Recently, a 78 Notes reader, Tabitha, commented to me that while she'd always identified with the Queen of Wands, astrologically/elementally speaking she might be more the Queen of Swords given that she is a Pisces sun with Gemini rising, due to the base water element of all Queens and her water sign of Pisces and the air element of her rising sign Gemini and Swords.  I found her comment really interesting because, though I am no astrologer and Tabitha and I may be straying off the charts (pun intended), it got me thinking about the various planetary elemental associations with the tarot court.  Maybe other tarot readers have already discovered this and written about it, I don't know, so I apologize if I am reinventing someone else's wheel.   As far as tarot and astrology goes, my interaction with the combination is fairly limited, though I always love to hear how others work with them together. 

If you do not know the planetary alignments of your date, time, and place of birth, you can access one of these useful charts for free at various websites such as AstroDienst.  That site also has a clickable chart with valuable information about what each planet in a chart means and specific descriptions regarding the placements of your particular planets.  Useful for we astrology novices who really can't remember what Pluto does for you.

To associate your sun sign with a court card, your sun sign element and your rising sign would give you the two elements for that association.  For example, my sun is in Libra and my rising is Aries.  Libra is an air sign and Aries is a fire sign.  Air is the base element for all tarot kings and wands is the suit of fire, so my Sun/Rising tarot card would be King of Wands.   This may be challenging to identify with because we naturally gravitate toward our own gendered court card, women identifying with Queens and men with Kings, so this moves a lot of us out of that predetermined box.  The gender and ages of the courts aren't supposed to be taken literally anyway.

Spring boarding off of Tabitha's musings, I wondered if I could do this with other planets, such as Mercury, which rules the way we communicate.  I am Mercury in Libra so that is air/air.  Therefore my Mercury tarot court card would be King of Swords which gives me clues about how my mind works and how I communicate with others.  Venus in Scorpio would yield a King of Cups or a Queen of Swords modality in love and relationships with its air/water combination.  My moon is in Taurus, so my basic emotional level would be King of Pentacles and/or Page of Swords with its air/earth combination.

I thought to combine the planetary element with the sign element rather than the Sun sign element, but there isn't anything close to a consensus on which element is associated with each planet.  For example, although Mercury rules communication, it isn't necessarily an "air planet."  It rules two signs, Gemini, which is an air sign and Virgo, an earth sign. Here is where I usually get frustrated with overlaying any other system on top of tarot because they  don't neatly fit without bending and compromising one system or the other.  While the associations are interesting and give much food for thought and introspection, I would not grasp them too tightly or identify too strongly.  If the shoe doesn't fit, don't wear it.   Remember, we are just experimenting here.

Next step -- associating your planetary court cards within the twelve astrological houses.  Once you have your planetary court card associations, you can them use them within your chart to see how those qualities interact with the houses.  Using one's astrological chart, lay out the designated court cards (you would need more than one tarot deck because court cards will likely be repeated throughout your chart) where they appear on the different houses and determine how these court cards would behave and interact within those placements.  For more info on the meanings of the houses, you can simply web search "meanings of the houses" and find a wealth of sites that explain them.  For example, my Venus is not only in Scorpio but also in the 8th House which is the house of death, rebirth, and others resources.  That house shows how I deal with separation and loss, how I renew and rebuild, and how I deal with legacies, inheritance, taxes, loans, etc.  Therefore, using a King of Cups as my Sun/Venus card in the 8th House, that can show me, based on what I know to be the King of Cups qualities, how I tend to deal with those issues.

Whether these associations work out to be accurate portrayals is really up to the individual to decide.  But I think because we hold within ourselves all the qualities of all the court cards in varying measure, it may be truly enlightening.  Keep in mind also that no one planet, house, or court card is a summation of your entire person, that each placement or association merely describes a piece of your own personal puzzle.  While some of the results may be totally on target, others may leave you scratching your head.  In the end, what can we do with this information?  Just as I do not believe tarot determines your fate, neither does astrology nor any combination thereof.  While we may have specific tendencies inherent in our personalities, they only limit us as much as we allow them to.  The revealing of these tendencies is valuable information because once we know what we're working with, our strengths and weaknesses, we can use them to our advantage in a conscious manner.

