A Quantum Leap In My Understanding Of Tarot

This blog post was written as my contribution to the Mabon Tarot Blog Hop 2014.  Please follow the links below to read the contributions of my fellow Tarot bloggers who are part of this wonderful Tarot Blog Hop community.

 BLOG BEFORE    |     MASTER LIST     |    BLOG AFTER

Autumn

I like Autumn.  Although there isn't Autumn in tropical Singapore, the pictures of trees in their various hues of red, gold and brown, swaying in a wind-swept Autumn day just seem so poetic to me.   It is the changing colors of the leaves, the weather and the impending dwindling sunlight, that makes this a season of transformation.  Often, the word transformation sparks fear in many.  To me, transformation is the necessary pathway to growth.

Mabon

During this period, my Pagan friends around the world celebrate the Autumnal festival of Mabon on 23 September.  For some of my blog readers who are not familiar with Mabon, the name Mabon came from an age-old Celtic myth about the Welsh god, Mabon who was abducted when young, and found again by King Arthur so that he could be reborn into the light. For more on the story of Mabon, do read it here. 

The Quantum Leap In My Understanding Of Tarot

A festival borne from a myth about rebirth and transformation is an ideal basis for the theme for this Mabon Tarot Blog Hop, designed by the wrangler, Morgan Drake Eckstein. I swear, he comes up with such difficult topics to stress me out but I love Morgan for his wit so I took up the challenge to write this post hoping to see if the creativity could flow from my heart and mind through my pen  the way his did.  Morgan had asked us to write about the time our understanding of Tarot had taken a quantum leap.  That was when I got really stressed out with writer's block.  Doh...my understanding of Tarot took a quantum leap the day I entered that beginner's class, Morgan!

When Morgan challenged me to interpret this topic,  I started to think about the transformational aspects of Autumn, and mapped it against my life and the transformation I had gone through with Tarot.  There were actually 2 occasions when this "quantum leap" had happened.  

The Role Of My Tarot Cards Have Changed

One of these occasions was the time I had stopped being fearful and embarrassed about my gift of clairvoyance enough to use my clairvoyance as a "scenario-builder" and my Tarot cards as a "scenario -clarifier".  This allowed me to provide even more accurate and more focused advice to my clients.  In the past, my client readings were just a session of questions answered by a few shuffle of the cards.  Today, I spend a good amount of time tuning into my visions, talking my clients through them, sharing what I see in their situations, then I would spend the last 15 minutes of the session clarifying the advice with my Tarot cards.  I used to feel that my clairvoyance had "betrayed" my Tarot cards as the former had taken precedence in my readings.  I was called Sun Goddess Tarot and not Sun Goddess Clairvoyant remember?  However, as I slowly built my business and saw how satisfied my clients were, and the increasing fulfillment I felt about finally working my purpose to the fullest,  I realized that my own understanding of the role of my cards had changed.  The cards have not been less important to me.  Rather,  the process I took to do my readings have undergone a wee transformation as I had tweaked the role of each of my skills to better meet the needs of my clients.  An example of a reading that had undertaken this process can be found here, where I used channeling to navigate through my visions for my client, then validate the reading with with numerology and Tarot.  This is Ava's story which I had built through this process.

Avoiding Health Questions

The second occasion when I experienced that quantum leap with my Tarot cards had to do with my understanding of Tarot ethics.   In the past, I would never use my a Tarot cards to answer a Health question.  I often had clients who asked questions like, "Is that lump serious you think?", " Should I go for that surgery?", "How likely do you think that I can get pregnant?" and the classic, "I really feel so exhausted, and have been losing a lot of weight. Do you think there is something wrong with me?"   To each of these questions, I always responded with an encouragement to go visit a qualified medical practitioner.  These questions had no place on my Tarot table.  Even when Dad had suffered a stroke last year, Mum asked if I could do a reading to find out the outcome of his health. I refused to do it and assured her, "Pray Mum. Dad will be okay if you'd just pray."

