Occasionally I hear from people who are superstitious about the cards. I'd like to get a discussion going about that. The cards are nothing more than pieces of paper. You use them to trigger the unconscious part of your brain that knows more than you consciously know. You don't even have to use cards to do this. Any image will do. But the cards have a structure to them that brings in ancient wisdom so that makes them more helpful than just any image.
Some people are afraid of the card. Here are some reasons:
1.Religious dogma. The Catholic church tried to brand them as bad and people who use them as coming from the devil. That way, people would have to go through the church to connect to god. It is a control mechanism. Don't fall for it.
2.There is a group of card readers out there whose goal is to scam you into giving them as much of your money as possible. There is a card reader in NYC who got someone I know to, over time, give her $20,000 in cash. Some just try to get you to give them whatever is in your wallet at the time. One in Provincetown, Ma got a few hundred dollars off someone I know, and a woman in Hudson, MA also got a few hundred.
These readers told them they had a curse on them and they saw negative energy around them that only the psychic could make disappear. There are variations on this scam, but the main theme is that they tell the client he or she must make a sacrifice by giving them a lot of money, and then they will buy candles or give the money to the poor and the curse will go away. Many people have lost a lot of money this way. Naturally these scammers are spreading darkness and that leads some people to feel that the darkness is in the cards. It is not. It was in the reader.
3. Some people have bad experiences reading for themselves because their anxiety shows up in the cards. This is natural so best to find someone to read for you who you have a good connection with. If the reader says things that scare you, then find someone else. A close comforting caring friend can work well. I teach a weekly tarot class in which I have everyone read everyone else altogether. We send a lot of love to each other, we meditate and open to the highest energies we can, and the resulting readings are filled with light.
4. Some people are just scared when things come true. They think that somehow the cards are making it come true, if it's not good. More on that soon.
I had an interesting experience recently. After telling my sister that I have trouble reading the cards for myself, she suggested that we read the cards together. First I read for her, then she shuffled the cards and had me pull cards with my left hand, then she placed them in the Celtic cross spread. We read the cards for my reading together and it was the most uplifting experience. My sister had no experience reading cards, but she was able to read for me. It is so comforting that my sister and I can share this type of belief and experience together. We were raised in the Christian faith and personally, I see this as part of my spiritual journey in expanded consciousness.
This really touched me far more than just the reading of Tarot cards with your sister.
This lovely new bond between you two just sparked a big flow of happy tears in me.
Know that you are both in my thoughts and prayers. What a journey we are all on in different but coincidentally connecting ways now.
I love your story! It so delights me that you and your sister found this lovely way to enjoy each other.
Your experience reminds me that when I was first learning the cards, I took them everywhere I went and one day found myself with my parents reading my dad’s cards.
The reading focused on his whole adult life — his true talents and calling. I was in that moment finding him, finding my father, who had had a tough time professionally later in life. It was so uplifting and it all seemed to come from spirit. My mother sat open-mouthed as all these truths about him came flowing out. it was such a gift to me. I will always be grateful for that experience with my parents.
Hi everyone. I used to read the cards and work on a line years ago (I used the cards to help me more than the actual meanings, rider waite tarot). I don't seem to be able to use them for myself.
Anyway, back in the early 2000's I was at a party. One of my friends told someone at the party that I did "readings" and then I was suddenly surrounded by folks who were asking me questions and I felt they were cynical. The whole thing for me was uncomfortable. I could "feel" which ones were the cynics and which were just being curious. One of the cynics asked me "well tell me something about me". Suddenly I said to her "you will be pregnant and have twins soon". Whoa that came out of nowhere from me (I surprised myself). She was taken aback. Well guess what - of course she found out she was pregnant with twins after the party LOL.
I also didn't like the way some folks looked at me about the whole psychic reading thing so I decided to show them a demonstration. I had the wife of the couple throwing the wine tasting party to sit in a chair with her eyes closed. I stood in front of her with everyone around her. I explained that we can all sense Energy because Energy is what we are able to "read". I then silently told her to tell me when she felt something and if it was positive or negative. So the first time I sent her positive love and light and smiled at her and I displayed myself with my hands so everyone else could see I was being positive. I then asked her what (if anything) she felt. She said she felt good. I then had her keep her eyes closed and sent her negative energy and my face and hands displayed that to the room. She jumped up and said "oh that hurt". So the folks in the room could see how the energy was felt even though I never touched her.
4. Some people are just scared when things come true. They think that somehow the cards are making it come true, if it's not good. More on that soon.
I don't know why I feel compelled to respond to this thread (I'm usually a lurker), except that it rings true for me in general (not necessarily specific to cards). I have had so many bad things come true that I've "seen" well in advance, that I feel traumatized a lot of the time. I've had to work through PTSD with my therapist for years, and I often have such intense anxiety attacks (about things I can't control, of course) because I can't tell the difference between fear and intuition anymore. The other day, I was so randomly worried about cancer and became terrified because I couldn't tell if it was my intuition telling me that I do or if I was just afraid of it. I've been generally happy lately, but always afraid when things are going well and I'm feeling happy that it's too good to be true and the other foot is going to drop and my life will be destroyed (in one way or another). Anyway, this thread spoke to me- I used to read cards for myself (BAD IDEA). I'm a (former) astrologer but I have to avoid reading my own chart or using predictive astrology because it creates so much fear that I can't even do readings for anyone else anymore. I've basically had to avoid it altogether. Sorry for the rambling post- I don't know why I felt compelled to write this since I usually just lurk....
