Tarot with Lisa I love the Tarot.
Love it.
The messages, images, colours and emotions it portrays to me, leaves me at times, spellbound.
Yet, I know that learning to read the cards is not always easy.
I still remember vividly being so overwhelmed that I cried…. more than once I gave up completely and packed the cards away.
I read and I read, I practised and practised ,I studied and I learnt, yet still something was missing from my readings…
I was almost beyond despair and then, like a flash it hit me;
I wasn’t reading the cards.
I was reading someone else’s interpretation of the cards.
I had studied and focused so hard on learning card meanings that I had actually stopped questioning what the cards meant to me!
I had shut down my natural intuition and replaced it with the words, thoughts and emotions of others.
From the moment I made this realization, my readings changed, my life changed.
After packing up all of my beloved tarot books and putting them away, I sat with my cards and I looked into them, really looked deep into them and took note of what I saw and felt.
The messages changed, the feelings changed, I looked at them with my eyes, not the eyes of others and it was only then I became a true Tarot reader.
Over the last couple of years, I have steadily devised my own ‘intuition driven’ Tarot teaching method.
It is simple and it works.
I call it ‘Transformation Tarot’ because it transforms the way you look at the cards.
It is the method I use in my classes and workshops and I have seen the results of looking at the Tarot cards with your own eyes, using your own life experiences.
Not that I would ever suggest you to stop reading and studying, quite the opposite actually, however developing a personal skill like Tarot requires personal input; your thoughts, your feelings, your intuition, your life experiences.
Giving your cards the meanings applied to them by someone else whom is twice your age, the opposite sex, living in a different country, with entirely different upbringing and life experiences just makes no sense.
You cannot possibly see in the cards what that other person does, any more than they could see in the cards the meanings that you find.
In my book, 'the transformation tarot workbook' I
share with you Tarot exercises, thoughts and idea’s, tips on reading & card care as well as trying hard to answer any questions you may have relating to your own Tarot learning experience.
It is a 'workbook'- designed to be read and written in, to be used as a tarot journal.
For now, though let us look at the first card of the major arcana, The Fool. (actually it’s card number 0)
It is a great card and is a card of new beginnings, fresh starts and optimistic outlooks.
A little rhyme i have written about the Fool card will give you an idea of its energy :
“New roads ahead, fresh paths to tread.
Change is near, you’ll show no fear.
A childlike way, to live each day,
Innocence so sweet, a lesson complete.
A total turn, you cannot stay,
A new idea leads you away.
Fresh directions, you leap right in
To live this life, you must first begin.”
As the above verse shows, this is a card that tells you directions in your life are about to change.
Take a close look at the Fool card from your own deck.
Look at the colours, what do they mean to you?
The elements, the plants & animals in the card.
Look at his/her face, note the expression (or lack of it), and note anything that he/she may be holding or carrying.
Does he seemed weighed down or carefree?
Is he aware of his surroundings or oblivious?
How is the weather?
What is he wearing?
Is he alone?
Is his path ahead clear or full of obstacles?
Moreover, what about the little white dog, what is his story?
When you have as much information as you can from the card, write about a time in your life when you have been just like The Fool.
Think of a time when you have felt the energy of this card and explain how it felt to you.
We have all experienced ‘Fool’ energy; I am feeling it now writing this article.
Practice the above exercise as much as you can for all the Major cards; don’t worry what the books say the meaning should be, write what you see, feel and think.
Learn to trust that what you are seeing is what you are meant to see.
Once you start to trust your intuition the meanings of the cards will flow and so will your confidence as a reader.
My Transformation Tarot Workbook is available for purchase through The Cottage website and through the Matters of Minutiae weblog.
Blessed Be on your path,
Lisa
***Lisa is an intuitive, spiritual Tarot Reader, Tutor and author who teaches her students to read the cards intuitively rather than strictly ’by the book’.
Her classes and workshops have become very popular and she is in much demand as a reader. She is the author of 'the Transformation Tarot Workbook', 'the Blue Star Children, Earth Healers' and the booklet '52 doorways to higher learning'
Lisa is a practising Witch who offers support ,teaching and guidance to those on the Wiccan Path.
She can be contacted and her books purchased through 'The Cottage' Website or the 'Matters of Minutiea' weblog***