Rarely in life is anything very simple.  We live in complex societies in which our lives take on many roles, activities and interests.  We, ourselves, are multidimensional having physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual components.  We live and move among people who are just as complex and and living equally multifaceted lives.  It's a huge, multi-layered web of interconnectedness.  For such beings living in this kind of world,  tarot cards wouldn't be very helpful if they each had just one static meaning or application.  It might make reading tarot a whole lot easier, but not very useful.  It would be like sending an "e-gift" of a picture of a delicious dinner to a hungry person.  Nice sentiment, but the belly is still growling.

One of the first things a tarot reader discovers is that each card has many meanings.   This presents a challenge for novice and seasoned  readers alike.  To determine when a card means this or that, and to figure out which of the many interpretations apply, most readers and teachers will advise, "Intuition.  Use your intuition."  But what if I don't have intuition?  Don't be silly, we all have intuition, we just need to tap into it.  Ok, so how do I do that?  Listen to your gut.  My gut says it wants a cookie but I don't think that's what the card is saying.  Sometimes the predominant meaning shines forth in glorious clarity while all the other meanings fade into the background.  Most of the time, though, it takes some consideration.

What has helped me is to recognize that one card may be addressing several aspects of a person's life and be giving advice on more than just one area.  For example, a court card that can be representative of another person or aspects of the querant's personality, or a more literal thing such as a message or travel.  Consider that it may be addressing all of those potential areas.  You don't always have to choose between them.  Even when the reading is primarily focusing on a person's career, for instance, the card in question may be speaking about their romantic partner.  We don't live our lives in separate designated vacuums,  our jobs affect our personal lives and vice versa.  The court card could be advising a certain approach for that situation at work but it may also be showing that the person you went on that date with last week is going to call.  Not having to choose between those meanings is wonderfully freeing.  If you see several meanings in one card, then say so.  You're not being a wishy-washy reader, you are seeing the multiple layers and dimensions of the card and the intersections of those meanings in your querant's life.  If the reading is specific to a topic, you don't want to stray too far afield from it, of course.  By all means keep the positional subject in mind, too.  It has to make logical sense to the spread positions and original question.  However, if the reading is a general one with few topical boundaries, one should be open to many layers and possibilities.


I'm not recommending listing all the possible meanings of the Sun card for your querant and letting them choose which one applies to their situation.  They could open a book and get that for themselves.  I'm saying tell them the Chariot shows they are determined to get this thing accomplished in the most efficient way possible, but also mention there may be some travel coming up not necessarily directly related to that issue.  For all you know this person may experience a family emergency and will need to take a quick unexpected trip which, naturally, affects both their home and work life.  The cards may not show the emergency but only the travel.  Say what you see, even if you think it doesn't make sense.  That's where intuition comes into play.  Your intuition is still picking and choosing among the available meanings, but you are not limiting yourself to just one choice.

Our lives are anything but linear.  We may track time in a linear fashion but that's somewhat misleading.  We're always multitasking, carrying on many thought-streams at once, and often physically doing several things at once, too.  As I am writing this, for example, I am thinking of an errand I need to run at a specific time today.  I am also drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette.   I'm wondering if I have time to go out for a walk.  My ankle itches, so I scratch it.  I'm recalling various readings where the cards spoke to more than one area of the querant's life. I talk to one of my kids.  Even in this moment I am living in several dimensions.  In order for tarot to be truly helpful to we who live this kind of existence rife with a complexity we take for granted and most of the time don't even notice,  it must be capable of addressing all of these aspects simultaneously, too.

I would love to own a Kindle. So for all the Kindle users, I have made 78 Notes To Self available for download.



Enjoy!

I had a great time as a guest on the award-winning internet radio show Beyond Worlds with hosts Donnleigh and Theresa Reed, The Tarot Lady.  If you've never listened to this show, it is a fabulous resource for tarot education for both novice and seasoned readers alike.  They consistently offer very solid and interesting content and host a wide range of guests from the tarot community, from well known tarot professionals to tarot people you may not have heard of yet.  While the show is aired, there is a chatroom on the site that one can participate in and the hosts and guests will often answer questions posed in the chatroom.  Some shows offer call-in readings, others are more "class" oriented where they present a topic and discuss.  Last night's show topic was The Court Cards.

Ten things your Tarot Reader may not tell you:

1.  I don't know whether the reading I will give you will be helpful or not.  I sure hope it is, but even when we have a clear understanding what we are asking and I have a clear understanding of the cards, the cards themselves may not be extremely helpful.  They may tell you what you already know and the reading can feel like a waste of time.

