Tarot Evolves with Our Changing World

Although I am not a tarot animist, I will be the first to say that tarot has some magical properties. This post is about one of my favorites of those properties.

There are many different ways in which tarot can evolve to meet and describe new cultural situations and circumstances.

Here are three examples of what I mean. The last is a very recent one which many of us have discovered. Perhaps, though, we have not contemplated the magic therein as much as we could.

In my tarot practice, the Chariot, Major Arcana Seven, is very often a reference to a person’s car. Of course, when tarot divination was first beginning, no one had cars. Now, they are a very important part of society. They provide our ability to work, shop, and do the things we need to do. They are a status symbol, and very often a source of stress.

It is important that when we use divination to look at someone’s life, we have within the language of our divination tool the ability to look at all the important factors.

The car has definitely become an archetype in American culture. The archetype of the Chariot was easily able to expand to fit into that cultural need.

When I was living in Connecticut and the casinos were being built, the Wheel of Fortune, Major Arcana Ten, started to appear for clients much more often than it previously had. The Wheel of Fortune was suddenly signaling employment at the casino. Later, it began to show up for gambling addiction.

The casinos changed our local culture, and tarot found a way to reflect and communicate that change.

I recently acquired Modern Witch Tarot. The Five of Wands in this deck struck me as being an amazingly clear commentary for 2020 and beyond. Yet, the deck was published in 2019.

At first glance of the Modern Witch Five of Wands we see a very typical image; five people fighting each other with big sticks. What is interesting is that two of them are wearing masks which cover the nose and mouth.

The Modern Witch Five of Wands clearly describes the contentious social discourse regarding mask-wearing during the pandemic. Yet, the timeline tells us that there is no way this card could have been consciously designed to do so.

In the accompanying book, the fighters in this image are described as a “girl gang”. When we look at the image, we can see they have Asian features. Their stances suggest they are practice bojutsu, a martial art using Japanese staff technique.

We know that in some Asian cultures the covering of the nose and mouth to prevent the spread of disease is common, and, beyond that, is considered a simple common courtesy.

The designer of Modern Witch Tarot, Lisa Sterle, could not have possibly known that mask-wearing, mask-hating, and mask-making would be front-and-center activities worldwide in the years that followed her deck’s publication.

Had the masks appeared in a different card it might not be so noteworthy. The Five of Wands traditionally is about conflict. There has been a remarkable amount of loud and contentious conflict around mask-wearing in many places around the world.

That Sterle was inspired to illustrate this card in this way a year before the pandemic is the best example of how tarot expands and evolves to represent current culture and circumstance that I have ever seen.

There are many ways that tarot is magical. Sometimes it feels hard to show clear evidence of that, since so many of our tarot experiences are deeply personal and private.

I believe the clear relevance of the Modern Witch Five of Wands to our current culture and circumstances is evidence of tarot’s power to evolve to fit a changing world.

How Tarot Brings Us Hope

A tarot reading can be a source of hope. We can find within the cards, sometimes unbidden, indications of better days ahead.

We can ask the cards specific questions which will allow them to deliver hopeful messages.

We can study the cards and find within that study wisdom that bring enlightenment and hope.

We can create specific tarot spreads which can point the way to hopeful thinking and offer advice to help move a situation toward a better direction.

Hope can be life-giving, and lifesaving. Yet, hope can also be toxic. Sometimes the most healing thing we can do is to abandon hope and walk away from a hurtful situation. Sometimes the energy we put into a hopeless situation would be better used on something else.

Tarot can help us determine which situations deserve our hope, and when we are better served by letting go of hope.

Sometimes, the more specific we are in our questions, the clearer our answers and advice will be.

When I am unsure about the outcome of a situation, and whether it is appropriate to be hopeful, a simple two-card reading can often be illuminating.

One card will show the best possible outcome. The next card will show the worst possible outcome.

These two cards can often let us know whether we should have hope or walk away.

If the cards advise hope, we can then ask another question, such as “What should I do to help create that best possible outcome?”

If we are simply feeling overburdened and downtrodden in general, we can ask a simple question like, “About what can I feel hopeful right now?”

Very often the card that appears will give us inspiration, practical advice, or both.

