Sunday 23 December 2012

Tarot Wisdom About Mothers

Mothers And Daughters

I've come across stories of mother-daughter love-hate relationships. At this point, I want to qualify that I don't hate my Mum. I love her with all my being just because she's my Mum and she spent much of her life sacrificing a career and her sanity to look after a loony daughter like me. When I was very young, Mum was about to walk down the stairs carrying me and missed a step. As she took a tumble down the stairs, she held on tightly to me to prevent me from getting hurt. She protected me as a mother would. Even till today, when I am sick, no medicines in the world could cure me faster than Mum's lovingly prepared food for convalescence.

Like most mothers and daughters, we have a very strong bond but from time to time, that bond is peppered by little misunderstandings, miscommunication or what my "13 year old" self would call " Mum's battiness." In the same vein, Mum probably thought my "loopiness" was what caused all these incidences of miscommunication and misunderstandings. After all, like my husband said, "you both are like two peas in a pod."

Advice From The Tarot

As Mum and I have a less than perfect relationship, over the years, I harbored some residual resentment and I never quite healed properly from that resentment. When the wound is raw and red, Mum sometimes reopen it unceremoniously with a fight with me over some insignificant thing. That wound goes through a vicious cycle of opening and closing over the years. I think I owe it to my clients, my family and myself to permanently close it forever, particularly during this Christmas. As a wise cousin J said in a Facebook post, "Christmas is about the gift of forgiveness as God had forgiven our sins through the gift of His only son."

So I shuffled my Tarot cards last night with the intention of getting some much-needed advice and insight into my relationship with mum. I had been looking at our relationship from MY perspective. So I wanted the cards to show me the relationship from Mum's perspective. Here's what I picked:

Knight Of Swords

The Knight of Swords is a manifestation of Mum's perceptions of me. Mum sees me as someone highly intelligent, young, full of energy and a great communicator. She admires my strong spirit of going all out to get what I want. However, she sometimes feel that that spirit and ambition, blinds me from everything else as I trample clumsily and sometimes unwittingly on people around me in my bid to reach my goals. While she admires my communication skills, she abhors my sharp tongue and thinks that sometimes, the way I convey a message, could sometimes be misconstrued as cutting, rude and obnoxious. Mum feels that while deep down I always have had good intentions, I am headstrong and will walk into a battlefield without sizing up the enemy and anticipating the consequences prior. All my life, I governed my thoughts and feelings with willfulness. I had often gotten burnt just because I want to beat up the bigger boy in a fight without realizing that the fight was caused by the smaller boy's bullying.

When Mum says something that I don't agree with, I would be fighting back with something else that may sometimes hurt. When Mum was going through some depression due to Dad needing additional care as he couldn't walk without help, I reacted with anger instead because I felt she wasn't being honest and opened with me about what she needed. When Mum and I fought during a vacation trip recently, she was upset with me for "barking" at her when all I wanted to do was to help her. My Knight of Swords self reacted as I jumped in to offer an advice in a dogmatic fashion which she regarded as being rude. However, my Knight of Swords self reacted even more badly when she started shouting at me in front of her friends. Amongst a lot of things I haven't quite forgiven her for, I never forgave her for that.


Emperor

Wow! This is an apt card to represent Mum. Her birthday is governed by the number 4 which also corresponds with the Emperor's card in Tarot. The Emperor is a manifestation of Mum's perception of herself. She sees herself as the head of the family who demands respect. She insists on being in control and sees herself as the authority on everything from A-Z.

In fact, Mum thinks the universe revolves around her and if she sneezes, all of us will probably catch the flu. Once, in response to my request for her to do something, she snapped," I am very busy you know, having to look after your dad and all. I have to multi-task." I thought at that moment, "You must think I am very free, sitting around on my arse, waiting for money to drop on my lap to financially take care of 6 people in the family, work a full time job and run a business at the same time." Of course in that moment of piety, I said nothing.

Mum's life is structured around strict, old fashioned Confucius concepts of piety and familial loyalty. In our family, these traditions are held very strongly. Mum doesn't apologise for anything and demands that the younger generation accord her with due respect. This explained why when I raised my voice in exasperation at her, she got into a fit. She is so proud she wouldn't ask for help even if she needed it desperately. That explained her depression when Dad needed additional care and I felt she wasn't open and honest with me about needing help.

6 Of Swords Reversed

The 6 of Swords reversed is a reflection of the state of our current relationship. We spent years manoeuvring an uneasy relationship tainted by past hurts. Years ago when Mum assumed her professional Pope role and refused to accept my divorce, she cut me off for years. The anger and bitterness I had borne within me for years, never quite abated.

Although over the years, we tried to heal and put the past behind us, I forgave but never quite forgot how she went against the grain of familial loyalty by not standing by me in my moment of marital distress. Worse, I hadn't quite forgotten how my grand dad was old and frail but I wasn't accepted into the home to visit him. On one of grand dad's birthdays, I drove up boldly to the house and wished my grand dad happy birthday before taking my leave. I will never forget the horrified faces of the family who were stunned into silence and did not talk to me, out of respect for mum. Grand dad died a few years after and my heart is still filled with sorrow for those missing years. If I had a wish this Christmas, it's just to spend one more day with grand dad to tell him how much I love him.

