Vol. 10 #8 / October 1, 2018
In this Issue:
- Tarot Tip: Self-Healing Tips for the Tarot Reader
- Tarot School Aphorism
- What's Gnu?
- Diviner's Corner: Tarot and the Nature of Divinity
- Cool New Event: Rune Wisdom Telesummit
- Best Practices: Expert Ways To Attract Clients
- Upcoming Events
Welcome to a new issue of Tarot Tips!
And a special welcome to our new subscribers.
It’s a bit spooky how October has arrived so quickly!
This season certainly sets a tone for changes,
festivities, and time with loved ones. These times
can also be important for healing and self-reflection.
In this issue, Benebell Wen’s tarot tip is all about
self- healing for tarot readers. The Diviner’s Corner
features Sasha Graham's exploration of the connection
between tarot and the nature of divinity, and in
Best Practices for Professional Readers, expert
ways of finding clients is the topic at hand.
Enjoy!
I love it when I find unexpected tarot imagery in real
life. When I looked at this picture of my daughter,
Rachel at her recent baby shower, the resemblance to
The Empress card was striking — even down to the
pearl necklace! ~ Ruth Ann
(card from the Universal Waite deck by US Games;
photo by Judith Zweiman)
With love and gratitude on the tarot journey,
Ruth Ann, Wald, and Gina
Tarot Tips is here to help you with the practical side
of your Tarot journey. In order to take the greatest
advantage of this newsletter, please send us your
questions regarding any aspect of your tarot study
or practice and we'll do our best to answer them
in an upcoming issue.
Spread the experience of tarot - share this newsletter
with other Tarot Enthusiasts!
Tarot Tip
SELF-HEALING TIPS FOR THE TAROT READER
by Benebell Wen
Most professional tarot readers will acknowledge that
a consecutive series of intense divinatory readings can
leave them feeling energetically depleted. I believe
that a tarot reading done right is going to be the
transference of a lot of your own personal energy,
through the lattice of the cards, and received by the
querent. Querents often talk about feeling rejuvenated,
inspired, and revived after a reading, while tarot
readers often talk about feeling the complete opposite.
Symptoms ranging from fatigue and lethargy to tarot
burn-out and even an intuited debilitation of physical
health or vitality are not uncommon side effects for
the professional reader.
Whether you call it self-care or self-healing, prefer
to practice a mundane ritual or are open to engaging
in magical work, you’ll want to restore the energy
you’ve drained out of yourself. In the metaphysical
Chinese philosophy of Qi, or personal life force,
routine draining of your energies through work such as
divinatory tarot readings, and no efforts to then
restore the lost energy can hurt not only your physical
and emotional health, but by extension, can also have a
detrimental effect on your own luck and fortunes.
Restoration of that lost energy can happen simply by
drawing up a hot bath infused with your favorite
essential oils and Epsom salt, with a candle lit nearby
to bring in the sacred presence of Spirit. While
resting in the bath, close your eyes and isolate
attention to each part of your body, limb by limb, and
taking deep breaths, let each inhale permeate that limb
and on exhale release all tensions. Patiently take the
time to release tensions in every part of the body
while immersed in the bath.
When you take care of your body, you also take care of
your mind and spirit. Thus, a more concerted effort at
observing ordinary health and nutrition maxims can help
to replenish your lost Qi, or life force. Drink plenty
of clean water for the next forty-eight hours and try
to eat healthy, foods you know your body likes. Being
mindful of nutrition, diet, and physical exercise after
intense metaphysical work helps the body’s energy
field to heal and replenish more efficiently.
Meditation is also a form of self-healing, though if
sitting still for an hour in total silence and focused
on a single thought is daunting, then consider guided
meditation or qi gong.
To maintain the elasticity of your mental faculties,
after a series of intense tarot work you’ll want to
redirect your attention to work that is a contrasting
use of your mind. I like to go on a weekend road trip,
driving and hiking through a nearby national park.
Going through the ritual of preparing and cooking an
elaborate meal from scratch (and then, of course, the
enjoyment of eating it) helps me as well.
What works for me might not work for you, however.