But what happens when the card that appears isn’t a very hopeful card?

This is a situation when a clarifying card can be helpful. Very often a difficult card in answer to a question such as this is an invitation to heal an over-arching problem.

The cards can be soothing, but they are also truth-tellers. Sometimes there can be no real hope until we tackle a significant problem. Sometimes we just can’t get what we want. In those cases, hope comes from acceptance and a change in perspective.

Tarot Art Is More Than Pictures

When I say that tarot art is more than pictures, I mean two things. The first is that tarot art is magical, and an integral part of our divination process.

At our upcoming online tarot conference, StaarCon, one of our missions is to honor tarot artists. The art of which tarot, and all cartomancy, is comprised is one of the ways we make the connection with spirit, and with truth. Without our artists, we would not, for the most part, be able to do the work we do.

One of the reasons I think cartomancy is so popular, and so effective, is this. The third eye (brow chakra) is the seat of eyesight, imagination, and psychic vision. When we look at the art on a card, the creation of the artist stimulates our imagination and our psychic vision. It is from this that we are able to receive and deliver our most inspired readings.

The second thing I mean when I say that tarot art is more than pictures is this. There are many art forms and types of creativity that emanate from tarot. Tarot art, and all cartomancy art, creates the tools. Those tools inspire other kinds of art.

Tarot has inspired everything from statuary to perfume, wine and fashion.

We tarotists know that giving a tarot reading is an art form in and of itself. We also know something even more important.

If we want to truly dive into a particular card or tarot archetype, we can do that by letting it inspire our creativity.

Writing tarot poetry is a wonderful way to get a deeper understanding of a card.

Tarot performance art can involve song, theater, and more. In fact, at StaarCon we will have a number of types of tarot art, including tarot improv and a tarot-themed play.

Making a collage to represent a particular card can be a deeply inspiring experience.

The art of tarot draws us in and helps us connect with our intuition. When we create art inspired by tarot, we nurture our creativity and expand our understanding and experience of the cards.

Should We Even Try to Predict a New Year? Of Course, We Should!

Making predictions for the upcoming year is a basic function for psychics, seers, and cartomancers.  In the 1990s it was commonplace for local newspapers to contact my colleagues and me to get our thoughts on the upcoming year for an entertaining article to run on January First.

Now there are more blogs and fewer newspapers. There are probably even more people wanting to get in on the fun of psychic speculation.

There are quite a few clients who like to have readings in December or January to look toward the year ahead. I remember at this time last year being quite confused by what was showing up in people’s cards for 2020. Cancelled trips, working from home, home-schooling the kids; how did any of that make sense?

What became really clear for me in retrospect is this. It is impossible for one to predict what one cannot imagine.

At this time last year, even though I was aware of the strange new disease that had emerged, Wuhan seemed very far away. I could not imagine that Western nations would be over-run by a sometimes-deadly virus. Even as we saw Italy devastated, my personal worldview suggested that good old American ingenuity would find a way to contain the threat, just as was done when Ebola made its way to our shores in years prior.

As much as I pride myself on being able to read with objectivity and compassionate detachment, my inability to imagine what would unfold in 2020 made my predictions for individuals more valuable than for the planet.

I am not alone in this. I think most of us find it easier and more helpful to read for people versus nations.

A few experiences from those moments a year ago sit with me, making me examine the way our inner guidance can work.

Late in 2019, I moved into the largest office space I have ever occupied in my entire career. It immediately became a thriving community center. Just a few months later, I had to temporarily cease having classes, meetups and in-person readings. I remembered how strongly motivated I had been to make this move. I had felt pushed. At the time I interpreted that cosmic nudge simply as business advice for growth.  Toward the latter half of March, I realized that the Universe wasn’t pushing me to grow my business, but to preserve my business.

I was being positioned for the first time in my career into workspace with my own rest room, and my own door. Not having to share hallways and facilities with building mates made the pandemic much less stressful. Being able to temporarily turn my conference room into a private exercise area was a much-appreciated bonus when the gyms were closed.

