Delving Spread

In this new spread I’ve created, you can delve deeply into an issue and understand what you need to work on in the moment as well as where the situation is taking you down the road.

The top card indicates the issue at hand.

In the second row, from left to right, the cards are for inner resources, external help, and fears to overcome.

In the third row, from left to right, the cards are action to take now and action to take in the future.

The last card is the wisdom to be derived from following this path.

So, in this example, using Cheryl Lee Harnish’s Path of the Soul Destiny Cards, I’ve done a spread about my newest venture, my online television show. The first card brings up the issue about me as a healer questioning my abilities in this arena. For inner resources, I’m told to expect the unexpected (and have already had a website offer to feature my show – more details soon). So when internally, I’m open to whatever the universe wants to bring me, the offers come. For external resources, the card indicates I have a powerful energetic influence on others. So, the message here is to be myself and the external will be realized.

Under fears to overcome, I’m told to basically take action and trust that the rest will follow. This card indicates that I’m on the right path in creating an online television presence. For the immediate action to take, I’m to ask for support. So, please come see me on my shows and share your perspective and let others know about the show if you like what you see.

What’s most interesting about this spread is the fact that it tells you what to watch for further down the road. The future action card indicates that I need to ensure I take care of myself. Sounds like I’ll be busy!

The wisdom card indicates that I need to strike a balance between online time and time spent in nature in order to stay attuned to my inner being. That is where I will find the Truth to bring to my shows.

How’s that for a comprehensive spread? Please do share your thoughts and impressions. Thank you!

A Delicious New Way to Do Tarot

Have you ever given yourself a tarot reading and wondered if you were influencing your answers? Do you feel like you interpret the cards the way you want instead of being objective? We’ve all had times when we drive ourselves crazy, wanting answers to a dilemma and feeling like we’re going in circles.

Let me introduce you to my fellow psychic reader, Abella Arthur. She and her husband, Jasper, have developed a technique called EAT that enables readers to ask themselves questions in such a way that the answer is not influenced.

I tried the technique and was immediately captivated by it. It’s become one of my favourite ways to read! The method allows the reader to tackle several issues simultaneously and get concise and clear answers without fear of self-influenced interpretation.

Faced with several new avenues opening up for my career, I used the EAT method to compare them to see which one would benefit from the greatest attention. I was pleased with the clarity of the responses and the ability to compare answers. For interested readers, Abella will schedule a time to go over the technique and ensure that you’re clear on how it works and that you get the full benefit of the system.

Three Aspects Spread

Photo by Bonita Summers

In this spread that I created using the Psychic Tarot, I want to look at three key aspects of a particular situation. With that situation in mind, I shuffle and select three cards. After examining the cards, I then shuffle and select three more to place below the original three as indicators of actions that need to be taken in regard to the three aspects above.

In the example above, I am examining a querent’s relationship and how it will be affected by changes in the querent’s work life. The first card indicates that this person is facing difficult choices that may positively or negatively affect their  relationship. The second card indicates that the work involved will yield financial rewards. The third card shows that the querent may find themselves propelled into a new world of experience through promotion or some other form of recognition.

The cards below indicate that a loving relationship may arise out of the choices being made. The question is whether that will be with the current partner or another one met through the new work situation. This is dependent on the cards that follow. The second card suggests that the querent will move forward in a positive new direction. It is the third card which gives us pause, realizing that all of this acceleration forward may leave the current relationship in the dust, thus creating mental conflict for the querent.

When a clear choice between aspects makes itself evident, we can select two or more cards for each possible option. In this case, we look at staying with the current relationship or leaving. Notice that with such a dramatic decision to make, we just happen to select two major arcana cards. This is not deliberate, but it’s a natural result of looking at dramatically life-changing possibilities.

In this case, staying suggests the possibility of nurturing a long-term relationship. The softer, feminine aspects of caring and mothering arise here, indicating a partnership that is comfortable and comforting.

On the other hand, choosing to leave means going for the more masculine, action-oriented path of recognizing one’s own authority, standing on one’s own two feet and discovering personal power through self-actualization. This path can be gratifying but potentially lonely.

