Secrets of Tarots

SECRETS OF TAROTS & DIVINATION 2004 EDITION AN INTRODUCTION TO DIVINATION ..................................................................... 1 THE BASICS OF DIVINATION: WHAT'S IMPORTANT TO KNOW ................. 13 THE SECRET OF DIVINATION AND THE TAROT .............................................. 30 FREE WILL AND YOUR PERSONAL QUEST ........................................................ 46 DAILY SPREAD........................................................................................................... 57 ANGEL SPREAD ......................................................................................................... 59 KARMIC SPREAD ....................................................................................................... 62 WHAT YOU NEED TO WORK WITH THE CARDS .............................................. 70 SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS IN THE CARE OF YOUR CARDS ...................... 86 STANDARD MEANINGS FOR THE CARDS OF THE TAROT .......................... 102 THE MINOR ARCANA .................................................................................................... 102 THE MAJOR ARCANA ................................................................................................... 108

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An Introduction to Divination Science has, for the most part, come to replace the arcane as a way of looking at life for most of the ““civilized”” world. This doesn’’t mean that the unknown mysteries that traveling gypsies and others have used to sell glimpses into the future have gone. It merely means that it has been relegated to world of the superstitious. That trend has been changing, as is evidenced by the fact that you are reading these words now. When you look at science, you see a collection of facts, leading to a single point of destination, only one path. When you look into the spiritual world of divination, you can see that there are many possible paths, and that you have the choice which one to take and how to move in your life. This is something that science can’’t show you, no matter how many experiments you do. So why does the modern world reject so much of divination? Mostly, because no one is sure what it is or how it works. In this book, we’’ll explore the various theories of divination, but more importantly, teach you how to develop your own powers of prediction. With the use of tools like the Tarot, you can see the path your current actions put you on, and what kinds of changes you can make to create a better path for yourself. We’’ll also explore how you can make a living out of creating images for others, by becoming a professional psychic. We’’ll discuss the types of ethics and rules you’’ll want to follow, and how to be the best psychic you can be. Of course, first we have to make you a psychic. The good news is that you already are, despite what you might have been taught in your science

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classes. Belief in the supernatural is not a requirement for this, neither is a belief in superstitions. All you have to believe in is yourself. Power, curiosity, and even fear are some of the reasons that people would like to know the future. Throughout history, these have been the traditional reasons for court astrologers and sooth sayers that follow generals into battle. In the modern world, we like to know what kind of career we have in store for us, or if our soul mate is waiting around the next corner. One thing it is vitally important to remember is that reading Tarot for divination purposes isn’’t a game with a direct score. We are going to learn some methods for improving accuracy, and how to make note of when we are right and when we are wrong, No matter how accomplished a diviner you become, you will always be fallible, because the future is not written in stone, This is a concept we’’ll explore in more depth later. Divination has a long history, from way before the Dead Sea scrolls were written. All sorts of people have engaged in it, from prophets to people in booths at turn of the century town fairs. Even today, the traveling fortuneteller is always popular at renaissance fairs and local events. Signs dot the sides of roads advertising palmistry, readings, aura detection and more. This is because even in today’’s world of facts and figures, there is a strong need to have some knowledge of what’’s coming. This need can only be fulfilled in one way –– by peeking into the future. We’’ll also explore later whether we are actually peeking into the future, or creating it as we go. For right now, you’’ll have to settle for ““a little bit of both”” as an answer.

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Knowledge is obviously not the only reason people want to know the future. What they really want is what that knowledge gives them –– control of their own destiny. This is a hard concept for many people to grasp. You are on this earth for a reason, even if you aren’’t sure what that reason is. By knowing what’’s to come, you can plan your own destiny. With that planning comes security, even if it’’s false. You determine your future, a concept called self-determination. When you read the cards, you are not going to see the future. You are going to see the possible future; what could be if you continue to do the things the way you have been. The tarot will also tell you some other important things. You can look into past lives and find out what your path was like then and how it led you to where you are now. It can get you in touch with your spirit guides who can help you to plan your path throughout the wheel of time, through many lives. Control is a valuable thing, but it is also a fleeting fantasy. Whatever you see in the cards, it could be completely different tomorrow. That’’s why one of the things we are going to concentrate on this book is patterns, and noting them. We are going to develop intuition, so we can learn to act on those signs that we don’’t consciously notice. When we are done, you will be able to hear that ““small still voice”” and pay attention to it without a second thought. Acting in a way that allows you to divine your next step is going to be second nature to you. This is how divination truly gives you some control, even though it’’s not control in the traditional sense of the word!

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ESP, telepathy, and telekinesis are probably the most well known of all the so called psychic gifts. You might wonder if you have to be blessed with some kind of gift in order to have psychic or divinatory powers. The good news is that no, you don't. Everyone is born with what you need to divine the future What you aren't born with and need to develop is the ability to spot the signs and messages that come to you from all over the spirit and natural world. This is something the pros have worked on honing into, and what you need to practice. Once you have gotten to where you can spot the patterns in life, you will find that divining the future is no more difficult than pouring your breakfast cereal each morning. Of course, some people are more gifted than others are. Think of it like the ability to draw a circle. Some people can sit down and draw a circle free hand that is perfectly round, and have been able to do since they first could pick up a pencil. Others can draw a reasonable circle at first, and with practice, can draw the perfect one. Still others need to use a template, and will their entire lives. No matter which type of person you are, you can still draw a circle. It's all a matter of how much you need to rely on your tools. When you use the Tarot as a divination tool, you may find that you are able to eventually wean yourself from it and read the future for people by other means. Auras, gut feelings, and other spirit messages are the kinds of things that it would be nice if everyone had. Unfortunately, we're not all so lucky to have those. You can, however, practice enough to hear the voices all around you, even if they are quite faint. Therefore, the answer to the question "do you need special powers" is

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paradoxically yes, and no. As with most things involved in the realm of divination, there is no single answer. Achievable wishes are one way we are going to explore of ways to change your future. The Self Fulfilling Prophecy is a well known concept in psychology. What we're going to do is show you how to use those hopes to drive yourself to a future that is perfectly harmonious for you. You'll want to remember that no matter what you see in the cards, you don't have to go that way. Sometimes, you may see things you really enjoy, and you'll get a little "Atta Boy" or "Atta Girl" to keep on the way you have been. However, sometimes you'll see things that will make you have to stop and think if that's really how you to want to live. This is where wishes come in. They are definitely a way to shape your future. You can take those wishes and use them to tap into the amazing energy of the unconscious. One of the ways we are going to learn to do that is by tarot meditation. This is when you take a card, and you actually enter it. It's a fun exercise, and I am sure you are going to enjoy it. The important thing to remember about wishes is that you have the power to make them into reality, but only if you apply yourself to it. No one can take away your dreams, and there is no time limit on them. If you want to see yourself winning an Oscar for Best Screenplay or first place in the Rose Show, you can make that happen. You can use the Tarot to show you how. Just make sure that your wishes are really want you want. You are going to find out that there are powerful techniques for making what is in your mind become what is in your

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reality, so you'll want to bear the old adage of "Be careful what you wish for" firmly in mind! Application of these lessons should result in your becoming adept at not only developing your own psychic abilities, but in understanding how those abilities work. This in turn will lead to even stronger abilities. The basis of all learning is not to just blindly remember certain things to repeat verbatim, but to understand the inner workings. For instance, we are going to learn the basic meanings of the tarot cards, or keys as they are sometimes known. Knowing these will allow you to read the cards on the surface. However, as you discover further why the images mean what they do, you'll be able to make a better story out of them. Ultimately, the Tarot is a book about you, the reader and the querant. When you know what the pieces mean on a universal level, you can use them to much greater advantage. Of course, this is again something that takes practice. I hope that you'll find that you have to rely on the written meanings less and less as you learn more and more about the imagery behind each card. For instance, it's one thing to know that the Fool means a new beginning. However, when you learn that the word Fool comes from bag of wind, and actually means breath of Life, you can see that there is much more mystery and wonder to this card than simply leaving your house on a journey. Each of the keys has a deeper meaning like this, and knowing each one will enrich your own powers of divination immeasurably. The more you know about why you do what you do, the better you will be able to read the choices in front of you, and to act on them. Advice is

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useless unless you have some idea how to carry it out, after all! The cards have all the answers you need on whatever topic you are asking about, all you have to do is understand how they are speaking to you. You may also find that after all, the cards are not the tool that speaks the strongest to you. We'll discuss some other tools you can use towards the end of the book. Personal paths through life are just that: personal. As you learn more about what your path is like and where it is leading you, you can make it move to directions that are desired. One thing to remember about these paths is that you have to take what is given to you in the way of lessons. You can't sit down and chart out your future. There's always a bit of the unknown, like a river. You can raft down the same river a hundred times, and every time, your path will be slightly different, even though you started at the exact same place and in the exact same kind of raft. That's because the currents and eddies are dependant on a lot more factors than you can control. Another important thing about divination that you need to remember is that you have a purpose for being here in this world. Some people believe you have to come back repeatedly until you have found that purpose. Divination gives you the ability to not only see what you should be learning while you are here, but also to look back into past lives and see what mistakes were made. The more knowledge you have of these things, the easier it is to move forward. You may not be able to have the complete future you dream of this way, but you can feel sure you are moving towards your purpose in life when you use these methods.

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Other questions divination can help you with involve figuring out things like "why did this happen to me?" You may have had a rough childhood, or you may find that your every business idea turns to dust before you even get a good start on it. The cards can show you why that is happening, and again, can give you some advice on how to make it stop. They may even show you that you will forever live that way. You might not like everything you see, but you can always be assured that it is the truth, and that you are in control of it in the end. Just because you can't steer the raft to the exact side of the river you want to float down certainly doesn't mean you can't affect the path it rides on enough to get to where you wanted to be. Sometimes, though, you may find that the river's idea of where you should be is a lot more interesting! Informed choice should be the first goal of anyone attempting to develop their powers of divination, no matter what tool they ultimately choose to use. The sight that these tools give you allows you to decide if you like where you are, and if you don't, to change it. There are certain responsibilities that go with this sight, and you need to take them seriously. If you choose to read for other people especially, you need to remember that what you think will happen is what you will make happen. This is the basis of self determination. You must always be positive whether you are reading for yourself and when you are reading for others. Some of the cards you are going to learn about have names and meanings that on the surface seem to be negative. It's important to remember that every meaning you see has an image associated with it, and may very well be referring to spiritual and metaphysical concepts.

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For instance, you may see the infamous Death card, and think it means a physical death. In actuality, this card usually refers to the end of a situation and a new beginning, or the "death" of an old way of living. It rarely means the querant (the person asking questions) is going to die physically. Another of these cards is The Hanged Man, which can have a rather startling image on it of a man hanging upside down. This card actually means stagnation, as if the man had stepped into a rope trap. Don't fall into the habit of literally interpreting the cards by the words. Instead, go with the images and the feelings. You'll learn the meanings a lot faster and be a lot more accurate if you keep that one simple tip in mind. Don't let yourself be swayed by unpleasant images on your cards either. The cards don't tell you "bad" or "good," they merely tell you what is. Only you apply any other judgment. Responsibility and accountability are just two of the ways that having knowledge of the possible future brings benefits to you in your personal life. This kind of empowerment allows you to have security in your everyday dealings. You'll be perceived as confident and in control of your destiny: BECAUSE YOU ARE. There's no other way to express it. When you have been empowered from the spiritual center of yourself, there's no one who can hold you back from achieving your goals. Your goals will also become more reasonable. You'll find that when you work with your purpose instead of against it, your life is easier and more fun. You can have a much lighter heart if you worry less about material things and more about getting the ends you deserve on a cosmic level. You will also have the power to

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live your life as you choose, be it with a partner or alone. You may be a person who is spending all your energy looking for Prince or Princess Charming. When you have personal power, you don't need to do that. You are a complete person in yourself, which also makes you a better partner if you do run into that certain someone. We are going to discuss soul mates a bit, and one thing you will learn there is that you tend to have a soul community, not a single soul mate that you stay with for lifetime through lifetime. You will also discover that soul mates aren't necessarily romantic partners. In this day of over romanticized images, you will be able to breathe a sigh of relief in knowing that your "love life," like everything else, is perfectly on track and exactly where it should be at every stage of your life. Your future is a mutable thing. As I started out this chapter noting, people have always wanted to have some control over what is going to happen to them. It gives security and a kind of peace. It is also as close as you want it to be. You can do divination on a daily basis, to see what each day may bring you and how to plan accordingly. On the other hand, you may choose to do spreads that look far into the future. Many people like to do a yearly spread on their birthday as a progress check, to see if they are still where they want to be and headed where they want to go. You don't have to use divination for any of those purposes, however. Many people just like to start their day with a single card, a harbinger of the day to come. The nice thing about your cards is that the voice they speak with is your own, so you always can be sure that your cards are telling you what you need to

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hear. That is a concept that may seem a little foreign right now, but as you work your way through learning how to use the tarot for divination, you'll find more and more that you have decks that speak to you, and decks that don't, as well as other tools. You will end up working with those decks that you can relate to the best. Those are the ones that speak to you in your language, with your voice. Think of tarot divination as a way to hear your own inner self. This is ultimately what you will have control over - what your inner voice says to you, and how you can react best to it. If you learn nothing else, you will learn how to read what you already know, the knowledge that is already locked inside you. This is the thing that professional readers and the naturally gifted have. This is the template we're going to give you, so you can draw a circle at any time even if it's not a perfect one, to use our earlier example. Cards, of course, are only one of the things you need for divination. Fortunately, the other tools you need are easy to come by and not expensive. You need, of course, time, and space to practice! Later on in this book, you will find a chapter that details some suggestions for your space. For now, what you need to do is make sure that you have at least one area in your home where you can work undisturbed for an hour or so each day. This needs to be a place where you can have freedom and more importantly, safety, to be who you are. Sometimes it's hard to feel comfortable with dancing, singing, running around naked, or those other things that we have been taught are "less than dignified." Divination has nothing to do with dignity. Divination has to do with getting in touch with yourself, in all your facets. When you are working with the cards,

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particularly in meditation, you want to be free to do whatever you feel like without fear of embarrassment. It might seem odd to say you need to seek a safe haven in your own home, but if you think about it, you will probably find that you have a hard time singing at the top of your lungs or crying for no apparent reason when someone is in the house. Your room doesn't have to be large, and it doesn't have to be fancy. It just has to be yours. The same goes with the other two pieces, time and cards. You don't need the fanciest tarot deck in the world to learn how to develop your own powers. When you get to the section about choosing a deck, read it over carefully, and think about it. There are only a few of the hundreds of types of decks listed in that chapter. The important thing to remember is that you don't have to spend an arm and a leg. You can get whatever set works for you and have the same results. Your time also needs to be time that you don't have set aside for anything else. You can't relax when you're worrying about cleaning the house or picking the kids up for school. Don't shortchange yourself on any of these important tools, and you will be sure to meet with nothing but success as you work to develop your own divination skills. Ease at noticing the signs and messages around you is your ultimate goal in learning to use your powers of divination. When you have become attuned to the spiritual world around you, you will be able to discern easily when someone in either this plane or the spiritual plane is trying to tell you something. In order to

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get to this level of facility, there is no substitute for practice. The most gifted natural psychic still has to stretch those muscles and practice. Think of it like playing a sport. You may be naturally gifted in soccer, for instance, and able to kick the ball with grace and power. However, you still need to practice aim. It is also important that you practice in order to weed out those signs that don't have anything to do with you and the problems at hand. There are many energy sources in the world, and some of them are quite powerful. Being able to filter those out so you only hear the ones meant for you is something that only comes with time and effort. Practice is one of the things we are going to do all the time. You are going to get exercises and suggestions for how best to practice. These will be lessons on flexing your muscles, learning the card meanings, spreads, and much more. By the time you have read this book, practicing your powers of divination will be as much a part of your daily routine as brushing your teeth in the morning. Especially if you are looking to become a professional psychic, the more you practice, the smoother your readings will be, and the better you will be able to help your clients. The better you can help your clients means the better you will be able to help yourself. You'll read this repeatedly, so get used to it: there is no shortcut! You have to work for what you want, in this as in all things.

