YouandTheTarot

 In the Tarot, the Star card celebrates a solid sense of hope.  That follows significant adversity. But there is a catch. The coming of hope assumes lessons have been learned. And they will be applied. See, those who have suffered so much emerge from past ordeals with a superior set of coping skills. Yes, you might say that they are now equipped with an edge,  For pre-New Year's readings the Star card is being pulled frequently. The messaging is that 2023 can be better than 2022. What's obvious in the Tarot is that pain is the platform for unique insight. To exit the pain loop, human beings have to understand themelves better - much better - and then course-correct. In April 2021, The New York Times championed the Tarot as a tool for self-awareness. Jessica Dore's "Tarot for Change" expains how to apply its messaging for "self-care, acceptance, and growth." Good defense lawyers fill many of those same roles. Most relevant are creating hope and opening t...

"It can feel like a cruel joke to get a taste of something you've spent years longing for, only to realize that it's not what you want at all." - Chapter "Two of Wands" in 2021 book TAROT FOR CHANGE by Jessica Dore.   The term for that is "disappointment." It is rarely introduced by you at the start of a Tarot reading. Likely you don't even realize you are feeling that. Managing disappointment is rarely a part of our emotional education. The odds are that it's the Tarot reader who picks up that disappointment is the source of your pain. You probably have pulled the Two of Wands. The challenge with disappointment is that it isn't attached to urgency. You can ignore it. The marriage is stale. The job no longer brings the joy of satisfaction. Living by the ocean has become boring. So ... However, if you decide to deal with this type of pain you could open the door to a series of new starts.  Takeaway: Disappointment doesn't have to be...

 Boom times are over for myriad sectors. As The Wall Street Journal reports, those include Big Banking.  The expected amount of bonuses is down up to 40%. There have been layoffs and more will happen in early 2023. Those forced out of an industry that changes rapidly might not be able to get back in when there is a bounce-back in business. Some of those major producers probably are creating models in their heads - to survive on Wall Street they have to live in their heads and have sharp elbows - how to secure themselves from this disruptive pain. Expose on Wall Street "The Caesars Palace Coup" provides a grim depiction of those patterns. That's the way it is. However, the Chariot card in the Tarot hammers that strategy, wild drive, and cleverness will only get players so far.  More relevant is the need to go with the stituation where it is leading them. During the late 1960s counterculture we boomers called that "going with the flow."  Where the current is goi...

 The surge began early this morning: The appointments for Tarot readings. Universally the issue is 2023.  There is almost a plea for next year to be different from this year. What is palpable is the overwhelm about 2022. No one wants to have to go through those whatevers again.  Sure, different could be even worse. But that might be better than the financial shocks, uncertainties, and hysteria about "Another 2008."  Tarot Card Reader. Medium. Intuitive Career Coach. No-pressure complimentary consultation about what you want. Then, fees custom-made for your budget. For an appointment, please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

In Southwestern Connecticut on Christmas morning 2011 we work up to an unthinkable horror. It was a  fire in one of those This Old Houses in Stamford, Connecticut . The tragedy had taken the lives of the three young daughters and parents of advertising executive Madonna Badger. Later the father of the children, who was divorced from Madonna, died. That was not related to the fire, at least not directly. Also her companion, who like her had survived the blaze, died of cancer. Even the most optimistic sort couldn't have projected that Madonna could find a way back to a life. But she did. After a struggle which the media kept reporting on, in 2014, Madonna married college friend William Duke. She reestablished her presence in advertising with the  Badger Agency.  Myriad awards followed and keep coming for the agency with its innovative campaigns. She sprinkles joy on professional network LinkedIn. Some of us Tarot readers would celebrate this ongoing Christmas stor...

 A memorable meme from the 1964 film "Zorba the Greek" is life as the full catastrophe.  The oldest of us boomers were in college. That dark perception of life, along with the grim subject matter we were ingesting, clashed with the Hallmark/Disney ethos we were brought up with right after World War II.  Surprisngly, though, there remains a current happy-clappy expectation how life should play on. Evidence of that is what comes out of the recent The Wall Street Journal article on being laid off. Many who were approached for an interview were too undone by the termination to agree to talk about it. The majority of those who did participate were also undone.  Yet, jobs are lost all the time. Even in our boomer time that usually was a reality. However, frequently getting the ax could be kept secret. Yes, there was stigma. Currently most of the stigma is gone but the sense of shocking disruption is not. There seems to have been no mindset of life - including work - being...

