Exploring The Crossing Card

The Celtic Cross. In all its variations, is a very well-loved tarot spread. One of the reasons for its popularity, I think, is that it is comprehensive, addressing most areas of life.

My modified 11-card Celtic Cross is my favorite spread, and my go-to spread for virtually all professional readings I do. You can find this spread in both my books, Tarot Tour Guide and Fortune Stellar.

Recently, I did an in-depth exploration of my Celtic Cross for a class in Tarot Town. Tarot Town members can view it in archive.

Preparing for that class got me thinking that many of the positions in the Celtic Cross are interesting and insightful enough to do a presentation on a specific position.

For me, no card position is more interesting, nor more telling, than the crossing card.

First, its very name, with its archaic charm, is both descriptive and mysterious.

In certain magickal cultures, the term “cross” refers to a hex or a curse. This is certainly in line with the crossing position in the Celtic Cross, which represents a challenge, obstacle or problem.

While some positions of the Celtic Cross may vary in their interpretation from reader to reader, virtually all readers will agree that the crossing card is read as a problem, challenge, issue, block or obstacle.

The crossing card is actually dealt across the center card, and is always read upright, because its very position allows for a lot of wiggle-room as we ascertain the dignity of the card.

Many readers interpret the crossing card as a direct obstacle regarding the card it crosses. Other readers will see the crossing card as representing the biggest challenger of all, which will not necessarily be what concerns the client most, nor particularly connected to the card it physically crosses.

The card that is crossed by the crossing card is generally interpreted as the current atmosphere, where you are right now, the present, or the situation.

Although I tend to interpret the crossing card as the biggest over-arching problem faced by the client, I do see great value in looking at the crossing card and the specific card it crosses, and finding the story within those two cards.

Often in readings I find that these two cards do indeed tell a poignant story.

Within that story, the crossing card can take on a number of roles beyond illustrating the challenge.

Sometimes the crossing card can indicate not only the problem, but also the cause of the problem, or, perhaps, a solution to the problem.

Sometimes the crossing card simply states the problem, and begs another question and more cards to indicate a solution.

It is also possible to perform a simple-yet-insightful 2-card reading based on this aspect of the Celtic Cross.

Let the first card represent the atmosphere, and let the second card cross the first, indicating the biggest challenge. You could also let the first card indicate a goal, and the crossing card indicate what it will take to reach that goal.

As a healing art, a tarot reading must get to the heart of a problem, and offer solutions. The crossing card is often an efficient tool in helping us do that.

Look through the presentation below to see some examples of crossing cards that have appeared for me in readings, and what they represented.

As a tarot exercise, try playing with this two card spread, and find the stories you can see in just two cards.

For further study, and evidence that great minds think alike, check out The Tarot Lady, Theresa Reed’s take on what she brilliantly calls “The Mini Cross.”

Please be patient - we are working to fix the link to the Celtic Cross interactive display!

Exploring the Crossing Card—Christiana GaudetDocs.com

Elements of Life

To Dare.
I see within me all I am
Both shadow and light
Intertwined as one
Pulsating with life and breath.

To Know.
I study the selves
Taking notes, watching choices, reactions.
Where is the comfort between
Desire and Habit.

To Will
Choices each day
Create and build these two.
Creating the Truth of the
One who contains them both.

To Be Silent.
Is to Know the
Dreams I Dare
To push through to Completion
Create Me as much as I Create Them. 

When Mercury Crosses the Sun: A Tarot Exercise

This week, on May 9th, we had a rare astronomical event. Mercury crossed in front of the sun.

For a look at the astrological impact of this event, see what Astrology King has to say.

I am much more a tarotist than an astrologer.

When I heard that Mercury crossed the Sun, all I could think was, “Hmmm, what a powerful reading that would be!”

Often, we create tarot spreads to perform in celebration or commemoration of holidays and special events.

This Mercury transit across the Sun made me think of another sort of tarot exercise; not a spread, but a configuration.

This configuration could be a reading, or a lesson, for the whole planet this week, and for each person on the planet.

Mercury crossing the Sun, for me, translates into tarot like this.

The Sun, Major Arcana 19, is the card that represents what is currently happening, or the energy that is currently available to us.

Mercury, for me, is the Magician, Major Arcana 1. That’s because Mercury is attributed to the Magician in a prominent system of tarot’s astrological associations.

The “As Above, So Below” arm gesture of the Magician calls to mind Hermes, who is conflated with Mercury.

As a crossing card in this configuration, the Magician represents the challenge or obstacle.

The Sun is the energy that we have available to us, the Magician is the thing we have to overcome to utilize that energy to its fullest.

Since this Mercury transit across the Sun is planetary event, we could say that, for just a moment this week, these two tarot cards, in this configuration, are pertinent to each of us.

The question is, how will you interpret them in your life?

What do you think they say to our planet as a whole?

Checking in with the Divine: Our Natural Divinatory Process

Today I spoke at a ladies’ luncheon. It was just a short half-hour presentation.

It’s a challenge to speak to a diverse group of people who are not necessarily bought in to tarot. It’s also one of my favorite types of audiences.

My primary focus was not me, nor tarot, but rather about divination in general, and that we all do it.

Divination is the practice of seeking knowledge of the unknown, through signs, symbols and intuition. I like the word because it has, at its root, the word “divine”.

Although the actually etymology of the word is about seeking information rather than actual divinity, I personally like to think about the process of divination as the process of connecting with the divine.

I really resonate with the idea that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. This suggests that we all yearn to connect with something greater than ourselves, whether we see that as communing with our higher self, our ancestors, angels, deities, or a single Higher Power.

