YouandTheTarot

  Over and over again I warned my Tarot-reading clients: Don't count on student-loan forgiveness. Also, I reminded them that repayment would be scheduled soon enough and the interest will again be added to the original amount of the loan or loans. No, I didn't have a good psychic feel for the Biden Administration's plan. Unfortunately, I was right. SCOTUS, 6 to 3, ruled no. The disappointment, as The Wall Street Journal chronicles, is palpable throughout the United States. But once that emotion is processed, then there is the moving on to the painful financial reality of being saddled with educational debt which over time, if not paid off as quickly as possible, could balloon into funny money because of the interest. In itself that realization, at least among the student-loan debtors, could usher into the labor market The Big Stay. There could be long-term risk aversion about changing jobs. The how of earning a living could circle back to boomer parents who considered the

The slow started mid-week. Things, if they do pick up, probably won't start doing that until July 6th. It's been a double whammy: both an economy that no one can figure out and an extra long holiday pause.  Read the professional anonymous networks such as Reddit and Fishbowl. There is wailing, like a Janis Joplin song, about how slow it is. There seems to be baked in that the situation will never change. Forever slow.  That's why the message of the Temperance card in the Tarot is so comforting. It signals emotional balance, patience and moderation. Instead of reeling and accelerating that dynamic Temperance recommends perspective.  It has been slow before, right. If the slow persisted you did something. You had to. Maybe you tried doing business differently.  Maybe it hit you that you were in the wrong line of work and it was time for a career change (here is my article, published in O'Dwyer's , on that process.)  Or you could have decided to take a break, then com

"A majority of workers feel they’re fairly paid, but at the top of the list are independent workers across all industries, according to a recent survey of 2,500 American workers. The findings suggest that while earning what you think you’re worth is important, so is having some power over when and how much you work for the money." -  The Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2023 Today we call them "freelancers." Among them is Paul Chaney whose field is communications. On the all-important LinkedIn Profile , Chaney actually uses that term: freelancer . Not so long ago, those watching his back would have nudged him to go by the moniker "consultant." Recently, Chaney had me as a guest on a podcast about how the over-50 (who, of course, encounter so much ageism), can freelance. It received an award from Media Dimensions. Here you listen to that podcast and perhaps find your own way to freelancing.  Contentment with one's work has become the new American Dream.

  Our rationalistic society puts the knock on magical thinking. The high-profile example of that had been Joan Didion's memoirwith that title describing her distorted mindset after her husband's death. And we put down dreamers who seem to have no shot at achieving their fantasy as magical thinkers. But inside the mystical world of the Tarot magical thinking has its place. After all, we are our thoughts.  In TAROT SPELLS , Janina Renee points out that magical thinking can "bring about spiritual and metaphysical transformation within the individual." The feature in the April 2021 The New York Times about the role of the Tarot essentially says the same thing. The tools for creating that magic include, tutors Renee: Creative visualization Rituals Positive affirmations Light of candles. The setting could range from formal kinds of meditation to simply stopping your very bad day and saying "This is just a setback" three times. Most often my clients will stare int

 Novelist and screenwriter F. Scott Fitzgerald was obsessed with The Rich. His famous 1926 quote had been "the rich are different from you and me." That bothered him.  The gap between where he was financially and in status, power and influence and where they were could have fueled his drinking problem. Ironically, Fitzgerald was established enough in his niche to be celebrated at his death in The New York Times. He was 44 and some speculated it was the result of boozing.  The Tarot card which captures that desolation of comparing ourselves with others (supposedly better off) is the Five of Wands . That's the kind of response some might be having today when they read in The Wall Street Journal that billionaire Leon Black ponied up $120 million for the painting "The Scream." They could balk at spending $120 on a good meal with a friend.  The comparison is made without data. No one has any idea what goes on in Black, including his inner life. Probably he doesn

  An amazing benefit of being a Tarot reader is that we can do just-in-time Tarot card reading for ourselves. As The New York Times documented, the mystical Tarot cards bring a deep level of self-awareness. It does that gently and with compassion. We are more receptive to those messages it delivers about ourselves. Well, for me the Eight of Cups came up in a one-card pull. That's The Walking Away card, which I prefer to interpret as The Walking Toward message. Maybe it is because I had recently been through so much turmoil that there was an immediate "Ah Ha" Moment.  The epiphany was this: That wonderful time in my life that I had been a pet parent and involved in animal rescue was now over.   Arizona, at age 14, had passed over. First slo mo then rapidly within four days she had been surrendering to what the universe mandates for all us sentient beings. I had a vision of Molly, who had passed over in 2006, escorting Arizona into that other dimension.  I assumed I couldn

The reach of generative AI continues to amaze. Most recently, as the postings and comments on Fishbowl Big Law indicate, that tool has made its way to resume-creation by lawyers.    On the first prompt ChatGPT was all too broad. For instance it recommended embedding quantifiable achievements in the resume. The next round of prompts, though, came up with useful detailed recommendations. Here is a snippet:   "I pushed Chat GPT further. It said talk about a time you negotiated the price of a deal to be lower for your client, and state that amount."   That throws shade on the job security of us Tarot readers who specialize in careers. Drilling down to the level of particularity is exactly what I do after sketching out a big picture. Usually that first step aligns with wand cards. Those, with their roots in energy, are about finding purpose.    You bet, my career specialization is quite vulnerable to a few prompts of ChatGPT. But here’s the good news for Tarot read

