YouandTheTarot

  Of course, the prestigious Stanford Graduate School of Business has compulsory classes in accounting, finance, and computer modeling. But also part of the unique value-add it creates, reports  The Economist,  is how it helps students with soft skills such as introspection. The more professionals know who they are, how they are presenting themselves, and what course correction is useful, the more successful they can be in leadership and management.  To that non-number-crunching curriculum Stanford might add a workshop on reading the Tarot. Those are the 78 mystical cards, dating back to the 14th century, which connect the unconscious to the conscious. Sound somewhat like the art of psychoanalysis? That's about right.  In April 2021, establishment  The New York Times  saluted the Tarot as a tool for introspection. That helped make the unique messaging of the Tarot a credible source for personal and professional enlightenment. Incidentally, psycho...

This dating trend is multi-generational: Don't bring the baggage along for the first date and, hopefully, for the rest of the relationship. Over and over in a Tarot reading the Eight of Cubs comes up. That's known as The Walking Away Card. I prefer to call it The Walking Toward Card. That card signals that the demand for those entering someone's force field to leave the past (aka baggage) behind. No, on the first date and forever after that they don't welcome the detailed stories of heartbreak, injustices, missed opportunities, and reversals of fortune. Those matters should have been taken care of, not still pulsating as unfinished business. This development reinforces that society is embracing the necessity of fresh starts. That has even seeped into the parameters of a day. At any point in that day struggling human beings can restart the day. Members of 12-step progams celebrate the ability for do-overs, often multiple ones, during any 24-hour period.  Incidentally, t...

  "I had a terrible Tarot reading." That's what an entrepreneur told me. Among what went very wrong was that the reader was way off in what then founder did for a career and that his marriage was already over.  "Consulting with a Tarot reader is a lot like working with a therapist. The fit, including the chemistry, has to be right. That's why it's a-must to shop around." That's what I gently informed the entrepreneur.  Many reputable psychic services are structured for that reality. They no-strings introductions to the Tarot readers. First, there are the web and voice profiles as on Psychic Interactive . In addition, many faciliate the first several minutes at no cost for you to test out the accuracy and chemistry. If the two of you  aren't on the same wavelength, the client can hang up and there will be no billing. Or, for some services, clients will apply at the site to have the charge cancelled.  Tarot Card Reader. Medium. Intuitive Career Co...

The era of the entrepreneur such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates evolved into the mandate for all professionals to be entrepreneurial. Part of that has been to embrace risk-taking. And that has been the rallying cry in business. In the Tarot it's symbolized the major arcana card The Fool.    Along the way that drive to take risks masked this reality: Risk is risky. That's why The Fool warns risk-takers to be calculating about stepping out of the zone of the status quo.   The riskiness of risk played out in brutal fashion at Bud Light. Marketing genius  Alissa Heinerscheid  has taken a leave of absence after featuring transgender Dylan Mulvaney in a promotion which resulted in a loss of about $6 billion. Hired in 2022 to update Bud Light she had created the wildly successful Super Bowl commercial featuring the female as part of the Bud Light experience.    That was then. Now is now. Obviously she bet wrong. Taking over her job is Todd Allen. No...

"Conn. man killed girlfriend over affair, drove body to police ..."   New York Post, April 19, 2023 Yes, it's the relationship which unhinges human beings. In capitalist America you might have expected people to unravel when they experience a setback in their professional lives or are unable to simply pay bills.  That was my assumption when I began providing Tarot readings. My special area of expertise is careers . For example, I lectured at the New York State Bar Association to assist over-50 unemployed lawyers. My objective was to introduce a fresh perspective about they could continue to earn a good living. Very quickly I got it: Emotioinal distress usually is about a relationship. The Tarot session might have started out with anxiety about an aspect of work life. Soon enough it veers into a deeper concern about the sustainability of some kind of human attachment. That could range from the romance to a supposed close friendship. If there has been disappointment, betr...

 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 -...

