Wednesday 31 December 2014

Happy New Year And Bring On 2015

Happy New Year!  2015 is finally here!  

What are your aspirations for 2015 and how are you empowering them?   When I thought about my aspirations for 2015, I dug deep at  my experiences in 2014 for lessons I could bring into the new year.   


Looking Back At 2014

I looked back at 2014 with a lot of gratitude for the blessings of new friendships made, new opportunities that came my way, the spiritual growth that I built through my experiences, important lessons learnt and an even stronger bond with the family.  The Tarot year card for 2014 was the Chariot, the 7th card in a Tarot deck, The Chariot is a card representing victory and success in achieving goals through sheer determination and focusedness.  The card urged me then to strive for success  through self discipline, determination and the courage to step up and assume accountability for my life and my passions.   2014 being  a year 7 in Numerology urged me not to act impulsively when confronted by issues but to galvanize my thoughts  with proper evaluation of the repercussions and impact of my actions.  I was so grateful for the times I was guided to step back and reassess the way I got to my goals.  In a year when I juggled my full time career in Marketing and Public Relations, with my business as an intuitive consultant and teacher, my training in boxing and Muay Thai and my hobby as a freelance fight journalist,  I was forced to look at where best to invest my time and energy, and make the right choices to ensure that I took care of the people around me as best as I took care of myself.

Looking Forward To 2015

So here are my perspectives about 2015:

Year Numerology


The year is governed by the number 8 in numerology.   8 is the number of executive power, ambition, opportunities, abundance.  8 is the number that urges one to dream big and turn these dreams into reality.  8 asks that you harness the right resources to create your own opportunities.  8 is about making astute financial plans and leveraging the  right financial opportunities. The number fans the flames of bold decision-making based on good judgement, confidence and the determination to attain one's goals.   Finally, the number 8 forces me to leave all negative aspects of my past so that I can be ready to tread on a journey of self -discovery, embrace new growth and approach every challenge with a can-do attitude.


Strength In  Tarot


In tandem with the numerological 8 influence, the Tarot year card for 2015 is the Strength card, which is the 8th card in the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck.  Strength is a card reminding us of the power of human will, determination and the tenacity of the inner spirit.  You are advised to harness the traits of this card as you approach 2015, and know that sometimes, soft persuasion in the face of challenges is more effective than brute force and aggressive confrontation.


Year Of The Goat

In about a month and the half, we will be welcoming the year of the goat. The 8th animal in the Chinese zodiac.  Goats are gentle creatures known to coexist very well with men and other animals.  They have a determined streak and their tenacity is second to none,  Have you seen  goats scaling treacherous mountains to hunt for food?  That's the tenacity you will need to leverage when you maneuver the challenges of 2015.


Full Moon In Cancer


The first full moon of the year appears around 5 January, in Cancer.  The full moon is a time of manifesting your goals and with this full moon, powerful energies are at work to support you on this quest.  The Cancer full moon urges you to tap your inner wisdom to make the right choices that could influence your desired outcomes.  You will find that you will need to dig deep and surface every sinew of insecurities, confront them and allow your intuitive sense to point you in the right direction to your goals.  

Sun In Capricorn

Until 20th January, the Sun is in Capricorn and it fuels your ambitions to turn your dreams into reality and attain your goals.  The 8 numerology will fan the flames of this ambitions during this period.  As long as you work towards your goals leveraging conventional wisdom, you should be on your way to getting what you have set your mind to achieve.

Mercury Retrograde

Mercury goes retrograde from 21st January to 31st January.   In case you do not know what Mercury retrograde mean, please refer to my previous blog post.  Do not hide in the closet in the face of mercury retrograde. See it as an opportunity to reassess everything you are doing to get to your goals. In fact, you might have to re-evaluate your goals and then re-chart your journey to get to your destination.  Do not allow your fear of Mercury Retrograde to cast doubts on what you can achieve. 


