What do you think of psychics who use tarot cards? (Blog)
 

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Erin Pavlina's blog:

What do you think of psychics who use tarot cards?

i have never actually been to a psychic who has used tarot cards in fact i have only had readings done by strangers who later became friends :o
but this really struck a cord with me as i have been trying to use cards to bring through info for myself but always feel like its a waste of time.. last week i finally gave up and within the hour was unindated with (some) of the info i had been seeking!!

As a psychic myself, I genuinely contact my spirit guides when giving readings to people, direct contact and straight to the point answers. Tarot cards are an additional tool for more description and I find some people I give readings to feel more at ease seeing the cards infront of them for extra clarity, and it just looks more interesting!! Most psychics these days use their own clairvoyant ability though.

I had an interesting experience recently. Adam (one of the forum moderators!) came to me and a psychic friend for advice. I've never considered myself psychic, but I wanted to help Adam, so I tried doing one of my little visualization/meditation exercises with his question in mind. A character in the meditation sat down with me and performed a Tarot reading for Adam, picking up the cards, showing them to me, and explaining how they applied to Adam's situation. I told Adam about it, and he found it very helpful. In fact, his knowledge of the Tarot (which is a lot more expansive than mine) helped him get a lot more out of the meditation than I thought was in there!

I don't go to psychics, as I don't believe there is yet a future to tell, but I use my cards to communicate with my inner being and spirit guides. I also use them when my mind is cluttered and confused, as they help me get to the root of what is bothering me.

Hi Erin,

With all due respect, IMHO, I think some fairly prominent psychics like Sonia Choquette and Sandy Anastasi may disagree with you about Tarot cards. Although I haven't used them myself, they are apparently a good tool for focusing your mind and are supposedly a good development tool as well. I think the secret is to sense the meaning of the cards that are drawn rather than to apply a meaning defined by a book.

Having said that, I prefer to develop my skills without having to rely on any physical objects.

Just my 2c worth. :)

Regards,

Steve

I agree they can be used as a tool. But I caution psychics who rely on them without allowing themselves to get the full message from spirit. Kind of like with dream interpretation. It's possible that some encyclopedic meanings will apply to a person's dream, but it's more likely the dream symbols are very specific to them. I think when a psychic uses cards they are limiting themselves to only a piece of the message and not necessarily getting the whole thing.

So I am just suggesting that psychics who rely on tarot cards for readings try giving readings without them, and learn to trust what they are feeling, hearing, seeing, etc so that they can get even better at hearing messages. Using cards to focus a message is great. Allowing the cards to limit a message is not.

I first started doing readings using a pack of cards called Tarot of The Moon Garden. I'm a Cancerian and liked the pictures though I never really read what the cards meant. Spirit let me use them for 6 weeks (I can hear them laughing now) because I was soo nervous. Then I remember a lady coming to me and I reached for the cards. They were stuck together and stuck to the table. I couldn't move them. I mentally pleaded with Spirit to just let me see two but a man's voice said clearly, 'No more.' The lady was looking at the cards and at me breaking out in nervous sweat. Once I'd mustered up the confidence to say I'd be doing the reading clairvoyantly, my apprenticeship began.
I have several decks of cards that I keep out for friends and prefer to encourage them to solve their own problems rather than relying on me.
I'll often do a quick skim through a new clients numerology as a tuning tool (if spirit let me). It gives me a couple of minutes to settle in if I've been busy before they come and focuses my energy on the client. I've seen readers with the cards and spooky paraphonalia set up at fairs and chuckled to myself. They don't last 5 mins. Most of my clients come word of mouth and it's a small community in NZ. We have a very discerning public and word spreads fast. You sink or swim quickly here.
Lallymac
Lallymac

I've used cards myself too & I found the only way they "worked" was when I used my heart to discern amongst the pile of cards I had spread out & picked what I "felt" was right for the situation.

However when it came to interpretation it still was not completely helpful because the interpretations were very narrow sometimes I felt & did not express the situation even when later thought about. It was nice as a boost in terms of confirming what I already knew..but I sort of agree with Erin in that it's a tool but.. I guess it's like a computer. Good computer programmers can use any computer & function without one & do great work. Okay maybe a bad analogy but you get my point. Bad computer programmers can use a top of the line brand new ridiculous $6000 buck computer & still produce crud in terms of a product.