2.  I don't always get psychic information.  Tarot readers are not always psychic just as all psychics are not proficient in tarot.  I will occasionally get an unexpected nugget of information that comes totally out of left field, such as a time or date or other specific detail that I couldn't have known naturally, but in general I don't rely on these because they are so random.

3.  I am not a mind reader.  I cannot read your mind, so if you want to know what the cards say about a certain situation, you have to tell me about that situation.  If you hold back crucial information because you are testing my powers, you may not get important information you need.  This is because the message from the cards is filtered through my own conscious awareness, so if I don't know about it, I'm not going to address it.

4.  I want you to ask questions about your reading.  I prefer my reading clients to be actively engaged in the reading process.  I know sometimes it seems like a straightforward exchange in which you pay for a tarot reading and I deliver it, but a reading isn't like buying a cake at a bakery, it's about you and your life.  It is more akin to ordering a fine suit and having it customized and tailored to you.  I want your input during the entire process.  I love feedback, both positive and negative.

5.  You can't do what I do.  A tarot reader invests a vast amount of time, money, and energy into study of the cards and into honing their reading abilities and techniques.  I am not reciting your reading from a list of card meanings from a reference book.  Certainly anyone can do that.  I also have a knack for this and I am using my talent and gifts in reading your cards.  Everyone can sing, but that doesn't mean everyone should go on American Idol.  There's a reason I get paid for what I do. Even if you do read tarot quite skillfully yourself, I lend objectivity as well as my own unique intuitive insight to your reading that you can't give yourself.

6.  I hate when people ask for free readings.  I am a professional and I am not always on the clock.  Also, see #5.  I deserve the same respect you would afford any other professional.  Sure, if you have friends in various professions, you might ask their experienced opinion on various things, and I don't mind that, but if you wouldn't ask your doctor friend for a free exam, don't ask me for a free reading.  If I offer a free reading, that's one thing, but my services aren't usually free.

7.  Unless I advertise other services, don't assume I provide them.  Some tarot practitioners also have skills and services in other metaphysical arts but not all of us do.  Some practice astrology, numerology, reiki, magick spells, etc., but a tarot reader isn't necessarily going to have knowledge of other practices.  So if you provide a tarot reader with your astrological or numerological information, she may have no idea what to do with it. 

8.  I sometimes miss things.  The cards tell a story and I will do my best to squeeze every bit of nuance and all information I can for you out of them, but I am human and I might miss something.  So when a situation plays out in a way that, in hindsight, the cards clearly pointed to but I neglected to mention, I feel bad.  I wish I had seen that coming.  Sometimes, the cards don't warn of an event and it happens anyway.  That's not my fault.  Tarot is far from perfect.  It's like weather prediction.  Sometimes that thunderstorm moves in out of nowhere.  I am not perfect.  I can miss things. I make mistakes.

9.  I'm not going to snoop on your friends.  Don't ask me to read about your neighbors or your cousin or The Other Woman.  It's not that I can't read on their situations, I can.  But of what benefit is that to you?  How would you even know if what I am saying is true?  And how does this information help you decide what to do in your own situation?  Expect your reading to focus on you, primarily, and to help you take control of your own life by providing confirmation, affirmation, and positive suggestions for change.

10.  Don't lean on me, I'm not your crutch.  If you start ordering multiple readings from me on too many subjects, I'm going to start refusing to read for you.  The purpose of tarot reading is to empower you to both rely on your own intuition and to give you tools for making your own choices.  It is a powerful vehicle for clearing out the mental and emotional clutter and its purpose is to lend clarity.  Tarot doesn't make your decisions for you.  So if you start to feel like you "need" a reading on practically everything, that's not healthy and I will refuse to read for you until a certain amount of time has passed.

I am totally psyched about joining Donnaleigh and Theresa Reed on tomorrow night's broadcast of the award winning Beyond Worlds Tarot radio show. We will be discussing the Tarot Court and generally having a blast.  Come join the fun!

Ginny Hunt - Order in the Courts!

