Tarot News blog has news and information of interest to the tarot community.
Unconditional Love
What is unconditional love?
We all talk about love a lot. We ‘love’ our friends’ posts on social media. We love the new Netflix series we are binging, we love the cauliflower crust pizza, and, of course, we love our family and friends. We love our country, our car, our dog, and our favorite band, too.
The truth is, within the heart is plenty of room for the fascinating, the frivolous, and the functional. We use the word ‘love’ to describe things that bring us joy, make us laugh, and inspire us.
We also have plenty of room in our hearts for the people in our lives. There are a lot of different ways that we feel love for people. We feel romantic love, parental love, familial love and platonic love. Sometimes our relationships with the people we love bring us a sense of happiness, safety, pride, and companionship. Sometimes they bring us grief and sorrow.
When we consider our closest relationships, the obvious goal is that we should love each other unconditionally. What does unconditional love mean?
Unconditional love is generally defined as love with no strings attached. Unconditional love is not based on action, transaction, or negotiation.
Unconditional love is necessary because we are all human, and humans are imperfect. Unconditional love means that we love each other knowing that we will sometimes fall short of each other’s expectations, and we will sometimes make mistakes.
Unconditional love does not mean that we can’t hold each other accountable, or that we shouldn’t have boundaries with each other.
Unconditional love is reserved for those people closest to us. When we are able to give and receive unconditional love, we enjoy a special blessing.
Unconditional love allows us to operate from a place of emotional security that helps us grow, heal, and explore life in a fearless way.
The StaarCorner
This week our new StaarCast episode features my conversation with Jenna Matlin. Jenna is a fulltime tarot professional and tarot business coach. At StaarCon she will be offering a practical workshop on the best ways for tarot professionals and other readers to offer sessions online. In the age of pandemic, this is an especially helpful and necessary topic.
You can watch the StaarCast video, or listen to the audio wherever you get your podcasts.
We expect to have our StaarCon website modified to reflect StaarCon 2021 Online as soon as Friday this week, so make sure you visit us and see everything we will be offering in January.
Join us for a Tarot Class on Zoom
Tarot is a book of spiritual wisdom in picture form. With it, we are able to learn about ourselves, communicate with others and understand our world.
The sixteen Court cards of the tarot, that is, the Kings, Queens, Knights, Pages, are some of the most versatile cards in the deck. The Court cards can help us understand ourselves, our talents, our fears, and our motivations. The Court cards can also represent the people around us and help us understand our relationships with them.
On Thursday, November 19, from 7 pm to 9 pm EST, I will be teaching about the Court cards in a class called “Your Journey Through the Tarot Court”.
In this class you will learn a variety of ways to interpret the tarot Court cards when they appear in a reading and find all the possible messages within them.
This class is appropriate for tarot students at all levels of experience and knowledge.
Class fee is $37.50. Register now on Zoom.
A Tarot Spread about Love
Here is a tarot spread you can use to help you grow in your ability to love yourself and others.
Arrange the cards in any pattern that feels right.
Let Card One show you something you can do today to be more loving toward yourself.
Let Card Two show you something you can do to heal from heartache and grief.
Let Card Three show you something you can do to attract more love into your life.
Let Card Four show you something you can do to be more loving toward someone in your life.
Let Card Five show you a place in your life where you need to be careful about your boundaries.
Let Card Six show you a way to expand your heart and feel more love around you.
The Week in Review
This week I wrote a blogpost about Three Ways Tarot Helps Us. I also taught a class on YouTube about the Suit of Pentacles.
Barrett Urmy interviewed me on his YouTube channel this week. I enjoyed our conversation!
If you missed my live broadcasts on my Facebook business page or on the StaarCon page this week you can watch them in archive.
From Around the Web
Lifehack has some important things to share about unconditional love.
Healthline shared an article about this topic, too.
Psychology Today asked if unconditional love is truly possible.
Cards for Your Consideration
There are so many tarot cards that can speak of love. We see romantic love in the Two of Cups, for example. We see a loving family in the Ten of Cups. We can see relationships in the Lovers, and marriage in the Four of Wands and the Hierophant. We see charity in the Six of Pentacles, and friendship in the Three of Cups.