I still stand by my code of ethics and refuse to read for a Health issue but that quantum leap happened just recently when I realized that in the least, if I had been promoting Tarot as a tool of guidance and advice, I should be able to use it for just that even when a client asks a question about his or her health.  I can't pretend to be a doctor, but I certainly could offer advice on how best to manage one's life as one journeys towards better health right? I will just have to tweak the question a little to get to a more advice -centric answer,  By doing so, I would be true to my purpose of using Tarot to guide and advice.  An example was a reading I did for myself some months ago when I felt extremely exhausted, stressed and was often down with the flu.  When my immune system seems consistently weak, I knew I had to do something about it.  I could have picked my cards to ask, "what's wrong with me?" Instead, I picked my cards to ask "how could I better take care of myself?".  It led to a "Self-Care Package" that I had designed for myself.  I have stopped flinching from health questions and have embraced these by seeing them as an opportunity to reframe the questions in a way that empower querants to do something proactive to manage their journey towards better health and well-being. 

Transformation

So I do dig the fact that Transformation is always a necessary step to growth and development.  My understanding of my Tarot cards certainly has grown leaps and bounds through the process of re-engineering my perceptions about what role Tarot should play and what questions it could be used to answer.  I don't think this learning process will ever stop.  And if one can embrace the season of Autumn as a season of harvest and beautiful colors, instead of griping about the windchill and raking a garden full of dried leaves, I embrace Tarot as a tool that evolves according to the relationship that I have built with it.

Don't forget to visit the blogs of my fellow Tarot bloggers!

BLOG BEFORE    |     MASTER LIST     |    BLOG AFTER

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 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
Instagram: @SunGoddessTarot

Photo credit:  Jason Colmer.  Photo taken at the turn of Autumn,
at the Japanese Garden,
at the Hobart Royal Botanical Gardens in Tasmania

Trust In The Message Behind Every Vision

I used to struggle with my visions as I developed my clairvoyant and clairsentient skills.  You see, I was brought up to assess a situation and provide a solution through a rational decisioning process.  Embracing the "alien" concept of  allowing my intuition to lead the way took a lot of time, persistence and patience.  However, I am so glad that I am not treading this journey alone. I found a safe space within which I could slowly open up to surrendering to my higher self and trusting  my intuition.

When I was guided by my intuition to look further into a situation beyond the actual questions that my clients had approached me with, I knew it would be the Universe’s way of telling me that I could do a lot more to help the client, and there were more messages that I was compelled to provide.

Last week, my client Ava, who lived in Frankfurt,  approached me for advice on an issue regarding whether or not to sell her home so that she could relocate to France, to work and live. It seemed to be a straight forward reading at first glance but when I started channeling for her, I was in for a surprise. 

So let me explain the process I took to do her reading.  

Piecing A Story Together Through Channeling

First I went into meditation to clear my mind and ground myself.  Then I channeled Ava and ran my hands across my chakra points to find where her blockages were. My crown and third eye chakras were buzzing which indicated to me that Ava’s crown and third eye chakras could be opened and she might be more intuitive than she was aware of or she had let on.  My heart chakra was burning and I felt a cord of negativity there which indicated to me that Ava might have had suffered an emotional trauma, heartbreak or disappointment.  She had been clinging to it for awhile.  I made a mental note to ask her for permission later to cut that cord once I did more channeling to find out the underlying cause for the presence of that cord.  So that was when I was overwhelmed by a huge wave of depression, sadness and claustrophobia.  It was almost choking me.  I knew then that it was a negative energy surrounding Ava that I was dealing with then.  The message I got then, was to look into that house and whomever lives or had lived in there.