Because tarot cards are a collection of pictures and pictures themselves are symbols, I am fascinated with the  details within these cards that represent various themes and ideas.  Just as a writer will carefully choose words, which are symbols of ideas, an artist will carefully choose images as a symbol to communicate ideas.  While we are free to associate any of these items with any feeling or idea, there is a historical basis to many symbols that can help us decipher the meaning inherent in the image.  Most tarot decks feature animals in many of the cards and I've found it interesting to research the commonly designated symbolic meanings for these various creatures.  Not all cultures are in agreement with animal symbolism. The same animal may be feared or revered (or both) in different traditions.  If the deck is based on a particular cultural tradition, it is  best to research what the animal meant to that group in the time period of the deck's origin.  If one is using an historical tarot, or one based on an historical deck, the Christian/European pagan meanings will be more revealing. If one is studying a Celtic or Native American inspired deck, it would be useful to research the animal imagery associated with those cultures.  Also, because the historical decks featured scenic trumps and non-scenic pips, the animal symbolism on pips, or Minor Arcana, would logically stem more from esoteric tradition, possibly from the Egyptian or Greek cultures, but also Indo-European pagan as well. 

The Medieval culture in which tarot was developed was based primarily on Christian teaching, but the Renaissance had such a widespread influence on the thinking and philosophies of the time. Scholars and religious teachers turned to the classical stories of the Greek and Roman pantheon and brought new meaning and application to them, interweaving Biblical morality into the stories.  The root of much of the day's philosophy had its direct origins in ancient Greece.  The context in which people saw the animals was informed by a combination of history, tradition, and religious teaching.  Bestiaries were quite popular in the Medieval period.   Compendiums of pictures and text about animals, both real and imaginary, bestiaries served a religious function with  moralistic stories associated with each creature.  The symbolic nature of each animal was largely drawn from Biblical references and/or traditions and teachings.

I have picked out a few of the common animals found in many traditional tarot deck trumps and researched their historical meanings based on the era in which the cards were created.  This is by no means an exhaustive list and you may find additional meanings and interpretations as well as additional animals, depending on the deck.

For a long time he lived in the toy cupboard or on the nursery floor, and no one thought very much about him. He was naturally shy, and being only made of velveteen, some of the more expensive toys quite snubbed him. The mechanical toys were very superior, and looked down upon every one else; they were full of modern ideas, and pretended they were real. The model boat, who had lived through two seasons and lost most of his paint, caught the tone from them and never missed an opportunity of referring to his rigging in technical terms. The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn't know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles. Even Timothy, the jointed wooden lion, who was made by the disabled soldiers, and should have had broader views, put on airs and pretended he was connected with Government. Between them all the poor little Rabbit was made to feel himself very insignificant and commonplace, and the only person who was kind to him at all was the Skin Horse.


The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.


"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"


"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."


"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.


"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."


"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"


"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."


"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.


"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always." -- from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

Ever since I read this book to my firstborn, I have been captivated by this simple dialogue in the nursery.  Becoming real is hard.  It's harder than what is commonly heard today as "being real" because "being real" has become just another excuse to be rude.  Like, "Hey, your breath stinks.  No offense, I'm just being real."  It's tacked on the end of a stinging comment meant to somehow soften the blow but which instead punctuates it.  Kind of like that guy who says, "Just kidding" at the end of every insult.  Becoming real is painful.  It involves the kinds of experiences we wish we had been spared.  It makes us understand the value of holding our tongues or speaking our minds at the right moments.  Being real isn't license to lay your issues on everyone else for them to hold.  Being real happens through love and love doesn't shit on people.   And if love has an accident, it cleans up its own mess.  Becoming real involves a good, long, objective look in the mirror and realizing who you are is who you were meant to be.  Self-acceptance isn't as easy as it sounds because sometimes it leaves us with a nagging sense of defeat.  It requires brutal honesty and assessment of one's true strengths and weaknesses.  Making peace with one's own personality and allowing yourself to simply be human can be, well, humbling.  It flies in the face of all our conditioning to overcome, push farther, be better, create a new you, to well... be someone else. 