Often, when we think of tarot, and other tools of divination, we think only of future prediction. Many people, and many professions, predict the future. Doctors predict our future health, meteorologists predict the weather, financial forecasters predict economic trends, political pundits predict electoral outcomes.

Predictions can be very helpful. They can help us prepare for something, or perhaps avoid or mitigate something.

However, prediction is perhaps not the most important reason to divine.

When we seek answers through spiritual means, we can discover insight about ourselves, about our motivations, about our own skills and abilities, and about our path to healing.

The ancient Greeks inscribed the words “Know Thyself” outside the temple of Delphi. To me, the process of divination is the process of working to know oneself.

One would think that we inherently know ourselves. We have to deal with ourselves every day.

Sadly, we all seem to spend so much time trying to be who we think we should be, or trying to please others by being who they want us to be, that we are often confused about who we actually are. Guilt and shame can play a role in our inability to look in the internal mirror. Sometimes, we fear owning our skills and talents because we don’t feel that we are good enough, or talented enough.

Through divination, we connect with our intuition, with our Higher Self, and our Higher Power. In that place of awareness, we can see our potential, our true desires, and the place where we need to heal.

Many people have a tarot deck, rune set or oracle cards gathering dust on a shelf. With or without these tools, almost all of us have participated in divination.

Do you remember “he loves me, he loves me not”, or bouncing seeds on your hands until only a few are left, to predict the number of children you would have?

As a professional tarot reader, those simple childhood games of divination make me smile now. It’s fun to prognosticate, and imagine what the future might bring.

Sometimes predictions aren’t fun at all. Sometimes we get an inkling that something undesirable is going to happen. Some people avoid tarot readings because they “don’t want to hear anything bad”.

When we receive an ill omen, a predictive dream or some other heads-up form the Universe, that information can ultimately be a comfort, and here’s why.

If Spirit bothers to let you know that something is going to happen, and it happens, you have to accept that there is nothing you could have done to change the outcome, and that there is some rightness is what has happened, even if it doesn’t feel right at the moment.

As we get older, we have more time in the past than we do in the future. That’s one reason that divination for introspection, rather than prognostication, can become so important. As we get older, we come to understand that we won’t always have the time ahead of us to do what we want to do. The energy becomes “If not now, when?” Tarot can help motivate us.

Another reason future prediction is not the best, or most significant use of divination is this. Often, the future is within our hands. What we do today impacts what the future will be. Certainly, there are some things that seem destined, fated, or unavoidable. However, in many cases, the future will be what we make it.

Divination can help us get out of our own way, so we can do the things we really want to do, and create for ourselves the future that we desire.

In this way, divination is not about simply seeing what is, it is about creating what will be.

There are many ways to divine.

Some methods, like tarot and runes, involve what I call “random token divination”. Others, like tea leaf reading, involving interpreting shapes and looking for symbols.

I believe that we all do some kind of divination every day, whether we do it consciously or not.

Perhaps in prayer, meditation or yoga class, we take a moment to check in with ourselves and ask “How do I really feel about this?”, or “What do I really want?” That process is divination.

Perhaps, as we travel through our day, we see a sign in nature – an animal or a flower – and we take that as an omen, a sign of luck, or victory, or approval from a Higher Power. That is divination, too.

Sometimes we look to the sky and see a shape in the clouds that means something to us. Sometimes a song on the radio seems to have a personal message for us.

Many of us have dreams, either sleeping or waking, that offer guidance.

A concern is that psychotic people see signs in everything, and that there is a thin line between being psychic and being psychotic.

How do you know that your process of checking in with yourself, and interpreting the signs around you, is divination rather than delusion?

Basically, if the information you receive is supportive, logical, compassionate and healing, you are in communion with Higher Power. If what you receive is didactic, illogical, or suggests that you should hurt yourself or others, it’s time to see a doctor.

Whether you work with cards, interpret your dreams, or seek insight in meditation, the key to good divinatory practice is know what truth feels like.

We often have physical reactions to truth. If we can tune in to what they feel like, we will usually know what is true for us, and when others are lying.

When we divine, not with only an eye on the future, but with an eye on what is really true for us, we make a connection with our Higher Power, and we empower ourselves to create for ourselves the life that we desire.

I was basically able to present these concepts, give a quick hand-reading lesson and take a few questions, psychic gallery style – all within my half-hour time slot.

The job of a tarot reader offers something fun and different every day.  Of course, my primary job is divination, but I also have the opportunity to be creative in a lot of ways. Of course, before I began my talk, I did a one-card divination to ground me, and give me focus. The card I received was the Queen of Pentacles. How appropriate for a ladies’ luncheon!

The Healing Power of the Suit of Swords

The Tarot suit of Swords is most often associated with the element of Air, although some traditions use Fire for Swords and Air for Wands.

When we think of the Swords as connected to the element of Air, we understand the suit of Swords to relate to thought, communication, and integrity.

While all tarot cards can speak in unique ways within specific readings, it is helpful to have some framework through which to understand the cards generally.

Beyond helping us with our tarot divination vocabulary, our understanding of each card can serve as a guide in understanding ourselves.

When we think of the Suit of Swords as related to Air, and therefore the powers of mind, we find within that suit the power to heal the mind from its greatest hurts.

Those hurts are illustrated in the cards themselves – the sorrow of the Three of Swords, for instance, or the anxiety of the Eight.

Indeed, we can see each of the Swords cards as illustrative of a particular state of mind.

The Ace of Swords can depict a fresh new idea, or a clear communication, or a strong commitment to the truth. This card reminds us to do the right thing, and to say the true thing.

At the same time, the Ace of Swords can depict the mindset that pigheadedly believes it is correct without question.