  "The present isn't always an easy place to be; it takes skills to be here. Skills that, like all abilities, require practice and usually some unlearning." - From the Chapter "Five of Pentacles" in the 2021 book TAROT FOR CHANGE by Jessica Dore. Tarot readings about relationships have to move into the now. Gently. That's all about the Five of Pentacles.  Most of the reflection, inititally, is stuck in the Six of Cups, that is the card of nostalgia. There are the warms and fuzzies of bliss, willingness to trust, broad acceptance, and the fantasy that all of that will be sustainable. Yet, those wanting a relationship reading come because that phase is over. The present is troubled. It takes the ability to be open and analytical to reach into the dynamics of where the connection is. Of course that represents letting go of the memory of the early days of perfection. The experience tends to be hardwired in the unconscious. .  So, I ask: What do you want?  That ...

It seems like such good news in a Tarot reading when the Eight of Cubs is pulled. That's known as The Walking Away card. It symbolizes the ability to up and leave behind the whatevers. Those include regrets about the many versions of spilled milk. However, much will be what you have outgrown.  Less known, though, is another significant message from the Eight of Cubs. That's the humility to learn lessons from those experiences. Not that you keep gazing back to the past. But before heading toward a different type of journey you need to do an inventory of what must be takeaways. At the top of the list of the mandatory understandings is this: If you can spot it you got it.  Let's unlock the content of that slogan. If an attitude or behavior of another person preoccupies you - and likely annoys you - the odds are strong that you had shared that same force field.  Here is the typical example. In the office, which you have to go to three days a week, a new hire is sucking up a...

  Last May American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron delivered her last public talk at the Omega Institute. Currently she is on retreat in Colorado. But the  Chodron Foundation  reminds us that Pema is with us in spirit.  We can connect with her through her videos (many of them available free on the Internet), books, lectures, and messaging at Buddhist centers around the world. A core meme put out there by Pema has been how we human beings come together via adversity. Our own ordeals teach us compassion for the pain of others.  Scientific researchers call that capacity for empathy the result of our  mirror neurons.  Renaissance poet John Donne put it this way:  No man is an island .  And, since its  beginnings in 1875 by Jewish lawyers,  law firm Paul Weiss has had the mission of social justice. Then, and as  JSTOR Daily  chronicles, well into the 20th century, Jews had been locked out of the WASP legal establishment. ...

  "When we do the opposite of what our programming tells us to do, we cross the threshold from the habitual to the magical." - Excerpt from the Chapter "The Magician" in the 2021 book TAROT FOR CHANGE, by Jessica Dore. Here it can ordered from Amazon. What is obvious to a growing number of professionals as well as leaders is this: They have to think about and do business differently.  However, there is that all too human wrench in the works. That is that change itself is so hard. When going about it you "don't feel right."  So, the most winning work-oriented resolution for 2023 is to go with change, despite the ick (Gen Z term) sensation. As I tell those I coach, that discomfort will pass. The human race wouldn't have endured had we not been able to adapt.  Meanwhile, without change the employment situation could deteroriate to actual failure. A writer came to me after losing his good job. Management had instructed him to produce content faster. He...

"I don't belong." That's typically the lament which surfaces when the Ace of Pentacles comes up in a Tarot reading. At least that’s a core interpretation by Jessica Dore in the 2021 guide “Tarot for Change.” That is, the longing to be a part of. Not feeling like you belong can be among the most painful human experiences. That's one reason why the film  "It's a Wonderful Life"  continues to resonate. That dates way back to1946 when it was produced. In essence, George Bailey, a building and loan banker, has been blessed. He knows he belongs to the community of Beford Falls and its economic future, the financial institution’s customers, his family, and his belief system which includes acceptance of what isn't evidence-based. That sense of being a part of is what helps save him (along with the nudges of Clarence Oddbody) when he stumbles into despair. During the Tarot reading clients also can pick up on what bonds them. There is always attac...

 The wonderment of the holiday season is that we get “permission” to time travel back to the past. Yes, indulge in nostalgia. That’s usually verboten in our always-be-in-the-now culture, especially for our professional lives.  Returning to a bit of happy memory can bring unique comfort in this crazy economy. That journey is embedded in the Tarot’s Six of Cups. In the Chapter on the Six Of Cups in the 2021 book TAROT FOR CHANGE , Jessica Dore observes: “Nostalgia … [can] reenact experiences of emotional resonance from the past … Maybe it’s a behavior you discovered long ago could soothe or calm you …” If you can melt into that memory you may be able to create a pocket of serenity. When it isn’t the Christmas season and you are experiencing stress, you can return to that magical space.  Business understands this pull force. Much of the selections for streaming service Disney+ are programmed to depict a simple context in which the “right values” win out. In that dime...

