My relationship with the tarot started in my very early twenties after I went on a trip to Broadstairs with my boyfriend and had a knowing feeling that I would find an interesting spiritual shop on that day and come out with a deck of Ryder Waite Tarot cards (a traditional deck).
After my purchase, I was only equipped with the little guidebook and wondered how long it would take me to memorise the meaning not only of each suite type (cups, swords, wands & pentacles) but also the meaning of seventy-eight cards and don’t even get me started to explain the difference between major and minor arcana…..
However, as the Universe loves to play with me a little, the very next week at my London City job my colleague gave me a leaflet about a holistic school that was situated bang smack in the middle of Bishops Gate, near Liverpool Street. She was eager to do a six week Feng Shui course, so I decided what the heck, I would do it too, anything to have an interesting lunch period away from Google and Cheese & Onion Walkers.
The place was actually called the Bishopsgate Institute and was this very old & intriguing building surrounding by the sharpness of the new financial companies right in the heart of London’s square mile. From the moment I stepped into it, smelling the muskiness and just feeling the energies of so many bodies that had walked through, I knew I would like it there.
I really enjoyed that six week Feng Shui course (and learnt how to redirect my chi by buying a few goldfish) but most excitingly, saw on the notice board that they also did a six week “learn to do tarot” course, this was a bit of me!
So I did the course and met some like-minded people, bought the teachers book and decided that the only way I was going to understand this ancient form of deviation was to practice.
And practice I did. I don’t quite know how it happened, but I went from reading my friends to suddenly being a known (be it a bit of an “underground” known) entity at my place of work for tarot readings. At that time, I worked for a very large Underwriters and it was so corporate and very far removed from anything in the least bit spiritual. However, I managed to (somehow, I have no idea how) convince people like the Tax Manager that he would just love a tarot reading, so, in our lunch break, he would get a free reading for thirty minutes and then he would give me thirty minutes back by explaining the best pension plan I should take moving forwards (not actually sure if that was a fair swap).
I also had suppliers coming in to meet with me to discuss the contract and pricing on the equipment we bought, however, once my manager left the meeting, the supplier would quickly and excitedly ask “have you got them?” and much to their delight I would pull out my tarot deck and give them a quick 3 card pull.
Fast forward seventeen years and I have bought a few more decks since, ones that resonate with me, but the readings had died down. I’m not sure why, perhaps focus was on other things, but I thought perhaps that I just didn’t get “it”. I also heard a medium once warn people about fake readers who just learn the card meanings and make out they were genuine psychics, this made me concerned that perhaps that was me? I mean, I know I’m psychic, but was I just reading the meanings and not tuning in? So this put me off a bit. Until this year.
We decided to run a competition to give one of our clients a free tarot reading, I decided that it would be good practice for me. The lady came into the treatment room, looking excited that she had won and also with a sense of anticipation. I felt every ounce of that anticipation and then felt the pressure that followed. Shuffling the cards, I prayed that I would give her a good reading.
So I spread out the cards in my familiar order and then started to tell her the meanings of the cards. I could see from the basic meanings that she had recently experienced heartache that was so deep, real gut-wrenching stuff. She nodded her head. “Can you tell me why I’ve been crying?” she asked. Bloody hell. OK, here goes. I picked up the first card I was drawn too and looked at the imagery. I could see clouds, but then, slowly but surely, I saw a man’s face in the clouds appear. “It’s about a man, you have split up with a man”? I asked. She nodded her head yes. I looked at the card again and suddenly saw a man and woman, both holding on to a dog lead, pulling the dog in either direction. “You are fighting over the dog?” I asked, “Yes! He won’t let me have him!” she said, now starting to cry. When I looked back at the card, I couldn’t see the dog anymore, all I could see was the cloud image.
As I handed her the box of tissues, a moment of clarity dawned on me. All those years, all those years and I didn’t know that all I had to do is look at the card and see an image that tells me a story, which is actually me just tuning into my intuition. I gave her such an accurate reading that even I was speechless at the end.
So now, my relationship with the tarot has been rekindled, because since that reading with my competition winner, I haven’t stopped and its been getting stronger and stronger. I recently had the chance to have a long conversation with a very experienced and well respected medium and professional tarot reader who gave me some wonderful advice “trust the cards, not your judgement” and that I feel will probably be the best advice I have ever had when it comes to reading the tarot.
The difference between a good reader and a great reader is that the great reader can pick up a card, know the basic meaning, be drawn to the images on the card and then use their psychic intuition to tell the story of the sitter’s life. It may just be a squiggly line to a passer-by, but actually, that squiggly line means a whole host of things that the reader tells the sitter and that the sitter absolutely understands.
I hope one day to be a great reader because when I read tarot for someone I feel like its what I was always meant to do, it’s a very exciting journey and I feel blessed every day to have these abilities, life really is magic!
