Tuesday 23 September 2014

Tarot Blog Hop: Mabon 2014

Mary-El Tarot














            PreviousMasterlist /Next



 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.

                                                  
                                                                 PREVIOUSMASTERLIST / NEXT




13 comments:

  1. I try to avoid prediction simply because I don't want the client to feel that anything is a fait accompli, but I do give advice and guidance where I can. Guess I had a good mentor :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great insights! I agree with what you say about owning your predictions rather than allowing for an "out" via the "anything can happen" excuse. The reality is that many things can be accurately predicted, and that doesn't preclude the ability to prepare oneself for what might occur and take action to address it in appropriate ways.

    ReplyDelete
  3. self-styled 'enlightened' 'spiritual' people tended to be exactly the opposite...
    yes... I've met of few of those... ahem.. I'll say no more :D lol bless 'em! :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOL! We all get 'grumpy' but to be honest, I didn't view any of what you wrote as being that way! Blessed Mabon.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What's the good of making it to Crone if we can't dispense a little straight talk? Despite my talk of free will, nearly every reading I do ends up giving at least some level of advice, as well as prediction. That's just how tarot works. You go, Grumpy! :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Crone ? CRONE ?! not *quite* there yet, thank you all the same :D

      Delete
  6. Grumpy or not, thanks for joining us on the Tarot Blog Hop.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think this was one of the better ones - the wrangler not tying it to the season freed people up, I think :)

      Delete
  7. I try not to predict, mainly because of the risk of self-fulfilling prophecies. Advice, for me, falls in a different category, as people can take it or leave it with less pressure than 'this is what destiny has in store for you' Just my personal approach :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks also from me, Vivianne, for the practical mentoring. I began as one of those New Age readers (although more grounded than most), but boy, did I need your practical and predictive approach when doing free readings for the general public. People are often feeling really lost and they do want advice on things. The trick seems to be to make that advice empowering rather than disempowering. There's a nice balance that I think I'm finding, and that I've seen in your interpretations of readings as well as in Chloe's approach in particular on her blogs.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This statement, I cannot disagree with in any way, shape or form!
    "self-styled 'enlightened' 'spiritual' people tended to be exactly the opposite..." we've certainly met a few of those! ;)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks ! I love comments :-)