Tarot Tips: Decisions, Decisions!
Published: Thu, 06/01/17
"This issue is all about choices and perspectives..."
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![]() Newsletter of The Tarot School
http://TarotSchool.com ISSN: 1529-0565 Vol. 9 #4 / June 1, 2017
In this Issue: - Welcome
- Tarot Tip: A Useful Spread for Decision-Making
- Tarot School Aphorism
- PsychWise: Key 12 The Hanged Man - 50% Off Asteroid Sale! - Best Practices: Why Clients Decide to Choose You - Cool Tarot Find: The Fortune Teller - Upcoming Events
Welcome to a new issue of Tarot Tips!
And a special welcome to our new subscribers.
![]() We are fresh off our break after a successful Tarot and Psychology Conference and Readers Studio! If you’d like to see some highlights, stop by our Readers Studio Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ReadersStudio/ The photo above is of Michael Bridge-Dickson, the emcee of our Saturday night banquet, wearing one of his fabulous costume creations! It was taken by the equally fabulous Doug Reuschel. If you blogged about the event, please send us the link or post it on the FB page. We’d love to hear about your experience. This issue is all about choices and perspectives. Kooch Daniels, one of the RS17 master class instructors, is the author of this month’s Tarot Tip on decision-making. Dr. G returns with a great piece on one of the most interesting Major Arcana cards – The Hanged Man. And in the Best Practices column, you’ll find out why clients decide to choose you as a reader or use your services. And one more thing...
If you're curious to know the line-up for RS18 or when we'll be accepting study group proposals and merchant faire table reservations, you'll just have to wait awhile. We're in the process of looking for a new hotel (our previous "home" has changed management) and that takes time. We'll be sure to let you know when the time comes. With love and gratitude on the tarot journey, Ruth Ann, Wald, Gina & Elinor
P.S. I'd like to extend my deepest gratitude to all of you who sent me your condolences on the loss of my mother. It meant the world to me. ~ Ruth Ann Tarot Tips is here to help you with the practical side of your Tarot journey. In order to take the greatest
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Spread the experience of tarot - share this newsletter with other Tarot Enthusiasts! Tarot Tip
A USEFUL SPREAD FOR DECISION-MAKING
by Kooch N. Daniels pumpkin at midnight, we can each predict that at certain times change will come into our life. Although many count their blessings to have the opportunity for new experiences, some people face unfamiliar experiences and untested outcomes with dread. Coming to a crossroad and facing an opportunity to make a life change, a person may freeze with uncertainty as to what choice to make. Juggling even the best alternatives can turn worrisome and frustrating. Seeking clarity about a decision can become a stressful dilemma that causes a client to knock on a Tarot reader’s door. Questions such as, “Should I stay in my relationship or should I leave?” “Will I be happier living in California or should I move to New York?” “I’m thinking about changing jobs. Should I or shouldn’t I?” are but a few of the limitless concerns involving ambivalence. Emotional and career choices can sit heavily in a person’s mind like a mound of boulders dangling from a cliff’s edge. One of my favorite spreads to inspire clarity and help a person hear his or her opposing voices is called The Inner Dialogue Spread. You can use this spread for your own decision-making process to see how it works. Once you become well acquainted with it, you’ll be able to work its magic with your clients. The Inner Dialogue Spread Think about your situation while you shuffle your cards. Cut the cards as you normally do to get ready for your reading. Once you are ready, select your cards. Place the first two cards that you draw side-by-side on your table. Card 1: Represents how you see the pros of your situation. Card 2: Represents the other side, what you feel are the cons of your concerns. Envision the images on the two cards discussing the pros and cons of your feelings. Give each card a voice and let it and your imagination express the judgment of the image it represents. What does each card have to say about your situation? How do you feel about the insights, arguments, suggestions, or warnings that each card brings to your attention in the decision-making process? Now draw and place two more cards side by side on your table. Card 3 goes directly under Card 1 and Card 4 goes directly under Card 2. Card 3: Represents the present most likely outcome of making the decision to follow the direction of Card 1, or the pros of your situation. Card 4: Reflects the present most likely outcome of making a decision to follow the direction of Card 2, or the cons of your situation. Listen to your inner dialogue in relation to each statement that goes with each card. What feelings are the card images invoking? Explore the real life possibilities of decision-making in relation to the pros and cons that each of these cards represents. You can even let all four cards argue among themselves. Which card has the strongest argument? Pretend that you are the judge listening to all concerns and you need to make a verdict that determines who or what is right and wrong. Next select and place the final two cards on the table. Card 5 goes directly under Card 3 and Card 6 goes directly under Card 4. You will now have 6 cards on your table sitting in three horizontal rows of two cards each. Card 5: Represents envisioned future merits of making your decision. Card 6: Reflects potential future negative fallout from your decision. Listen to your inner dialogue concerning the pros and cons of your future that the card images are evoking. Does listening to the two (or more) sides of your story that is being told in relation to all the card images clarify what’s involved in your choice? Optional card: The Wisdom Card If any one of the six cards in your spread makes you feel sad for any reason, listen without judgment to your inner dialogue. What negative thoughts are being triggered? To give you a deeper look into your feelings, you can pull another card called The Wisdom Card. The reason to pull this card is to gain further insight and potentially alleviate your concerns. After all, your goal in doing this reading is to gain clarity