The Basics of Divination: What's Important to Know Trust, faith, and belief are all the qualities you'll need to find in order to be a good reader. Not in others, though. You'll need to find them in yourself! Why is this important? Because you will be using your own abilities to dig deep into the - 13 -

collective unconscious, and you often times are the only guide of whom you are aware. You have to know that guide isn't going to let you down. So how do you develop that kind of trust? You do it by using your cards to get a bead on where you are in your life, and to work for what you want to be. For instance, if you want to be a person who is known for keeping his or her word, you can use the cards to point out to you where you are letting people down in your promises, including yourself. By rectifying this situation, you will become a more reliable person. The process is the same for belief, and faith. Those two are harder, of course, because it's not so easy to point to an instance where you failed to believe! However, if you use a journal, you'll be able to see where those incidents are happening, and take care of them. For instance, you may find that you are setting an alarm clock for yourself every night. Did you know you don't have to do that? You can trust your own brain to wake you up at a certain time of the day. All you need to do is trust that you will wake up. Having trouble with it? That might be a good one with which to start working! Developing faith is the same situation. Suppose you do a reading for yourself, and the cards tell you that you should be on the lookout for a man with dark hair who has a proposition for you. On your way to the grocery store, you see a homeless man with black hair on the side of the road who is holding sign reading "Will Work for Food." Is it a good idea to stop for him? Well, the cards said to look out for him, and there he is! All you have to do is have faith, and the rest will come to you naturally through your developing abilities.

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Proof is not easy to come by in the world of divination, but it is there if you look for it. Proof is what is going to give you a reason to take action on your visions, signs, and messages. So where do you find this proof? It's all around you, you just have to open your eyes and see it. For instance, you have read that you will meet the homeless man in the cards, and you see him on the side of the road. You stop because you are practicing having faith in your abilities. He doesn't actually want to work; he just wants money. Now, in the reading, what you saw was that you were going to meet a dark haired man with a proposition for you, and your final outcome card was that you would have financial difficulties. This is your proof. Proof can be much more subtle and discreet, however! One of the biggest ways you have for getting proof is your journal. Make a note of how often your predictions come true as you work through developing your skills. You will find that you are becoming stronger each day, and that more and more of then are coming to pass. You will also want to keep track of your dreams, especially the powerful ones, the ones that leave you breathless when you wake up. These are the dreams that are full of symbols from the collective subconscious - the dreams that are the world talking to you in the night. When you learn to identify these dreams and move around in them, your proof will be coming so fast you won't need to look for it anymore. Ultimately, your proof has to satisfy you and no one else. If you find that you are seeing a squirrel in the same place everyday but you just expect to see him in a

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different spot one day, and there he is, that may be proof for you that you are developing precognitive abilities. You have to have confidence that your proof is real and not wishful thinking. That will come with time; have no fear! Rivers of nonlinear time flowing around you is perhaps the most difficult concept to grasp in all of divination. To the Universe, all time is simultaneous. There's actually some scientific proof for this. Einstein has theorized that time and space are the same, so just as space doesn't cease to exist simply because you have passed that point in the physical world, so too does time continue to exist when you have journeyed past a moment. This means that you can see everything behind you, and everything ahead of you. The only difference is that when you are dealing with time, you may not have as clearly marked path. Again, in space there are an infinite number of directions you can take when you are walking. There are an infinite number of ways you can travel when you move through time. This is why divination is not exact. There's no map to get you to where you want to be. Time is also infinite in its expanse, which means that while it may seem like twenty years is a long while to wait for something, to the Universe, it is the same as a second, or as a millennium. When you are working with the cards, it's important to remember that the cards may say "soon," but there's no telling what "soon" may mean. In general, Wands means within a few weeks, swords within a few days, hearts within a few years, and pentacles within a few decades. A preponderance of these cards in your reading gives you an idea of the general time span into which you are looking.

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Also be aware that because you are a creature of free will, just because your path appears to point in a particular direction when you are reading doesn't mean it won't shift from instant to instant. "Infinite points" means just that - you can't even guarantee that where you started out is where you will end up if you are making a round trip! Time also flows with you throughout lifetimes, so you may be looking at the past from a different lifetime, or the future for a life that doesn't exist yet. You will learn to differentiate between these various types of signs. They will start to look different to you, and ones that you need to pay attention to will stand out to you. Accuracy in your readings is going to be the best way to prove to yourself that you are doing well in your work on developing your divinatory skills. You will begin to see patterns of readings that recur, almost begging for attention. Acceding to the power of these patterns and following what they seem to suggest is going to be the way to make sure that you are not wasting your newly developed skills. We are talking a lot about proving something that can’’t be seen or felt here, you may have noticed. That's because in the history of divination, in the who, what, when and why of the art, people have constantly stopped at the verge of being something great because they had no proof it was working. Anyone can be a seer; anyone can be a medium. Having trust in the power you possess is the secret to this success. Again, remember that your proof is going to be personal. You may never convince the outside world that you have seen these things. All you need to do is

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know that you are making a positive difference in your life. When you start to move forward in your life, and start to get those things you want and those feelings that you deserve, you will be surprised at how willing the world is to believe that you are creating your own destiny. It will be willing to follow you, and pretty soon you and the world are working together in a completely harmonious existence. This is when you will start to be a fully actualized individual, at peace with yourself and the spiritual world. Ultimately, that's the goal of any practitioner of divination. The more accurate your readings become, the easier it will be for you to follow your spirit. Time is a powerful force. It is an all-pervasive, all knowing energy that is aware of what is to come, what has passed, and everything in between. Since time is infinite, there are an infinite number of "nows" happening at any given moment. That's a lot of power! Time has existed throughout the past lives of every soul in the Universe, the same energy flowing through each and every being. The same time has also held together the space that binds all these spirits. You are going to learn how to ride this power for a short distance to assist yourself and others in plotting your path. People have been trying to see time and explain time since, well, since the beginning of time! People long ago didn't live very long at all. We live almost three times as long now as we did a million years ago, and yet we still don't live very long at all. There was a time when there was no moon. Wouldn't it have been great to see that creation? When you can catch time and ride it at will, you will see those moments! If you become adept enough at meditation with your

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cards, you can go to any moment in time you want to visit as an observer. What you learn will always apply to your life, and it will always be personal to you. So, your creation of the moon will be completely different from mine, but be equally as true. It will be how your spirit perceives this moment in space and time. Always remember that space and time are interconnected. They are the things that hold you to the Earth, and make you one with the trees, the guy next door, the cat across the street, and the new supernova in a far away galaxy. We are all made of the same things, and the same cosmic energy forces of time and space join us all. When you can see this as easily as you can see your face in the mirror, you will become truly adept at divination. Connecting with this power is the way to grow powerful as a physic. This will allow you to travel through time to specific points in the future, always remembering that the point can move at any moment. The energy called time feeds your psychic energy and vice versa, making a huge circle of interconnected power. The interconnectedness is a very important point. This is what is going to give you the power to read for others if you should choose to. This is what connects you to your cards, and what will help you pick out the deck that is perfect for you. It will allow you to make your space perfectly designed for you, and is what will enable you to hear the voices of spirit guides and loved ones who have passed on. All these are important tools in divination. Time is the basis of this energy, as it is the most powerful force in the Universe. There is no place where time does not exist, and when you have learned to control it, you hold in your hand one of the best ways to help those you with

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whom you come into contact. You will be able to light the path in front of you as brightly as if you were holding a halogen flashlight, and help others to see that path as well. When you get to that point, you will be able to make a nice living from your skills, should you choose to. It's all in your hands when you have made the connection to the time stream. This is all a part of the bigger whole, having faith and belief in your abilities. When you work through the exercises you will find later, make it a point to see where you are immersed in the time stream, and ways you can manipulate how it flows for you personally. Personal imaging is another way to get in contact with your psychic energies and impulses. When you let your mind flow freely and open yourself up to the pictures from your inner self, you will find that they are powerful omens of things to come. We are going to explore some methods of meditation that will open these images up for you. You will be able to step into your cards in your mind. In fact, if you can't step into your cards after doing these exercises, you might want to consider a different tool. The Tarot is a primarily visual tool, with pictures rich with meaning. These pictures have the obvious aspects of them you can see, but they also have archetypical elements that are designed to bring you in contact with the arcane energies of the spiritual world. You will find that they have the colors of the body's charkas, the images of the ages, and the stories of humanity. All you have to do is open yourself up to them and learn how to read not only the obvious, but also the subtle things they have to say.

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Allowing your images to guide your psychic energies is also a fast way to develop your energies. By learning a few techniques, you'll be able to slip easily into a place where you can see what's coming without any tools at all. You'll be tapping into the energy that flows all around each of us (remember the interconnectedness of the world earlier?). Images are ultimately the root of the power that the Tarot gives you in working with divination, and are arguably the easiest way to get into contact with your inner divinatory powers. Don't forget that we all have the ability to look into the future; we just need to learn how to see. Truth and understanding are also present in our inner voices, which is something you need to learn to listen and heed. There are filters that we all apply to our lives, filters that keep us from being overloaded by everyday life. When you learn to listen to your inner voice, you gain another important tool in your divination toolbox. You are probably aware that you have a voice that tells you when something isn't quite right. The trick is learning to listen to that voice at times besides when it's alerting you to trouble. The same voice that lets you know when you are about to have a really bad idea can also tell you when you are dealing with a person who is truthful, or when you are about to step into danger. You'll learn to recognize that voice, as it is very different from other voices. This isn’’t the one that tells you to remember to pick up the milk at the grocery store. This is the one that tells you to slow down in the parking lot because a car could come out from nowhere and hit you in the side. This is the voice that when you slow down, you are thankful for, because the car you never knew was there suddenly appears right where you would have been.

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Everyone has access to this voice. It is as easy to reach as your personal images. When you have a full arsenal of divinatory tools, your readings with the cards become very accurate because you can pull all these tools together into one comprehensive package. Get them working all together, and you can be a virtual one-man band with your tarot cards and connections to the psychic and spiritual worlds. Angels, guides, and other words are all used to describe the psychic impressions that people can get. Some people feel that these are divinely inspired. Depending on your religious views, they could be. Gods and Goddesses are thought to be manifestations of nature in most belief systems, with such powers are creating the Earth and all life in it. By this way of thinking, all the energy in the world would be divine in origin, and divination would be from a divine source! Mostly, it doesn't matter where you believe your psychic impulses come from. What does matter is that you take advantage of them to make your life and the lives of those around you better in whatever way you can. This might be by doing readings for your friends and family, setting up a business, or making small modifications in your behavior and attitude everyday to spread some cheer around you. Many religious people are afraid that there are specific bans against divination in their various holy books. In helps in these instances to remember that these holy books were themselves written by folks who used divination that was undeniably from their deity. You might not write the next Koran or Bible, but you don't need

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to. What you need to do is make sure that you never try to warp what you see and feel into something evil. There is a creed in Wicca that states "and it harm none, do as ye will," which that holds true for divination as well. Later on in the book we are going to go over some ethics for professional readers, but even the casual reader needs to be aware that it is not an OK thing to do to attempt to manipulate someone by telling them things you don't see, or to phrase things you do see in such a way as to make them mean something different. For instance, if you see the Death card, and you know full well it means that the person is going to be starting a new career, it is absolutely unethical to say that you see that your querant is about to be run over by a bus! Remember, your querant takes what you say seriously, and if you were to put such an idea into his or her head, you can cause the very event you are predicting. I cannot stress this enough. Do not misuse the powers you have. Karma is a very real thing, and you will have what you deserve coming to you when you leave this life and go on to the next! Intuitive impulses are probably the most common sort of psychic feelings you will have. These are emotion-based flashes of insight. You may suddenly see an aura, for instance, or have the certainty that a loved one is thinking about you. Everyone has experienced this sort of impulse at one time or another. It's that thing that happens when you pick up the phone and the person you were going to call is already on the other end before you dial. Sometimes you may feel as if you are seeing someone every time you turn around. That person is on your mind often, in dream and thoughts. When you get

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in contact with that person, you find out that they are having a difficult time in their lives and could use a little advice or company. This is also an intuitive psychic impulse. When you find yourself having these feelings, you need to be sure to record them in your journal. Especially if you are having feelings of déjà vu, or you are getting the same feelings again and again, a journal will give you a record that you can review from the past and see if you are experiencing a pattern. Sometimes it may feel like events are repeating themselves, but when you review over the course of a week or two, you find that the event is not that common at all. You can use any method you like to determine "frequency," from graphs to simply counting the number of times that your friend has popped into your mind. Remember, the more aware you become of the natural psychic impulses you already have, the easier it will be to tune into them and make them stronger. Synchronicity refers to a pairing of events that is more than coincidence, but is rather divinely inspired. You have experienced this in your life at some time or another. It can also be known as synergy. When you have a gut feeling and it turns out to be right, this is an example of synergy. Synchronicity is the matching in time of certain events at just such a juncture as to create a beneficial outcome. For instance, suppose you have been carrying a dime in your pocket for a month. Every time you wash the pants, you think that you need to take the dime out, but you never get around to it. One day you are buying lunch, and are exactly ten cents short. There, in your pocket, is the forgotten dime. This is synchronicity.

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The Police made an album entitled Synchronicity, with cover art images taken at different times in hope that similar themes or images would arise, which they did. Synchronicity, though, while it can be encouraged, cannot be forced. We will do exercises designed to help synchronicity to come along and help you out. We will also work on recognizing it when it happens. The most important thing to remember is that nothing happens by coincidence. The Universe is a place to intent, and your spiritual watchers spend a great deal of energy making sure that everything happens for a reason. It is a fallacy and taking them for granted to assume that something just "happened" to be where you needed it when you need it. A great example of this (and funny too) is in the movie "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," when the two boys set up the past so that they will be able to escape from jail in the future by simply reminding themselves to go back in time and create certain situations. Time is a somewhat artificial and random method devised by man to keep his bearings in the Universe. He sets the increments, deciding how much each one is and where it belongs; seconds to minutes, minutes to hours, etc. However, there are obvious things that occur within those increments, things that can be measured and observed. The path of the planets and stars through the night sky as seen from Earth is one of those things, and the potentials that are created in human life from them are readily observable. People born when the planets are in a certain pattern and the sun in a certain position share certain traits. Astrology is the study of these situations.

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Although the stars aren’’t actually where they seem to be when you are born (because the light travels for many years before it gets to the Earth) they are certainly somewhere! They don’’t have to be where they appear to be, they only have to be in the same place relative to the Earth as they were the last time they appeared that way. For instance, when you watch cars race on a track, you can see them approaching and departing from your seat. As long as you don’’t move your seat, the car passes you at the same place on the track each time, no matter how many laps it has traveled. The Earth is the seat, and the other planets are racing cars. Someone on the opposite side of the racetrack will see the car pass at a different point than you do, but relative to the observer, that point is the same each time. Astrology is related to the tarot in that some of the cards are directly tied to the cards. We will explore some spreads that relate to astrology, and upcoming years. Also, you can choose the significator card, the card that represents the querant by using their astrological or sun sign. The sun sign is the major astrological component we will use, although there are many different ways of measuring someone’’s astrological makeup and character. Words are the medium of the Runes, an ancient method of divination based on language. This tool was developed long before the Tarot, and is usually attributed to the Vikings. Each small stone or bit of wood has a symbol carved on it representing a single word. These words are then put together to form a story, a sentence that reflects the querant’’s life. In Viking times, Runes were often

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constructed each morning and tossed in the evening’’s fire, but now they can be purchased as clay or synthetic material and kept for years. When you use the runes, you may find that they are more powerful for you if you are a left brain or language oriented person. Of course, this only makes sense! The Tarot is a divination tool based on pictures. The combination of both of these tools allows you to engage both sides of your brain, which is always an advantage, and especially when you are dealing with something as basic as energy impulses from a psychic Universe. We aren’’t going to delve deeply into Runes in this book, but it is nice to be aware that there are options out there that can react to either side of your brain, whichever you find to be the strongest in your everyday life. The runes may also be used as charms, which is somewhat harder to do with a tarot card. Since each is a small token with a symbol, they can be made into necklaces or charms, with a Rune being chosen that best represents your needs. Some common Runes used as charms are Rado (journey), Wunjo (joy), and Uruz (strength). This is a subtle way to keep the power of the Universe on your side and looking out for you, and lets your guides know you are aware of them and their work! Synchronicity may play a role in which Rune you end up using as a charm. Many people select their charm by putting the Runes in a bowl and randomly drawing one. If you have a set of Runes, this is an excellent way to see what synchronicity is all about, by simply repeating the exercise of drawing a Rune, replacing it, stirring the Runes, and drawing another one. Keep track of how many times you get the same one.