The 6 of swords reversed was an apt card to pick. Mum and I never quite left the hurt behind us. Actually, it's more me. I need to be reminded from time to time that grand dad's gone but Mum's still here.

10 of Wands

10 of Wands is the exhaustion we feel today, having struggled through years of strained relationship whilst clinging to the past. It's like there is never going to be an end to this huge burden of a past that we are carrying on our shoulders. We walk on egg shells when we talk to each other, hoping the wounds wouldn't reopen again because one of us said something stupid.

Strength

Finally, Strength is the wise advice of my Tarot cards asking me to approach the relationship with inner strength, patience and perseverance. Love of mothers and daughters is the greatest kind of love that's why the worst pain that comes to one, is the pain caused by any hurts and disappointments between mothers and daughters.

Mum and I share a past that we could never undo. However we share a future that is also very short and could never be undone.

Joel

I love my Mum and my gift as well as my cross are really that I am exactly like her. I hope to God that Joel and I will not go through a relationship that's tenuous and filled with hurt. I told him this morning that I would appreciate his honesty if I crossed the line as a mother and I hope he would appreciate mine too if he did the same. Taking lessons from the mistake of my past, I always told Joel as well as my Tarot clients, " Stop looking down at every step you take as you walk along the beach or else you will miss the kisses from the sun."

My Mum is that sunshine.

About The Writer:
The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She obtained a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and is also certified numerologist.  She currently runs a Tarot consultancy called Sun Goddess Tarot based in Singapore. A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also a reader for the Free Tarot Network and is a mentor for the ATA. She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com











Friday 21 December 2012

The Christmas Present

The Virtual Christmas Feast

Christmas is my favorite time of the year.  The food, parties, presents, decorations and general revelry aside, it is the time of the year when I can truly look back at everything that I had achieved throughout the year, and look forward to the coming New Year when I could celebrate more of the good, welcome the better, and say goodbye to the bad.

If you are familiar with the Tarot Blog Hop which I am honored to be a part of for some time now, you may have hopped onto my blog from Morgan's blogpost at http://gleamingsfromthedawn.blogspot.com/2012/12/splitting-timeline-tarot-blog-hop.html.   Perhaps you may be a regular reader of my blog or even an accidental visitor who chanced upon my blog.   However you have arrived at my blog, I am so happy that you are here to share the magic of Christmas with me.

As some of you may already know, this year had been a phenomenal year for me that involved my wading through a murky pool of challenges that included 3 surgeries and managing constant skepticism from family, friends and acquaintances about my love for Tarot, only to emerge the other side with new experiences, new gifts, and new perspectives.  I have come to associate these new experiences and new gifts collectively as a Christmas present from the Universe. 

To share this Christmas present with you, I would like to invite you to a virtual Christmas feast, imagining that you are all with me around a table filled with Christmas goodies.   I urge you to visualize this feast in your mind so that you may hold that energy together with me as I celebrate the return of light in my life, only made possible, because I have wholly embraced Tarot as my purpose to bring light to other people too.

The Meditation

To be a part of this virtual feast, it is advised that you start off with a short meditation.   If you are not familiar with the practice of meditation, I would like to invite you to close your eyes, and  take deep breaths, in and out, to the count of 7 for about 7 times.  Once you keep that steady pace of breathing, imagine a white light from the top of your head flowing down through your head, and into your body, through your limbs, down to your legs, out through your feet  and into the ground. As you are imagining the white light flowing through your body, let it take the negative energy away from you, pushing it out of your being and into the ground.  As the white light is doing this for you, imagine thereafter that a green light is flowing from the ground, up your feet, through your legs, into your body, and out through the crown of your head. Allow the green light to cleanse your being.  Keep your breaths at a steady pace as you “pattern” the flow of white and green lights through your body in different directions, intermingling to the point of creating a growing shroud of light around you. 

Now that you have created a protective shroud around your sacred space, imagine yourself walking up a cobbled path flanked by tall grass and huge trees, arching it's branches to touch each other, forming a shelter for you as you walk on.  Feel the breeze on your face, feel the ground at the bottom of your feet, and reach out to feel the tall grass flanking each side of the cobbled path.  Ahead of you is a bright yellow house.  It looks warm and welcoming, lined with beautiful flowers like poinsettias for the season just on the front porch.  The front door is opened, so just walk right in and walk across the room.  You’ll see  a huge table filled end to end with scrumptious food before you, and around that table, there are so many people, enjoying the revelry.  You can hear the chatter and laughter, the clinking of glasses and Christmas carols being played in the background.  Beside the table stands a noble fir tree decorated in beautiful gold and silver ornaments. You can smell the sweet scent of pine.

You’ve just arrived at my Christmas dinner.  Welcome.

The Staples

Every year, the staples of my Christmas dinner is the ubiquitous Roast Turkey and a bone-in Honey-baked Ham.  It just wouldn’t be a Christmas dinner without these staples.  Similarly, my transformation this year wouldn’t have been possible without Tarot and Meditation. It was only when I chose to further my esoteric studies and gotten myself professionally qualified with a certification and a diploma as a Tarot reader earlier this year, that I finally realized my  purpose of bringing light, clarity and assurance to the people around me through Tarot.  I took my Tarot reading to a new level.  Those cards weren’t just what I played with in the evenings for fun and excitement anymore.  They became my tool to provide clients with respite and provide my favorite charity, the Children’s Cancer Foundation, with additional support.

