Tarot Tip Tuesdays - More Ways To Use Your Tarot Cards Beyond Readings

Whether you are new to Tarot and in the throes of building a connection with your Tarot cards or an advanced Tarot reader diligently honing your Tarot reading skills, I am putting out a Tarot tip a week to help you to consistently make Tarot a part of your everyday life.

Last week, when I wrangled an international community of Tarot bloggers for the harvest festival of Lammas, I tasked them to write about their inspirations from the Queen of a Pentacles.  I surprised myself by using my Tarot cards to come up with recipes for a 3-course dinner.  I wished I had more time to unleash the domestic goddess in me on a daily basis, but as I juggled work, business, teaching Tarot and Numerology and kickboxing, I would cook for the family only ever so often.  However when I set my intention to channel the Queen of Pentacles last week with a virtual dinner party, Tarot became my tool used to guide the creation of these recipes.  My Tarot-inspired recipes can be found here.

And while on this note, my friends Joanne Sprott and Karen Sealey came up with a nifty idea to develop a contributory cookbook inspired by Tarot cards!  Now, who is up to join us in this fabulous project?

Aside from dreaming up delectable recipes, today, my Tarot Tips for this Tuesday are meant to help you think of more creative ways to use Tarot beyond the usual Tarot readings that you did. 

1) Meditation:

Tarot is one of the best tools for meditation.  I often pick a card at random and use it for meditation by centering my thoughts on how the images within the cards could relate to my life at that moment, to a specific circumstance or even an intention.  Brigit Esselmont from Biddy Tarot wrote a fantastic article about Tarot Meditation which should be made a basic practice for any Tarot practitioner.

2) Writing:

I learnt about this from a friend Arwen Lynch of Tarot By Arwen. She runs a course for writers and teaches them to use their Tarot cards for inspiration as they write their books. 

3) Poetry:   

 Writing poetry can be so therapeutic.  It comes easily for some experienced writers and career poets.  However, for people like me, who often need that extra dose of inspiration, Tarot can be a very useful tool to draw on your deepest emotion to create the theme, and the lines for your poetry.  I wrote a poem completely through the guidance of my Tarot cards earlier this year.  Check it out here.

4) Ritual Work:

Some of my friends swear by using Tarot for ritual work.  My friend Bonnie Cehovet wrote a book called a Tarot, Rituals and You, where she explains how rituals can be used to manifest the life that one desires. Within the book, she advises on the different ways to use Tarot in rituals for example, to honour the moon cycles or to do shadow work.

5) Tarot Deck Creation:

When I put the question out there asking what else could Tarot be used for, my friend Joanne Sprott said she used it for Tarot deck creation. What  a fabulous idea!  The images in a Tarot cards often carry inspirational messages to kick one's creativity into action.  In fact,  closely linked to this point is the fact that some a Tarotists used Tarot to create exquisite paintings.  Examples are Cathy McClelland and An-Magrith Erlandsen

See how versatile Tarot can be? You could create recipes,write poetry, write a book, and meditate with it.  What else have you used Tarot for beyond Tarot readings?

May your Tarot cards provide you with a full deck of possibilities throughout your day.

If you like this blogpost, do follow my blog at http://sungoddesstarot.blogspot.com and LIKE my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot

About The Writer:

The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and an intuitive reader by accident who deploys the combined modalities of a Tarot, Numerology and Astrology overlaid with her Clairvoyant and Clairsentient skills to deliver her readings with authenticity. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and is also a certified numerologist.  She is currently running a consultancy based in Singapore called Sun Goddess Tarot,  which provides confidential intuitive readings combining the metaphysical disciplines of Tarot, Numerology and Astrology via face to face and emails as well as readings at corporate and private events and workshops.  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 mentors Tarot protégés on behalf of the American Tarot Association

Website: www.sungoddesstarot.com
Email:  Joanna@sungoddesstarot.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot
Twitter: www.twitter.com/SunGoddessTarot

Tarot Tip Tuesdays - Learn To Say No

Whether you are new to Tarot and in the throes of building a connection with your Tarot cards or an advanced Tarot reader diligently honing your Tarot reading skills, I am putting out a Tarot tip a week to help you to consistently make Tarot a part of your everyday life.