My favorite card to speak of unconditional love is the Ace of Cups. Here, we see the full potential of love, and the spiritual nature of love. We see the open heart chakra, and the limitless ability that the heart has to heal, to love and to grow.
Very often we might interpret the Ace of Cups as a new relationship. Yet, there is so much more to be found in this card.
Our ability to love one another is the surest proof of the existence of a higher power who loves us. The Ace of Cups evokes a sense of that infinite power of unconditional love.
Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 46
November 11, 2020
Can We Really Predict the Future?
Sometimes the future is easy to see, sometimes it's not. Sometimes we can change what's coming, sometimes we can't. Here are some tips for predicting the future under any of these circumstances.
Can We Really Predict the Future?
How much can we see, and change, what comes next?
Tarot reading involves a certain amount of prognostication. So does meteorology. In fact, there are many fields that involve predicting the future, including medicine, finance and politics.
On a personal level, most of us have some combination of logic and instinct that causes us to make decisions based on what we think might happen next.
Many of us have dreams that predict the future. Some of us have a strong inner knowing, often about other people, or global events.
In my years of professional tarot reading, I have come to some conclusions about future predictions. It seems to me that there are some things that are absolutely predictable and unavoidable. There are other predictions that can be prevented or mitigated based on our actions. There are some aspects of the future that are completely unknowable. There are some things that the universe seems to keep secret from us, for our own good. There are some things we choose not to see because of our own fears, desires and tendencies toward denial. There are even times that we know what we choose might have a bad outcome, but we choose it anyway.
Predictions are indeed possible, and a heads-up on what might be coming can be extremely helpful. Predicting the outcome of certain choices can help us in decision-making. Even when it comes to undesirable predictions, forewarned can be forearmed.
I like to focus on the aspects of the future that we, ourselves, can create. Very often, what we do today creates what happens tomorrow.
When we look for future predictions, sometimes there are clear answers, and sometimes there aren’t. When the answers aren’t clear, it isn’t the fault of the diviner, nor the divinatory tool. Unclear predictions are an indication that a particular aspect of the future is not yet set. That means our action, including the power of prayer, can make a difference!
Prayer, energy work and wise action often have some power to shape what happens next. We need to be proactive toward our best possibilities and, at the same time, accepting of what we cannot control. It is in that middle ground that we find peace in the present, and joyful anticipation of what comes next.
Join Me for a Tarot Class in Oakland Park!
On Wednesday, July 31 7 to 9 pm, I will present a class called “The Journey of Life: The Major Arcana of Tarot” at the Center for Inner Wisdom, 4849 N Dixie Highway, Suite 2, Oakland Park, FL.
This is a fascinating exploration of the Fool’s Journey, the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana.
Whether you are a tarot enthusiast, a spiritual seeker or simply curious, this workshop will teach you something about tarot, something about life and something about yourself.
In twenty-two images, the Major Arcana expresses the lessons of life that every human experiences. Learn what those lessons are, and how these cards might speak to you in a tarot reading.
Even if you have extensive tarot understanding, this explanation of the spiritual lessons inherent in these twenty-two images will give you new perspective on the cards, and on your spiritual path and purpose.
Tickets are $30 and available on Eventbrite.
Divination Tips for Predictions
When we seek a glimpse of the future, we need to recognize a spectrum of probability. That is, that some things we see are unavoidable, some things are likely, some things we can change, and some things are unlikely but still within the realm of possibility. If we are sensitive to this spectrum, we can make accurate predictions and know how to prepare for what comes next.
Whether we are using a tool like tarot, pendulum, or runes, or whether we are simply checking in with our intuition and clairsentience, the there are two important things to consider. The first is to ask the right questions, and many questions. The second is to accept that some things are indeed predictable, and others are not. To have frustration with that process is never helpful.
What are the right questions to ask when you are looking to predict something specific? Let’s use a career example. Suppose you are looking for a new job, but don’t yet have any interviews lined up. The first two questions you might ask are questions that typically make diviners shudder. “When will I have a new job?” and, “Will I get a new job that I love?” Some diviners would instead ask, “What do I need to do to get a new job?” or, “What can I know about my next job?”
I am a fan of asking as many questions as possible and looking for trends in the answers. I might even ask those difficult questions involving timing and yes-or-no, just to see what comes up.
If you look at the consistency in the answers you get, you can develop a sense of how predictable this matter is, and how much advice you can get on how to achieve your best possible outcome.
