Tarot News blog has news and information of interest to the tarot community.
You Don't Have to Fit in to Be Comfortable
Being different isn't always easy.
Something that I often see at the tarot table is that many people feel that they just don’t fit in with the people around them. This can happen in the workplace, the neighborhood, or even amongst folks who gather around a shared interest or concern. Some people even feel that they don’t fit in with their own family of origin.
People often describe this feeling of not fitting as uncomfortable and awkward. Many of us remember being teenagers and trying to fit in with a particular group of kids, sometimes to the point of doing things we knew we shouldn’t do. Never did that work out very well!
There is only one solution to this problem of feeling different than the people who are around you. That solution is deceptively simple.
Just be okay with who you are, and the fact that you are different. Find ways to appreciate the people around you, even though they are different than you. Hold appreciation for the things about you that make you unique.
The more you can appreciate your own differences, as well as those who are different from you, the more comfortable you will be with those around you.
Remember that being different isn’t bad. Own and celebrate the things that make you different and unique. The space that you hold within your workplace, or family, or friend group, is even more important because of your uniqueness. It means that you can’t be easily replaced.
Sometimes we are made to feel uncomfortable because our differences cause others to be uncomfortable with us. As hard as that it, the solution is to lean in a bit more, and let people get to know us. It is in that process that we become able to find common ground, even with those who aren’t very much like us at all.
I had an aunt who used to say something very wise. “It would be a pretty boring world if everyone were all the same,” she would tell me. Those words have always been a key to being comfortable being myself, especially around people who are different from me.
Mark Your Calendar for StaarCon!
On January 22 through January 24, 2021, there is no place in the world you would rather be than at our new and exciting tarot conference, StaarCon!
We are holding StaarCon at the Doubletree Executive Meeting Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, just minutes from Palm Beach International Airport.
Already confirmed is headline presenter Benebell Wen, along with many other favorites like Ciro Marchetti, Mitchell Osborn and Mary Ellen Collins.
StaarCon stands for Southeastern Tarot Artists and Readers Conference. While tarot reading and tarot art will be a main focus, we will also have educational and experiential workshops on many forms of divination and mysticism.
If you are interested in presenting or vending at StaarCon, please let me know!
We will be opening registration to attend StaarCon in a few months. Watch our website for exciting information!
Holding and Sharing Your Space Tarot Spread
When you find yourself in a group with which you don’t always feel affinity, here is a tarot spread to help you figure out how to hold your space and be comfortable.
You can arrange the cards in any shape you prefer.
Card One: The value I bring to this group.
Card Two: How I can better express that value in this group.
Card Three: How this group feels about my differences.
Card Four: How I can hold space for my identity in this group.
Card Five: How being in this group can help me grow.
There is Still Time to See Me in Tampa!
It’s not too late to book your private session with me while I am in the Tampa Bay area January 24 through January 27. I can come to your home, or you can see me at my private location in Wesley Chapel.
Call or text 561-655-1160 to reserve your session with me!
The Week in Review
This week I shared some important tarot reading techniques in a blog post, and then demonstrated those techniques in a video.
If you missed my live webinar on YouTube, you can watch it in archive.
Each week you can catch Your Three-Card Weekly Reading on Facebook and YouTube.
From Around the Web
Here is a tarot spread for self-love.
Here are some dos and don’ts for using tarot to read for yourself.
Try this tarot spread for unconditional self-love.
Cards for Your Consideration
There are a few cards in tarot that speak of integration and fitting together. Sometimes these cards can describe a process of making something work. Sometimes they can talk about that awkward feeling of finding ways to fit in with people who are different from you.
Of course, the Fool advises each of us to simply be who we are on our journey through life. Here are three other Major Arcana cards that can speak of the ways we integrate with others.
The Lovers
The Lovers is, very often, not about romantic love. Rather, it can speak to the process of integrating opposites, and seeing the difference between one thing (or person) and another.
The Chariot
If you look at the steeds on most Chariot images you will see a reference to opposites pulling together in unison in order to move forward. This reminds us of the importance of working together with different people.
Temperance
Temperance speaks of blending ingredients in order to make something bigger and better than the sum of its parts.
In moments when you feel that you are not fitting in, look to these cards to see the value of bringing your unique qualities to a group.