Day Numerology

Finally, 1 January 2015 is numerologically governed by 1.  A New Year always bodes a brand new start for you.  If you had spent time thinking about your New Year resolutions, it is time to put them into action. What's your resolution?  My resolution for this new year, is to focus on goals that bring me the greatest fulfillment and to power these goals with the courage to follow through on my passions.

So there you go, definitely a colossal amount of things to ponder on as you prepare to confront the new year.  I hope my perspectives are useful in helping you maneuver your 2015.

Here's wishing you many blessings of sunshine and laughter for the new year.


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



Friday 19 December 2014

The Joy Of Gifting At Yule

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This blog post was written as my contribution to the Yule 2014 Tarot Blog Hop which was wrangled by none other than the joy seeker herself,  Arwen Lynch.

Yule, on 21 December,  is a celebration of the Winter Solstice when we experience the longest night of the year, in anticipation of the start of  the cycle when the day gets longer. In the darkest of hours, I began to turn inward to ask myself, what truly fulfills me, what have I given of myself and what have I recieved that had given me joy.   

Many do honour the balance between light and darkness at Yule, so I would like to look at Yule as a representation of the need for balance in my life.   This year has seen me attempting to balance time and energy amongst the many commitments I have on my plate. Most of these commitments involve my giving a lot of time and energy to the people around me who matter, but I had to also learn to balance these efforts by giving myself time and space, and taking care of my own needs.

So Arwen did have foresight when she asked that we focused on one Tarot  spread for our Yule blog post.  This was a spread about the joy of gifting.  When I approached the topic of what had been giving me lots of joy, it really came down to the passion that had driven me to put 100% into each and every commitment that I had been involved in throughout the year.  

When I shuffled my cards to  Arwen’s Tarot spread the one message that I took out of it was that the biggest gift the universe had given me, was the courage which saw me through my passions.  

Using the Morgan Greer Tarot Deck by Bill Greer and Lloyd Morgan, below is my interpretation of the cards picked to Arwen’s Joy of Gifting Tarot spread.


What gift would I give the world if I could? - Queen of Pentacles


The Queen of Pentacles is an embodiment of balance.  She balances her life well with her capability of sustaining a productive career whilst using her sense of selfless love and compassion to generously spend time on nurturing and caring for people who matter.   This is a great card to pick for what I would love to be able to give the world.  My life has been inundated with multiple commitments all of which seem to rank equal in terms of priority.  I have been juggling my full time career as a marketing and PR professional, while running my consultancy Sun Goddess Tarot, my  assignments as a freelance sports writer, my family and my kickboxing training.  I do admit that the multiple activities on my plate have been overwhelming.  I hardly have time for friends and family.   There are days I even connect with my own husband and mum on facebook.  So yes, the gift I would like to give the world, particular to the people who matter, is my time and my energy, yet be able to efficiently balance this with my  other priorities.  


What gift would I want from the world? - The Hermit


 The Hermit reminded me of my role as someone who should be using my skills, experience and passion to guide and inspire. However, to do this best, I needed to be able to take care of myself.  The only way I could take care of myself, was to give myself some space and time for introspection and surround myself with positivity.   So I saw 2  interpretations with the appearance of the Hermit.  As a gift, what I would love most from the world, would be the gift of space.  Just as I put a lot of demands on myself, I sometimes feel that there are a lot of expectations from me coming from multiple sources.  I am expected to perform at my peak at work, as an intuitive reader, as a mentor and guide to my team and my clients.  I am expected to deliver on projects and assignments as quickly as I can before the next assignment comes in.  I am expected to make vast progress in my kickboxing training because of the commitment of time and resource that I put into it.  So I think the best gift would be space.  I need space to be alone, tap into my inner self, recalibrate my thoughts and my spiritual energy.  While I appreciate being surrounded by so many wonderful people, I do appreciate some alone time, free from expectations.  I need space.   The second interpretation of the Hermit is in terms of a spiritual guide and mentor.    I do have a spiritual guide and mentor but she is so far away from me, in France.  One of the  best gifts I could have is the ability to spend some time with her in person and surround myself with her strength and positivity.  We are oceans apart but I am so glad that we are so spiritually connected enough for me to learn so much from her.  