I might also do a time-advance question, such as, “What does my career life look like in six months?”
If all the questions I ask receive similar answers, then I can conclude the future is pretty set. At that point I would ask about the actions needs to make sure things go this way. “What must I do to make sure this comes to pass? “What pitfalls should I avoid?” If I don’t like the way the future prediction looks, I will ask questions like, “How can I change this?”
If the answers to the questions tend to vary, I can get a sense of the different possibilities. At that point I can at least define what the most likely possibilities are. Then I can ask questions to see what can be done create the situation that is most preferable.
When we take our time in making predictions, ask a lot of questions and look for the trends in the answers, we can derive information that is both accurate and helpful.
See Me in Connecticut This August!
I will be returning to Connecticut for my August Northeastern Tarot Tour beginning August 14. I will be there through August 26.
I will be offering private readings by appointment at True Bikram Yoga in Madison, Connecticut. I am available for house calls and psychic house parties throughout Connecticut and Rhode Island.
On Sunday, August 18 at 7 pm I will be giving a tarot workshop focusing on the Court cards of tarot. The workshop is entitled “The Tarot Court: A Universal Mirror”. For more information and to reserve your seat for this class, visit the True Bikram Yoga website.
To reserve your appointment time for your in-person appointment with me, or to schedule your house call or psychic house party, call or text me at 561-655-1160.
The Week in Review
This week I shared a tarot tip about reading techniques. Do you use the same spread, or same technique, for every reading and every question? Try these six ways of getting information from the cards!
Did you catch my Three-Card Weekly Reading on Facebook Live? If you missed it, you can watch it in archive on my YouTube channel.
From Around the Web
Jenna Matlin has written a wise piece on Medium about distance readings. Sometimes people feel that distance readings might be less accurate than in-person readings. In-person readings are wonderful because we get to see each other face-to-face, but the accuracy doesn’t change, as Jenna states in her post.
I found this interesting post on OmTimes. It shares ways you can contact those who have passed on.
There is one kind of ‘fortune-telling’ that we need to avoid. In psychology, ‘fortune-telling’ is a term that means anticipating negative outcomes. Here’s an article about that.
Image from Celtic Dragon Tarot by Lisa Hunt, published by Llewellyn Worldwide. Used with permission.
Cards for Your Consideration
This week let’s consider the Wheel of Fortune as a card that tells us that anything can happen.
Some modern tarot decks include an “Unknown Card.” That is, a seventy-ninth card that says that, whatever question was asked, the answer is simply unknowable. I find such a card redundant, mostly because of the Wheel of Fortune, which can often say the same thing.
In the Celtic Dragon Tarot, by Lisa Hunt and the late D.J. Conway, the Wheel of Fortune shows a book called “the Grimoire of Life” which says, “The Wheel Turns. Learn to ride with dragons.”
To me this says it all. Sometimes you just have to spin the wheel and see where it lands. Sometimes you need to go with the flow, and trust that the outcome will be what it needs to be. Sometimes you have to trust that a Higher Power is in charge. Sometime you need to trust your own ability to handle what comes, whatever it might be. The Wheel of Fortune can remind us of this.
You can get your own copy of this great tarot deck from my website!
Upcoming Events and Tour Dates
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 2 Issue 30
July 24, 2019
Goals and Distractions
This week we find focus with the Tarot Fours.
Goals and Distractions
Keep Your Focus and Attain Your Goal
Wouldn’t it be great if the world and everyone in it would cooperate when we are focusing on an important goal? Sometimes we are lucky enough to have the wind at our backs and our success come with ease. Most of the time, however, the opposite is true. We find ourselves struggling not only to achieve our goals but also to cope with the life that is happening in the meantime.
It can be important to acknowledge the things that are going wrong in life, and to take time to make corrections, or to give yourself time to grieve, adjust, or heal. Yet, often we don’t have that luxury; our path demands that we focus on the goal and go for it, even under difficult circumstances.
When that is the case, we need to hold ourselves accountable even when we feel overwrought. We need to acknowledge our upsets, but never let those hurts distract us from our journey. Most importantly, we need to know that success is possible even when the sailing isn’t smooth. We need to remember that we have support from the Universe even in the midst of the storm.