So here goes your Tarot Tip for this Tuesday: 

If you are a newbie to Tarot reading, you would find yourself always on a lookout for  opportunities to practice your reading on friends and family.  You might even consider volunteering to be a free reader for credible Tarot-related sites and organizations like Biddy Tarot, Tarot Association Of The British Isles (TABI) and the Free Tarot Network. You might even be willing to provide a mini reading or 2 when randomly asked by strangers.  Just be warned though that you might open yourself to a floodgate of recurring querants who might be totally dependent on the advice that your readings provide.  You might also be faced with a huge volume of reading requests which you might not have the capacity to cope with.  So here are some tips to help you say no when you are not able to cope with excessive amounts of Tarot reading requests.

Learn To Say No

• When you feel exhausted or not grounded enough to take on more readings, please have the courage to say no.  Tell them to contact you at a later date scheduled in a way which gives you enough time to ground yourself or have a good rest. 

• If the querant calls you incessantly for readings, even when you have already provided him or her with the advice that he or she needs, then do let him or her know that the best time to come back for a reading might be a month later.

• If you are not able to take on anymore readings at that specific time, do direct your querants to other free Tarot reading services available at some of the reputable sites and organizations I had mentioned earlier.

• Explain to your querant that you need time to recharge after completing a list of readings.  This would only make you a better reader, ready to take on your querant’s issues once you have regained your energy.

• You might want to set your boundaries upfront.  Let your clients know what objectives you serve when you provide a reading and how soon later he or she could call you again for another follow-up reading.

• Sometimes, it could be very encouraging when a querant tells you that your last reading for him or her had been spot on.and this might be used as a lead-in to garner more free readings from you within a short time frame.  Yes, it is a confidence-booster but remember, the reading is not about you.  It is all about the querant.  To serve the querant better, you will need to assess if you are ready or if the timing is right for you to provide her with more readings following his or her last one.

Remember, you have the free will to say no when you feel that you are getting too many reading requests.  Self care is so important so you will need to meditate and ground yourself regularly. Take breaks in between readings so that you can recharge yourself.  By the way, I had also made the decision once to say no to a client who requested for another free reading just because previously, he was rude, obnoxious, and had no decency to even say thank you after I had delivered that reading to him.  Yes, I have free will.  If I think the querant’s energy is toxic and not worth my time, I would definitely stick to my guns and say no if you are not ready  or not comfortable about doing a reading for someone.

May your Tarot cards provide you with a full deck of possibilities throughout your day.

If you like this blogpost, do follow my blog at http://sungoddesstarot.blogspot.com and LIKE my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot

About The Writer:

The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and an intuitive reader by accident who deploys the combined modalities of a Tarot, Numerology and Astrology overlaid with her Clairvoyant and Clairsentient skills to deliver her readings with authenticity. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and is also a certified numerologist.  She is currently running a consultancy based in Singapore called Sun Goddess Tarot,  which provides confidential intuitive readings combining the metaphysical disciplines of Tarot, Numerology and Astrology via face to face and emails as well as readings at corporate and private events and workshops.  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 mentors Tarot protégés on behalf of the American Tarot Association

Website: www.sungoddesstarot.com
Email:  Joanna@sungoddesstarot.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot
Twitter: www.twitter.com/SunGoddessTarot

Tarot Tip Tuesdays - No Excuses For Lack Of Practice

Whether you are new to Tarot and in the throes of building a connection with your Tarot cards or an advanced Tarot reader diligently honing your Tarot reading skills, I am putting out a Tarot tip a week to help you to consistently make Tarot a part of your everyday life.

So here goes your Tarot Tip for this Tuesday:

You could invest a lot of money and time in picking up tons of esoteric knowledge but ultimately, the litmus test for your ability to read confidently is just practice.  Lots of practice. One of the complaints I often got from Tarot students was that they have not got enough friends to practice Tarot reading wth, so here are ideas for you to create more practice opportunities for yourself beyond reading for family and friends.

Reading For Self

Of course there are just so many issues you could have in a day to spur you to pick your deck up to gift it a good shuffle.  However, beyond doing Tarot reading to obtain advice when you face a specific challenge, you could also shuffle the Tarot cards each morning to obtain a generic advice that could help you navigate your day ahead at the office.  Perhaps you might want to pick a Tarot card of the day  to guide your day in the morning and then when you are just about to prepare to get to bed, do a review of your day and write into your journal, what significance that specific card might have had for what you had experienced that day.  Something I often like to do myself, is to pick a card each weekend to what might be my biggest obstacle I could face in the coming week that could prevent me from getting to my goals.  Then I would cast a spread to uncover how I could manage that obstacle.  A particular spread could go like that:

1) What could I do for myself to deal with that obstacle?