So the core message here is this: you have to redirect
your attention from intense tarot work to an activity
that is notably different. Maybe that’s curling up on
the couch wrapped in your favorite blanket watching
your favorite television show marathon-style. In terms
of using the TV for self-care, I would recommend opting
for content that’s not emotionally or ideologically
intense. That seems to defeat the purpose of shifting
mental gears after tarot work. In a way, the more
farcical, silly-happy, and humorously nonsensical the
TV show or movie is, the better. As for enjoying
movies, I would recommend watching the movies at home,
in a safeguarded environment, rather than watching it
at the theaters, where all sorts of frenetic energies
are going to be around you and affecting your already
tender personal field.
Just as taking care of the body takes care of your mind
and spirit, taking care of your spirit can help to take
care of your mind and body. The classic holistic
approach to self-healing for diviners is mantra
recitation or a form of repeated, dedicated prayer that
invokes a deified divine healing force, whether
that’s by the name of an archangel for you, the name
of a specific god or goddess from a specific tradition,
or simply to call out to Spirit, or Holy Spirit. I like
to use “the Many Holy Names of Spirit.”
Here’s one ritual to consider as-is or modified:
Plant the soles of both feet firmly on the ground. Sit
up as straight as you can, visualizing yourself as tall
and stable as a mountain. Call forth and visualize a
luminescent beam of white light coming from above,
as if from the heavens, entering the crown of your head.
Then feel a luminescent beam of lapis lazuli light
enter up from the ground, through the soles of your
feet. These two beams then temper and balance your
personal energetic field so that you’re in a more
harmonious, healthy alignment with both Heaven
and Earth.
Then recite the words of the following prayer
three consecutive times:
“What had been drained from my body, may the
Holy Light hereby restore. What had been empty
inside me, may the Holy Light fill with Curing,
Invigorating Love. Mend my fractures. Purify my
impurities. Soothe the disturbances of my spirit.
And so may it be.”
On the physical plane, rituals in self-healing can
reduce the aftermath of exhaustion or fatigue. On the
metaphysical plane of correspondence, such rituals
maintain optimal levels of personal life force that can
then be exerted to achieve your own goals and attain
your aspired fortunes. When you’re constantly feeling
drained of that life force, you don’t have enough
fuel left in you to manifest prosperity for yourself.
Maintaining a disciplined routine to self-healing and
preventative self-care will make all the difference in
your wellness when you read tarot for others.
About Benebell:
Benebell Wen is the author of Holistic Tarot:
An Integrative Approach to Using Tarot for
Personal Growth and The Tao of Craft: Fu
Talismans and Casting Sigils in the Eastern
Esoteric Tradition, both published by North
Atlantic Books. She is also the deck creator
and illustrator of the forthcoming independently
published Spirit Keeper’s Tarot, to be released
on December 21, 2018.
Learn more about her work at benebellwen.com
Tarot School Aphorism
 ANNOUNCING THE 2019
READERS STUDIO STUDY GROUPS!
One of the favorite parts of the Readers Studio
experience is the optional evening Study Groups.
Even though Readers Studio is sold out, there are
still seats for Thursday's Divination Day. If you're
there, you can attend a Study Group, too!
Thanks to everyone who submitted a Study Group proposal!
Here's the lineup:
THURSDAY, APRIL 25
==================
Abraham Bae
Sight Beyond Sight:
5 Exercises to Broaden Your Tarot Intuition
Lisa Freinkel Tishman
Mindful Tarot:
Opening the Heart, Freeing the Mind
Neera Sareen
“Moksha Patta” (The Liberation Board):
The Indian Vedic Divination...
‘Birth to Liberation’
Anne Walner
Astro-Tarot-Numerology Wheel:
How to Create Astro-Tarot-Numerology
and Timing Charts
Michelle Welch
Storeowner Insights to Deck Success
Katrina Wynne
Tarot Games for Fun
FRIDAY, APRIL 26
================
Monica Bodirsky
9-Card Storyteller:
A complete tarot reading w/ only 9 cards
Rome Choi
Dawn from East:
New classic from outside the mainstream
Kathleen Gubitosi
Voice Alchemy:
Professional Voice Care and Voice Painting
for Tarot Readers
Al Juarez
Tarot Time:
Tell Me Cuando, Cuando, Cuando!