The Two of Swords is the card of “Peace” in the Crowley-Harris Thoth Tarot. In the Waite-Smith image, we see a blind-folded person who has crossed off her heart, and is balancing two different ideas. This card can remind us to be at peace, even during times of indecision. Sometimes, this card can indicate our own unwillingness to take a stand, or to make a choice.

The Three of Swords is typically the card of “sorrow”. It’s often the card of the lover’s triangle, depicting a sense of betrayal. Sometimes this card can indicate a choice to hang on to our wounds, rather than to let them heal.

The Four of Swords is the card of rest and retreat. Often this card will appear to tell you to let something rest, rather than to continue picking at it with your mind or words.

Unlike the previous card, Five of Swords calls us to battle. Sometimes, we must sharpen our minds for a fight. This card tells us to prepare to fight to win, and to not back down.

The Six of Swords reminds us that a logical mind makes better choices than an emotional mind.

With the Seven of Swords, we begin the most painful journey of the suit. The Seven of Swords is traditionally the “Thieves’ Card,” and suggests a lack of trust. This card can depict a lack of trust for a person or a situation. It can also indicate a sense of not trusting oneself, or even a feeling of guilt.

Typically, people can feel guilt for their human behaviors. Sometimes the Seven of Swords reveals that sense of self-loathing, or a lack of self-acceptance.

This can lead to the crippling anxiety that we see in the Eight of Swords, and the depression, worry and insomnia that we see in the Nine of Swords.

In the Ten of Swords, we see the damage created by unkind words, negative thoughts and unhelpful beliefs.

We can work with the suit of Swords by meditating with a card that describes our current state of mind, and visualizing our solution within the image. For instance, picture yourself in the Nine of Swords, reach up from your bed, grab a sword, get out of bed, and face your demons!

We can work with the suit of Swords by considering the advice that each card gives us. For instance, The Two, Four and Six caution us to be even-tempered and fair-minded.

We can use the difficult cards of the suit of Swords to acknowledge our wounds – a first step in healing.

How do you use the Swords to facilitate healing?

Advice for Tarot Pros: Events Build Relationships

Christiana Gaudet, January, 2011, at a health fair at a chiropractic office.

One of the biggest questions I hear from new tarot professionals is “How can I attract more clients to my business?” This question is often accompanied by wailing about frustration with online marketing.

For many readers it seems that making memes, posting online specials and doing free readings online isn’t translating into paying clients the way they hoped it would.

Whether your focus is building local business or online business, the important thing to remember is that your entire thrust must be to build relationships. Building pretty graphics is great, and graphics might get you noticed, and might even go viral, but memes don’t create relationships.

I believe that, in 2016, the best way to build a tarot business is to let your online efforts and your local efforts support each other. I also believe that what was true when I started my business prior to the advent of social media is still true now. That is, the best way to build a tarot business and attract clients is by building relationships, and the best way to do that is by holding and participating in events.

Local (IRL) events can be classes, fairs, expos, charity functions, parties, meetups, workshops and presentations. Online events can be webinars, podcasts, hangouts, blog hops and focused online study groups. In both cases, the more your events look like marketing efforts, the less successful your events will be.

The purpose of holding events, and participating in events, is not to make sales. The purpose of holding events is to build relationships. Your events are an opportunity for you to showcase your particular skills and passions to real people, and to let people get to know and trust you.

Local events can involve giving readings for free, for tips or for a set fee. They can also involve classes and workshops.

There are two theories around creating and participating in local events. One is to participate in events that draw people that are already identified as potential clients. That is, people who enjoy tarot, spirituality and psychic work. The second theory is to bring your services to people who are not necessarily aficionados of your trade. That is, to introduce yourself and your business to the public at large.

It is that second kind of gig that I want to focus on in this post, and for two reasons. First, because making new friends, not only for me but also for tarot, has been the single biggest business-builder of my career. The second reason is more obviously practical. If you pay big bucks to showcase yourself at the local New Age expo, you will be competing with a lot of other readers for a finite number of customers, most of whom already have their favorite readers. On the other hand, if you set up at a bridal expo, or a home expo, for instance, you are likely to be the only reader present, and you can usually work a co-promotion deal with the event organizers.

While some events at which we read or teach tarot can be very lucrative, I have made it a practice not to focus on making income at events. For me, the purpose of events is marketing – that is, relationship building. When I do work an expo with other readers I always chuckle at their anxiety. “Are you making your money?” They ask each other with nervously. My answer is always the same. “I will make my money in the months that follow this event, when the people I’ve met here call me for parties and private readings”.

It’s fairly easy to find your local psychic fairs, New Age expos and shops. There is obvious value to working these sorts of venues. The question I want to answer today is this.

Where can a local tarotist find or create gigs that will help build their tarot business?

The easy answer is: Wherever you are!

That’s right. My first gig, other than psychic fairs, was in a laundromat. Why a laundromat? Because I had a three-year-old and no laundry facilities in my apartment building. My son and I spent a lot of time at the local laundromat, where he would play in the toy area with the other kids, and I would talk with the captive audience of adults. Eventually talking turned into pulling a few cards, and my business was born. I read for the owner of the laundromat a few times, and soon she was arranging readings during my laundry time. I started receiving phone calls from my friends at the laundromat.

So, when you are ready to start your local business, simply look at your town and think about the places you already frequent. Is there a way to incorporate your tarot cards into that venue, either officially or on the sly?

I mention “on the sly” for this reason. When I first started, I lived in a small apartment and didn’t have a reading room. I met my clients at the local diner. For the price of a cup of coffee, I had office space. A year later, when I opened my first office, I discovered through the local grapevine that, while the owners of the local diner appreciated the business I brought them, they weren’t really fans of tarot. However, they never made a move to discourage me from using their restaurant as my meeting room. Had I been more obvious about setting up shop in their diner, they may have had to ask me to stop.

