Tarot News blog has news and information of interest to the tarot community.
We and Me
Self-love is the beginning of every relationship.
This past year may of us learned something about the importance of our communities, our families, and our close relationships.
In what may feel like a paradox, our lessons have also been about our individuality. We have had to recognize the importance of nurturing our relationship with self, and of honoring the personal journey.
Truly, these lessons are not new. As humans, we are social creatures. We are capable of great love, and able to do great works when we gather together.
Yet, we are also each unique, and naturally individualistic.
Here there is an important lesson of balance. We must be comfortable in our own skin, and able to love our own company and walk our own path.
Yet, no one is an island. We are part of families, and communities.
When we collaborate, we can create things that we could not do on our own.
Sometimes, we must sacrifice of ourselves for the greater good of the family, or the community.
Sometimes, we must make our own wellbeing the priority, and have good boundaries that make our individual needs more important.
There is no one right answer that covers all people, and all situations.
Every relationship is different in its needs and its dynamic.
There are, though, three things we all have in common.
We all need self-love.
We all need to have relationships will people we love.
We all need to be able to work together within a community.
How that balances out can be different for everyone, and for each situation.
The starting place must always be self-understanding, and self-love.
Once we understand our own needs and desires, we can build the relationships that sustain us.
These can be personal relationships, as well as relationships with our healers, our teachers, and others who tend to our needs, and those whose needs we tend.
From there, we can figure out how we best function within our communities.
We also have other important relationships. These relationships can be with animals, with nature, with creativity, and with spirit.
When we are conscious creators of our relationships with self, with others, and with the world around us, we are better, and the world is better.
The StaarCorner
We will hold the second annual StaarCon on January 21 through 23, 2022. We are planning a hybrid conference. We will meet in person at the Doubletree Hotel and Executive Meeting Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. We will also stream the entire conference online and enjoy participation with our online friends around the world.
Tickets will be available soon.
Our podcast, StaarCast, will resume in April with a series of episodes that focus on teaching the skills of divination, meditation, and other topics which we feature at StaarCon.
Check out StaarCast in video on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Sign up for the StaarCon Newsletter so you can stay up-to-date about this exciting event!
Join us For Class Tomorrow!
On Thursday, March 25, at 7 pm EDT, I am teaching an exciting class on Zoom. The video of this class will be available for replay on Teachable.
Clarity in Every Tarot Card will teach you to combine keywords, context, and intuition to find deep meaning in every reading you perform, whether for self or others.
The class fee is $37.50. Get your ticket and join us!
My Favorite Relationship Tarot Spread
I am going to share my very favorite relationship tarot spread with you.
You can do this reading about any type of relationship, whether romantic, professional, familial, or friendship. You can even do this about your relationship with your pet, or with someone you have yet to meet.
Focus on the relationship in question and break the deck into three piles. Turn the top cards over. If you are reading for yourself, the first card to the left will represent you within the relationship. The card to the right will represent the other person.
If you are reading for someone else, the first card to the left will represent the querent, and the card to the right will represent the other person.
The middle card represents the relationship itself.
Look at the two outside cards. What do they have in common, or how are they different? How do they represent the needs, desires, personality, or issues of each person?
If the cards feature pictures of people, are they looking at each other, in the same direction, or away from each other?
What can you see in the interaction between these two cards about this relationship?
Now look at the card in the center. How can you combine this card with what you have already seen in the first two cards?
Does this middle card offer a solution? Does is suggest a problem? Does it show a way this relationship works well?
If you need more information about what lies at the bottom of the situation, or how the history comes into play, pull out the bottom card from each pile and perform the same reading process.
See, too, how the bottom card relates to the top card of each pile. What information does this give you about each person, and about the relationship?
For further information, perform the same process with the card that lies directly below the original card.
Now you have three cards for each person, and for the relationship itself. As you read these card in combination, how do this help you understand the complexities of the relationship?
Three Tarot Tours, and an Open Palm City Office
After more than a year, I am getting ready to do a bit of traveling and would love to see you for an in-person tarot reading.
I will be in Connecticut for a short visit May 21 through 26. I am available for house calls, small parties, and a limited number of private appointments at True Bikram Yoga in Madison.