2)  What external help or resource would I require to deal with that obstacle?

3) What might the outcome be when I deploy all means to deal with that obstacle?

4) If I cannot effect the outcome in the way I desire it to be, what advice can the cards provide for me to move forward?

Reading For Others

Another good source of practice beyond your family, friends and even yourself, is to volunteer as a reader for others.  There are several ways you can do this:

1) Approach a charity organization to offer your services as a volunteer Tarot reader for any of its fund-raising events it might have throughout the year. It could be quite useful if that charity organization is aware that it could call on you  whenever they organize a charity fair or bazaar for example,

2) TABI (The Tarot Associstion Of the British Isles),  FTN (the Free Tarot Network) and Biddy Tarot are often looking for volunteer Tarot readers  to read for free on their respective forum or website.  Being a volunteer reader is quite fun but the reading requests could get voluminous so you are advised to pace yourself, and do a lot of self care.

3) Another fun way you could get some practice time is to read for high-profile situations that you might come across in the news.  This could be news about a celebrity break-up, an economic debate, a governmental election, or news about a missing person.  I do caution you to do readings like these only as a form of practice and in private as I am a firm believer of doing a reading only with the expressed permission of another person that you are reading for. 

There are numerous ways to pack in more practice opportunities to hone your Tarot reading skills.  Now all you need is to commit to spending some time to do so everyday.

May your Tarot cards provide you with a full deck of possibilities throughout your day.

If you like this blogpost, do follow my blog at http://sungoddesstarot.blogspot.com and LIKE my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot

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 is also a certified numerologist.  She is currently running a Tarot consultancy based in Singapore called Sun Goddess Tarot,  which provides confidential intuitive readings combining the metaphysical disciplines of Tarot, Numerology and Astrology via face to face and emails as well as readings at corporate and private events and workshops.  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 mentors Tarot protégés on behalf of the American Tarot Association

Website: www.sungoddesstarot.com
Email:  Joanna@sungoddesstarot.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot
Twitter: www.twitter.com/SunGoddessTarot

Tarot Tip Tuesdays - Create Your Own Space As A Professional Tarotist

Whether you are new to Tarot and in the throes of building a connection with your Tarot cards or an advanced Tarot reader diligently honing your Tarot reading skills, I am putting out a Tarot tip a week to help you to consistently make Tarot a part of your everyday life.

So here goes your Tarot Tip for this Tuesday:

There are so many great Tarot readers out there whom I have had the privilege of learning so much from.  Examples of these are Theresa Reed from The Tarot Lady, Brigit Esselmont from Biddy Tarot, Arwen Lynch from Tarot By Arwen.   When I discovered The Tarot Lady, I had so much fun welding Tarot with my yoga practice when I read her work, Light On Tarot. She made a Tarot relatable because in her words, she does not use "astro babble and arcane lingo".  She also mentors Tarot newbies and supports new Tarot business owners with her work Tarot Business In A Box.  When I discovered Biddy Tarot, I learnt to tell stories with each Tarot card interpretation and understand the different facets of these interpretations through her work the Ultimate Guide To Tarot Card Meanings and the companion workbook which my own students had used as they started out their Tarot journey.  Brigit spends a great deal of time focused on mentoring Tarot enthusiasts and making it so easy to pick up Tarot reading as a skill as well as to help Tarot professionals with their businesses through a personalised business coaching program. When it came to Arwen, I knew her through the wonderful blog posts she wrote as my fellow Tarot blog hopper within the community.  What got me to sit up was her work teaching others to use Tarot for writing.  Do check out her Mapping The Hero's Journey e-course.  It promised to have you finish writing your book in 33 days.  That was why she had been referred to as  the "Writers' Tarot Coach". 

So like many other great Tarot professionals out there, these beautiful ladies have established their reputations as professional Tarot readers and mentors with years of experience and well-sharpened intuitive skills under their belt.  All of them ply their trade with different styles, different focus or areas of specializations and deploy different techniques. The question is what is yours?

