The Beach is Good for the Soul

It’s that time of year…. We’re getting ready to go on vacation again. We’ve rented the same house on the beach and I cannot wait to sit on that ocean sand. In the Autumn I like vacations to be about activity, and since I love that time of year it is a great time for me to be busy. But in the summer… there is just nothing more spiritual then sitting on the sand and watching the sunrise and set each day. I am also thrilled to be loading up the car, packing up the dog to go along, and driving to the beach for 7 sunny days of being totally lazy. I even love the long car ride down.

Since we’ll be gone during the Summer Solstice I am packing my handy dandy mini travel altar with me. I have picked up several different ones on ebay and such because we’ve been traveling lots more the last few years. I have some cool stuff I gathered from various kits and pretty much put my own together. It all fits in a small wooden tarot box that I also use as the altar when traveling. I also take a mini tarot deck on every trip and my journal to document things. I can do a lot of reflection on my trips, and I am lucky enough that I can do them because going away is nothing short of ‘cleansing” for the soul.

Look out beach….. here we come whoohoo.

My Latest Tarot Deck

Ok I am a collector of all sorts of things, and Tarot Decks are no exception. I was surfing around and came across a really cool deck and just had to place my order.

The Housewives Tarot: A Domestic Divination Kit with Deck and Instruction Book

Being a novelty deck they are also fun to learn on usually. I got a deck for my best friend because I’ve been working with her to learn to do readings too. She has so far stuck with one deck that I suggested and I think she is going to enjoy the humor of this one. Because the images are something we all recognize I think anyone could learn with them.

And for those who love to play psychic games online my boss founda cute one tonight and gave me the link. We tested ourselves and were cracking up over who was “more powerful”. Check it out…….. Who Has ESP

UPDATE and EDIT: I got my deck and I am busy busy getting them into proper shuffling shape. I love the stiffness of a new deck and working it in. This weekend I will be delivering the one I got for my girlfriend. I do think this is a great deck to learn on since all of the images are very universal and symbolic too.

Visiting Salem

I’m back to work after a really long vacation whoohoo. The hubby and I did some stuff at home but then we also went away to Salem Massachusetts. We had a total blast omg! There are so many things to do such as: the Salem Witch Museum, Ghost Hunting, Cemetery tours, Wiccan shopping, and lots more. We caught a few paranormal things on film actually, very cool. One thing I know many Wiccans get flustered about is Laurie Cabot’s commercialism which I feel is all just a matter of opinion. She has obviously done so much for Salem’s tourism industry and yet managed to keep the rich history there. Just being in the same room as Laurie Cabot was a spiritual experience. Many non-fluffy Wiccans dislike her books due to the fluffiness but I do feel she tries to inject a much needed spiritual view rather then the “be a cool witch” attitude. She is a woman who has committed to the fight of truth which I must honor. Much of the tours were tourist themed…. however, they did an excellent job of actually educating everyone on the Wiccan religion, and the true history of the Salem Witch trials. Many people watch The Crucible and do not even know it was a metaphor for the McCarthy era. I was thrilled to see that was explained. I learned things I didn’t know too. And let me tell you the shopping was AWESOME.

The photo above is one of the postcards I bought, I scanned it before I mailed it to a friend.

To learn more on the events in Salem be sure to check out Three Sovereigns for Sarah - A True Story Of The Salem Witch Trials I think you’ll find it interesting!

Addicted to Psychic and Tarot Readings?

A woman emailed me this week and told me her “story” and then asked me if I thought it was possible to be addicted to getting tarot or psychic readings. Why she felt I would have this “answer” is also part of the problem. I’m not a psychologist. But I guess I do have an “opinion”.
Think about the whole self help movement or the wellness industry. Hundreds of books, CDs, classes, and groups can be utilized;. And they are. Its a billion dollar industry I would assume. Right now as I write this “The Secret” and the whole “Law of Attraction” is the BIG deal, meanwhile these companies bid on key words in the search engines and are making tons of money. The true secret is about how much money is made from it lol.

There are many people who feel “weak” or like they aren’t as important as they should be, so they seek all of those things to fill in some empty hole inside of them. Some people can be very addicted to all those techniques, but never end up truly applying solutions to their life. They can stop relying on their own common sense and follow someone else’s instructions on living life. They are often seekers of “the outside answer” or the quick fix instead of building their own personality, self esteem, and philosophy. If you think about someone you greatly admire, someone who really made a difference in the world (Albert Einstein, Thomas Jefferson, Susan B. Anthony) you’ll realize they were great thinkers, innovators, creators, and even rebels, but not gurus. I just don’t see Thomas Jefferson looking into a mirror daily reciting his affirmations: “I am good enough, smart enough, and dog gone it people like me. Can you?