I've been thinking a lot about authenticity and being real.  At this point in my life, being me is all I know how to do.  I don't have enough energy to work up a persona.  Trying to be inauthentic is tiring.  I tried being inauthentic a few times and I really suck at it.  My first job was as a retail sales clerk at a small, independently owned sporting goods store.  The owner had just bought a whole load of ski jackets that were, frankly, crap.  He was disappointed in their quality, but now that we were stuck with them, we had to sell them.  I was helping a customer who was perusing the rack of jackets and when he said they didn't seem so great I agreed.  I said, "Yeah, they're not the best, but they're not expensive."  My boss took me aside and said, "Aw, c'mon Ginny, you're killing me!  I've got to get rid of those jackets!"  It wasn't that I couldn't lie, I could.  But trying to sell something enthusiastically that I just didn't believe in grated in a very uncomfortable way.  My next sales gig was cosmetics.  It was an at-home business, so to drum up clients I was supposed to have "shows" and "parties."  Which was fine.  As long as my clients could try on the makeup and really want to purchase it, I was enthusiastic.  But then I was shown how to attract clients while out and about.  My coach went up to a random woman in Kmart and complimented her.  Then she chatted about cosmetics in a girly way.  Then she handed the woman her business card and even booked a party right there in the pet food aisle.  I don't know about you, but I don't like random people intruding in my personal bubble when I'm shopping, so I couldn't bring myself to do that to others, even if it would score me a sale.  Needless to say, I didn't make a lot of money selling cosmetics.  If any activity or job requires that I do something completely at odds with my inner values, and they don't have to be "right" or "wrong" values like moral ethics or anything, but just something that goes against my grain, I can't pull it off.  Every job has its "Ugh!" factors that we simply get on with, but if this grating activity is essential to doing the job, it's not for me. 

I've noticed this inability to fabricate myself getting worse as I get older.  It has come with an increasing ability to laugh at myself, be lazy when I feel like it, and figure people will get over whatever imagined slight they may feel was directed at them from me.  Sometimes I wonder if I care less, but really, I care more.  I am more interested in what makes people feel genuinely alive and happy, but I don't feel it's my obligation to provide it to them.  I don't care about who said what to whom and how so-and-so made and ass of him/herself last weekend.  I like less clutter in my home and in my head.  I appreciate a few good, real friends.  If I have one good friend, I count myself blessed.  Most of all, I cherish loving someone deeply and irrationally.  That's where life gets good.

When I started reading tarot professionally, I brought all of that personal authenticity to my tarot practice.  More often than not, it's a good thing.  Most people want "the real deal," but sometimes they want smoke and mirrors.  Not my problem.  It's not what I do.  More than delivering authenticity, I want to provoke others to use tarot authentically as well.  I like to bring esoteric, airy-fairy concepts down to earth where we can actually use them rather than pontificate about them.  Some say tarot history is so dusty and irrelevant, and I can agree if all you do with it is create more stuff for your brain to forget.  Fascinating, but who cares?  So I find a use for it.  I want to bring the symbols of the past right into your life today and show you how to use them to get what you want accomplished.  That's what I mean by "authentic tarot."  But then again, who would be interested in "fake tarot?"  Well, maybe some people:





Who admits to being fake?  I mean, who does that?  Apart from this company, Genuine Fake Furs, who by the way had to add "genuine"  else they would just be false fake furs and who wants those, nobody would go out of their way to advertise their falseness.  I'm old enough to remember Kraft Imitation Mayonnaise, which was actually quite tasty, but rarely do we see anything advertising fakery.  Nobody would buy it.  I recently read that there is aa "new trend" in advertising.  It's the "made with real" thing we see everywhere.  Made with real or genuine ingredients or materials is hot now.  But when has anyone desired fake stuff in their stuff?  Dominos Pizza recently started advertising they are now using "real cheese."  Makes you wonder what they were using before.  When I see a product advertising its "real-ness" it sends up a red flag.  What else is in it that isn't real?  It's kind of like the movie that's "based on a true story."  You just know it's got a lot of made up crap in it.  Genuineness is more like that Skin Horse in the nursery.  It's unassuming and doesn't boast and swagger.  It doesn't show off its genuine parts.  It merely is.  You may not even notice the real deal at first.  It's not usually the shiniest, loudest, or prettiest thing in the room.  But when you find it, it's like unearthing buried treasure.  It's so beautiful.

So rather than avoiding the fake, it may be wiser to cut a wide berth around those that shout they are "real."  Step right up and get a genuine 100% real and authentic tarot reading!   Because why? All the others aren't real?  You're the only one dishing the straight dope?  Others use those fake tarot cards developed after the 16th century, you know.  Only the Tarot de Marseilles is genuine.  Or perhaps only the Golden Dawn decks yield a truly genuine reading, you know, with their esoteric magic Kabbalah, or however you spell that tree of life system.  Only those readers that light candles,  properly cleanse their cards and allow the querant to shuffle the deck to enhance the energy infusion into the cards are genuine and true.  There is not a single thing wrong with any of these decks or practices.  To all of them I nod my unsought approval.  If reading a deck rich in historical symbolism and systems sends your fancy into flight, I love you for it.  You should do it with everything you are.  If your way of tarot reading involves a pack of your own hand-drawn cards and you throw them up in the air and read what falls, to hell with tradition and accepted meanings, then you get on with it.  But the second you start claiming your way is more authentic, more real, than any other way, then I will flip you the bird with relish.