I received another interesting nudge from the Universe last December. Typically, early each December I will create a special new year opportunity for my clients. As 2019 was ready to give way to 2020, I tried hard to think about what the new year program for 2020 would be. The name of the year lent itself so well to the idea of clear vision and moving toward a new decade. Yet, I was completed unmotivated to create a new year program, opportunity, or offer. For the first time in a few years, I decided not to do this. Once again, as March rolled around, I realize my guides had protected me and my clients from what might have been a difficult and unnecessary exercise.

What I learned from all this was important. Sometimes we have to trust the psychic nudges we get, yet we won’t know their importance or reason until later.

I see this in the cards, with clients, all the time. It will feel imperative that I tell a client a particular thing, although I won’t be able to tell them the why of it. After some time passes, the why becomes clear.

I have always known this to be true in the readings I do for others. This year I saw clearly that this same truth applies to the guidance I receive for myself.

For those of us who are diviners, whether professional or casual, the ritual of doing a personal reading for the new year, or having one done for us, is an annual rite of passage.

There are many techniques for a new year reading, and each can give insight, hope and inspiration as we make our way into the future.

But what about reading for the nation, or the world?

Of all the readers I know and know of, no one person seemed to predict the full weight of global pandemic, social unrest, and all the other rarities 2020 had to offer.

Perhaps the value of a reading for the planet, or a nation, is not to give a news report in advance. Perhaps the value is simply to give a bit of a weather report.

With that in mind, I went back, once again, to check the reading I did for 2020 on my blog.

When doing the reading, I had already chosen not to predict election outcomes, nor to put my thumb on the scale of any controversy.

In this blog post, dated December 27, 2019, I had a conversation with tarot, predominately about the bitter division I saw in the United States, and how that division might play out in the coming year.

The final question and its answer strike me as particularly interesting.

Will we still be so divided by the end of 2020?

Cards pulled: Hierophant reversed, The Fool, Wheel of Fortune Reversed

Answer: Change is coming. By the end of 2020 there will be more concern for those who are less fortunate, but that may be because more people will be facing misfortune. There will be less respect for authority, religion and government. There will be more youth voices heard, and a new energy will replace the energy of division.

When I look at this question and answer today, a year later, I am struck by a few things. That the three cards I pulled were all Major Arcana seems to speak of the enormity of the events of 2020.  More people are certainly facing misfortune in ways I could not have imagined when I wrote this.  There certainly is less respect for authority, religion and government, in so many ways, and for so many reasons. And, in our election, there were more young and first-time voters than ever before.

You can read last year’s blogpost in its entirety and see what you think.

What sort of reading shall I do for my nation this year, as we say goodbye to 2020 and welcome 2021?

This year I have become fascinated with the way the cards can supply a question, as well as an answer. For this new year reading I will pull a card and use that card to phrase some questions. Then, I will pull three cards to supply each answer.

The card I pulled at random is the Ten of Pentacles.

This card speaks to me of health and wealth, two things that have suffered greatly in 2020. Yet, it also speaks of ancestry and legacy. In 2020 we came to a new depth in the discussion of our nation’s history, and how our history has led us to where we are.

The Ten of Pentacles is also about real estate. As I am writing this there are many people across our nation in peril of losing their homes.

The Ten of Pentacles is about family. At this moment, there is a continued contentious debate about what the makeup of a family can or should legally be.

I can’t think of a better card to ask the most important questions of this moment than the Ten of Pentacles. It is also true that 2021 is the official start of the new decade, and so a Ten is particularly appropriate.

Question One: Will we win the battle against the current health crisis in 2021?

Cards pulled: The Hanged Man reversed, the Star reversed, the Two of Pentacles

My interpretation:

These are not the most optimistic cards, but they do represent a good start on our journey back from the pandemic. The Hanged Man reversed suggests that we will do what we must do to take control of the situation. Yet, with the Star reversed, these two cards together might describe the many disagreements that surround what our responses and behaviors should be. Individually, the Star reversed might speak of the one thing we can all agree on, which is how tired we all are of our current circumstances.

The Two of Pentacles might suggest that things will come into a better balance. I could even see the Two of Pentacles as representing the two vaccines that are currently approved.

Yet, these three cards together, though hopeful, remind us of the very long road that is still in front of us.

Question Two: What will our economic situation be in 2021?

