Archives for August 2014

The Tarot card reader. Part two.

August 24, 2014 by Anna

Here I will discuss the different kinds of Tarot readers and the style of readings they may use.

1) Divination.

2) Guidance.

3) A combination of divination and guidance.

1) The clients that want a pure divination reading are looking for information into the future. They want to know what will happen .

They may ask about career choices. Is their job secure? They may ask about love. Will their relationship last? Will they find their true love? Will their ex come back? They may ask about a law suit. Will they win? You get the idea.

2) The clients that want a guidance only reading are not interested in the future as much as in working with the present.

They want to understand: What is going on? Where are they coming from? How are they sabotaging them selves? What can they do to help the situation?

3) The clients that want a combination of both are open to see what the Tarot has to say. As in:

How are they emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually? Where were their priorities in the past, now and what will they be concerned with in the next 6 to 9 months?

They may want to look into areas of their lives to get a more objective view of the situation. They may look at the facts, their perspective, what roles other play in the situation. Where their personal strengths and weaknesses are. In other words, those clients want to peek into the near future as well as examine their present and their options.

I believe there is room and purpose for each style of Tarot reading. Each has dangers, benefits and limits.

The same reader can be perceived as great by a client and bad by another. It is a matter of expectations.

What kind of reading does the client seek? What kind of reading does the reader provide? Are they a good fit?

Client 1 tend to believe in destiny, that their future is set and there is not much they can do about it.

They just want to know. They do not take responsibility for it.

Their reader must share their belief and be accurate all the time. Client 1 would be very unhappy with a Guidance only kind of reading.

Client 2 does not believe in destiny.

They want better understanding of themselves and their situations. They want readings that will give them knowledge, understanding and the power to affect the situation the best way they can.

They are on a journey to understand themselves and life at a deeper level.

Client 2 would not be happy with a Divination only kind of reading.

I believe there are different kinds of readers that provide this kind of counsel.

Psychologists that do not read cards, but use their images to help their patients talk and examine situations.

Knowledgeable Tarot readers that use the images of the cards to guide their clients.

They pose deep questions to be probed by the clients, who will look for answers in the cards. The reader helps the client explore by posing the right questions at the right time.

The reader provides more questions than answers, but those questions are very helpful to the client that is ready to do the work.

The danger, in my opinion is when the reader has not done the work to learn the meaning of the cards. She is not a trained psychologist, but will interpret the images for the client often using her personal beliefs to guide her in the situation.

Two people who have no knowledge of the cards, or the meanings of the symbols depicted in them, can look at the same card and get two very different stories. Why? Because their interpretation comes unfiltered from their emotions at that moment and their life experience.

I have a problem with this kind of untrained reader. I worry she may project her fears, her personal beliefs and indoctrination into the reading. The client may simply end up with the personal advice of the reader masked by the “authority” of the cards.

Client 3. Are open to explore different views of the situation they are experiencing. They are curious. They have questions. They are ready to assume responsibility for their lives. They engage in the reading. They listen to what is being said with an open mind. In the end they make their own decisions.

Their kind of reader is open to read in both a prognostic kind of way, as well as a guidance kind of reading.

This kind of reader does not believe that the future is set in stone.

She looks at life like a road with many twists and turns. Where our choices affect our present and therefore our future. Where we can control a lot, but not all, as we are not islands and everyone around us with their own actions affects our reality.

In a way we control our choices and the way we react to events. This kind of reader will try to help you make the most with the situation at hand.

She will give suggestions, but leave the decisions up to you. She will tell you what the Tarot advise even if that is not what she would personally suggest, but she recognizes the client is there for the wisdom of Tarot, not her personal beliefs.

To sum it up. I am a good fit for client 3. I respect honest readers in all 3 groups.

I wish all clients to be aware of what they want, that way they can find the reader that matches their expectations and needs.

Thanks for reading this. Feel free to comment on my face book page.

“The Tarot card reader” as I see it.

August 24, 2014 by Anna

Paul Quinn, a talented Tarot reader and author of Tarot for life, shared a post “The Tarot card reader” by Jessa Crispin.

Mrs. Crispin is clearly a talented writer, but I strongly disagree with many of the points she made.

To read her post see OPINIONATOR.BLOGS.NYTIMES.COM

In her article she beautifully writes how she got a reading that set her on her path to learn Tarot .

I disagree with many of the points she makes along the way, in regard of how to learn and of what makes a good Tarot reading.

I am by no means a talented writer as she is, but please bear with me because I think I make valuable points in my disagreement.

1) Mrs. Crispin starts by sharing with us the wonderful reading she got by a very talented reader in Manhattan. Unless the reader specifically asked her not to disclose her name, why doesn’t she give credit to the mysterious reader?

“Her reading taught me two things: With a change of strategy, I could get back in control of my life and, also, I wanted to learn how to do this.”

