Tarot Blog Hop: Mabon 2014

Mary-El Tarot

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 You may have arrived here from Hilary's blog, and when you leave, go to Ania's blog for more Tarot Blog Hop writings.

The topic for this Mabon 2014 Blog Hop is:

 ''In the life of everyone who deals with Tarot, there comes those moments where your understanding of the Tarot undergoes a radical change, or when one's skill with the Tarot takes a giant leap forward. Sometimes this is the result of learning a new technique, or acquiring a special deck, or because of an event in one's life; other times, it is the result of nothing that you can pinpoint. Whatever the cause, the end result is that you approach the Tarot in different manner than you did before.

The topic of the Mabon Blog Hop is to talk about a time when your understanding of the Tarot undergone such a quantum leap, talking about what brought about the change in your understanding of the Tarot (if you have been able to figure it out) and how you approach the Tarot differently than you did before the change.

(I tend to refer to this topic as "the things that I wished I knew about Tarot sooner than I learned them.")''

I had no bolt of lightning moment,  no grand epiphany, but rather a gradual dawning ....

Having taught myself to read tarot at the beginning of the 90s, I found most of the material available was written with a very New Age, hippie or .... Californian .... slant. And until fairly recently, this approach was the standard, and any suggestion of deviation from a passive yet 'empowering' 'holistic' illuminating style of reading was met with howls of judgmental scorn - for example, a discussion about prediction would go up in flames in a mere moment. This scorn and judgment, you understand, is acceptable because it comes from 'spiritual' people, and any attempt to put one's case just results in the mob getting more overbearing. So my first realization was that so-called self-styled 'enlightened' 'spiritual' people tended to be exactly the opposite - twins to the kind of Christian who goes to church every Sunday but behaves like a Philistine in actuality.

Housewives Tarot

This in turn enabled me to become more confident in sorting the wheat from the chaff in the tarot world - and believe me, there is a lot of self-serving chaff in this field, and all too many willing acolytes for their over-sized egos. In some ways, these 'spiritual' leaders are more truly charlatans that your stereotypical Madam Cleo or Gypsy Rose, because they have so fallen for their own hype that they begin to believe it, thus deceiving themselves along with everyone else who drinks their KoolAid; your average 'cold reader' or magician cannot afford to be so detached from reality.

Animals Divine Tarot

Adding that to age and experience has made me care far less about what others think is right, and to do instead what I think is right, for myself and my clients. That means that I will make predictions, if I feel it is appropriate. I will actively give advice rather than tell the client that they must make a decision all on their own. I do not shilly-shally, waffle on about 'free will' and fill the time with psychobabble when what is wanted and needed is advice on the next practical steps to take in a situation. This means that my belief in the tarot and my ability to interpret it has made me take responsibility for what I say - I do not shirk or give myself an escape route by some caveat phrase like 'nothing is set in stone'.

Steampunk Tarot

 As a result, my teaching and mentoring is very much about keeping my students focussed on the everyday, the mundane, the stuff clients actually care about, and not getting too high-falutin' and philosophizing with big words; maintaining an open mind and compassion when you get your eleventybillionth question this week about 'does he/she love me ?' is enough of a challenge in itself.

You'll probably find less grumpy posts if you hop backwards to Hilary's blog, and definitely if you hop forward to Ania's blog.

                                                  

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