Upcoming Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 4
January 22, 2020
Why Divination Matters
Divination isn't just for seeing the future. It's about knowing ourselves.
Why Divination Matters
Most of us probably had our first contact with divination when we were small children. We might have pulled petals, one by one, from a flower, saying, “He loves me, he loves me not.” We might have pulled seeds from a weed and bounced them on our hands to determine the number of children we might have. We might have folded paper “fortune tellers” to use with our friends. Perhaps we twisted an apple stem while reciting the alphabet to discover the first initial of our future spouse.
These childhood games reveal our natural instincts to wonder, to predict, and to use items from the natural world and the artistic world to create tools to help us see further down the road.
Of course, those games from our youth don’t hold much spiritual power or divinatory accuracy.
Spiritual value and helpful knowledge come when we add study, focus and more complex tools to our natural instincts.
Many people, even diviners themselves, sometimes misunderstand the nature and purpose of divination. That is because of the depth and fluidity associated with the process of working to know the unknowable, to understand symbols and to find personal meaning and insight.
We are all curious about the future. We all want to know what might happen next. Divination can sometimes help us prepare for what’s coming. We can also use divination to manifest the future we desire. Divination can help us know what our best options will be. Yet, no one can truly know every aspect of what’s around the corner.
Even more than future prediction, divination matters because it helps us to know ourselves. Divination helps us to understand who we are and where we have been, as well as where we might be going.
Divination helps us understand the nature of Spirit, and how Spirit speaks to us and guides us.
There are many religions who claim to have a clear knowledge of Higher Power and the will of Higher Power. It can be a dangerous endeavor to hold such a limiting belief.
Divination helps us understand that Spirit is vast. We must listen carefully and discern the guidance we receive without hubris.
Many people think divination is simply a means to know the future. While divination can give us those helpful glimpses of what is to come, divination matters because it helps us know ourselves, and helps us hear the guidance of our Higher Power.
Two Special Events This Sunday
I have two great classes happening this Sunday, one in my Palm City office, and the other on YouTube!
Sunday morning at 10:30 am EST, join me on my YouTube channel for a live free tarot webinar, the Four Elements and the Major Arcana.
Sunday afternoon from 3 to 5 pm, join Mary Ellen Collins in my office for Birth Charts and Astrology Basics. You must sign up before Friday at 5 pm and email your birth information to Mary Ellen so she can create your birth chart.
I am excited to begin teaching in live broadcasts on YouTube. I am also excited to bring guest teachers to my new office!
Three Hints for Tarot Divination
Tarot is one of the most helpful tools of divination. Yet, it is also one of the most complex.
There are so many ways to understand and use tarot that we often say there are no real rules for its use. Here, then, instead of rules, are hints to help you make the most of your tarot divination practice.
Hint One: Try not to see any card as always good, or always bad. Each card offers gifts and shadows.
Hint Two: Learn classic interpretations but use intuition to help you tell the story you see in the cards.
Hint Three: Remember that, in any reading, a card can mean more than one thing at the same time.
See Me This Month in Tampa
During the weekend of January 24 through 27 I will be back in the Tampa area and available for house parties, house calls and private readings in my Wesley Chapel location. We will have our tarot meetup at Panera Bread in Lutz on Sunday, January 26 from 3 pm to 5 pm.
Please call or text me at 561-655-1160 to schedule your reading or house party with me!
The Week in Review
After finishing my Twelve Days of Christmas: Tarot Epiphanies series, I wrote a blog post about it. There was a lot to unpack in the twelve cards I received over twelve days, especially because one card appeared three times!
You can find my Three-Card Weekly Reading, and the archive of Global Tarot Circle, on my Facebook Business Page or my YouTube Channel.
From Around the Web
People are turning to tarot cards for their mental health! Actually, this isn’t new news, but it is nice to see people writing about this.
Here is a tarotscope and yearly horoscope for 2020 from Cosmopolitan.
There are more types of divination in the world than you can imagine!
Cards for Your Consideration
This week, as an exercise, consider making your own deck of divination cards. This can be a great way to understand the process of random token divination and the meaning of symbols.