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Changes in the map of your hand and the astrological signs they represent are the basis of the art of palmistry. This may be the oldest divinatory art, as it is even mentioned in the Bible, and Aristotle’’s writings. Palmistry has become a bit stigmatized with the advent of the carnival sideshow, but it is an art that relates directly to your body. Since the psychic impulses you are seeking come from your connection with your body and the Universe, the hand is a terrific way to foretell your own general future. There are books and books on palmistry, and again, it is not a topic we are going to delve deeply into. The basic theory is that there are phalanges, lines, and mounds that all represent something in your body, and are related to the astrological symbols in the sky. For instance, the second line on your hand from your wrist up your palm is your Lifeline. The one beside it is your heart line. The relative length of these lines can indicate the length of time you can expect to be married, for instance. Palmistry is also an excellent meditation tool. The time and concentration it takes to find and follow the lines in your hand is quiet and thoughtful. People often draw diagrams of their hands in their journals, so they can refer back and see the constantly changing landscape of their life as written on their palms. Whatever you decide to do with your maps, they are intensely personal, and make a good adjunct to Tarot due to their common link of astrology, the oldest science and probably the most familiar divination tool to the general public. Your hands are your tools to shuffle, layout, and handle your cards, making the connection between the two profound as well as obvious. Your hands are sometimes the

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reflection of your physical being as well, which is why doctors will check your fingernails when you come in feeling ill, and your fingerprints are used to determine that you are uniquely you. Popular as they are, there is no doubt that the Tarot is one of the most accessible of all divination tools. There are decks for every type of person, from the left brained analytical number cruncher to the esoteric dreamer. The cards put a picture in front of you, and give your brain something to look at while the image itself conjures a piece of the archetypical story that your querant is living. Using this tool, most people find that they are quickly able to divine the future for themselves, friends, and neighbors as well as help with advising troubled folks. This book will teach you how to read the Tarot. It will also help to show you why divination is an art far beyond the meanings of some bits of cardboard with pretty pictures. There are so many decks, and each deck has its own personality. With custom spreads, hand drawn decks, and independent meanings for upside down and right side up cards, you will find that with practice, knowing the ““standard”” accepted meanings for the cards is the barest beginning of using them for divination. We will explore how to choose the best deck for you, and how to select the card that best represents you. The tarot is very old, although the earliest decks are only from about 1300AD. They are thought to have once been an actual book that was outlawed by the Catholic Church. Instead of disappearing, it was modified to look like a game. That way, the tool could be used under the noses of the oppressive church without danger to the user of persecution.

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The sideshow feel that has affected palmistry has also unfortunately permeated the realm of the Tarot. However, it has become more accepted as mainstream movies and books use the symbols on the cards, sometimes incorrectly, to signify events in the character’’s lives. You will soon be able to create stories of your own using the cards: the story of your own life, and of your friends and loved ones. With this information, you will be able to chart your own future –– the one you want to live.

The Secret of Divination and the Tarot Practice in becoming attuned to the psychic world is pretty much the only thing that professional psychics have that you don’’t at this point. Everyone at some time or another has experienced some sort of prescience. It might have been a certain feeling that someone close to you was ill, or a feeling that a major tragedy was about to occur. There are hundreds of accounts of bad dreams preceding the DC-10 incident in Chicago, the sinking of the Titanic, and the falling of the World Trade Center. The thing professionals know how to do that you don’’t yet is to call these types of feelings and sightings at will, instead of being reliant on them coming randomly when they are especially strong. If you have ever heard the still small voice in your head saying ““Don’’t walk just now, wait half an hour”” and watched a huge rainstorm start a few minutes later, you have experienced a psychic impulse. It might be referred to as a spirit guide, a guardian angel, or just good luck, but you know that it is more than that. Your cards can help you to become attuned to the signals coming from the psychic world, and help you to become a more proficient psychic. - 30 -

It is true that some people are more gifted than others in the psychic realm. This is true for all activities. However, one does not need to be Kobe Bryant to be an excellent basketball player. One does not need to be Pablo Picasso to paint pretty pictures. You may never be Edgar Cayce, but you don’’t need to be. All you need to be is dedicated, careful, and have the best interests of yourself or other querants at heart. If you do the best with the innate skills you have, and work to increase those skills, you will find that your divination skills with the cards are very strong indeed, stronger than you may have thought possible. Make sure to spend time each day practicing, in order to be as strong as you can possibly be. Mystery seems to surround some professional psychics. It is as if they have some secret arcane knowledge to which very few others have access. That’’s fortunately not the case. One thing they do have that we will try to develop is a filter for their psychic impulses. Simply speaking, this is what you use in order to focus on information that is important and to ignore everything else. For instance, when you are walking, you have to keep your balance, look where you’’re going, listen for danger, and myriad other things. If you were to be aware of everything your senses were picking up, you would simply overload, and not be able to do anything at all. You’’d feel the air on your skin, smell the roadway, the grass, the neighbor’’s dogs, fresh asphalt, and see the sky, the road, people, cars, all the plants, and all this would be coming simultaneously. When you are working with your journal, you need to be sure that you are learning how to filter. This exercise will help you with filtering. First, you need to get out your journal and a pen or pencil. Try not to do journaling exercises on the computer, because

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you don’’t want to edit. Find a calm place within yourself, and then write what comes to mind. Don’’t worry if your writings at first are very short. As you practice, you will become more accustomed to it, especially if you don’’t usually write down your thoughts. You need to write everything down. This includes if you thought about getting milk, or the Universe, or the price of a haircut. As you start to get used to journaling and being in the calm place, you will find that more and more of the ““extra”” thoughts are being filtered out, or not heard, and you are more aware of the psychic messages you may be getting. Remember, being able to get them at will is one of the things a professional psychic can do that you can’’t……yet. With practice, you will find that journaling is one of the best exercises you can do. Flexing your psychic muscles is really what practice is all about when it comes to interpreting tarot cards and other divination tools. You need to learn how to get those muscles moving and functioning, and there are many ways to do that. The first exercise to do is to take your cards, and get them acclimated. Your cards will absorb your natural energies, and become a part of you. When you are ready to acclimate your deck (there’’s a chapter later on about how to choose a deck), you are going to handle them. Take them and spread them out so you can see them. Which images do you like? Which don’’t you like? Are there some that make you feel strong, or strange? Take one card, and try to put yourself in the picture. For instance, take the ten of swords in the regular Rider Wait deck. Can you image walking on the beach to the body in the sand. Don’’t just picture it; actually be there. Feel the sand, heard

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it squeaking under your feet. Smell the salt air, and notice the way the wind sounds as it brushes past the swords. Look at the body. Is he in pain? Is he dead? Can you save him? Is the sound of the water rushing, roaring, or is it still? By putting yourself in such close proximity with your cards, you are learning how they speak to you. Do this exercise as much as you can and time allows, with each card. You may find that some are easy, and some are hard. You can also take your journal, and write down your impressions of the pictures. It’’s important to do this work before you have any real knowledge of the symbols. You want your truly intuitive feelings here, so don’’t peek to the ““answer key’’! You will find that the meanings for the cards are very generic, and when you are used to reading with your own deck, there are some cards that will speak volumes above what the general standard meanings will suggest, as I have said before. Don’’t worry; I’’ll say it again before we’’re done! Talent is a good start to being a psychic, but it isn’’t the ““end all and be all”” of the art. You have to not only get your ““psychic muscles’’ in shape, but you have to keep them in shape. It’’s the same as any other muscle: if you start to work it out and then ease up, it will turn to flab. Fortunately, these muscles are easier to get back into shape! Professional psychics practice every single day, and you need to also. Don’’t let yourself get into a habit of allowing yourself days off. You will have plenty of time for relaxation when you aren’’t in your designated work time. That hour or so that you set aside every day for your divination work needs to be filled with working.

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By letting yourself be trapped into not giving yourself time off, what do I mean? Well, there are all kinds of errands, there’’s housecleaning, there’’s appointments. All those things that you think ““I really need to get this done”” are just ways to avoid working on yourself and your psychic abilities. I call these the ““shoulds.”” These are the things that you or someone has designated as more important than your goal of becoming a functioning psychic with your cards, runes, or whatever tool you have chosen. In today’’s society, it is easy to be fooled into thinking that the run to the grocery store or the hair cutting appointment is more important than spending some time alone with your cards. In the long run, though, the haircut will grow out, or the milk will be bought later, but you can’’t ever get back the time you had set aside for developing you. When you consider the great benefits you get from being able to chart your course through life more precisely, that hour suddenly seems very important indeed. It is important to remember that you won’’t be able to see everything that is coming up in your life. You will only see what the Universe means for you to see. That doesn’’t mean you should just blow it off, though! The Universe has a lot to tell you, if you only take the time to listen. Anchoring is not a nicety that you should do if you have time. Consider your grounding exercises to be your seatbelt to the Earth while you are working with the cards. You are dealing with powerful energy, the very energy that makes al things alive and created the Universe. It’’s a good idea to make sure you know where you are when you’’re dabbling with it! By centering yourself before you

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start, and periodically checking on yourself, you can be sure that you aren’’t being swept up in the energy. What’’s the worse that can happen if you don’’t get grounded? Some people simply think they have become gods! Others lose interest in being on the Earth, and spend most of their time with their heads in the clouds. Grounding is easy to do, however, and can be as complicated and drawn out or as short and sweet as you like. Some people like to ground themselves by putting their feet on the floor while they sit in the chair, and concentrate on feeling the earth beneath them. Other use a visualizing technique, where they imagine a cord or light that passes from their head to their feet, and secures them firmly to the earth. Still others like to keep an amulet or charm handy that they can reach out and touch. Worry stones are great grounding devices! These little smooth rocks are available almost everywhere. You can pick one up yourself at a riverbed, or buy one with a word or charm engraved into them at almost any metaphysical bookstore. The important thing to remember that it doesn’’t matter how you ground yourself. All that really matters is that you do it. If you don’’t want to make a ritual out of it, don’’t. Just keep your feet on the floor and your head in your cards, and you’’ll do fine. You want to make sure, however, that you don’’t end up with all of you in outer space, or you might find it hard to come back down and mingle with us mere mortals again. You also want to be sure you are grounded to protect yourself from other’’s negative energies when you chose to do professional readings later on in your career with the cards.

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Breathing, releasing, and resetting are ways that some people use to get in touch with psychic impulses. Here is a visualization technique that is similar to the one you did before where you put yourself into the cards. It works like this: First, you are going to breathe deeply in through your nose for a count of five, then out through your mouth for a count of five. Do this three more times, or until you feel a little floaty. Now, take your journal, and choose one card at random. Even if it’’s a card that you don’’t particularly feel fond of, it’’s the card that wants to work with you, In other words, that’’s the Universe’’s lesson for you today. Take the card and study it. Put yourself into the card like you did before. Now, take your pen and start writing what you’’re feeling, thinking and seeing while you are in the card. Don’’t censor yourself. Write as much or as little as comes to you. This exercise is designed to bring up your intuitive feelings about the cards. Even once you have learned the standard meanings for the cards, you will find that this exercise is an excellent way for seeing what kinds of lessons the Universe has in store for you on a given day. This is also a good daily exercise for staring off your psychic workout daily, or for ending it. It makes you think about what you really feel when you see certain archetypes and images, and brings you close to the energy of the universe. Since ultimately all the impulses and signs you receive come from this energy, a shortcut way to get into the action is always an excellent tool to have in your arsenal, especially when working with something as image-rich as the tarot, with it’’s cross brain functionality and it’’s unique ability to touch you simply with art and meaning.

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One excellent use for divination is health readings, which can give you a personal readout on how your physical well being is doing. While you can’’t substitute this for going to a doctor, and you certainly can’’t read other people’’s medical issues, you can take a look at how you are felling and doing. These are the kinds of hints that can give you a clue you should be heading to a doctor, or if your medical problems are more spiritually based. For instance, suppose you have consistent headaches, and you have seen a doctor. They have found no obvious reason for the headaches, and prescribe some pills. That may take care of the headache symptom, but not the cause. At this point, you could a health-based reading and find out that your headaches are being caused by excess stress and you need to meditate and loosen up. There are other ways that divination can help you with your health. If you are trying to have a baby and are having issues, and no one can find anything wrong physically, you might be able to get a clue as to how to help yourself in the cards. Or, constant aches and pains could be related to a Universal energy getting stopped on its flow through your charkas. These energy points are what helps power your body on a spiritual and psychic level throughout the day, and can often get blocked .A healer in the ways of reiki can help to clear these charkas. You wouldn’’t know to go if you hadn’’t seen it in your cards! Digestive issues and other sorts of systems problems that are stubbornly avoiding being diagnosed by modern medicine may have spiritual causes that you can discover through psychic impulses and your tarot deck.

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Symbolic messages are all around you if you just stop and take time to look. The cards are an excellent tool to help you assess the world around you, but this assessment will be meaningless if you don’’t take the time to interpret what you’’ve seen. As I have stated before and will more than likely say again, the cards’’ symbolism is the way to start, but you have to practice every day to learn the deeper symbolism. True psychics can look at a spread and glean knowledge from the cards before they have even applied a single meaning to each one, simply by looking at the types of cards that are displayed. For instance, I once saw a reader who used eight decks, all mixed together in a child’’s plastic bucket. He would hand the bucket to the querant, and have them pull ten cards. These ten cards were read as if they were in the Celtic Cross spread (which will be taught later); only he never laid them out. Instead, he took the cards and spread them in his hand much like a fan, and looked over the whole, then went into the individual cards. The use of the multiple decks allowed for strong messages to leap out. In one reading, I saw the Death card from two different decks come one after another. Obviously, the man for whom the psychic was reading for was gong to experience great changes in his life in the very near future. This kind of divination is possible from repeated practice, and from paying attention to the subtle and not so subtle signs that are all around you. The fact that the Death card existed only eight times in a bucket of 576 cards, and yet was pulled twice and in order shows that the Universe felt it very important that this young man be prepared for a change. The remaining cards were mostly pentacles, indicating good fortune

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and business. This was a powerful message delivered simply through a sign of repetition. Knowing that intuition is the basis of all divination gives you a strong base from which to launch your daily practice sessions. When you first get started with the cards, you are very concerned with the meanings of the individual cards. It can seem daunting to memorize 72 meanings, each of them different but some close enough to be confusing. What is the different between the World and the Three of Cups, for instance? To the experienced reader, the difference is obvious. To someone just starting out, they may seem as though they mean almost exactly the same thing. The Death card and the Ten of Swords are also similar cards. The way to root out the difference is through practice but also through allowing your own intuitive sense of what the images mean come through. After a while, you may find that the standard meanings of the cards don’’t mean anything to you. This is OK too. There is no set way to read the Tarot, only suggested meanings. When you are using your own intuition to flow through the tool, you will find that your readings are much more precise and interesting. ““Interesting”” is an important part of reading for others. No one wants a droning documentation of this card says this and this one says that for a reading. They want to hear about themselves, and what is to come in their lives. By allowing yourself to be intuitive in your readings, you will be able to pick up on the cosmic awareness and make the cards speak to you in ways they can’’t if you insist on looking up every standard meaning in a book.

