Each venue has its own flavor. In a nightclub or bar, the energy may be fast and electric, with quick readings that spark curiosity. At a festival or haunted attraction, you may find yourself offering glimpses of insight between the laughter and the thrills. Corporate events call for poise and professionalism, while private parties invite intimacy and playfulness. Whatever the setting, the magic is the same: you create a pocket of mystery where people can pause, reflect, and connect—even if only for a few minutes.

As you head into your Halloween season, remember that tarot isn’t just decoration or atmosphere—it’s a gift you’re bringing to each guest who sits across the table. The setting may change, but your role remains constant: to channel clarity, wonder, and a touch of the extraordinary.

So wherever your cards take you this October—under chandeliers, neon lights, or a kitchen table dressed for a party—know that you are part of a long tradition of readers keeping the flame of tarot alive in the world’s most festive season.

We have a wonderful article on our website, "22 Suggestions for Offering Readings at Parties, Expos & Psychic Fairs" by Elizabeth Moore, which will help you before, during and after your reading gigs at any time of the year!

https://tarotschool.com/Readings.html

Not everyone feels called to read at parties or public events this season. If your preference is to keep tarot close for your own Samhain observances, know that you’re in good company. The turning of the year is a powerful time for private ritual and reflection. Whether you’re drawing cards to honor your ancestors, seeking guidance for the months ahead, or simply sitting in quiet communion with the unseen, your practice holds a special depth.

I found an absolutely gorgeous article that includes a powerful 6-card Samhain spread here: https://wayfindertarot.com/samhain

Card 1: The Current Condition — You, as You Stand

This card reveals you, right now — your state of being, your stance, the energy you are carrying into this moment.  It does not describe the external situation but rather how you are inhabiting it.  This is the mirror of your present posture, the lens through which you are seeing and responding.  Suggestions for questions to ask yourself (pick what makes the most sense to you): 

• What meaning are you giving to this moment? How does this align with who you feel you are?
• What’s the operating principle or system you are running on right now?
• What commitments or responsibilities define how you stand here?
• What are you reacting to in the moment?  What immediate energy are you carrying?

Card 2: The Unseen -- Your Blind Spot

This card shows what you are not allowing yourself to notice — the inner resistance, fear, or avoidance you may be carrying.  Think of it as the shadow you’re casting without realizing it.  It is a part of you, but one you keep turned away from awareness.  Read this as a reversal — not what the world hides from you, but what you are hiding from yourself.

• What truth about yourself are you avoiding because it feels uncomfortable?
• What flaw in your logic or blind spot in the system are you not accounting for?
• What duty or routine have you been neglecting?
• What real-time opportunity or risk are you overlooking?

Card 3: The Interior Story & Focus

Here lies the inner narrative you have been living.  What beliefs, assumptions, and choices brought you here?  Where has your attention been resting — what have you been feeding with your focus?  This card reveals the story you’ve been telling yourself, the way you’ve framed your journey so far, and how that focus has shaped your path. 

• What inner story have you been telling about who you are?
• What model, plan, or hypothesis have you been running with?
• What traditions, rules, or past experiences have guided your focus?
• Where has your attention been going in the moment-to-moment?

Card 4: The Known -- Your Conscious Awareness

This card shows what is open and present in your conscious mind.  These are the truths you already recognize, the strengths you already claim, the possibilities you already see.  It is the part of yourself you are most familiar with — what you can articulate clearly and share with others.

• What ideals, relationships, or values are clear to you right now?
• What strategies, frameworks, systems, models or concepts are you already aware of?
• What facts, duties, and reliable resources do you already recognize?
• What skills, instincts, or tools do you know you can use right away?

Card 5: The Hidden -- Your Subconscious Current

This card uncovers the influences within you that are less visible — the feelings, needs, or memories that remain unspoken but powerful.  This is the deep current of your psyche, shaping your choices from below the surface.  Here lies what you have not fully named in yourself, but which guides you nonetheless.