People are seeking “growth” or preaching that we all need to make a “change” in our life in order to grow. The fact is that with age;.. growth and change happen NATURALLY. You become wiser, you become experienced. Our bodies change naturally over time too as we move into different life phases. Change is inevitable. Personal growth happens because it is necessary, and because your choices and actions allowed it. There is also usually evidence that appears in your life from growth that can be measured. For example: My household is making double the income I did 2 years ago. Does that mean that money is all that matters to me? No, of course not, but the evidence and the manifestation of my actions is measurable and has made a difference in my life. It is seen and felt, it allows me additional or new ways of growth too…. but that’s just one example.

The same is true with Tarot or psychic Readings I think. I feel it can at least be compared to the type of self help junkie addiction I am referring to. A tarot/psychic reading isn’t a problem solving technique. It’s a form of divination. A tarot reading can make a person FEEL better about a problem, a person, or a situation. But it doesn’t make you HEAL or GET better in some way and it in itself is not a solution. A person addicted to tarot or psychic readings wants to FEEL better usually.

If you rely on a fortune teller or psychic too often then you are making them your “guru”. It’s just not what they are intended for. A reading should be “fun” since technically it’s just another form of entertainment; not any sort of “therapy’.

I remember one woman when I worked on the 900 psychic lines years ago. She called me literally every single day for weeks at a time. She specifically sought my personal extension number to reach me, it wasn’t random. She wanted up to the minute reports on a relationship. Information on her boyfriend or spouse, what he was thinking and feeling blah blah. It was obsessive behavior in my opinion. The reading you got yesterday had a spiritual message for you, and that basic premise won’t change in 24 hrs I would tell her. What she really wanted was for me to tell her what she wanted to hear; not a real reading. She wasn’t actually seeking anything except confirmation on what SHE believed, assumed, and perceived. For all I know this man was a horrible person and all of her friends got sick of telling her the same things I was. So she came to me instead of annoying them any longer, hoping to get that one person who would agree with her.

I had a male client that did the same thing. Weekly he’d call and ask me about the woman he wanted to get back together with. She was his “soulmate” he believed and they had remained as friends after their break up. I’d read his cards for maybe 10 min each week, and he’d go on to tell me every detail of their contact since the last time we talked for another 40 minutes or so. He would literally describe to me a “look” she gave him and try to get me to tell him what it meant. Sometimes after the phone system disconnected his call, he’d ring me back to finish his details. The truth of the matter was he really just liked talking to me, getting a female perspective, and having a friend. I was reliable for him, I was on his side, and he could say anything to me because it was over the telephone which allowed a certain level of anonymous freedom. I made great money off these two people; but the readings were not genuine at all. This was one of the contributing factors that caused me to have a real moral dilemma for “charging” for readings and especially so in the “900 line” atmosphere.

Yes, I do believe that a person can be addicted to getting tarot or psychic readings. But most of them aren’t really addicted to the “cards” or the “reading” or the adviser of the service. Typically they are getting something else out of the situation for themselves, and that’s true for any type of addiction.

I have known tarot readers who felt they could do a card a reading on a person that wasn’t present and think they could READ their motivation, thoughts etc. And truly believe it without any doubt or question! Or some people learn how to do their own readings for instance and make 90% of their choices based off it. And no, I am not joking or exaggerating. I don’t read my own cards; I feel that I can “influence” the cards too much. I can very easily allow my energy to influence what I want to see too. I believe I can make the cards agree with my emotions and that just makes it self serving. I always get someone else to do a reading for me, I want their objectivity.

A tarot reading is divination, and divination is a touch different then fortune telling because it involves more “ritual”. Divination has a spiritual element involved yet the terms are still a little interchangeable. Divination is something every culture has done throughout history and basically continues to do even in modern times. It has never gone away or lost it’s “popularity”. Why? Because there are so many seekers, people who want comfort, people who want the “answer” to what is a mystery to them. Divination tools are interpreted rather then “factual”. A reading is only as good as the person who can interpret it TO you. And seriously this is true for a psychic that uses no divination tools too. They must interpret images, sounds, visions, etc. They can misunderstand them, and do so probably more then they’d like to. A lot of normal “human” error comes into play. This is often why something may appear “wrong” to you from a psychic or a reader. The message may not be translated to you properly, clearly, explicitly etc. Much is dependent upon the reader’s life experience, cultural experiences, education level, verbal skills etc. Also what YOU the querent is capable of understanding comes in to it also. The reader can be as clear as a bell to 1000 other people, but maybe not to you personally.

