Acknowledging Accountability With The Judgement Card

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Drawing The Short Straw 

This blog post was written as my contribution to the Tarot Blog Hop to celebrate the Summer Solstice which falls on 21 June 2015. Our Blog Hop wrangler Alison Cross has asked us to pick a card from the Major Arcana as our subject for this blog post.  I was a late entrant.  I picked the short straw and got the Judgement card.  Why couldn’t I get prettier and more positive cards like The Empress, The Fool, or The Star?  How did I end up with Judgement?

It was purely my choice. Really.  There were a few more un-exciting cards, like the Sun, that none of the blog hop participants had picked at that time.  I could have picked the Sun. But it was boring.  I could have pulled out of the hop too, but that would have made me look like a bloody wuss in front of my Tarotist friends.

Being Accountable For Our Choices

Yes choices.  And that’s what this blog post is going to be about.  At the height of the Summer Solstice, it is a perfect theme because we could all choose to get out of the house and embrace the warmth and abundance Summer brings, or we could choose to stay indoors because we are worried about tan lines.  And if we chose to stay indoors, at least be accountable for the fact that you’ve  just missed out on all that fun and the rest of the world thinks you’re a sad lonely wanker.

Judgement

I am not typically fond of the Judgement card.  The card within my Radiant Rider Waite Tarot deck updated by Virginijus Poshkus, depicts an image of naked bodies rising from the dead, armed raised towards the heavens as an angel blows his trumpet.  Every time I pick this card for a client, the key message would be to get him to re-evaluate what decisions he had made in the past, the impact of these decisions on his future, recalibrate his thoughts about his goals and then reassess his plans to achieve these goals.  The message is very loaded.  Sometimes, it feels as if the card forces the client through a process of going through multiple stages of hoops and hurdles before he can finally get to his prize. Believe me, it is easier if I had picked the Star card and told him, “Don’t worry honey, all’s going to be well.” But life doesn’t happen like this all the time, does it?

In truth, when I kick that lazy-ass Jo out of my space and put my wiser Sun Goddess Tarot Jo’s hat on, the Judgement Card for me is possibly one of the most important cards in the deck.  It is only through the Judgement card, when we are encouraged to readjust the sails on our ship, that we can then move on to the World card, where we sail forward on our journey to achieve our goals and serve our purpose as it was meant to be.

So let’s take another look at the image on the Judgement card.  The angel in the card is Angel Gabriel, the messenger of God who famously appeared to Mary to announce the impending birth of Jesus Christ.   He was the angel that also famously appeared to Zacharias to announce the impending birth of John the Baptist to Zacharias’ supposedly barren wife, Elizabeth.  The naked bodies rising from the dead seems to be responding to the call of Angel Gabriel’s trumpet.  The mountainous terrain, clouds and waves in the background suggests the challenges one has to surmount throughout his journey to his goals.

When you view the Judgement card as a good knock on the head before you wake up your senses enough to walk towards the true potential of what the World card promises, I reckon, it is THE card that truly says it all and in many ways, ties the deck together to underscore what the true purpose of Tarot is, which is to offer you choices.

I have always prefaced my readings with clients by explaining to them that metaphysical tools like Tarot should not be used as “predictive” or “fortune-telling” tools.  Instead, they are meant to provide you with options with which you can make the right choices to influence your own desired outcomes.  The Judgement card points to the fact that whatever is happening with you today, is a result of decisions that you have made in the past.  If you’ve woken up to the fact that whatever you are doing now is not getting you to your goals in the way you’ve hoped, then you have the choice to recalibrate your thoughts, reassess your actions and re-chart your plans.

We do have the ability to make choices and we need to be accountable for the choices we make.

The Lovers

When it comes to making choices, one card that jumps up to me is the Lovers card.  Before I get rapped on the wrist by our blog hop wrangler for going beyond the brief to invite a second card into my blog post when we were only meant to talk about the one card we had picked, which in my case, is the Judgement card, please allow me to explain.

The image on the Lovers card looked quite a lot like the Judgement card.  Both have an angel in the background, but the key difference is that while there are naked bodies rising from the dead in the Judgement card, the Lovers card depicts a naked man and woman. Unlike the feel of the Judgement card which seemed cold, the Lovers card depicts a sun shining boringly over the couple, offering warmth, positivity and comfort. The snake in the tree points to the story of Adam and Eve and infers that life has full of temptations. The flames behind the man is a symbol of passion.  The angel in the Lovers card is the angel Raphael, who is the angel of healing.  The Lovers card tells me that hard choices that aligns with my personal values would have to be made. In spite of the fact that some of these choices are so difficult and puts me between a rock and a hard place, I should be assured that I am guided by my angel who will be helping and healing me through that process.  Only if and only when, I muster the courage to make the right choice, can I truly move forward along my journey to get to my goals.