Two other helpful venues for me early on were a flea market, and an AM radio station. The flea market was my first official reading space, every Sunday afternoon at Risom Mill in Danielson, CT.

Gary Osbrey of WINY in Putnam, CT, said I could come on the air and read for callers until people stopped calling. Thus began our lengthy cooperative relationship, and the beginning of my radio career.

I went to the local nightclub (Guido Murphy’s, now The Courthouse in Putnam) to see if I would be welcome to set up and read for folks a few nights a week. That worked out well, too.

I have to tell you, there were some venues I tried that didn’t go well. One cute café didn’t want to be associated with tarot. A bookstore owner appeared wishy-washy, but then welcomed another reader when I didn’t pursue them quickly enough.

The thing is, the ones that worked, worked well enough to get me on my way.

Another great venue for me, earlier in my career, was adult education. I taught a class called “Tarot for Fun” for many years, through a variety of adult education programs. Many of the people I met there remain my friends, clients and students to this day.

Many civic groups hold arts and crafts fairs, and will welcome the art and craft of tarot reading for a small entry fee. Rural areas hold county fairs that can be both lucrative and good exposure for a tarot reader. Nightclubs are often willing to let a reader set up and read for patrons, and often the DJ will be happy to announce your presence.

Over the years I’ve done street fairs, Chamber of Commerce meet and greets, drum circles, Relay for Life, and more. The list is long, including the shops and business of my clients. When I have an opportunity to read in a client’s flower shop and meet her clients, my client list grows.

These days, I spend a lot of time presenting tarot at local libraries, who are always happy to welcome interesting programming.

Another option is to consider holding an event of your own. Over the years, I’ve held Tarot Picnics, Skill Share events, Psychic Food-raisers and a Tarot Pot Luck Dinner. Each event has been fun and memorable, and has helped me build my business.

Most of the time, you need to take responsibility for promoting your events, even if the event organizers are promoting them as well. This is where social media becomes super important. And, the pictures you post on social media after the fact help you build your brand and bring even more people to you.

Basically, whether you are building your business online, locally, or both, two things remain true. First, building a business is all about building relationships. Second, if you try to market only to a pre-identified demographic (for instance, people who already know they like tarot readings) you will be competing with a huge field for the attention of a limited number of people.

Market to the people around you. Don’t worry about the naysayers, or those who don’t approve. Work on building relationships and winning new friends for tarot, and your business will grow.

Remember this, too. People need to hear your name three times before they will make a purchase. Sometimes it’s hard to know which of your events is responsible for generating the most clients. If you get a lot of phone calls that say “I met you at Relay for Life and I would like to book a reading”, then, of course, you know that was a successful event for you. On the other hand, many of those people may have seen you, or heard your name, a few times before.

As tarot readers, it is often true that our very best advertising happens when we let people see us in action. The more opportunities we create to showcase ourselves, the more successful we will be.

The 3 R's of Marketing your Tarot Business

 The “3 R’s” are a cute nickname for reading, writing and arithmetic, the fundamentals of skills-based education. I have my own 3 R’s.  They are the fundamentals of marketing my tarot business, and, they may surprise you. If you are a tarot professional, or are considering beginning your tarot career, these marketing strategies may help you as they helped me.

So often, I hear tarot pros, especially those just beginning their journey, complain that they just can’t get enough clients. I believe that if you are a decent reader, and can apply these three R’s to your practice, you will see growth in your client list, and will begin building the sort of good will for your brand that lasts a lifetime.

My 3 R’s are Reputation, Referrals and Relationships.

Let’s start with the first, Reputation.

I know what you’re thinking.  How can you worry about your reputation if you have only a few clients, or are just starting out?

If you focus on building your reputation, your business will naturally follow.

One of the great ways to do this is to give free readings.

I can hear the groans and protests now. I’ve heard every argument against giving your product away for free. I have only one answer. It’s called “sampling”, people! Every drug dealer knows the power of sampling. Teavana has built a high-end mall brand around sampling fruity teas.

Strategic sampling can build your brand, too. Here’s what to do.

First, consider the venues in which you would like to grow. It makes sense that, if you are growing your local business, you will find ways to get some exposure locally. If you are building an online business, it makes sense to get exposure online.

Second, make sure your sampling really is beneficial exposure. Reading for your friends for free in someone’s living room is not good exposure. Reading for the crowd at a charity function is.

Likewise, giving away free readings on a social media platform may be time-consuming and frustrating. Holding conversations that engage people while giving them just a taste of what you can do can be very worthwhile.

All the strategic exposure in the world won’t help you if you don’t learn how to pitch the sale. Often we believe that a great product should sell itself, and, once in a while, it does. But, after that great sample reading, you’ve got to be able to say, “Now here’s my number. You might want to give me a call when such-and-such happens, or before, if something comes up.” Or, “As you can see, there are a lot of things we could dig deeper into. Give me a call if you would like to do that.” Remember, as a self-employed tarot pro, you must be an effective sales person as well as a great reader.

How you present yourself to the public is important to consider. There is no one right way for a reader to dress, live or act. However, the way you present is an important part of your brand. Be conscious and intentional about your presentation.

Make an effort to be on time, and keep your appointments. Psychics are notoriously flaky. Being the reader who shows up really does count for something.

Online, be careful about oversharing, or airing your dirty laundry. Use social media to share your authentic persona, rather than to bare your soul.

Remember that people talk with each other. If you behave unethically with Mary, Sara will certainly find out, and she’ll tell her friends, too. Bad news travels faster than good. However, eventually, if you treat everyone well, your integrity will become the cornerstone of your reputation.

My second R is Referral. In my own head, that’s actually two R’s – referrals and repeats. I think of a repeat as a self-referral, you see.