In June, I will travel to the Tampa area. I will be available for house calls, private readings at my Airbnb in Wesley Chapel, and small parties June 11 through 14.
In July I will return to Connecticut for a longer stay, and will be available to visit surrounding states, such as Rhode Island, New York, and Massachusetts. I will also be available in Connecticut, and happy to do house calls, small parties, and private session at True Bikram in Madison.
As always when I travel, I remain available for readings by phone, Skype, FaceTime and Zoom as well.
Please call or text 561-655-1160, or email me, to get on the schedule for one of my tarot tours!
While I am getting ready to travel, I am also getting ready to re-open my Palm City office to in-person clients by appointment.
We are making some changes to the office to assure that your in-person reading is safe, as well as enjoyable and enlightening. Our tentative date to open to in-person sessions is June 4. We will keep you informed as we get closer to that time.
In the meantime, do not hesitate to reach out to work with me by phone or online. You can schedule your appointment directly on my website.
The Week in Review
This week I wrote a blogpost about an important tarot reading technique. Whether we are reading for ourselves or others, casually or professionally, we need to learn how to pivot from the anxious question to healing.
Join me on my YouTube channel for live reading sessions, tarot meetups, and free tarot classes!
I’ve been keeping a blog for a long time now. Here are two past posts that are pertinent to our topic this week.
From 2012, here is Tarot and the Search for Identity: Five Ways Tarot Can Help You Discover Yourself.
From 2011, here is The Community Sandbox. It is interesting to see how much the problems I talk about in the post have progressed over the past decade.
From Around the Web
From Allure magazine, an article about tarot and the search for gender identity.
One way we think about identity and tarot is the process of working with significators. From Lisa Boswell, here is a piece on selecting a tarot significator.
From Labryinthos, here is a piece about finding your significator in the tarot Court.
Cards for Your Consideration
Major Arcana Six, the Lovers, is a card we often think about in terms of romantic relationships. Yet, this card can serve to teach us, and speak to us, about any sort of relationship.
In a reading, the Lovers can discuss self-esteem. Are you treating yourself in a loving way?
The Lovers can ask you what you want to integrate into your life. Are you ready to join the gym? How will school fit in with your life?
When you see the Lovers in a reading, remember that this card can speak of things beyond romance. A good key word for this card is “integration”. Others are “decisions” and “communication”.
These are not the most romantic terms, but they do illustrate the range of this card, and the important lessons Major Arcana Six has for us.
Upcoming Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 4 Issue 12
March 24, 2021
Connecting with Earth and Heaven
In this newsletter you can learn an easy way to work with your own energy for psychic development and wellbeing.
Whether you are a trained psychic, a natural intuitive, or simply interested in solid spiritual guidance, you need to have a great connection to your own spiritual source.
I want to share an energy technique I use every day in order to perform professional tarot readings. This technique will help you stay grounded and open to your intuition and spiritual guidance.
This technique uses the root (base) chakra, also known as the first chakra, and the crown chakra, also known as the seventh chakra.
If you are unfamiliar with the concept of chakras, do not worry. While there is a great deal of knowledge, insight, and healing available to us all from the study of chakras, you do not need to have all that knowledge in order to use this technique.
At least once a day, and any time you need to feel refreshed and inspired, or when you are seeking to connect with the wisdom of your own intuition, your angels, or your ancestors, try this.
Sit or stand comfortably. Keep your spine straight, and make notice of your feet on the floor, and/or your bottom in your chair.
Slow your breathing, and breathe as deeply and fully as you can. Stay focused on your breathing.
Now, turn your attention to the very base of your spine. Breathe into this area, and recognize this area as your first chakra. From this energy center at the base of your spine, send energy into your legs and your feet. Each time you exhale, send the energy further down. Finally, send the energy from your feet into the earth. Feel your energy rooting into the ground.
Then, as you inhale, feel your own connection to the earth. Allow the energy of the earth to support you and sustain you.
Now, breathe that energy back up into your feet, your legs, and, finally, all the way up your spine. Let the energy gather at the top of your head. With a big exhale, let the crown chakra at the top of your head open and send your energy as a beam of violet light toward heaven.