So let’s suppose a reader tells you there is money coming your way in 60 days time. People always want to hear that, maybe it’s only a $500 windfall coming your way. But who wouldn’t get a thrill out of hearing that? Then you “hope”, “wish”, “daydream” and even “fantasize” about it happening. Getting this kind of information COULD come true of course. But maybe it doesn’t;. and even if it doesn’t it still made you “high” from the fantasy. It made you feel good for 60 days. So sometimes even if a tarot reader or psychic is wrong, we still get something out of it.

Let’s also think about this too, again, maybe it’s just my personal opinion. I see tons of tarot readers and psychics who advertise what they do as “advice”. Think about it. How often in your life has a friend asked you for your advice and actually taken it? Or what about you? Didn’t you ever have a relationship, a work problem, a marital issue and received advice from someone else? Did you take it? Surely you know someone who has had a bad relationship and they continued in it, did stupid things etc while everyone sat back KNOWING they were in trouble. When they do not listen to the advice; eventually you stop offering it. We’re human; it’s natural for us to seek the advice and opinion of others. But we’re all also ego driven and still think we know better. We ALL do it. But I am not sure I want to pay for advice all the time. I’m not sure that one sided advice is even helpful at all.

I believe in the Tarot wholeheartedly. But even I have must maintain a certain level of skepticism to be really honest with myself. If I do not; I lose a little bit of my own intelligence and my faith in myself to make competent choices without a “tool” as my crutch. I also must allow my faith in a higher power outside of myself that may not want me to know the answer I want right now. Or perhaps the higher power wants me to learn a lesson the hard way rather then the arm me with knowledge. Maybe some things are just better left “unknown” to us. Sometimes the “mystery” is best left to be unfolded by me alone, and with nothing else but the great wide abyss. Our lessons have a purpose and they aren’t always going to be revealed or even easy to understand. Personally, I have not had my own cards read in YEARS now. I grew past it in some way; it helped me to build up the confidence to not need to know the future for every step I take. It taught me how to analyze situations from different angles on my own. I use the cards all the time, but more for ritual purposes. Sometimes I give readings to friends but it’s more just to for fun now. Like a hobby where I get to be creative.

So my truthful answer to this woman who wrote me is: you need to ask yourself what you are REALLY addicted to. Maybe it’s just fluffy feel good talk from a reader, like a friend. Is it your desire to hear the answer from another person that YOU assume, believe in, or want to hear? At what point do you get that “rush” of excitement? Where is the thrill for you? When you figure that out, you’ll know the answer. My judgment of you means nothing.

My post isn’t meant it knock anyone down who practices, or reads the tarot. This journal is my own sounding board where I just get to post my own deep thoughts. I believe a tarot reading can be beneficial; but only if you have a really well rounded reader and a truly open mind yourself. In my own personal experiences I felt that at 50% of the readings I gave fell on deaf ears or were like the examples I gave. For me, and in my experiences, it was self esteem destroying to perform a reading for someone who did not really want my message. I really have tons of respect for the tarot readers who do it as a career because they obviously have the ability not to feel that way. I am too much of an empath sometimes lol! It is just not my personal path and I grew from learning that lesson. However, those things apply to me alone, and I do not speak for anyone else! The internet is certainly full of “lofty opinions” and mine is no different.

Books I suggest if you want to learn about cold readings and the tricks of the fortune telling trade
The Skeptic’s Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions

Acting Psychic: How To Spot A Fake

The Naked Quack: Exposing the Many Ways Phony Psychics & Mediums Cheat You!

We Don’t See Things As They Are

We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are. ~ Anais Nin

Human beings are defective, we’re just not perfect, and as long as we learn to understand that… we can also learn that many of our problems are self created. I believe that all problems have solutions or ways of meeting in the middle. But in order to make changes in our lives, we really have to look to ourselves first before we assume that another person is to blame. Or before we decide for someone else what they “coulda, shoulda, woulda. We have to become honest with ourselves in order to grow, move forward, and make our life better. It’s all just what I believe in personally. Perhaps you reading this feel differently, I respect that too.