 I then went into a process of "visioning".  As I had visions forming in my mind's eye, I wrote down everything I saw.  Every minute that I had spent writing out the words, I felt my heart weighed increasingly heavier with despair and anger.  I knew, as a psychic empath, that they were not mine but that belonging to the energy or Ava herself.  These are what I wrote:   1) Someone leaving through a door, some luggage was next to him. The man had a hat and an old fashioned leather luggage, much like one dressed in the 50s maybe? Or 60s? 2) A man in between 2 women.  There was a 3rd party conflict or a love affair? 3) Mental anguish over 2 people or dual personality?  A decision or choice must be made. 4) A dark room with a small window.  It looks like a room, hospital room or a room like in a prison cell?  5) I feel a lot of fear, anxiety, and depression. 6) A tall building that looks like a clock tower nearby., 7) A train? It looks like an old steam train.  My visions stopped at these but I believed these visions had to do with a previous occupier of the home, someone related to Ava, who was either parents or relatives of Ava.  

Ava confirmed that these visions were associated with her mother who had committed suicide many years ago in that home she now lives in.  Ava's mother had never forgiven her husband for an affair he had.  He fell in love with an English lady whom he had met during one of his travels. Ava's parents had big fights over the issue which affected a very young Ava then.  Her father finally left  home to live in England with his new love and never saw Ava or her mother again.  This explained my vision of the man with the luggage leaving through a door as well as another vision of the clock tower which I realized was actually the Big Ben. The  years of loneliness and resentment that Ava's mother had experienced after, took a toll on her mental well-being that she often called her home a "prison".  This explained my vision of the small room that looked like a prison cell.  Ava felt that her mother had suffered imprisonment within her own mind.   

I believed that this incident in the past, had imprisoned Ava from her bid to find a direction in her life where she could start afresh.  She was still living in that home, she had anxiety issues herself, she had just come out of a messy divorce and she was unclear what her goals were when I asked.

Connecting The Story With The Querant Through Numerology 

The next thing I did was to do a numerological assessment for her to help me piece that connection between her experience in the past and it's impact on her life now.

Ava had  a hidden emotional number 4.  This indicated that she was quite repressive.  She kept her true feelings within herself although she was highly sensitive.  She also disliked any kind of emotional situations that could potentially cause her a lot of stress and discomfort.  She was quite practical though and would mask her true feelings just to get things done.  This explained why Ava had never shared this background of her past with me, but instead wanted to soldier through her feelings of guilt to sell her home so that she could move on. Yet, she felt undecided if that was the right thing to do.

She had a hidden physical number 2.  She could be  very sensitive, and might suffer from lack of confidence.  She was very vulnerable and self conscious, and had the potential to suffer anxiety and depression. This connected very much to the cord of negativity that I had felt in her heart.

Ava had a hidden intuitive number  2.  This explained why her crown and third eye chakras were buzzing.  She was highly intuitive and extremely sensitive.  She had a tendency to direct her thoughts to spiritual and metaphysical matters.  I believed that Ava also had the traits of an empath, although she was not aware of it herself. Her sensitivity had led her to assume the same depression, anxiety and fear that her mother had suffered from.

Her character number was 4. This meant that Ava was a practical person who had a strong streak of determination in her.  She might have realized for awhile that she needed to sell her home and move on, hence her approaching me for advice about selling her home.  However, she was wrought with so much guilt about losing the home and fear about facing a new future of uncertainties. In spite of these feelings, her repressive 4 character found it difficult for her to give me a more in - depth background of her situation.


Using Tarot To Complete The Story And Provide Advice

I picked 3 cards to affirm my understanding of Ava's mother.  The High Priestess Reversed, 3 of Swords Reversed and Queen of Swords Reversed showed up.  These  were classic cards in Tarot that confirmed that Ava's mother suffered a broken heart from her husband's affair and spent the rest of her days living in bitterness.

I then picked 3 cards to connect Ava with her past and the 5 of Cups Reversed, 6 of Swords Reversed and King of Wands Reversed showed up.  These were interesting picks as I saw the indelible mark that the trauma of her mother's broken marriage and eventual suicide had caused Ava.  Ava suffered a lot of residual resentment, hurt, regret and guilt for her mother's suffering that Ava herself now suffered a low self esteem and tremendous lack of confidence. She had dreams of starting afresh in a new country but had no courage to act upon these dreams.