I totally agree with her there. A good Tarot reading provides good strategies. The client may decide to follow them or not, but she is made aware of the different options available.

She goes on to say that after buying half a dozen Tarot books she felt very disappointed. She is a book critic and she states that after taking apart those books she was left with nothing.
That brings me to my next point.

2) Perhaps she was looking for a magic formula that would allow her to instantly read with the same grace and wisdom of a talented and experienced Tarot reader.

Why is it that some people expect to excel at tasks without putting time or effort in learning the skill?

Over the past 25 years I have read many Tarot books. Some I liked more than others, but I got something out of each and everyone. I would add that from time to time I go back to my book case and I pick a book I already read. I have found that by reading it again, I learn new things and I am often surprised by the experience. Several years may have gone by since I read a book. The knowledge I have acquired in the meanwhile, often allows me to get more insight out of the book than I got the first time around.

Mrs. Crispin goes on to say that she got into the habit of pulling a Tarot card out each day. Simply by looking at the pictures and the events of the day over the course of years she learned how to tell stories through the cards.

The process is well known to Tarot readers and Tarot students. You pick a card or two, you write it down on your journal and you get back to it to see how the energy of the card was expressed throughout the day.
The benefits are many. You combine theory and practice. You write what you know about the card. The impression you get from the image. You compare it with what happened that day. You gain confidence and a personal relation with the cards, as sometimes a card will consistently have a meaning for you that is not one of the keywords for it.

So we are back to the necessity to put time and effort in learning something. I may add that if this practice is done along with a more traditional way of learning Tarot, the learning process may be faster.

Given the length of this post, I can see the need to divide it in two posts. This one to address the learning.

In part two I will address the reading process, the different styles and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

I hope you will read both posts. I will share them on my face book page also and you are more than welcome to write your comments there. You can agree or disagree, but with respect.

Thanks.

The image is The Fool from the Ancestral Path deck, created by the very talented Julie Cuccia- Watts.

How much does the deck I use affect my reading?

August 5, 2014 by Anna

How much does the deck I use affect my reading?

In my case, a lot.

That is why at the very beginning of a reading I let my client pick one.

Right now my clients have eight options. I own several more decks, but some I only use for myself.

Why? Confidence. With some decks I have a strong reliable bond.
Those are the decks I use for my clients.
Others I find good for philosophical / spiritual questions only.
A few, beautiful as they may be, just don’t speak to me.
Last, any new deck I get, I only use for my self for a little while.
I do that in order to get to know the deck and the way it communicates.

Most times I will only take out four of those eight decks.
Why? In order not to overwhelm my client with options and to save time.

Now let’s say I displayed those eight decks in front of you.

The Sacred Rose Tarot, Radiant Rider- Waite, Legacy of the Divine, Universal, The Gilded, Robin Wood, Druid Craft, Gaian Tarot

How do you pick one?
I suggest you don’t over think it.
Just look at the decks. They will all be displaying the same card, The Fool. Look at them like you would any other painting.
Which one calls to you?
Which one would you want to take home with you?

Once you have made your choice we can begin.

Now let me explain why I want you to pick the deck.

Each Tarot card has many meanings and many layers.
The way I select one meaning over the other comes from a combination of things.

Question, position in the spread, surrounding cards and the images themselves.

Let’s say I am looking at the 7 of Swords.

Here we have a few samples.
Legacy of the Divine Tarot and Radiant Rider-Waite on the very top, Gaian Tarot in the middle and Sacred Rose Tarot and Druid Craft Tarot on the bottom.
Same card but expressed in different ways.
It is my belief that the image in front of me will speak to my intuition and I will read it accordingly.
Let me give you an example, a fast one. Just a snap shot.

The first card on the top, shows someone breaking through a window. My first impression is a warning of danger. Something fishy is going on. Someone may try to reap you off.

In the second one, someone is sneaking out of a village holding too many swords and I a way that in real life would cause him some injuries. He is also leaving some swords behind, which the villagers may later use against him. Swords represent the element of Air, meaning rational thinking and communication. Someone here is making plans that will affect others without letting them know. He knows they would not approve and he does not want to discuss it. Eventually when his action will come to light he will have a lot of explaining to do and amends to make.

The card in the middle, from the Gaian deck, shows someone looking at a map. Here I would say the guy is contemplating his next move. He does not know yet what that will be. He is looking at the map to figure it out.

In the next card we see someone sitting down. He seems to be under attack, but he holds his hand up. To me he is calling for calm and for time. He is not ready to engage just yet.

In the last card we see an old man working late. From his expression I would say he is formulating a plan with a lot of care.
He is taking his time to do it right.

I could write about each card for a very long time, but you get the meaning, I hope.

If you want to delve deeper you may want to check two other posts.
Different decks, different interpretation? December 6 2009 and
7 of swords in the Druid Craft Tarot deck and R.W.S. February 8 2012.

Thanks for following me so far. Feel free to add your comments or questions.

Archives for August 2014

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