Moving Towards Achieving The True Potential Of The World

When I reflect on both the Lovers and Judgement card together, I am reminded that  throughout a lifetime of challenges, along with its fair share of good times, I did have the ability to make choices that shaped how I responded to these challenges.  Whatever outcomes I had experienced as a consequence, were all attributed to the choices I made.  Judgement, tells me that I am almost reaching there.  I am almost getting to my destination.  It is a card placed just before the final card of the major arcana, the World, and quite aptly too.

When we can finally acknowledge that we do have the power to make things happen and embrace new opportunities by letting go of the past which may not serve us anymore and changing the way we think or changing our plans along the way, the World would be ours to hold.

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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.  As a member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), Joanna governs her practice under the associations’ respective code of ethics.  She is currently mentoring fellow intuitives on the path of developing their intuitive potential and actively teachers Tarot and Numerology as well. 

Website: www.sungoddesstarot.com

Email:  Joanna@sungoddesstarot.com

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot

Twitter: www.twitter.com/SunGoddessTarot

Instagram: @SunGoddessTarot

Do Not Take It Out On Mercury Retrograde

Bad Week

This week had not been particularly super for me.  I seemed to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed.  My Ipad on which I used to do most of my work for Sun Goddess Tarot started to act up on me.  I could not get into my social media platforms from my Ipad.  So I decided to use my trusty Iphone to do my daily posts, and my writings instead.  However, even my trusty Iphone could not be trusted to deliver to my expectations of what an Apple product had promised to deliver.  I remembered barking at my husband, “It’s an Ipad Air you know? The very latest, isn't it?  Why can’t I do anything with it?”  He muttered something about my needing to download IOS 8, but I had to wait for the second version of IOS 8 because apparently the first one was useless.  As you can tell by now, I do not understand "tech-speak".  

At work, I was apparently taken to task for having a “volatile” personality.  I think what they meant was that my charmingly loud, brash, and straight-forward demeanor, was mistaken for being too loud, too brash and too straight-forward.  I was politely asked to be “softer and patient” with others.  My Mum rubbed it all in for me when I lamented to her about  the issue, “You see!  I told you! I raised you to be a girl! But you behave like boy!”  That ticked off the box on my list this month for that ultimate “One Fight A Month With Mum”.

Even my car acted up on me, with the sensor going off every 5 minutes indicating that I needed to change my brake pads.  Strange.  I changed my brake pads 6 months ago!  Unless the hubby had been using the car to practice for the Singapore F1 Grand Prix which had just ended last week,  I thought the brake pads should not need changing so soon.

At home, the situation did not get any better.  You would think home would have offered me some semblance of solace.  However, our son went into his occasional rabid mood swings,   the home became his hotel room, his antics at school got his wrists rapped by the school authorities, hence causing us excessive worry, and his girlfriend took precedence in priority to me, his beloved mother. 

Mercury Retrograde

I wished I could turn the clock back, go back to bed, and wake up on the right side of bed again, but the reality hit me that what seemed to be going backwards ( and that is not a reality by the way, it just seems to be so) is the planet Mercury.  About 3  times a year, Mercury apparently goes retrograde.  To find out what this means, please read all about it here. 

Mercury goes retrograde from 4^th October to 24^th October.  When Mercury goes retrograde, all hell breaks loose….particularly for some of us who are even more sensitive.  The planet Mercury governs communication,  thoughts, logic and intellect.  For a control-freak like me, I hate it when shit hits the fan, no matter the reason.  I was not going to allow a planet on one of its wonky moods to pull the rug from under me just because it has decided to slow down its orbit and appears to move backwards instead. 

Take Charge Of Your Choices

In our day-to-day lives, every time a hurdle gets thrown our way, it is an opportunity to re-assess how we think about it.  If we cannot change a situation, then we need to have the courage to change the way we think about a situation  When Mercury goes retrograde, it is not the planet’s fault that screws your life.  The choices that you make in response to the things happening around you are what could potentially screw your life.  

You see, the mercury retrograde presents a useful reminder for you to step back and re-evaluate your goals,  re-assess the direction you are taking to your goals,  re-calibrate your thoughts and  re-think your actions.  With or without the Mercury going into retrograde, isn’t that something one is advised to do from time to time anyway?