I can relate. I can't read for myself because of fear/or desired outcome. I've had two people in my life (my mother who "knew" she would die suddenly and hinted to it right before she did) and one of my dearest friends (like a sister) who was a psychic medium and she told me she would pass a week before she did. After that I slowly gave up readings. I think I was afraid of knowing when someone I loved would die. I didn't realize or admit this to myself until recently. I'm starting to do them now - not for myself though so much... So I joined the read the future night (Nov 11). I wanted to release this fear within myself.... Baby steps ?
@nelysthealchemist (I hadn’t read trichCt’s post when I wrote this. So only responding is to nelysthealchemist and have thoughts about hers too.)
Thanks for sharing your story. It is such a help to others to know what you have gone through because so many in this community have suffered trauma.
You have a Beautiful sensability and intelligence and a strong self awareness so what I am about to say is something you probably already know. But I will say it for anyone who doesn’t know it:
This is about responding to card reading as something to be feared. When we have been traumatized then our brain colors our experiences with the trauma. Even if we haven't been traumatized but we have grown up in a family of negative thinkers, again, our brains tinge our experiences with negativity.
When you read the tarot or when you look at any visual image, you tap more deeply into your unconscious mind. The unconscious connects you more directly with the energy out there which is why you can read people and events so well. But the unconscious also holds all that trauma and/or negative thinking.
We can change the neural networks in our brain from negative to more positive by meditating regularly, by practicing gratitude every day, by essentially feeding our brains with positivity.
We can also take a traumatic experience and make it much worse by reinforcing it with more negative thinking. Or we can transform a traumatic experience into something more positive by seeking treatment with the right therapist and practicing more positive thinking, including finding meaning in your life for that experience.
But if we feel afraid of the cards, then that fear reaction is something inside us, not in what is going on out there that the cards are reflecting.
Regarding death sentences coming from the Tarot, I see how that would be traumatic and then cause a person to avoid the cards.
A palm reader I met at a party caused me 20 years of grief many years ago by predicting I’d die in 20 years. He was wrong, although he was sensing something correctly in that I did have a hard time letting go of my kids when they moved out into the world, which was 20 years later. But that reading he gave me was traumatic and caused so much unnecessary angst.
When I read cards, I ask for only the highest vibration energy to come to me.
When people ask about how long they or someone will live, I don’t go there. I don’t believe it’s cast in concrete anyway but also why give more power to that subject? We do give power to visions when we share them. Research shows that doctors’ prognoses have created self fulfilling prophecies. So has voodoo or hexes in that as soon as someone hears they are cursed they start suffering from the curse.
If I have a negative vision, then for the most part I view it as the path we are on now that leads to that outcome. Then I look for how we can change that path.
many times the visions are warnings not fate.
Our ability to see the future is a Darwinian advantage to help our species survive by giving us visions of danger in the road ahead. So we can change the paths we are on!
When giving a one on one reading I start off with a positive vision that I ask the client to make. I put my focus on that vision and give a reading that will take the person there.
I can relate. I can't read for myself because of fear/or desired outcome. I've had two people in my life (my mother who "knew" she would die suddenly and hinted to it right before she did) and one of my dearest friends (like a sister) who was a psychic medium and she told me she would pass a week before she did. After that I slowly gave up readings. I think I was afraid of knowing when someone I loved would die. I didn't realize or admit this to myself until recently. I'm starting to do them now - not for myself though so much... So I joined the read the future night (Nov 11). I wanted to release this fear within myself.... Baby steps ?
I'm so sorry that you've had those experiences. I can completely relate re: having fear due to "knowing" before someone you love dies (this is a realization I've recently made, also). Seven years ago, my cousin/close friend died suddenly and unexpectedly at age 31, leaving behind a wife and two young girls. I had a dream years prior that he died (in the same way he ended up dying), and never forgot it, so when he passed, I wasn't really surprised. When we were growing up, I had known that our time together was limited and every time we had to say goodbye, I had this awful feeling that it might be our last goodbye. After he died, I was horrified that I had been able to see it and that my worst fears had come true.
In my latest therapy session, we identified his death as a source of fear for me. Despite numerous tests and an autopsy, a cause of death was never determined and there was no pre-existing "defect" that could have resulted in his death. I have a young daughter and my husband and I have both been through a lot, but we're happy now. That's why I'm terrified (haha!). My fears for my health and worries about sudden loss (either dying myself or my husband or daughter suddenly dying, etc) all seem to stem from this.
I also "expect" punishment- this goes all the way back to my childhood. My dad and I had a very strained relationship. I was in an abusive marriage before deciding to leave my ex-husband, and my husband and I went through a lot to recover from our mutual traumas. When we first got together, there were some lies and betrayals and again, I was able to "see" it well before he told me the truth (which was again, confirmation of my worst fears at the time).
Anyway blah blah blah tldr; I'm working on this stuff with my doc- I guess we'll see how it goes! Thank you so much for sharing your story.