When a client refers a friend, there is no better advertising. When a client returns for another reading, there is no better endorsement of your good work.

Take an honest and constant look at your rate of referral, and rate of repeat.  Likewise, when you work those charity functions, keep track of approximately how many people you read for, and how many of them call for a reading, or refer a friend. Granted, sometimes it takes years for a person to make that call. However, if you read for thirty people at an event, you should receive one or two phone calls within the next two weeks.

If you’re not getting those phone calls, if the referrals and repeats aren’t coming, your job is to figure out why. No matter how relevant a reading feels, or how good a connection feels, or how much a person says they enjoyed their reading, the only thing that really tells you if you did a good job is this.

Did it generate another appointment?

If you aren’t getting those referrals and repeats, you must analyze the problem without anxiety or ego. There is something in your presentation or delivery that isn’t working for people. It’s your job to figure out what that is. Perhaps, you can do a reading on it! (I am amazed how often professional readers forget to use their own tool, tarot, to help plan, analyze and set goals for their business!)

It is this important step – analyzing where you are losing the referral – that many readers fail to take. Instead, they post in social media groups with concerns that their free readings aren’t generating business, or that there just aren’t enough potential clients available to them.

The bottom line is this. If your readings aren’t generating more readings, you’re doing something wrong.

People love readings. Most successful readers stay busy most of the time. If that’s not showing signs of happening for you yet, you may need to make some changes.

Work to develop a reading style that generates referrals. Remember that the mood of the public changes quickly. You may have to gently alter your style from time to time to remain current. Be sensitive to whether people seem to be preferring a gentle delivery of difficult news, or a more straight-on approach, for example. Do people seem to prefer a more casual tone, or would they prefer you to have a more formal appearance?

You can tailor your style to fit the changing mood of the public as you perceive it. This will make your readings more accessible and relatable, and will help you generate referrals.

It’s also important, in a reading, to give specific information. One of the most common complaints about a lackluster reading is “it’s all so general.”

Giving specific information takes skill and courage. Frankly, if you don’t yet have that skill and courage, you aren’t yet ready for professional tarot.

The final R is the logical result of the first two. It’s all about the Relationships we build. It’s important to remember that our important relationships in business are not just with clients and potential clients.

In business, we develop relationships with peers and colleagues, with venues and vendors, and with organizations and other businesses.

“Ujamaa” is a Swahili word that has come to mean “cooperative economics.” That is, the idea that we can work together and help each other grow, rather than competing against each other.

The world of tarot, and metaphysical work in general, is a good place to practice cooperative economics. The more we can promote each other and collaborate together, the more successful we all are.

Building relationships with potential clients is really what marketing is all about. We already talked about making the sales pitch at the end of a free reading. Whether you are talking to a stranger or a repeat client, it is important to end every conversation with your willingness to talk again soon.

When you put your business card in someone’s hand and say “Call me!” you are building an important relationship. This sets an intention, and helps your potential client feel comfortable doing exactly that.

Fortune Stellar: What Every Professional Tarot Reader Needs to Know

By Christiana Gaudet

Buy on Amazon

Of course, the most sacred relationship in our work is the relationship between client and reader. It is important that we honor and nurture our clients as much as possible. We do this by bringing our very best to the table each and every reading.

It takes time, patience, and constant maintenance, to build a good tarot business. If you focus on building your reputation, fine-tuning your reading style and creating relationships, you will manifest exactly the tarot career you desire.

I offer a private, customized program of tarot mentorship available to select candidates worldwide. Please email me if you are interested.

For more information about building your tarot business, read my first book, “Fortune Stellar”.

This week in tarot: smart, provocative blog posts

In most any professional field, blogging is a way to share ideas with colleagues and clients. Blogging adds to the body of knowledge in a dynamic way that couldn’t have been accomplished before the age of social media.

I’m sure every field has its share of bloggers who need grammar lessons, or who don’t bring anything new to the table. Consistent posting can equal internet cred, whether or not the posts are original or informative.

Nowadays, it is de rigueur that serious tarot enthusiasts, whether professional or hobbyist, blog about tarot. I expect that, within the course of any week, there will be some new stories, techniques or commentary to read about my favorite topic.

With so much tarot talk flying around, and with more than two decades of my own full-time professional tarot journey under my belt, very few tarot posts stand out to me as remarkable or significant. That is, until this week when two unrelated tarot bloggers published really provocative, important pieces.

I saw Benebell Wen’s piece first. I immediately wanted to write a post to promote her piece, share my angle, and to continue the conversation she had begun.

Then, I saw Ste McCabe’s piece on Biddytarot.com. What is going on astrologically that has inspired all this tarot brilliance in just a few days? At a time when I bemoan the dumbing down of modern society almost daily, these genius tarot posts are a breath of fresh air, earth, fire and water!

I feel like I want to write a book about both of the topics these tarotists treated in their recent blog posts. What I have time to do is a few short paragraphs about each, with the hope that you will follow the links and read these important contributions to the body of knowledge that is tarot.

One might think that Benebell Wen and The Tarot Cat, Ste McCabe, don’t have much in common beyond tarot. One is a corporate attorney, the other a punk musician.  One has published a groundbreaking book on tarot, the other has dedicated their tarot practice to helping members of the LBGTQ community. To me, this a testament of the diversity of talented people who count tarot amongst their tools. You will see that they both honor tarot as a sacred tool, and that they both have a high standard of tarot ethics.

Please take the time to follow the links and read their posts, and to read my thoughts on each. Most importantly, please spend some time deciding what your thoughts are on both important topics.

I’ll address the posts in the order I saw them, so first up is Benebell Wen’s post, “Tarot and Social Inductive Reasoning”.

