This is quite an interesting thread. I'm going to keep checking back here to see what you guys are saying.
I love the Tarot too, Vesta. I actually never worked with the cards until I took Jeanne's classes. Because I have the heart of an artist and respond to visual images, the more I look, the more I see, and the more the cards speak to me.
Occasionally when I’m giving a reading, a card will come up that makes me uncomfortable because I don’t want to appear judgmental. For example, I was reading for someone and the Debauch card came up. I didn’t address it in the reading and Spirit nagged me for days to tell the woman that alcohol was an issue for her. Finally, I sent an email explaining that I had omitted something in the reading that needed to be shared and warned her that there was a danger with alcohol in her life. To my relief, she replied that this was an issue she had already been thinking about and realized she was drinking too much. Whew. I learned a lot from that experience. If we approach these complicated issues with loving compassion, Spirit will guide our actions. As tarot readers, the messages are not about us, the messages are channeled through us.
@bluebelle That card struck a chord with me. It's a powerful card and whenever it came up, I immediately resisted it whether it was for me or someone else. As time went on, I forced myself to gather my strength and dig in. Every single time, it's yielded important information that always needs the light. Because of my experience with it, when it appeared recently, I said, "You again. Well okay,." ...and then dug in. There's always something constructive in it as your experience affirms.
@bluebelle I loved how you languaged your advice to that woman. It wasn't judgmental. You worded it that alcohol was a danger, not that she was abusing it or that she was in the wrong. I would not have felt judged if someone had worded a warning like that. Once when I was reading someone, I saw a bottle being tipped upside down and the contents going into someone's mouth. Then I saw part of the debauch card in the vision, I saw the energy of stuckness. So I just shared the visions exactly as I saw them with little interpretation. I let the person decide for themselves. It is so hard to do that and stay in compassion and love especially if we have our own triggers about alcohol. But you did it.
@jeanne-mayell Hello! Love this thread. It's all been so interesting. For instance, how to handle the card of Debauchment... or how people see and get the images and messages they do. For me, this is a blast, meeting you folks and seeing how many ways you can access messages.
I love that Jeanne opened this thread and how she is that rare teacher that can show how brilliant she is and how she makes you feel that you are too! I came at this sideways, the "automatic writing" came from Jeanne telling us to write what we were getting in the on line conversations. And when Jeanne would tell us in class to just say or write whatever comes up, I did. It surprised me I could do it...
What I've seen in the posts here and in our online meetings is how people see things in different ways, and rather than quell or intimate, it's liberated me in a way that showed me there's no one way to see things.
Like the card of debauchment.
Oy!
One of the hardest, harder than the Tower because you can feel the burn as you fall, but with Debauchment...it has a feeling of shame and a level of stuckness that is hard to own. In my readings, it seems to be a card more of overthinking to the point that everything sucks and there is no pleasure. So, I say it's a card of addiction - and I say that could be of drugs, booze or over thinking. And if that card appears with other Swords in the spread it's easier. And I do use the "A" word - addict when I use this card.
I don't shy away from the bad cards because it will bite you! When I first started reading I threw the cards for a close friends daughter. And they were so Terrible I scooped them up and threw another spread. Later, at a group brunch, she said "my reading was so bad Andrew had to start over" - turns out she had an an affair with the married drummer of her fathers band on an international tour and she was shipped back home. The first spread was right! I've also found hard cards help people going through the hard things believe in the hopeful cards that are sure to come. And also to not filter what you don't understand or can't interpret. For instance, I saw a woman on an ancient riverbank find a baby and she goes and frames the face of the baby with her hands and I had the sense that this woman and this baby had been trying to meet for lifetimes and they finally hit it. This child, this woman. It was a sweet vision but I didn't have any sense of it, till the lady being read told me she was pregnant with a baby girl three weeks later. Also, another thing I do is that I engage with the cards the second I pick them up. So before I throw the spread, any cards that show a face, as I take them out of the box, as I shuffle (I have been told I am an aggressive shuffler) and if one of the cards pops out of the box - they all frame or nod to reading that is about to start. Also, those cards seem to appear in the formal spread that follows. I started doing this when I was reading a woman who had lost a baby at 29 weeks. And the card that popped out...Literally...was the Death card. And it told us both that we know about the death. We get it. This reading is about what's to come.
Other things I see you folks touched on? I am a windbag so I never even let the person talk until usually 40 minutes in...I encourage them to stop the reading and ask a question or what not...and as they do that I throw cards....but I don't want to let them feel that they influenced the narrative. After that they can ask anything they want! What I'd like to learn? How to be or allow myself to be more specific. i.e. "Should I take Delta or United to Paris? " "Or I see a guy named Robert who lives in London coming into your future." Not to be right, but because it would be fun. But it's not necessary, I feel the way I see things is okay. And it can evolve. Practice helps. I find the Read the Future nights are like doing word games, it helps refine whatever level of focus is needed to see stuff, and I find myself dragging my feet to do it. The kid in me wants to run all around! But it's fun to see our visions coming into the fore. And finally, what I love about doing this is giving people hope in what they can not yet see but deep down they know is true...and to remind them of who they were and the good they have done and the light and love that always surrounds them. (and me!). My professional careers where full of metrics and striving and I've loved the process of learning and of seeing in a way that isn't linked to anything but the gift.
@jeanne-mayell Hi Jeanne! Figured I’d reach out here re the email gremlins. I’d responded to your email yesterday and then again when you didn’t get it. I resent this morning bc I assumed there’s still a glitch and it bounced back. I once more resent it a few minutes ago. Fingers crossed!