At this time, call in your angels, guides and ancestors, asking for their help and wisdom.
In this moment, you are connected to earth and to heaven. You are grounded and supported by the earth, and you are inspired and enlightened by spirit.
As this energy runs through your spine it brings you healing and well-being.
You will find that doing this exercise for a few minutes every day heightens your intuition. By keeping you connected to earth as well as heaven, this exercise will also increase your well-being and prosperity.
The StaarCorner
Plans are in the works for our next StaarCon. We will meet January 21 through 23, 2022. Our conference will be hybrid. That is, in person in Palm Beach Gardens, and online on Accelevents.
Ticket sales will begin in April.
I am happy to announce some exciting speakers for StaarCon 2022. We are delighted that Amy Zerner and Monte Farber will be joining us!
The third tarot deck I ever owned, Enchanted Tarot, is one of the many decks produced by the dynamic Zerner-Farber team.
We will look forward to meeting Amy and Monte, and learning from them, at StaarCon 2022!
Sign up for the StaarCon newsletter and stay up-to-date!
Did you miss Tarot Readings for Personalities and Relationships?
Take it now in archive at Card and Craft Academy on Teachable!
Includes the class materials and a recording of the live webcast.
Clarity in Every Tarot Card Live on Zoom
Join us for our next premium Zoom tarot class on Thursday, March 25, 7 pm to 9 pm EST!
Whether you are a new tarot enthusiast, a professional reader, or somewhere in-between, you know the struggle. Sometimes the cards show up in clear and poignant ways. Other times they speak in mysteries and give clues rather than clear direction. Whether reading for yourself or others, this can be a discouraging and frustrating for even the most learned seekers.
In this class you will learn to use keywords, context, and intuition to find the truth presented by the cards. These techniques will help you give an amazing tarot reading each and every time you use your cards.
Class fee is $37.50. Register now.
Chakras and Tarot
I often think about the Aces of tarot in relation to the chakras. I think of the Ace of Pentacles as the root chakra. The sacral chakra and the heart chakra are the Ace of Cups. The solar plexus is the Ace of Wands. The Ace of Swords is the throat and the brow.
The question is, which Ace is the crown chakra?
Sometimes I think the crown chakra could be all the Aces together, or perhaps the Magician, card One in the Major Arcana.
Very often, when the Aces show up in tarot readings, part of their interpretation will include a reference to the care and maintenance of a corresponding chakra.
I like to do a chakra tarot reading by simply laying out, from bottom to top, one card for each chakra. From this I can learn a lot about a person, including their motivations, hurts, well-being and spiritual connection.
There are many ways to play with chakras and tarot together. Have fun and see what you can learn and discover!
Making Plans for Northeastern Tarot Tours
It has been way too long since I have been able to travel to visit with my friends in the Northeast.
I am planning a short trip to Connecticut in May, and a longer tour in August.
In May I plan to be available for house calls, private readings and psychic house parties May 21 through May 26.
During the summer I am planning a visit from July 26 through August 9.
I am happy to travel to your location in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts or New York.
I am able to provide you with a wonderful reading experience, or to give a class or psychic gallery to a group that you would assemble.
I will also be doing a limited number of private appointments at True Bikram Yoga in Madison, Connecticut.
I am happy to work in any way that makes you feel comfortable. Masks, social distancing, and working together in outdoor spaces can allow us to have a safe and wonderful experience together.
My appointment times are limited and are likely to schedule quickly.
To get on the calendar for the May or August trip, please call or text 561-655-1160, or email me.
During my tours I continue to be available for readings by phone, Skype, FaceTime, Messenger and Zoom.
The Week in Review
If you missed my class on YouTube about Karma, the Wheel of Fortune, Justice, and Judgement, or if you want to review it, you can find the link in my Live Tarot Webinars playlist on my YouTube channel.
You will also find me livestreaming four days a week on my YouTube channel. Look for the links on YouTube and Facebook and join me for some free live readings!
From Around the Web
Here is a chakra tarot spread from Simply Tarot.
My favorite teacher on the topic of chakras is Anodea Judith. Check out her website!
Here are some great ideas for connecting tarot and chakras.