As you can see, there is no clear, correct choice, as is sometimes the case with the Tarot. We are shown clearly the various aspects of a situation so that we can make a more educated and intuitive decision. Either way, in this case, there are benefits and drawbacks for either option.  The querent needs to determine whether it behooves them to accentuate their feminine aspect or masculine in their choice of emphasis on partner or career.

Introspective Spread Using the Psychic Tarot

Below is a spread I created, using John Holland’s Psychic Tarot deck. It’s useful for examining where you are at the present moment at the conscious and subconscious level and where that moment is taking you.

Photo by Bonita Summers

In this spread, we start with the central card, depicting the querent in the present moment. In this case, the individual is ready to move forward in their life, possibly leaving present relationships, jobs, or locations behind. There’s a restlessness to pursue new avenues and make dramatic changes in life.

The card to the upper left shows what enslaves the person to their present situation. In this case, material success – either having a secure position now or focusing too much on financial security – is holding the querent back from embracing new challenges and opportunities, despite the desire to explore new avenues.

The card to the upper right shows what frees the person to embrace the desires of the present moment. In this case, a relationship offers the encouragement to move forward. This may be in the form of a significant other, a friend, or a business relationship. Such encouragement may come in the form of direct encouragement or it may be indirect as in the case of a relationship that is troubling, which provides the impetus to create change.

The card to the lower left shows the shadow, that part of the person that has been hidden until now, but contains the power needed to embrace change. In this case, the querent has the ability to create prosperity but doesn’t fully realize that it’s in them to do so. There is likely fear around taking responsibility for doing so. Often, looking at our shadow involves facing our fears in order to liberate the power that lies within our hidden selves. It may also be a pattern for the querent to be reliant on others rather than face growing up and having to maintain themselves. This suggests an aspect of the Self that is frozen in childhood and needs to be acknowledged and embraced in order to assist its growth and evolution toward adulthood.

The card to the lower right shows the light, that aspect that will aid in the querent’s healing, that energy which offers gentle help and nurturing in the process. It balances out the shadow, which often involves the harsh, gritty work of personal growth. In this case, the card is suggesting that the introspection required to acknowledge the shadow needs to be conducted during a time of rest, that the querent cannot continue to keep busy in order to avoid taking responsibility for the work that needs to be done. The challenge for the querent is to be willing to take a rest, even if it triggers the fear of lack of security. This person may need to accept less work for a time in order to do the internal work necessary for change. In a western society that values tangible results, such a rest period is not always valued, thus posing a challenge for the querent.

The bottom card shows the outcome should the querent meet the challenges of the preceding cards. In this case, addressing the issues at hand will help this person to know their own strength and power, discovering that the resources they needed have been waiting within all along.

I welcome comments on this spread, and I look forward to hearing how this spread works for you.

The Empress – Nurturing is for You Too

The Aquatic Tarot. Author/Artist: ©Andreas Schröter 1995-2002

How often do we take care of everybody but ourselves? The Empress reminds us to nurture our own being as well as others. Yet, many of us were brought up to think it selfish to focus on our own needs. We may even like ourselves less when we’re not busy taking care of someone else.

As we move into a time of great change, we need to recognize that to be a powerful, liberating and peaceful force in the universe, we must come from a place of self-love.

When you pass a young child in the street who beams up at you and says ‘Hi’, you can’t help but smile back and feel a little lighter for having met that child. That’s because until children are taught to doubt themselves, they are naturally great at practicing self-love, so their energy is generated outward where everyone can enjoy it. Since children send out love from the core of their being, they naturally receive it back. Thus, the ebb and flow of energy that is meant to occur between beings, in these types of encounters, is unhindered.

Sadly, few of us leave childhood with that self-love intact. We become conditioned to admonish ourselves in order to fit into our culture. While not always a negative thing – we need to learn to take the needs of others into consideration – it can mean that our emphasis towards caring for our fellow human tends toward martyrdom.

