent, no matter how wise, loving, healthy and present, gives their kids something to tell a therapist.

Our mothers can be our biggest source of inspiration and comfort, but also of trauma and sorrow. It’s impossible not to have complex feelings about one’s mother, especially if she was not a capable mother, or if she has passed away.

Very often questions at the tarot table can involve one’s mother. Equally often one’s mother can appear in the cards, unbidden.

I’ve also had many experiences where the cards were the first notice that a person was about to become a mother. Struggles with fertility problems and parenting issues are also front and center in the cards.

Of late I have noticed many newer readers uncomfortable giving readings about pregnancy. At my tarot table I am happy to handle all issues of life, most especially the joys and sorrows of family which are so formative of our experiences.

Of course, the first and foremost card to indicate a mother is the Empress. In a reading, the Empress can indicate a message from your mother in spirit or concerns regarding your living mother. The Empress can predict or reveal a pregnancy, or, when reversed or poorly aspected, a fertility issue.

With the exception of the Queen of Swords, the Queens can also indicate a mother. Coupled with any Ace other than the Ace of Swords, we can see a pregnancy, either current or imminent.

The two feminine nines, the Nine of Pentacles and the Nine of Cups, can both indicate pregnancy.

The Six of Cups, typically a card of nostalgia, can indicate a need or desire to visit with your mother.

On several occasions I have seen the Six of Wands reversed indicate frustration with fertility issues. In each case, with perseverance, the healthy babies I predicted did finally come into being.

Given how germane motherhood is to every person’s life (for better or worse) it is no surprise that there are so many ways for motherhood to appear in the cards.

Unexpected Cards – The Magical Processes of Divination

Unexpected Cards

The Magical Processes of Divination

Tarot, and cartomancy in general, is enjoying worldwide popularity right now. Some folks think this is a measure of the high level of uncertainty and despair in the world, coupled with the low level of available mental health services. There is a lot of speculation as to whether practices like tarot offer true mental health benefits or actually make things worse. I have seen evidence for both.

A great tarot reading, or a meaningful tarot practice, can bring understanding, balance, hope and healing in any situation, but only if the cards’ messages are interpreted in a way that gives the seeker some responsibility for their own contemplation, healing and actions. Those who come to the cards only to hear a pretty story of their future fortune are often disappointed by the reality of what tarot offers best; the opportunity to take a hard look at oneself.

That tarot is trending right now offers us a level of accessibility and acceptability we have never enjoyed before. The downside is how easily esoteric traditions can become muddied as more swimmers enter the water. I’m sure every generation of tarotists has felt concern that their tradition was being misunderstood or watered down. Yet, tarot has survived the past few hundred years more-or-less intact. I am sure there will always be traditionalists who preserve the ancient truths, and iconoclasts who try to expand those truths in new ways.

The best thing about the tarot explosion is the number of people trying formal divination for the first time.

Chances are we were all exposed to some kind of divination as children; twisting apple stems or bouncing seeds on our hands to reveal the initial of our future spouse. In elementary school, we folded paper to make “fortune-tellers” that fit over our fingers and proffered the hilarious fortunes we made up, whispering together during recess. When a piece of silverware was dropped on the floor during dinner preparation my aunt interpreted it as a predictor of an unexpected dinner guest.

When you think back, do you remember divination games in your family, or on the playground?

When did formal divination first enter your life?

Gypsy Witch Fortune Telling Playing Cards by Systems, U S Games published by United States Games Systems Cards

By Mlle Lenormand

My first official cartomancy was with the Gypsy Witch Fortune Telling Card Game, when I was eight. I remember how clearly the cards spoke, and how uncannily true my first reading felt. I had the same feeling more than a decade later when I first started playing with I Ching. Yet, I resisted tarot.

I think the reason I resisted tarot, even while embracing I Ching, is that I had seen so many people take tarot so literally, so fundamentally. I scoffed at people who would believe something they thought a piece of cardboard told them over obvious logic.