Cards pulled: The Four of Cups, the Six of Pentacles, the Ace of Pentacles

My interpretation:

While the Four of Cups clearly illustrates how devastating 2020 has been for many individuals, families and businesses, the two Pentacles cards are extremely hopeful. Together, these cards seem to predict optimistic financial recovery.

Question Three: With so much division over social and family issues, will we find a way to honor everyone’s needs and live together in better harmony in 2021?

Cards pulled: Page of Pentacles, Ten of Pentacles, Four of Wands reversed

That Four of Wands reversed stands out for me. It makes me think about marriage equality, and the battle lines drawn around issues of family and gender.

My Interpretation:

The Ten of Pentacles seems auspicious, since it was also the card that came up at random to devise these questions. To me this is a reminder that it took us many hundreds of years to get to where we are now. It will take a while to find our way forward.

The Page of Pentacles reminds us of two things that are always true. First, young people are our future, and will shape the world. Young voices give us hope and will bring needed change.

We won’t solve all our problems in 2021. Yet, with the help and guidance of our ancestors and our progeny, we will forge a way forward.

We needn’t be psychic to know that 2021 will bring us challenges that we didn’t anticipate. Often the value of a predictive reading is to help us gather the tools we will need to face whatever comes. At the end of last year’s reading, I drew a clear conclusion that the ultimate division was between love and fear. If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that we must chose love over fear, each and ever time. Of course, what that means to the individual will depend on that individual’s world view.

What will 2021 teach us? I pulled one more card to answer that question. The King of Swords is the card that appeared. The King of Swords is the exemplar of honesty, trustworthiness, clear communication, truth and intelligence.

In difficult times, we often hide from the truth by cloaking ourselves in myth. 2021 will teach us to find and accept what is true, and truth will be our way to a better future. We will do that by learning to speak with each other, and listen to one another.

Happy New Year to Everyone!

The Year of the Hierophant and the Need for Temperance

This is a post about numerology and the Major Arcana. Often, we think about the numerology of the Major Arcana to figure out our birth cards, or our personal year cards, or the calendar year cards.

It is the fact that 2021 will be the year of the Hierophant that inspired this post, and my subsequent dive into Major Arcana numerology.

For the uninitiated, the Major Arcana is numbered Zero through Twenty-One.  If you look at the numbered cards One through Twenty-one and reduce the double-digit numbers by adding their digits together, you will see, for example, that there are three “One cards”. The three “One cards” are (Card One) the Magician, (Card Ten) the Wheel of Fortune, and (Card Nineteen) the Sun.

The Magician, the High Priestess, and the Empress each have two Major Arcana cards with which to form a triple. The rest of the single-digit Majors, that is, the Emperor through the Hermit, each have one card with which to form a pair.

There is a school of thought which ascribes the number Twenty-two to the Fool, making card Zero a Four, and thusly having the Fool join the Emperor and Death, turning that pair into a triple.

As in all things tarot, each of us must figure out what works for us and what resonates for us. I personally have no interest in re-numbering the Fool. I believe the Fool is numbered as card Zero for a reason, and, as such, must keep its own place as a singular and unique card with no specific connection nor affinity with any other card.

2021 is the year of the Hierophant because the numerals within that number add up to Five, and the Hierophant, of course, is card Five.

Five, in tarot, is a difficult number. If we think of Four as the comfort zone and Six as victory, Five is the space of expansion where we have left the comfort zone but have not yet come to the place of secure victory. I can think of many ways 2021 could potentially reflect this energy of Five.

2020 was the year of the Emperor. We often discuss Major Arcana cards such as Death, the Devil, and the Tower as sometimes being problematic or unwelcome in a reading. Many of us can sometimes have a similar mistrust of the Emperor and the Hierophant. This is for obvious reasons; they are both symbols of patriarchy and authority. The Emperor is government and state, the Hierophant is church and religion. Both these cards  represent necessary structures and can have positive interpretations. Yet, both can speak of governance and dogma in ways that can be troublesome.

The Emperor can be reliable, respected and responsible, yet can also be unyielding and inflexible. The Hierophant can be wise and learned yet can also be dogmatic and authoritarian.

