YouandTheTarot

  Suicide remains a controversial subject in America. As it should be. This is life and the possibility of death. Some moderators on social media might delete postings about it and/or transmit information about sources for help. In tarot readings, of course, I manage the issue with great care. I was honored to direct a man with a severe drinking problem and a plan for ending his life to a 12-step program.  Meanwhile, I resonate with Boomers - we were the generation to overthrow our mothers and liberate sexuality - talking about suicide for themselves. That's right down to the methodology. One told me about possibly drowning. I advised against that. When five years of age I kept going under before being rescued. The experience was horrific. The oldest of the Boomers is 80 years old.  For some, the issue has come to this: Not if but when. When there is "enough" cognitive and physical decline there's the hope that we're still in adequate control to pass over to the w...

  Eventually the fallout from the Epstein Files will end. Soon enough we'll be in the Post-Epstein File era. Already clients for tarot readings are asking me what they should not be doing or doing now that we understand those complex patterns of manipulation in networking. Well, there are lessons to be learned. Many of them are obvious. Some others will be made clear in time. Here are the top ones: Vet more thoroughly those presenting themselves to loop in.   Do that and there will be fewer Bernie Madoffs and Jeffrey Epsteins. Hire a private investigator? Good idea and worthwhile investment. Interpret favor-bombing as a red flag.  No, you're not that special. Way back in the early 1990s, public relations guru Bob Dilenschneider coined the term "Favor Bank" as the essence of networking. You make deposits in the Favor Bank and don't overdo the withdrawals. Well, if any applicant to the group is way too generous with the favors for you, beware. Odd that prominent law...

In the New Haven, Connecticut Kwan Um School of Zen Center  both monks and lay-person members focus on the mantra: Clear Thinking, Don't Know.  If you're spiritually in-tune that should open up pathways to fresh perspectives.  After participating in that meditation ritual for 18 months I had the Ah-Ha moment that I should and could (that is, had the strength) to exit the New York Metro area. I would relocate my communications business to where there was less age bias. Yes, I had "aged out" of the media capital of the world. That was 2014.  In 2021, doing the same kind of exercise at the Cochise Kwan Um School in Bisbee, Arizona, I got the "message" that the time was overdue to shift from communications. That would be to my sideline and pro-bono activities in providing tarot readings. Already, since 2008, I had been providing intuitive career coaching. Given the power of emptying our thought processes of fixed ideas, it's no surprise that in this confusin...

  It happens all the time, sometimes in minutes, more often gradually. That's a negative career event which isn't your fault. For example, the boss gets fired, shade is thrown on the whole group and eventually you're forced out. The law firm you lateraled to goes out of business. Your sector is among those targeted by AI. In tarot-readings you keep repeating that it's not your fault. And, based on my knowledge of business, you are probably right. But, fixating on where to assign blame for career setbacks or even implosions will delay turning it around. Or it could even mean you'll never work again. That is similar to the myth of fair. Expecting a level playing field not only will fill you with resentment. But the disappointment about others having advantages you don't can deter you from investing yourself fully and creatively in how you earn a good living. Worse, the festering outrage can land you in prison, as happened with late mayor of Providence, Rhode Islan...

  It's not new the warning about the danger - financial, social and even physical - of being a stay-at-home mother. For years feminists, for example, have hammered that mom won't be making contributions to Social Security or a 401k.  But, as the bestelling memoir "Strangers" by Belle Burden discloses, even a woman from old money with a Harvard Law education could default into the role. No Spoiler Alert: Burden, whose grandmother was the late Babe Paley, was dumped by her husband and that cheater wanted nothing to do with the three children they produced together. We don't know if, as it is said of myriad SAH wives, Burden became less interesting without a career. We do know she didn't pack on the weight as it usually probable surrounded by cookies for the kids, amid the tedious routines. Of course, those of us women who made it our business to protect our financial future, build careers and worship fitness hope "Strangers" will reinforce the traditio...

 It's not your imagination: Times are really hard. Most days we actually are in overwhelm. That is changing much in the dynamics of relationships.  The Atlantic nails it: "Complaining too much sometimes gets framed as not just irritating but ' toxic ,' and sharing problems is sometimes described as ' trauma dumping .' Those on the receiving end of complaints bemoan their status as the 'therapist friend.' The message is: Vent with caution." Even in those contexts labeled "support groups" you might have noticed some glaze-over when a member vents instead of describing a situation and sketching out a solution. To use that old concept dating back to the late 1960s counterculture: People just can't handle that. But venting is a path to getting to the point of solution. Even if that solution is acceptance. That's the function we tarot readers serve.  We listen. We affirm what is being shared. We direct the conversation to some kind of ...