The advertisers are right.  We do crave real and authentic.  We need it.  But unless we ourselves become real, we won't ever be able to spot the lie in anything or anyone else.

When you see Justice in symbolic iconography, she is often depicted with scales.  They represent, of course, balance.  Hers is the cosmic force of karma which is the means of keeping human behavior in equilibrium.  Sometimes people can go years and years doing underhanded crap and it seems maybe Justice isn't looking.  But given the right moment, she sneaks up on situations and people and delivers her backhand with aplomb.  It is meant to be corrective, not retributive, so we must be careful when celebrating someone getting what was coming to them.  It's not always the hand of Justice.  Sometimes it's just the Wheel turning, and Providence is simply dealing one a normal dose of life's vicissitudes.  We need to watch our own attitudes and judgments, lest we become too haughty and presumptuous, such as some well-known political televangelists who seem to enjoy pointing out that earthquakes in Haiti are the direct result of the population's practice of Voodoo, or that AIDS is Justice for a homosexual lifestyle.  That kind of arrogance sets one up for a karmic backhand of your own.  It's all about Balance and taking a wide-angle view.  That scale is wielded by a goddess, not a mortal, who sees over time and into hearts and intentions.  We, being quite myopic and unable to hear all the evidence that she is privy to, can't begin to fully assess the final decree.

Often she lends a gentle warning, a smack on the wrist, rather than a full on backhand slap upside the head.  Sometimes it's so gentle it goes unnoticed, but we are wiser to pay attention.  Recently Theresa Reed published a wonderful post on her blog, The Tarot Lady, called "The F Word."  It pretty much sums up the way I and many other tarot readers feel about reclaiming the fortune telling aspect of tarot.  There does seem to be a strong sense in the tarot community of distancing from predictive readings, of "telling the future," and yet those of us who read professionally can attest that most of our clients come to us wanting us to read their future.  I wholeheartedly support Theresa's statements.   I got pissy four years ago at a tarot conference because fortune telling and divination seemed to be addressed as so "passe," that the only acceptable and worthy use of reading tarot was for one's own "spiritual enlightenment." I left the table in a hurry lest I said something I'd regret. I went out for a smoke and found a small clan of tarot readers who likewise felt the same. It was comforting, but we felt "rebellious,"  as if we weren't in the center of things but in the margins. Well, that's ok with me.  The margins are where I've lived my whole life, so what makes practicing tarot any different? Fortune tellers are, and forever will be, margin dwellers. Celebrate it if you dare and if you identify with it. I don't care to legitimize it for it may lose its magic otherwise. Dance in the margins and offer your gifts to those who visit there.  

Then came the karmic nudge.  Two days later, Theresa blogged again.  This time, her post "Medium Low" described a scene in a television reality show where a well-known psychic medium showed herself in a most undesirable light.  While I know that kind of thing makes for good TV, it also embarrasses those of us in the fortune-telling community that work hard to maintain a respectable and ethical environment.  She wrote:

The grand irony is that I had just written an article on reclaiming the dignity of the psychic profession (“The F Word”), when along comes this “psychic” (of some renown apparently) displaying behavior that would be considered abhorrent to anyone, but which is particularly shameful and harmful when done by someone who represents the profession on television in front of millions of viewers.

I don't know if anyone else felt the nudge, but I did.  In my fervor for reclaiming the fortune teller moniker in all its glory, this was a stern reminder of why the term has fallen into disfavor.  Psychics and tarot readers are human and as such we are prone to mistakes and showing our less than attractive sides.  But then there are those, and I'm not saying this woman on the show is such a one, who seem to make it their mission to downgrade the profession.  Some think its an easy way to make a few bucks, to tell clients what they want to hear, to pretend to read their futures, to do cold readings with much ado and flourish.   Clear away the smoke and mirrors and you find...nothing of substance.  The general public knows this and expects fortune tellers to be all fluff and no genuine substance.  We're entertaining and all, but that's about it.  Maybe Justice wanted me to know that there is a reason for this perception and not to dismiss it casually.  I need to likewise respect the well-founded impression that the public holds for tarot readers while simultaneously do my best to counter it by being genuine and by offering more than smoke and mirrors.  Also, there is good reason why some tarot readers opt out of doing predictive readings.  Some have found them to be of little practical value and have chosen not to offer them because they've found their own personal gift and strength is in a form of life coaching using tarot.  People who seek out their services tend to be the kind of people who want that kind of reading and those who want more predictive readings simply move on to another kind of reader.