  "There are more tears shed over answered prayers than unanswered prayers."  - Roman Catholic  Saint Teresa of Avila That same message is also in the Chariot card in the Tarot. The image is of a driver in an ornate vehicle moving ahead but with no reins in his hands. There is a going with the flow. That is, a surrender to what directions the universe finds to be in your best interest.  That's why from the beginning of the time when mankind began to reflect there was the role of the seer in the tribe. That character warned not to wish for (or pray for) anything specific. Rather implore the gods, spirits, universe or whatever the locals called the force to guide you. Professional anonymous networks such as Blind, Reddit and Fishbowl are jam-packed with regrets by those who prayed to get where they are professionally. They hate everything about the organization and the particular job. What if they had meditated for guidance? The universe might have steered them away f

  2023. It will probably go down in business history as The Year of Volatility. The lawyers I psychically coach and the lion's share of clients for my Tarot reading service come to me in crisis. Those lawyers are in sustained states of high stress because it's the same situation with their clients: crisis.  So, here we are wondering: What business are really in and what is the mission? Often when a Tarot reading session wrapped I had second-guessed myself: Could I have done better with this or that? Currently lawyers often experience the same self-doubt.  The stress of this questioning headed me back to a marketing workshop I had taken in the late 1980s. It introduced me to the thinking of the late Harvard Business School Marketing Professor Ted Levitt. Levitt mandated that organizations, at least those intent on growth, keep asking themselves: What business are we really in? Had the railroads answered "transportation," they would have continued flourishing. Probably

  Arizona was, well, a rescue dog. But, as it usually turns out, it was the pet parent - me - who got rescued. We were together from January 3, 2021 until June 7, 2023. As the meme from "Amazing Grace" hammers, I was lost and Arizona was among those who helped me find a new me, both personally and professionally. Others nudging me toward something included meditation leader Richard Wilder, the mystics Dottie/Al Heindl at  Metamorphosis Spiritual Center and city girl good listener Charlene Lasater.  Last Saturday, Arizona and I had a glorious afternoon at Lake Erie. That was the last one of those for us. Although I never knew her exact age, the medical opinion was that she was 13 or 14.  It seemed to unfold slo mo but the downward cycling actually was fast. I began to lose Arizona. The Italian mama in me cooked up a storm, hoping she would eat. Yesterday the empathic Dr. Jennifer Meranda and her team at  Pleasant Animal Hospital  helped Arizona pass over with gentlene

 My mission as a Tarot reader is to help suffering human beings help themselves. That's why, if asked, I provide a tutorial on how each of you can become your own Tarot reader.  Here is the short version. But it is all you need. Purchase Tarot Deck.  Since you are a beginner, start out with the deck most newbies use. That is the Smith-Waite Tarot Deck. On Amazon it costs $17.96.  Here  you can order. Decks are also available for sale in metaphysical shops such as  Strega  in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Call those shops ahead and see if they stock the cards. Seek Access to Guides about Interpretations.  There are no absolute interpretations of how to read any of the 78 Tarot cards. That's the strength of this tool for self-awareness by opening the door to the unconscious or what is sometimes called the subconscious. All readings happen through the unique intersection between that particular human being and the universe.  However, when beginning it can be useful to sample interpretati

Spirituality refers to the personal and subjective experience of seeking meaning, purpose, and connection with something greater than oneself. It is often associated with the exploration of the inner self, the search for transcendence, and the quest for understanding the fundamental nature of existence. From ChatGPT, June 6, 2023  "Spirituality" has myriad defintions. But that one from the popular version of generative AI - ChatGPT - really does the job of capturing such a state of being.  For many reasons in this time of raw capitalism the embrace of some kind of transcendance is a very good thing. But it becomes a negative when it distracts from the one-foot-in-front-of-another that human beings have to do to achieve their goals. For example, take job search. Some of my Tarot-reading sessions start off with clients indicating they have been a spiritual quest to find the right fit for a job. Soon enough it spills out that there has been little concrete action to research and

  In the Tarot, the card from the major arcana - The Tower - captures a collapse of what was. Its message is: You can collapse with it or you can build something new. Essentially that gets to the heart of the phenomenon of aging and, despite having no serious health problem, giving up on life. In the Netherlands in 2015, a team headed by Els van Wijingaarden researched what was driving that state of numbness. The  entire study is published in Social Science & Medicine. The major factors, as I interpret the research, are: Loneliness A sense of not mattering Loss of voice in society Tiredness Fear of dependency. This interested me because in Tarot readings I encounter the same five also in youth and the middle-aged. Usually those suffering in this emotional disconnect seek relief through some kind of addiction. It could be to a person (traditional co-dependency), place (establishing a geographical identity), thing (drugs), and/or process (as in chasing extreme success