Cards for Your Consideration
The Eight of Wands is a card I often consider when I think about the practice of moving energy through my body, and directing my energy toward my intentions.
Very typically the Eight of Wands shows eight wands moving through the air.
We can’t see where they are going, or where they will land.
This is a card that indicates and advises swiftness.
Yet, as a Fire card, we can also find within it ample creativity and spiritual energy.
Sometimes this card may appear to remind us to do our energy work to support our healing, our grounding, and our spiritual connection.
This card reminds us that just because something is neither visible nor tactile does not mean it does not exist. Spiritual energy is real. We can feel it, and work with it.
Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 4 Issue 11
March 17, 2021
The Head, the Heart, and Something Else
This week we discuss the difference between the voices of logic, desire, and intuition.
We often talk about the internal conflict between the head and the heart, or between thinking and feeling.
There are many adages often spoken as advice. That is, things like, “Always follow your heart”. Or “Feel more, think less”.
Sometimes these adages are good advice. In some circumstances, they are the worst advice possible.
Sometimes logic, or what comes from the head, should be our guiding force. Sometimes, we need to follow where our heart leads.
There is a third internal voice, which, when engaged and understood, can help us know when we need act on our logic, and when we need to follow our desires of the heart. That third voice is our intuition.
Very often, people conflate the heart with intuition. That cannot be so, because intuition is not emotion. Intuition is a feeling, but not an emotion. The heart feels feelings, but that doesn’t make the heart the seat of our intuition, or our emotions the keeper of intuition.
Intuition is something different than either thinking or feeling.
Intuition comes from listening to the voice of the universe.
We can feel intuition resonate within our bodies, but it may or may not be in the heart center that we feel it.
One great trick to finding and hearing that third voice is to figure what the truth feels like in your body.
If you can separate out what your logic is telling you, and honestly determine what you are feeling, you are close to finding clarity. Sometimes, the head and the heart won’t be in conflict at all. That alignment feels good when it happens!
We find the guiding voice of our intuition when we breath consciously and listen deeply. We hear that voice when we tell both the heart and the head to be silent for a moment.
The StaarCorner
The countdown to StaarCon 2022 has begun.
StaarCon 2022 will be held January 21 through 23, 2022 as a hybrid conference. That means it will be in-person in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and online on Accelevents. All classes, both live and virtual, will be recorded and available for thirty days after the event.
We will roll out the new website and ticket sales in April. In the meantime, you can sign up for the StaarCon newsletter and keep an eye on our website countdown.
We are very happy to announce that Rachel Pollack has agreed to be a headlining presenter at StaarCon 2022 in Florida.
Rachel Pollack is the author of 46 books of non-fiction and fiction, including two award-winning novels, and a group of books about Tarot cards known around the world. Her first book, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, has been in print continuously for over forty years. She is also the creator of The Shining Tribe Tarot, and with artist Robert M. Place, The Burning Serpent Oracle and the Raziel Tarot.
We are honored and excited to welcome Rachel to StaarCon!
Did you miss Tarot Readings for Personalities and Relationships?
Take it now in archive at Card and Craft Academy on Teachable!
Includes the class materials and a recording of the live webcast.
Clarity in Every Tarot Card Live on Zoom
Join us for our next premium Zoom tarot class on Thursday, March 25, 7 pm to 9 pm EST!
Whether you are a new tarot enthusiast, a professional reader, or somewhere in-between, you know the struggle. Sometimes the cards show up in clear and poignant ways. Other times they speak in mysteries and give clues rather than clear direction. Whether reading for yourself or others, this can be a discouraging and frustrating for even the most learned seekers.
In this class you will learn to use keywords, context, and intuition to find the truth presented by the cards. These techniques will help you give an amazing tarot reading each and every time you use your cards.
Class fee is $37.50. Register now.
A Three-card Spread to Sort It All Out
We generally know what the head and the heart are telling us. We don’t always know the value we should place on what they are each saying.
We often don’t as easily know what our intuition is saying.
Here is a three-card spread to help you sort out your internal conflict. You can use any tarot or oracle deck.
Let the first card tell you what you need to know about what your head is saying.
Let the second card tell you what you need to know about what your heart is saying.