At that point I had yet to understand just how logical tarot could be.

Today I am a fulltime professional diviner with a twenty-five-year career behind me. I hope I am lucky enough to have another twenty-five years of professional tarot in front of me.

As I contemplate the magic of divination and the many ways I have witnessed it in my life and work, I come to a few conclusions.

First, although tarot is not the only awesome tool of divination available, it is by far my favorite. It is my favorite because of its art, structure, archetypes and history, as well as the way it finds its way into popular culture in every generation.

Tarot functions as a book of spiritual wisdom as well as a fortune-telling device. Each tarot card teaches us a spiritual truth which we can access in study and meditation, as well as in divination.

When we consider how poignant and helpful divination can be, we have to consider two sticky questions.

First, how in the world does divination work?

Second, how can it be that once in a while divination seems to reveal wrong answers- either describing a current situation differently that we see it, or predicting an outcome that doesn’t come to pass? And, if the answers seem to us to be occasionally wrong, why do we believe divination helpful?

I can’t begin to say what power drives divination. Some tarotists ascribe actual personality to their card decks. I definitely don’t do that, nor do a believe an entity, either angelic or demonic, determines which cards we see. Although,I do believe that Spirit can speak through the cards.

For me, the power of random token divination comes from the magical energy of random. The power of tarot in specific comes from the third eye, or brow chakra, which is the seat of eyesight, imagination and psychic ability. As we see the card image our imagination is inspired, and our psychic ability is engaged.

I fully admit, however, that my explanation of why and how things work is no more verifiable than anyone else’s explanation that might be more or less fanciful than my own.

Now, the bit about ‘wrong divination’.

We have an expression in tarot. “The cards never lie”. Yet, the cards can speak in so many ways that sometimes the reader can get it wrong.

When the cards come up to describe the past or the present, we might sometimes be surprised that the cards show up the way they do. We might be processing something that has happened, or is happening, in a particular way, and the cards that come up might show us something different.

We might look at those unexpected cards and say that they are ‘wrong’.

We all love the readings that happen when the cards come up and reflect exactly what we are thinking and the way we are feeling. Yet, if the cards come up differently than expected, there is real value in working to figure out why they are appearing as they are, and what message they have for us.

When we allow it, this process of introspection around unexpected cards can reframe our perspective, help us heal from the past and give us helpful information about where we are.

Unexpected cards that describe the past or present should not diminish the reading or cause us to reject the wisdom of the cards. Rather, those unexpected cards can become the focal point and lesson of the reading.

When we see cards that appear to predict the future, we can’t necessarily judge them against a backdrop of what is expected, because we aren’t there yet.

Of all divinatory operations, it is the prediction of the future that can be the most amazing, or disappointing. Ask any meteorologist or financial forecaster; predicting the future can be challenging for everyone!

Yet, it wasn’t our ability to predict the future that got most of us hooked on divination. What got me hooked, and what I believe got most of us hooked, was the way divination showed us our current situations, and helped us process our past.

When we use tarot to predict the future, we can always interpret the cards that appear as energies that will be available to us in the future, or things that we need to keep in mind going forward.

When tarot predictions are uncannily accurate, as they often are, we might start to believe that every single thing we think we see in the cards will come to pass.

Divination is probably most helpful when we keep an open mind and use that open mind to contemplate the messages and advices we have received.

Contemplation, as opposed to blindly receiving information without question or process, is also part of the magic of divination.

A good professional reading will help you contemplate what is going on in your life and will guide you to consider what is most important. When you read for yourself, your divination process will be most effective if you take the time to puzzle out the cards you receive, rather than quickly accepting or dismissing them as right or wrong. From my perspective, every card we receive in a reading is the right card. We just need to figure out the way in which it is right.

