The Universe sends Townsville tarot reader a message of peace and joy...

I did a nice pre-breakfast reading for one of my favourite regulars in London - Hi Karen! xx -  via Skype this morning. How about this world we're living in, huh? The miles don't mean anything any more.

But that's not why I'm writing this.

After the reading, I took my lovely daughter out for a very posh breakfast at a very suave establishment. Okay. So, it was actually MacDonald's. There. I confess. I drink Macca's coffee and I'm not ashamed to tell the world.

But that's not why I'm writing this either.

I'm writing this because I wanted to share with you the fact that the Universe sent me a very cheery Have a nice day! message with my coffee this morning. I took the lid off and laid it on my free newspaper and here is what I saw:

Of course, I was quick to notice the bikini clad woman who appeared to be leaping out of my coffee lid smiley face because of the position of the newspaper and so decided it was time to have a little fun with her. 

And so, The Coffee Lid Showgirl was born.

You have a nice day now too!

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Death and The Fool - more tarot fun!

There are a couple of cards that really sound as though they should be bad news when they turn up in a reading. As I lay the cards down in front of a client and either Death or The Fool comes up, I see most of them wince.

No! Don't look! Don't try to read the cards for me. Even if you do read yourself, every reader works sodifferently that you can't possibly know what my cards are telling me about your situation and trying to second-guess them will only block out the fresh perspective that you were looking for by coming to an outsider.

Most readers will agree with me that the Death card hardly ever means an actual physical death. There are very rare occasions when it might be a warning - but in general, the maxim holds that when your number's up, your number's up and my cards aren't going to tell me about something that will only distress you and which you can't do anything about anyhow.

In general, Death indicates a complete change in some area of your life  and the resulting sense of loss. Yes, it's true that you will rarely get out of a situation that's being symbolised by the Death card without a period of readjustment and readjustment is often painful. But then, of course, situations - jobs, relationships, belief systems - all die for a reason and that reason is generally that they have outlived their usefulness. When the situation has 'died', you are free to invest the energy you were wasting there into a brand new situation. It can be hard to do, I know, but really, the smartest reaction when you see the Death card in your reading is excitement; it means that there's still some life and adventure left in you yet.

Then there's The Fool.

I guess it's hard to imagine, when you come to a reader with the hope of gaining insight into whether the next big risk you're planning to take in your life is a smart one, how seeing The Fool turn up could possibly turn out to be a good omen.

But to me it almost invariably is. Of course, each card has many different interpretations depending on its context within the reading as a whole and very occasionally, when The Fool turns up, it is saying to you, 'STOP! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! WRONG WAY! GO BACK!'

But most of the time, The Fool is telling you to take that next leap, that risk. The only way any of us progress is by taking risks that others will see as foolishness. The only way humanity in general has ever progressed is by doing things that seemed crazy the first few times someone did them.

Now we all eat fungus to save us from germs (penicillin). We routinely get into vehicles far heavier than we are in order to travel miles above the ground when any fool knows that we ourselves are too heavy to fly. We communicate with each other across vast distances in ways that would have been called supernatural three hundred years ago.

There is no progress in life without someone taking the risk of failing and therefore looking foolish.

Both The Fool and the Death card herald new and exciting times in your life. Yes, in order to get to the new, you have to leave some of the old behind - but you may as well embrace that change; it will never stop happening for as long as you are alive.



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no, I can't read your mind...

Something I have always found a little disconcerting is the number of people who think that I must  be all-knowing if I’m an effective card reader/spiritual counsellor.

Recently, I went to my hairdresser and after I’d been there a while, a woman and her sixteen-ish daughter came in. My hairdresser - Tanya, God bless ‘er - runs a very successful home business from a cosy room under her house and when other clients come in, everyone talks to everyone else. It’s like a tea party only with one very chatty woman wielding scissors.

So, everyone was talking to everyone else - except for Ms Sixteen. She was NOT talking to me. In fact, she was noticeably uncomfortable and refused to meet my eyes, though she seemed quite fine with everyone else.