All you need is some index cards and a notebook. You can use a simple pen, or colorful markers. Being artistic and creative as you make your deck can be fun and powerful, but it is not necessary.
Your first step is to sit down with a notebook and make a list of symbols that mean something to you. They could be numbers and letters, peace signs and hearts, runes and glyphs, or any combination thereof. Find as few as six, or as many as you like.
Then, put one symbol on each card. You can use the unruled backs if you like. Again, you can be simply or fancy in the way you do this.
Then, go through each card and think about what aspects of life it could symbolize, and what it might mean in a reading.
Finally, to divine with your deck, simply ask a question a pull a card! You will be surprised at the valuable information you can learn with this exercise!
Upcoming Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 3
January 15, 2020
Facts, Faith and Fear
Fearful thinking keeps us from finding our truth.
Facts, Faith and Fear
We are all having fun saying that 2020 is the year of clarity, truth and clear vision. Beyond the pun created by the number, I think we are tired of the vast amount of disinformation we wade through every day. We are all searching for truth, facts and clarity.
Misinformation is nothing new. It comes from those who want to sell us something or want us to think or behave a certain way. The problem is that the electronic age brings us so much more of it.
I think we also have trouble differentiating between spiritual truth and scientific truth. We may feel truths in our hearts that are valid, essential and personally helpful, but are not shared by all, and are not provable by science. These truths aren’t facts. Rather, they are faith and beliefs. It’s important to have faith and beliefs, but it is also important to know the difference between faith and fact.
Often, we hold beliefs about ourselves and others that simply aren’t true. Sometimes we hold negative beliefs about ourselves that cause us to be less successful in life. Sometimes we hold undeserved positive beliefs about others that cause us to give too much power to other people, while disempowering ourselves.
There is something inherent in the human spirit that causes us to ponder spiritual mysteries, to search for our internal truth. We are also driven toward science, to experiment, invent, learn about our world and improve our lives. These two desires can exist side-by-side. Scientists are often spiritual people, and spiritual people usually appreciate the ways in which science helps us. The problem is that we humans are also often driven to fear. Very often it is fear that causes us to believe and spread untruths.
In the search for truth, both personal and factual, fear creates confusion that keeps us from finding both faith and facts.
Tarot and Astrology Classes in Palm City
During the month of January, we will have two amazing study opportunities in my Palm City office. On Wednesday January 15 from7 to 9pm I will be teaching a class entitled Creating and Using Tarot Spreads. There are so many techniques for reading tarot. This class will introduce you to many of those techniques and empower you to use the ones that will give you the best results.
On Sunday January 19 from 3 to 5 pm Mary Ellen will be teaching a beginner astrology class called Birth Charts and Astrology Basics. You will learn to interpret your own birth chart as you learn foundational astrology basics.
As you can see, we are committed to providing you with great classes here in Palm City. Please plan to join us! Tickets are available on Eventbrite.
Tarot and the Search for Truth
When discussing the search for truth on issues ranging from spiritual to social to strategic, tarot is a tool we often use.
When tarot shows us something, it is important that we vet our findings against a more mundane source. For example, if tarot reveals that you have an aptitude for a particular career, use that information to inspire you to take a class or a test to learn more about it, to see if this is something you want to pursue. Tarot gives us initial possibilities of truth. It’s up to us to investigate further.
There is an old expression, “The cards never lie”. Over my many years, I have found this statement to be one hundred percent correct. Yet, there is a caveat. The cards never lie, but sometimes the reader can get it wrong.
Sometimes the voice of anxiety drowns out the voice of intuition and skews our interpretation. Sometimes we use the cards to discover information that might be best researched through more practical means.
Tarot is a great mirror of our internal truth. We can use the cards to help us understand ourselves, and what is deeply true for us. Often, we can use tarot to help us find our best path, and our personal clarity.
Yet, tarot shouldn’t be the only tool in our toolbox. Along with our metaphysical tools must come practical tools. Divination can never be a substitute for research and practical knowledge. We can, however, use divination as an important guide on the search for truth.
A good tarot reading can provide needed clarity, direction and understanding. Very often, tarot is a first step in our search for truth. Tarot helps us see the truth that, once seen, leads us to create fearless changes in our lives.
