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Coloring Outside the Lines

Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving for excellence, and it is not the same thing as precision. When we relieve ourselves from perfectionism, we free ourselves up for excellence, and make precision possible.

When we were kids learning our crayon skills, we divided into three categories. There were those who had the dexterity and patience to color inside the lines and create works of art worthy of any family refrigerator. There were those who really didn’t care about lines or appropriate colors and blissfully scribbled whatever and wherever they liked. Then there were those who really wanted to color inside the lines and make adult-approved art, but somehow just couldn’t.

I was the third type. I had neither the manual skill nor the attention to detail to color inside the lines. I thought an orange sky could be much more interesting than a blue one. By the time I hit third grade I was so tired of grown-ups questioning my color choices and encouraging me to be more careful with my work that I gave up on coloring completely. As an adult I have enjoyed coloring with markers and pencils. I still do not love crayons.

I think I longed to be the second type of person who just did not care about what other people thought. It looked like fun to use colors with willy-nilly abandon, and to not worry at all about the lines. It seemed like even more fun to not care what others might say.  It took me a good fifty years to learn what, apparently, some first graders have known all along.

I am thinking about this because of something that came up in a YouTube livestream reading last week. The reading was for a person who was struggling with perfectionism. His desire to do everything perfectly made it very hard for him to do anything at all. What came up in the short reading was this.

There is a difference between excellence and perfectionism. To strive for excellence is to work to do our best, and to be our best. This is an admirable quality. Perfectionism, on the other hand, is a trauma response.

I’ve spent some time thinking about this. There are so many creative things, professional things, and spiritual things that people want to learn. So often, the fear that they won’t be perfect at it keeps them from trying. I think we all need to know that stiving for excellence is enough.

However, there are some practices that really do require everything to be just so. I have often said that I want my doctor and my hair stylist to be perfectionists. Really, I don’t. What I want is for these professionals to work with precision.

Precision and excellence are good and reasonable goals which lead us toward success.

Unlike perfectionism, precision and excellence can leave room for creativity and experimentation.

Perfectionism seeks approval from others. Excellence is its own reward.

The StaarCorner

We are excited that Ailynn Halvorson will be presenting at StaarCon 2024. Ailynn is a tarot reader, tarot teacher, aromatherapist, tea maker and an author. In her book, The Tarot Apothecary: Shifting Personal Energies Using Tarot, Aromatherapy, and Simple Everyday Rituals, Ailynn dives into how to connect the tarot with the plant kingdom.

At StaarCon, Ailynn will teach us to connect plants with tarot cards in order to make powerful potions and teas.

Tickets for StaarCon 2024 will be available soon! Mark your calendar now for January 19-21, 2024.

Portrait of StaarCon 2024 presenter Ailynn Halvorson.
Two young women reading tarot at a cafe.

The Perfect Tarot Reading

What is a perfect tarot reading?

The topic of excellence and perfection comes up a lot in conversation with tarot students. Many students are afraid to try reading for themselves or others because they want to make sure they get it right.

While it is important never to suggest you are an expert when you are not, it is perfectly okay to explore tarot reading as soon as you get your cards. In fact, the only way to learn to read tarot is to practice reading tarot.

We all want to give excellent readings. We all want to be precise in the information we derive from the cards. Yet, the only way to do that is to practice a lot. Those readings that we do early in our studies, or even early in our careers, are going to be different than the readings we are able to do when we are more practiced.

This used to bother me. I want every reading I do to make a difference. I almost wish I could go back to each person I read for thirty years ago and read for them now, because we are always becoming better readers.

Then I remember one of the first professional readings I ever did. It was, in fact, the first couples’ reading I ever did, at the very first psychic fair I ever worked. I was so nervous. When the reading was over, both agreed it was the best reading they had ever had. Looking back, I can tell you that it felt to me that I had no idea what I was doing. Yet, I read the cards the best way I knew how, and the reading landed.