When these issues happened to me this week, I had decided to slow down….along with the planet Mercury, I guess.  I slowed down to re-think if I was over-working and juggling too many projects when my Ipad and Iphone decided to act up on me.  I started to re-think if it was necessary to write and post yet another blogpost.  So what if I took a wee break and not write another blogpost?  So I gamely handed my equipment over to my husband for him to perform that IOS  upgrade thingy on them while I took a break. He also took that time to transfer all my photos from the iPad and iPhone to the computer.  Apparently, like me, the equipment lacked memory space and I was reminded to clear space as regularly as I could.  Is that not what husbands are for?  They are good for clearing space in my iPad and iPhone, as well as the refrigerator. 

 My car  too was sent to the workshop just yesterday.  Apart from  my being a couple hundred of dollars poorer,  my family would possibly be safer now as the brakepads have been changed and the sensor has since been repaired. 

When my brashness was judged as “volatile”,  I stepped back after a day of spewing blood-curdling expletives at that “bias judgement”, and re-assessed how I had presented my arguments to the people around me from time to time.  Their perception of me, is often their reality isn’t it?  I was often domineering, and opinionated, sometimes not tolerant of others’ point of view.  I guess I had to manage perceptions by being more thoughtful about the way I put my points across to people.  I had to be more tactful when I expressed myself to the sensitive flowers out there.  

With my son, well, while he is my monkey, it really is not my circus.  He is at an age where he needs to be accountable for his actions and resolve his own issues.  We can be there to offer him advice and support but at the end of the day, he has to make the right choices to shape his own life.   So we spoke to him about shaping up his attitude, or shipping out of the house.  Yes, I do believe in tough love.  

Ultimately, you have choices you can make to take control of your life.  When shit hits the fan, no matter how unpleasant it is, you have the choice to roll up your sleeves and clean it all up or walk away.  It’s the same principle when I do a Tarot reading for my clients.  When a bunch of cards show up to offer advice about their situations, it would be their prerogative to make the right choices with the advice given.  Do not blame your woes on planetary movements.  Mercury retrograde, can only serve as a reminder that you are in control of your own choices.

Remember, you can let circumstances rule you, Mercury Retrograde or not, or you can take charge and rule your own life.


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 also 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

Finding Career Fulfillment With A Tarot Spread Inspired By The Hobbit

Feeling Disengaged And Uninspired

As a professional Tarot reader that operated within the central business district with clients that were mostly mid-level careerists in the finance, technology or creative industries I had often gotten career-related questions.  These clients sought guidance to manage their careers particularly when some felt disengaged and uninspired at specific moments. They trusted me to provide them with guidance through my Tarot cards because they knew that as a mid-level careerist in the financial industry myself, I could empathize with their respective situations.  

Like my clients,  these feelings of disengagement would creep up on me from time to time.  And I felt it increasingly this month.  I was not sure if it was because it was the year-end period at work when our minds were mostly focused on the family and the year-end festivities.  For me, this was compounded by the fact that Dad suffered a stroke suddenly and threw the family into a period of stress and worry.  This had put my work in the back seat for awhile as I tended to what mattered most.  And when I could finally settle down upon Dad's recovery to scroll down my emails again, I was filled with a sense of dread at the seemingly insurmountable pile of issues waiting for me to tackle when I got back into the office after the New Year.

Light of Earendil Tarot Spread Inspired By The Hobbit

Thankfully, a friend Olivia Destrades, created a very interesting Tarot spread inspired by The Hobbit, for the recent Yule Tarot Blog Hop.  It is called the Light of Earendil Spread and you can read her blog post here http://firstearthtarot.blogspot.com/2013/12/yule-blog-hop-2013-bringing-light-into.html    

I had the chance to put the spread into practice.

Card 1: Gollum (What shadow am I currently encountering?) - 7 of Cups

Card 2: Frodo (What hidden/unrecognized strength may help me work with this shadow?) -The Devil Reversed

Card 3: Light of Earendil (What illuminates the darkness for me?)- 6 of Cups

Card 4: Gandalf (How can I master my power?) - 4 of Pentacles Reversed

Card 5: Elrond (What counsel will help me confront my current obstacles?) - King of Wands

Card 6: Mirror of Galadriel (What may the immediate future hold?)- The Chariot Reversed 

Card 1 - 7 of Cups:   

The Seven of Cups was a reflection of my constant habit of dreaming big dreams, some of which would be unrealistic and some were just dreams that I had never had the guts of putting a plan together to turn them into reality. My dreams got bigger when I had to maneuver many daunting changes in the workplace.   I would escape into a world of fantasies when the going got tough at work and  start working through my career choices built out of ideals.  And we all know, ideals alone would be unsustainable if they were not balanced with practicality.  The shadow that I am currently encountering was escapism.  I really had to be more grounded

 This situation corresponded with my Moon Persona card which is the Knight of Cups.  The Knight  is a highly sensitive dreamer, full of insecurities and craves recognition and attention.  As a figment of my shadow the Seven of Cups warned that if I got too caught up in all my wishful thinking without discerning the "do-able" ones with wisdom or without confronting them with a practical plan to turn some of these into reality, they would forever be hidden in the closet as a shadow, wheeled out only to fill the void of mundane and unfulfilling days when I felt disengaged and uninspired.  

