Tarot News blog has news and information of interest to the tarot community.
The Choices We Regret
"To err is human, to forgive is divine". How can we process the choices we later regret? How can we learn to trust ourselves?
We all know that everyone makes mistakes. Alexander Pope, in “An Essay on Criticism” said that “to err is human, to forgive is divine”. Perhaps the hardest part of forgiveness is when we must forgive ourselves.
When we are young, we fear mistakes because we want the praise of others and fear criticism. As we age, the mistakes we made along the way become woven into the fabric of our lives so that we can’t really regret them without losing who we have become. Our mistakes are part of the story that brought us to where we are.
It is easy to say that if we had not chosen that or done this our life would have turned out better. Yet, that is only speculation. We could just as easily say that in the moment we chose the best or only thing we could, and no other choice would have landed us in a better place.
It can be good to learn from our mistakes and make better decisions going forward. However, we need to be able to do that without beating ourselves up.
The worst mistakes are those that hurt others. When we are aware that has happened, we must admit to our wrongdoing, and try to make amends whenever possible. And still, we must also forgive ourselves.
The thing is that mistakes aren’t planned. We call them accidents, not on-purposes. When we make a decision, we rarely know if we will regret it later. If decision-making makes us anxious because we fear a bad choice, we get stuck in the paralysis of analysis. All we can do is make the best choice we can and do the best we can. That choice will always be based on the information and resources that we have available to us in the moment.
It this this very practice that gives us the grace to forgive and understand our past mistakes. The most likely thing is always this. In each moment, we have always made the best choices we could have, based on what was true for us in that moment.
It is easy to look back and think of the thing we could have done better. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. In reality, most of the time, most of us do the very best we can in the moment.
The good news is this.
The older we get, the more experience we have, the more ability we have to make better choices going forward. Our past mistakes can be valuable education. In that way, rather than suffering regret, we can appreciate the knowledge that guides us toward a better future.
The StaarCorner
This year StaarCon will offer a beginner class on angels! Karin Maynard Eberly is certified by Hay House as an Oracle, Angel and Tarot Card Reader. She has certifications from renowned author and Angel expert Kyle Gray as an Angel Guide, an Angel Card Master, and Certified Crystal Energy Guide. Karin is a Certified Angel Tarot Reader by Radleigh Valentine, a Certified Oracle by Colette Baron Reid, and is certified in Reiki II and Animal Reiki. She has been certified as an Angel Reiki Level One and Crystal Healer by Margaret Ann Lembo.
Karin will be sharing information and exercises to help you connect with angels to power your readings, and your life.
You can attend StaarCon in person or online. StaarCon 2023 is fast approaching. Get your tickets now!
Healing From Past Decisions Tarot Questions
We all live with regret. Very often our regrets from the past make it hard for us to be present in the now, and trust future decisions. Here are some questions you can ask your cards to help you process and heal past decisions that did not work out the way you had hoped..
Pull one card in answer, or pull a few. You can also use these questions to inspire a tarot spread.
Why did I make the choice I did?
In what way did that choice help me?
In what way did that choice hurt me?
What other choices were available to me?
What might have happened if I made another choice?
What do I need to know in order to forgive myself?
What can I learn from this experience?
The Week in Review
Tonight at 7 pm ET please join our YouTube Tarot Meetup!
If you are a member of my YouTube channel, you can watch the replay of our Tarot and Chakras Members-only Livestream.
If you missed my appearance on Good Journeys Tarot on YouTube, you can watch the replay. Rosemary is doing 78 cards in 78 weeks. The card we discussed was the Page of Wands.
There is still time to vote for me in the WDA awards. I am nominated for Best Tarot Reader and Best Tarot Teacher. Voting closes September 30.
From Around the Web
Here is a great story about a professional tarot reader.
Moving on From a Mistake, from TinyBuddha.
The Simple Tarot shares some mistakes that new tarot readers often make. I found many of these sorts of articles and agreed with very few of them. This one gets my basic seal of approval.
Guidance on the Journey
I think the tarot Fives can each give us information about the way we process mistakes.
The Hierophant, Major Arcana 5, reminds of the rules we must follow, and the rules we should sometimes break. This card can also speak to us about the way we feel when others judge us.
Temperance, Major Arcana 14, is a Five card because when we add the digits 1 and 4 we arrive at 5. Temperance reminds us that it takes time, caution, and creativity to come up with something that is a perfect blend or perfect balance. Of course, there may be mistakes along the way.
The Five of Pentacles can speak of the regret of missed opportunities. The question is, did we really miss the opportunity, or can we find what we need even now?
The Five of Cups speaks of the things we have lost. It reminds us to hold space for grief, even while remembering that there are still good things in life.
The Five of Swords speaks of the battles we must fight. The key decision is to know when to fight, and when to walk away.
The Five of Wands speaks of the inevitable conflicts and decisions that come from building something.
You can see that in each of these cards, a mistake, loss, or a poor decision is a possibility. Sometimes these cards will appear to warn us to choose carefully. Other times they will call on us to reframe the way we think about our past decisions that did not turn out the way we had hoped.