• What unspoken longing for meaning or unacknowledged hurt is shaping your actions?
• What assumption or unseen pattern is operating under the surface?
• What old memory or ingrained habit quietly drives you?
• What instinctual urge or impulsive desire is influencing you?

Card 6: The Dynamic Re-Aim –– Your New Trajectory for Living

This card points not to a fixed destination, but to the direction your inner compass is asking you to turn.  Where are you being invited to shift your focus, re-aim your energy, and create a new trajectory within yourself?  This is not about achieving an outer goal, but about evolving your inner stance so that change naturally follows.

• Where can you shift your focus to create more meaning and connection?
• What strategy or re-framed principle can redirect your energy?
• What habit or structure can you adjust to set a steadier course?
• What new action or experiment can redirect your momentum?

✨ Facilitator Script for Dynamics for Change Tarot Spread

Introduction

“This spread is called Dynamics for Change. It’s a way of looking at yourself in motion — not just where you’ve been or where you’re going, but how your awareness shifts and creates change. We’re not reading the outside world here. Each card reflects you — how you stand, what you see and don’t see, and where your energy is moving.”

Explaining the Questions

“Under each card, you’ll see a few different questions. They’re written in different voices, because not everyone thinks or feels the same way. Some will resonate more strongly with you than others. Don’t worry about why that is — just notice which one makes you nod, or which one gives you that little inner ‘spark.’ That’s your entry point.

You don’t need to answer every question. Instead, pick the one or two that really pull at you. That’s where the spread is opening the door for you.”

Guidance During Reading

“When you lay the cards out, read them in order, but pause with each one. Ask yourself: Which question here feels alive for me? Don’t overthink it. The point isn’t to analyze every possible angle — the point is to notice what draws your attention and then lean into it.

If a question doesn’t vibe with you, let it go. The spread is dynamic — it’s meant to move with you, not box you in.”

Closing the Spread

“At the end, look at the flow. Notice how the questions that resonated most tell a story together. That story is your map of change. Card 6 — the Re-Aim — is your compass. It’s not a goal, not a finish line, but the direction your inner compass is pointing right now.”

🌱 This script lets your students:

• Feel free (no pressure to be “right”).
• Recognize their own resonance points.
• Understand the spread as a dynamic system rather than a static layout.

About Cheryl Ryder:

60-years of tarot use and study, a tarot workshop developer and the leader

of the Albuquerque Tarot Tribe Meetup Group for the past 12 years.

Cheryl has grown the group from 150 members to over 1200 using innovative

and interactive teaching methods.
 

You all know her: a 10-year Readers Studio veteran, 7 years of Coordinating the Tarot Ambassador Team, occasional First-Timer Initiator, Merchant Faire Vendor, and last year, in 2024, the Facilitator of the Sunday morning Tarot Incubator Discussions.
 

Cheryl’s ongoing programs and discussion groups on the Albuquerque

Tarot Tribe’s platform (open to anyone interested in tarot globally)

continue to inspire people to expand and deepen their learning of

tarot and their worlds.
 

https://www.meetup.com/the-albuquerque-tarot-meetup-group/

To submit a question to be answered in a future issue of Tarot Tips, send us an email at tarot@tarotschool.com

Wald's Words of Wisdom

Among the many curious and delightful methods of divination, tyromancy holds a special place. The word comes from the Greek tyros (cheese) and manteia (prophecy). In ancient and medieval times, cheese was more than food—it was alive, transforming before the eyes of those who made it. That slow alchemy of milk into curd and curd into cheese became a natural symbol of mystery, patience, and hidden revelation.

There were several ways tyromancy was performed:

Shape and Cracks: Practitioners would examine the shape of a freshly formed wheel of cheese, noting cracks, holes, or odd markings that appeared as it aged. These were read like symbols, much as tea leaves or clouds are interpreted.

Letters and Signs: Some forms used coagulating curds to see if they arranged themselves into letters or numbers, which could be pieced together into names, dates, or answers.