Dan Pelletier
Dan’s ‘Post-It-Notes’ Tarot Workshop
Joan Scannell & Chrissy Manolakis
Let’s Cut to the Chase!:
Delivering Clear, Accurate Readings that
Bring Clients Back Again and Again
Tickets for Divination Day on Thursday, April 25th
are available here: 2019 Divination Day
Diviner's Corner
TAROT AND THE NATURE OF DIVINITY
by Sasha Graham
art by Julie Jensen
You are the universe. You are divine. You are pure
consciousness. Everything you see, notice, observe,
listen to, eat, laugh at, make fun of, enjoy and
dislike, resist and surrender to is the universe seeing
itself, understanding itself, and recognizing itself.
What is true for you is true for the universe. What is
true for the universe is true for you. As above, so
below. This is why when you give love, you receive
love.
You, like The Fool tarot card, are on a journey, quest,
adventure. The journey of who you are, like a sacred
circle, will lead you back yourself. The World circles
back to The Fool card and begins the journey again.
Your journey begins with you. It ends with you. You
may travel to the edges of your backyard or to the far
flung reaches of the world. It is the internal journey
that matters. Everything else? Shadows and dust.
The exterior world is energy changing form, a mere
illusion. Your interior life, your inner roads, bear
the mark of eternity.
Each day as you wake, the mystery of who you are
unfolds a bit further. You move forward, backwards or
sideways on your respective path, closer to or further
from your goals. You speed along on cruise control
sometimes. Other times, you find yourself lost in
thorny thickets or gasping for air in quicksand. We all
instigate cause and effect with our actions and deeds.
We fill the world with our energy. We spend it wisely
on things we love, reinvesting energy in ourselves or
give it away to other people and things. Each day of
our life, we step closer to death. August’s rich
harvest and golden light surrenders into the deepening
shadows of September’s equinox. It is worth
surrendering to. It isn’t easy but its beautiful. It
is why we are here. Practice the art of surrender. If
you let Summer’s passage into Fall be your teacher,
you become more of who you are outside of linear time.
A map is essential for any journey. These days, we use
handy cell phone maps fitting snugly into the palm of
our traveling hands. If you were around in the 1970’s
you’ll remember giant AAA travel maps found under
vinyl seats and in the dusty glove compartments of our
parent’s car. These maps became reading fodder during
infernal road trips after the Mad Libs and fast food
fries gave out. Ancient peoples crafted scroll maps by
hand. Men and women looked to the firmament before
paper’s invention. Constellations in a crystal clear,
pollution-free night sky were used as a guide, plot,
and plan.
Maps show us landscapes, they reveal the lay of the
land so we can orient ourselves. Maps let us know where
to find things like gas stations, convenience stores,
and our friend’s house. Yet, the most most exciting
maps, the most rarified, desired and lusted for maps,
maps that people have shed blood and lost their lives
over, are treasure maps. If you are looking for the
treasure map of your soul, look no further than a deck
of tarot cards for sale at your local bookshop.
Tarot has been described as many things; an oracle,
game, book, meditation and contemplative device, etc.
Tarot is the ideal map because it presents you, the
inner and outer life, in a sensible, precise, easy to
read manner. It speaks with equal equity of the
practical and the mysterious, the visible and
invisible. The tarot, like you, is the micro and
macrocosm. Tarot offers possibility while reflecting
precisely where you are on your journey. Tarot reflects
infinite possibility because it communicates through
symbol. Each of us fill symbols and cards with personal
meaning, the way we read between the lines of poetry or
prose. Poetry speaks through economy of words and
silence. Silence, like dark matter or garden compost,
contains all possibility. Tarot’s symbols communicate
like poetry because symbolic meaning is felt. Visuals
are ingested and move inside of us to take residence.
They are ripe with wide open space. You illuminate the
space with personal meaning.
My newest offering, Llewellyn’s Complete Book of
the Rider Waite Smith Tarot offers a keen
examination of the occult mapping of tarot. I put aside
personal associations with the cards and went straight
to Arthur Waite, the author and source of the RWS deck,
to craft a book on the world’s most famous deck. I
deconstructed his books and articles relating to the
cards to understand his ultimate goal when creating the
deck in 1909. Turns out, Waite was using the tarot as a
mapping tool to express the nature of divinity.
