Please enjoy this exclusive guest post from Brigit “Biddy” Esselmont!
Anyone can rote learn the Tarot card meanings and how to do a Tarot reading, but if you want to deliver accurate and insightful Tarot readings you need to be able to build a personal connection with your Tarot cards.
Theresa and I sharing a hug (and a drink) after I won the Tarot Apprentice
Business books used to bore me. That whole idea of entrepreneurship made me either roll my eyes or yawn.
And then I became Theresa Reed’s tarot apprentice. And all that began to change.
If you had said to me, “A year from now you’ll have a tarot website, hire a professional photographer for your business photos, and attend a few tarot conferences where they now know your name” I would have called you certifiably insane. Start drawing up those involuntary commitment papers right now!
But now tarot and this website is my life, and every experience is fodder for my blog.
Readers Studio started a little differently for me this year. Last year, my friend Courtney and I were up far too early on the Friday morning to watch the Royal Wedding before heading to the conference, leading us to consume massive amounts of coffee once we arrived in order to stay awake. This year, I drove myself down to the conference from my home about 45 minutes away. I still needed the massive amounts of caffeine, however (some things never change). Continue reading »
I am very excited to announce the first in a new series in blog posts…. the “7 Questions” series! I will be posing 7 questions to people within the tarot community; whether they are bloggers, authors, deck creators, or fellow readers (or sometimes, all of the above!). Let’s kick this baby off right!
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My first interview is with the coauthor of Psychic Tarot, Nancy Antenucci. Now, I’ll admit, I was intrigued by the prospect of reading her book, but also taken aback by the title. The title itself is a bold assertion. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to read it. Then at SF BATS, I saw Nancy and her mini-troupe perform a vignette about what a psychic tarot reading looks like. It was enjoyable, with Nancy cast as the little psychic voice that the reader listened to and relayed to the querent. Nancy held up signs, and there was one sign about moss that struck me: If I’m remembering correctly, it was “the smell of moss”. This little tidbit of information made me scratch that itch to buy Psychic Tarot immediately after the performance. Clearly, this is a woman who gets it.
I devoured Psychic Tarot. There is simply no other way to put it. Its slender spine is deceiving… this book is chock full of information and exercises! But without further delay, here is a bit of information about Nancy and her interview. Continue reading »
Before you retaliate with anger... think first.
Yes, this is a tarot blog, and I will always incorporate the tarot into any content found here. But I cannot let October pass without addressing the bullying problem. After all, October is National Bullying Prevention Month. I cannot think of a better time to address this issue.
Oftentimes, bullying is considered a childhood problem, and brushed away by generalities like, “boys will be boys”, “kids are so cruel”, “it’s a phase”, and comments from adults that reminiscence about their own problems growing up getting picked on and how they can laugh about these experiences now, knowing they are behind them. Yes, bullying is a serious problem for children, especially when children aren’t built for long-term thinking and could turn to short-term solutions to remedy their bullying problem. I am not belittling the cause. But we cannot neatly place bullying in the “childhood only” category. There are some adults out there that have a thirteen-year-old girl’s mentality and capacity for cruelness. Unfortunately, bullies are at our jobs, within our professional field, online, and even our own family members.
How can we change this situation? What solutions are there when you are confronted with a bully? What support can you offer those that are being bullied?
A few suggestions:
Let’s bring it back to tarot (as usual). I’ve come up with a very simple three-card spread to use in a bullying situation.
Card 1: The Victim Card 3: Healing the rift Card 2: The Bully
Shuffle the cards while picturing the bullying situation in your mind. When you are ready, separate the deck into two piles. Pull the top card from the two piles and turn them over. The first card is the victim. The second card is the bully. Lay them out with room in the middle to provide space for upcoming third card. Combine the two piles back into one pile and shuffle. While shuffling, imagine the victim and the bully co-existing peacefully with the situation resolved. When you are ready, stop shuffling and pick the card from the top and turn it over between cards 1 and 2. This card represents what can be done to heal the rift.
Also keep in mind that I have used the labels as “Victim” and “Bully”, but some situations are more fluid and simplistic labels don’t do them justice. Play around with the idea of the bully being the victim, and the victim being the bully. Does this change the reading? Does it change how you feel towards these characters in your own life story? How?
I hope this brings greater understanding to these issues. If you try out this spread, let me know what you think!
‘Til next time,
Hilary
www.tarotbyhilary.com
Image: graur codrin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Feel free to share your techniques on dealing with a bullying situation or what you learned from the spread I shared in the Comments section.
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