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 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