YouandTheTarot

The award-winner "Close to You" puts it out there that family, even the most well-intentioned, may block not only growth but the basic survival instinct.  When being part of his family of mother, father and three siblings, as a female, in a small town in Canada now-male-Sam had been frozen into sadness. His father feared finding her dead. Four years later he has found himself as he transitioned into a male in a large city in Canada where he lives a little life with a roommate. With dread but willingness he returns home for his father's birthday.  That is a disaster and he leaves during the birthday dinner.  But before he does he reconnects with the disabled woman (deaf) he once loved back in high school even when he was a female. Later they consummate that love in a brief and temporary encounter. This Sam has found quiet self-acceptance. He is no activist.  His family only knows how to provide a ham-handed version of liberal acceptance. Not deep understanding and connecti

You are caught up in a crisis.   The usual next is a pause - a period of intense self-reflection.  In the Tarot that's symbolized by the Four of Swords card. Swords stand for thought processes.  To make that investment in a self-audit useful, be gentle with yourself. It will be counterproductive to heap upon yourself harsh and unforgiving judgment.  The great thinkers have all had the same message: Human beings are profoundly flawed. Therefore, it is inevitable that we will make many mistakes. The only next step is self-forgiveness.  Then go on to change our thinking and behavior.  Those thinkers include Buddha, Jesus Christ, William Shakespeare, Carl Jung and Dr. Bob/Bill Wilson who had founded Alcoholics Anonymous.  The American legal system also gives the right to "sinners" to seek out the best outcomes for themselves. That's through being represented by defense law firms such as Skadden, Kirkland & Ellis and Paul Weiss.  The worst response to mistakes is turni

  Spirituality, prayer, even psychotherapy. Often that's too abstract and too isolating for those in pain.  That's why some of us tarot readers have been writing "social prescriptions." Those are very concrete social approaches to transcend suffering.  "A social prescription is officially defined as a nonmedical resource or activity that aims to improve a person's health and strengthen their community connections." That's what Julia Hotz writes in her 2024 book "The Connection Cure: The Prescriptive Power of Movement, Nature, Service and Belonging." And the prescription is nothing new.  For decades psychiatrists, ministers and community "shamans" have been recommending to widows in grief to get a job in a crafts store or animal shelter. When there were book stores the number-one suggestion was there. For the depressed join a gym. No, don't purchase equipment to use at home. For those who had lost that big job help with the re

The Roman Catholic Church, William Shakespeare, Carl Jung and the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous all made it clear: We humans have a dark side.  The art world has run with that.  Novelist Ian McEwan, for example, published "Atonement" which was made into a film. There  has been the recent streamer on Paramount "The Whale." The central characters in both had done acts they deeply regretted. All that eats at them. Charlie in "The Whale," who ditched his family for a male lover, literally eats himself to death.  Of course, this deep shame about behavior comes up during Tarot readings. That includes a resistance against self-forgiveness. That wrench in the works is the assumption that what they did is so awful that they don't "deserve" forgiveness. Yet that's reverse narcissism: the total preoccupation with the self, the shutting out of the realities of what it means to be human.  A central Zen belief is that to be a human is to be prof

" ... 35 percent of parents who had lost a child found mediums 'very helpful' in relieving grief, versus 26 percent of those who visited mental health practitioners." -  Elle, October 2024 In psychic services demand is growing, both for consulting with a medium and for workshops teaching mediumship. What's driving that is the buzz in communities about how even one session with a medium helped those with loss process their grief. In addition, it has become irrelevant to those who experienced the healing if folks on their network tell them that the particular medium is a "scam."  In my own tarot reading practice clients tell me that connecting them with those who have passed over - be it a human or an animal companion - has provided relief. I feel blessed that my gifts have lessened pain. In some situations, the sufferers can let go of that relationship, such as a husband who has died years ago, and begin opening up to flirting.  Unfortunately, because me

In tarot readings I have been hearing more and more about the "pain" of no one seeming to give a damn about you on the job.  Well 1) Expect more of this kind of emotional upheaval and 2) It's totally up to you to keep ensuring you can make a good living.   Don't depend on standard "protections." The emerging realities of getting, holding and moving on to better work are increasingly brutal. At the top of list is the trust in collective action.  But, now a darkening cloud is hovering over the promises of unionizing. It engenerated such  hope in the 1930s.  Recently that seems naive.  For example, it doesn't appear that collective bargaining at Boeing will bring back pensions.  Starbucks front-line workers who put their hopes in even supporting unionizing haven't seemed to have gotten much in terms of improved conditions. At  VW in Germany , a nation in which job protections have historically been strong, there have been announced: Closure of three pla