When we look at the Hierophant as the card of 2021 there is at least one aspect that is extremely hopeful. The Hierophant can be associated with medicine, and good medical advice and practices. This could be a very good indication that, in 2021, we will see some needed solutions and advances in medicine.

There is another aspect of the Hierophant that is already showing itself around the globe. The Hierophant can be an indicator of strict religious adherence. In many countries around the world, we see a rise of fundamentalism.

In turning this aspect of the Hierophant around in my brain, it came to me that the Hierophant needs Temperance to keep him balanced. Then I remembered that Temperance is actually the Hierophant’s numerological pair!

When thinking about how the numerological pairs and triples operate, I have in the past confined my thinking to what it means when they appear together in a reading, or how they work together as birth cards. I have considered how my own birth pair, Strength and the Star, reflect both positive and negative traits in my personality. Never before have I thought about how the cards in pair or triple might impact each other.

In considering this, I realize that Temperance can actually temper the Hierophant. I realize how well these seemingly dissimilar cards go together.

The Hierophant is the doctor who performs the diagnosis and writes the prescription. Temperance is the pharmacist, the nutritionist, the physical therapist, and the naturopath who promotes the healing.

The Hierophant is the book of law. Temperance provides the fair and considerate implementation of the law.

Then I wondered if other pairs and triples might affect each other in similar ways. I can see that Death brings needed change to the rigid Emperor. I can understand that the Wheel teaches the Magician to work with the cycles of nature. The Sun keeps him from hiding his power from himself, and from hiding from others his trickster aspect.

In my own birth pair, I can see how the healing of the Star might allow the lion of Strength to regulate his fierce nature and allow him to safely roam without a leash.

This exercise of considering how numerological pairs and triples impact each other is something I will be playing around with for a long time.

As we approach a new year, I find hope and confidence in the energy of the Hierophant and Temperance.

The Hierophant brings us structure and wisdom. Temperance brings balance, patience and caution to that structure.

Temperance adds creativity to the faith of the Hierophant.

Both the Hierophant and Temperance can work with science. The Hierophant brings the rules of research and the structure of protocol, Temperance asks the questions and finds the solution.

The Hierophant can represent the overall structure of society. Temperance can find power in our differences by blending together the best that each of us has to offer.

If you, like me, enjoy diving into tarot cards, don’t miss StaarCon, our online conference coming up in January. It will be a wonderful way to begin the year of the Hierophant!

Daily Tarot Devotionals

Whether you are just learning tarot, are a professional reader, or somewhere in between, a daily tarot exercise can be insightful and rewarding. Daily tarot exercises help us learn tarot. Even more, daily tarot exercises facilitate a meaningful time of spiritual devotion and meditative introspection.

Here are three different tarot exercises to try on a daily basis. You can pick one and try it every day for a week. Or perhaps you have time to do all three every day. See how creating space in your life for introspection, focus and insight changes your life in just seven days. Over time, you will find the daily tarot devotionals that are best for you to do in an ongoing practice. You may even experiment with some that you create yourself.

Card of the Day (COTD)

A Card of the Day is first and foremost reflective, rather than predictive.

If you can find the time to pull a card every day in the morning, take that card as a focal point for the day. If you are a new student, study the card. Write about the card and how it makes you feel. Research the card and learn some basic classic meanings for it. Find a few other illustrations of the card to broaden your understanding of its energy.

Then, at the end of the day, think about the ways in which the energy of this card appeared in your day. This will help you understand in a very practical way how this card might speak in a reading.

If you do your COTD in the evening, use it to reflect on your day. How does this card fit in to things that happened throughout the day, or things you learned during the day?

If you are a more experienced reader you do not have to spend as much time on study and research unless you feel the need. Instead, simply make note of the way the card’s energy makes itself known throughout the day.

If you faithfully journal your Card of the Day, you will create a valuable personal tarot study book over time.

A Daily Tarot Affirmation and Manifestation

What do you want to tell yourself today? What do you want to bear in mind? What do you want to welcome into your life? Look through your deck and find a card by choosing it cognitively, rather than at random. Decide what you need or want, and find a card that to you, represents that energy. When you pull it from your deck, spend a few minutes with it. Breathe in the card’s energy. Visualize your life with this energy made manifest. Create an affirmation based on this card. Write your affirmation and read it to yourself when you have free moments throughout the day.