Omens in Flavor and Texture: A sharpness, bitterness, or unusual flavor could be seen as an omen—either of warning or favor—depending on the question asked.

Tyromancy was especially popular in rustic, village settings where cheese-making was part of everyday life. Because it was tied to the household, it often served for questions about love, fertility, and domestic fortune.

Symbolism of Cheese

Cheese is the result of transformation: liquid milk solidifies into something lasting, nourishing, and complex. To the diviner, this process mirrors the way unseen forces take form in our lives. A rind may hide surprises within; holes may speak of emptiness or opportunity. Just as every cheese develops its own character, so too do our destinies.

Tyromancy Today

Though rarely practiced now, tyromancy still holds a playful charm. It reminds us that divination can emerge from the ordinary, that the sacred hides in the kitchen as much as in the temple. Next time you cut into a wheel of cheese, you might pause to notice the patterns: is there a heart-shaped air pocket, a spiral crack, or a small cavern like a doorway? What story might it whisper?

Try It Yourself: A Taste of Tyromancy

You don’t need to be a cheesemaker to give tyromancy a whirl. All it takes is curiosity, a wedge of cheese, and a question in mind.

Choose Your Cheese: A soft cheese with a rind, or a semi-firm cheese with a few natural cracks or holes, works best. (Think brie, blue, gouda, or Swiss.)

Ask Your Question: Hold the cheese in your hands, focusing on what you’d like guidance about. It could be as simple as “What energy surrounds me this week?” or as specific as “How can I best approach this situation?”

Observe Carefully: Look closely at the surface, the rind, and the interior once you cut into it. Do you see shapes, letters, or images in the patterns of the holes or veins? Does the texture feel open and welcoming, or dense and closed?

Interpret Symbolically: Trust your intuition. A heart-shaped hole might suggest love; a jagged crack could speak of conflict or a break; a spiral pattern might indicate a journey or growth.

Taste with Awareness: Flavor can be a sign, too. A sharp bite may suggest challenge, while a creamy, mellow taste may indicate comfort and ease.

Remember—this is divination in its most playful spirit. Approach it lightly, enjoy the process, and let the cheese reveal its secrets.


We’d love your suggestion or submissions for this column! If you have an idea or would like to contribute, please contact us at
tarot@tarotschool.com.

5 TAROT SCHOOL SPREADS

A Tarot School Study Guide 

 Format: pdf  

$7.00

Esoteric Insights

TAROT AS A LIVING ENERGY
 

By Wald Amberstone

There are many ways you can approach tarot, but there's one way that seems to be totally predominant. If you are in learning mode, you're acquire information. You're learning skills and associations. You're learning history, what other people said and did, in order to inform your practice and make it better.

However, there is another way, a different, deeper, perhaps even a better way. Instead of regarding the cards as bits and pieces of information, as symbolism, which you can incorporate into your world, you can learn to experience tarot as a living energy.

When you see a tarot card, any card, take a moment to be aware that that card is an energy operating inside of you at this very moment and it is there all the time. All the cards are in you all the time. Every single one of them. When you shuffle the deck and draw a card at random, no matter what card you pick, it is doing something. It has an effect on you. It expresses itself as you and in you.

To get to the point where you can recognize those things in yourself, do things with them, manipulate them and work with them, you need some experience of those things. How do you get an experience of a symbol, of a card, of an idea? How does it become real? How does it become a living thing instead of an objective, an object on the table like a teapot or a glass?

Anything that exists solely as an object in the objective world has no meaning by itself. I don't know if you're aware of that. Facts have no meaning. You have to add meaning to them afterwards. Human beings inject meaning into their facts. That is how some things become symbols.

I don't know if you can define what a symbol is, but my definition of a symbol is a reminder of a person's own truth. A symbol reminds you of your own truth. And so the trick is to make each one of these symbols your own, to make the deck your own, to make every card your own. 

Mind Your Own Business
KEEPING THINGS FRESH

How to come up with offers that excite you AND your client
 

By Patti Woods

My friend Lee, a psychic medium, messaged me the other day: “Can I ask how you come up with your offers? I’m getting bored with mine.” 