What gift have I gotten that brought me joy? - 3 of Pentacles Reversed + King of Wands


The reversed 3 of Pentacles threw me off and I had to think long and hard about this.  So I picked a second card to clarify the reversed 3 of Pentacles and the King of Wands appeared.   I finally saw the light when I realized that for years, I had been leading a life of mediocrity.  Life was wrought with the mundanity of the usual rigmarole of work and home and that triggered my restlessness.  The King was a reflection of how I had decided to inject passion back into my life by getting involved in activities outside my comfort zone.  I started to lift my consultancy Sun Goddess Tarot to a new level by investing in a newly developed website, better content and a search optimization strategy.  I got more than I bargained for when I was asked to conduct more workshops and do a lot more consultancy work for corporates who valued my intuitive gifts enough to obtain my help as they navigated their businesses, both start-ups and established ones.  Another niche area had just opened up with parents of newborns who had been asking me to use numerology to select names for their babies.   I started paying attention to my health and fitness but got  more than I bargained for when I fell in love with kickboxing.  When I fell in love with kickboxing and gave it 100% of my commitment to be a competitive kickboxer, I got more than I bargained for when I became a freelance sports writer specializing in mixed martial arts.


What gift have I given that brought me joy? - King of Pentacles


Another King!  The King of Pentacles is an embodiment of one who nurtures, guides, advice and mentors others.  He provides much security and stability to others through his skills, experience, and maturity.  I do like to think of myself as the King of Pentacles. I feel much gratitude that I am able to financially provide for the family, so that they can all live comfortably and have a wee bit extra to enjoy a little luxury from time to time.  However, I think as I harness the strengths of the King, I am more than a financial provider.  As a daughter,  I have been a listening ear to Mum as she dedicates all her time and energy to taking care of my Dad who had been recovering from a stroke.  As a wife and mother, I have been holding the hands of my husband and son everyday, supporting them in everything that they do.   At work, as a manager, I am more friend and sister to my team than I am a boss as I guide and mentor them through their work.  As an intuitive reader, I support and advice my clients when they meander their way through difficult situations.  In truth, I am grateful that my gift to the world is my ability to harness the strengths of the King of Pentacles.


What is one last thing that I would like to share this season? –  9 of Wands

The 9 of Wands is a message of courage and persistence.  It is definitely an apt message for me to share with everyone this season, with the hope of inspiring others with the same.  You see, juggling multiple commitments on my plate is not easy.   I have had a tough time with a balancing act between all these commitments, which are of almost equal importance to me. And I consider them so because I am passionate about everyone one of them.   However, what keeps me going everyday, is that my persistence and courage are what sees me through these passions as I manage them each day.  When I can follow through with my passions, then the juggling act would gradually become effortless.  Today, I consider my marketing career, my intuitive consultancy, Sun Goddess Tarot, my hobby as a freelance sports writer, my kickboxing training and my family as my passions.  That courage and persistence I leverage to help me manage these passions, are the universe's gifts to me.

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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.  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


This was created by Morgan Drake Eckstein

A present from my sister-in-law, Cal, all the way from Scotland to Singapore, with love

The Joy Of Gifting Tarot Spread Using The Morgan Greer Tarot Deck

Friday 31 October 2014

An Invitation To Tea - My Conversation With Bruce Lee

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Remembering Our Ancestors At Samhain

I wrote this blog post as my contribution to the Samhain 2014 Tarot Blog Hop.  To my blog readers who do not know what Samhain is, it is a Gaelic festival  celebrated on 31 October, that marks the end of the harvest and the beginning of the winter when days get shorter, and  darker quite quickly and the weather gets colder.  