See Me This Month in the Tampa Bay Area
I will be in the Tampa Bay Area February 15 through 17. I am available for house-calls, parties and private readings.
Please join us for our Meetup Sunday afternoon at Panera Bread in Lutz, and please call or text me at 561-655-1160 to book your in-person session or party with me.
Find Focus with the Tarot Fours
The tarot fours offer great lessons in staying in your lane, keeping your boundaries, and being true to your goal.
The Major Arcana four, the Emperor, reminds us that stability comes from responsibility, even when you have to fight to fulfill it.
The Four of Pentacles, though often thought of as a card of selfishness, reminds us that self-care and boundaries are important.
The Four of Swords reminds us of the focus that can come from meditation, quiet, and taking time away.
The Four of Wands teaches us that creativity and passion can flourish within a stable structure.
The Four of Cups asks us to make do with what we have when we must, or to wait for something better when we can.
The next time you are feeling distracted from your path, use the lessons of the tarot fours to get back on track!
The Week in Review
This week I posted a piece about new tarot businesses and the problems they encounter.
I also shared the video from my most recent informal tarot business conversation with Jenna Matlin on YouTube. There, and in the upcoming events section of this newsletter, you will also find information about our next free online meeting.
From Around the Web
I found this piece from a few years ago on Elephant Journal. It offers some ways to clear the energy in your home.
From Medium, another helpful older piece on false positivity and spiritual bypass.
Here is a piece on avoiding healer burnout from Tiny Buddha.
Cards for Your Consideration
Today I want to share a new trend in tarot packaging by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.; Small tins of tarot!
These smaller decks are easy to shuffle and carry, but still large enough to work with well. The tins aren’t indestructible, but they are a safe and secure way to carry your cards.
Whether you are traveling, camping, or just a tarot reader on the go, these convenient decks are easy, fun and functional. If you want a smaller deck to stash in your desk drawer at work, these do nicely. If you get caught in the rain, the tins are waterproof!
The best part is, they aren’t expensive, so you can indulge your inner tarot collector!
Upcoming Events
Thursday, January 31, 7 to 9 pm
Psychic Gallery with Christiana Gaudet
Dream Angels, 128 Bridge Road, Tequesta, FL
Bring your questions and join us in sacred space for an insightful and entertaining evening! In this small group setting each person attending will receive helpful information and answers. You may even receive a message from a loved one in spirit!
Register with Dream Angels.
Wednesday, February 6, 9 to 10 pm
Jenna and Christiana on the Business of Tarot #3
Via Zoom
If you are a tarot professional, or want to be, you can join Jenna and me for a free informal webinar. We will discuss our experiences in business ahead of presenting the Professional Development Extension Day at Northwestern Tarot Symposium this March.
Just use the information below to log in.
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Meeting ID: 961 286 192
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/acJAAkEiq
Tarot Readings for Personalities and Relationships
Sunday, February 10, 4 to 6 pm
Christiana’s Conference Room
1025 SW Martin Downs Blvd, Suite 203, Palm City, FL
How do tarot cards speak of people, their personalities and their relationships? How can we use tarot to better understand ourselves and each other?
In this class you will learn how to give helpful relationship readings and couples readings, and how to determine the nature and needs of an individual simply by understanding the cards that appear for them.
This special Valentine’s Day inspired tarot class is appropriate for readers of all levels of experience. Bring your tarot deck or buy or borrow one in class. Class fee is $37.50. Seating is limited, reserve your seat online!
Tarot Meetup at Panera Bread in Lutz
Sunday, February 17, 3 to 5 pm
Panera Bread, 23388 FL-54, Lutz, FL, 33549
I’m in town for the weekend so I thought it would be great to meet at our old spot! Everyone with an interest in tarot is welcome to join us for an informal workshop, some readings, food, fun and fellowship. There is no charge to attend, but you can register, and learn more, on Eventbrite.
Tarot Topics Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 5 - January 30, 2019
Jenna Matlin and Festival Readings on the Psychic Cafe
Show date:
On September 21st, Jenna Matlin returned to the Psychic Cafe. Jenna's new book "Have Tarot Will Travel: A Comprehensive Guide for Reading at Festivals as a Tarot Professional" is an essential guide for any professional tarot reader. Listen in as Jenna and Christiana share some stories about festival reading.