Let the third card give you information that helps you hear your intuition in this moment.
The Week in Review
This week I shared a review of the new Electric Lenormand.
Over the next few weeks, I will be making some important changes to my YouTube and Facebook presence.
One the things you will notice first is that I will be moving my four weekly Facebook livestreams from my Facebook business page to my YouTube channel.
If you enjoy the Three-Card Weekly Reading, Tarot Topics Newsletter Recap, the Friday Weekly Wrap-up and the Saturday Psychic Sampler you will be able to find them live on my YouTube channel, instead of on Facebook, beginning next week.
To watch, comment, and ask questions, you will need to have a free YouTube account and be logged in.
Watch my Facebook business account for announcements of upcoming events, including these weekly features.
Make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel, Christiana Gaudet, so you don’t miss a thing.
From Around the Web
Did you see this photographic tarot deck inspired by sleep issues?
I love these tarot exercises from Big Beautiful Breakthrough!
Psychology Today offers insight on resolving inner conflict.
Cards for Your Consideration
I thought about a few tarot cards that relate to our topic. The Two of Swords can speak of the battle between the head and the heart. The High Priestess and the Moon can speak of finding the voice of our intuition.
The card I settled on is the Seven of Cups.
Very often we see this simply as a card of options, and the need to choose something.
Yet, this card goes much deeper than that.
The Seven of Cups can discuss confusion, imagination, anxiety, and fantasy. In this card we may not be clear on what is real, or what we are imagining.
The Seven of Cups asks us to find our center, and to find our truth. We can only do that well by making peace with the head and the heart. The Seven of Cups can remind us that we need to listen to the inner wisdom of our intuition in order to figure out what is real, and what is best.
Upcoming Events and Tours
Connecticut and Tampa Tours Resume Fall 2021
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 4 Issue 10
March 10, 2021
When Intentions Matter
Intentions only matter if we put our energy and effort into them.
The word ‘intention’ comes up often in many types of spiritual thought.
When I was growing up, I heard a phrase about intention quite often.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
That means that our intentions don’t matter. Rather, what matters is our actions.
On a mundane level, I have found this to be true. For example, I once rented an apartment that turned out to be unlivable for me because of some of the on-premises landlord’s actions. When I spoke with her about how those actions were affecting me, her answer was, “That is not my intention.”
That she did not intend to inconvenience me meant nothing to me. I was still inconvenienced and chose to move out as soon as I could. Her intention did not matter.
In many ways, our actions matter more, much more, than our intentions.
I have heard people excuse their use of hurtful language by saying, “I am not using this word with the intention of hurting anyone”. Yet, their words still cause hurt.
In the spiritual community of which tarotists are a part, we talk about intention a lot. We use the word ‘intention’ as part of the practice of manifestation and magic. We use the word ‘intention’ to indicate a goal that we are setting, and to bring spiritual power to assist us in achieving that goal. In this way, an intention becomes akin to a prayer.
When we take a yoga class, we are often asked, at the beginning of class, to dedicate our practice to an intention. Typically, the intention does not involve mastering yoga postures. The idea is that the energy we raise during our yoga practice will be directed toward manifesting our goal.
Does this really work? Does the act of consciously setting an intention as part of a spiritual practice help us to create our reality? Do the intentions we set in this way matter?
I believe that they do, under this one important condition.
Our mundane actions must be in line with our spiritual intentions.
Mundane actions without the spiritual process of setting intentions may be effective. Yet, adding the spiritual ritual and energy of setting intentions will likely bring success more quickly and easily.
Setting spiritual intentions without the mundane actions will very likely not matter much.
For example, I could set the intention to lose some weight. However, without diet and exercise, my intention would likely not make a different.
Intentions matter when we are willing to do the work to bring them in to being.
Intentions can help in another way, too. When we set an intention, we put our attention on that intention. Where our attention goes is where our energy goes. This may be true on a lot of different levels. Using my weight loss example, simply setting the intention may call in the power of the universe, and my own higher self, to motivate me to do the mundane actions that my intention requires.
In this way, intentions matter a great deal.