 At the core, partnerships in business are relationships. That means they entail all the challenges of what goes on in most human relationships. So, it should be no surprise that The Balance documents that up to 70% of those go kaput.  Much research has been done on this. One interesting bit of that comes from The Lovers card in the Tarot. The messaging applies to all kinds of unions, not simply the romantic kind. In TAROT FOR CHANGE, by Jessica Dore, there is this insight: "... it seems worthwhile, when preparing to enter into a partnership ... to consder: What lessons and skills am I ready to learn? ... Willfully enrolling in the lessons we most deeply need is a frightening prospect ..." The takeaway is: Partnerships should change you. If they don't they likely are doomed to fail. At the very least you have to be willing to see the business as the partners do. Also you have to feel their feelings. You don't have to agree. But you have to understand.  The number-on...

 Pain gets attention, as do most negatives. In the 2021 book TAROT FOR CHANGE , Jessica Dore hammers that in her chapter "Three of Cups." Ranging from the media to the neighbor down the block who got laid off the focus is on pain. Especially currently in this uncertain economy.  Joy is not welcome. Often it can't even locate a point at which to enter the conversation.  With all the doom and gloom among my former colleagues in communications (ad spending keeps declining) I hestitate to describe my success in the career shift to intuitive coaching, includingTarot reading. I have a sense that will be interpreted as boasting. Yes, quite unwelcome. So, how to re-introduce joy? The answer: Not directly. Instead create the aura of joy. Exude the grace you have received in parts of your life, be they in personal close relationships or your ability to still earn income from work.  That can be contagious. And we sure need it. After communications expert Paul Chaney was laid ...

  "...reality is generally ambiguous. Most of the things we encounter in life exist in a gray area."   From the Chapter "Ace of Swords" in the 2021 book  TAROT FOR CHANGE  by Jessica Dore. In most things in life, including the operation of the official legal system, there are rarely absolute answers. Few legal decisions cannot be appealed. As we journey from the black and white thinking of children to adulthood we accept gray. We wind up marrying X or Y even though they aren't a perfect fit with our criteria for a soulmate.  However. we kind of circle back to childhood rigidity when we go to work. Especially when we are new to the job or the contract assignment. It is then that we tend to grab onto hardened categories of justice and injustice. The Ace of Swords card tries to steer us in another direction. Not exiting childlike mindsets can start you off on the wrong foot at work and even invite retaliation. The latter could take the form of a PIP - ...

" ... it goes against our nature to 'wait and see' when we're in a situation we'd rather not be in." -  From the Chapter "The Hanged Man" in  TAROT FOR CHANGE , by Jessica Dore. The message from The Hanged Man card in the Tarot is twofold: 1) Not doing anything is the only smart strategy 2) You have the strength and the protection from the Universe to navigate that time of uncertainty. Of course, pressing the pause button seems downright Un-American. Our national ethos is taking action. But given what is the new usual in the workplace and in the search for work not taking action is what is required. Posts and comments on those Professional Anonymous Networks, ranging from Blind to Reddit to Fishbowl, capture the howl about having to, yes, wait and see. Who isn’t wondering: Will there be a layoff? Does being put on the Proposal for Improvement of Performance really boil down to form of Quiet Firing? I have had 2 interviews. They "...

The platitude in healing circles is that we Americans have a tough time admitting that we are in pain. However, that isn't the reality in the current plague of layoffs. Those I coach and provide Tarot readers to  know  they are in pain. Lots of it. That ranges from anxiety about landing comparable work to shame about losing a job. For them the situation is how to manage that pain. Here are 3 proven steps to begin that journey. SELF-COMPASSION The first and most important step is an ability that most in America don't have. That's self-compassion. In  "Tarot for Change"  by Jessica Dore that's assigned to the Strength card. It takes strength to love ourselves enough to take care of ourselves when The System says we haven't measured up (at least not enough to keep that job). So absent is this trait from our menu of healing that there is even the guide  "Self-Compassion for Dummies"  by Steven Hickman. Sure, we can detail what we might ha...

"Does this mean I will be famous?" That's what a a college senior gleefully blurted during a Tarot reading. It was a one-card pull (with a second confirmation card). And there it was: the  Star  card. "No. There’s something even better than becoming a celebrity." That is what I had answered. Fame comes and goes. Meanwhile while it exists it typically makes you a target. The headline in an article in The Atlantic by Arthur C. Brooks screams: “To Be Happy, Hide From the Spotlight.” The message of the Star card is this: hope. That is what human beings need to hang on to. And in the present global turmoil, especially economically, that seems increasingly elusive. For example, read the posts and the comments on professional anonymous network Reddit Jobs . Here is a recent one: “I’ve been applying to jobs like crazy obviously, but other than that I have hardly left my house at all. The only time I get out during the day is to take my dog on a walk in the morning and ...