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The standard meanings are going to be the basis of your card readings, don’’t get me wrong. We’’re going to learn them, and then expand on them so that you can use the subtle differences between them to create accurate readings that can help yourself and those around you. Slippery, fleeting messages as a way to utilize your institutive powers might not sound like something worth developing, but there’’s hope yet. When you get to the point of being able to recognize these messages as they come, you can make decisions ““on the fly””, choosing your life’’s path as you walk along it. People who aren’’t in tune with the psychic undercurrents of the world are stuck with Monday morning quarterbacking their entire lives. That’’s not very productive or proactive. Now on the other hand, if you learn how to decipher the signs around you, you can be aware that you may run into some financial difficulties in the next few weeks and start saving your money, or you may have a sense that an opportunity is on the way and you need to be alert and not miss it. While most people are looking back over their lives and seeing turns they might have made, you are looking forward in your life to turns that you can choose to make in the future. That’’s a much better vantage point from which to make a decision! Other examples of intuitive gifts helping you in life have to do with how much you can help those you love. If you see or sense something important for a family member, you have the ability to counsel that person. They may not listen, of course, but that isn’’t your problem! The point is that, if you are right often enough, people will listen, and you will find that you have a great amount of

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influence in helping others achieve their personal happiness, all the while letting them choose their own paths. Of course, there is always the chance to make a living as a psychic. The streets of New Orleans are filled with working psychics who make a tidy living from donations all summer long, working their own hours and being their own bosses! The important thing to remember is that although the messages may be difficult to get a grasp on, they are as valuable as gold, and should be sought for the benefit and joy they can help bring to your life. Documenting your results on paper is an excellent way to not only judge your progress, but to learn to spot patterns in your life. Spotting these patterns is one of the best ways to know that you are truly using intuition. These patterns seem random to people who aren’’t intuitive, but to those of us who know there is no such thing as a coincidence, they are messages and signs from the Universe and we need to pay attention to them. Once, I had a certain feeling I should go to New Orleans and get a tarot deck. I didn’’t know which deck, but heeding the inner voice, I went to the city. I found a shop hidden in a small tucked away corner, with many different decks. I got my hands on a couple of them, but they didn’’t do anything for me, then I found some Alchemy cards. I loved them and bought them. As I handed the cashier my credit card, she laughed and said, ““Wow, how weird, your last name is my boyfriend’’s first name.”” My last name is not common, and certainly not as a first name! I took it as a message that I was in the right shop and buying the correct deck.

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When I bought my new home, I found an armoire in the basement that also had my last name on it, written in black crayon and shoved in a back corner. No one knew how long it had been there, or where it came from. Again, I thought it meant that I had purchased the correct home for that stage of my life. As of right now, it seems to be working out fine! The point is this: if you see these things and don’’t write them down, you may miss the patterns. You may not see that every time you make the right move, your name shows up mysteriously. Someone knows someone with your name, or you see it on a partially burned out neon sign, made out of the remaining letters. You just never know. Your journal will make it clear to you. Pre-determination and validation are questions that a lot of people who are just learning how to use their psychic abilities find that they have. Are these peeks into THE future, or peeks into a POSSIBLE future, one that may or may not happen? As it turns out, forecasting is imprecise for two reasons. First, we only see what we are allowed to see. Second, we only see what we want to see. To the first point, think about why all the psychics in the world don’’t just predict the winning numbers of the local lottery and live rich as fiends? Well, the Universe has a purpose for them, one they would not live out if they were sitting around eating bonbons. That is information that the Universe will not allow them to have. Other examples can be your exact time of death, or maybe if you will ever have children. The second point has to do with people as they are. You don’’t want to see when you are going to die, that much is almost certain. Even if the cards were leaping

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up and down flashing the date and time, you probably wouldn’’t see it. This is why so many people have a hard time with the concept of the Tarot and psychic abilities. They don’’t want to see that it works, and so they don’’t. When you factor in that paths can change at the blink of an eye, it’’s no wonder that the arcane arts aren’’t widely practiced. When you see signs and symbols, you need to pay attention to them, because you might need to make a split second decision. Of course, you may bypass that choice entirely because you missed a previous choice that put you on that path to begin with. The truth of the matter is that if you trust yourself and go with what you feel is right, you’’ll find that making the correct choices is easy as breathing, and just as automatic! Don’’t be discouraged that all your predictions don’’t happen. If even some of them do, you’’re on the right track. Decisions, then, become a process of taking the pictures you can see on your cards, deciphering them, applying your instincts and intuition to them, and then moving forward. Sounds pretty easy, right? It is. When you have practiced for a while, the meanings of the cards will be second nature to you. With the help of your journal, you can leaf back through your documented past and see what that card usually means in your own personal lexicon. Remember always that you don’’t see what will be. You see what can be, and it’’s up to you to decide if you want that future or not. Very often when you pull a spread of cards, you’’ll see a favorable outcome in the future. You wouldn’’t want to change that, of course! In that case, your decision would be to continue the way you are going. You might wonder what would be the point of your daily

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practice and readings in that case. The point is that you want to make sure you are staying on the path, and you can’’t always tell where that is. What works one day may not work anymore the next day. So, staying home and not moving may keep you on the path on Monday, but on Wednesday you see that you are going to miss a huge opportunity. You know then that you need to change the way you are going in order to re-intersect with the path that leads to the outcome you want. Desirable outcomes are also personal. What is good for you may not be good for me, and vice versa. You may be looking for a job promotion or a happy family, and your sister may be looking for an adventure. You have to know what you consider to be a desirable outcome before the possible future you see in the cards will mean anything to you. Also remember that this can change as you grow and mature. Going to Africa on safari might have seemed wonderful at 40, but now at 53, you’’d rather be more of a homebody. Allow yourself to change, as you will. It’’s one of the benefits of being human, after all. Curved time presents a bit of a problem for the seer, since it can create distortion. What might seem to be an easy flow around you turns out to be filled with obstacles you had no idea existed, This is another reason that you won’’t be able to look into a crystal ball and announce that this event or that one will be taking place in four weeks. If you choose to go to a professional psychic and she tells you something like that –– run! You’’re being scammed. We’’re going to go over the ethics of professional readers later, for those of you who wish to try your

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hand at a career. We’’ll also go over ways to know if you are being scammed when you go for professional readings. Think of looking forward into time like looking into a fish eye lens, but one that is a complete circle. Some objects seem to be very close, but aren’’t. Other objects are tiny with distance, but when take away the lens, they are right at your feet. Couple this with the fact that a lot of what you could see is obscured by mists of Universal energy that obscure what you’’re not meant to see, and you can see that prognostication is a tricky business. Basically, time flows in many directions, so you need to ask yourself when you are working with your cards if you are seeing an event in your past, present or future. You may be holding a card that indicates a great change is coming in your life, and read several more cards following it showing a new career, then realize that this is the past, and it was when you graduated from college. This is a good time to look for missed opportunities, or a lesson you were supposed to get at that time but may have missed. When the cards show you what you don’’t expect to see in that manner, you need to pay twice as much attention to see if you can glean why. The cards will tell you what you are supposed to know, but sometimes they do it in a backhanded fashion. Clairvoyance, telepathy, clairaudience …… there are a lot of words to describe psychic phenomenon, but how do you know which ones to concentrate on? Just like any other skill, you might be better than one than the other, just as a basketball player may be great from the three point line but can’’t seem to shoot a free throw to save his life. You can actually test yourself to see what kinds of

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experiences you are already having naturally, and then choose that skill or set of skills to develop. Have you ever felt like someone was ill when you can’’t see him or her or hear him or her? Have you ever finished people’’s sentences, or known what someone was about to say before they spoke? How about a situation where you knew what someone was thinking about and said it a split second before they did. If you have, you have experienced telepathy, which is ““mind reading.”” The mind is not an open book to be read, but you can get impulses from it. When you hear a voice warning you, or you can hear the sounds of people, or of your spirit guide, your talent is clairaudience. This is when you get your psychic impulses audibly. This isn’’t hearing voices in your head because you’’re mentally unsound! It’’s that small voice you hear that tell you not to step off the curb when you don’’t realize a car is coming. Clairvoyance is the art of seeing the future, visually. If you dream that a plane is going to crash, and then you see it in real life, or you have a sense of deju vu often but you know you’’ve never seen in the situation before, you are probably experiencing clairvoyance. This is probably the most widespread gift, those little flashes of insight that let you know before trouble happens that you need to be careful and watch out.

Free Will and Your Personal Quest Personal power and the freedom to walk your own path is what is meant by free will. However, you can just walk aimlessly, or you can set a goal for yourself to know what you are to accomplish in this life. Many people are here because they - 46 -

have lessons to be learned that they haven't learned in a past life. This is the theory of the karmic Wheel. As you work your way around the wheel, you become a wiser and wiser soul until you join the Universal power. You can use the tarot and your budding psychic powers to help you ascertain exactly what that goal is for you. That goal isn't something specific, like "be an animal trainer." It's much broader, maybe to help the Earth's environment not be destroyed so more animal species may live, for instance. No matter where you stand on reincarnation and the Karmic wheel, the desire to find your personal quest is the driving force behind almost everything you do. There are a lot of job counselors and psychiatrists in jobs today because people have a longing that they just can't fill. They try to stuff it up with careers, or with therapy, but the hole comes back. Truly, the only way to get rid of the longing is to make strides towards becoming whatever it is you are supposed to become. Finding your personal quest with the cards is a lifelong process. Although your main quest will be the same throughout your life, you may find that the short term goals you need to reach to get there move often. Daily readings, as well as yearly psychic "tune-ups" can help you make sure that you are sticking to the ultimate goal, that of knowing where you should be in the world and how to get there. Professional psychics are very good for helping with the yearly tune-up, but we are going to learn ways to do it yourself. The rest of this chapter is devoted to learning how to use your cards to locate your personal quest and to get started on the path towards it.

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Navigation in this personal Universe can be tough; there is no doubt about that! One thing that helps is your journal. It can show you a theme in your readings over a period of time, and help you to clarify your personal mission. You don't have to do a journal for very long in order to start to see these themes emerge, if the readings you are doing are aimed in that direction. For example, when you do your daily three card reading, you ask for some direction in your personal mission as well as your day. You do this every day for a month, and each time you do a reading, you write down the cards you drew, what they made you think of, and what the standard book meaning was of each cards. At the end of thirty days, you can look back and you may see things start to jump out at you. They may be similar cards, feelings, or meanings (remember, sometimes the card's standard meanings can be very close). If you keep drawing swords, you may be getting a message to start something new, to make the world a better place through initiative. Wands mighty indicate a need to travel, and to enrich yourself with other cultures and experiences. A proliferation of cups may be a signal to be a living person, a Mother Theresa, if you will. Pentacles may indicate that you have a need to succeed in business, to bring prosperity to the world around you. You can also find these patterns in your personal feelings about specific cards, and in your book meanings. Please note that although this is your personal quest, it will never be a single life goal. You aren't going to pull a lot of pentacles and have a message of "Go out and make a ton of dough, your goal is to die

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rich." The Universe is unselfish, and looks out for all its members. You need to do so as well. Changes in your future are an ever present dilemma. Just like a river flows according to its banks, it also flows according to the time of year, the rocks and logs and other obstacles in it's path, then temperature, and so on. Each small variance changes the ultimate direction that the water flows. It is the choices that you make during these divergences that give you the ability to move in the way you wish to move. When you are dealing with the mutability of time, either in your own life or in others, it is helpful to remember that a single river carved the Grand Canyon. Also, to continue to river analogy, there are fast flowing rivers in the world that should not be shaped as they are. Their paths meander when they should be straight. These changes in the flow have been caused by great upheavals in the land, upheavals that caused these rivers to be on much steeper slopes than they were when they carved their beds. Also remember that in a river, the rocks are other artifacts are slowly tumbled and worn away. You are also tumbled and jostled by the river of time in which you ride, and can be worn away. You have the benefit of your cards to tell you when an obstacle is coming, and the ability to choose to avoid it. Daily practice will make it easier for you to see when these obstacles are coming, and help you to decide which is a good direction to dodge. Again, I must stress that just because you are developing your psychic abilities doesn't mean you'll never hit one of the obstacles. In order for your soul to grow,

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you must experience the world and the Universe as they exist, and if you are sheltered by constantly avoiding the rocks and curves in your path, that won't happen. What you will be able to see are those things that you can change. Making the changes is up to you. Deciding what changes need to be made is also completely up to you. Manifesting your goals is a fancy term for "wishing." When you learn to visualize what you are seeking, you will find that it is much easier to realize these goals. That's another reason your daily meditation is so vital. You need to not just think about your goals, and make random wishes. This is a different kind of wish. To visualize your wishes, you need to be able to see them clearly. You need to be able to know what it feels like when they come true. Because of the depth of thought, you need to make only one wish at a time. Don't wish for things like "a good job." That's not anything but …… a wish! You need to go deeper. "I want a job where I am fulfilled" is getting closer, but it still not there. You need to see yourself as a happy person. You need to be able to see the workspace around you. What are you doing? Are there people around you? Are there any distinctive aromas? Where is your workspace? Are you at home? In a cube farm? In a field of cattle? All these types of questions are examples of how specific you need to get about your dreams and goals. Once you can visualize your wish, you will find that it is a series of very small steps. Most people end up unhappy because they don't actually know what they are looking for when they begin their quest. When you are meditating on your wish, use your cards to help you see this destination.

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You may also find that what you think you want isn't it at all. This is the kind of thing that causes mid life crises! If you can see yourself happy as a pediatrician, but you can also see yourself happy as an astronomer, you need to consult the cards and the energy of the Universe to see to which career you are being pointed. In the end, you can do many things, but only one will be your life's work. It's worth it to take the time to find out exactly what that is. To look for clues, pull three cards. These are your past, present and future. Look at each card carefully, thinking about how t makes you feel and what you think about when you see it. Write this all down in your journal. Within a few days, you should start to see your wish's path becoming clearer to you. From there, it's simply a matter of getting to the point you want to be! Karma is a word that is often misused when it comes to your life's work and your personal quest. You need to keep in mind that although your purpose may be predetermined, your goals and the way of getting to where you should be are not. Therefore, it's important not to let the idea of "karmic retribution" for some past life's errors get in the way of your goal setting, and your meditations. There are spreads that we will see later that allow you to get a clue as to your past lives. You don't need to do them in order to understand what burdens your life force may bear, however. When you start the daily mediations, and the journals, you can use the familiar three cards to see what you have brought with you in a past life. This time, you will draw three cards only from the Major Arcana (the cards without any swords, pentacles, wands, or cups on them.) These cards

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relate to your spiritual place on this earth, and talk of spiritual things. They are the way the Universe communicated with you. When you pull the three cards, look for a pattern. Two points in space make a line, but three points in space show you which way that line is going, or if any of the points are related at all. Again, by journaling carefully which cards you drew, what you were thinking while you drew them. What thoughts went on in your head when you saw them, and what the card's standard meanings were will help you to see over a period of time what your past life may be holding in check for you. By correcting these issues from the past, you are able to free your soul to move forward. If anything in developing your psychic abilities has to do with karma, it is the movement of your soul or spirit. You will not be able to move forward if you don't fix your karmic burdens, or learn your karmic lessons. Therefore, you really should make time your daily meditations for this ritual, even if you are only moderately interested in what your past life may have held for you. It is something that you carry with you forever, so it is affecting you even today as you read these words! Daily, consistent charting is the best way to help you gain some clarification on your personal quest. Through this activity, the patterns that are present in your life will begin to show themselves. Charting can be done any number of ways, and is as unique and individual as the person doing it. To chart, you're going to take the information in your journal, and put it into some kind of graphical representation that means something to you. For instance, you

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nay have found through your daily readings that certain cards appear almost every day. You may want to make a chart that describes the number of cards. This is called a Pareto. You simply count how many times each card shows up over the course of the month, and put a point on your chart where that number appears. When you are done, you have a graph that shows how many times, say, the Two of Cups showed up over the past month. If you are carefully recording your daily activities and feelings along with your readings, you may even be able to tie the occurrence of this card to aspects of your life. This is the kind of activity that strengthens your conscious knowledge of the intuitive powers you are working to develop. When you know that you are going to see the Two of Cups often while involved in planning a family reunion, for instance, you know that you can expect to see the same kinds of obstacles and triumphs when you perform a similar function if that card shows up a lot again. This is a balancing act between your mind and your subconscious. It's one that you can help facilities by carefully noting what is going on in your life when certain cards make their appearance. Perspective on your personal mission gives you a direction to go with your decisions. This is the truest, quickest way to personal happiness- knowing the truth about where you want to go, and then making strides to get there. People can go their whole lives, or several lifetimes for that matter, with no idea of why they are on the planet. They have no personal mission. When you are using charting, journaling, daily readings, and other tools to help plan your personal mission, you are taking control over your life and what happens in it.