Northwest Tarot Symposium 2019: My Adventure to Portland

Northwest Tarot Symposium 2019

My Adventure to Portland

It’s no secret that I don’t get to as many tarot conferences as I would like. Being a full-time tarotist makes taking those sorts of working vacations a little tricky.

Yet, when I was offered to opportunity to design a day-long professional development day with Jenna Matlin and Jay and Jadzia DeForest at the Northwest Tarot Symposium, I jumped at the chance.

NWTS (affectionately called ‘Newts’) was a four-day affair, with an optional Friday that included a keynote by Mary K. Greer, and the ProDev Extension Day on Monday.

I’ve noticed that, whenever I attend a conference, retreat or festival, there will be a theme that emerges, unbidden by me.

I arrived midday on Friday. It became almost immediately clear that, beyond the enormous responsibility of organizing and presenting the Monday program, the theme of NWTS 2019 for me was going to be friendship.

Over the course of the weekend I spent most of my time making new friends, rekindling old friendships and meeting some internet friends for the first time.

NWTS is the largest and most complex tarot conference I have every attended. In addition to running three options for classes at each timeslot throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday, NWTS runs a full-on metaphysical fair, from 2 pm Friday until 5 pm Sunday. On Saturday and Sunday, the fair is open to the public. The quality of vendors and artists was astounding.

It felt a bit unusual to have the vendors, readers and art show in an entirely different area from the classes. At every convention I have been to before there was at least one moment where virtually every attendee was gathered together in the same space. Not so with NWTS.

One might think this would make the energy of the event feel fragmented, but that was not the case. Throughout the four days there was a constant feeling of opportunity for learning, connection and exploration, but an equal opportunity to chill, relax and spend time with tarot friends.

I often say that your tarot friends are your best friends, because you speak the same language. I was reminded of this throughout my time at NWTS.

I’m ashamed to say I didn’t attend a lot of classes, but I did fulfil a specific goal.

I have been struggling with Lenormand for a few years. I decided to bring some Lenormand decks to NWTS, take the Lenormand classes, and make a final decision. Is Lenormand for me, or isn’t it?

After the Sunday workshop featuring Mary K. Greer, Kendra Hurteau and Anne Walner, I can say that I Lenormand will indeed be part of my practice.

Our Monday extension day ran from 8 am to 6 pm and was packed with great information for tarot professionals. I am so excited to have presented and organized the first-ever ProDev Extension Day at NWTS!

A tarot convention can be a lot of different things. It can be a time to learn, a time to shop, and a time to play. It is certainly always a time to gather with kindred folk. For me, NWTS was all of those things, and more.

If you love tarot and have the opportunity, NWTS 2020 will be open for registration in just a few short months.

When Tarot Keywords Diverge

When Tarot Keywords Diverge

Tarot interpretation is a complex thing. In a reading there are almost infinite possibilities of how a card might speak to us. Yet, there are, and must be, classic archetypes, keywords, and card meanings from which those infinite possibilities spring.

This divergence of meaning is further complicated by the difference between tarot traditions. For example, Crowley called the Two of Swords ‘Peace’. Most Waite readers will see the Two of Swords as a card of decision-making. A wise tarotist adds all the possibilities and traditions to their toolbox. One never knows when a meaning from a different tradition will pop into your mind as the precise message needed in the reading at hand.

The exercise of finding the connection point between different traditions can help us explore new possibilities for the cards. In the example of the Two of Swords, this card now often shows up for me to mean the need to be at peace with indecision in the moment.

When we find that a keyword or understanding we hold for a particular card is different from how many of our peers see it, it’s a good exercise to figure out how that happened. Is it a difference in traditions? Did you have a particular experience with this card that influenced your understanding of it? Was there a particular author or deck that introduced a new possibility for this card?

For example, in Chrysalis Tarot, the Hierophant is the ‘Divine Child’. In making the leap from the Pope to a ‘divine child’, they had forever added this possibility to our understanding of Major Arcana 5.

