Tarot News blog has news and information of interest to the tarot community.
Is Fear Fun?
Spooky stuff can be fun, but it also helps us process our real fears and traumas.
There are cultural traditions everywhere that involve having fun with scary things, as we do during Halloween. A lot of people enjoy scary movies and thrilling carnival rides at any time of year. Horror stories are some of the best-selling books each year. This is proof that many people enjoy being scared. Why is that?
I think people like spooky fun because there are so many truly scary things in life. Horror stories, haunted houses, and scary movies are clearly not real. Allowing ourselves to be scared in a safe environment, by something we know is not real, may give us strength to deal with our real fears, and to process our actual traumas.
Fear is an interesting thing to unpack. We all feel fear that hurts us and holds us back from doing the things we want and need to do. We also feel fear that protects us and helps us stay safe.
These sorts of real fears are not fun at all, and only some of them are necessary.
This Spooky Season is a great opportunity to think about the fear that we have that is not real and does not serve us. There is no better time to release the fear that holds us back, so we can fully step into our personal power.
How Spirit Speaks Through Tarot Workshop
Plan to join us Wednesday, October 26, from 7 pm to 9 pm ET, for this special seasonal class.
You can join us on Zoom or in person in Palm City. This will be our last hybrid tarot class for 2022.
In this two-hour class you will learn how to hear the voice of spirit in a tarot reading, whether reading for yourself or others. You will learn to empower your readings with the presence of divine helpers, each and every time you pull a card.
Visit EventBrite to purchase your ticket.
The class will be available at cardandcraftacademy.com after November 2nd.
Visit christianagaudet.com for more information!
The StaarCorner
StaarCon 2023 is January 20-22, with a thirty-day AfterGlow on Accelevents. During the AfterGlow all ticketholders will be able to view and review recordings of StaarCon 2023 presentations, attend scheduled events with StaarCon presenters, shop in the online expo and gather with friends in the StaarCon lounges.
This year I am particularly excited with the wide range of topics we will be covering at StaarCon. Whether you are a professional reader, an aspiring pro, an enthusiast, or a curious beginner, there will be plenty for you to learn, do, and experience. Beyond tarot, we will be exploring Lenormand, astrology, numerology, divination with natural objects, crystals, mediumship, and much more.
You can attend in person in West Palm Beach or online on Accelevents. You can join us for one day, two days, or the whole weekend. We hope to see you there!
Tarot for When We are Afraid
We often do a reading, either for ourselves or with a friend or professional, when we are afraid. Tarot will often be able to tell us if the thing we are afraid of will happen, and whether it will be as bad as we fear. Tarot can also tell us how to handle our anxiety, and, if necessary, how to get through a difficult time. Tarot can help us find meaning in difficulty, just as tarot can help assuage unnecessary fear.
Sometimes it is best not to ask tarot if the thing you fear will come to pass. Rather, it is often better to ask a question such as, “What do I need to do right now to help the situation?” or “How can I find the strength to deal with this?”
If there is a situation that I am unsure of, I often like to do a two-card spread. The first card is, “This is the best this situation can turn out to be”. The second card is “This is the worst this situation can turn out to be.” The cards that appear here can be quite enlightening.
If we are having a tough time, we can turn to the cards for comfort. You can simply ask the cards to give a comforting message and pull a card. See what comfort you can find in the image that appears.
The Week in Review
I shared a short video on my YouTube channel called Processing Our Mortality with Tarot. If you missed last week’s class, Seasonal Tarot Practices, you will enjoy the replay.
Members of my YouTube channel should join us tomorrow evening, Thursday, at 7 pm for our monthly Member’s Only Livestream. This month we are Calling in the Ancestors!
From Around the Web
Ben Libra Does Tarot has created a tarot spread to release the fear of one’s own magic and energy.
If you happen to be in or near Easthampton, Massachusetts on November 5 and 6, check out Bite Size Blends, a Mini Performance Fest at Eastworks!
The New York Post has published an article listing the best tarot deck for each astrological sign. I have never thought about choosing a deck based on astrology, but it is a fun idea!
Guidance on the Journey
Many misinformed people are afraid of tarot, and many people are afraid of specific tarot cards. There are cards that have names and images that can be scary. However, are there any tarot cards that truly advise us to be afraid?
The Fool asks us to take a leap of faith. When reversed, the Fool can be an admonition to be cautious. The Moon and Temperance can both advise caution. The Seven of Swords can warn of treachery.
In context, any card or card combination might warn against a specific action. But do any of these cards speak specifically of fear?
The Eight and Nine of Swords might speak of anxiety and worry. In these cards we can perhaps see fear. Yet very often these cards appear when we need to release anxiety and find a solution to our worry.