After a while, she began to relax and then someone mentioned my car which has my logo - a big pair of eyes with That Tarot Lady written above them - out and proud for all the world to see parked in front of the house. I told them that I’d decided to apply modern marketing methods to my work as a reader.

This opened a whole lot of questions from our little tea party.

Did I think that commercialising in this way goes against the spiritual principles of helping others? In a word - no!

Do people stare at my car? In a word - yes!

But, as always, it’s from out of the mouths of babes that the most honest questions and answers come. Ms Sixteen, with her facial piercings and her purple hair, leaned towards me suddenly and said, ‘Can you read my mind?’

I laughed and looked at her for a long moment as I decided whether to screw with her head or not, and then said, ‘No, I can’t read your mind.’

‘Are you sure?’ she said suspiciously.

I laughed again. ‘I’m sure. And you’ll find that most other successful card readers can’t either.’

She looked relieved. I’m used to that. Some people think that even if I could read minds, I’d have nothing better to do with my time than to invade the privacy of their head-space.

Look, the honest fact is - I don’t want to read your mind. I have enough trouble with my own crazy thoughts without yours and those of every other passing Tom, Dick and Harry as well, thank you very much!

I said to Ms Sixteen, ‘Think about it - how on earth would I be able to function normally if I was going down the street hearing everybody else’s thoughts as well as my own? I’d be a basket case!’

I explained to her that we humans come with a built-in sanctuary that is ours and ours alone. No-one else can go there without our permission. It’s called our own mind. You will notice that most readers take the time to ‘tune in’ to their client one way or another at the beginning of a reading. For me, it is while I’m shuffling the cards. 

I believe that the increased intuition common in successful readers is a result of the ability to lower our own guards rather than the ability to penetrate the guards of others. I like it that way! Imagine shopping and being able to hear the check-out chick think about the great sex she had with her boyfriend the night before or the guy in front of you thinking about how much he hates his wife.

There are some people who are so sensitive and their psychic boundaries so minimal that they can in fact ‘read thoughts’ - but the truth is this state of receptivity is often so painful and frightening that they find it difficult to function in the real world where they are constantly bombarded by the troubles and sadness of everyone they meet.

A good reader has many skills at their disposal - intuition is just one of them. There are also empathy, experience, humility and a full knowledge of what the cards mean so that you can interpret what serendipity is trying to tell you instead of imposing your own opinions onto the reading.

But I guess the main thing I want you to understand here is that you really really don’t have to worry about your privacy during your average reading - I don’t know what you got up to last week at the office party and I don’t want to know in graphic detail; that’s between you and the photo-copier. 

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Where to keep tarot cards

I've always liked to have something special to carry my tarot cards in.

For years, it was a carved wooden box made of some lovely smelly wood that my sister in law gave me for Christmas. Whenever I'd take my cards out of the box, we'd get a puff of perfume to start the reading. Now my daughter has made me - with her own clever little hands - a fluffy royal blue knitted pouch for them so unfortunately, the box has now been retired.

A friend gave me a silk scarf many years ago and my cards are always wrapped in that before being put to bed. Wrapping tarot cards in silk is a fairly traditional way of keeping them - it's said that a natural fibre helps cleanse the cards of the energy of the last reading.

Meh. I don't know about that. I just like traditions for tradition's sake really - I keep my cards stored in the silk scarf mainly because my friend gave it to me and it's nice to have something that you always do with them when you finish a reading.

I admit to being quite territorial about my cards. I left them at work one day and someone used them without even asking!

:O

I was kind of put out about that. Not that I think it means my cards aren 't going to work anymore; it's just rude. Cards are, to most readers, like a favourite shirt. You buy them because you love the design. You know that one day they will wear out and you're sad when that day comes. You wouldn't borrow someone's favourite shirt without asking and I wouldn't pick up someone else's cards either.


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