The nature of divinity was the last thing I was looking
for when buying my first deck of tarot cards at age
twelve. Delicious, mysterious Halloween was all I
could sense inside the cards. Black and orange jelly
beans, bobbing for apples, witches with pointy hats and
sugary orange pumpkins carved into silly and macabre
faces. I wouldn’t have understood the phrase
“nature of divinity” as a pre-teen. I did, however,
hop off my bike often to lie back on a field. I enjoyed
feeling myself tiny against an expansive summer sky or
seeing luminous fall foliage flush through valleys
blazing with color. It was a signature of things to
come.
Nature is the great equalizer of humanity. We all gaze
at the same moon. No matter how we come to understand
our existence, regardless of dogma, religion, system or
rejection of systems used to explain our souls, life
and the after-life; nature is the equalizer. The ocean
remains the ocean. A mountain is a mountain. A flower
is a flower. Nature contains the first archetypes.
Nature predates human personality. This is why myth and
legend are elemental and grounded in mountains, sky,
and ocean. Earth, air, fire and water are reflected in
tarot as Pentacles, Swords, Wands and Cups. These are
the symbolic elements we fill to the brim with personal
meaning.
The material world (Pentacles) is the place where we
all meet each other while navigating the folds of our
interior life. The earth contains everything you can
touch, taste, see, feel and smell. Pentacles are your
soft body, your tasty dinner, your little black dress,
the money you stuff in your wallet, your bedroom,
your garden, etc. Everything else in the tarot and in
our life is invisible.
We experience and feel the passion of Wands when
we desire a person or thing. We see Wands expressed
in others through facial expressions and actions, yet
we are unable to hold passion in our hands.
We experience the intellectuality of Swords, articulate
ourselves through language, make calculations and see
others doing the same, yet we cannot taste or smell a
thought itself.
The emotional life of Cups often influences our every
action. Our emotions can feel wonderful or horrifying,
yet you can’t literally hold love, fear, excitement,
or trepidation in your hands.
Major Arcana archetypes are psychological constructs
and ideas which are not available in solid form. We
cycle through the archetypes and court card
personalities on a daily basis. Court cards and
archetypes reflect all of the different personalities
living inside of you.
• You are a tarot Queen when in an empathetic state
of mind and nurturing others.
• You are The Empress when at the height of your
creative ability and being brilliant with your talents.
• You are The Emperor when you make routines and
rules for yourself and stick to them.
• You are a Page when you are in a childlike and
curious mood.
We cycle through personalities, moods and archetypes
differently each day and on a moment-to-moment basis.
Yet it is all invisible and ephemeral. The experience of
our life occurs inside of us.
Your response to spirituality, the supernatural,
creativity etc. is interior and highly personal. No
two people experience mystery in the same way.
C.S Lewis said:
“Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment
when at last you meet another human being who has
some inkling (but faint and uncertain even at best) of
that something which you were born desiring, and
which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the
momentary silences between the louder passions, night
and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you
are looking for, watching for and listening for?”
Arthur Waite offers us a map of how divinity (the
universal life force, the godhead, a flower, whatever
name you’d like to give it) unfolds in the material
world via the tarot by connecting it with the Tree of
Life. Once divinity moves down through the Tree and
expresses itself in the material world, like a
sunflower blooming in your garden, you are free to
retrace these steps in reverse. You can moves back up
the Tree, retracing the path of divinity. You reach the
summit to look it squarely in the eye. Divinity sees
you seeing it. Divinity wants you to recognize it as
much as your soul wants to be seen and understood.
Have you ever fallen in love with a person or animal
and felt them loving you back? It is the soul
recognition in another. It usually happens when you
least expected it, although you always desired it.
Divinity’s been on Tinder looking for you all along.
This is why love, especially new love, fills us with
endorphin like drug feelings. It is a hint, a gasp of
the ecstatic love which created you. Once you truly
“see” each other and recognize one another, like a
lover’s kiss, a Big Bang explodes.
Your Big Bang expresses itself though synchronicities
and evolution in the material world. Uncanny
synchronicity appears to let us know we chose well.
We are right where we should be on our path, journey,
adventure. You change on a cellular level. The material
world changes with you. You find yourself responding to
old habits and behaviors in a different way. Patterns
change. Old challenges are met with sudden clarity and
solutions. You become more of who you are. The mystery
of who you are unfolds.