As I read for clients on a daily basis, I found that I had learnt new things about Tarot every day too.   The one thing I learnt was the ability to adapt and respond to situations with an opened mind and heart.  Tarot taught me this axiom – “If you cannot change the situation, then change the way you think about the situation.”  As I met with clients who had gone through so many challenges and adversities in the last year, sharing this axiom with them and validating it with the Tarot cards had helped them move forward from the negativity of these situations.  The most amazing thing about this was that in the process, I found that I had, in a similar fashion, healed myself from past hurts and disappointments too.

Another gift Tarot had brought me was my courage to set up my consultancy Sun Goddess Tarot.  It led me to greater fulfillment not only through the readings that I had done for my clients, but also through mentoring novice Tarot readers and also reading in support of charities.  From the initial success of Sun Goddess Tarot, I had decided a few months after, to launch my own line of goddess-inspired crystal healing jewelry called Sun Goddess Gems. This again, was inspired by requests from my clients, as after a tarot reading session,  I would give my clients a piece of crystal each, charged with the intent to protect and heal them.

The Turkey and Ham staples always came with the most robust gravies and sauces.  We usually have giblet gravy, cranberry sauce and apple sauce.  These were highly essential to round off my meats.  Similarly, over the year, daily meditations were essential to me.   I wouldn’t have been able to manage the many client appointments, difficult situations that my clients typically went through, the multiple commitments and projects that I was involved in without grounding and centering myself.  I love meditating to the sunrise.  Meditation had been such a cornerstone of my life that I practically could not function without it.  It has made me a better Tarot reader.  In fact, it has made me a better, more grounded person.

The Sides

The side dishes are an important pairing to the Turkey and the Ham.  The fun is always in spending a couple of months before Christmas, agonizing about what side dishes to prepare and it always ends off with an animated argument with the hubby about the role of brussel sprouts at the dinner.  This year, I wanted my side dishes to be meaningful and bear some significance to what my family brings to the table.  The hubby has decided to whip up a Sage and Onion stuffing based on his late mother’s recipe.  As an Asian, I thought to add a twist to my Christmas dinner with an Asian noodle salad.  And because my hubby’s and my health took a toll this year with him being diagnosed for diabetes and myself having had to undergo a breast and a knee surgery, we decided to have roasted rosemary potatoes too as a symbol of our journeying towards better health next year.  I love rosemary as a herb.  It has such fantastic health-giving properties.  Do you know that in the olden days, Roman priests used rosemary  as incense in religious ceremonies and in England, sprigs of rosemary was put on top of the coffin before  the grave was filled with dirt?  Also, rosemary is very good for protecting against negative energy. 

Just like the side dishes that paired harmoniously to my main dishes at the Christmas dinner, there is one huge creative project which I had embarked on this year, to support my main pillars of growth – Tarot and Meditation.  Due to my ardent belief in the healing properties of crystals, I launched my goddess-inspired line of crystal jewelry called Sun Goddess Gems.  I have always loved crystals.  However, when I started giving away crystals to my clients after their tarot reading sessions, I had been getting so much positive feedback about how the crystals had helped them remove negative energy and move forward from their respective situations or issues. 

In fact, crystals are such a big part of my life that it figures prominently in my prayer rituals.  As you know, Yule is a celebration of rebirth or renewal as we welcome the sun back into our lives.  So in my prayer ritual this Christmas, as I remember the past year, I celebrate joy, abundance and prosperity in the coming year with a crystal grid created from green aventurine, moss agate, citrine, tiger’s eye and clear quartz. A picture of this crystal grid is posted below this blog.

The Christmas Present

As my Christmas present to one of my guests at this virtual Christmas dinner, I will be giving away a beautiful piece of raw citrine pendant, newly created for Sun Goddess Gems.  This pendant is artisan wire-wrapped in gold-plated wire.  I will be giving away this pendant to a randomly picked reader of this blog post who has added this blog http://sungoddesstarot.blogspot.com into his or her blogroll and who have written a comment to this post by Boxing day on 26th Dec 2012, and I will be announcing the winner of this beauty on my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot.  Citrine enhances energy, cleanses the solar plexus, sacral and crown chakras and attracts wealth, prosperity and success.  I have named this citrine pendant Lakshmi, after the Hindu Goddess of wealth and success.  A picture of this pendant is appended below this blogpost.

The Dessert

Okay, let’s get this straight. I can cook but I can’t bake. Desserts are my biggest headache every year, at every festive occasion.  Often, I would specially order the dessert from a shop, beg a guest to bring a cake or get the hubby to make one of his less-than-perfect banoffee pies.   This year however, as it is my year of “rebirth”, I just had to create something from scratch.  Anything handmade would be appreciated, I thought.  So I will be personally baking my own mince pies and I will whip up a special Christmas trifle.  Not to be outdone, the hubby is currently figuring out how to make a Christmas pudding.  Thank goodness, it will be awhile before he figures out that the pudding that he makes this year, will need to be cured and consumed at next Christmas.  I’ll think of a plan for discreet disposal next year then.