From my perspective, there are quite a few cards that speak of caution and patience. There does not seem to be a single card that advises or welcomes fear.
This may be a lesson we can learn from tarot. There are times that faith should outweigh fear. There are times to be careful. There are times to be on our guard. There are times we must confront our own worry. There are certainly things that we need to avoid. In life, the function of fear is to help us avoid things that can hurt us. The voice of tarot, however, does not usually seem to advise fear. Rather, it advises the wise decisions that safely move us forward.
Upcoming Events
Consider a Zoom.com party where you can practice Social Distancing and still meet with your friends for a virtual tarot party!
Alternatives to meeting in person are available.
Office appointments and house or office parties are again available by appointment.
Please call to discuss the options.
Card and Craft Academy
Classes presented by Christiana are available right now at Card and Craft Academy!
Christiana’s Eleven-Card Celtic Cross
Finding Meaning in the Minor Arcana
The Major Arcana, Magical and Mundane
Personal Tarot: Reading for Yourself
Sharing Wisdom: Reading for Others
The Meaning and Magic of Tarot Reversals
Journey Through the Major Arcana
Your Journey Through the Minor Arcana: Numbers, Elements and Truth
Your Journey Through the Tarot Court
Tarot Stories, Trends, and Blends
Tarot Readings for Personalities and Relationships
Fearless Wisdom Tarot Workshop
Tarot Keywords and Interpretations Workshop
Tarot Spreads Tools and Techniques Workshop
Tarot for Magic and Mediumship
Tarot Communication for Clarity and Depth
Weaving the Tarot Reading Story
Minor Arcana Numbers, Elements, and Truth
Create and Interpret Custom Tarot Spreads
What the Court Cards Want You to Know
Catch up on your missed Zoom webinars and more!
cardandcraftacademy.com
About Christiana Gaudet
Card and Craft, Inc.
Southeastern Tarot Artists and Readers, LLC.
Christiana Gaudet
3559 SW Corporate Parkway
Palm City, Florida 34990-8152
On the web www.christianagaudet.com
Online classeswww.cardandcraftacademy.com
StaarCon information www.staarcon.com
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.
Call or text toll free 866-99TAROT (866-998-2768)
Palm City 772-301-0232
or call or text 561-655-1160
for more information or to schedule your event.
Agent inquiries are welcome.
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 5 Issue 42
October 19, 2022
Feeling Stuck?
Some thoughts on how we can get out of our own way.
It is part of the human experience to feel stuck sometimes. We might be stuck in a job we don’t love, or a housing situation that doesn’t suit us. Sometimes it is hard to find a way out and on to the next thing.
Sometimes we are stuck in a more internal way. We have goals but can’t seem to get out of our own way to do what we think we need to do to achieve them.
Sometimes we are stuck in a way of thinking, or a pattern of behavior, that doesn’t serve us.
Often, when our feelings of being stuck are more internal, and related to our own behaviors, we refer to our stuck state as being ‘blocked’.
We might say that we have a block that keeps us from moving forward, or that something is blocking us.
Sometimes we may think that what is blocking us in an energy that comes from outside ourselves. Sometimes we know it is of our own creation.
Very often, creative people feel blocked from moving forward on their projects. We have all heard of ‘writer’s block’, for example.
If we are stuck in a logistical situation, very often we may feel blocked from finding our solutions.
Sometimes the only way out of a difficult situation is to get through it, patiently and diligently, until the situation changes.
When dealing with internal and creative blocks, very often the solution is to change the way we think.
When considering a stuck situation, it is important to neither catastrophize nor minimize the predicament.
Sometimes it feels easier to stay in a stuck situation because we can blame that situation for our lack of progress or success. We know that, once we are free, we will have no excuse not to work toward success.
Feeling stuck is frustrating. The solutions may be practical, spiritual or emotional. The solution may require us to make a change, release a fear, or step outside of our comfort zone.
It’s never easy. Yet, it is doable, and definitely worth doing.
Divination, either for ourselves, with a friend, or with a professional, is often the first step toward making that needed change. We can commune with the Universe to discover the root of our problems and embrace possible solutions. Then, breaking free becomes our most likely outcome.
The StaarCorner
If you are interested in metaphysics, divination, and tarot, you will want to consider attending StaarCon! StaarCon will be an annual event, featuring some the best tarot artists, writers, and readers in the world. We will also include rune readers, oracle creators and other practitioners of divination and healing.
Connect with us on our Facebook page, join our Facebook group, and visit our website!
StaarCon Presenter V.
Intuitive Mistress, Tarot BFF
Getting Unstuck with Tarot
Tarot is a great tool for any sort of problem-solving. The key is to ask the right questions.
Here are some helpful questions to ask your cards when you are in a stuck situation.
What is the root cause of this stuck feeling?
What is the best way to handle this situation?
