Empowered or Disempowered?
September 27, 2017
Many people are afraid of Tarot card readings. They think it’s some dark omen that augurs the future. That belief always surprises me, especially when you realize that a Tarot card is just a piece of paper with picture on it. I liken it to a Rorschach test—pictures we’re asked to interpret.
I have been interpreting Tarot cards the last 12 years. If you were to come to me for a reading, here’s how I would see it:
1. You have a question. For example, Is this the right time for me to sell my house? Will I get a promotion before the end of the year?
2. You come to the reading with a certain energy around that question. You may or may not be aware of that energy. The cards have a mysterious way of tapping into your subconscious energy, which, by the way, holds a powerhouse of information. It may hold information your conscious self denies.
3. Next, you pick one or more cards with that question in mind. Each card has a certain energy and meaning. If more than one card is picked to answer the question, they may be put into a spread. Each position in a spread usually has a certain meaning. A simple spread could be Past, Present and Future.
4. You end up with a convergence of energy: the energy you bring to the reading about that question, the card’s meaning and the position’s meaning. Those three components comprise the interpretation and an answer to your specific question.
What? You Don’t Like What the Cards Say?
Perhaps you don’t like the card that you pulled for the Future. You have choices in how to respond: You can stomp away in frustration (and say, “It’s all hogwash!”), or you can pull additional cards to explore what is meant by that Future card. Those additional cards can provide more information on how to best deal with a situation that initially looked unfavorable in your eyes at the moment of the reading.
When you pick Tarot cards in a reading, it reflects the energy of your behavior up to that moment. This is an important point many do not understand. The cards are giving you a head’s-up. If they are telling you not to sell your house even though you are hell-bent on selling it when you came to the reading, it’s worth your attention to stop and consider the issue more deeply. Perhaps there are issues you haven’t considered. What are the pitfalls? Could you get a higher return if you wait? Perhaps more repairs need to be done before putting it on the market. Or innumerable other variables you may not have considered or probed deeply enough.
We are so pummeled with bad news, hostile exchanges, and fear-mongering that when we come for a Tarot card reading or any other so-called fortune telling medium, we are quick to give our power away, especially if the reading isn’t to our liking or expectations. Laura Day, the author of several self-help books that focus on intuition, puts it this way:
“…people get really confused about precognition—telling the future. The way people use it is often damaging. If I hear I’m going to have a car accident, for example, I don’t wait in terror for it to happen. I ask, What are the circumstances? Who am I with at the time? What day is it? What color is the car? I look for those things and then I do my best to avoid the accident.”
You Are an Infinitely Powerful Being
A Tarot card reading may not be able to answer all those questions, but it gives us clues we can spot, especially if we listen to our intuition. Those clues can spur us to make different and more thoughtful choices. Those choices can then lead us to more propitious outcomes, significantly better outcomes than had we let things unfold on their own. When we take charge of our choices, we end up feeling empowered and confident for having taken good care of ourselves.
My meditation teacher keeps telling me, “You are so much more powerful than you can imagine.” Laura Day says, “…every one of us is an infinitely powerful being. So as you work with intuition, remember that you can also make choices that can change those predictions.”
So, when you choose to go for a Tarot card reading, know that the cards are simply a tool to give you information you may not be fully aware of. They reflect your energy at the moment of the reading, not necessarily your energy in the next week or next month, especially if you start making choices and taking action different from those before.
I believe the cards are meant to help you. You’ll know the next best steps to take when you let your intuition absorb what the cards have to say. Make Tarot cards your friend, not your foe. Use them to empower yourself, because you are an infinitely powerful being!
Creating Space 