Meanwhile, as part of my intention to imbibe this Christmas with some creative spirit, I hand-crafted my Sun candle with cinnamon, star anise, dried flowers and herbs and infused it with an abundance anointing oil.   I will burn this candle throughout the night of Christmas as a symbol of welcoming the sun back.  A picture of my candle is posted below this blog.  If you hear someone grumbling amidst the wonderful smell of cinnamon and other herbs, it’s the hubby nagging me about leaving a naked light unattended in the house. 

How could the candle be left unattended when we are partying all through the night into the morning.  Right!?

The Farewell

When the sun rises the next morning after my Christmas party, it’s time for us to bid each other farewell with wishes of good health and prosperity into the New Year.  Before you leave, I have one more Christmas present for you.  I picked one of my favorite tarot cards and meditated upon it, sending blessings along your way from the card.  I picked the Star.  The Star promises new hope, positivity, impending success and new possibilities.  Open your heart and mind to new ideas and opportunities to grow.   Treat new experiences as the Universe’s way of guiding you up the path towards successfully attaining your goals.

I reached out to touch my Star this year.  So my Christmas wish for you is that you’ll touch yours too. Thank you for raising the energy with me at this virtual Christmas feast.  Don’t forget to ground yourself again through meditation to bring the energy down as you leave my home.  Also, don’t end your Christmas celebrations there.  I would like to invite you to read the post of my fellow Tarot Bloghopper Maureen at http://tarotwitchery.blogspot.com/2012/12/tarot-blog-hop-yule-2012-christmas-is.html.  And if you do experience a broken link, you may return to the master list for this Tarot Blog Hop at http://tarot-thrones.blogspot.co.uk/p/yule-blog-hop-master-list-2012.html.

About The Writer:

The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and was recently certified as a numerologist in Singapore. A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also a reader for the Free Tarot Network and is a mentor for the ATA.  


The Ash Family Christmas Tree - Our first real Noble Fir tree


Meditation to Manifest the Intention Of Abundance


Nut, Egyptian Goddess of the Sky Depicted in the Star Card from Wizards Tarot






Hand-decorated Sun Candle to Welcome Back The Sun At The Winter Solstice


Prosperity and Abundance Crystal Grid for Yule


Laksmi -Raw Citrine Pendant from Sun Goddess Gems 

Wednesday 19 December 2012

30 Day Tarot Challenge: Day 19 - Day 30

30 Day Tarot Challenge: Days 19-30

Ok I admit it. I got quite bored after writing daily blogposts for 18 of the questions in the 30-day Tarot challenge, particularly when many of the questions could be answered in almost one sentence. Perhaps, I am way too lazy and too distracted by so many Tarot reading appointments during the year-end festive period to afford all that blogging time. So, typical of my "Seafood Fried Rice" or in my husband's case "Bubble and Squeak" approach, I had decided to lump the questions for Day 19 to Day 30 into this blogpost, and I will do it as a question and Answer format.....all in a single blog post. I know my fellow Tarot blogging sisters will be palming their faces and groaning at this renegade again. I never seem to be able to follow the rules properly.

Do follow the rest of my entries in the 30-Day Tarot Challenge starting from here: http://sungoddesstarot.blogspot.sg/2012/12/30-day-tarot-challenge.html?m=1

To remind you of how I got started with this challenge, a fellow Tarot blogger posted the link to the challenge on the TABI ( Tarot Association of the British Isles) Facebook page, and threw this challenge at us. The link to the question is here: http://78keys.tumblr.com/post/36652622634/30-day-tarot-challenge

Question/Day 19: Do you feel/think the cards “think” or have their own consciousness? What do you believe makes the cards “tick?” (Is it magic/outside influences or all in the mind?)

Answer: This is a difficult question. My clients have often asked the same. Some were worried that I interpret the cards by invoking spirits, channeling them to get the message, in truth, the cards present a visual imagery of what my personal consciousness tells me. And my consciousness works off the energy of my client at that moment as we discuss his or her issues openly during a consultation.

Question/Day 20: Do you read for yourself and/or for others? Why or why not?

Answer: I pull a card du jour everyday for myself as a habit since I started learning how to read the Tarot. When I feel a need to do a more in-depth reading particularly when I am confronted with challenges, the readings always help provide me with clarity.
What I don't do is to read for people without their prior permission or knowledge. I particularly find reading for celebrities completely appalling. It's a complete invasion of their privacy and I don't want to play a part in that.

Question/Day 21: How do you feel when you do readings?

Answer: Before I do a Tarot reading, my requisite practice is to meditate, ground, centre and establish boundaries before I "walk" into the cards and interpret them through the "conversation" I would have with the images within the cards. It's truly exhilarating because I am able to interpret the cards and relate them to my client's situation or issues. Always, the advice provided by the interpretation is spot-on accurate and most needed by the client. To me, it's a blessing and I am thankful for this gift.