In this post, Benebell Wen discusses “cold reading”. Often, we readers are accused of using “cold-reading” tricks to make ourselves appear more psychic.  Wen’s concern is that perhaps even the most ethical readers might do this accidently, without the intent to mislead.

She compares “cold reading” with Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), a technique that is often heralded by New Age practitioners, including tarotists.

Benebell Wen’s understandable concern is this. To her, tarot, divination and the intuitive process are sacred things. In her own tarot practice, she wants not even a hint of the flimflammery of which we are so often accused.

One of my favorite aspects of this post is the way she describes her feeling about the possibility that she and other well-intentioned tarotists might be fooling people as we try to enlighten them. It makes her feel “icky”. That icky feeling is something I’ll bet most ethical tarotists know well, but few dare to speak about. The word I use to describe that feeling is “smarmy”.

In typical Wen style, she researched NLP extensively, and created a free download comparing social inductive reasoning to tarot reading. Her hope is that we will come to understand social inductive reasoning, and learn to use this tool properly without fooling people into thinking we are more psychic than we are.

This is the first time I have ever known a tarotist to publically discuss this topic in this candid way. Brava, brave Benebell!

Wen frames her concern this way. She feels that, in truth, “cold reading” or “social inductive reasoning” is somewhat akin to the intuitive process. That kinship is what makes her ethical concern so pressing.

Is it possible that none of us is actually “psychic”, that, in fact, we are all just really good at reading people in this mundane fashion? That is what our critics would like you to believe.

Wen is clear to point out that, even when certain personality traits are communicated through mundane observation versus sacred intuition, those same traits will be revealed in the cards, and through astrology.  I concur.

Her concern is that we not fool people into thinking we are being psychic, when really we are just being smart and observant.

One of her suggestions to avoid this is something I always do in readings, and had never before heard another reader discuss. If we receive information from some mundane source, she advises us to be quick about confirming why we are saying what we are saying. That is, revealing where the information came from.

I will often say, “This isn’t psychically derived, it’s just an observation” as a way of separating information derived through reason versus information derived through pure intuition. It pleased me that Wen was able to quantify this technique, and teach it.

Wen also brings up my first line of defense when someone suggests my career is based on “cold reading”.  That is, cold reading can’t be any kind of factor when performing distance reading.

Wen does lots of email readings these days. I do much of my work over the phone, reading for people I have never met in person, nor seen in a photo.

Clearly, if we can do accurate, comprehensive, insightful readings for people we have literally never seen, the cold reading argument becomes null and void, doesn’t it?

Wen relates that social inductive reasoning involves noticing things about people, and interpreting those things. In her download, she includes accepted interpretations for body postures and clothing choices.

These, I am sure, are valid and accepted techniques, and helpful in many life situations. Wen suggests that using these techniques in our in-person readings could be helpful, as long as we do not use these techniques to make people think we are super-psychic, or to trick people to buy in to what we are saying.

I can agree to this in theory, but I have another angle to share, in the form of three specific points.

First, I agree that cold reading and intuition are often very similar. We need to be clear about separating the two when appropriate. However, I suspect that sometimes those mentalists who insist they are cold reading are actually truly using their intuition. Yes, the problem could exist in reverse.

Both cold reading and intuitive reading are things we all may do innately. So our very detractors could be, themselves, a lot more intuitive than they realize.

Second, in my book “Fortune Stellar” I share techniques that I developed through trial and error in my own practice. One thing I learned early on is this. In an in-person reading, I try never make observations based on a person’s physical appearance.

That’s right. Although cold reading suggests that a person’s appearance is the whole of where we get our information from, I have learned to disregard what I see with my eyes, for two reasons.

First, many people like to try to fool the psychic. They take off their wedding rings, they wear clothes to the reading that they wouldn’t normally wear, to see if that influences what I say. It doesn’t, I promise you, because I make certain not to notice the physical when I am working with the intuitive.

Secondly, sometimes it’s inadvertent. The construction worker may be dressed in a suit because he’s on his way to a funeral. If I looked at his attire, I might not visualize his career correctly. If I look at him instead of his attire, I will know more true things about his life.

Finally, there is basic practicality. In some professional tarot settings, people need showmanship. There can be an appropriate theatrical, performance aspect to what we do. At a party, we are hired to entertain. That I can perform real psychic work and give real insight in that entertaining environment makes me feel like an under-cover agent for real personal change. Sometimes we need to appear a little larger than life to get our message heard.

Here, the difference between performance and fraud is exactly as Wen advised earlier. I think it is fine to use a few techniques to help people invest in the process, relax and have fun, as long as we are not using those techniques to actually fool or defraud people.

For example, when the Christopher Reeve Superman movies came out, their trailer tagline was “You’ll really believe a man can fly!” We all knew that Christopher Reeve couldn’t fly, but that didn’t make us think he was less of an actor. (I realize this example just dated me big-time.)

As long as we are honest in our intent, and make sure that we do not mislead people about our actual process and abilities, using select techniques to increase the value of a performance isn’t a problem, in my opinion.

Of course, not every reader does “performance tarot” or “tarot entertainment”, so this won’t apply to everyone. We also must remember that sometimes needy people will put too much faith in us, and not enough faith in themselves. We need to be careful not to engender that, nor capitalize on it if it happens.

Psychic fraud is a real and dangerous thing. I would not want to conflate the showmanship of a dynamic presentation with convincing a bereaved parent to trade family heirloom jewelry to keep their son from doing drugs in heaven. (Yes, this really happens in 2015 in the western world.)

I applaud Wen for starting a deeper conversation on one of my favorite topics, tarot ethics. I hope this reminds each of us to tune in to our inner smarm meter and make sure that we are taking steps to be truly within our integrity.