A Card of Gratitude

Pull a card at random to remind you of something for which to be grateful. The exercise of interpreting each card as a gratitude is very helpful in learning to interpret cards in context. The exercise of practicing gratitude for something specific each day is one that can foster growth and healing.

So often, people think of tarot simply as a tool of fortune telling. These daily exercises will certainly improve your skills at telling fortunes with tarot. Even better, these exercises will help you understand the deeper side of tarot. Better still, these daily exercises will help you stay focused, peaceful, and proactive in your day-to-day life.

Three Ways Tarot Helps Us

We so often think of tarot as a tool of simple fortune-telling. We want to ask questions like “Will I get the job?” or “Will he call me?”

 Sometimes when we use the cards to peer into the future, we find the process helpful. Other time, fortune-telling with tarot can be confounding and disappointing.

When we try to use the cards to predict who will win a sports match, or an election, we are often confused by the answers we get. I really do believe that the cards always speak truth. Yet, the future is not always predictable because the future is not always set. The actions of people can change the trajectory.

Very often future predictions about events in our immediate sphere of influence can help to inspire us, or caution us, or prepare us. Predictions about sports outcomes, and even political outcomes, should be relegated to entertainment. These sorts of predictions should not be the proof of the value or efficacy of cartomancy.

There are many tools of divination, and many card decks that are used for cartomancy. Tarot is, and has always been, my preferred tool. That is partially because tarot offers help even beyond divination and fortune-telling.

I see at least three ways that tarot can be helpful to us in life. The first is simply in the contemplation of each card. The study of tarot carries the same benefit as the study of any spiritual text. Each card can offer life wisdom that we can take to our heart and use at any time, much like the Bible verses I memorized as a child in Sunday school.

Divination is generally what we think about when we think about working with tarot, and it is one of the ways that tarot helps us. When we divine with tarot, we have the ability to move past predictive fortune-telling and into areas of person growth, self-understanding and strategic planning. The depth of information we can receive in tarot divination is only limited by the questions we ask, the techniques we use, and the understanding we develop. The deeper we dive into tarot as a whole, the more transformative our divination experiences can be.

The third way tarot helps us is in magic and manifestation. Over the years I have come to see the use of tarot to create our future as even more important than the use of tarot to try to see the future. Each card carries an energy. With these cards we can consciously embrace the energies we want in our lives, and consciously remove those we don’t.

These three utilizations of tarot, contemplation, divination, and manifestation, are all more effective when we take time and energy to study, learn, and deeply embrace and understand the cards. When we do this we allow tarot to be a wonderful gift, and a wonderful guide, in the journey of life.``

Are There Specific Tarot Cards That Indicate Orientation?

One topic that sometimes comes up in our many conversations about how we interpret tarot is how sexual orientation shows up in the cards. I’ve written and spoken about this a few times, maybe most notably in my Answers to Your Questions About Tarot series.

Recently I taught a class on YouTube about the Suit of Cups. It was interesting that a few of the Cups cards garnered comments and questions around the possibility of signifying homosexuality.

I have always resisted the idea that there might be specific cards that speak about gay people or gay issues. Any of the seventy-eight cards might speak of gay people, just as any of the seventy-eight cards might speak of straight people.

Since the suit of Cups, related to Water, is all about feelings, relationships, romance, and emotion, it makes sense that any discussion of this suit would encompass relationships. Yet, never have I been in a tarot class where someone says that a particular card will always be interpreted as a heterosexual person. I am not sure why we would consider that there would or could be such a card to indicate a member of the LBGTQI community.

Is traditional tarot heteronormative? It certainly could be considered that way, since many cards show heterosexual couples, and because the societies of which tarot was borne were themselves heteronormative. There are now many tarot decks that depict same-sex couples as a remedy to this. Yet, we could easily use a deck with same-sex depictions to read for heterosexual people, just as we can use a deck with opposite-sex couples to read for gay people.