In the first few months as a novice Tarot reader, I often get migraines, having assumed the negative energy of some of my clients whose auras were surrounded by so much negativity due to the situations that they were in at that time. As I grew in experience and skills, the meditation had helped me a lot to form a protective boundary around myself when I conduct my readings.

Question/Day 22: Do you charge money (or other ways of compensation) for your readings/services?

Answer: Yes I do charge a fee for a Tarot reading session as it is a professional service rendered from immense time and effort spent on studying and honing my skills, like any other professional service rendered by say, a doctor, lawyer, or counsellor. However, due to a cancer scare that I had gone through a few months ago, I had decided to donate part proceeds of my fees from each Tarot reading session to the Children's Cancer Foundation.

Question/Day 23: What question do you most often ask the deck (or, ask on behalf of another)?

Answer: The 2 areas on which the questions are most focused on are career and relationship. Popular questions are like "Should I change jobs?", " What's the outcome of my career with this company?", " Should I switch career paths ?", " Will I be meeting a special someone soon?", " What's the outcome of my relationship with this man?". I did have a few odd questions before about how my querant's pet felt, and if someone's spirit would cross over, and a lot more even odder ones. However, whatever the question, I always insist that my clients provide a focused question, and not a generic one. This is to allow the cards to provide a focused advice.

Question/Day 24: How accurate do you believe your readings are (or, do they accurately convey messages from spirits/deity)?

Answer: My readings are often accurate. Accuracy increases with experience and deepening of my intuitive skills. I always believe, this accuracy is guided by the universe. Being a Roman Catholic, I can't deny that my God had a big part to play in guiding me along this spiritual path. If I had anyone to thank for the accuracy, my effort was 20% and His blessings was 80%.

Question/Day 25: What was the most dramatic/meaningful reading you ever did? (Not necessarily the most accurate.)

Answer: The most dramatic/meaningful reading I had done was for a client who was a very capable lady entrepreneur. She's well known in the public social circles and leads a high-flying, jet-setting lifestyle brokering multi-million dollar business deals. She had a very strong character and always projected an image of leading a perfect life. Her first Tarot consultation with me was spent having her mock my skills and she was so skeptical that she would test my skills with frivolous questions. In fact, she belligerently told me she booked a session with me because she just wanted to find out how "real" I was. She was quite obnoxious that I was prepared to walk out on that session to save my self respect. However, my intuition told me to just be patient and hear her out.

That session lasted 2 hours. By the end of the session, I established that she was suffering from clinical depression and was on medication for it. This was caused by years of suffering a breakdown in her marriage and the corporate stress she was going through. More importantly, towards the end of that session, I had managed, through the cards, to coax her out of investing in a dud property project offshore ( 2 months later after that reading, the developer absconded with the downpayment for the property paid by several investors), helped provide her advice to hold her family together, sussed out that one of her sons was suffering from a lot of resentment over the broken marriage and her decision to send him to boarding school ( thankfully she changed her mind about that boarding school).

It was one of my most fulfilling read, not because I was accurate, but because I had turned a skeptic into a believer and even better, I gained a friend in someone I previously thought was a complete bitch. She's one of my most regular clients today.

Question/Day 26: Have you ever regretted a particular reading, either for yourself or another?

Answer: I haven't regretted any of my readings yet. And I hope I won't ever. I think this is because I adhere closely to my code of ethics and wouldn't do readings that make me feel uncomfortable or goes against my values.

Question/Day 27: Do you have a special time and/or place that you use your Tarot? If so, do you reserve the deck specifically for that purpose?

Answer: I do my Tarot readings usually in the evenings as I do hold a full-time job as a marketeer. My evenings are often flat out with mentoring sessions with my protégés, Tarot reading appointments and email readings thereafter for the Free Tarot Network. One of my proteges asked me once if I ever slept.  I think age has allowed me to operate on very little sleep!  

On weekends, I tend to do my readings first thing in the morning or mid afternoon and spend the rest of the day writing my Tarot journal. For face to face readings, I use my Radiant Rider Waite deck a lot. For email readings, I use my Morgan Greer deck. There isn't a particular reason for this, and it's really driven by habit.

I have never done face to face Tarot reading for clients in my own home though. However, two nights ago, I accepted a late night appointment at my home for the very first time, as it was an emergency and I felt that I needed to help her as much as I could.

Question/Day 28: Does anyone you know not agree with your Tarot practices?

Answer: I meet with skepticism everyday! There are many friends and family members who don't approve of my Tarot reading out of fear or lack of understanding of the skill. I blame it on errant readers who tout themselves as fortune tellers. They give genuine Tarot readers a bad name. I am particularly annoyed at those who do celebrity readings, freely dispensing summations about the private lives of celebrities. Genuine Tarot readers do not invade the privacy of people they don't know personally. There are of course the over-religious ones who saw my Tarot reading skills as a skill given by questionable spiritual forces, I can assure you, the only questionable force around me is the damn daily storms and rainy weather we have been having throughout this year end festive period. I am not afraid of skepticism and thank these skeptics from the bottom of my heart for hardening my resolve to be a bloody fabulous Tarot reader.

Question/Day 29: Do you have a Tarot mentor? Who are they (in relation to you) and how do they inspire you?