Upcoming Events
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 39
September 28, 2022
The Awkward Number Five
It is impossible to achieve success without take a leap of faith and courage.
This week our newsletter is Volume 5, Issue 25. I thought it would be fun to discuss the energy of the number 5 in honor of that milestone.
Five, in tarot, is an awkward number. To make friends with the Five cards we need a lot of nuanced thinking, and a lot of faith and courage.
When Five is your personality number, you might be social and fun-loving, but you could also be very changeable.
The number Five is associated with Mercury, so we can see the importance of communication and social connections, but also the possibility for tricky behavior.
If you are seeing multiple Fives around you, interpret this as a head-up for changes that can lead you to success. Look for opportunities around you.
When we look at the numbered cards in the Minor Arcana of tarot, we can see that Four cards can indicate stability, while the Six cards can indicate success. Here we see the way that Five cards, and the number Five in general, can be troublesome.
To get to the place of success, we must leave the comfort zone of Four. Five is where we are on our way to success but have not quite made it. We are no longer in the comfort zone, and not yet successful.
In that place of Five we must be comfortable with being uncomfortable, knowing that our success is coming, and is worth our hard work and sacrifice. We must believe in ourselves, and in our journey. We must see the future, and work toward it, without the structure we have known in the past.
It is probably impossible to become successful without passing through that awkward phase. Whatever your goal is, know that you must sometimes leave comfort behind, and live in a space that feels unstable, on your way to success.
See Me in the Tampa Bay Area This Week
There is still time to get a private reading, house call, or group session with me in the Greater Tampa Bay Area this Thursday through Sunday.
Make sure you join us at Panera Bread in Lutz at 3 pm on Sunday for a tarot meetup, too!
If you have questions, or want to schedule something, please call or text 561-655-1160.
The StaarCorner
We are excited to welcome Tikashi Denour Lacoste to StaarCon 2023. I have known Tikashi for several years online and on the telephone. I am looking forward to meeting her for the first time in person in January.
Tikashi is a Certified Crystal Healer and a graduate of the Debra Silverman School of Astrology. She has studied contemporary and medieval astrology with Bernadette Brady and Darrellyn Gunzberg.
Tikashi is a natural intuitive, as well as a tarotist. She combines all her skills in her work with clients. We are thrilled that she will be sharing her knowledge with us at StaarCon 2023.
Four, Five, Six Tarot Spread
Here is a three-card reading that can give insight on your way to success. It is extra auspicious if you get a Four card in the first position, a Five card in the second position, or a Six card in the Third position.
Card One: What you need to give up or move away from in order to succeed.
Card Two: What you need to know while you are working toward your success.
Card Three: What your success could look like.
The Week in Review
Did you catch our Summer Solstice event on YouTube yesterday? You can watch the replay if you missed it. I have also shared a new rant for you!
Remember that all our members are invited to join us for a members-only class on tarot magic on June 30th!
From Around the Web
Here is a Summer Solstice Tarot Spread from The Seasonal Soul.
Here are some tarot rituals for the summer solstice from Tarot Parlor.
Here is your astrological forecast for the summer solstice from Well and Good.
What the Court Cards Want You to Know
On Wednesday, June 29, 7 pm to 9 pm, join us for a hybrid tarot class about the tarot Court cards. You can attend in Person in Palm City or online on Zoom.
The sixteen Court cards, typically called Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings, can be some of the most confusing cards in the tarot deck.
This is because these cards are very versatile. They can reference the people around you. They can also reference parts of yourself. They can behave like any other tarot card and offer advice, comment, and prediction.
In this two-hour class you will learn easy ways to understand and work with these sixteen cards.
You can join us in person or online. Every student will receive access to a recording of the class. Visit EventBrite to purchase your ticket.
The class will be available at cardandcraftacademy.com after July 8th.
Guidance on the Journey
Major Arcana 5, the Hierophant, teaches us some important lessons about nuance and critical thinking. These lessons are necessary when we are going through ‘5 phases.’ That is, when we are going through a time of discomfort on our way to eventual success.
The Hierophant represents spiritual leadership, doctrine, and dogma. We know that spiritual study and mentorship are important. But we also know that dogma can be limiting, and mentors can become abusive.
It is so tempting to try to make something either fully good, or fully bad, fully helpful, or fully unhelpful.
Nuanced thinking requires us to be able to hold space for the idea that something, or someone, can offer things that are positive and necessary along with things that are difficult and troublesome.
As humans, we all have that mix within us, but have little patience and understanding for that mix outside of ourselves.
One of the lessons of the number 5, and the 5 cards in tarot, is to find the blessings in the difficulties, and tolerate the difficulties in the blessings. We also need to know when the difficulties should not be tolerated, even if that means sacrificing the blessings.
Upcoming Events and Tours
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
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 classes www.cardandcraftacademy.com
StaarCon information www.staarcon.com
Private telephone, Skype, FaceTime 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 25
June 22, 2022
There Is No Failure
This week we look at the ins and outs of winning and losing.
There Is No Failure
Lessons on the Way to Success
How we handle ourselves when things don’t go our way says a lot about our character. It’s also very predictive of what is likely to happen next.