At Samhain, the veil between worlds are said to be thinner as  it was a day that ancestral spirits were thought to  return to visit the homes of their living families. That was the reason why many called it the Day of the Dead and anyone who celebrated the festive revelry at Halloween with all the ghoulie costumes and morbidly shaped candy, would hopefully understand why, beyond these, and the “Belladonna Beefeater Gin Cocktails” and “Vampire’s Vodkatini”, that this festival was actually a very meaningful one for those who valued the importance of kinship and respect for our ancestors that had passed on. 

 An Invitation To Tea


As a Catholic,  I celebrate All Saints’ Day on 1 November and All Souls’ Day on 2 November.  Every year, Mum would visit the memorial niche of grand dad at the church at which his remains had been placed, and she would lay some flowers, wiped the surface of the niche and said a silent prayer to remember grand dad.  As the certified weirdo of the family, beyond saying my prayers to remember the family members that had passed on, I would also leverage my intuitive gifts to have a conversation with them. So it was very apt that the wrangler of this year’s Samhain Tarot Blog Hop, Louise Underhill from Priestess Tarot,  had tasked us to discuss within this blogpost whom we would like to invite to tea on this occasion, with the help of our Tarot cards.


Training As A Kickboxer

I did not have to think too hard on this one.  As many friends are aware, I have been training very hard at the gym 6 days a week with the goal of wanting to compete hopefully next year.  Training had been hard and grueling, particularly for me because I had recovered from a knee surgery 2 years ago, had been extremely unfit, is of the age when most would be doing lawn-bowling instead and I started kickboxing lessons only at the beginning of this year.  My coaches had been unrelenting whenever I felt like giving up or when I wallowed in self-doubt during some of my more difficult training sessions.  Last weekend was one such moment, when I was pummelled mercilessly during a sparring session.  Other than a headache and a bruised ego, I crashed into a complete funk for almost a week because I felt like boxing was not a sport for someone my age and that I was so bad at it that I could not even defend myself at a sparring session. I thought perhaps I had better stick to lawn-bowling, knitting or at best, geriatric line-dancing.  


Bruce Lee

So, with my Tarot cards, I had decided to channel my favourite martial artist and  childhood inspiration, Bruce Lee.  I needed advice.    


First, let me explain why I love Bruce Lee.  Like me, he has a spiritual life path of 7. This was a life path of one who was a thinker and analyzer who had the capability of processing complex information, and who approached profound subjects like philosophy and spirituality with a lot of curiosity and enthusiasm to learn more.  Like Bruce and myself, people with life path 7 prefer to be alone and live  by our own ideas.  Like him, our lifepath 7 makes us a perfectionist at heart.  I shared some aspects of that life path 7 that made up the Bruce Lee that we know. I enjoyed the technicalities of kickboxing and worked with a few coaches who were specialists in their respective fields from a kettlebell specialist, a strength and conditioning coach, a boxing coach and a Muay Thai coach to hone the different aspects of my skills as a Kickboxer.  


Like a perfectionist, I worked hard and expected to be ring-ready in no time, but that was not to be and it disappointed me when my boxing coach said, "You will not be performing in the ring for at least a year and a half yet." I was clearly not ready, and disappointingly so.


The below is a glimpse of the conversation I had with Bruce Lee, using my Tarot cards. 

The Advice Of The World's Greatest Martial Artist

Me: Tell me more about yourself Bruce, I am fascinated by the legend that you have become.

Card picked : Page of Pentacles

Bruce: Since young, at the urging of my Dad, I was committed to learning new skills like martial arts. I worked hard to train and study  martial arts. My dad thinks it will be useful for my future as there will be opportunities to do something with the skills I had learnt, like coaching perhaps. I have always said, "Life itself is your teacher and you are in a constant state of learning."

Me: What shaped your career as a martial artist?

Cards picked : The Moon + The Tower

Bruce:  I went through my youth getting involved in street fights. One of the street fights involved a member of the triad or secret society and my Dad became very worried that the gangs would put a revenge contract on my head. It caused the family a lot of anxiety and with a heavy heart, I was sent away very quickly to the United States to pursue further studies.  My life took a sudden turn in the United States where I got to  meet new friends, build a new life, teach martial arts, and I spent time honing  my martial arts skills and adapting other skills that I had picked up to create my own brand of martial arts.  