The seeds of everything you are, everything you need,
is right there. Just as the Magician has Cups, Wands,
Swords and Pentacles on his table, your psyche, spirit,
passions and body are a self-sustaining kit with
everything you need. I hope you tend to the garden of
your soul. I hope you make use of the gifts enfolded
and entrusted deep inside of you. May your gifts bring
you joy. You make the world a more beautiful place by
sharing them. I hope you stay true to your path. Hope
you are willing to brave dark woods and creepy shadows
when the going gets tough. Persevere through to claim
the glittering treasure beyond. May you cycle through
the tarot a million times over and find your deepest
authenticity in every draw. All the universe is planted
inside of you.
It’s harvest time.
(This article first appeared in the Llewellyn Journal,
September 11th, 2018.)
About Sasha:
Sasha Graham teaches tarot classes, speaks and lectures
around the world. She is the author of Llewellyn's
Tarot Diva, 365 Tarot Spreads, 365 Tarot Spells and
served as editor and writer of Lo Scarabeo's Tarot
Fundamentals, Tarot Experience and Tarot Compendium.
Her most recent book is Llewellyn's Complete Book of
the Rider Waite Smith Tarot.
Sasha created her first tarot deck with Marvel and
Disney artist Mirco Pierfederici, The Haunted House
Tarot with Lo Scarabeo. Her second dark and delicious
deck with artist Abigail Larson, The Dark Wood Tarot
will be released by Llewellyn in 2019. Sasha will also
be one of the featured master class instructors at the
2019 Readers Studio.
Visit her website at: sashagraham.com
We’d love your suggestion or submissions for this
column! If you have an idea or would love to
contribute, please contact us at tarot@tarotschool.com.
Cool New Event
RUNE WISDOM TELESUMMIT
Love throwing some runes along with your tarot reading?
The Rune Wisdom Telesummit is a multi-speaker event
that will show you how to partner with the primordial
energies of the Runes to energize your life and align with
your own soul purpose.
The event will run October 22 through November 2, with
two one-hour calls every weekday. There's no cost to attend,
and even if you can't attend the talks live, you'll get access
to each replay for 48 hours!
Click here for details:
http://www.mcssl.com/app/?Clk=5627386
Best Practices for Professional Readers
EXPERT WAYS TO ATTRACT CLIENTS
By Gina Thies
www.tarotadvisor.com / www.facebook.com/tarotreaders
www.tarotcoupling.com / www.oraclesoup.org
One question I often hear from those starting a
professional tarot journey is, “How do I find
clients?” I dare say the prospects of both not having
clients and finding good clients are cause for angst in
building a solid tarot reading business.
When a new client has a session with me, I always ask
him or her how they found my services. Yes, the key
point here is how they found me, not how I found them.
The famous line from the movie Field of Dreams starring
Kevin Costner, “If you build it they will come,” is
not exactly true in the era of e-commerce or selling
online. I often tell hopeful entrepreneurs that
building a website alone is not enough to “make them
come.”
Most savvy business owners understand the workings
of website ownership, marketing, advertising, etc. but
those things alone don’t necessarily make you feel
confident about finding clients. I have surveyed other
tarot professionals and other business owners to find
out how they find clients.
Here are the top tips from thriving business owners:
• Volunteering services at charity events
• Using tarot cards as a conversation piece with strangers
• Old professional connections or relationships
• Networking constantly with ideal clientele
• Professional organizations or memberships
• Lead generation sites and apps
• Like-minded business referrals
• Local newspaper advertising
• Business cards
Happy client hunting!
Gina
Upcoming Events:
• October 1, 15, 22 and 29, 2018
(There will be no Salon on Oct. 8th)
Forest Hills, New York
Our popular Monday night Salons are the
hottest thing in tarot instruction!
http://tarot.salon
• Coming in early December!
INTENSIVE:
Esoteric Titles of the Minor Arcana
Forest Hills, New York
(Details coming soon!)
• April 25, 2019
Divination Day
(Website coming soon!)
• April 26 – 28, 2019
2019 Readers Studio
(Sold Out! Contact us to get on the waiting list)
http://ReadersStudio.com
(Note: This is still the RS18 website. The new one
won't be ready for a little while yet, but much of
the information is still useful.)
Join our 10,270+ fans and join the fun!
Up to the minute news, mini lessons and more...
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Directors: Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone
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