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The Universe is a place that will put many decisions in front of you over the course of your life. Some of the choices you make will be terrific, and some not so great. The important thing to remember in all of this is that, no matter which method of divination you use, be it cards, runes, or ouija board, you have to take responsibility for the choices you make, and the results of those decisions. This has the downside of you being the cause of your own downfall, but more importantly it means that when good things happen, you are the cause of them as well! Using the cards to help you find your personal mission is a worthwhile endeavor at any rate. The more you experience the paranormal and the psychic, the more developed your powers will become. It's important to take the time to check in with yourself every so often to see how you are coming with your personal quest. Do you feel like you are still in track? Are there things you feel like you want to be doing and aren't? What would make you feel more like you are heading the direction you want to go? Taking the time to answer these questions gives you a scope on your life, and makes you aware of how you are leading it. It's easy to let it slip past without thinking about it! To make sure you are keeping track, do the above exercise at least monthly, as a regular tune-up for your psyche. Events in your life also help to clarify your personal quest, if you take the time to pay attention to them and their significance. A single event or occurrence may not mean anything at all, but when they start to multiply, the same page n the same book over and over, you may find that there is specificity to the message

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that you are missing, even though the Universe is trying to bang you over the head with it! When you are keeping your journal, you may want to devote some time to writing down anything that happened to you that made you think, or made you feel…… different. For instance, you may have been driving, and noticed that a lot of license plates had 8s in them. Not just one seven, either. You were surrounded all day by plates like 818 and 844 (adds to 8) and so on. Does this mean go out and buy a lottery ticket, making sure to choose the number 8? Probably not. But if you write it in your journal, the fact that your daily spread the next day prominently features the Strength card from the major Arcana may be a clue that you are going to be needing some extra personal power coming up. However, to paraphrase Freud: sometimes an 8 is just an 8. When you are playing attention to the signs and symbols around you, make sure you don't end up deciding that everything is a message. You'll just drive yourself crazy. There are also being in the Universe, called Tricksters, who like to teach by reversal. These are the ones that will take you into a black room so that when you come across light, you will know what it is. Their lessons can be hard, but they are needed. When you are looking at your personal signs and symbols over the months and years, see if some of the lessons you are missing are coming from these Lokis of the Universe. Negotiation through these patterns can be tricky. I know it's been said a lot, but it bears repeating, daily practice is the only way to get to the point where you can tell what is coming from your burgeoning physic abilities and what you are putting

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there because you want to see it. People are funny creatures. We see what we want to see, and we hear what we want to here, to quote Nilsson's Rock Man. We need to be vigilant that we aren't hoping to see psychic impulses and divination where all there really exists is an interesting juxtaposition. That said, you can easily see your progress with the following exercise. First, take your daily spread, and chart it as described before. Any kind of chart will do. Now, at the end of that chart, put your feeling of what you feel tomorrow's cards will contain. You don't have to put all three, just pick one. For instance, you have been doing your charting, and you notice a lot to Tens, but not the same suit. Tomorrow you feel like the ten that shows up will be The Wheel of Fortune, the ten from the Major Arcana. Write that down in a special space, and move on to the rest of your work. Tomorrow, when you start your daily spread, look back and see if you got the card you thought you would. If you did, make a note, and if you didn't, make a different kind of mark, so it's obvious when you are right and when you are not. These marks are now something you can chart to see if you are making progress. These marks will also let you know if you are opening yourself up to your psychic abilities. You may occasionally "guess" the right card, but if you are truly using your psychic impulses to make the pick, you will find that you have a better than 50% rate of choosing the correct card. This is a fun and simple way of judging your progress on your goals. So, what are these special spreads you're going to do on a daily basis? Here are three to start with. As you move through your development, you will find that you

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want to do more complex spreads. Later on, I will teach how to compose your own spreads. DAILY SPREAD

The first card, Judgement, has a book meaning generally of victory over obstacles. This card is located in the Past position, and indicates the foundation on which this day is based. The card comes from the Rider Waite deck, and shows three people rising to the music of an angel's trumpet. In this position and with these meanings, we interpret this card to mean that in the past, the querant has had to overcome some significant problems, and has done so successfully.

The second card, the Fool, has a book meaning of new beginnings, the start of a journey. Located in the Present position, this card shows the querant poised on the cusp of beginning a new adventure. This card is generally regarded as quite positive. The image is of a new day, and a happy young androgynous figure trustingly heading out into the world. Overall, we interpret this card to mean that today's endeavors will be successful, and that something new may be on the horizon.

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The final card, the Empress, is in the position of the Future. We don't know if this future is tomorrow or years from now. This card has a traditional meaning of fertility, creativity, and maybe even an actual physical birth. The pregnant Empress sits in a natural setting, where she is the essence of femininity, as is conveyed by the female symbol on her seat. Taken in accord with the previous card and we see that this bodes well for the new undertaking that is happening in the present.

It is important to remember that even though this is a daily reading, it doesn't necessarily mean things that will happen "today." Remember that time flows all around, and what we think of as past present and future don't exist to the Universe. We have what has happened that we remember, what is happening that we are experiencing now, and what may happen that we haven't seen yet.

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ANGEL SPREAD

These cards are from the Book of Alchemy deck. Notice that they are different from the Rider Waite cards in many respects, such as the inclusion of the astrological information for the card. These cards contain five suits, no Arcana, and nine cards within each suit.

The first card in this spread is "Protect," in the center. This position indicates the person you are inside, not the person you present to the world. The card contains a picture of a woman who is almost fully encased in a moon, and is in the Egg suit. The standard meaning for this card is protection not just for yourself, but also you protecting others. The card is a "1" card, meaning that this is a new skill that the querant is learning.

The second card in this spread, "Energize," is the representation of your higher self, your spiritual personality. It depicts a salamander in a fire, where is drawing - 59 -

power. This card is the second one in this spread in the Egg suit. Usually, this card means energy, energizing those around you. Although this card is not a beginning level card, the querant is still learning to balance forces within and outside themselves.

The third card is "Create," in the suit of Trees, depicting a wounded man with an arrow piercing him. A hand is reaching towards him, and the moon watches the scene. This position is representative of secret desires and needs. The standard meaning for this card indicates a pent up creativity, a burning desire to create something worthwhile. The grade of this card is advanced, and indicates an acknowledged mastery of some subject. The querant is sometimes sought for advice or lessons.

The fourth card in the spread, "Fortify," is the third card in this spread in the suit of Egg. It depicts a hooded and robed woman who is pointing to two columns of smoke which are joining in front of a small hill containing five blossoms. This position in the spread indicates regrets for missed opportunities. With a standard meaning on this card of stocking up, or stockpiling, fortifying the querant's position against the darker forces in the world. It is obvious that the querant is probably regretting not starting a savings account, or maybe a bomb shelter! There's something the querant feels they have missed the boat about in regards to fortifying their personal shelter.

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The fifth and final card in this spread is "Cultivate," from the suit of Retort. It shows a fountain with three spouts, and a Sun, Moon, and Stars in the background. It sits in the position representing the future. Remember, this is not the Set in Stone future. This is the possible future based on a current path. The card has a standard meaning of cultivating opportunity. The querant is honest and hard driving, but the card's grade indicates that the querant is still learning to temper this with patience. To complete this reading, we note that more than half the cards are in the suit of Egg, which is the suit of protection. There seems to be a strong need to protect a new venture, one that has not been as well funded or thought out as it could have been (from the fourth card in the spread.) When you are writing in your journal, you would record this spread very much like the above. This also gives you the chance to note the similarities between the reading we got from the Daily spread and this one. Both spreads indicate a new chance or opportunity, obstacles in the past, and a future that is pregnant with possibility and new growth.

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KARMIC SPREAD

The cards in this illustrated spread are from the Thoth Tarot, developed by Aleistair Crowley for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It is a seven card spread read from the bottom right around to the center, like a spiral. The spread represents a triangle, with a single card in the center. To give you some practice in journaling, I am going to tell you what each position means, and the book meanings of the cards portrayed. It is going to be up to you to interpret the spread. Get out your journal and get started! Questions to be answered with the Karmic spread are things like "what was positive about the past life?" "What was negative?" "What could have been done differently?" "What should I be doing in this life based on the past life?"

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The first position represents the destiny of the previous life. It is the outwardly observable result of the life. In this position is sitting The Star, a Major Arcana card signifying that the beauty of the Universe is often obscured by dogged attempts to view it as a straight line, instead of a curving spiral. The second position represents the self, the inner purpose of the life. In this position, we see the 3 of Disks. This card represents abundance and work completed well. Something has been done that has made a difference. The third and fourth positions represent the major influences and shaping factors of the previous life. Here we have Death, a Major Arcana card, and the Ace of Disks, the second of both Major Arcana and Disks we have seen in this spread. Death has the meaning of a change so great it is almost a destruction of the old ways of thinking and a brand new beginning. The Ace of Disks in this context holds the meanings of being the seed of prosperity, and also represents Africa or Europe when questions of locality are asked. The fifth card represents the direction of the soul’’s journey during the lifetime being read. The card occupying this slot is Nine of Disks, the third Disk in this layout. The Nine of Disks tends to represent wealth, and plenty of it. This selfsatisfied card has earned all the wealth it represents, however. These are not ill gotten gains. The sixth card represents the destination this soul reached during the lifetime. It is how far along the path towards the destiny (card one) the soul went before the life ended. In this position, we see the Magus, a Major Arcana card. This card

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holds many meanings, the most prominent of which is wisdom. The Magus is the Fool after his journey is completed. The seventh and final card in this spread represents the lessons not learned that have been carried over from the past life to the current one. This is the soul work you have brought with you from the previous lifetime. In the position, we have a Court card, the Prince of Wands. This card holds the connotations of swiftness and strength, but weaknesses of impulsiveness and indecisiveness. This card represents a person with the ability to see both sides of every question, and a need to learn how to stop analyzing and take a position eventually. Remember, you need to look for patterns in your interpretation. If you can, see if you can relate the final card of the Karmic Spread to the patterns you saw in the first two examples. Are there correlations? One reading can confirm another, and so on. This is the basis of looking for patterns and learning to see them. Trust in your impulses, and see how you feel with your interpretation. There are no right or wrong answers. Energy is a funny thing. You can never predict how or when it's going to turn, twist, and jump. However, your journal is the single most important tool you have. With your journal, you can tell the patterns in the previous three spreads that you might have missed otherwise. There were obviously consistent patterns within the spreads - for instance, repeated occurrences of suits, a preponderance of Major Arcana. However, without the help of your journaling, you might have missed that the same patterns showed up across the spreads as well.

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Your journal can be whatever you want. Make it a notebook, a fancy journal, a clipboard full of white ruled paper - whatever works for you. The important thing is to have it. It can also help you to find out the answers to those questions you are looking for, the reason you are attempting to develop psychic abilities in the first place. You may be wondering how your career is going. Through a series of daily spreads, you may see that there's a change looming on the horizon for you, with a lot of pentacles or disks. You might be wondering if you should take that new job. When you look back over the previous months of journaling, you see that a big change is coming, but it's going to bring a lot of trouble with it. When you turn down the job, you may find that your daily readings now show that the future is much more promising. These are all reasons why your daily journals are so important. You don't have to become afflicted with hypergraphia (a rare compulsion to keep writing). Just make sure that when you write down your readings, you do so with precision and using dispassionate words. After all, you want to see what the cards showed you on a certain day, not what your mood was. Overall, you can definitely judge where you should make changes by having a record of your past readings. The meanings of the cards and the focus they give you on everyday matters can become very layered and interesting. You might see in your journal that you are going to be prosperous, and have a happy family life. That seems odd to you, because you're single, no prospects, and on unemployment. When doing a daily reading, you see that you are going to get a

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job offer very soon. However, you also see that the final cards in your readings are changing from happy to filled with strife. You can use this information to make the decision to continue looking for work. Whatever choices you make, you'll be able to see the difference in the cards immediately. Your thoughts are bursts of energy, traveling over minute spaces in your brain. When you think about a change you need to make, or you make up your mind to do something, you add that little spark of energy to the Universe. If you were to make a decision, then pull the same spread of cards again, you could find that the whole thing is entirely different. If you don't like the way it changed, you can make another decision, and see where that leads you. Remember, always, your future is not set in stone. Every move you make, every thought you have, affects the outcome of your life's journey. If you are looking for prosperity (and let's face it, who isn't?) you need to be aware that you can always change your path. You are never locked into a future that you don't like. Does that mean that just by thinking about things, you can do without working for them? No, not at all. Nevertheless, it does mean that you can choose which college is a good one, or which career you might want to pursue by using this kind of guidance. Rieki, bodywork, or aura reading may turn out to be your life's quest. You personal quest rarely deals with you on a single human level. Rather, it has to do with how you can add to the world. Spiritual healing is a vital activity that too few people are able to perform. If you find during your daily readings and journaling

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that when you look back, you see a preponderance of Cups, you might want to ask this question during your daily readings. Questions during your readings don't have to be said aloud. They don't even have to be much more than fully formed thoughts. Try to picture yourself as a healer, and pull a single card from the top of your deck. Flip it over like a book, not like a tablet, so it ends up either right side up or upside down the same way it was when it was on top of the deck. If it is right side up, this is a "yes." If it is upside down, it is a "no." This simple Yes/No spread, as it is called, can help you narrow your personal quest down, so when you get to the larger, more complicated spreads, you have a clear idea in mind of what you are looking for when you pull the cards. Personal quests can also relate to healing your own spirituality, of course. If you are pulling a lot of cards that seem to indicate a loss of direction, or a lack of something in your life, you might want to consult with a body worker or a Reiki therapist about putting things right again. Your mind and your body are inextricably linked, and if you are having a hard time spiritually, you'll be having similar difficulties physically. How nice it would be to know that your blocked colon is just a lack of direction in your spiritual life! Manifesting your wishes and goals through such techniques as visualization, affirmations, body working, and other activities is also good for your mental well being. When you take time out for yourself, you can get more in touch with those quiet things you might ordinarily miss. Too often, we are afraid that if we pamper

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ourselves, we're somehow being selfish. Actually, if we don't take the time to recharge, we are doing our families, friends and ourselves an injustice. Sometimes it might seem as you work with your cards that you are being told to hole up like a hermit crab and not come out. What this means is that you need to recharge yourself mentally, spiritually, and maybe even physically. Remember, the guides you speak to through the cards are coming to speak to you and your issues. If they are telling you to remove yourself for a bit, it's wise to do so! It won't hurt anything, and you'll be even stronger for having taken the advice of your guides. When you are looking at your cards, look for signs like repeated showings of the Hanged Man, the Ten of Swords, the Four of Swords, and other cards with book meanings indicating obstacles to moving forward, or impasses. Later in this book, we will go over each of the card meanings, so you won’’t have to guess. There are some cards with a definite message of stagnation. If you start seeing them, it might be time to take a break! Another sign you might want to settle down and take care of yourself is if you start seeing cards that indicate illness. This could be a physical illness, but more often it indicates a weakness growing in the soul. Your soul has inhabited many bodies in the past, and will inhabit more in the future. You'll make it easier on yourself if you keep it strong and healthy in this life by taking care of it as well as your physical body! Within each spread you pull and each card you draw, there is a message for you that is personal and private. It relates in some way to your life, to your health,

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wealth, family, or some other vital part of your existence, If you listen to what the cards are telling you, you can find a whole new purpose to your life that you may not even have considered. When looking to create your own spreads, note that the example layouts included here have a pattern that can be followed. They are either linear (past, present, future), or spiral, or some other geometric shape. The karmic spread has a logical order to it, with the self in the center, the spiritual or ““higher”” above, the inner or ““underground”” self, below, the past behind, and the future ahead. When you design your own spreads, decide what sort of order you want to impose on the cards. When you make the cards form a shape or conform to a pattern, you can draw the energy that you want to yourself and to them, making them read clearer for you. Eventually, you may find that you don’’t need to layout the cards at all. In your mind, the patterns that are formed by the typical layouts and the spreads you devise are well defined, so even though you have not made the cards into a physical pattern, you have still created a though pattern. When you can see the patterns of the spreads clearly, you can simply pull the cards off the top of the deck one a time, and know that they are falling into the correct spaces, even when there is no physical space. This is particularly handy for doing work on the road, or other places where you may not have a lot of room to lay out your cards. Some decks are also quite large, and require a great deal of space to lay out. Being able to enforce the spread in your mind makes these decks easier to

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handle in a regular setting where you don’’t have an entire cleared floor to work with your cards!

