I Am Not A Channeler, I Am A Tarot Reader

  Difficult Questions

In my experience as a professional Tarot reader, I have had my fair share of difficult questions.  Examples of questions like these were “What do the cards reveal about my spirit guide?”, “Should I get a sex change?”, “How can the cards help me win my court case?”.”What can the cards tell me about getting rid of my lover’s wife?”

My rational mind often urged me to compartmentalize these questions. If the questions fell within one of the following categories, I would either attempt at rephrasing the question or might even decline answering that question.  These were 1) questions that violated my code of ethics, 2) questions that required my using Tarot cards to read the thoughts of a 3^rd party who had not given me the permission to do so, 3) questions that required my using Tarot cards to channel messages from the dead.

I do get a lot of questions from clients asking me to use Tarot cards to provide them with messages from a relative or friend who had passed on. Now, I know of friends who were gifted with the ability to channel messages this way.  However, I certainly did not think that  I had  that gift.  That is why I am a Tarot reader, not a medium or a “channeler”.

Crossing The Line

Last week, a new client , Sarah (not her real name to protect her privacy) emailed me her question, “ What messages can your Tarot cards uncover from my son, Tommy ( also not his real name)?”  I could sense from the tonality of that question, that Sarah’s son had passed on and perhaps she was having problems dealing with the grief.  So I told her quite simply that perhaps she should be contacting a medium or an expert in his or her field who could better provide an answer that could help her.

We exchanged more emails with each other for awhile with my repeated assertions that I was not a medium and  only a medium could answer her question.  In between the email exchanges, I was drawn to this woman’s desperation for some light and comfort and I immediately picked up my Tarot deck, shuffled it and pulled out one card – the Knight of Pentacles from my Radiant Rider Waite Tarot deck.

Knight of Pentacles

The Knight of Pentacles from the Radiant Rider Waite Tarot deck had an image of a Knight seated on a plough horse, holding on to a Pentacle, looking intently at it as if in the midst of deliberating long term plans. He is set on diligently putting in that extra effort to work the land with a solid focus of achieving his goal.

I had a “conversation’ with the Knight of Pentacles when I meditated on the card.  in the card, I had a vision of Tommy as the Knight of Pentacles, in his 20s, getting on the horse and was about to embark on his task of “farming his land”.  He was not able to finish the job before he passed on so through this card,  he was asking Sarah to continue with the effort, encouraging her to keep her head down, and be conscientious about doing what she needed to complete the job and to do it well. He wanted Sarah to be focused on that goal – his goal that he had before he passed on.  He hoped Sarah would not give up and encouraged her to be religious about meeting all expectations of what she needed to do to accomplish the task.

The Knight Urged Her To Follow Through To Attain Her Goals

When I shared my interpretation with Sarah, I was so nervous because I did not want her to think that I was possibly on drugs, or perhaps a charlatan hoping to earn a quick buck with a short reading. However, her response to me brought tears to my eyes.  I am sharing  her response to my one-card reading here because this experience taught me to trust in the Universe that when the Universe presents me with an opportunity to bring light to someone, it would not leave me without the means to carry out my purpose.

Sarah said that my interpretation touched her deeply and she strongly felt that her son, Tommy had indeed brought us both together in this odd way so that he could encourage her to doggedly pursue her dreams no matter what happened.  You see, Tommy died in his 20s of a drug-related issue.  He had been suffering from a chronic illness that caused him to be unemployed for quite a long time.  Due to his unemployment, he did not have insurance that could help cover his medical bills, hence he could not take care of his own health better.  Sarah got him some counselling help which had provided him with much needed support, and he was finally accepted for a job.  However, he was asked to take a drug test before he could be finally accepted for the role.  So the week before, he tried to get off the drugs and that was what had impacted his health and caused his death. It was really sad because he was ready to start afresh with a new job and diligently get his life back on the right track.

