Friends,

So roughly a week ago I was relaxing before work I was checking out my podcasts and decided to check out something from Down at The Crossroads.  My app, or my phone, in their finite wisdom decided that their interview with Mat Auryn was just the thing and it started to play.  My phone or app do that occasionally, opening up a song or episode at random, and I decided to roll with it.  That night, when I returned home, I found some sort of cardstock business card / flyer thing tucked in between the door and the doorjamb.  It’s in Spanish but appears to be an advertisement for a spiritual counselor or psychic reader of some sort and if my imperfect command of Spanish is serving me well, she has a 100% guarantee of some sort and the first consultation is free!

Never one to waste a good synchronicity, I pulled out my Tarot cards and started reading.  Now it has been a while since I had worked with my cards as a LOT has been going on in other parts of my life, this may be important to our story in a few moments.  Anyway, I was feeling psychically frisky so I decided to do a Celtic Cross layout.  I tend to not do self-readings with a specific question in mind, other perhaps than, “What do I need to know?”.  I will also usually pull out my ID/Driver’s License, or if reading for another ask them to, to use as the significator; an idea I came up with in the early days of my work with Tarot cards because I felt it was important to have every card of the deck available for readings, and there is a certain argument that we have a much more intense personal and energetic relationship with our ID/Driver’s License than a particular Court card.

Some of your may be wondering how I think Tarot cards work?  Do they have some sort of spirits to them that are your allies and give you information you couldn’t normally have access to?  Do they somehow trigger or activate your own psychic abilities or intuition?  Is it all psychological?  My answer to all those questions is some variation of Yes and it depends on what day you ask me.

So I shuffled the cards several times.  I remember thinking that I wanted to make sure to mix upright and reversed cards for some reason, maybe my intuition was already kicking into gear at that point?  Or perhaps the Universe and my deck have warped senses of humor to rival my own…

Here is what I pulled…

No, that picture is not upside down.  I managed to get a layout of 9 out of the 10 cards reversed, and the only reason I didn’t get all 10 reversed is because the 2^nd card in the pull is always read upright!  Now I know, I know, I KNOW that a reversed meaning is not necessarily a negative message, or an omen of doom and a lot depends on the question and the placement of the card and the relationship between their meanings and positional interpretations.  I will however admit to having had a minor melt-down at this point.

I tried to remind myself that the Tarot has many uses and like many divinatory systems it is not necessarily about predicting The Future™ so much as about getting a bigger picture on current events and trends; that’s part of why you consult an oracular system, to get a better understanding of what is going on and what you might need to do about it.  I also tried to remind myself that of the many forms of divination used out there, Tarot cards have a reputation for this sort of behavior.  They are like that friend who will hold your earrings for you if you’re in a fight but will not hesitate to turn around and read you to FILTH for getting yourself into such a situation.

In the days since, I have been reshuffling and sorting through my cards, rebuilding my relationship with them and with my own intuitive abilities.  I have done a few 1 card pulls for contemplation, all reversed cards so far, from 2 different decks.  I have been rereading on the meanings of the above reading and my 1 card pulls with a variety of resources.  I have also been dealing with some difficult truths about my life and situation right now.  Money is tight, bills need paying, everybody’s hours at work were cut, and I have a lot of worry and stress right now and a LOT of things that need to be done to get my life and home back in order.

A whole lot of introspection, contemplation, and some journaling has come out of this.  Which is certainly a good thing and something I needed to get back to doing as a part of my journey. This is one of the more important ways we can use divinatory systems, not to predict a future-set-in-stone, but to get a snapshot view of current events and trends; and then we have to do the work of seeking to understand our situation and what we can do about it.

I have been able to set aside feelings of being overwhelmed and helpless with some sound strategies and ideas of how and where to make progress on all these things.  Now comes the effort and the waiting, because I didn’t get into this situation in a day and getting out of it will also take some time.

Let me know about any of your misadventures with Tarot cards, or other divination systems, or any questions or thoughts, in the comments below?

Bliss and Blessed Be,

Pax/Geoffrey

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PS- here is a list of the Tarot resources I am working with…

1. Complete Guide To The Tarot by Eden Gray
2. Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack
3. Labyrinthos App
4. Galaxy Tarot App (from Google Play)
5. Numerous internet searches…