WHAT YOU NEED TO WORK WITH THE CARDS Situations may dictate that you have a certain number of decks, or you may only wish to have one. It all depends on what you want to do with your decks, and if you are interested in being a professional psychic. You might even want to have a couple of decks or more as a collection. This is a personal choice, and you can decide what you want. One thing to consider when you’’re thinking about this question is that a deck of cards usually runs about $30, and some can be much more. Some people think that collecting cards is a disgraceful way to treat a ““sacred”” object. I have many decks, and consider them tools, not objects of worship. Again, this is a choice for you to make. Your decks should have some things in common, however, no matter how many you have. You need to be sure you’’re comfortable with the deck you have chosen. They can come in many sizes and shapes as well as feature different kinds of imagery. For instance, I have a deck of cards that are round, and are nearly impossible for me to shuffle because they slip out of my hands. This deck is obviously not practical for using to read with! Other decks are quite large, and may not be appropriate for folks with smaller hands, unless you don’’t mind shuffling them with a version of 72-card pickup! I use this method myself with some of my decks.

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When you are looking or a deck, make sure you choose one that has imagery that appeals to you. Also, shop around. Your local bookstore may have a quite an ample collection of cards and at a cheaper price than a trendy metaphysical shop. Make sure you can see examples of the cards and hold them. You might prefer a heavier card, for instance, or find the size is just slightly awkward for you. Whatever deck you choose, you are the only one who has to like it, so don’’t be overly affected by other’’s opinions! Relaxation is a vital part of your mindset to be able to receive the psychic impulses you are looking to interpret. When you are beginning your course of seeking psychic energy and learning how to use tarot for divination, you will want to have a private space set up for yourself. This space doesn’’t have to be special; it just has to be someplace that is set up for you in the way you like. A bit later in this chapter we will go over the kinds of items you may want in your space, but for now, it’’s important to know that you want this area to be yours and yours alone. If you need to have a door to keep your family away from you when you are working, make sure your space has one. Also, when you are choosing your space, let your family know they need to respect that space, and not go into it, and not bother you when you are there. This can be the hardest part of creating your psychic awareness. Often your family may be jealous of the time you spend on your work, and may not realize your need for solitude is real. Be gentle, but firm about this point.

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Another consideration is that your space should not be too hot or too cold. If you are choosing an attic space or some other non-climate controlled area, you may want to add a space heater or an air-conditioner (or both!). You need to be able to concentrate on your work and on your cards, and not be bothered by outside factors like your fingers are too cold to pick up one card at a time, or you are feeling faint from heat. When you make these considerations, there is probably a space that has already come to mind. Check that space out carefully. It could be the universal energy choosing that space for you. Be open to the suggestions of the Universe. Comfort extends past your environment and to your working area. You should have a table of the right height that you don’’t have to resort to an uncomfortable position in order to reach across it, and is large enough for your sized cards and the types of spreads you would like to do. Remember that some decks can be as large as 5 inches by 6 inches or better, so if you are planning on using a deck of this size, a seven-card spread can be a significant amount of space. When working with cards of this size, some people prefer to use the floor. You can use whatever set up you are comfortable with. This is the same thing as making sure that your room is of a comfortable temperature. You don’’t want to be worrying about your feet falling asleep because you have to sit on them to reach the to cards in your spread, and you surely don’’t want your cards falling onto the floor if you prefer to use a table! If you are planning to read for clients professionally, a table is a must. It simply doesn’’t convey a level of competence that you need is you are spread on the

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ground. This doesn’’t apply if you are planning to read cards during rituals. In this case, it is perfectly acceptable to lay your spreads right on the ground. Since these kinds of rituals are usually conducted outdoors, the ground is already considered to be ““clean”” of negative energy, and often makes for very clear readings. Your table can be of any material you prefer. You can use a table of plastic, wood, iron, or something in between. If you like small cards or only use three card spreads usually, buy a cheap parson’’s table! The whole point is that you have a good solid surface to work with, one that you are comfortable using. Silence is not really a requirement for your space, but isolation definitely is. You need to be sure that you have the privacy you need for concentrating on what you are doing, and also for the freedom to do what you want to do. For instance, if you are one of those types of people that likes to work sky clad (in the nude), it won't do to have an open window where the neighbors can enjoy your work as well as yourself! In addition, if you prefer to have loud music playing, you want to be sure that your room is insulated, unless your family doesn't mind the sound. Where you locate your space sure has a lot of dependencies for not having many, doesn't it? All these hints I'm giving now are things that will make your space more comfortable, and make you more comfortable within it. Consider this the decorating and feng shui portion of the space. Speaking of feng shui, try to avoid having mirrors facing the doorway. In addition, if you want to do work while lying down, don't point your feet toward the doorway. Both of these allow the energy to run out of your room into the house, and that's

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not helpful! Put your furniture so that you have the most room possible; you want a big open space with lots of area to move around. You can place your table in the middle of this space, or if you are using a reading cloth on the ground, you can place it there as well. You should paint the walls whatever color you find soothing. Some people prefer purple for spiritual enhancement, or white for purity. Whatever floats your boat is just fine, though. After all, you're the one who has to work in here. The same goes with all the other decorations you add to your space. Focus and energy are two things I have said a lot about. But how can you decorate your room or space so that you can draw this kind of energy? Oftentimes, people like to use meditation with crystals to help guide them. You can get these in all kinds of colors and shapes, each individual, and each one suiting an aspect of your personality. A lot of people believe that crystals harbor and concentrate the energy of the universe. You can find these little gems in metaphysical shops as well as craft shops and other store. You don’’t need to go for any one particular color or shape, although there are some that are preferred by people who use crystals for their various properties. Some people prefer red because it is a very powerful color that draws energy to it. Some people prefer purple because it’’s a color that represents the last charka, or the Third Eye. Orange crystals are said to stimulate appetite and be good for the digestion. Pink crystals are for the heart, and are to gather emotional energy, which is especially good when you are working with relationship issues. Green

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A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library

crystals are for money and luck, not surprisingly. These guys are great for dealing with career questions, as well as the winning lottery numbers. Hematite is a silver stone that is believed to cool the blood. It’’s an excellent crystal or stone to get for calming your fears. They make great little worry stones too, ad they are extremely smooth and polished. They are wonderfully cool to the touch, and are instantly soothing when you hold one in your hand, while at the same time, being very hard to heat up with just your body heat! Calming music is another way to bring your space some isolation without having to shut yourself off from the world if you don’’t want to. The comfort of a mantra or the delicate sounds of harps, lutes, and other string instruments can add an aura to your work that can help you get into the mood to do some real divination quickly. You may prefer classical music, which is also fine. The only thing you need to think about in regards to having music in your space is if it is going to distract you or not. You don’’t want anything to pull your mind away from your work. If you love to listen to the complex passages in Mozart and pick out the lines of the various instruments, this is not good music to have in your space! However, if you can ignore the ratcheting guitars of Black Sabbath and it makes you feel comfortable, there’’s no reason not to have it in there. The point of the music is the exact same as the point of anything else you allow into your space with you –– it is there to make you feel at ease, comfortable, and receptive to the gifts of the Universe. You don’’t want anything to take your mind off that goal. Looking away for one second can make you miss whatever it was the Universe had to tell you.

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You also want to be able to concentrate fully on your cards, which is hard to do if you are being drawn away by sounds. Again, if the sound doesn’’t bother you, put it on. There are special tapes and CDs you can buy in bookstores, record stores, and metaphysical shops that are designed just for relaxation. You probably do not want to get one that’’s designed for restfulness, however. These can be overly calming, and induce sleep rather than trance! Also, if you are planning on reading for clients, music is a nice touch that tends to put people at ease, and will make your business seem more credible. Image is everything in this business, and you want to portray the most professional one possible. Personal beauty is your ultimate goal when you are creating your space’’s décor. To this end, you may want to add some artwork. When we are talking about personal beauty, we don’’t mean high art, or a fashion that conforms to someone else’’s idea of what is beautiful. This idea of beauty is yours, and yours alone. You may have a favorite photograph or two that you’’d like to frame. You might like to look at Jackson Pollockesque artwork while you allow yourself to think about the divination tasks you are performing. You might like to journal and enjoy Van Gogh as you do so. Whatever you enjoy, that’’s what should be there. I know people who decorate their spaces with dioramas, or shadow boxes, with tiny besoms and tarot cards in little boxes. One lady I know has a bird’’s nest that she found which had been made from the fur of one of her cats, among other materials! She put it in a plastic cube, an keeps it on her desk. Another person I know enjoys bobble heads, and can be seen to be gazing at them thoughtfully when she is working on a particularly delicate spread.

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Art can also be a seashell you pick up. A seashell used to be a living object, plus its association with the water of the Earth makes it very powerful. Some people will collect tens of them, or even hundreds of them, and keep them in decorative glass jelly jars. I know people who make candles, and add the shells into the wax for a decorative effect. All these kinds of things can be art, and can turn your space from just a room or a corner into a special place that has your personality and your special feel. It turns it into a place that reflects your inner being, and in so doing, pulls the energy of the Universe towards you and from inside you, focusing it so your cards reads smoothly and accurately. Friction is something you probably haven’’t even considered when working with your cards for divination, but it is an important thing –– especially when it’’s lacking! Many decks, in fact, most decks, are made from a heavy weight material, and are very glossy. This makes them slide around quite a bit on surfaces as well as against each other. That’’s good for shuffling, but not so good for spreads. The best solution for this is to use a reading cloth. This not only gives your cards a surface with some purchase to it, but it also provides your table top with protection. You can make a reading cloth out of anything you like. A lot of people go with a large piece of silk, as it is a natural substance that is light but has some grip to it. You can embroider it to make it personal, or you can buy a pre-made reading cloth. There are no important considerations in choosing a cloth besides that you like it, and that it’’s large enough to accommodate your spreads, much like your table. I

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use an embroidered silk cloth that has each of the seen charkas (energy centers for the body), seven pentacles, and a long stretch of silver thread which represents the silver cord that ties all our lives together from one body to the next. Yours in no way needs to be so ornate, or you might want to make it even more decorated. Color on it with fabric paints, cross-stitch on it, or draw on it with permanent markers. This tool, like everything else, needs to represent your thoughts and feelings about the World and the Universe. Anything that comes in contact with your cards should have as much positive energy associated with it as possible, so don’’t hesitate to make this cloth burst with your personality. Respect for your tools is shown in many ways, not the least of which is by using a piece of a cloth or a fabric bag to wrap your cards in for protection and preservation. This can be any kind of cloth, as with everything else. Most people prefer to use a natural fabric, such as silk, cotton, linen, or the like. Any of these would be fine. Your cards’’ wrap doesn’’t need to have anything fancy on it, unless, again, you want it to! Some people prefer to use a combination of cloth bags and reading cloths for card storage. A bag is extremely simple to make. Simply get a length of fabric that is twice as wide plus one half inch and as tall as your card plus one inch. Make a seam around three ends of the cloth with a quarter inch seam. At the top, put your seam line about half an inch down so you have a space to run a drawstring through. Your bag is completed as simply as that! Make one for each deck, and decorate them as you wish. Pentacles, Swords, Cups, and Wands are

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obviously appropriate decorations, but so are ubiquitous yellow happy faces is that is how you feel. When you put your cards into their bag, make sure they fit securely enough they won’’t slip out, but have enough room that you don’’t have to struggle to remove them. You want to be able to open your drawstring and slide them right out without having to fuss. Of course, there are pre-made bags available at mystic and metaphysical shops. These aren’’t too expensive, usually around five dollars, and will suit your purposes just fine in most cases, unless you have an odd sized deck. Protection is the main reason for having your cards wrapped, and it is also a good reason to have a box to store your cards in, within their bag. You can also use boxes to act as a differentiation between the types of cards you are using. For example, you may have three or four decks you use for professional readings, and another few you use personally. The professional decks are displayed constantly, so might need to be in a more ornate box. Again, with the boxes, the material is not important as long as it’’s large enough to hold your cards. I have some boxes that are made of plastic, and some of cardboard. My largest deck is in a cigar box, just because I liked the design on the box! What matters here is that the box can protect your cards, and is sturdy. The only box I don’’t recommend is the box that your cards came in. That box is usually too small, making it difficult to remove the cards, and is often of a flimsy cardboard which wears out easily. You can purchase special card boxes at the your card shop, or make your own out of wood, if you are a handy sort of person.

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A wooden box isn’’t hard to make. You can use four small pieces of wood glued together to form the sides and bottom, and then attach another piece of wood with hinges. Decorate your boxes using paints, stains, stickers, or stencils. Leave it the way it is, or pick a box with a nice wood burning on the lid. All that matters is that the box works for its intended purpose, and you feel good about it. In the end, the Universe wants you to be comfortable with your tools in all aspects. This is the best way to get the most energy flowing to you when you are using those tools, so make sure you’’re following that one rule. The rest will come naturally. Unexpected messages and signs can come from anywhere when you are working on your divination skills, so perhaps the most important things you need in order to work with your cards effectively is the proper frame of mind. This starts with being open-minded. You might start to notice things, and want to dismiss them. Remember that there are no coincidences. Keep your thoughts open and you’’ll see a lot more. I have a friend who simply does not believe in paranormal phenomenon. He told me of a dream he had one night where his boss told him that he (the supervisor) was going to France, and staying until the problem was solved, even if it took a long time. I asked my friend what the problem was. He said he had no idea, but the next day he found out that he had to go to France for a meeting, so he guessed he was going to find out! Even people who don’’t really believe in the experience are hard put to deny it when it happens to them

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Watch out for more than dreams and visions. You also want to pay attention to mistakes you make when you see people, or are reading or other activities. You may see a good friend’’s face over and over on people on the street, then find out that person is thinking of you and calls you that evening after a year and a half! Reading a billboard, you may see ““You are a millionaire”” instead of the actual slogan of ““The lottery can make you a millionaire.”” I would surely go out and buy a ticket if I made an error like that! You can’’t guarantee it is coming from the Universal energy flow, but you can’’t say it isn’’t either, so pay attention to it. You also may hear things, or get certain feelings, even though you have no reason to. You might really need to call your parents, and find out that your father has been feeling ill. All these types of things are important to note and be open to while you are working to develop your skills. Acceptance of phenomenon as it arrives is a good start, but you also need to be receptive to what the messages have to say. This is achieved by a sense of inner calm, another important part of your mindset. This inner calm can be achieved in many ways, but a popular one is through self-hypnotic trance. You don’’t have to be a master hypnotist to do this, nor do you have to wave a watch in front of your own eyes and speak soothingly to yourself. To get to this state, you’’re going to use a combination of breathing and isolation techniques. Isolation is sometimes mistaken for quiet. You don’’t need to be in a silent situation. In fact, some people find just the opposite is better. Put on the headphones and put on your favorite rock music to block out all other sounds. Close your eyes and try to picture the music on the page, or just watch shapes.