Sarah felt that through the Knight of Pentacles, Tommy was urging her to be dogged about pursuing her dreams.  Sarah was at that time learning to read the Tarot cards, and her concentration was affected by the period of grief she had suffered from the death of Tommy.  To add to the issue, Sarah too had the same chronic illness Tommy had.  So he was trying to reach out to his mother to encourage her to be rigorous about taking care of herself and her future, and that she should be conscientiously working towards her goal of being a proficient Tarot reader, never ever giving up her faith in herself.  Tommy wanted her to follow through with what she had already started with her Tarot reading skills and she asked me if I could be her mentor.

I Am So Grateful

This was only a one-card reading, but it was one of my most gratifying.  I felt so happy that the card that I picked had provided Sarah with so much comfort and hope to carry on with her life in the way that she had planned.  Frankly, in bringing Sarah and I together, Tommy did not just help Sarah, he had helped me too, 

You see, I often doubted my skills and restricted my potential as a professional Tarot reader because I had confined myself to the rigidity of what my mind thought I was capable of.  This experience reminded me that my skills was a gift from the Universe and it was a gift given for a specific purpose to bring hope and light to people who needed it.

It was also interesting to note that when Tommy brought Sarah and I together , there was another reason  too.  You see, my husband suffered from the same chronic illness that both Sarah and Tommy had suffered from.  Sarah became visually impaired because of that illness and our meeting had given her the opportunity to urge me to put that pressure on my husband to be proactive about taking care of his health. David was never good at following the doctor's orders and had always been carefree and footloose about his diet and sedentary lifestyle. With Sarah sharing her experience with the illness, I was even more determined to help support his journey to better health.

Finally, Tommy had possibly reached out to me as a Tarot mentor to play a role in helping Sarah with her journey of learning Tarot.  I was glad to do so.  The thing I enjoyed most about Tarot, was mentoring my protégés.  Having mentored on behalf of the American Tarot Association, the Free Tarot Network as well as having run my Tarot mentoring sessions here in Singapore, I can testify to the fact that when I see a protégé growing in his or her proficiency and love for Tarot, it feels like bliss.

So thank you Tommy, for being  my Knight of Pentacles, encouraging me to keep on doing what I love to do most..

About The Writer:

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

The Psychic Medium Told Me

Have you ever read the book "The Fortune Teller Told Me" by Tiziano Terzani? It's an awesome book. Definitely a must-read. My experience this weekend reminded me about this book so I titled this blog post "The Psychic Medium Told Me".

A Stranger Called

Over the weekend, I had a call out of the blue from a total stranger who claimed to be a famous international psychic medium who had been helping the police solve crimes as well as helping families locate missing family members. He called himself a psychic intuitive. He had also been involved in a television program about psychic investigation work helping to find missing children and solving homicide cases. The only thing I watch on TV usually has a story line or is a fictitious TV series like CSI Miami, Law and Order or NCIS.  So I am not familiar with any TV programs about psychic investigators. Oh yes, there is Medium and The Ghost Whisperer too, but I can assure you the person who called me was not Jennifer Love Hewitt. 

He told me that he had chanced upon Sun Goddess Tarot while surfing the Internet and had enjoyed some of my blog posts as well as my Facebook posts. His intuition had spurred him to connect with me so he thought to ask me for a Tarot reading, and in exchange, he would do one for me.

I felt flattered but at the same time worried. My confidence suddenly took a tumble because I did wonder, "You must be kidding me! You said you are THE famous psychic medium, shouldn't you be doing your own reading then? How much more value and insights can I lend you since I have merely a few years of experience under my belt compared to you? I should be learning from you instead!". Anyway, after much persuasion, I agreed on this fair exchange. I forced myself to put my lack of confidence aside and talked myself into viewing this guy as a typical client who needed my help. I had to be professional about it and just cracked on with shuffling my cards to his question.