See Me This Month in Tampa
During the weekend of January 24 through 27 I will be back in the Tampa area and available for house parties, house calls and private readings in my Wesley Chapel location. We will have our tarot meetup at Panera Bread in Lutz on Sunday, January 26 from 3 pm to 5 pm.
Please call or text me at 561-655-1160 to schedule your reading or house party with me!
The Week in Review
I’ve recently shared two blog posts. Here is a Conversation with Tarot about 2020. Interestingly, the concept of how fear distorts our reality and divides us showed up very clearly in this reading.
I also wrote about Five Ways we Use Intuition in Tarot Reading. Intuition is one of the ways we nurture our faith and our beliefs. Not surprisingly, our intuition often leads us to discover actual facts!
From December 26 through January 6 I celebrated the Twelve Days of Christmas by offering Tarot Epiphanies each day on Facebook Live. Of course, each Monday I also offer Your Three-Card Weekly Reading. You can find these videos in archive on my Facebook Business Page and my YouTube channel. Please hit Like when you visit my Facebook Business Page. That way you will be alerted the next time I am broadcasting live. While on my YouTube channel please subscribe. This year I will be doing monthly free live tarot webinars on my YouTube channel. When you subscribe you will make sure to catch these free tarot learning opportunities.
From Around the Web
This article on Medium address a phenomenon I see in new relationships constantly. Are you mistaking shared trauma for compatibility?
Another great article I found recently discusses poverty and generosity in a really meaningful way.
I love it when I find articles about tarot! Here, from PopSugar, is an article from someone who found tremendous help from tarot.
Cards for Your Consideration
While each card in tarot can reveal something true, discussions of honesty, dishonesty, the things we fear, and the discovery of truth generally center around the suit of Swords.
Typically associated with the element of Air, the suit of Swords speaks of communication, integrity, technology, intelligence and powers of the mind. Some cards within the suit of Swords reveal the hurt that comes from betrayal and mistrust, like the Three, Seven and Ten of Swords.
Some Swords cards can discuss the heartache of fearful thinking, like the Eight and Nine of Swords. Some Swords are a call to action, asking us to find what is true and do what is right, like the Ace and Knight of Swords.
Because some of the Swords images feel particularly disturbing, many tarot students are overly cautious when approaching the Swords cards. Regardless of each depiction, the Swords cards are powerful allies in our search for truth.
Upcoming Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 2
January 8, 2020
Bright Blessings for 2020
Welcome 2020!
New Year’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. While there are many cultures that celebrate their spiritual new year at a different date and according to a different calendar, our secular calendar new year is a time when we all set our sights on renewal, improvements, and hope.
The new year is also a great time for reflection. We can be proud of our accomplishments of the prior year, and proud of surviving difficult times.
Although the new decade does not truly begin until 2021, there is something special about the number switch this year. Twenty-twenty just sounds cool! It’s also the term we use to describe perfect eyesight. That makes the year 2020 a great time to speak of clarity and vision.
As I look back at 2019, I am proud and grateful for so many things. My son received his bachelor’s degree. We moved into our new office. We published the second edition of my book Tarot Tour Guide. I went to Portland, Oregon to present at the Northwest Tarot Symposium.
I hope your year was as productive as mine!
As I look to 2020, I am excited for many things, both personally and professionally. Keep your eyes on my upcoming events to see some of what I am working on. Right now, I am doing “The Twelve Days of Christmas Tarot Epiphanies” on Facebook Live, so look for that on Facebook and YouTube through January 6. I am also excited to be offering a free monthly webinar on YouTube live, starting January 19th.
In the Palm City office, I am happy to announce some guest teachers and leaders who will be joining me in presenting fun, informative events this year. In January Mary Ellen Collins will be presenting a beginner astrology class. In the beginning of February Miranda Lial will host a Murder Mystery Party for us. At the end of February Ciro Marchetti will be joining us for our grand opening celebration! You can make your reservations for these fun events now.
Of course, my first two tarot tours of 2020 are already planned, so I hope to see you in the Tampa area at the end of this month, and in Connecticut and Rhode Island in the spring!
I am so grateful to be able to do the work I do. I thank you for allowing me to be a part of your 2019, and I look forward to working with you in 2020.
May all the blessings of a new year be yours!