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While you do this exercise, you need to breath in through your mouth for a count of five and out of your nose for a count of five. The deep breathing relaxes your mind, while the mental gymnastics help to take your mind off reality and out into a spiritual plane. This type of isolation is referred to sensory overstimulation, and it works for many people. If you find that it is too distracting, you can try a silent room, or lie out in your yard on a summer afternoon and watch the clouds, or go to the beach and listen to the ocean. The important thing here is to get to a state where almost anything could happen and you would just accept it for what it is. I have known of people who have seen Kokopelli (an Indian god) walking through the desert and other visions once they have achieved this state of inner calm. This is when you will be most open to the messages, so that you can not only see, but also understand what you are being told. Specific questions will get you better results than ambiguous ones. "Will I meet the love of my life" is not a good question. Thinking about what you want in the love of your life, and then wishing for and asking specifically about that kind of person will be much better. You need to have a target to which your energy can flow. This is called focus. Focus in tarot reading and divination is relatively easy to achieve by using a techniques called "Five whys." This is simply asking yourself the question ““why”” five times, once after each of four answers, which helps get you to the base of the issue. So: "Why do I want to meet this person?" "Because I am ready for a relationship"

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"Why am I ready for a relationship?" "Because I am not lonely but I would like to share my life." Etc. When you get to that fifth why, you have a specific question or thought you can then use to ask your reading questions. This type of probing can be very difficult to do. You might not want to see the answer to the fourth or fifth whys. You may find out that the question you really want to ask is "Why do I feel I am incomplete without the love of my life?" This is the kind of question divination is very good at helping to answer! When you get the answer to that question, the one you maybe didn't know you had, pay attention to the advice cards in the spread. There's usually at least one, and possibly two. These are the cards that say here's how to get what you're looking for, here are the negatives you're having to overcome, and here is the result if you continue on this path, and here is the result if you make a few changes. These cards are the actual divination. These are the cards that are giving you the answers. As you can see, simply asking a yes/no question works for a good quick question like "Should I have toast for breakfast?" it's not that handy for answering the larger questions in your life. Expected appointments won't be kept if you are planning on psychic impulses telling you when they will appear! You will find that you are sensing things in the most unexpected places and at the most unexpected times, especially as you practice. This means you need to be alert when you are not working on your divination skills. The Universe moves on its own time, and there is nothing you or anyone else can do to speed it up. You will find that it doesn't take long before

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you can see rapid flashes of psychic activity when you are actively pursuing learning how to draw the power and energy into yourself. This doesn't mean that you have to worry about suddenly being seized by a trancelike state while you are walking across the street or something. What it means is that you will need to pay attention to that small, still voice. Make note of it in your journal when you get back home, commenting on what you were doing and when it was. It might have been nothing. On the other hand, you might have had a brilliant flash of psychic activity that will turn you into the next Edgar Casey, The Universe is a strange and a wild place, and there's no telling what will happen next. What if this doesn't happen? Are you doing something wrong? Probably not. Probably all that's wrong is that you aren't being open to the experience. When you get on the bus, you may find yourself drawn to a face, or maybe a newspaper headline. Does it mean anything to you? Can you tell anything about it from the feelings you are getting? These are the kinds of things to which you need to pay attention. These feelings can mean anything from "Wow, that guy has interesting eyes" to your next soul mate! There's no telling what you will meet, see and find on the road to extraordinary prowess with divination, so stay alert. Powerful energies such as that you draw on when you use the Universe's substance deserve respect. You need to be careful and make sure that you only use what you see for good. That doesn't mean lie about what you see, it means put things in a positive light. You should always strive to be constructive and

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instructive, never hateful or derogatory. This is especially true if you are reading for others, but it also goes for the messages you give to yourself. You need to remember that thought is just another manifestation of energy, and that if you fill your head with negatives, you are drawing the negative to you. So, if you see cards that don't particularly thrill you, you need to take the effort to turn what you see into a golden opportunity. There are no issues, only chances for improvement, as they say in the business world! If you see a break up in your future, look for the positive of more time to yourself. A job loss? Looks like you may be getting into a new field. Whatever the cards show you, it is inherently neither ““bad”” nor "good". Those are just words that we use to express how we feel about an event. If you want to feel positive about the events you see upcoming for yourself or others, all you have to do is take the initiative and see them that way. What you think, you eventually believe, and those beliefs are what ultimately form your personal reality, and help to determine your path through the Universal energy. As an exercise, try making these statements positive. Remember, they may be "bad" to you in connotation, but they are all neutral. When you are working with the cards, you may get these types of cards on a regular basis. You have to learn how to view these with a positive outlook. Remember, Death is not physical death; it is a change so extreme that the previous path you have been on is as good as ““dead.”” The Hanged Man is not a hanging. It is a respite, or stagnation. This type of pause is not necessarily something undesirable. It’’s sometimes hard to do, but you have to let things just exist as they are, without the stigma of a

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value judgment attached. The emotions that are attached to these words are intense, and can obscure the real messages. When you look at the following statements, work diligently to see them only as words and statements. For instance, the first statement may be changed to read: an adventure is waiting for you. You are going to take a long trip. Someone close to you is leaving. There's a change in your health coming. You are going to lose your current job. You are going to lose something valuable. Someone you know is coming to see you. You will make a change in residence. How'd you do? Practice a few times with them, and make up some of your own. You can't have too much positive energy!

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS IN THE CARE OF YOUR CARDS Sensitive tools like your cards are attuned to your energy, becoming more so as you work with them. That’’s why you want to make sure you take some precautions to protect them from the elements, negative energy and other things that can harm all the hard work you’’ve put into making your deck work for you. When you get your deck, you need to make sure you have thought of where you’’re going to store it and so forth. You probably don’’t want to leave an expensive deck of cards n your desk where you can spill coffee or soda on it, the baby can chew the corners, or the cat play with it! You’’ll want to have some basic - 86 -

things on hand to store your deck, which we will go over in detail in this chapter. The important thing to remember in this section is that, like in all other aspects of divination, the choices you make are yours. If you don’’t want to store your cards in a box, or wrap them in silk, or even if you want to use them as coasters, they are YOURS. Don’’t let any one else’’s opinion of right and wrong tell you how to treat your own deck. You do with them as you wish. That is better than all the fancy preparations in the world, and will go a lot further towards making you feel comfortable with yourself and your work to boot. You can’’t feel like you’’re seriously working on anything if you are worried that you have to follow some ritual you think is silly. In any case, you should protect your cards to the extent you feel that they need it. Some people use all different sorts of herbs, spells, wraps, boxes and other gear. Others are content to leave the cards in the box they came in. As we discussed either this makes them hard to get to, but it won’’t damage them. Basically, this chapter is an expansion of the methods of keeping your tools that were discussed in brief earlier. Your cards absorb energy every time you or someone else touches them. Therefore, it is imperative that you let them rest between readings, especially if you are going to read for others. Some professional readers keep a variety of cards on hand so that they can have a fresh deck for clients. The period of rest isn’’t a defined amount of time. You can let them sit for a few minutes or a few days. Let them sit until you feel comfortable that they have had a chance to return to a basically neutral state.

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Use your best judgment with this period, based on what kind of work you are doing with your cards. For instance, if you are doing heavy duty past life readings involving half the deck, make sure that you give a longer period of rest than if you are doing a one or two card reading that starts off your day. You can also mix up your decks! You can take three or four decks of different kinds and use them all at once, letting some sit aside while you use others. Don’’t be afraid to be creative. These cards are your conduits to the energy that the Universe contains, and the Universe is, of course, the font of all original thought. Let your mind roam free and use whatever you want to make your readings go easier. If you let others touch your cards, it is a good idea to get into the habit of cleansing them between readings as well. This can be done as simply as just imagining them being washed with pure white light as you shuffle them from hand to hand. You can also place them under your pillow and sleep with them at night. Again, there is no prescribed procedure. Make it personal to you. Negative random energy can be a strong influence around your cards, so if you make no other attempts to protect them, you should at least give some thought to keeping them away from this. Energy that is negative can spoil your readings. There's no way to avoid all negative energy, but you don't want to infuse yourself and your tools with it either. Think of negative energy as you think of a lamp. When the lamp is out, you're in the dark, obviously. When the lamp is on, you can see the light. You know the light is there because it is different from the dark. This is basically the effect of

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negative energy. If there was no negative energy, you would not be able to be aware of the positive energy. It's not there for that purpose, of course! It's there because it exists. There are positives in the world, and there are negatives. They balance each other out. Protecting your cards from negative energy is not a hard thing to accomplish. It can be done simply with any of the suggestions you will read in this chapter. You can do it even with visualization. When you are shuffling your cards at the end of your work session before you put them away, try to imagine a pure white light in your hands. Make the light form a bubble over your cards, a swirling bubble of pure white. When you can see the swirling cloud, imagine that there is a stream of black coming from the cards, and being swept away into the cloud. Watch the cloud as it grows dirty with the black energy from the cards. When you have seen all the dark energy leave your cards, imagine sending the cloud out away from you and your work space. Let the Universe reabsorb it, and restore balance to your work space, and to yourself. This is a good way to end every work session. Comfort is a word I have used a lot in this book - comfort with your cards, comfort with yourself, and comfort with the Universe. Sometimes in order to have personal comfort, you'll need to make sure that your cards are somehow marked as yours. One of the best and easiest ways you can do this is with something that is uniquely yours - a scent. Many people will store their cards in a box along with a smudge of their favorite incense. When the box is opened, they are treated with the fresh scent of whatever they have chosen as their signature scent. Olfactory responses can be

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very powerful, sometimes more powerful than any other kind of memory. Using this to your advantage is a helpful thing when you want to relax and work with your cards. When choosing a scent, think about those times when you were happiest and most at peace. Were you at a beach? In the mountains? Enjoying the day after a rain in Big Sur or Carmel? How about just after the grass had been mown? With each of these scenarios, think about how they smell. Each of them is marked by a specific scent, e it salt water, pine, ionized air, or fresh cut grass. Each of these scents may or may not mean something to you. The trick to it is to find a scent that means something to you, and use that one. Some very popular incenses to use for cards are sage, which is considered cleansing, Dragon's Blood, which is considered magical, and lavender or roses, which are floral and suggest fertility and closeness with the Earth. You can find these scents at any metaphysical shop, and even some body shops. You can place the scent in the box either with your cards, or with just burn a stick of it close to your cards. If you are using a wrap, burning a stick with your wrapping hung over it is an excellent way to infuse the aroma. Energy of the type to which I keep referring in this book a natural thing, and so you may want to consider that your card's protective layers should also be natural. Vibrations from natural objects encourage energy flow around your cards and through them as you work, which is another reason I suggest natural types of fabrics and articles.

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That doesn't mean that it is a steadfast rule! As you may recall, I have said that people keep them in cardboard boxes, cigar boxes, plastic boxes, and no boxes at all. However, most people, when they are choosing a material in which to store their cards, will use a natural box, a natural wrap, or a combination of the two. There are many types of fabrics and materials from which to choose, which makes the selection of a natural fabric easier! I will briefly describe the different types of cloth that is available, and why it has a particular appeal. When we get done, you'll have a better idea of what the significance behind each type of fabric is, and why you don't have to worry about significance at all! Although it is true that some materials have magical or mystical properties associated with them, some fabrics are just easier to work with because they are thick, or thin, or have a nice eave. They may be easy to decorate, or sturdy. Don't feel limited in your selection to these few types I have listed. If you are wandering in your favorite craft store and find a perfect piece of felt or velour you love, have at it. In this, as I have said so many times before, your comfort is ultimately what matters. If you want to have your cards wrapped in happy teddy bear cloth, or brightly patterned apple tree fall colors, you should do that. You are the only one you have to please with your choices. Soft as a baby's breath and full of magic, silk is one of the top materials people use to wrap their cards. This fabric is created from life, and it is infused with all sorts of living energy from the people who tend the animals who create it on to the people who weave the cloth.

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Silk has other wonderful properties that lend themselves to use for storing cards. One if that is has a lot of friction for being so soft. When you wrap it around your cards, it stays put, something that a slicker fabric won't do. It also has a wonderful almost sticky feel to it. Tactile stimulation is always a good thing when you are working on divination, as you want to bring every sense in tune with the world and Universe around you. Silk also comes in beautiful colors, and will not run. If you have ever spilled something on a heavily dyed t-shirt, or run something red through a washing machine, you know that not all fabrics can boast this feature! If something were to be spilled on your cards while wrapped in silk, you would not need to worry about having streaks of fabric dye on your cards when it dried. The silk will also repel water to a certain extent, keeping these kinds of mishaps from causing water damage to your cards. Silk is also great for wrapping your cards because you can decorate it so easily and so beautifully. The tight even weave lends itself perfectly to cross-stitch and other kinds of needlepoint, allowing you to create a beautiful piece of art that is unique for you. Your cards will be clothed in softness as well as your own spirit and energy when you take the time to decorate your silk cloth with some pattern that you have designed yourself and taken the time to create. Natural fabrics don't have to be as finely refined as processed as silk in order to retain their earthy goodness and connection to the power of the Universe. A wonderful sturdy natural fabric to wrap your cards in is unbleached cotton. This is available in many different forms, and is excellent for the purpose.

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You can also use cotton to make sturdy bags for your cards, as well as for herb mixes or other ritualistic tools you may be using. A cotton bag made from a product like burlap is excellent for keeping runes and other small but heavy objects in. When you are choosing the cotton for your bag or wrap, make sure you enjoy the feel. Unbleached cotton can be very rough, and you may find that you prefer a smoother sensation. You can also make cotton wraps out of favorite clothing or items. It might be nice to take something that belonged to someone special to you and make a card wrap or bag out of it. Cotton is also easily decorated, much like silk, only you have a wider variety of materials you can use on it. You can dye cotton, use fabric markers, or fabric paint, or do embroidery on it. Cotton does not hold its color as well as silk, and will absorb rather than repel water, so you won't get quite as weatherproof a covering. However, it is sturdy, and will keep your cards from gathering unpleasant scents as well as blocking the flow of negative as well as positive energy from your cards, helping to keep them charged. Cotton also has the benefit of being less expensive than some other fabrics you can use. Silk can be quite expensive, especially the finer grades. Cotton, on the other hand, can be bought very inexpensively. You can also find pre-made bags and wraps created out of cotton for purchase at metaphysical and craft shops. Color and fell of your wrappings are two different things, but they have equal importance when you are choosing fabrics. There are several colors which are considered to have magical or other significance. Although there are many of them, we will only discuss a few of them. First, to understand why colors are

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considered to have significance, you need to understand briefly how the Kabala and the Tarot are linked. Basically, there are a series of charkas, or energy centers in the body. The Kabala, referred to as the tree of life, is the link of these energy centers to the universe. When you match the colors of the Kabala to your tarot, you are able to tap more easily into that energy. For instance, the top of the Tree, Malketh, is black, and is considered "The World." This is the color of the energy that flows in from everywhere, the mixing of all colors. If you choose to use black for your card's wrapping, you are using a power reflecting color. Black is a powerful protection color, and will not allow negative or positive energy to flow through or from your cards. If you are planning on taking your cards in public, or to be a professional reader, you may want to consider a black bag or a black wrapping. Your reading cloth can also be of one of the magical colors. You might want to use a black reading cloth over your table, but use one of the other powerful colors for the wrapping. When you need protection for yourself in general, black will help you to keep your power guarded and to yourself. It is good for blocking the attempts of others to hurt you through their energy. This is powerful stuff, this Universal connection, and not everyone you see in your divination journey is friendly or helpful! Black will help protect you from these sorts of influences. Kether, or The Fool, is the next color we will explore. Kether is the color white, and is the color that absorbs all energy. If you are new to the divination trade, or you are feeling as if you don't have the connection you want to the universal

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energy, white is an excellent color. As well as gathering all power to itself, it is also the color of purity, and is almost as protective as black in that regard. The main difference in the sort of protection between black and white is that white allows those forces which are considered positive to get through. If you are not comfortable in your own powers, you might want that sort of help. If you are more experienced, or you want to be sure that only your own energy is near your cards, white is not the color for you. However, when you are doing purification exercises like the ones we described earlier, the light we use is almost always white, because it is clean. White also has the benefit of being "light energy," which means that you will tend to be in a more calming place when you use white to guard your cards. This may give you a sense of the world through "rose tinted glasses," but some people prefer to have this sort of atmosphere. Suffice it to say, if you are using a white cloth for reading, or white fabric for wraps and bags, you may not get the kind of powerful, life changing readings that you are looking for. If you want to have a lighter sort of style as a professional reader, wearing white will help you to stay pure and clear hearted no matter what kind of energy your client brings to the table. You will also be perceived as pure of heart, as well as having a light spirit. White also cleans your aura, and is a good color to wear if you are feeling surrounded by negative energy. Balance in these things is important, and you may want to use a combination of black and white energies to keep yourself safe and whole with your cards.