There’s a payoff for that, too. The clearer we feel, the clearer our intuition will be.

The fact is, tarot reading and fortune telling have always existed in the shadows. I often call psychic work the “second profession,” that is, second after the first profession, which is prostitution.

A new generation of tarotists is working to bring tarot out of the shadows. I believe I am a part of this movement. However, not every tarotist is thrilled with the idea of shining that bright a light on tarot.

That brings me to Ste McCabe’s article on Biddytarot.com, “Tarot in the Mainstream? Thanks, but No Thanks”.

In this post, McCabe imagines a world where the mainstream embraces tarot to the point that tarot becomes a dishwater-dull dumbed-down version of itself. He cites a few of the many examples of what happens when the (m)asses discover something cool.

McCabe is a musician. Like him, many of the examples I can think of to back up his point are musical. We all know what can happen when the general public discovers your favorite previously-obscure band.

I have always been an advocate of making tarot more accessible and acceptable. In fact, at TarotCon (Florida) 2015, Jenna Matlin and I led a Trance Dance Tarot magickal spell for exactly that purpose. Our stated magickal intent was to make tarot more accessible and acceptable.

McCabe’s article caught my attention specifically because of this. The day after our Tarot Trance Dance, a colleague suggested we had done magick to make tarot “more mainstream”, and that she didn’t think it was a good idea. Clearly, she would appreciate McCabe’s point here.

I was kind of shocked that she conflated being “more mainstream” with being “accessible and acceptable”. To me, those are two entirely different things.

As a full-time professional tarot reader for more than two decades, I have dealt with my share of harassment and discrimination. I would like my career to be as acceptable as my friends’, the yoga teacher and the massage therapist.

I know that there are people who are hungry for the wisdom that tarot brings, but have no access. For example, I was a popular teacher in adult education programs for many years. My tarot classes always filled. One year, my classes had no sign-ups at all! What had happened, I wondered?  It turns out, a new employee at the adult ed program had a personal prejudice against tarot, and refused to let anyone register for the class.

Because of this person’s prejudice, people in our small town who wanted access to tarot were denied it. In the days before the World Wide Web, that was kind of a big deal.

While the web gives us access we did not have before, access to tarot is still limited to those who know to look for it.

McCabe’s concern is that if tarot were to be mainstream, it would be essentially changed, and not for the better. We’ve all seen that happen to many beloved cultural icons.

One of the examples he gives of a potential change is that Major Arcana Thirteen, Death, would be removed. Honestly, that’s already happened. Doreen Virtue’s Angel Tarot Cards are to me the grossest example of this, but there are plenty.

The lovely Chrysalis Tarot made me sad because they demoted the Hierophant to “Divine Child”.

The thing is, while I find these sorts of decks silly and disrespectful, and, like McCabe, I would hate to see a world full of them, I know two things to be true.

First, these dumbed-down decks bring wisdom to people, and bring people to divination who wouldn’t otherwise be there. When people develop an appreciation for tarot through these channels, they become more accepting and open in general. To me, that’s helpful.

Second, that these hairy-fairy decks exist does not cause deeper, more traditional decks to cease to exist.

I am not sure that tarot could ever become mainstream in the popular culture as McCabe fears. It’s very nature may prohibit that. However, there are certainly “psychic fads” that I’ve observed and, frankly, profited from. When psychics are popular because of a movie or TV show, I work more. That’s not a problem for me.

When the fad is over, my work continues. The shallow interest falls away, but a few people who were brought in by the fad stick around and become lifers like me.

In truth, I was brought in to tarot by the New Age fad of the 1980s. I don’t regret that.

One of the things I appreciated most about McCabe’s post is this. He tapped into a significant question about tarot; one that has been debated in prior centuries.

Long before we had social media or used words like “mainstream”, early tarotists debated whether tarot was “esoteric” or “exoteric”.  Was tarot a tool to be used in secret, only by adept masters, or was tarot a tool for everyone?

Tarot is certainly about everyone. But truly, the very word “arcana” means “secrets”. Clearly, there are points to be made on both sides.

The assumption that anyone can find value in tarot is a modern one, credited to tarot author Eden Gray. We’ve embraced that idea firmly as a community over the past thirty years. It may be time for some young voices in our community to cry out to protect tarot’s esoteric nature.

Although many tarot enthusiasts are tarot businesspeople, we must resist the urge to monetize tarot to the point that it become meaningless. This, I think, is McCabe’s essential point.

So there you have it. Two smart posts from two modern tarot bloggers. Our tarot world is in good hands, I think.

If you have tarot thoughts to share, you may share them here, on my Tarot Community Blog.

Operational Tarot: Majors and Minors without Limits

Tarotists all learn that the Major Arcana cards contain the “Greater Secrets” of the Universe, and the Minor Arcana contain the “Lesser Secrets”.

When we learn tarot, and teach tarot, we discuss the Fool’s Journey through the Major Arcana as a journey toward spiritual enlightenment and attainment. We typically discuss the Minor Arcana from a more basic perspective.

The seeker may get the idea that, within a reading, Major Arcana cards speak only to larger, more spiritual issues. They may believe that the only function of the Major cards is to remind us of our spiritual nature, or to instruct or correct us in our thinking and attitudes.

Likewise, they may see the Minors as the only cards that can provide detailed information about practical happenings.

Many tarotists (even experienced readers) come to the cards with a very didactic sense that the Majors can only mean a certain type of thing, and Minors can only mean a certain other type of thing.

Often, you will hear and read statements like the two following.

Major Arcana cards indicate situations of fate which you can’t change; Minor Arcana cards indicate areas in life where you have control.

Major Arcana cards indicate spiritual matters; Minor Arcana cards indicate mundane matters.