Answer: I have 3 mentors. One is Renae, my Tarot teacher who first introduced me to the wonderful world of Tarot. While I was "wet behind my ears" in that classroom learning the ropes as a reader, I remembered her teaching with so much passion, explaining the different aspects of Greek classical studies to us as she introduced us to each card within the Mythic Tarot deck. Renae was responsible for my qualification as a certified numerologist and she tight me to overlay numerology with Tarot reading to provide more depth and insights in the interpretations.

My other mentor is Brigit from Biddy Tarot whom I'd turn to for advice whenever I run into a snag, like an uncertainty of an interpretation. Being part of Biddy Tarot's stable of free readers also meant that I had a wonderful exposure to real client situations as I honed my email reading skills.

The third mentor is Hope who held my hand through my CPTR ( Certified Professional Tarot Readers) qualification as well as my work as a volunteer for the Free Tarot Network.

Question/Day 30: Do you practice any other forms of divination? If so, what is it, and do you use them alongside the Tarot as to gain more information and insight or as something separate entirely?

Answer: I use numerology extensively with my Tarot reading. I found it lent a lot more accuracy and depth to my Tarot readings. I bought a Lapis Lazuli pendulum as a birthday present for myself a few months ago but grew tired watching it hang down limply from my fingers for an hour on a windless day.

BONUS Question: If you could create one card to add to your deck, what would it be called and what would the card’s meaning be?

Answer: A common situation I find my clients encounter is one whereby if they do not get the job that they want or the girl that they like, they would just give up and surround themselves with despondency and despair. Often, my advice to them is " It doesn't matter. Just start your search again. If you can't get it by doing what you've always done, think out of the box and change the course of action. Just start again from ground zero."

I am not sure what the card will be called. Novitiate? Yes, perhaps it should be called Novitiate. To the Roman Catholics, Novitiate is a period of studies and training that a Novice undergoes. The card when picked would advice the querant to start again from a fresh perspective. Go back to the learning curve.

About The Writer:
The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and was certified as a numerologist in Singapore. A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also endorsed as a reader for the Free Tarot Network and is a mentor for the ATA. She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com

Thursday 13 December 2012

30 Day Tarot Challenge - Day 18: Connerction With Tarot Cards

30 Day Tarot Challenge - Day 18:  Do you feel a “connection” to your cards?

My Tarot cards are sacred to me.  They are an extension of my inner wisdom and intuition.  Naturally, I do feel connected to my cards.
Here’s a funny story.  In the months that I was still a novice Tarot reader, a client who wanted an email reading from me said that she wanted to find out what insights I could glean from my Tarot cards about her relationship.  The only information she gave me was about how much she loved her man, and that she had been with him for 8 years  and he was like a “soul-mate” who knew everything about her, and knew what she wanted and needed.
When I shuffled the cards and laid down a spread, 2 of the cards that showed up were the Moon and the High Priestess reversed.  At that moment, I allowed my own judgement about her and her relationship cloud my interpretation and was thinking, perhaps she needed to follow her own gut instincts and not fear deeper commitment with him. 
However, I kept holding the cards for a long time and something told me that wasn’t right at all.  So I reshuffled the cards again and this time the 7 of Swords and the 3 of Cups reversed showed up.  With this second shuffle, I finally got the message that the cards were trying to tell me all wasn’t well and that her partner was having an affair.
So yes, I’d like to think that no matter how I want to force a view on my cards particularly if I don’t like what a specific spread tells me, the cards will always be honest with me.

About The Writer:
The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and was recently certified as a numerologist in Singapore. A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also endorsed as a reader for the Free Tarot Network and is a mentor for the ATA.   She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com


Wednesday 12 December 2012

30 Day Tarot Challenge Day 15: Reading Intuitively Or Via Text-Book Meanings

30 Day Tarot Challenge - Day 15:  How much emphasis do you put on the text-book meanings for cards, and how much stress do you place on the “feeling” you get from cards through their artwork/symbolism/etc. (aka reading intuitively)? Do you do both, or one or the other?

 

When I first started out as a novice Tarot reader, I did lean heavily on text-book meanings of each card. That troubled me quite a lot because I remembered one of my greatest bug-bear was relating that meaning directly to the querant’s situation.  The reading became quite generic and I wasn’t able to provide meaningful advice.
So through practice, I started to read intuitively by meditating on each card.  This involved visualizing my “walking” into the card and having a conversation with the images within the card.  This was a very powerful way of getting more insights that could lend depth to the advice I was giving to my clients.
This has become a habit for me every time I do a reading. It is not unusual for me to be talking to the cards simply because I am in that meditative state of being “at one” with my Tarot cards.  Do read an example of this on http://sungoddesstarot.blogspot.sg/2012/10/Tarot-5s.html
In the recent months, this practice has honed my intuitive skills a lot more helping to sharpen my visions about the outcomes or current state of my clients’ situations at a glance of the cards. 
Granny’s intuitive gifts, are having an impact on me.
About The Writer:
The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and was recently certified as a numerologist in Singapore. A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also endorsed as a reader for the Free Tarot Network and is a mentor for the ATA.   She can be contacted at
www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com