Tarot is nice & symbolic but.. as I've been studying more I have read that they say our words are symbols for the unseen & unknown. The symbols are symbols that stand for something we can only "know" through "understanding" or "being"...so it applies here. The tarot is symbolic for that which you could already "know" & if you try to put too much emphasis on the symbol there could be problematic interpretations much as some people have strange interpretations of "karma" & other symbolic words. :p :)

Honestly, I trust Jeff's reading more than I would trust a physical reading... As a tool, tarot cards are extremely useful for conveying large amounts of information in very terse, short terms. It's similar to a computer programmer's jargon, in that the words used are common, every day words, and when both people in the conversation understand the jargon, a lot can be communicated very easily and quickly. If someone doesn't understand the jargon, though, only confusion will follow. (Classes, objects, instances, and pointers mean very different things to programmers than to those who don't know the jargon, just as Death, the Tower, and the Three of Swords mean very distinct things that are not clearly evident to those who don't understand the tarot.)

I agree with Erin that it isn't the tool that is the problem, it is people's reliance on them. If your only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail... Tarot is extremely well suited for discussing abstract concepts cleanly, but I find that a random spread is only effective as far as each of the cards can apply to the different, extremely complex layers of the human psyche and range of events. It's like shooting fish in a barrel; you're sure to hit one, but it probably won't be the one that you really want/need, which is where a psychic's skills come in, in rooting out what is most important to the person at the time.

With Jeff's reading being non-physical, I found that he was using his Anima's abilities to pick out the qualities that were most important, and translate them into three cards, arranged in a way that conveyed the message clearly, concisely, and with aspects that I hadn't considered before. Wow, that was a really long sentence. ;)

Actually, it was a joint, separated effort between Jeff and Slade (who hasn't visited this board for a few months) that gave me the answer that I needed... They worked in seeming isolation, and independently picked either the method to work with or the direction to work towards... It's odd how they both worked together to give me a whole picture without seeing each other's work during the process.

I've used the tarot cards to read for myself, and they have provided some awesome insights into my subconscious for me. But I could never understand how I could use them to read for someone else because I don't think I have that sort of psychic ability (or at least don't know how to use it if I do).

But to unlock your own subconsious, I've found them extremely helpful.

Erin's Tarot Blog
 

I found Erin's blog on Tarot to be an interesting read. I have some comments on it.

I've always had misconceptions and ideas on tarot cards that are completely one sided. Why? Here’s the first reason. I was raised Christian. Hello, they tell you tarot is evil, evil. WELL, for this reason I never gave Tarot a second glance. I would bypass anything about it. Same thing went with Crystal balls.

One day, I decided to give myself a tarot reading. It was an online tarot deck that is offered from a website I frequent. I thought to myself, "How bad could it be?" "It's not like it's actually going to be real anyway, it's a computer for petes sake." The first time, I simply shuffled the deck, clicked stop and watched the cards fall out in front of me. Eh, nothing amazing popped up. In fact, some were way off base. I chuckled and moved on, visited my forum, talked to some friends and fell upon a thread about the computer Tarot that I had just played with.

Within the thread, one of the posters explained that it was not the computer reading for you; you in fact were reading for yourself. If you wanted clear results, you would need to become one and focus intently on yourself. I interpreted this as entering my "trance." Not sure what I do here but I do it and it's where I tend to be most powerful and the energy flows immensely. Soooooo off I went back to the Computer Tarot deck. I pulled myself within, focused intently and granted what was meant to be shown of my walking life at the present time to play out before me. I shuffled, hit stop and watched the cards fall out before me. They couldn't have hit me more head on in my opinion! I was floored. I printed it because I had to keep going back to it to prove to myself that it actually pulled the cards that it did. (I read them by using the guide at the bottom of the page, which gives orders, how certain #'s play a roll with the others, ect., remember I had no clue about Tarot)

So now that I’m finished sharing that little story. I drew a conclusion.

Oh yeah, I pulled the cards one more time about 2 weeks later. Same great result. Didn't like some of the truths but never the less, good result.

I drew the conclusion that just as I'd been taught my paranormal experiences and psychics and other realms were evil and had learned the opposite; the theory that tarot and hmmmmmmm, crystal balls could very well have been the same ill direction that is not true. The cards, the ball, read off of your energy. It's all the same thing. You're not asking evil or lower entities to aid you; you are using your own divine guidance.


What are your thoughts? Agree? Disagree?

I actually went forward with purchasing a crystal ball for scrying. I wanted to use it within my meditations and own practices at home. I didn't want to use it for reading purposes for others as I do not give readings and what I do read, I almost always keep to myself. (Self doubt maybe? That’s where I feel comfortable right now) I found this beautiful ball online and nothing else I looked at resonated with me more so. Sad deal though. After clicking purchase, I get a notice that the shipping would be $80! The ball itself was $160. Needless to say I've cancelled my transaction and am on a mission to find another one here local that I feel attracted to.

Love and Light~! :D


Oh, well it looks like the thread I started got moved here. I tried following the link from Erin's blog to the proper thread and couldn't find this thread. Sorry!! :)