One card for which I have a solid and simple understand that is different from many of my peers is the Three of Wands. I see the Three of Wands as a first victory, and a harbinger of success. Many of my tarot friends find the Three of Wands to be more about possibilities than actual success.

Crowley calls the Three of Wands ‘Virtue’. Here we see the concept of opportunity and possibility, versus my understanding of confident success.

Of the Three of Wands, Waite says, “established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce, discovery; those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, which are sailing over the sea”. Clearly, my understanding of this card is directly influenced by Waite, the designer of the tradition with which I most resonate. That makes sense.

It’s a good practice, when we find ourselves wondering about divergent card keywords and meanings, to go to source texts to discover what has influenced our own understanding, and the understanding of others. In doing so, there is an opportunity to solidify and expand our relationship with each card we contemplate.

You Have Seen Your Golden Wings

You Have Seen Your Golden Wings

I like to think of myself as something of an intellectual, especially when it comes to literature. Yet, the hard truth is I prefer song lyrics to poetry, fantasy art to fine art, and cheesy crime novels to good lit. There, I said it. Sometimes we fall short of our perfect vision of ourselves.

Another way I fall short of that vision is that I strongly prefer listening to music I know versus music I don’t know. I’ve berated myself for this often. I had to hear each of my favorite songs a first time, right?

Today I am proud to announce that I have a new favorite song. I heard it for the first time Saturday night, live in concert. I downloaded in on Apple Music the next day. Now it’s a brainworm that likely won’t drive me nuts for a long time.

The song, Golden Wings, is by John Kadlecik, on the John Kadlecik Band’s new album, On the Road. He played it early in the first set of their jammin’, bangin’, most awesome show at Terra Fermata in my new hometown of Stuart, Florida, on February 9, 2019. As he announced it, he mentioned that the lyrics included a quote from Rumi.

I know who Rumi was, of course. There is even an out-of-print Rumi Tarot by the great Nigel Jackson. Yet, I had never read Rumi, for exactly the same reason I don’t like to listen to new songs. I’d rather read the poets l love, like T.S. Eliot and e e cummings, then venture into new territory.

As I waited for JKB to start their first set Saturday night, I was hoping they would play a lot of music I knew and loved, and not as much of their original stuff. Yet, Golden Wings caught me quickly. By the time they played another new-to-me original, Seen Love, I was totally hungry for new music.

Being open to new things seems to be something I need to nurture in my life right now.

As a diviner, I get a lot of messages from the Universe through song lyrics. Now, that lovely piece of poetry from Rumi, delivered to me by my favorite second generation Grateful Dead inspired musician, is my oracle for the moment. I looked up the poem and read it in its entirety. There is a lot to contemplate there. Within it, I can find confirmation of the need to embrace what is new. Yet, there’s more.

The Rumi quote shows up in the chorus of the song.

“Oh soul,
you worry too much.
You have seen your own strength.
You have seen your own beauty.
You have seen your golden wings.
Of anything less,
why do you worry?
You are in truth
the soul, of the soul, of the soul.”

— Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

What are these golden wings of which Rumi wrote and John sings? What are my golden wings?

This is the question my musical oracle asks me to contemplate today. In that contemplation, I pulled a single tarot card. Major Arcana 20, Judgment, appeared to me. That, in many decks, this image includes an angel with wings is a nice visual synchronicity.

What is interesting that that strength and beauty are things that we literally do possess, and literally can see in ourselves and others. I don’t know anyone who literally has wings, golden or otherwise, growing out of their backs.

The message of Judgment for me, beyond closure and assessment, is one of acknowledging one’s victories, and of hearing one’s calling. When I think of the jump from acknowledging my strength and beauty to acknowledging some etheric spiritual quality in myself for which ‘golden wings’ would be a descriptor, Major Arcana 20 makes perfect sense.

Perhaps you would like to join me in this divination exercise. Pull a card for yourself and ask the Universe to show you your own golden wings.