Her current situation with the house was manifested in the 2 of Swords Reversed and the 8 of Swords Reversed which told  me that she was actually ready to put the past behind her and embrace change.  However she was stuck with the indecision of what to do with the home and where her best options lie because of the associated guilt of giving up her childhood home.

To help provide her with the options to make the right decision I picked the World Reversed to ascertain if Ava should keep her home, rent it out and make best use of her life in Frankfurt. This card clearly indicated that this option would prevent her from getting the closure she needed from her past.

I then picked the Death card to ascertain if she should sell the home, and use the proceeds to relocate to France. This was a clear indicator that she should put that major aspect of her life behind her and look to embracing a new future ahead of her. Selling that home would kickstart that process.

I decided then to finish my reading by picking 2 cards to offer her  generic advice on how to manage her future direction.   The Page of Pentacles and the Star card showed up. These cards advised her to turn her desires into a tangible goal by putting together a viable action plan.  She had so much to do,  She had  to start the administrative process of putting the home up for sale, look for a job in France, find a new home there and the list of "to-do"s while daunting, just had to be systematically acted upon if she wanted to see some light at the end of the tunnel.  Her future was full of hope and positivity, but she needed to act on it now to turn her life around.

Telling The Story In A Compelling Manner

When I read for my clients, I am ultimately putting pieces of the puzzle together to write a compelling story for  them so that they could get a clearer picture  from which they could see beyond what they had originally wanted to see.  Ava's is one such story where she finally came to terms with the fact that her clinging on to her home was her way of keeping her mother in her memory out of guilt.  As a daughter, she felt helpless that she could not be of more help and support to her mother.  However, I told her that "Mum wants you to know that you will bring her much pride and put her spirit at rest if you could move on to build a more productive life for yourself  in another  home that promises to be better and happier."

I was so glad I had let my intuition take the lead and trusted the messages behind the vision that I got.

This is a true account of a reading for my client.  All names and locations have been changed to protect his or her privacy.

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
Blog: http://sungoddesstarot.blogspot.com

.

The Reluctant Empath

To Be Able To Feel So Deeply Is Both A Blessing And A Curse

I have been constantly feeling drained.  This had been happening for years, and I used to think that that was caused by a life of poor diet, insufficient sleep and work stress.  However, several years later, after fixing my health issues with a daily dose of balanced nutrition, some physical activity like yoga, brisk walk or sessions with the personal trainer at the gym, my health was back on the mend but my constant exhaustion seemed to get worse.

I also noticed that my  "gut feeings" got increasingly more sensitive.  I often accurately picked up sentiments, or issues that someone else was facing just after a few minutes of talking to him or her.  I sometimes picked up on a pain or an ailment that a friend living far away might be suffering from just because I thought about her at a particular moment or was communicating wth her via Facebook at that time,  When a friend told me that her uncle had passed away a few months ago, I suddenly felt that I was being choked and could not breathe,  I was told later that her uncle died of breathing complications.  When a client told me that her sister had passed away, I felt a sudden pain at the back of my head and found out later that her sister had died of brain tumor.  More importantly, in circumstances like these, I often felt a cord of bereavement and sadness tied between these friends and their loved ones who had passed on, and it was obvious that they had difficulty letting go.  I went into panic attacks when I felt the fear, anxiety or disappointment that my clients were going through.  These situations were often so intense that I did not need my Tarot cards to tell me more about them.

These, and many other observations I had gleaned about myself over the years became more intense this year and It was through conversations with similarly intuitive friends and  mentors that I found out that I was an Empath.   To read up more about an Empath, do read the article here : http://theknowing1.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/at-a-glance-30-traits-of-an-empath/

It became a curse when I found it difficult to control the negative energies that I took on from others. It drained me considerably when I felt the pain and sufferings of other people.  I felt like a hypochondriac, developing imaginary aches and pains that were not actually there in my body. Or I might feel low and depressed because I saw the anguish of a friend's brother for example, through her eyes although she lived in the US and I lived in Singapore.   I felt her pain of not knowing how to help him, while at the same time I felt her brother's anxiety and anger that he had been going through.  I gleaned all that without her providing me the details and I spent a day nursing a migraine and back pain because of this.