I totally get where he was coming from. Initially, my reading options were simply based on time: 15 minutes, half hour or hour. That’s it. Bring your questions, we’ll see what’s in the cards. But, like Lee, I found I was craving some variety. So I decided to start offering an additional themed reading each month. If I recall correctly, it started with a Valentine’s Day reading for couples. (I ended up hating that, so I don’t do couples readings anymore, but it was very popular). Then the next month, inspired by my Irish heritage, I offered ancestral readings. And so it began. 
 

I thrive in the creative space, so coming up with new ideas for offers jazzes me. 

Here are some things I consider when formulating them:
 

1. Holidays. Is there a special day coming up that you can build a reading around? Maybe a Labor Day “What is my true calling?” reading, or a Christmas “What are my gifts?” reading. January is loaded with potential for different options: the year ahead, support for your resolutions, leaving the old year behind. 

2. Something that YOU need. Last fall, I moved my only child into college. I knew the empty nest situation would be difficult, but I had no idea how hard I would take it. I desperately could’ve used some spiritual support around this new stage of life, and I know I’m not alone in that. So this year I created a reading for others. In September, I offered my “Roots and Wings” reading for empty nesters. I found it helped me just as much as it helped my clients. 

Another example: I was really struggling with the 2024 election. I did a reading for myself addressing some of the things I was feeling, and that evolved into “This Sh!#’s Bananas: A reading for troubled times.” (I’ve kept this one available since January, btw.)

3. What’s fun for you? I recently started charm casting with a friend and it’s so intriguing to me. I decided to craft a short, light-hearted charm-and-card offer as a little pick-me-up for when people don’t necessarily need a full tarot session. 

4. Vary the delivery. I think most readers have one preferred method of reading– either in-person, on Zoom, over the phone, text or written. But sometimes it’s interesting to mix it up. I find my written readings are very different from my in-person or Zoom readings, so I’ll do a written offer every now and then.

5. Vary the price point. I find it’s helpful to have a range of options so that readings are accessible to everyone. 
 

Variety is the spice of life, so if you find you’re feeling a little stale or bored in your tarot business, consider bringing in some new creative energy. Ponder the Ace of Wands and see what new ideas may be swimming around in the back of your head. 

About Patti:

Patti Woods is a writer and tarot reader with over 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. Having served as an editor for both newspapers and magazines, she transitioned into freelance writing, contributing hundreds of articles to major publications such as The Boston Globe, Business Insider, Wine Spectator, Parade Magazine, The Week, Christian Science Monitor, Vegetarian Times, and Health, among many others.

In addition to her writing career, Patti is the founder of Mind, Body & Tarot, a business featured in Business Insider, Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, Fodor's Travel, and more.

She is also the author of Lost Restaurants of Fairfield, published by Arcadia/The History Press, and has contributed to several anthologies, including Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Learn more about her services and offerings at www.pattiwoods.com.

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Upcoming Events: 



Tarot Salon on Zoom!
7:00 – 9:00 pm EDT

Our popular Monday night classes are now online so you can attend no matter where you live.

Classes are recorded and all levels of experience are welcome!

OCTOBER 2025:   

  6 - Symbols of the 5 of Cups

13 - NO CLASS (Indigenous Peoples' Day)
20 - Symbols of the 6 of Cups

27 - The 4th Corner (4-Cornered World): Pentacles
 

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Readings with Ruth Ann

Running The Tarot School with Wald keeps me pretty busy, but I still love giving readings! My specialty is using your Birth Cards and Elemental Array (techniques Wald and I have developed) in conjunction with random draws to give you an extremely personalized and powerful reading. 

If you are familiar with the Tree of Life, you may request a Birth Cards Synastry Reading. I will compare your Birth Cards with those of one or two others to give you a deeper understanding of your relationship with them.

I excel at giving Readings for Readers so if you're always giving readings to others, let me help you with some self-care for a change!