Divination doesn't predict your future—it helps you with your past

Reflection provides wisdom to leave it behind

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You sit in a darkened room.

A few candles burn, giving pinpoints of light.

Incense curls around you like a suffocating blanket.

A mysterious lady enters the room to sit across from you at the table.

She hands you a deck of cards to shuffle.

You hand the cards back when you are done.

She lays the cards out in a pattern.

You sit, awaiting your fate.

I've seen the odd tarot reader and had my palm read in various countries and explained to me in many strains of broken English. Did I believe a word? To be honest, I didn't understand much, but I loved watching the presentation. -Simon Baker

Fate isn't in the cards

Most tarot card readings are not this dramatic.

My tarot readings are never like this.

I don't believe in fate.

I do believe in transformation.

These are the types of tarot readings I do.

Tarot doesn’t have to be just fortunetelling. My luck in predicting the future is zero. The moment I try to predict the future, it negates itself. Our future isn’t set in stone. It changes as we change.

Books and movies don’t help this idea

How many stories start with an unsuspecting person who is hit with the realization that they are here to change the world?

This is the hero’s journey on speed. Let’s be honest, and it only happens when someone adds drama to the journey.

Every other person in the world undertakes the hero’s journey in spurts. We are challenged to change, so we make the changes. Simple.

Who wants to sit and have their future predicted?

We would die of boredom. Or we would run as fast as we could, and our legs would carry us.

We may be able to mitigate the adverse events predicted. The good events would lose their magic. The surprise and delight would be gone.

Unpredictability is the spice of life.

Finding ourselves out of our comfort zone is how we change. As we grow, our future expands to include more opportunities. It's a perpetual cycle of growth.

Sometimes, we can get stuck. We need a nudge to keep growing.

You don't go to tarot readers or psychics when everything's going well. It's always evidence of rock-bottom. -Sheila Heti

Transformational tarot gives a helping hand

Reading a tarot deck doesn't require grand psychic powers. No other worldly magic is needed. Not even a secret handshake for the hidden club.

Just a willingness to look at a situation from a different viewpoint. An open mind to a new perspective. It is getting to know yourself better.

Oh, and a tarot or oracle deck of some kind. Even an ordinary deck of playing cards.

You can make it as simple or complicated as you want.

Readings can have all the dramatic elements you want. It doesn’t significantly alter the outcome of the cards.

This is all there is to transformational tarot. It's simply offering you a different perspective to consider.

Source of the tarot knowledge

It depends on who you talk to. The sources range from God to the unconscious. It depends on the reader.

Personally, I don't know.

At first, the question didn't really concern me. I was more interested in knowledge. I was desperate to leave the trauma behind me.

After time, I wondered.

Then, I learned about the mirror principle.

It is referred to in many ways. 'As above, so below. So within, so without' What we see in the outer world is contained in our inner world.

I noticed this pattern in the information I was looking for.

If I was looking to understand something outside of me, I got answers about what was going on inside. The reverse is also true. When I looked at something inside of myself, I referred to a situation outside myself.

There is never one without the other.

Using tarot readings for answers

Use a tarot reading when you can't find a resolution on your own.

There is usually a problem with something or someone in our lives. Or does the problem lie within us? A feeling or memory we can't leave behind.

This reflects that our inner and outer worlds are out of sync. The cards provide insight into aspects you may not be aware of.

Or you are tired of the issue from the past and ready to move on but it won't let go. You are missing a piece

No matter how dirty your past is, your future is spotless. -Drake

What a tarot reading looks like

I break all the tarot-reading taboos.

I don’t sit at a table. I don’t use incense or any ritual to read cards. I don't have a special cloth or fancy costume. I throw cards just about anywhere.

I use, at most, 3 cards. Usually, just one is enough to get me started. No fancy spread.

Just a question. This is the important part. How the question is asked will make or break a reading.

My question is usually, 'What do I need to learn from this to let it go?'

Then you pull a card.

You reflect on the card. If it remains a mystery, I draw a second card. If that doesn't clear it up, then I pull a third card.

This clarifies the situation and brings out the wisdom.

If it goes beyond 3 cards, then you are just being stubborn.

You don't like the change being presented to you. You can't blame the cards. You can walk away stuck.

I didn't say it is always pretty.

It can actually get dark.

The growth or wisdom that is suggested isn't what we were expecting or want to see. It brings truth we don't want. But stop and look at it anyway.

Growth isn't comfortable. It's painful. It's seeing things we don't want to admit.

After the first few times, you get used to it.

Even more time passes, and you expect it.

My own reading of Death

I recently used this for myself because I was unable to fully move on from my job that I left two years ago. There were just a few things that bothered me.

I was a failure at it. It wasn’t the kind of failure I learned from.

Why was I so expendable? I gave them everything that I had. I worked so much overtime sometimes that I rarely saw home.

I gave up everything else in my life so that I could focus on my job. No music, knitting, or anything that took energy away from it. Why did I give up everything?

I gave myself the failure speech. That nothing was a failure, but rather a learning experience. It was not working to relieve my pain over this. So I decided to consult the cards.

I shuffled the deck I had chosen.

I pulled the 13-Death.

(Drama much?)

At first, I was flippant about it. Of course, it was death. Death of my career.

But with death, you have to go with rebirth.

Of course, all of it was there. Rebirth follows death.

Check had that, too.

I admit I walked away for a while. This information was too close to the surface. I didn't feel better.

Whisper of wisdom start

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I reflected on it for a couple of days. Then the whisper started. Pointing to me to go deeper with it.

A little insight started to come.

Knowing myself, I don’t know when to quit. I needed to be pushed into a corner before I would take action. I craved the security of a job so much that I didn't mind the poor environment.

I was willing to be a sheep and asleep.

I sacrificed everything for security.

However, there comes a point when there are things they can no longer have.

I realized I needed to be broken down to nothing but the soul. I couldn’t be reborn if I didn’t die to everything that I was. The break would never be complete enough.

I gave up everything until I was just existing. My job was my identity. I walked away with nothing.

I was stressed and broken. I was dying. There was nothing there that was keeping my soul alive.

I would have never stepped into rebirth if I hadn’t given everything up. I could rebuild a strong foundation. Not the decayed house that I was trying to keep alive and unbroken.

I finally found the healing and wisdom that I was looking for.

I realized I should be grateful for what happened. They took all the things that I didn’t want to be and pushed me into a corner. I was now willing to fight.

When I left, there was nothing but dust blowing in the wind.

I dreamed of a life where I lived on my terms. Doing my own thing and finding the individual that I longed to be.

I was able to rebuild with better materials and make a solid foundation that will last. A foundation based upon my individuality.

Resolution is in the reflection

The resolution was that I was able to see all the possibilities that were presented to me.

"Reflective thinking turns experience into insight." - John C. Maxwell

That is how the cards make the reflection possible.

I was able to look inside to see what I couldn’t get around because of my ego.

I used symbols to make sense of what happened to me. Symbology engages both sides of your brain. The analytical and intuitive sides.

I could put the situation in a framework that made sense. I gained wisdom from the whole thing.

Now, the thought of my past job doesn’t bother me anymore. I actually wish them well because I got the chance to be reborn after I killed everything inside of myself.

This made me appreciate myself more. I realized the struggles since then are me finding myself. Finding the real me.

Transformational tarot is a reflective process. It reframes your story to empower yourself.

The next time you are having an issue, give it a try. If you walk past a tarot deck, pull a card to see what it says.

You could find wisdom to change your life.