It became a bigger curse as my very close friends and colleagues were aware of my gift of clairvoyance and mediumship, and would diplomatically tell me, "keep it to yourself".  I have even got friends who were uncomfortable about having a nice quiet dinner with me just because they "don't want to know."

However, just as it was a curse, It became a blessing when I realized my empathy helped me understand my clients' life journeys enough for me to help support them along the way.  Being an Empath helped me feel what they felt within their situations and understand them better.  Being a psychic Empath helped me focus on the root cause of their situations and provide them with better advice to deal with them.

 Learning To Be Gentle With Myself

When I realized that I needed to quickly learn to control and manage my intuitive gifts positively, I began a search for answers.  Yesterday, the most important thing I had learnt was encapsulated in the words of Danielle Dove -  "the best way of getting rid of my feelings of insecurity, was to get on my path of serving my life purpose".  My feelings of insecurity had always been a stumbling block, a hurdle placed across my path by my ego.  My insecurity reared it's ugly head when I feared how others thought about me or worse, I was so worried that when I interpreted anything based on my gut feel, it could  be wrong because my rational mind started to analyze it and mentally build a business case for what could explain that gut feel in practical terms.

So this week, I learnt to be gentle on myself. I learnt to acknowledge my intuitive gifts, and more so, I learnt to acknowledge some of the pitfalls of my gifts like the insecurities, the constant drain on my energy and the pains or sadness I had absorbed from other people.  I asked myself then, "What were these experiences attempting to teach me and what purpose did they have for their existence before sending them some love and light for healing.  

I learnt to take care of myself better,  I rested when the body and mind told me it needed rest to recharge and recuperate.  I learnt to listen more intently to my clients and look beyond the Tarot Cards, Numerology and Astrology for more insights that could help offer them even better advice.  I learnt to meditate with better focusedness and clearer intent, visualizing what I had intended to manifest at the end of the meditation session.  I learnt to ask for help from the Universe for everything, shedding away my ego and my pride.   When I needed help to stay grounded when it got all too much for me, my mind and body automatically went on "rest" mode.  When I felt a calling to sink my feet deep within the grass, I would gather the dogs and go out for a walk by the beach.   

Guided By The Empress

Today, I meditated to the Empress card.  I picked the card from the Radiant Rider Waite deck.   The Empress depicted within the card wore a crown of stars which suggested her connection to the mystical realm of angels and spirit guides.  She had an intuitive connection to the divine which allowed her to tune in to the messages she needed to fill the earth with her love and abundance.  It was a message for me to tune into my higher self  and trust the messages it provided that was necessary for the healing of my clients and myself.   The Empress was full-bodied and pregnant, dressed in a rich robe with images of pomegranates printed on her robe.  This hinted to me that I had to be ready for the birth of a new aspect of myself, a new awareness of my capabilities and what it could do for my clients and myself.  The Empress sat amongst lush greenery.  She was an archetypal earth mother, very connected with nature.  She called to me to be grounded and renew my spirit by re-connecting with nature regularly.  I needed that. When it got all too much for me, I needed to go walk barefoot in the park and feel the wind in my face.

The Empress was governed by the planet Venus which was the planet of love and harmony.  She reminded me that I must always come from a place of pure intent, directing my gifts to serve only the highest good, in love, truth and light.  I must trust my instincts and my intuition, even without the use of my Tarot cards, my Numerological calculations or my Astrological assessments.  I had to learn to create harmony of body, mind and spirit within myself so that I could better help others. 

The Empress guided me  to learn to trust my own capabilities to manifest healing with my gifts as an Empath.

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
Blog: http://sungoddesstarot.blogspot.com

The Empress from the Radiant Rider Waite Tarot deck updated by Virginijus Poshkus