What must I do to remove myself from this situation?
How can I change my thinking to bring change to this situation?
What is this situation teaching me?
Psychic Tarot: Live Webinar on Zoom
Join us on Tuesday, June 30, 7 pm to 9 pm EDT for an exciting and unique tarot webinar live on Zoom.
We all know that a great tarot reading is more than a series of card interpretations. In this class you will learn ways to access wisdom and intuition to bring your tarot readings to life.
Students will experience a series of psychic development exercises, and learn some of the many ways to bring intuition into a tarot reading.
Tarot students of all levels of experience, from beginner to adept, will find this class helpful and informative.
Class fee is $37.50. Register now!
Did you miss a premium Zoom webinar event?
Do you want to watch a premium Zoom webinar event again?
Visit Card and Craft Academy to register and take a workshop you missed.
Everyone who attends a premium Zoom Webinar event will receive a complimentary pass to Card and Craft Academy to view the workshop again.
Each course includes the workshop materials you can download and save!
The Week in Review
Did you catch my free class on YouTube, The High Priestess, the Hierophant and the Hermit? If you missed it, you can watch it in archive.
I do at least four live broadcasts each week on my Facebook business page. Watch them live or view the videos after the fact.
I am happy to welcome a guest blogger to my Community Blog. Nancy Hendrickson has shared a fascinating post about using tarot to connect with your ancestors who experienced the pandemic of 1918.
From Around the Web
It’s not often that we find a new, original, helpful product in the metaphysical world. Christine Leiser’s new planner is definitely worth checking out.
I hope you don’t ever need this article in Tiny Buddha. But, if you have been dealing with gaslighting and abuse, you should read this.
Mercury is currently in retrograde. Here are some thoughts on how to use that energy effectively from Tarot.com.
Cards for Your Consideration
There are only a few tarot cards that speak specifically of being stuck. The Eight of Swords is one card that clearly and poignantly expresses this energy. We may see this energy in the Hanged Man as well.
Yet, sometimes when I do a reading, the energy of being stuck is very clearly expressed by a group of cards.
Which cards, other than the Eight of Swords, are most likely to work together to express that stuck energy?
Often present are the Four and Five of Cups, and the Nine and Ten of Swords. The Devil, of course, can indicate a situation in which we have willingly chosen to be stuck.
I also often see the stuck energy expressed in certain reversals. Reversed Aces and Knights can indicate being stuck and stagnant. So can Death reversed, as well as the Six of Swords reversed and the Eight of Wands reversed. When I see Temperance reversed, I think that a solution has yet to be found.
What is interesting is that the feeling of being stuck, stagnant and frustrated is one that can be overwhelming in a reading. It usually takes a number of cards to fully express this energy.
When we see cards working together to tell us about a stuck or blocked situation, we can very often find the solution within those same cards if we look hard enough.
Upcoming Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 26
June 24, 2020
The Ironies of Anxiety
What Rumi knew that we need to know today, and more.
The Ironies of Anxiety
How to worry less and live more.
I know a lot of people with diagnosed anxiety disorders, many more who would likely receive such a diagnosis if they brought their worries to a doctor, and still more who seem to suffer worry, fear and insomnia regularly. It sometimes feels we are simply an anxious society.
An irony of anxiety is that the more anxious we are, the less able we are to think clearly and find healthy perspectives and solutions to our problems.
It’s normal to have a few fears and worries from time to time, and there have always been people who suffer emotional disorders which require medical attention. Perhaps anxiety is human nature and has always been with us. The words of Rumi, the well-loved thirteenth-century poet, resonate so well today. These words tell us that maybe we are hardwired for anxiety, and that spiritual thought has always been the way to manage it. Rumi wrote, in part,
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?
I find it comforting that these centuries-old words still speak so much truth. It’s easy to believe that our anxious condition is a product of our modern life; of politics, social media, economic stress and urban development. While those things can certainly create modern anxiety, it appears that the lifestyle of any century could have been a recipe for stress. It seems the question is now as it was then, how do we handle that stress? How do we manage our anxiety?
Rumi suggests that we discover the power of our spiritual nature; that we remember the bigger picture; that the beauty of life is always around us.
It’s easy and normal to be weighed down by heartache, family problems, and the nagging suspicion that we will never measure up to our own expectations. Yet, when we turn our focus to the miracle that is within each breath we take, that new perspective gives us faith, hope, and some relief from our anxiety.
That’s not to say that practices such as meditation, mindfulness, gratitude and yoga are a cure-all for serious mental illness. Yet, these practices that make us aware of our spiritual nature, and that make our spiritual nature as important as our physical reality, are scientifically proven to help.
Rumi didn’t have the benefit of modern science to tell him that looking within and seeing our strength, our beauty and our spiritual nature would make a difference. He knew it because he was wise.