It’s true that, when we learn the lessons of the cards and understand their archetypes, the Major Arcana cards offer deep and universal spiritual lessons. However, so do the Minor Arcana cards, if you look deeply enough.

Tarot is a book of spiritual wisdom to be studied and embraced. Tarot is also a tool of divination. Our relationship to the cards as messengers of wisdom may be radically different than our use of the cards in divination.

Everyone’s tarot practice is unique to them. There is no one correct way to read tarot, and no one correct way to interpret any particular card.

However, I’ve recently noticed that many tarotists seems to artificially limit what information they can receive from their cards by strictly defining the function of the Major and Minor Arcana.

In my experience, all seventy-eight cards are able to perform multiply duties, depending on what is needed. All cards, both Major and Minor, are capable of giving practical information about daily life and great spiritual wisdom, sometimes in the same reading.

If a reader can look beyond a dogmatic understanding of each card and be open to the context of the reading, the reader will notice that sometimes the Major cards will speak of mundane, practical things, and sometimes the Minor cards will reveal grand spiritual insight.

A similar thing can happen within the suits of the Minor Arcana.  A reader may believe that Pentacles can only speak about money, or that Cups can only speak about love, or that Swords are always unwelcome.

The reality is, any card might appear to comment on any aspect of life. As readers, we need to be able to interpret any card in any situation.

Sometimes it’s helpful in a reading to forget the rules of tarot structure, and simply read the cards.

For example, the Magician may remind you of your power, and instruct you to take an accounting of your personal tools. The Magician may also speak to attending a school.

The Hierophant may counsel you to seek higher spiritual knowledge. The Hierophant may also tell you to seek a medical doctor and begin a standard course of treatment. 

The Ten of Pentacles may predict that you will be buying or selling a house. The Ten of Pentacles may also instruct you to connect with your ancestors in spirit.

The Page of Cups may indicate your daughter. The Page of Cups may also be a directive to speak from a place of love, and to be a channel for the high vibration of unconditional love.

Learning about tarot structure helps us incorporate the wisdom of tarot into our lives. Sometimes, though, in a reading, it is best just let the cards speak without the limitations of structure.

Tarot only has seventy-eight images with which to describe every possibility of human existence. The less we limit what each card can and cannot do, the more information we can derive.

Some Thoughts on Literalism, Spirituality and Tarot

Although I was raised in a very religious family, I was a teenager before I confronted Biblical literalism. I remember the conversation as if it were yesterday, because I was amazed that an otherwise intelligent person could be so illogical. 

We were discussing Matthew 7:3-5. That’s the part about looking at a sawdust speck in your brother’s eye when you have a plank in your own. I was delighting in Jesus’ use of analogy, symbolism and story, something He does a lot of in the book of Matthew. My friend was thinking about how it must be to have an actual plank of wood in ones’ eye.

I chided her gently, explaining the symbolism Jesus was using to discuss hypocrisy. It was all about the pot calling the kettle black, I told her with some authority. I had been to Sunday School for years, my father was the minister and my mother a Sunday School teacher, so I felt pretty well versed in my Biblical knowledge (pun intended).

My friend became instantly angry and offended. How dare I try to interpret the world of God? Didn’t I know that every word of the Bible was written directly by God, and that true believers neither questioned nor interpreted? Clearly, Jesus was concerned about the spiritual grace of those who had pieces of wood in their eyes, rather than those who had hypocrisy in their hearts.

Many years later, I understand that rigid, didactic literalism is not reserved for Christians. Much of the world is at war, and the rest in fear, due to literal interpretation of the Koran by radical Muslims.

The obvious flaw is that no literalist, in any religion, is able to follow to the letter the directives in their holy book. Why? Because many of the directives were of their time, and clearly no longer applicable today.

This allows fundamentalists to pick and choose which archaic directive they will highlight in their own religious practices, and which they will ignore. Without fail, the directives that are followed most closely seem to be those which empower certain people, and disempower others. Of course, if one questions these tactics, one is summarily dismissed as disobedient, stupid and unenlightened. In other countries, the punishment can be worse.

I believe in a Higher Power. I understand the value of sacred texts. The branch of Christianity in which I was raised values highly the idea that God gave us our brains, so that we could interpret and understand the texts of history, both sacred and secular. I cannot honor any version of a Higher Power who would not want followers to think, and to interpret.

I see the same didacticism and closed-mindedness in the tarot world, although not as often. There is a certain personality who comes to tarot wanting each card to mean a very specific thing, and always that same thing.  They will see the Hierophant as a spiritual teacher, even when he appears in a reading to discuss an abusive husband or a know-it-all boss.

These “literalist readers” often become professional, but rarely achieve the success they could. That’s because they are so limited in their approach, and so unwilling to use their intuitive and interpretive minds to discern the deeper meaning of the cards in a specific reading.

For me, the spiritual lesson is this. Whether we are discussing professional tarot, beginning tarot study, or world religion, true insight doesn’t always come from a book, no matter how old and honored. True insight doesn’t always come from a list of memorized key words.

True insight happens when we open our hearts and minds. The teachings of sacred texts, be they the Holy Bible, the Koran, Kabbalah, tarot, or others, are very valuable.

In my mind, though, their value comes when we take the time to think, meditate, discuss, write and intuit their meanings.

Throughout history, folks have believed that gods write books.  People once believed that Hermes himself wrote “The Emerald Tablet.” Likewise, people once believed the original tarot was authored by Thoth.

When we consider spiritual writings, traditions and systems in the context of the time, place and people which actually produced them, we can separate cultural directives from timeless insights and lessons.

If a sacred text cannot stand up to some scrutiny and interpretation, perhaps we have over-valued the text. Perhaps, too, we have undervalued our intellect and our intuition, which truly are gifts from Higher Power.