When we learn to see love of self as a negative, it’s often replaced by harsh judgment against ourselves for not putting others first all the time. Yet, as long as we are locked down in guilt and judgment, our energy is turned inward, and we have nothing to give others. In fact, we are so drained because of the misuse of our energy against ourselves, that we really do become devoid of productive energy. So, we can’t be there for our fellow beings. We can’t give water from a dry well.

To be truly productive and selfless, we need to forgive our human failings, be generous in forgiving them in others, and love ourselves for the divine beings we are, so that we can focus our energy outward in a peaceful gesture to those we meet.

When we nurture ourselves, we nurture the world around us.

How can we contribute? The Prince of Wands

The Aquatic Tarot. Author/Artist: ©Andreas Schröter 1995-2002

It’s January, and our thoughts turn to the year ahead. The Prince of Wands begs the question: how can we contribute to our world? To the people in our lives?

It brings us out of our winter shell, poking at the cocoon in which we’ve ensconced ourselves, asking us how we wish to come forth into the new year. Are we to focus on ourselves only and our needs, or is there something larger beckoning?

Our world is changing in ways that challenge and even frighten us, and it can be difficult to find the strength to step outside our comfort zone and be there for others.

We can take respite in the fact that when we extend ourselves to others in productive and positive ways, we create an opening for energy to flow back to us, lending us the support we need. In these shifting times, let’s not get so caught up in our daily struggles that we forget community, that we forget each other.

Lean on the universal energy that sustains you, and be a channel for that energy out into the world. Being that channel for love and light is the best New Year’s resolution I can imagine.

The New Rational Thinking – The King of Pentacles

The Aquatic Tarot. Author/Artist: ©Andreas Schröter 1995-2002

Drawing the King of Pentacles is a good reminder that science and rational thinking are valuable tools as long as we don’t allow them to run the show and subvert the intuition. Both aspects of consciousness need to work together for balance.

There are new possibilities opening up in the world of science regarding the value of intuition. Increasingly, quantum physics is serving to verify what metaphysicians have always believed – that the world of thought creates the world of matter. Quantum theory has shown that matter is affected at the atomic level by the act of measuring it. In other words, the observer affects matter by the mere act of observation.

It’s been extrapolated that we make up the world of matter each day, based on our expectations. We see what we expect to see. In other words, this material world is not that different from the dream world, except that here certain laws about gravity and matter seem to apply.

In the dream state, achieving lucidity means being as awake in the dream just as we are in the waking world. When we are lucid, everything appears as real as the waking world, except all bets are off when it comes to the laws of physics. Here, we can walk through walls, fly, swim without holding our breath, travel anywhere at the speed of thought, and change our dream scenarios just by thinking about them.

Years of research into lucid dreaming have yielded new realizations that affect our scientific view of the material world. People have trained themselves to share dream states and have corroborated details that verify having met in a dream. Healers are enhancing their skills by applying them to patients during the lucid dream state. Experimental subjects are finding ways to indicate to researchers that they are lucid while in the dream state. There is a crossover now between dreaming and the waking state that is consciously driven.

Moreover, very adept lucid dreamers are discovering a state beyond waking and lucid dreaming, known by Tibetan Buddhist dream yogis as the “clear light of seeing”. In this state, all objects and environments disappear and one is in a state of beingness where a personal identity does not exist.

So, science is now traversing new ground that will ultimately help us realize in a direct and profound way that the waking and dream states are still layers of illusion. Eventually, with training and practice aided by modern dream research and ancient techniques, we will experience reality as it is, free of assumptions and illusion. It is the balance between rational-based research and intuitive realization that will lead us to the deepest understanding of who we are and how we fit into the universe.

Sharing your Heart – The Page/Princess of Wands

The Aquatic Tarot. Author/Artist: ©Andreas Schröter 1995-2002

We naturally attract people and abundance to us when we are heart-centered in our approach. Whenever we are in the mode of loving ourselves and the world around us, people smile back on the street, the phone rings with tempting offers, and opportunities of all kinds just seem to open up around us. Everything blossoms.

The challenge we face in tough economic times is to continue to blossom and to stop ourselves from going into warrior-survival mode. We can feel the difference at our heart chakras when we are in that mode. Our chests constrict; we walk with our heads down, barely noticing passers by; we’re internally focused, trying to figure out what’s wrong with our lives. We’ve moved out of our hearts and into our rational minds.

