I'm more than a little bemused by people who say that using formal tarot spreads "inhibits their intuition." Seems to me they're too easily diverted from their goal by undue sensitivity to the mechanics of the art; a spread is nothing more than a convenient template that offers a reasonable place to start, like an … Continue reading A Case for Positional Spreads
Professional Tarot
Thoughts on Face-to-Face Reading
In this age of instantaneous electronic communication, there are tarot readers who may never experience the stimulation (and, yes, the trepidation) of reading the cards for other people in a face-to-face setting. Usually it's a lack of confidence rather than limited opportunity that keeps them chained to remote situations where they never get to test … Continue reading Thoughts on Face-to-Face Reading
Public vs. Private – A Matter of Ethics
I was recently asked whether the missing-person readings I do were requested by the families or loved ones of the missing individuals; the implication was that I might be flouting ethical standards if I don't first obtain the "green light." I decided when I started exploring them a couple of years ago that, because these … Continue reading Public vs. Private – A Matter of Ethics
To Monetize or Not
When I started writing this blog, and in fact when I decided to start calling myself a "professional diviner" again, my conscious intent was to not attempt making a lot of money at it. After all, I retired from business ten years ago and the last thing I want is another full-time job. I'm mostly … Continue reading To Monetize or Not
Divinosaurus Recidivus
Sometimes I feel like a displaced "dinosaur," and at other times I'm more a "cosmic anomaly" like Arthur Dent - a walking anachronism on one hand and a "man-out-of-time" on the other - with one foot planted firmly in the cartomantic past and the other tentatively treading the future of the art, but with little … Continue reading Divinosaurus Recidivus
Time Bites: The Value of a Minute
Upon entering the ranks of the professional diviner, we inevitably encounter the question "How much is enough?" Time, that is, or effort expended for value received.I was once advised that, in rural New England where I lived at the time, the going rate for a face-to-face tarot reading was a dollar a minute. This was … Continue reading Time Bites: The Value of a Minute
A Milestone and a Conundrum
I've just passed 175 self-created spreads in my personal inventory (see the Dropbox link in the sidebar for the list, which you can explore in the WordPress search function), and I paused a moment to wonder whether I will ever use the majority of these spreads in practice. Although I've binned them by category, the … Continue reading A Milestone and a Conundrum
“Read ‘Em and Weep”
If your experience is similar to mine, you've most likely encountered reading situations where the cards drawn are so wildly at variance with the context of the question that you're hard-pressed to meet your professional obligation of giving your sitters something meaningful to work with. As you strive to salvage your credibility, it can seem … Continue reading “Read ‘Em and Weep”
Predicting the Future: Prescience or Self-Projection?
There is a strong sentiment among experienced diviners that "fortune-telling" of the flatly predictive variety - while it is not exactly denounced - is an impractical and unreliable pursuit, for a couple of reasons: 1) the future is a moving target and can change regularly based on intervening circumstances not always of our own making … Continue reading Predicting the Future: Prescience or Self-Projection?
The “Pernt” and the “Cherce”
I must be getting really desperate if I'm resorting to "Archie-Bunker-isms" for my post titles; for the culturally uninitiated, it reads "The Point and the Choice." What I'm referring to, of course, is the key point (goal, not location) in our approach to divining with the tarot cards and the choices we make in their … Continue reading The “Pernt” and the “Cherce”