When I first became a professional tarot reader my colleagues and I had a strong unfortunate incentive to be able to see in a reading when someone was gay. Back then, the expected life trajectory of a gay person was different than that of a straight person. If the Ten of Cups came up for someone’s unmarried son, suggesting that the son would one day be married with children could send a client into peals of sarcastic laughter. “My son is gay, so that will never happen. You aren’t a very good psychic, are you?”  

A reminder that love is love and love makes a family was usually enough to win back the reading. Yet, the 2015 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges opened the path for anyone’s kids to one day be married and be parents. This made a real difference in the language we could comfortably use at the tarot table. It also made it less important to try to use the cards, or intuition, to understand the sexuality of a client or their family members.

Tarot readers often end up helping people explore their identity or orientation and helping family members find a way to accept or support that exploration. However, none of those sorts of tasks require a specific card to reveal the things that people must always figure out for themselves.

One card that came up in conversation during my Cups class was the Knight of Cups. Several students authoritatively stated that this card could represent a gay man. Of course, it can. And so can any other card in the deck. The Knight of Cups can be a man who is in touch with his feelings. But, suggesting that a male in touch with his feelings is likely to be gay buys into a misandrist culture of toxic masculinity that is best left without oxygen.

There are any number of opportunities to discuss sexuality, gender, identity and relationships at the tarot table. If we understand the nuances of all the cards, and are intuitive in our approach, we can do a good job for any client in any situation. And, we can do this without trying to force an individual card to inform us of a person’s orientation.

And, to whichever ill-informed tarot teacher is spreading the rumor that there are specific cards that indicate sexual orientation, last century called. You know what they said? Even they want you to update your practices to reflect reality rather than you own outdated views. Tarot helps us evolve.

Spiritual Bypassing at the Tarot Table

Over the past few months I have found myself thinking about spiritual bypassing more and more. I wasn’t sure why this concept was floating into my field of attention so strongly until I started doing a little research. In an article in Psychology Today I found a list of signs that a person is engaged in spiritual bypassing. The list included an item that drew my attention, ‘engaging in cognitive dissonance’.

Watching people around me embrace obvious conspiracy theories, and watching others give spiritual explanations for their world views which, to me, logically don’t add up, I see an alarming trend.

Spiritual bypassing is something that most people will do at certain points in their lives, and it is not always harmful. Sometimes it is a necessary part of healing and growth. It is only when spiritual bypassing becomes the ongoing default behavior that it becomes potentially problematic.

Spiritual bypassing is a natural reaction to trauma. Right now, most of our nations and all of our planet seems to be suffering from deep trauma. This trauma is caused by a confluence of things, a perfect storm, if you will. We have pandemic, social media, economic turmoil, and the rise of fundamentalism in both Islam and Christianity which is directly in conflict with the rising demand for equality for all.

It occurs to me that, just as individuals may engage in spiritual bypassing as a response to personal trauma, societies will engage in spiritual bypassing as a result of national trauma, and global trauma.

‘Spiritual bypassing’ is a term that was first coined by a prominent Buddhist psychotherapist and author named John Welwood in the 1980s. It’s a term I have become aware of relatively recently, but a phenomenon I have noticed all of my life. It’s good to have a solid term to use to describe a disturbing but hard-to-nail-down series of human behaviors.

Spiritual bypassing is the cause of toxic positivity. Spiritual bypassing is at the root of dangerous philosophies such as ‘Prosperity Gospel’ and over-the-top misunderstanding of the Law of Attraction. These belief systems excuse adherents from the burden of compassion by blaming the sick for their illness, and the poor for their poverty.

In short, spiritual bypassing allows people to feel insulated from misfortune based on their spiritual beliefs and practices. Spiritual bypassing allows people to feel comfort from spiritual practices without truly acknowledging and healing their wounds. Spiritual bypassing serves as an escape from the actual work of healing, and from the actual truth of vulnerability.

Tarotists can be doubly at risk for the effects of spiritual bypassing because we ourselves can fall victim to it, and we can see it in our clients at the tarot table.

Just as religious fundamentalists are inherently involved in spiritual bypassing, so are tarot fundamentalists. Tarot fundamentalists are those who cannot question what they think they saw in the cards, or what they think they were told in a reading.