The Page or Princess of Wands beckons us to approach our lives with honesty and sincerity. That means accepting when we’re scared or unsure and letting that feeling move through us, perhaps talking to a good friend about what’s upsetting us. This reaction to fear doesn’t constrict the heart but opens it up. It’s only when we think we can resolve these problems through suppression and rationalization that we move away from being honest with ourselves and others.

The Page of Wands is a soft, open-hearted person. When he’s hurt, you know it, because he can’t hide his feelings. When he’s happy, he shows it, and any room he enters seems brighter for his presence. He welcomes you in all that you do to stay open and present with your emotions, stay connected to the people around you. Realize that we’re all in this together, and we can share in the difficulties and lighten each other’s load – but only if we’re honest with each other.

Take time today to stop what you’re doing and just feel what’s happening inside of you. What emotion is present? Take a moment to completely surrender to that feeling. This is as important as reminding yourself to breathe. Then, realize that no matter what your emotion, there are others nearby feeling the same thing. You’re not alone. Take comfort in that.

Digging Down to Find Your True Nature – The 8 of Pentacles

The Aquatic Tarot. Author/Artist: ©Andreas Schröter 1995-2002

Often, the thoughts we have during the day come in waves. At one moment, we may have clarity and realize our true potential. We experience the elation of knowing what we are and what we can achieve. At other moments, we get sucked down into the maelstrom of fear, worrying that we won’t be able to succeed in life, that we’ll be rendered helpless and alone.

The 8 of Pentacles is all about recognizing our true nature – our divinity – and holding that recognition before us like a flame that lights our way (you may see Olympic references here if you wish). It takes discipline to keep our eyes on that flame and not to get bogged down in darkness.

When I feel that sense of foreboding, it helps me to meditate, read inspiring books, and remember the guides and higher awareness that come to me in dreams to remind me of my divine beingness.

Apart from owning my place as a Being of Light, I have the added luxury as someone who works with energy fields of being able to see others as they appear as a light being.

What lies behind the outer appearance, you might ask? When you peer down through the layers to the core, we all look like stars. It’s incredibly humbling to observe others in their divine state, and it’s even more amazing to experience the energy of that state. It’s my wish that all people could see the world around them as it actually is. There would be more peace if we all recognized each other as holy. Hence, the reason for the greeting, “Namaste” – the divine in me salutes the divine in you.

In my courses on reading the human energy field, I provide my students with the opportunity to tune in on the various layers of the human energy field and to open to the experience of their divinity for themselves and in connection with others. It’s my wish that we drop our barriers and see that in essence we all are in a state of harmony. The disharmony we see is illusion. Working with the human energy field can help you to look past the illusion to what really lies beneath.

My next course begins January 17th. If you wish to sign up, please do so at www.tarotkingston.com. I look forward to seeing you there!

To thine own self be true – The Emperor

The Aquatic Tarot. Author/Artist: ©Andreas Schröter 1995-2002

As we contemplate what we wish to accomplish in the coming year, the Emperor challenges us to look to our true calling and not just be swayed by the desires and opinions of others. The Emperor is independent and decisive. We can access this active, masculine principle within ourselves by connecting with our passion. To “follow your bliss”, as Joseph Campbell put it, you have to know what that is.

So, consider what activity gives you the most joy – even if it’s one you’ve never attempted but always wanted to try – and make a list of steps you would need to take to make that a significant part of your life, maybe even your worklife. Then, take the first step. Don’t worry about how long it will take to achieve the final goal. You’re an eternal being. Just walk each step with joy and a sense of self-discovery. The experience on the way to the goal is far more important than its achievement.

The Emperor trusts his intuition, so ask the universe for clarity if you can’t think of what your passion might be. Then, watch for the answer to arrive. It can come from anywhere – a TV show, a book, a dream, snatches of conversation from passersby, a poster at a bus stop. Be open to receiving the information you need. Then, have the courage to act upon it.

Life on earth is too short to ignore your dreams. Make this the year to make them come true.