 So much of the chatter about mental health has to do with lowering the escalating level of clinical depression and anxiety. But what is really percolating in the collective unconscious is an epidemic of shame.  In a Tarot reading that comes up with the  Five of Cups card . Most of us know that as The Spilled Milk card. In this situation the obsession from the past which human beings can't shake is: shame, including the obsessive kind. In my intuitive coaching and in participating in 12-step program sessions I bump up against taller and taller walls of shame. Because of those they are unable to zero in on and go after potential in the present. Yes, this is a form of being stuck. The first step around those walls is self-forgiveness. That requires self-love. That is, the acceptance of all of you. Your all includes strengths, talents, and the shadow side.  In her teachings American Buddhist nun Pema Chadron always hammers: Start on work on yourself where you are. Not w...

  "You developed a protective strategy commonly known as perfectionism, which means you organize your life around avoiding contact with any potential indications of being inadequate, defective, or unlovable." -  In the Chapter "Nine of Cups" in 2021 book  TAROT FOR CHANGE  by Jessica Dore. Some employers may embrace perfectionists. They're the ones who are locked into compulsive work habits. When others have signed off for the day they are still at it. But those who care about you see the dark side of the striving to be perfect. In a letter to  Law.com,  the widow of law firm suicide Gabe MacConaill - Joanna Litt - blamed the death on maladaptive perfectionism. He not only took on all the tasks of his tough job. He was determined to do every bit perfectly.  Litt has an interesting observation. In the letter she notes: "Maladaptive perfectionists lack self-compassion.'  Likely MacConaill couldn't admit to himself - never mind his superiors or clien...

  In Southwestern Connecticut on Christmas morning 2011 we woke 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 inspiring story a...

Are you convinced that you simply don't exist if that special person isn't in your life or your job went poof in a layoff or firing? The in-lingo for that state of affairs is the term "codependency." What I recommend are meditations and spells for the self-love process to kick in. Codependency is usually rooted in some version of self-hate.  A free resource is  12-step program Codependents Anonymous .  There are both in-person meetings and online ones. Here is an  introductory video  about the self-help organization. Of course there has been a flood of general information through books. Here are  10 which have received positive reviews.  And here is  one of the myriad free videos. Like alcoholism and gambling, being so dependent on someone or something external for a sense of self as a human being can be a destructive addiction. As with all compulsions all could be lost. Tarot Card Reader. Medium. Intuitive Career Coach. No-pressure complimen...

 Wall Street careers are shaped by success in sizing up and exploiting risk. Now, with the ongoing layoffs, those financial professionals who are now jobless hit up against risk that's personal: Figuring out how to land and hold comparable jobs. There are bills to pay. There is a new professional identity to graft on. Suppose a former Goldman Sachs financial professional came for a Tarot reading. There are no coincidences. What is a likely pull is The Fool card. Its core message is being bold but calculating about risk. To do that, explans Jessica Dore in the 2021 book  "Tarot for Change,"  you have to ditch preoccupation with what others might think or say.  Specifically Dore notes: "You have to get out from beneath the structure of ideas about what's orderly. You have to get okay with looking silly and being misunderstood." Often the worst source of guidance during unemployment are those on what your network used to be. Smart is reaching out to a whole new...

  "...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 - Proposal...

 When we are running around successful and centered and admired by our peers we rarely ask for guidance. Then darkness falls. It always does. That's embedded in human existence. As  The Hermit  card in the Tarot symbolizes, at that time there is a reach for wisdom. A necessary one. And, we are ready to transcend the boundaries of self-sufficiency.  That Wise One can be a therapist, a high school teacher who warned us about a mindset which could us into trouble, a spiritual leader, or someone we overhear on the line in the supermarket.  Eventually there will be that Ah-Ha Moment. The message is usually one nudging us into change. And The Hermit delivers the hope that we can navigate the new territory.  For these reasons, back in April 2021,  The New York Times  saluted The Tarot as a tool for self-awareness and introspection.  Here  is my guide for DIY Tarot readings.  Being in darkness helps us from being stuck - at least too long. ...