What My Tarot Cards Told Me About My New Psychic Medium Friend

Okay I had to admit that because of my cynical self, I had decided to pull a couple of Tarot cards to find out if this guy was for real and what were his real intentions in contacting me. The King of Cups showed up to represent him. He did typify the description of the King of Cups who was older, calm and collected. He had a nurturing disposition and was totally in tune with his intuitive side. More importantly his maturity and balanced nature came in handy particularly when I was flapping with excitement over the emails, sending him like a dozen messages expressing reasons why I might not be the right person to do a Tarot reading for him. Well, he calmly sent me a message back that said " Even if you don't trust yourself Jo, at least trust the cards."   He was so reassuring, asking me to take my time and convincing me that he felt connected to my energy. The 2 of Swords reversed showed up to represent the help he needed. He needed to make some important but clearly very difficult choices(Later, when I did an in-depth Tarot reading for him, it did indeed uncover a situation of difficult choices that he had to make at that point).  Then I pulled out an extra card asking "why me?"   Yes, my lack of confidence was talking quite loudly. The High Priestess showed up. The High Priestess represented me and my need to tap into my subconscious and inner wisdom to help this man. The High Priestess assured me of my intuitive skills and my ability to tap into the realm of higher knowledge. This card lifted that barrier between him and me. For once, I understood what it meant when he said he felt connected to my energy. I felt like I was the mouth-piece for the High Priestess.

With renewed confidence, I proceeded to do an in-depth Tarot reading for him, and combined it with a numerological assessment. As I respect his privacy, I will not discuss the reading I had done for him within this blog post. Safe to say, he was very grateful for the reading I did for him and it touched my heart when he said , " Jo, you are a wonderful and gifted Tarot reader and you must continue doing what you do because you will be making a positive impact on people's lives." I was chuffed.

The Psychic Medium Told Me

Yes he did a reading for me too. He did not use cards. He connected with my energy through my Facebook photos and very accurately described specific moments and issues within my family that are known only to members within my immediate family members. He could even accurately describe a jade bangle - a seldom worn family heirloom - which Mum gave me when I got married to my first husband. Now, how did he know about that! That bangle is seldom worn and did not appear in any of my Facebook photos. Also, this guy is living thousands of miles away from me in the US and he has never visited Singapore, so we wouldn't have had any opportunities to bump into each other on the streets.

Most importantly, he shared a vision of me and my work around Sun Goddess Tarot. It's not a vision that I will share here as it is truly personal to me but it was incredibly promising. However, it was an amazing moment for me as I was in the throes of considering a business partnership in the hope of taking my Tarot business to new heights. A few days ago, as I was weighing my options with this partnership, a friend and mentor created a Tarot spread to provide me with some advice about the partnership.   Incredulous as it may seem, this psychic medium provided the same advice that that Tarot spread had uncovered!   I am now convinced of my options. I know what I had to do now and I am even more convinced that with hard work and a measure of confidence, Sun Goddess Tarot was going to increasingly grow it's brand. Amazingly, when this business proposition was put in front of me a few weeks ago, my intuition worked overtime to form an outcome in my head, that's been predicted by both this psychic medium and the Tarot cards that my friend and mentor had read for me. I should have trusted my intuition. I am so grateful that the both of them had given me renewed confidence about my intuitive skills.

The Universe Sent Me A New Friend

So with this exchange of readings, I felt that I had gained a friend. He somewhat fell on my lap right out of the blue. Before this weekend, we didn't know each other from Adam. Yet, all it took was for some strange universal force to connect us together. I hope to catch my new friend some day on TV perhaps when I tune into a psychic detective documentary film.  It's got to be after watching Downtown Abbey though.  I am addicted to this TV series now.

If you're reading this J, I feel blessed to have er...met you.

About The Writer Of This Blog:

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 a Tarosophy Tarot Diploma from Tarot Professionals Ltd. She is also a certified numerologist, hence her reading style blends numerological significance with Tarot card interpretations.

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 (FTN) and is a mentor for both the ATA and the FTN.

She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com