30 Day Tarot Challenge - Day 17: Reversed Cards

30 Day Tarot Challenge - Day 17:  Do you do readings using reversals? Why or why not?

I absolutely enjoy including reversed cards in my Tarot card interpretations.  There is so much significance with the reversed cards that I think we would miss otherwise. 
I found that when I started using reversals after obtaining my Certified Professional Tarot Reader (CPTR) qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA), the insights that I got from my Tarot cards were even more profound, and it lent a lot more accuracy and depth to the readings that I do for my clients. In fact, reversed cards often become a catalyst for a robust discussion that my client and I will have about the significance of these cards to their situations or the choices they make. With my protégés, teaching them how to interpret reversed cards give me a lot of satisfaction, particularly when I see their eyes light up in awe at the depth and accuracy of interpretation when reversed cards are deployed in a spread.
The only time I do not use the reversed cards is when I use the horseshoe spread.  Honestly, I can’t quite understand why myself.  Perhaps, that spread has specific positions that are focused and clear enough that there’s no need to interpret a reversed card. Or perhaps, it's just by habit that I have not used reversed cards within the horseshoe spread.  Nonetheless, the accuracy of the read is always spot on.
I would recommend any Tarot reader to master reading the reversed cards.  I can guarantee that it makes the Tarot reading even more interesting.
About The Writer:
The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and was recently certified as a numerologist in Singapore. A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also endorsed as a reader for the Free Tarot Network and is a mentor for the ATA.   She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com

30 Day Tarot Challenge- Day 16: Major Arcana Only?

30 Day Tarot Challenge - Day 16:  Do you ever use the Major Arcana without the Minor Arcana or vise verse?

As a new and budding Tarot reader learning the ropes, we started out with familiarizing ourselves with the Major Arcana first. 
It was a great way for us to understand the Fool’s journey through life with the Major cards and that slowly eased us into the 4 Suits of the Minor Arcana.
Have I used just the Major Arcana for actual Tarot readings? No.  I feel it doesn’t provide enough depth. Even with just a 1-card read like I do for the Free Tarot Network, I am more comfortable with shuffling both the Major and the Minor Arcana cards together.
About The Writer:
The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and was recently certified as a numerologist in Singapore. A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also endorsed as a reader for the Free Tarot Network and is a mentor for the ATA.   She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com

30 Day Tarot Challenge - Day 14: For What Purpose Do You Usually Use The Tarot?

30 Day Tarot Challenge - Day 14:  For What Purpose Do You Use The Tarot?

I always believe that Tarot is not a “fortune-telling” tool but a tool to help one uncover choices with which he or she can make to influence a positive outcome. For me, if a Tarot reading can open my client’s heart and mind to these choices, it would have fulfilled its purpose.
When I first picked up Tarot reading as a skill, I used it to clarify my thoughts, and provide me assurance that the decisions I make day to day are aligned with the universe’s plans.  Then as I grew in proficiency as a Tarot reader, it served the same purpose for my clients. 
Another thing I like to use Tarot for is to help me manage interpersonal relationships in the office.  This is particularly powerful when I overlay the cards with numerology.  First and foremost, I need to qualify here that I will never read the cards about someone who hasn’t given me permission to do so. So when I do a reading at the office, it’s always because someone has asked me to. Sometimes, I may do a casual open reading amongst a few colleagues that are very close to me.  Because it’s an open reading, we get nuances of each other’s desires, goals, dislikes, cause of discomfort and that helps with managing each other’s space and personalities. 
Finally, Tarot has increasingly become a form of entertainment at events for me.  I get hired quite a lot for birthday parties, bachelorette parties and corporate events from as small as a group of 6 right through to a group of more than 100.  These events take a lot out of me because of the massive amount of readings that I have to do within a very short time, and it leaves me little time in between to “offload” the energy and ground myself through meditation.  However, what gratifies me is that at such events, the queue at my little Tarot reading space is often very long, complete with guests whose eyes are gleaming with excitement while waiting for a reading.  Even more gratifying for me is that these guests usually call me after for an in-depth reading after the event.
About The Writer:
The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and was recently certified as a numerologist in Singapore. A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also endorsed as a reader for the Free Tarot Network and is a mentor for the ATA.   She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com


Tuesday 11 December 2012

30 Day Tarot Challenge - Day 13: The Card That Stumps Me Most

30 Day Tarot Challenge - Day 13: Is there a card that continuously stumps you when it is drawn? Why do you believe this to be so?