If we blame others, we are likely to not make the self-corrections needed to create a win in the future.
If we blame ourselves, we are likely to stay in a place of low self-esteem rather than rising to meet our goals at the next opportunity.
No one likes to lose. No one enjoys failure. Yet, on the way to achieving our goals it is inevitable that we will make some mistakes, and that not everything will go the way we want.
Very often people decide not to even try to set goals for what they truly want because they fear the possibility of failure so much.
Many people have childhood trauma based on the way their parents, teachers or peers dealt with their academic, social or athletic losses. These childhood losses, and the scars they leave, very often determine how willing we are to take risks and fight for our success in adulthood.
I think the best way to process failure is to decide that failure doesn’t really exist. In the absence of success there is the opportunity to learn in order to create future success. Alternatively, sometimes when we fail at something, we can take it as an opportunity to make a different choice. If we fail an important test, it might mean that we need to redouble our efforts, study harder and pass it next time. Or, it might mean that we are better suited to take a different path. In either case, we can see that failure as a win because it moves us closer to finding our path and achieving our goals.
Sometimes we deal with people in our families and at work who make us feel like a loser. Sometimes we do this to ourselves with negative self-talk. Yet, our language is full of expressions that remind us that we can’t always expect a win.
“You can’t win them all!”
“You win some, you lose some.”
“It’s not who wins or loses, it’s how you play the game.”
Whether we are thinking about sports, business or politics, our culture is often focused on winning, and on valuing competition over cooperation. Yet, very often, when we cooperate with each other, everyone has an opportunity for success.
The best way to create success for all is to consider that our personal wins do not necessarily mean besting another, they mean doing our personal best. When we fail to meet our mark, rather than feeling badly about the loss, we need to discover what we have learned, and use that to move us forward, toward our future success.
See Me in the Tampa Bay Area!
I will be back in the Tampa Bay Area July 19 through 22. I will be available for house calls and parties while I am there. As usual when I visit the area, we will have a Tarot Meetup! Join us Sunday, July 21, at 3 pm at the Panera Bread in Lutz.
Please reach at to me at 561-655-1160 to schedule your in-person reading, and make plans to join us for our free informal tarot workshop at Panera!
Divination to Find the Win
The term ‘FTW’ often means ‘For the Win’ in gaming. Here, we will use it to mean ‘Find the Win’, because that is the best way to process something that feels like failure.
When something doesn’t go your way, the best thing to do is to consider what positive things you can take away from the experience.
What did you learn?
How did this experience help you?
What caused things not to go your way, and what can you learn from that?
How can you mitigate problems that come from your less-than-desirable results?
These are questions you can ask yourself in reflection and meditation, but also in divination.
Simply shuffle your tarot or oracle cards and pull one card to answer each of these questions.
Consider if there are other questions you want to know about what happened, how you can process it and what comes next. Pull a card for each of these questions.
Continue this process until you have found a way to frame your experience that is helpful instead of hurtful.
Use this process to find the win anytime you have an undesirable outcome. This way, you will spend less time mourning your losses, and more time getting yourself on track!
The Week in Review
This week I shared a post about reading for people who are not present. In the tarot world we call this ‘third-party reading’. There are many ethical considerations when doing these sorts of readings. In this post I share my personal ethics and ideas about this thorny issue.
If you missed my Three-Card Reading for the week on Facebook Live, you can find it in archive on YouTube.
From Around the Web
T. Susan Chang is exploring astrology and tarot in her blog. It’s definitely worth reading her posts to help understand the way astrology associates with the tarot cards.
The Tarot Blog Hop happened on the Summer Solstice. Here is the Master List. You can follow the links to see what eleven tarotists had to say about handling timing with tarot.
Here is one tarotist’s take on cards of success and failure.
Cards for Your Consideration
There are many cards in tarot that can speak of competition, wins and losses. My three favorites are the Five of Swords, the Five of Wands and the Six of Wands.
In the Five of Swords we see an unavoidable battle. There will definitely be a winner and a loser. Very often I see this card as a warning to gird your loins, rise to the battle and fight to win.
When reversed or ill-dignified, there is a sense of cooperation, diplomacy and negotiation.
The Five of Wands shows a conflict that might be playful, or creative, or acrimonious, depending on the situation. It may be that too many cooks are spoiling the meal, or that we have too many ideas on how to proceed.
When reversed or ill-dignified, we may be avoiding a necessary conflict.
In the Six of Swords we see a hero riding home from battle, victorious. To me, this card predicts success, and urges us to believe in our own possibilities for achievement. This card can speak to the positive side of a competitive nature.
When reversed or ill-dignified, there is a feeling of not winning. Sometimes, when I see this card reversed, it seems like my client is feeling like a loser.
In which cards do you see winning, losing and competition?
Upcoming Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 2 Issue 27
July 3, 2019
The Process of Personal Transformation
Read my latest newsletter, which includes a brand-new tarot spread and lots of great summer classes!
This edition of the Tarot Topics newsletter is full of information about classes, both online and in Florida. There's a new tarot spread to try, and updates on the Second Edition of Fortune Stellar!