The point is, there are many reasons why fortune telling has earned its reputation and it takes more than a simple statement of reclamation to tidy up its image.  I'm not saying it can't be done, but I don't think it will ever be considered entirely legitimate.  I'm not sure we should even want it to be.  The appeal of fortune telling lies in its mystery and magical otherworldly aura.  It rightfully belongs in the margins, in that liminal place where the High Priestess dwells, between acceptable and non-acceptable.  As long as one is comfortable in the margins I think there is where fortune telling becomes respected.  It will always be something doubted by skeptics, but then again, even mainstream professions like psychology have their skeptics, too. 

Justice broadens my view in ways no one else can.  She helps me view all sides of an issue with the least amount of bias I can muster.  She helps keep my own views in balance and the lessons she has taught me have been the most significant in my life.  She never fails to remind me when my mind is becoming too narrow, my sight too myopic, or my stance too dogmatic.  She tells me all is not what it seems, there is much to be considered before rendering judgment and her authority will not be usurped by the likes of mortals, that we are all simply subjects of her cosmic court and as such are vulnerable to her decrees as well.  Luckily for us, her aim is to help us grow and become more whole, more compassionate, more divine.  Her drive is not to punish but to correct, to balance, and we are more liable to avoid the more severe sentences if we respond positively to the lighter ones.

Credits: Justice tarot card from The Classic Tarot By Carlo DellaRocca, a reproduction of a Milanese deck, dated 1835. Published by Lo Scarabeo 2000

Relationship readings.  The boon and the bane of every tarot reader's practice.  I love them and I hate them.  I love them because I'm all about relationships.  People are so interesting and difficult to predict.  Even so-called "predictable" people are known to throw a definitive curveball on occasion.  The fascinating thing about relationship readings is they, too, can throw a distinct curve.  I am a woman who has seen her share of relationships and consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the tendencies and patterns of people.  But I am routinely surprised when tarot pipes in with some off the wall advice or outcomes to relationship questions.

Most often, the scenario that seems to unfold is that what appears to be the death knell of many relationships, tarot chimes in with, "It's not over."  It causes me, as a reader, many shakings of my head.  I sometimes wish it would say differently.  I wish it would just put the poor heartbroken client out of their misery.  But then, it's not up to me to pontificate on what I think would be best, that's not why my clients ask me to read tarot for them.  Still, even when tarot says, "It's not over," also does not mean there will be a happy ending.  At least not in the way one may imagine.  Many times I've seen, via my repeat clients, the story of a relationship unfold, one reading to the next.  Sometimes, when tarot says, "It's not over," is because the querant isn't ready for it to be over.  There may be unfinished business, not only between the couple, but most often, inside the querant themselves. One more round between them is exactly what my client may need before they can cleanly let go.  So just because a tarot reading may indicate that there is unfinished dealings between a couple, it doesn't mean the reconciliation is pending.

Predicting other people's behavior is really tough sometimes.  I have a spread that examines someone's thoughts, feelings, desires and likely actions in a relationship and there is almost always a glaring disparity between what someone wants versus what they will likely do.  I find that fascinating, but I am quick to remind my querants that I do often see that disparity and just because someone may want to be your Knight of Cups doesn't mean they will act on it.  Likewise, just because they may want to run away and never speak to you again doesn't mean they will.  The thing to remember, too, and this is crucially important, is that a relationship reading is primarily about you.  It's only secondarily about the other person.  All insights tarot may have are for you to consider about yourself, your thoughts, your feelings and your future actions.  While it may certainly help you better understand someone else, ultimately you are the one in control of your choices and responses.

A tarot relationship reading can help one be better prepared for making those decisions.  It can affirm what you may already be feeling about what to do.  It can calm the freakouts and allow you to rationally and somewhat objectively assess your next move.  The finest benefit is that it creates a time for you to re-evaluate your own feelings and whether or not you want to continue pursuing a relationship with that other person.  It serves the querant best when it is viewed as a way to feel more empowered in a situation where fifty percent of the interaction is entirely out of one's control.  Because ultimately, you are in the drivers seat of your own life and that includes your relationship choices.