When I turned professional, I asked the same question and wanted to bring something to the table that was uniquely me.  Having a background as a trained marketing communications professional in the financial industry meant that I could use my intuitive skills to support clients who were mid to senior level careerists by guiding them through their career decisions within the industry.  This was because like them, I had been at similar crossroads of my career several times.  The mode with which I delivered advice to them would be through the combination of Tarot, Numerology and Astrology within a reading.   When it came to coaching and mentoring, I found my niche in mentoring  my Tarot students and helping them in their marketing communications efforts as they set up their respective Tarot reading businesses.  

If you are finding your own niche area of specialization or discovering your own style, I would suggest that you learn from some of the more experienced Tarotists in the international community, but aim to create your own "space".  You can start by asking some of these questions:

1) Who are your target clients?  

2) Amongst them, who and what type of clients are your favourite ones?

3) And amongst your favourite clients, which of their challenges fire you up with passion most?

If I had to answer these questions for myself, my target clients were professionals in the central business district.  Amongst them, my favourite ones were those in the cross-roads of mid-career changes, because I had been there before....several times. And amongst these clients, the challenge that fuelled me with the most passion as I aimed to help them tackle it,  was one where they were making decisions to leave the corporate world to start their own businesses.

So that was how I created my own "space" as a Tarotist.  My skills as a Tarot reader, Numerologist and an Astrologer served to help me "hold that space" for my clients.  While you might have had spent a lot of time and energy developing your skills as a Tarot reader, do not be afraid to also think about creating your own "space" as a Tarotist too,  

May your Tarot cards provide you with a full deck of possibilities throughout your day.

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 is also a certified numerologist.  She is currently running a Tarot consultancy based in Singapore called Sun Goddess Tarot,  which provides confidential intuitive readings combining the metaphysical disciplines of Tarot, Numerology and Astrology via face to face and emails as well as readings at corporate and private events and workshops.  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 mentors Tarot protégés on behalf of the American Tarot Association

Website: www.sungoddesstarot.com
Email:  Joanna@sungoddesstarot.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot
Twitter: www.twitter.com/SunGoddessTarot

Why I Volunteer As A Free Tarot Reader Even When I Run A Tarot Business

A Tarot Reader’s Learning Journey  

A friend asked me today what I loved most about my work around Tarot.  I told him that I loved mentoring my protégés.  I loved sharing with them my experiences and what I have learnt through my courses, my teachers and mentors.  I also enjoyed our animated discussions when we bounced off card interpretations with each other and practiced our Tarot reading and spread creation skills with each other.

Every time they shuffled their Tarot cards in wide-eyed wonder and asked me to help validate their interpretations, I saw a lot of me when I first started out on my journey with Tarot.  These always turned into an animated debate and the energy and passion I often felt within my group of protégés was truly amazing.

I told my protégés, that the Tarot learning journey will never end.  Every client reading provided me new insights and perspectives that I never got in the previous readings.  I enrolled for courses in Tarot, Numerology and Astrology regularly, to help me read even more effectively.  I checked my Tarot journal occasionally to compare past client readings with readings that I do today and was quietly proud about how far I had grown. 

But that was not enough. With the momentum gained, it had become even more critical that I did not rest on my laurels now. Continuous practice was necessary to better hone my reading skills.  It was necessary that I continued practicing Tarot reading with my protégés, my friends, and my family, I have also volunteered my time as a reader for the Free Tarot Network as well as for Biddy Tarot. 

With the free reading services, my experiences with the querants were invaluable to my growth as a Tarot reader. One day, when my protégés are ready, I would love to see them volunteering their time as free tarot readers too.

The Upside Of Being A Volunteer Reader

In spite of having established my own Tarot consultancy with which I conduct fully paid face to face and email Tarot and Numerology readings, I made that conscious choice to continue my work as a volunteer reader for the Free Tarot Network and Biddy Tarot. 

As a volunteer reader for these free reading services, I had plenty of opportunities to practice my Tarot reading skills continuously as I did an average of about 6 readings a day as a volunteer reader.  The feedback I received from the querants were invaluable to honing my skills and enhancing my confidence as a reader.  Moreover, I felt gratified that I could help the querants who chose to contact me through the free reading services because they might not have had the means to pay for a full reading with me.  When I received emails from my querants telling me how much I had positively impacted their lives with my readings, it motivated me to continue putting in my heart and soul into each reading that I did.