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Hod, the Star, is represented by purple and is the seat of the unconscious. This is probably the most powerful magic color if you are looking for a hue that is strictly related to magic and has nothing to do with protection. Purple is a color that has been known for its mystical properties for centuries, and is very popular with magic users of all sorts from diviners to practitioners of witchcraft. In the way olden days, purple fabric was only available to very wealthy people who shipped it in from Asia. This is where the phrase "royal purple" came from, and is one of the reasons that purple is so highly valued as a color to this day. Although it's much easier to get purple fabric now, it retains its value as a mystical enabler. When you looking for the perfect shade of purple, you want to make sure that you get a pure shade, and not one that is diluted. Purple is a combination of red and blue. Blue is a color of communication, and red is a color of power and energy, so the two need to be very carefully balanced, or you will end up with a wrap that emphasizes one or the other when what you want is one that conducts magic! Dark purples are generally better than lighter purples. Stay away from violets and lavenders. These colors are washed out, and don't have the same effects as a pure tone. When you are working with divination and you are having trouble connecting to the magical world, imagine yourself bathed in a purple light. Some people prefer to wear purple robes or other clothing when the yare working with their clothes. Purple is the traditional color of the gypsy fortune teller, however, so you might

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want to avoid wearing it if you are going to do public readings for the sake of your own credibility. Geburah, the Tower, is represented by red and is an energy drawing charka. In fact, the seat of all the energy in your body is the red charka, which is the source of the Kundalini, or base energy. Without red, there would be nothing else. It is the source of the life in your soul, and is an extremely powerful color. When you use a wrap with red cloth, you are drawing the power of life itself to your cards, and can expect spectacular results. There are cautions to go with using red. As a powerful force, it needs to be respected. You shouldn't just go out, find a red cloth, and use it for readings, for instance, because without the proper tempering, it can draw too much power and start creating its own destiny. That's not what you would like at all! What you prefer is to have a wrap with red, and maybe a black or white reading cloth to counteract with some protective sources. For an idea of the power of Geburah, take out one of your decks, and remove the Tower card from the deck. Study it and you will see that while the Tower is a sturdy structure, it is being struck by lightening and throwing out the people from the top. Note that the Tower itself is not damaged by the lightening. This is representative of what happens when the raw power of red is used without any tempering influence. By the way, the meaning of this card has a connotation of allowing yourself to be ruled by fear. Don't be afraid to use the color red, just be sure to use it with respect and care. One should never draw up the Kundalini without the help of someone who is experienced and trained.

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Mixed energy can affect the accuracy of the readings of your cards, so most people want to limit the number of others they allow to contact their cards. This is an excellent reason to have more than one deck. You can have a deck that you use for yourself personally, and another that you allow people to handle. Tarot cards are fascinating, and people enjoy flipping through them and looking at the pictures. I have a few decks that I encourage this with, because the more people know about divination and the tarot, the less scary it is for them. Less fear means more acceptance, and you will find that your work is easier if your family and friend accept what you are doing. Energy comes to your cards in many ways. You can pass energy to your cards by touching them and handling them, or even by being near them. Some decks will not work and play well with each other, and you may find that the stronger of those decks is infusing the other with a negative energy that makes it hard for you to use it for reading. When this happens, you need to move one or other of them out of the vicinity, or use a wooden or plastic box. Whatever you choose to do, you want to make sure that all the energy touching your cards is enhancing the reading ability of those cards. Do what you need to do to keep them safe from negative energy. You may not want people to handle your decks at all. It can be very annoying when you express this to friends and family and they presume this doesn't mean them. To prevent hard feelings later on, make it clear that you would rather that no one, not even people close to you, touch your cards. You need to stick to it if you mean it, because if you come to your cards with a negative feeling because

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you are annoyed by people playing with them, you won't get a good reading! Others prefer to allow only close family members and fiends touch their cards, and keep them off limits for others. It is all up to you and what feels right for you. Querants are the only exceptions you'll want to make for letting others touch your cards if you have decided you would rather keep them away from other's hands. You will need the querant to shuffle the deck, because you want the querant's energy in the reading, not your own. You can do this in a number of ways that will direct the focus of the energy to the correct person. Hand the deck to the querant and have them think about their situation while they shuffle the cards back and forth between their hands. They may be reluctant to hold the cards. Some people can be a little superstitious about touching them. Put the client's mind at ease, and let them know that the cards need to get exposed to them a little bit. You may need to guide your querant as I did you in the beginning of this book. Remind them that they need to be specific, and that yes/no questions are certainly can be answered, but that's not the best use of the card's power. Instead, they need to focus on a specific thing they would like to happen. It is best to have them use open questions when framing their desire for you or for the cards. They do not need to articulate their thoughts for you. They do, however, need to be clear for the cards. Some people will be hesitant to tell you what the question they have in mind actually is. Again, put them at ease by letting them know that you don't have to have direct knowledge of the question, but hey need to help you with the reading

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by letting you know when you straying off the topic. As with you when you were first learning divination, you may find that the real question your client has is not at all the one they thought they had. When you see this happening, you can then move the reading back in the direction you need it to go to answer your client most completely. Of course, all this only applies if you have chosen to read for others! Energy is the most important factor in getting an accurate reading, so if you have chosen to read for others, you may find you need them to contact the cards more than you would initially suspect. During the querant's shuffling, you have asked them to focus on their question, but as the reading progresses, you may find that the path goes all over. In this case, you will want to have your client contact the cards in order to get a more definite hint of where the reading should be moving. One way to do this is to simply re-do the spread. An easier way, however, is to have the client pick up the remaining cards in the deck, leaving the original spread, and shuffle again. This allows you to pull cards from the top of the newly shuffled deck and put them exactly where you are having questions. For instance, supposed you are using the Celtic Cross spread, and you are having trouble getting a clear reading on the immediate past. Your client is telling you that what you are seeing doesn't seem to apply. Have him pick up the cards and reshuffle, leaving the ten cards you have already laid out on the table. Pull a card from the top of the newly shuffled cards, and place it on the slot for immediate past. It should add some supplementary material to let you know what

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you are dealing with. It could be anything from a past life getting in the way to the client's mind wandering while he was shuffling and thinking about his kids. When you do this, never make it seem as though the client should be worried about touching the cards. If she wants to reach out and touch a card, or pick it up for a closer look, allow her to do so if you are comfortable with it. There is a reason that she is being drawn to a particular image or card, and you want to know what that reason is! The more knowledge you have, the better you can interpret the truth of what you see laid out in front of you, which is the story of the client's life. Contact with your cards after you have used them for reading with others, either with them under your pillow while you sleep or by meditation exercises with them, is the best way to clean other's energy from them. You always want to make sure that before you put your cards away after a session that you have cleaned them. The wrappings and boxes that you keep them in can trap energy of all sorts, and you want to be sure that they are not festering in something negative. When you put your cards away, or any divination tools for that matter, visualize them in a cleansed state. Put them someplace that's a little special to you, so you remember to treat them with respect. Don't feel like you have to go through a ritual or something. Just treat them with courtesy and respect, and they will read a lot better for you. As you work with the exercises in this book, remember that divination isn't a game; it's away of making your life better. Take it with that state of meaning in your heart, and you will have a lot of success. If you are cavalier

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about your methods, you'll get sloppy results. That's the way the world works in all things, not just divination of course! When you describe divination to people, some of your friends may give you funny looks, or your family may think that they are humoring you. What you need to remember is that as you make progress in your life with your skills as you develop them, these people are going to see the positive results in your life. Make sure you keep your journal from the first time you start working with your cards so you can see your own progress. When you look back after six months or a year, you may be surprised at how many turns your life took that you were a willing part of, as opposed to a passenger! Most of all, always remember that your future is determined by you, so make sure you choose the best one possible for yourself. You deserve it. As a last word, I am not aware of the source of this quote, but it a great summation of your job when you are practicing divination: "Tell the truth, but not the unpleasant; tell the pleasant, but not the untrue."

Standard Meanings for the Cards of the Tarot The Minor Arcana The minor Arcana is mostly concerned with physical well being, such as emotions, thoughts, money, and business. When your spreads have mostly minor Arcana cards in them, you are dealing with the day to day aspects of life, the details in the tapestry of existence.

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Wands This suit is the keeper of career. When you have a spread that involves a large number of Wands, you are probably looking at a reading that has to do with your working life. It also represents Fire, and is a suit full of energy, force, and a busy time to come. In choosing a significator for your spreads, this suit is appropriate for Aries, Leo, or Sagittarius. People who have red hair and blue, hazel, or grey eyes are also represented by this suit. x

ACE: Creation, birth, beginnings, the start of an undertaking. Gain, enterprise.

x

TWO: Courage and earned success. Authority and wealth gained by hard work.

x

THREE: Opportunity. Successful trade and commerce. Being in the right place at the right time.

x

FOUR: Successful completion of a project. Prosperity, peace, and harmony.

x

FIVE: Strife, trouble, opposition, competition. Success only through hard work.

x

SIX: Triumph after a struggle. Good news and advancement do to previous work.

x

SEVEN: Obstacles which must be faced. Slight success after much work. Courage in the face of adversity.

x

EIGHT: Swift action shortly. And end to delay. News, communication, and hope of change for the better. - 103 -

x

NINE: Productivity, strength, stability, and good health. A hard battle has been fought and won.

x

TEN: The price of success is a heavy burden. Excessive overtime or the growth of a venture beyond your ability to manage it.

x

PAGE: Resourceful and ambitious person with great enthusiasm and vigor. He is quick to respond emotionally.

x

KNIGHT: Unpredictable or impetuous person. Can signify sudden departures, hasty decisions, or a change of residence.

x

QUEEN: A generous and practical woman, kind and independently thinking. Can also be a successful venture.

x

KING: An honest and conscientious person, a traditional family man who is loyal and generous. A man of authority. Can also be a mediator.

Cups The suit is the center of emotion. A spread that contains many cards of this suit is going to be mostly related to affairs of an emotional nature. Note that this doesn't mean "love life." There are many emotions, and cups represents them all, from terror to contentment. When used a significator, cups represent Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio. They also represent brown haired, blue or grey eyed people. x

ACE: Love, joy, abundance and fertility. The beginning of a creative or artistic project.

x

TWO: Beginning or a new partnership, friendship, or romance. A new idea generated by a team working together.

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x

THREE: The happy conclusion of a valued project. Renewed health, happiness and even celebration.

x

FOUR: Boredom, dissatisfaction. A need to seek new goals or ways of life.

x

FIVE: Disappointment. A need to reevaluate priorities. Seeing the negative and ignoring the positive.

x

SIX: Pleasant memories and wishes fulfilled. Past work coming to fruition.

x

SEVEN: Choice. Failure to examine all options before a decision is made.

x

EIGHT: A turning point, rejecting established ways of thinking for the new and different.

x

NINE: The Wish Card. Contentment, physical well being, material success, and an assured future.

x

TEN: A happy person, with a stable family, lasting happiness, and security.

x

PAGE: A quiet, reflective and dreamy person. Can be gentle and kind. Artistic.

x

KNIGHT: An intelligent and amiable person but easily led or discouraged.

x

QUEEN: An imaginative woman who is lacking in common sense. Intuitive, psychic, but easily led and dreamy.

x

KING: A businessman or an attorney. A skilled negotiator with a quick mind.

Swords The Swords represent the mental aspects of life, and are the Air signs of the Zodiac, standing in for Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius. They may be used as a - 105 -

significator for people who have brown hair and dark eyes. A spread containing many swords has to do with hopes, fears, dreams, or anything else in the mind of the querant. As such, they may not reflect an actual situation, but rather the Querant's perceived reality. Think of it like the three blind men who met an elephant. One thought the elephant was shaped like a wall, one thought he was shaped like a snake, and the third thought he was shaped like a string. All were correct within their own relative reality, but none was right when taken objectively. x

ACE: A new beginning, a rebirth. Victory, success, triumph.

x

TWO: Relief. Differences resolved. A truce or peace restored.

x

THREE: Strife, conflict, quarrels, disruption, heartache

x

FOUR: Hospitalization, rest, recovery, retreat or a sabbatical. Relief from sorrow or anxiety.

x

FIVE: Cowardice, trouble, loss, defeat, negative thinking or attitudes

x

SIX: Long journeys and obstacles. A passage away from difficulty or pain. Success after trouble or anxiety.

x

SEVEN: Short journeys, or a change of job or residence. Restlessness, instability, and very little progress made.

x

EIGHT: Restriction, censure, jealousy and enforced isolation from family, friends, or coworkers.

x

NINE: Bad dreams, despair, deception, depression, violence, scandal, and loss.

x

TEN: Ruin, accident, misfortune, desolation. - 106 -

x

PAGE: A person of grace, vigilance, and dexterity. They are acute, yet subtle, a good negotiator.

x

KNIGHT: A person who is clever, active, swift, and skillful, although they can be domineering. Events moving swiftly into the querant's life.

x

QUEEN: An intelligent and quick witted woman who is highly perceptive and complex. However, she is able to play both ends against the middle.

x

KING: A rational man with a logical turn of mind. Inventive and sometimes overcautious or old fashioned. An upholder of law or authority.

Pentacles This is the suit of materialism, and represents those gains and losses we have in a material sense. It is the Zodiac signs of Taurus, Capricorn, and Virgo. This suit is concerned with money and possessions, and is straightforward to interpret. When used as a significator, it represents people with black hair and dark eyes. A spread with many pentacles in it is sure to be speaking to the querant's financial future. x

ACE: A change for the better financially. The beginnings of a period of financial gain.

x

TWO: Fluctuation and change in fortunes. A need to budget, and a warning to avoid purchasing on credit.

x

THREE: Business opportunities. Success through effort and hard work, an increase in material possessions.

x

FOUR: Material stability, but holding on too tightly to what one has. Establishing a project successfully. - 107 -

x

FIVE: Loss of money, position, or stature. Poverty, unemployment, and redundancy.

x

SIX: Charity, patronage, generosity, gifts, and awards. Philanthropy.

x

SEVEN: Waiting for what you sow to be reaped. Employment neglected through lack of interest.

x

EIGHT: Prudence. Skill in craftsmanship or material work. Conservative investment. Diplomacy.

x

NINE: Money from an unexpected source. Inheritances, winnings, settlements or monetary gifts.

x

TEN: Prosperity, good fortune, wealth, material security founded on the work of others.

x

PAGE: A thrifty and conscientious person who is gracious, careful and kind.

x

KNIGHT: A practical and conventional person who is patient, hardworking, and clever with material things.

x

QUEEN: A shrewd, sensible and down to earth woman who loves splendor and personal display.

x

KING: A steady, methodical, and reliable man who is loyal, trustworthy and patient. He is, however, slow to act.

The Major Arcana The Major Arcana is concerned with the spiritual aspects of a person. When you get a spread that involves a lot of Major Arcana, you are dealing with soul issues, or Karma issues. People who are very spiritual (as opposed to religious) will - 108 -

often draw a lot of Major Arcana cards to themselves. The Major Arcana is closely tied to the Tree of Life, with each of the twenty two cards attached to a different Hebrew letter and interpretation. Major Arcana cards are not used as significators, and are generally considered to represent the psychological well being of the querant as well as the spiritual side of him/her. x

THE FOOL: The beginning of a new life cycle and all new beginnings. This card represents energy and optimism.

x

THE MAGICIAN: Will, skill, oratory, and mastery. This is an ability to both perceive and utilize one's strengths.

x

THE HIGH PRIESTESS: Intuitive insight. Hidden influences, mystery and secrets.

x

THE EMPRESS: Fertility, abundance, and wealth. Creativity and domestic stability. Marriage.

x

THE EMPEROR: Government or corporations. Authority, leadership, and willpower.

x

THE HIEROPHANT: Good council and wisdom. Preference for conformity and social acceptability.

x

THE LOVERS: A choice to be made intuitively rather than logically, second sight, abstract thought. Partnerships and harmony.

x

THE CHARIOT: Self control, confidence, and will power. A triumph over life's obstacles.

x

STRENGTH: Courage, strength and control over passion and emotion.

- 109 -

x

THE HERMIT: Planning, forethought, and prudence. A warning against sudden action. May indicate a need to dissociate from a situation to assess it.

x

WHEEL OF FORTUNE: Change of fortune. The beginnings of a new cycle, progress, improvement, and good fortune.

x

JUSTICE: Legal action, contracts, litigation, truth, and treaties.

x

THE HANGED MAN: Suspension of judgment. Boredom, apathy, stagnation, lack of progress. Rest, regrouping.

x

DEATH: Transformation and change. An abrupt and complete change of circumstances.

x

TEMPERANCE: Good management, balance, placidity, moderation.

x

THE DEVIL: An over concentration on material things. An indication of a propensity to hoard. Excess.

x

THE TOWER: Change, disruption, and conflict. Allowing fear to rule your life. Actions with unexpected and widespread consequences.

x

THE STAR: Inspiration, a widening of mental horizons, and hope. Influence over others, self confidence, and vigor.

x

THE MOON: Dreams and intuition. The dark and light sides of being. Psychic activity.

x

THE SUN: Bringing problems into the open. Happiness. Good fortune, Rewards and high spirits.

x

JUDGEMENT: Awakening, renewal, joy. Pleasure in accomplishment, with renewed health and vitality. Decisions for the better. - 110 -

x

THE WORLD: Completion, success, fulfillment. A happy ending. The end of a cycle or project.

- 111 A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library