YouandTheTarot

  "The whole first 35 minutes of my college reunion was visually and emotionally reaching back through the years. I was reconstructing how they used to look." They continued: "It took going to a bar afterward to settle down my head in the now. That's when the ROI kicked in for that expensive trip back to New Haven, Connecticut. We shared insights what we had learned about life since graduation." That's how a 50-something client for a tarot reading described their pain. The event had been three weeks ago. But the shock of coming close up to a group's aging remained traumatic. It was downright irrelevant to them how those aging classmates had fared professionally. In our reading, no surprise, the Wheel of Fortune card didn't come up. What did emerge was The Chariot card.  Its message is: Radical Acceptance. Obviously, aging is embedded in a life. The pain comes from not the reality per se. Its source is resistance to that reality. Gently I tutored the...

 The live mediums back in June 1953 were radio and television. Those announced on June 19th that 1) Julius and Ethel Rosenberg had been executed and 2) Their young sons Robby and Michael were being taken care of.  That was the second time in our little lives that we, the oldest of the Boomers, were shaken to the core with fear: Would we too lose our parents? Would some dark-suited tall men come in the early morning and take our parents away? Who would comb my hair for school? The first time was around 1951. That's w hen we hid under our desks practicing safety for when the bad guys during the Cold War would bomb us. But the teachers never addressed our questions about would our parents also be safe at home when the bombs came. They had no desks to hide under.  Yet, those same mediums depicted us as Happy-Clappy, always smiling in our Cowgirl/Cowboy outfits. In tarot readings I hear a lot about the remaining undercurrent of Boomer angst, as well as rage. Our interior lives...

  Off to the slammer. That's where visionaries Elizabeth Holmes, who was going to upend healthcare, and Bernie Madoff, who heralded that for investing, wound up. They were false prophets whose fraud could have impinged on your retirement. And now after those disclosures, you might wonder if the bad guys you have to watch out for will include the front lines of AI. That's especially if the bots go rogue and plunder civilization as we know it. Good lawyers, as with the fatal contamination of peanut butter, can put business leaders in prison. What did they know and when did they know it? Lots to think about. But the current reality is that we have more to fear from how the world is changing on its own. Maybe mankind did get that started, as with urban density and fossil fuels. But the universe is running with the consequences of all that on its own. In the tarot that is symbolized by the Tower card. This has become a pressing issue for the aging like you. The majority of my tarot...

  "That colleague blocked me. No conversation why." A new client told me that. But the lament wasn't new to me. This is "cut-off culture."  No longer do people feel the responsibility or the need to talk about why they're exiting your life. The client was intuitive. So they had a hunch that this particular former friend sized them up as "stuck." In this fast-moving world in which just about everyone has to scramble for an edge, being perceived as stuck is right up there with being known as unethical or hostile. As we proceeded in the tarot reading I picked up that this client wasn't stuck. They were changing. The reality, though, is that they weren't doing that fast enough. At least, not what it takes to be in synch with 2026. Instead of taking concrete steps in a reset in how to earn a good living, they remained in the limbo of emotionally gearing up. Obviously, that was being held against them.  The focus of the reading shifted to what wa...

Euphoric, Brad Karp drove from college to the hospital to show his dying father the acceptance letter from Harvard Law School.  But, in addition, Karp told his mother he would go to Yale Law School, where he was also accepted, to be located close enough to help her out. She turned down the offer.  That was 45 years ago. Back then this now partner at Paul, Weiss was ready to do what adult children did at the time: sacrifice to care for a vulnerable parent. Now, that value is being questioned. Often, with great confusion, plus seething resentment and some guilt.  More and more in tarot readings clients are essentially asking "permission" to ask if they "have to" be responsible for their parents as they age. That ranges from hands-on care to any legalities. In the tarot that internal turmoil is depicted by the Tower card. Those askers are in their 40s. They're spotting decline in parents. Vividly they're also having flashbacks from childhoods which weren't ...

  "I helped a colleague. Why did I do that?" In our professional lives we tend to learn the most from hands-on client situations.  Over and over it has come up recently in tarot readings that both females and supposedly hard-nosed males were thrown for a loop. They assisted a "drowning" or at least vulnerable co-worker. The aid was not reciprocated. Now and then those helped even turned on them. This interpretation of those dynamics won't get me friends. But it resonates with clients. Immediately, they identify.  Long story short: Christianity socializes us to reach out to the weaker. Classic is Luke 10:25. That's the parable of Good Samaritan.  The meme is selfless reaching out to help, even when that might fit with dominant social norms. Actually, that whole mindset is the antithesis of capitalism, an individualistic economic system. It is the individual, not the system, who is responsible for success and for failure.  In its rawest form it mandates moving...