Finally,, because I often received different and interesting insights from a single card when I did a free reading, I would share these insights with my protégés (without mentioning names to maintain the privacy of these querants)..  This helped my protégés with their Tarot reading practice too. 

The Downside Of Being A Volunteer Reader

Being a volunteer Tarot reader for the free reading services did come with a few downsides.

I often had what I described as, the “2 of Pentacles” moments when I found it difficult to juggle all my commitments from my professional Tarot reading appointments, course work, mentoring sessions, workshops, day job, business planning for Sun Goddess Tarot, meetings with potential business contacts and charity organizations with whom I worked with on Tarot-related projects, family time and being a volunteer Tarot reader for the free reading services.

The juggling act often left me quite exhausted and I had to make a note to self, to recharge with regular meditation, or when it got too much, I might decide to take a step back and cut down on some of my projects or Tarot reading appointments.  I am still learning to multi-task as effectively as possible. I admired one of my mentors, Hope, who reads Tarot professionally, mentors for the Free Tarot Network, and when I was working on my CPTR (Certified Professional Tarot Reader) qualification from the TCBA ( Tarot Certification Board of America) last year, she was then my examiner too.  Where did she find time and energy?

Another downside was that sometimes, I might receive feedback from querants that the readings done for them might not be what they wanted to read.  Sometimes, I received questions which bordered on violating my code of ethics.  Such questions include health-related questions or questions about a 3^rd party.  I would attempt to rephrase the question and read my cards to these questions in a manner that would offer the querants more meaningful advice.  However, no matter how I tried to educate these querants, they might not accept it.  I had once flatly refused a querant asking me to find out from my Tarot cards whether her ex-husband’s affair with his lover would end.  No amount of explanation could convince her that by refusing to shuffle my cards to this question, I was actually protecting her. It was a difficult situation because I felt her anguish and even when I asked to have the question rephrased to something like “Would there be a potential for me to reconcile with my ex-husband?” She had refused to accept it.  In situations like these, I had to make the hard decision to let it go and not entertain something that went against my code of ethics.

In the end, the time I spent with a single querant in a situation like this spanned an even longer time than the time I might spend with a paying client.  With situations like these, I do unfortunately feel that it was unfair to my paying clients.

Another downside of reading the Tarot as a volunteer for a free reading service was not receiving any feedback from a querant at all, or not receiving meaningful feedback.  Sometimes, querants might just be too focused on the outcome of that reading that once they got it, they would forget to provide feedback.  If you are a querant and are reading this, please remember, we are not that “Madame Zorba” slot machine at the fair ground that provides a reading in exchange for a coin shoved down the coin slot.  We do enjoy meaningful discussions with our querants about the completed Tarot readings so that we can be assured that we had provided some clarity and in some way helped you to make the right choices to influence the outcome of your respective situations.

Finally, at the risk of sounding like a nagging old crone, (and I am sure my fellow volunteer readers for any free Tarot reading service would agree), I would appreciate a word of thanks for the reading done.  It’s the least one can do, for all the time and energy put into delivering a Tarot reading backed by the genuine intent to help support a querant through his or her situation.  

After each Tarot reading, I also often ask my to  LIKE my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot. This offers me the opportunity to continue sharing my Tarot card interpretations and my thoughts about Tarot with all my querants who had at some point benefited from my Tarot readings.

Most importantly,  a simple word of thanks possibly means most to me.

A Final Word

I am passionate about Tarot.  That is why, even when I am already running my consultancy business, Sun Goddess Tarot, I have made a commitment to continue my efforts as a volunteer Tarot reader with the Free Tarot Network and Biddy Tarot.  The opportunities given by querants who contact me through the free reading service do fuel my passion to continue doing what I loved to do most.  Even with only  a one-card reading that I did for the free Tarot reading services, as opposed to several spreads that I did for my paying clients,  I always ensured that the interpretation I provided for that one card, was detailed and delivered robust advice. 

I am urging my protégés to volunteer as a free tarot reader at some point when they are ready, as a means to get more Tarot reading practice.  This was an important part of my learning journey as a professional Tarot reader, and I hope someday, it will be an important part of their learning journey too. Now, as an appointed mentor for the Free Tarot Network, I am already seeing how much fulfillment the protégés have with their work as a fellow free reader. I hope that one day, they will pass on the same enthusiasm to other protégés assigned to them as mentors too.

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 is also certified as a 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 Biddy Tarot as well as a mentor for the ATA.   She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com