We tarotists can fall prey to spiritual bypassing when the cards tell us everything will be okay, and so we neglect to do the mundane work we need to do to make everything okay.

Amongst we tarot readers are those who do a lot of predictive reading, and those who don’t. I am a predictive reader. Yet, I am clear in my own mind, and clear to tell my clients, that the future is never written in stone, and that what we do today matters a great deal in what happens tomorrow. When we forget that fact, we give up our power in life, and begin to engage in spiritual bypassing,

I believe that tarot, and that all spiritual practice, is meant to empower us to heal, to help others, and to live well upon the planet. I also know that to do those things is hard work. Our spiritual practice, whatever it may be, must encourage that work, rather than excuse us from it.

In these difficult times, now more than ever, we must be aware of the human tendency to use spirituality as an escape from reality, and an avoidance of truth. Surrounding ourselves with spiritual thought and activity is only helpful if it encourages us to do the work we need to do, and to accept the ultimate truth that we are all at risk for sudden misfortune.

When we see our clients and friends engaged in spiritual bypassing, we need to assess their readiness to be gently prodded toward a more productive healing path. As tarot readers we often have to walk the delicate balance of meeting people where they are without corroborating their unhelpful beliefs.

In this time of great and overwhelming trauma and cognitive dissonance we have a responsibility to use our tools to keep our grounding, and to help others do the same. The Four Elements which figure so prominently in tarot are a helpful reminder, and a helpful tool, in doing that.

The element of Air reminds us to seek the logical truth and avoid that which masquerades as truth.

The element of Fire reminds us to stay active and motivated in the pursuit of our goals, rather than waiting for good things to simply happen to us.

The element of Water reminds us to stay in a place of compassion, and to hold space for our own grief, and the grief of others.

The element of Earth reminds us to stay grounded, proactive, and practical in our thoughts and actions.

Tarot Stamina

Here is something for professional tarotists and those who are considering become professional readers. This might be of interest to those with serious personal tarot practices as well.

Something you will hear from some tarot readers, even professional readers, is that tarot reading can be very tiring. This has never been the case for me, but I have heard this complaint from many friends and students.

I had always assumed that when readers complain of being tired, drained, or unwell after a reading or two it is because they are not working with energy appropriately. I was pretty sure that if they learned to manage the energy of a reading correctly, they would develop stamina. A great deal of stamina is needed to do eight hour-long readings in a day, for example, or to do twenty fifteen-minute readings at a psychic fair.

An astrologer friend disabused me of that notion. She said that some people’s astrological charts seemed to support their ability to effectively channel energy more than the charts of others did. That said, she agreed that energy management techniques could always help.

I see amongst my students that some readers can emerge from a day of tarot reading feeling more energized than they did when they began, while others are just wiped.

Both types of readers give great readings. Some just seem to have a capacity for managing the energy of tarot readings more than others.

I am going to share four energy management practices, which I refer to collectively as ‘psychic hygiene’. If you find yourself tired, drained, nauseated or headachy after a reading or after performing a series of readings, see if these things help. If they do, you have the stamina to be a full-time reader.

If you are still having some issues even after establishing a good psychic hygiene practice, you may be better being more selective about when, where, and how often you read for people. That might mean that you aren’t cut out to be a fulltime tarot pro, but you might be able to develop a great part-time practice.

There are four components to my psychic hygiene practice. None of these components are original or unusual. If you need direction learning exactly how to do these things, there are many books, teachers, and classes that can help you.

The first is to do a lot of chakra meditation and to get comfortable running energy up and down the spine and through the chakras.

The second is to energetically connect to the earth with the root chakra, and to heaven with the crown chakra. Then you can draw on the limitless power of both earth and heaven to support your work.

The third is to cloak yourself in the energy you raise in order to keep yourself free of extraneous energies, client issues, and empathic drain.

The fourth is to be like a straw in a client session. Give nothing of your own energy to the client. Take no energy or injury from the client. Use the energy that you draw from heaven and earth to power your reading. Be a conduit for that energy.

If you can do these four things successfully, and if your own nature includes the capacity to do this, the only thing that will get tired from a full day of readings might be your voice, from talking, or your hands, from shuffling your cards.