The StaarCorner
Episode Twenty of StaarCast is available now, and you are going to love it! I had so much fun speaking with Serena Fox about the magic of herbs, cards, and art. Watch the interview here, or download it wherever you get your podcasts.
For the next few weeks, StaarCast will be on hiatus. We will be back in April with some great new features.
Over this next month we will be solidifying our early plans for StaarCon 2022. Expect tickets to be on sale shortly! We have some wonderful things in the works for our next conference, which will be January 21-23, 2022, both online and in person in Palm Beach Gardens.
Please join our Facebook group, StaarCon Community!
Did you miss Tarot Readings for Personalities and Relationships?
Take it now in archive at Card and Craft Academy on Teachable!
Includes the class materials and a recording of the live webcast.
Clarity in Every Tarot Card Live on Zoom
Join us for our next premium Zoom tarot class on Thursday, March 25, 7 pm to 9 pm EST!
Whether you are a new tarot enthusiast, a professional reader, or somewhere in-between, you know the struggle. Sometimes the cards show up in clear and poignant ways. Other times they speak in mysteries and give clues rather than clear direction. Whether reading for yourself or others, this can be a discouraging and frustrating for even the most learned seekers.
In this class you will learn to use keywords, context, and intuition to find the truth presented by the cards. These techniques will help you give an amazing tarot reading each and every time you use your cards.
Class fee is $37.50. Register now.
Set an Intention for Your Tarot Reading
When we work with intentions from a spiritual perspective there are many ways that we can involve tarot. Here is one simple yet profound way.
We can use the energy of intention to bring power to our divination practice. We always begin a tarot reading with a question. Even if we don’t have a question, the unspoken questions are “What’s going on?” or “What do I need to know?”
We refer to readings that don’t begin with a spoken question as ‘general readings’. Even that name, though, is inherently describing a question. We are asking to know what is going on, in general.
If we state our question at the beginning of a reading with the focus of setting an intention, we will bring our energy and attention to the reading in a deeper way. Consider that your entire work with tarot could be enhanced by this simple shift in perspective and practice.
The Week in Review
This week I wrote a blogpost exploring the tarot Nines. I also taught a class on YouTube about using a pendulum with your tarot cards.
Subscribe to my channel on YouTube, like my page on Facebook! By connecting with me on social media you will make sure you never miss an opportunity for a class or live broadcast.
From Around the Web
Emerald Lotus Divination has a tarot spread for setting intentions.
Dr. Wayne Dyer is primarily responsible for our use of the word ‘intention’ in our modern spiritual practices. Here are some of his thoughts about it.
Here are some thoughts about setting intentions with moon phases from Wayward Inspiration.
Cards for Your Consideration
Are there any tarot cards that speak specifically about setting an intention? Certainly, the Magician would be an obvious choice here.
I also think that both the Two of Wands and the Seven of Cups can speak of the process of manifestation, which includes setting an intention.
The Seven of Wands might speak of sticking to our intention even in the face of difficulty.
Sometimes the Six of Wands will appear to tell us to keep our eyes on the prize and keep working to achieve our goals.
Tarot is a book of magical tools, as well as a book of spiritual wisdom, and a tool of divination. As such, we can use the cards to help us set our intentions. We can use the cards to bring energy to our intentions. And, in a reading, each card may speak of our intentions in specific ways.
Upcoming Events and Tours
Connecticut and Tampa Tours Resume Fall 2021!
Card and Craft Academy
Classes presented by Christiana are available right now at Card and Craft Academy!
Christiana’s Candle Magick
Christiana’s Eleven-Card Celtic Cross
Finding Meaning in the Minor Arcana
The Major Arcana, Magical and Mundane
Practical Tarot Techniques
Psychic Tarot
Personal Tarot: Reading for Yourself
Sharing Wisdom: Reading for Others
The Meaning and Magic of Tarot Reversals
Journey Through the Major Arcana
Your Journey Through the Minor Arcana: Numbers, Elements and Truth
Tarot Beyond the Veil
Your Journey Through the Tarot Court
Tarot Stories, Trends, and Blends
Tarot Readings for Personalities and Relationships (New)
Catch up on your missed Zoom webinars and more!
cardandcraftacademy.com
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 4 Issue 9
March 3, 2021