Significators!

I did my first reading for someone else today since [checks notes...] November of last year! It flowed. Nice to know we (Spirit Team and me) haven’t lost our touch. 😁

It felt great to have a reason to read again, but I’m going to continue to keep a low profile. I prefer to scroll through sites* that offer free readings and be drawn to particular requests. 

Today’s experience did remind me, though, of something I’d like to share -

It reconfirmed the value of a change I’ve made to my reading process over the past year or so. I now select a card as a significator for the focus of the reading, be that a person or an area of enquiry. The card serves as a magickal proxy, much like a poppet, and helps to draw in the energy of situation. 

For years I balked at the idea of taking a card “out of play” to serve as a significator. Plus I didn’t really see the point. Now I appreciate the ‘sympathetic magick’ aspect and I’m finding it does make a difference. Besides, for cards meant to represent a person, I usually take one from another deck, most often my playing cards, so there’s no loss from the reading deck anyway.

If you don’t do this already, try it and see if it does anything for you.

*Not Facebook anymore. I haven’t deleted my account (yet); I’ve simply stopped participating in social media generally. (That’s another thing I can recommend.)

John Beckett: Magical Ethics - How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything (Patheos) - link

John Beckett's post Magical Ethics: How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything is possibly the most clear and rational examination of the topic I've yet come across. Here are some of my favourite 'moments' -

 "... ethics don’t exist to help people avoid punishment. Ethics exist to help people do the right thing in the first place."

"I can’t give you a bunch of rules to follow. If you need rules you're in the wrong religion."

"Ultimately there are no special ethics around magic. There are just ordinary ethics applied in a magical context."

 

Overly Spiritual Advice – Hardest Man In Tarot (YouTube)

Chris Egon Searle is not just the “hardest” man in tarot, he's one of the most sensible.  

“People... want very spiritual answers that only apply to them...

They want [advice that’s really complicated] because they know they can’t follow it...

They can... use the complexity as an excuse of why it didn’t work.”

I think this goes some way towards explaining why many people who have something that’s concerning them are unwilling to ask a direct question about it and opt instead for a random spiritual message. If they got a clear and actionable answer to their question, they’d either have to do the thing or deliberately ignore the advice.

Why I Read For Other People

The Spiritual Path I have taken through life has led me to be a card reader (and witch).

Not a yoga instructor, not a medium, not a reiki practitioner. 

A card reader. 

Therefore, to honour my Path, I must read cards.

I’m compelled by Spirit to read for others. But I’m not going to read for every person who knocks at my metaphorical door. 

Some people are led to me by Spirit. Some just find me. I’m shown which is which and I’ll read for the former. Some readers may define it differently, but this is what I mean when I say I’m “drawn" to read for someone.

I think it’s fair to say that I don’t see this as a personal “service to mankind”. I am not a Light Worker. It’s not my show.

I read because it’s my Spiritual Calling and I go where Spirit sends me.

Seasons Tune: Anything Goes (blog) - link

"Readers' Ethics", however one defines them, do not apply when reading for oneself. There, assuming we wish to grow and develop as readers, we are free to slip our traces and allow our souls to scan the full horizon.

Seasons Tune: Anything Goes

Pam Richards: 12 Mistakes New Tarot Students Make (blog) - link

Psychic clairvoyant Pam Richards wrote an excellent piece which addresses some of the common mistakes those new to Tarot often make. I thought it was worth sharing.

12 Mistakes New Tarot Students Make

Seasons Tune: Ad Astra (blog) - link

On the variations in meanings inherent in all card systems, and how and why we should find our own way. 

Seasons Tune: Ad Astra (blog post)

WYSIWYG for Card Readers

I was forcefully reminded today of one of my "Fundamentals of Fortune Telling":

You can't make a positive reading out of negative cards

Well, you can – I almost did – but you shouldn't.

I pulled cards today for someone who had never had a reading before. Naturally, I wanted it to be a nice experience for her. So when I turned one neutral card sandwiched between two negative cards, I unconsciously went into sugar-coating mode.

Mercifully, we were doing this online, and before I started telling her what I saw, she happened to comment that she had a feeling her reading would be a bit on the negative side.

It was like being poked sharply in the ribs.

I looked at the cards again, realised I didn't really like what I saw, and turned the bottom card for confirmation. It was another doozy. So I took a deep breath and interpreted the spread accordingly.

It was a general reading, so it didn't present as "bad news". It was more a heads-up about something to be prepared to deal with. I'm pleased to say she took it well and believed she knew what it was about. And I hope, as a result, she avoids any potential unpleasantness.

Bottom card - I was misled and potentially misleading my sitter

Many readers will tell you there's no such thing as "good" or "bad" cards. That all cards have positive and negative aspects depending on the situation being read for. And this is true, particularly if you use fixed positions, where the focus of the position calibrates the meaning of the card occupying it.

Nevertheless, we can all go through a Tarot deck and divide it into essentially good, bad, and neutral cards.

And I don't often use fixed positions. I lay down a line of cards and take them, initially*, at face value. With 78 cards at their disposal, if the answer is positive, there's no shortage of "good" cards that could appear in the spread. So if I'm given several negative cards, I should accept that they're trying to tell me something.


(*The overall combination of cards and their relationships to each other will temper their meanings. Fundamental #2 - One bad card doesn't ruin an overall positive reading, but likewise, one good card can't save a negative one.)

Just because YOU choose to use reversals...

... Doesn't mean we all should.

I've only just gotten around to reading the December edition of the American Tarot Association's "Reflections" e-zine.

One of the articles... ahem, let's just say it rubbed me the wrong way - "More Reasons to Graduate to Reversals in Your Tarot Interpretations.

Graduate? Excuse me?!

I had to comment.

And then I thought it might be worth a post here -

I resent the use of the word "graduate". I've been reading tarot quite successfully without reversals for over 40 years. I have an honorary degree. 😉 My style is cartomantic. Unless I'm using a spread with fixed positions (something I rarely do), I read by placement, proximity, facings, symbolism, etc. All the nuances of any given card, upright or reversed, are available to people who "read cards". If you want to use reversals, be my guest. But do not suggest that I'm lagging behind in any way.

I've got nothing against people using reversals if that's how they roll. Do what works for you. But please don't make out that your tarot is somehow better or more advanced as a result. Just read your damn cards and mind your own business.

Thoughts? (if you dare, LOL)

Lucky Lynx (YouTube) - What Do You Do When You See Disaster in Someone's Future?

This was a timely video for me.

I had someone request a reading recently, and their question was "Is now the best time?". The subject was very sensitive, and one I wasn't about to proffer a flat yes or no on. I told them I would look at what the cards had to say about Now vs. Later and let them decide which way they wanted to go.

"It is not your job... to determine the outcome of their life or their choices. You can simply show them the patterns that you are seeing in a particular oracle and what the oracle tells them, and then it's up to them to make the decision."