We, as people, tend to blame our problems on others, and we use our emotions instead of logic. It’s the easy way I feel. Just because you felt “this, that, or something else” doesn’t mean the other person intended or meant it or that they even DID it. Basically it’s about YOU and why your feelings are that way. The only person who can ever really sabotage you… is you. Team efforts do not fail…. Unless one party breaks the chain in some way.

There are 2 ways to “deal” with things in life: to meet the challenge… or to run away from it. Both are kind of “solutions” but one is practical, and the other is based on our ego in my opinion. We know the word ego technically means…. “I, Myself” so if you run away from a problem you are only thinking of yourself, not the others involved. Freud said the ego had 3 parts so, of course, that could all be broken down further which isn’t the direction of this post.

Introspection and extrospection are needed in our lives. Yes, spirituality is about looking within… but it is also about observing the world as a whole too. If we are not looking inside and out… viewing the entire picture together, then we’re always working from the ego. If you are suspicious, make assumptions about other people, do not communicate, make accusations without asking… then you are reacting with emotions and your ego. People who are afraid to communicate because it may bring a confrontation are also reacting from ego and emotions. Logic is not emotional therefore it isn’t afraid to confront. And confrontation doesn’t have to be a “fight”… it doesn’t have to be a scary word or process. Confrontation is supposed to be used to clarify things where inconsistency exists, which could be simplified into: “you say one thing but are doing another and I need you to explain it.”

The ego can be tricky. The ego can be hidden to us. For instance, the desire to help others. It’s a new age “belief” that helping others is a life mission. The common discovery anyone seeking spiritually thinks is that their own life mission is to help others or to heal and teach. It seems to me sometimes that it is everyone’s life mission. If that was the case - the world would really be a different place. I believe that it’s too vague, and ego driven. I think of the show LOST on TV and how every survivor there has a specific role, how as a team.. they are all pieces of a puzzle that create a society, a problem, and a solution. In essence that’s how we all live, each one of us are a single piece in a larger puzzle. We have to figure out where we fit in the big puzzle. And sometimes we won’t be as important as we might like. But it doesn’t mean our piece doesn’t hold every other piece together anyway. Maybe there are several puzzles we fit into…. a big one, and several smaller ones too. Maybe we have a world puzzle, a family puzzle, a work puzzle etc.

How do you figure out where you fit? Introspection and extrospection. Healing ourselves first before we ever attempt to heal someone else. Never preaching your own philosophy as a fact to anyone, because the concept of philosophy means it is just a theory or thought process. Accepting situations as they REALLY are from the inside and the out, and then figuring out what YOU can do to make it better. Realize that you hold responsibility somewhere…. and find it. Then it’s probably a good idea to allow a release.

I have to clarify. There is also a major difference between “release” and “quitting”. You can release negative emotions, childhood hurts, past traumas; you can even “release” grief. But you don’t release people, jobs, or abandon a situation instantly… because if you do, then you are really just a quitter. And we have all heard the old adage “quitters never win.” It’s pretty simple logic.

This post is a personal response to a woman that has emailed me several times for “free psychic” readings. She had explained her entire situation to me, and I don’t do free readings. In my experience people who ask for that are basically seeking a quick emotional fix which I can’t morally support. And no such thing exists from others, only from ourselves…¦ if we open up to the truth widely, or just lie to ourselves to make it easy. I cannot better you with a reading; I cannot lead you to figure out a lesson that’s for you alone to learn, and I don’t want that responsibility. Moments of enlightenment do not happen when you are seeking… they happen when you least expect them too. They come from great need when you “get it” with the lesson. I can only share what I have learned about life based from my own experience. In some way all of the things I wrote are what the Death Card means to me, but it’s also all just my opinion. You wrote me about the situation with your husband and I really wish you luck.

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Tarot Card Reader is a Slut

This video is hilarious! A friend of mine shared it with me and we were cracking up for 30 minutes or so. Hope you enjoy.

Tarot The Empress

I create collage style Tarot Cards on my computer for fun rather than profit. Trust me when I say there is no “talent” involved with it! Just my own personal experiement and a little way I keep my creative juices flowing for myself on my own time! Sometimes work can bog me down and I need to step away just to play with something creative as a hobby!

Each day I select a card for myself and I ponder it’s meaning. As time permits I will create some artwork of cards.

Today I selected and created….