The 7 of Cups card was a warning that there were indeed choices that I had to make.  These were not career choices, as in, what job I should be pursuing next, particularly when the workplace environment got muddier with the usual corporate changes.  Rather, the choices should be about i) the clarity of my career goals and ii) if I was unhappy about a situation at work, what I should be doing about it.

Card 2 - The Devil Reversed:  

Recognizing that the shadow cast on my career choices were often driven by my insecurities, fear of change and my career ambitions, the Devil reversed showed up as an advice for me to remain emotionally detached.  By being detached from the bonds that had strapped me tightly into what I had momentarily considered  a career rut, I would free myself to gain more  clarity of mind and heart to make the right choices for my career. 

Card 3 - 6 of Cups:   

The memories from the past from which I drew lessons for the present, were what I needed to throw some light onto my shadow of escapism.  I remembered how I callously changed jobs for the sake of money and big titles years ago when I was younger and dumber.  When I worked for a local bank without seeing the light of day and having had to manage a very difficult manager fond of micro-managing his staff,  I fell very ill and was diagnosed with severe hypertension that needed daily medication.  Hello, Joanna, do you remember those dark days?   

At the same time, the 6 of Cups was also an advice for me to look back at what I had  endured in the last couple of years with the management changes at my current  work place.  It assured me that whatever trials and other changes that might lay ahead, I would have the strength to overcome them the way I overcame the difficulties these current changes brought.   So I need not have to 'escape' just because I was tired of changes and the usual quagmire of corporate politics.  I had experienced these before in the last 20 years of work life and my experience had taught me well enough to manage more of these in the years ahead.

Another advice the 6 of cups gave me, was the reminder that I was doing  what I loved in my current role.  It gave me room to express my creativity.  As I has been a marketing professional for almost 20 years,  I was very familiar with the work in my current job and should be confident in my skills and experience enough to know that I could create a lot of fulfillment in whatever I put my heart, mind and soul to.

.

Card 4 - 4 of Pentacles Reversed:  

The 4 of Pentacles reversed suggested that I could do better and allow more room for strategic and creative thinking if I could just learn to let go.  I  had spent so much time focused on career-building rather than on intrinsic things that could benefit my team and I, for example, further training and skills upgrading, mentoring the team and maybe even not getting so fixated over my turf and trusting others to do a job well without being over-critical of them.   Sometimes, others might not be as experienced and skilled in a job, but they might bring new perspectives to it.   The 4 of Pentacles reversed asked that I loosen my hold in my need to feel secure and be recognized for my efforts all the time.  I could master my power, if I acknowledged that letting go would go a long way to developing myself as a better leader.

Card 5 - King of Wands:  

The counsel that could help me confront my obstacles would most appropriately come from my boss.  I had to make an effort to articulate my career goals, and be open about what I needed from my boss to help me find fulfillment in the work that I did.  I came across situations quite often amongst my Tarot clients when communication between boss and subordinates were not opened and each side was left to second-guess the other, thus creating tensions and conflicts at work when expectations were not met.  I believed that the King of Wands beckoned me to step forward boldly and stake a claim on the future of my own career path by getting the necessary support I needed from my boss.

Card 6:  The Chariot Reversed:

My immediate future might see me letting go of my worries and insecurities about the changes in the workplace and the usual corporate dynamics.  Let's face it.  These are decisions made by the powers that be which they have considered as beneficial to the business.  I would instead be  focusing my energies on what is within my control as far as own work, projects or career growth within the company are concerned.  If I felt disengaged or uninspired again within these areas, I should make the effort to evaluate how and what I could do to make necessary changes to help myself and the team.  I should not be distracted by everything else that did not quite matter to my own project or career goals.  More importantly, I should never allow any changes within the corporate environment to rock my confidence and personal power.  

I always advised my clients that if they could change a situation to make it better, than change it.  If they could not change a situation to make it better, then change how they think about the situation.

I should really take my own advice. 

The Light of Earendil Tarot Spread is reproduced here with the kind permission of Olivia Destrades.

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

Photo credit : http://www.thehobbitblog.com/