There is so much wisdom available to us today. It is ironic that the bombardment of ads and memes that preach a healing spiritual practice can sometimes themselves be anxiety-producing. They can make us feel badly for not doing enough on our own behave.
Perhaps the first best step toward anxiety-reduction is simply radical acceptance – to accept ourselves, and our life, exactly as it is right now. To know that everything is perfect in its imperfection.
Starting from that place of acceptance we may be able to carve our just a little time to adopt some healthy practices. We may be able to adjust our thoughts away worry, and focus more on logical problem-solving.
Clarity in Every Card: How to Use Context, Keywords and Intuition to Give an Amazing Tarot Reading
Please make plans to join us June 9, 4 pm to 6 pm, in my conference room in Palm City for this exciting class.
Whether you are a new tarot enthusiast, a professional reader, or somewhere in-between, you know the struggle. Sometimes the cards show up in clear and poignant ways. Other times they speak in mysteries and give clues rather than clear direction. Whether reading for yourself or others, this can be a discouraging and frustrating for even the most learned seekers.
In this class you will learn some techniques to help you make every reading your best reading, and to find clarity in every card.
Some of the techniques you will learn involve tarot study and protocol, others involve your intuitive development and natural connection to the tarot images.
Bring a tarot deck or borrow or purchase one at the class. Class fee is $37.50. Seating is limited. Reserve your seat online!
Anxiety Relief Tarot Dialogue
One of the tarot techniques I rely on most often is what I refer to as the tarot dialogue. In the tarot dialogue, one questions leads to another. You ask your primary question, and pull a card, or a few cards, to get your answer. From there, you see if that answer generates a next question, or if you have a related question.
Pick up the card or cards you have pulled, shuffle them back into the deck, and ask that next question. Answer that question by once again pulling a card, or a few cards. Then move on to a next question, and continue until you feel more at ease, and feel that you have a clear understanding of the issue. Each time you pull cards, shuffle them back into the deck. This allows cards to show up numerous times. If that happens, pay special attention to the card or cards that repeat.
If something is making you anxious and you can’t identify what it is, you can start with a question like, “What is it that is really bothering me?” If you know what the problem is you can begin with a question like, “What is the impact of this issue that is bothering me?” or “What can I do to mitigate this problem?”.
Often anxiety comes from a belief that something is worse than it is or will have a bigger impact than it will. We make mountains out of molehills, as the expression goes. We can ask questions that help us understand the true nature of the problem, how much of a problem it truly is, and how to handle it.
Book Now for my June Northeastern Tarot Tour
It’s almost time for my June Northeastern Tarot Tour, June 12 through 25. Once again, I will be available for readings at True Bikram Yoga in Madison, Connecticut. I am also available for parties and house calls in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. I will be teaching a tarot class on June 16th in Madison, and a chakra healing class on June 23rd in New Haven.
Please call or text 562-655-1160, or email me, to schedule your time with me, to book your party, or to get more information about classes.
Since I will be teaching tarot during my Connecticut trips I have started The Connecticut Tarot Study Group on Meetup.com for my Connecticut friends. Please join if you are interested in tarot and live in New England.
I will look forward to seeing my Northeastern friends this June.
The Week in Review
Did you catch my weekly three-card reading on Facebook Live? If not, you can check it out in archive on YouTube.
This week I shared some important but unlikely advice for beginning and intermediate tarot students on my Community Blog.
From Around the Web
Want to learn about Rumi, and read more of his work? Find it on Poets.org.
Here are Ten Mindful Attitudes that Decrease Anxiety. Mindfulness seems to be all the rage, but do we really know what it means?
Here is a Tarot Spread for Working with Anxiety. As you can see, there are many ways to use tarot to release anxiety.
Tarot card image from The Gilded Tarot Royale by Ciro Marchetti. Used with permission.
Cards for Your Consideration
This week, consider the traditional depiction of the Eight of Swords as an illustration of anxiety. Often when I see this card I think of a person trapped in a cage of their own thoughts.
Very often when this card appears it can speak of anxiety, either in a clinical or situation sense.
The Eight of Swords tells us to get ourselves out of that paralysis of analysis, to stop trapping ourselves with our own repetitive thinking.
While no one enjoys receiving this card in a reading, its instructions are clear. We need to take off the blindfold and release ourselves from the tyranny of our own thinking.
Upcoming Events
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 2 Issue 23
June 5, 2019
Tarot Topics 11/5/2014: Lighten Up!
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In the Eight of Swords, we see a person trapped by swords. In tarot, Swords relate to the element of Air. Air is the element of thought and communication. In the Eight of Swords, each sword can represent a thought or word that keeps the person trapped.
Your one-card reading this week is the Ten of Wands.