When I was living in Hong Kong, I trained in the martial art form of Wing Chun under my master Ip Man. Then when I moved to the U.S., my skills evolved into a martial art form I had created and named after myself called Jun Fan Gung Fu (Jun Fan is my real name by the way) and as I started getting more exposed to other forms of combat sports and started to build more flexibility in my approach to martial arts, I created what is known today as Jeet Kune Do.  

Changes in life are just opportunities for you to rebuild yourself with new skills and knowledge.  Flexibility is key and never be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. For example, I adapted the footwork of fencing and striking skills of western boxing in my martial arts.  Although it was traditionally forbidden for a Chinese martial artist to teach and impart skills to non-Chinese people, I did so anyway and am proud to count many Western students who have been true to the teachings of Jeet Kune Do. Growth comes from flexibility and willingness to open your heart and mind to new learnings and experiences. Remember my words, You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.”

Me: I am beginning to feel that this might not be my sport. I feel upset that I can never be as quick, as fit, as strong, as nimble as other kickboxers I know. I keep getting pummelled at sparring sessions. If I cannot even survive a sparring session, I will never be ready for the ring.

Cards picked : Ace of Wands Reversed + 8 of Pentacles Reversed

Bruce: Yes, I can see how frustrated you are with the slow progress and you feel that in spite of training everyday, you are not progressing as quickly as you want to.  However, that is not the way a true martial artist thinks.  You are approaching martial arts with impatience and a fear of defeat. You have let your ego get in the way of what a true martial artist should be. Remember what I had said, "Defeat in anything is merely temporary. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing. It is a path leading to success and truth."  Continue to train hard and never give up.

Me: What other advice can you give me to pick my gloves up again and get more committed to my kickboxing training?

Cards picked : 5 of Swords + 3 of Pentacles

Bruce:  Your kickboxing journey like the journey of any martial artist, is not an easy one. It will be riddled with a lot of obstacles, even more defeats, injuries and other setbacks.  I had said before, " Without frustration, you might not be able to discover you can do something on your own. We grow through conflict."  Even when you feel daunted, you must press on in your training to get better everyday. Even when you have won a fight, that is not the end.  The journey continues, so that you fall again, get up again, lose a few more fights and go on to win a few more fights.  A martial artist's journey is always a work in progress. Do not be afraid of this ever-winding road  and just continue to work towards your goals.  Do not allow defeat and disillusionment to dampen your enthusiasm.  
By continuously training hard and with the help of your coaches, you will be able to fulfill your goals as a Kickboxer.  There are no egos, no barriers and no limits as long as you approach your journey with flexibility, determination and diligence.  Remember, "If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them."

Bruce Lee's short but meaningful life had inspired millions after him to pick up martial arts. Many have gone on to become great martial artists but many have failed. I have got many odds stacked against me like my age, my fitness level and an imperfect knee. However, so did Bruce. He was a foreigner in a strange country, he met his fair share of racial discrimination, and he was even pushed back by his own fellow Asian martial arts teachers who saw his teaching of martial arts to foreigners as a betrayal of the code. That never stopped him. He went on to become one of the greatest martial arts teachers and a legend.  Even after his death, he continued to inspire people like me.

Happy Samhain, Halloween, All Souls' Day or whatever you might be celebrating.  I hope you enjoyed my blog post.  Before you think I am woo-woo crazy just because I talked to the dead, I would like to remind you that the best gifts to those who are in the present are the lessons from those who had lived in the past.  

I thank the Bruce Lee Foundation for being the resource I turned to for my research for this blogpost.  The cards I had used in the reading, was taken from the Radiant Rider Waite Tarot deck updated by Virginijus Poshkus. 





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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.  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

Twitter: www.twitter.com/SunGoddessTarot
Instagram: @SunGoddessTarot


Thursday 2 October 2014

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 4th October to 24th 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



Tuesday 23 September 2014

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

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