Wald Amberstone of The Tarot School once said this to me. “We trust the right querent with the right question to find the right reader with the right cards at the right time.”

Does this mean that every reading is a perfect reading? We have all heard horror stories of poorly trained tarot readers, and fraudulent tarot readings. Clearly some readings are not perfect.

Yet, if we are serious about our studies, and serious about our practice, and our intention is simply to give a great reading, it is likely that any reading we give will have a measure of perfection.

One thing that has been true in my practice, and may be true in yours, is this. The readings I perform seem to approach perfection most easily when I am not afraid of the tarot version of coloring outside the lines.

What does this mean? For me, it means allowing the cards to speak in the moment, rather than always relying on specific classic interpretations. When we use keywords and classic card meanings as guidelines rather than lines of confinement, we can see a situation with greater detail and clarity.

The Week in Review

Tomorrow at 7 pm ET please join me on my YouTube channel for a free livestream class, Tarot in Context. In this class we will learn ways to use contextual clues to help us find all the information available in a tarot reading.

If you have not yet seen your May TarotScopes, make sure you check them out!

From Around the Web

Sunday is Mother’s Day in the United States. Check out some Mother’s Day tarot spreads, including one from me!

Mother’s Day can be a joyful day. It can also be a painful day, for many reasons. Here is a tarot spread and journaling prompts from Acorn and Burdock to help you process whatever this day brings up for you.

Here is a Mother’s Day tarot spread from The Tarot Room, posted in 2012. This spread offers five cards to help us understand our connection to our mother, and to our own maternal nature.

From 2015, here is a Mother’s Day spread from my blog, which includes an early video on my YouTube channel!

Creation and Divination

Did you know that you can color your own tarot deck? In fact, some tarotists believe that you must color your own deck in order to make a proper connection with the cards.

There are several tarot coloring books and color-your-own tarot decks available. There are courses of tarot study that include coloring your deck as part of the curriculum.

If you are a new tarot student, or if you would like a way to reconnect with your cards, consider a tarot deck coloring project!

Simply Google on “color your own tarot cards”. You will be amazed by the number of options available to you.

If you do not want to commit to coloring a whole deck, you might want to choose one specific card to color. This process could be a deep meditation into that card.

You might choose to color your card or cards in a way that matches the decks that you use. Or you may choose different colors based on your own sense of the energy of the card.

This process of coloring a tarot deck, or a tarot card, is creative and meditative. No matter where you are on your tarot journey, this process will help you know and understand tarot on a deeper level.

Upcoming Events

Featured
Animal Communication with Tarot Webinar on YouTube Live
Nov 21
Animal Communication with Tarot Webinar on YouTube Live

This free live webinar will explore ways to use tarot to learn about your pets.

Tarot For Your Family Members-only Livestream on YouTube
Nov 25
Tarot For Your Family Members-only Livestream on YouTube

Join us for an exploration of how we can use tarot to understand difficult family situations.

About Christiana Gaudet

Card and Craft, Inc.
Southeastern Tarot Artists and Readers, LLC.

Christiana Gaudet

3559 SW Corporate Parkway
Palm City, Florida 34990-8152

Email cgaudet@cardandcraft.com
On the web www.christianagaudet.com
Online classes www.cardandcraftacademy.com
StaarCon information www.staarcon.com

YouTube @YourTarotFairyGodmother
Instagram @christianatarot @staarcon


Private telephone, Skype, FaceTime, Zoom and in person readings and instruction are available by appointment.

Tarot parties at your home or office are available throughout Florida.

Zoom parties and group instruction available almost everywhere!

Call toll free 866-99TAROT (866-998-2768)
Palm City 772-301-0232 x102
or call or text 561-655-1160
for more information or to schedule your event.
Schedule online at cardandcraft.10to8.com.

Agent inquiries are welcome.

Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 6 Issue 19
May 10, 2023

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