Whether
you are celebrating Halloween, Hallows’ Eve, Samhain, Dia De Los Muertos or Day of the Dead, All Saints’ Day or All
Souls’ Day (celebrated by Catholics on 31 October and 2 November respectively),
the significance of the celebrations in spite of the cultural, racial or
religious differences remained the same.
Celebrations at this time were held to honor our ancestors and relatives who
had passed on. So members of the Tarot
Blog Hop community were tasked to write about a loved one or someone we admired
or disliked that ties with Tarot. I chose
to write about my paternal Grandmother whom I have never met but had built a
close connection with in the past months as I honed my claircognitive and
clairaudience skills within the field of my developing mediumship abilities.
My Paternal Grandmother
My
Granny’s name was Tan Suat Ngoh. It was
a name I could hardly pronounce and I knew very little about her apart from the
fact that she died very soon after Dad graduated from the University and was
about to embark on his first job. Dad
loved her dearly and the only few nuggets of information he had shared about
her was that she died quite suddenly the night after eating soup which might
have gone bad and that she was a very dutiful wife who sat by the window every
evening to wait for my Grandfather to come home after whiling his nights away
perhaps at the dancehalls.
With
just these little snippets of information, she already embodied the stoicism,
strength and patience that I felt I could learn so much from as a Granddaughter.
Her
sense of duty to her husband in spite of suffering the extreme loneliness of
what seemed like a loveless marriage was commendable. Yet in my heart, I harbored so much disdain
for my Grandfather up till today and wished secretly that my Grandmother was
still alive so that I could hold her and tell her how much I loved her and how
grateful I was to her for nurturing my Dad to be my biggest hero in my life.
My Conversation With
Granny
So,
with the help of my Hanson-Roberts Tarot deck, I decided to have a little conversation
with her, to get to know her better during her lifetime and to find out what
lessons she wanted to share with me as I walked my journey as her Granddaughter
in this life. And here’s what she told
me:
Her Life In The Past - 9 of
Pentacles Reversed + 3 of Cups + The High Priestess + The Empress
Granny’s
marriage to my Grandfather was a match arranged in accordance to our strict
Peranakan family traditions. They were
both cousins. All she ever wanted was a beautiful home, surrounded by a loving
family, and be provided with emotional and financial security, like most young
women of that time. She probably had most of these but something was in the way
of that complete picture of security and contentment that she had originally
envisaged. As the 3 of Cups and the High Priestess indicated, the major cause of this
obstacle, was the fact that she spent much of her married life in an unhappy
marriage because my Grandfather indulged in extra marital affairs and was never
quite present for the family. In fact,
there was another prominent woman in my Grandfather’s life with whom he spent a
lot of time with. 3 people in a marriage, made for a very uncomfortable
situation at home, yet Granny stoically stood by his side, bore him 5 children
and waited patiently for him by the window every night. She stuck to her responsibility of raising
the kids, managing the household, and being a dutiful and giving wife, with no
complaints. What free time she had, she
spent those with the kids or played a local card game called “Chek Kee” with
the other womenfolk in the household. What the cards had unveiled, were aligned
to the stories that my Aunt and my Mom had told me. My Aunt said, “The saddest picture imprinted
in my mind for life, is watching my mother seated by the window every night,
with a blanket around her shoulders to keep warm, as she waited for my father
to return from “work”.”
Another
thing I had gleaned from her life, was her love for nature. In spite of the “prison of an unhappy
marriage”, she was actually a free-spirit at heart. She channeled the Empress card, not only in
the way she nurtured the family, surrounded the home with warmth and loved my
Grandfather unconditionally, she also loved to be surrounded by nature and
often took walks by the sea. This was
affirmed by her when she communicated to me and showed me that vision of her
walking by a river. My Aunt validated
that vision when she told me that one of Granny’s favorite activities was to
take a walk along the East Coast beach that was nearby their home in a little
village called Geylang before the Singapore government reclaimed the land.
Lessons From Granny's Past To Guide My Present –
Knight of Pentacles + The Sun
Contentment - 10 of Cups
Granny
died quite suddenly after suffering a night of stomach ailment. She died about a month after my Dad graduated
from the University. His graduation, as
the eldest son of the family, was her proudest moment as much as it was
his. Dad promised to look after her and
provide for her when he started work.
However, this promise could not be delivered because she had died before
he was able to do so. Dad often told us
that he felt so much regret and remorse about not being able to give her much
when she was alive. He too felt a lot of
resentment for his late father, for not giving her the love she deserved.
My Dad passed away in April this year. Deep down in my heart, I know that he is in a happier place and by his mother’s side. However, I needed validation and proceeded to pull another card asking Granny if Dad was with her at the moment. Guess what showed up? It was the 10 of Cups. “Enough said,” I whispered silently, “I am so happy that the family is now together and they are all now at peace. One day, I will take my place by your side, Granny, so that you can tell me even more stories.”
Granny Is Always By My
Side - Queen of Cups
She
was my Queen of Cups, my confidante and my mentor. How privileged I felt to have a Granny
sitting on the other side of the rainbow, watching over me.
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 Tarot,
Numerology and Astrology overlaid with her Clairvoyant, Claircognitive 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. As a member of the
American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles
(TABI), Joanna governs her practice under the associations’ respective codes of
ethics. She is currently mentoring
fellow intuitives on the path of developing their intuitive potential and teaches
Tarot and Numerology as well.
Instagram: @SunGoddessTarot