The Justice card continues to stump me every time I draw the card because of the cold hard truths which it forces my querants and I to confront.
You see, my querants come to me for a consultation because they are faced with an issue.  Often, they are faced with an issue that is impacted by other external forces be it a partner, a boss, a job, family members, and even money.  However, if I could sum up the entire purpose of a Tarot consultation, ultimately, how matter how different the Tarot spread may look, the cards just want to remind the querant to take responsibility for any decision he or she makes.
In the Radiant Rider Waite deck, Justice is depicted sitting on a throne, brandishing a double-edged sword on her right hand signifying that consequence of decisions can cut both ways.  The sword is also a symbol of thought and logic. In her left hand she holds a scale signifying harmony and balance, telling us that logic needs to balance intuition.
Justice is all about weighing the pros and cons in a decision that needs to be made. More importantly, it is a reminder to the querant to confront the situation with an honest and opened mind and that every decision he or she made would have a consequence. 
 It also represents harmony and balance in one’s life, which rests on the right decisions we make.
I love the Justice card, but I also fear it.  Whether I pick the card for my querant or myself, it actually is a powerful reminder for us to take accountability for our own actions and our decisions. 
I often tell my clients before I start shuffling their cards that Tarot is a great tool to help one uncover choices.  All the client will need to do is to make the right choices that could influence the right outcome.
About The Writer:
The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and was recently certified as a numerologist in Singapore. A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also endorsed as a reader for the Free Tarot Network and is a mentor for the ATA.   She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com






30 Day Tarot Challenge - Day 12: Designing My Own Spread

30 Day Tarot Challenge - Day 12: Have you ever created your own spread? If so, how effective is it? (Feel free to show the spread.)

A few months ago, one of the topics at the Tarot Blog Hop in which I participated was about the significance of Mabon.  In recognition of Mabon, I designed a tarot spread with the intention to help a client who was in the throes of transformation at that time. Below details my Transformation spread that was specially designed for the question “What can I do to move on?”
Card 1 Magician: Self in Situation - . Assess where you are now & what is influencing your actions in the current situation (You may choose an appropriate significator representing you in the situation)
Card 2 - Reversed 6 of Pentacles: Identify Cause - What is the root cause of the negativity surrounding the situation/
Card 3 - 2 of Pentacles: Response – How have you responded to the cause of negativity in your current situation?
Card 4 - Reversed Page of Wands: Hopes and Fears - What are your hopes and fears pertaining to the current situation?
Card 5 - Hermit: Response – How have you responded to your hopes and fears pertaining to the current situation?
Card 6 - Reversed 5 of Wands: Change - What can you change about the current situation?
Card 7 - Queen of Cups: Commitment – What can you do to commit to making these changes?
The cards were positioned as shown below:                           
     


                                 Card 6

Card 2                                                       Card 4
                                 Card 1
                            (Significator)

Card 3                                                       Card 5

                                Card 7


I think my client is aware of the issue but the spread had validated what her next steps should be.  It was like a catalyst kicking her into acknowledging what she had to do for her sense of self-worth and sanity.  And she did.
This Transformation Tarot spread was also shared within Biddy Tarot’s blog and I had received quite a few comments that the spread was very useful. 
Mabon’s come and gone.  However, I am still using this Tarot spread from time to time.
About The Writer:
The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and was recently certified as a numerologist in Singapore. A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also endorsed as a reader for the Free Tarot Network and is a mentor for the ATA.   She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com


30 Day Tarot Challenge Day 11: What spread do you use most often/prefer and why?

30 Day Tarot Challenge - Day 11: What spread do you use most often/prefer and why?

I love the people at Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI).  Even though I am just a tad slower in catching on to anything from this 30-Day Tarot Challenge, to understanding the mechanics of a Tarot Blog Hop, right through to understanding what Lenormand cards were, they had always made me feel welcomed into the group.  

Most times, I try to catch up with them by wrapping my head around some of their discussions as best as I could.  So let’s take the 30-Day Tarot Challenge as an example.  After feverishly completing the first 10 days of the 30-Day Tarot Challenge in 1 night, I posted it on the TABI Facebook page and realized that most of them were just slowly enjoying the blogging journey of that challenge, and were just on Day 1 of that challenge.  And they were going to complete that challenge slowly and steadily one day at a time. Doh.  I wished I wasn’t such a “ninny head”.

Anyway, if you’re new to this blog, do check out what this challenge is about.  The link to the 30 Day Tarot Challenge can be found here http://78keys.tumblr.com/post/36652622634/30-day-tarot-challenge.

The topic for Day 11 is “What spread do you use most often/prefer and why?"

I don’t really have a preferred spread.  I tend to go with my intuition and create a spread off my head in response to the querant’s question.  It is not uncommon for me to use more than 5 spreads in a session with my client in that hour, depending on his or her questions.   

However, it has become a habit for me to start of the consultation with a high level numerological assessment then I overlay that with a basic free form spread of about 3 -6 cards, reading it as an integrated storyboard to get some insights into my client’s situation.  Thereafter, I might then start to design the various spreads according to the more focused questions that he or she asks in that session.

Many times, I may meet a client that has difficulties framing his or her question. So, what I may do then is that after the numerological assessment, I may pick a significator to represent the client, shuffle the cards and cut it into 4 piles representing Earth, Air, Water and Fire each.  When I find the significator in a particular pile representing that element, it always tells me what the most immediate or pressing concern for my client with regard to his or her issue is, for example, finance, job, relationship or it may tell me what is the key driver that is impacting my client, for example, he or she may be wrought in mental anguish and anxiety due to the fear of a perceived outcome.

I like to keep the choice of Tarot spreads less rigid, go with my gut instincts and let the universe guide me as I respond to my client’s question.

About The Writer:
The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and was recently certified as a numerologist in Singapore. A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also endorsed as a reader for the Free Tarot Network and is a mentor for the ATA.   She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com