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What Is Beltane?
Beltane is a fire festival widely celebrated to mark the midpoint of the vernal equinox and the Summer Solstice. Traditionally, to welcome warmer weather, people during this time would indulge in cheery Springtime activities like planting seeds, dancing around Maypoles, starting bonfires. They celebrated with plenty of fresh flowers and there was generally more fun, love and laughter in the air.
The Lovers Card In Tarot
Beltane is one festival that celebrated love, fertility and union. The Lovers Card aptly signifies this at a time when my Pagan friends traditionally honored the union of the god and goddess during Beltane. As the theme of this blog hop was "A Union Of Opposites", I had to look for proof points to support this theme. Of course I need not have strayed too far because during this time, the Roman Catholics celebrated the feast of St Bertha of Kent on 1 May. She was credited for introducing Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. It was interesting to note that she married the pagan King, Ethelberht of Kent. That sounded to me like a wonderful celebration of love and somewhat a union of opposites too.
Inspired by St Bertha's story, I had decided to look for examples when I had created a "union of opposites" in my Tarot practice. It struck me that I had been growing this "union of opposites" quite recently when I discovered my clairvoyant and clairsentient skills after attending a spiritual retreat organised by Danielle Dove and Karina Ladet.
A Spiritual Transformation
During the retreat, I went through a spiritual transformation that had evolved into a journey I am still currently awed by. I was forced to step out of my comfort zone and temporarily remove my usual tools of the trade, Tarot, Numerology and Astrology. I learnt then to trust my intuition completely without the use of these tools. I struggled with it and realised that I had to go through this learning process to come to terms with my ego, shed it completely, and then acceped the gifts of clairvoyance and clairsentience in a bid to better serve my purpose. I spent weeks practising channeling without my Tarot cards and gradually came to terms with these gifts.
Combining Tarot With Clairvoyance
In the weeks that followed, I began creating that union of opposites by using my Tarot cards with my clairvoyance. This was the reading that I had done, detailing my first experience of doing a channeling before creating a Tarot spread. I am still in awe of it and so grateful that I got the chance to do this for a client.
A Union Of Opposites
One evening, a fellow psychic friend contacted me and expressed a lot of fear and anxiety. Like me in the last month or so, she was going through a purging process. She had to purge her ego too. Although she was living half the world away, I was able to channel for her and felt a pain in my upper back on the right. It felt like I was carrying a burden. It was a reflection of her fear as a burden, weighing down on her back. It was a fear of not knowing where her skills would take her. Her doubts driven by her rational mind was taking over her intuition. That blocked her ability to channel clearly and caused her even more fear. I felt a cord at my Solar Plexus chakra too. It was a reflection of a negative cord she was bearing that was causing her a lot of anxiety. This negative cord had to be cut. It was put there by her ego. At the same time I felt my crown and third eye chakra buzzing and I knew it was a reflection of how actively her upper chakras were opened. So I proceeded to do some cord-cutting to help relieve her of her fears and anxieties. I also told her that my spirit guides were guiding me to let her know that she needed to go to a hill near a home to meditate and make peace with herself.
She felt better at that point as I carefully explained what I was doing for her with my channeling. I was communicating to her midway via Facebook message when I accidentally rolled my mouse over a Facebook post by Tarot By Arwen. The Guardian of Air card from the Gaian Tarot deck by Joanna P. Colbert popped up. This was an excerpt from her post, "The Guardian of Air is the Queen of Swords. Swords/Air is the mental suit. I set my intention to be a guardian of my own mental processes. I speak with love and kindness." I thought that was so beautiful. Feeling inspired then, I emailed the image of the card to my friend and I visualised myself holding her hand through her journey of spiritual self discovery. I explained the synchronicity of the appearance of the card with our discussion about her situation by saying, "This is the Guardian of Air from the Gaian Tarot deck. She is likened to the Queen of Swords. She asks that you not be too over-critical of yourself. Do not always judge your capabilities and compare them vis-a-vis the others who are going through similar spiritual journeys. We all walk our respective journeys at our own pace. So do not be too hard on yourself." This truly resonated with her as she had been managing a lot of anxiety and doubt about her own capabilities.
So you see, both sets of skills though quite different, can co-exist side by side. Just as I had combined Tarot, Numerology and Astrology in my readings, I have now started to add another dimension to the readings by adding my clairvoyant and clairsentient skills as well. I now channel for my clients before I meet them face to face. The Tarot cards would then become my tools to affirm the messages and visions that I got from my channelling. With renewed confidence, I revamped the way I did my client readings by creating a perfect union between my clairvoyance and Tarot moving forward. The more I did this, the more I surprised myself with the clarity and accuracy my client and I got from the readings. Here is another reading that exemplified this.
I commend Maureen for coming up with a theme that had helped me process that guilt I felt when I dropped my cards for awhile to practice my channeling. With this union of opposites, nothing had changed. No, actually, the readings were better. I felt I served my purpose better with my gifts. Since then, I have been happily blending my clairvoyant and clairsentient skills with Tarot, and I will continue to do it with immense gratitude for the opportunities entrusted to me by the Universe.
Again, do visit the blogposts of my fellow Tarot Blog Hop participants. The links can be found here:
The Blog Before | The Master List | The Blog After
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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
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| Picture was taken off a Facebook post by Tarot By Arwen. It depicts the image of the Guardian of Air from the Gaian Tarot deck by Joanna P. Colbert |
Wow, how liberating this must be for you. I find it very difficult to put my man made tools down, and just listen to my higher being. Perhaps this is the push I needed to help me along. Blessed Beltane!
ReplyDeleteThanks. It did need some getting used to. I still practice my channeling everyday so am hoping I have less self doubts:)
DeleteOne of the things that one does in the higher Grades of the esoteric system that I work in is to give up our tools that we have spent years learning how to use. It is a scary task; but in the end, it must be done to grow into the next stage of development.
ReplyDeleteOh Morgan, you can't believe the difficulties I went through. Self-doubt, guilt about leaving my cards, but I got there eventually:)
DeleteThat sounds wonderful, Joanna - what a step to have taken! Thank you for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome Alison. Thanks for dropping by!
DeleteI love that you bring up your experience of channeling without the use of any trade tools. I've been walking a similar path lately, and it's pretty amazing and intense! There's a lot of trust that takes place with mediumship based solely on your "clairs" and it's so amazing to find that you actually can do it. I think for me I didn't feel guilt, but fear - I could feel the "information" floating but I was a bit afraid to really try. And once I did, I found I could do it, and each time it's a little less scary. Much love and light to you!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Olivia. It was scary for me as well. Rational mind kept coming in between. Caused me anxieties for a month. Then slowly this made way for guilt to come in..as if I was disloyal to my cards.
DeleteI love hearing how your work evolves... it's fascinating...
ReplyDeleteThank you Karen...it makes it less boring..hahah!
DeleteFascinating journey, Joanna!
ReplyDeleteI began without the tools and felt rather fragmented for awhile, like I had all these wonderful energies to share, but no way to focus them and translate them into the real world. Tarot has become my translation system, I think. I know I don't need it, but I find it easier to communicate my messages to others through the cards.
It's neat to see you working it from the other side. You have very wondrous gifts, you do. :)
Thank you Joanne. It has been an eye opener for me. Still learning methinks !
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