and have a positive sense of what choice is best to make. Resource: Tarot at a Crossroads, the Unexpected Meeting of Tarot & Psychology by Kooch N. Daniels, MA. and Victor Daniels, PhD Kooch N. Daniels is a life-long professional Tarot reader. Besides Tarot, she enjoys transpersonal psychology, mysticism, metaphysics, hugging trees, and writing books. Her newest titles co-authored with her partner, Victor, is Tarot at the Crossroads, and Awakening The Chakras. To view her other books please go to: http://www.cybermystic.com/thebookspage.html Tarot School Aphorism ![]() PsychWise – Tarot & Psychology Q & A with Elinor Greenberg, PhD, CGP, CPTR KEY 12 THE HANGED MAN When I ask most people about their favorite Major Arcana card, most people mention Key 2 The High Priestess or Key 17 The Star. Both of these are beautiful to look at, but when it comes to psychotherapy work I find that Key 12 The Hanged Man is the most useful card in the deck. Many basic principles of psychology are hidden in the pictorial symbolism of this card, as well as a number of useful tools for managing emotions, and even handling insomnia. Let Reason Rule Your Imagination Let me start with the idea of 4 over 3. If you look at this card in the Rider/Waite/Smith deck or the B.O.T.A. deck, you will see that the legs of the upside down person make a figure that looks like a red upside down number 4. The arms are folded to look like an inverted blue triangle, representing the number 3. There are a number of useful messages encoded here. ![]() The 4 is a reference to Key 4 The Emperor. In esoteric Tarot Key 4 The Emperor represents our self-conscious mind’s capacities of “Reason and Foresight.” The 3 is a reference to Key 3 The Empress. In esoteric Tarot Key 3 The Empress represents the creative capacities of the subconscious mind. By showing the 4 over the 3, we are being told to consciously use our capacity for “Reason and Foresight” to govern the endless stream of thoughts and images that flow from our subconscious mind’s creative capacity. This is further emphasized by the colors. The color Red is associated with Mars Power and action. We are thus told that our powers of “Reason and Foresight” should be active. Blue is the color associated with water and Key 2 The High Priestess, the virgin subconscious mind. In Key 2 The High Priestess’s blue gown dissolves into water. Water in esoteric Tarot symbolizes the flowing consciousness of the One Force that creates and sustains all living creatures. An upside-down blue triangle is the symbol for the element of Water. The color blue and the water signal us that our subconscious mind is receptive to the control our conscious mind. The Hebrew letter associated with this card is “Mem”, which represents the element of Water. Its connection to the feminine subconscious mind is reinforced by the fact that one of the names associated with “Mem” is “Mother Deep.” In Psychology Terminology: The basic principle behind Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is that our emotions are directly affected by our thoughts. The emotional centers of our brain do not have the capacity to judge whether a thought is realistic or not, they just react. This is especially true when we visualize something or hear it. For example, when we go to a horror movie we get scared even though we know that it is all make believe and that the people on the screen are actors, not zombies or crazed ax murderers. Our emotions react to what is seen and heard regardless of what we “know.” The Psychotherapy Punchline: If you continually churn out scary ideas and picture disasters in your mind, you will become frightened and they will feel real. You will walk around with a great deal of fear and unnecessary worry. The principle of 4 over 3 depicted in this card tells us that we need to use our capacity to reason and think ahead about how we want to feel and only generate thoughts and visualizations that are in accord with our desires. If we want to feel calm and happy in a few minutes, we need to create calm and happy thoughts now. What is amazing about this very sophisticated message embedded in Key 12 The Hanged Man, is that Cognitive Behavior Therapy only dates back to around the 1980s, but the members of the Mystery Schools were well aware of this principle before modern psychology was invented. The Rider/Waite/Smith deck was a product of collaboration between two members of “The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn” Mystery School—A. E. Waite and Pamela Coleman Smith—and was published in 1910. To give you some perspective, Sigmund Freud’s first book, The Interpretation of Dreams, was published in 1900 and was first translated into English by A. A. Brill in 1913. Psychology was still in its infancy at that time and Cognitive Behavior Therapy was not invented till many decades later. The Suspended Mind One of the occult meanings of Key 12 The Hanged Man is “Suspended Mind.” The figure is depicted in a state of deep meditative trance. The words Mind and Man are from the same Sanskrit root Manas. Manas refers to mind as the thinking principle. (Case, 1990, p. 35) What is suspended? Personal mental activity is suspended by concentrating the conscious mind on something that fixates its power of attention. This quiets the conscious mind and suspends the formation of chains of associated ideas. The subconscious mind then becomes the gateway to joining the personal consciousness with the Universal Super-consciousness. When this is done for a prolonged period, it leads to a profound trance state (Samadhi). The Word “Man”: In Sanskrit, this relates to the concept of “Mind.” “Manas” is a Sanskrit noun meaning mind in its widest sense (all mental powers). “Manu” means “thinking, wise, intelligent—the thinking creature—man, mankind” According to Jayaram V, “Man literally implies a thinking being, or a being with a mind. (Jayaram V, www.Hinduwebsite.com) Psychology, Meditation, and Mindfulness Modern psychology has now accepted the usefulness of various forms of meditation and mindfulness as tools that can help people gain control over their thoughts, feel calmer, and see their life more clearly. Sleep I use three aspects of this card to help me fall asleep at night: “4 over 3,” “Suspended Mind,” and the deep waters associated with the Hebrew letter “Mem” which is attributed to Key 12 The Hanged Man. • 4 over 3: I make the choice to use the Hanged Man card to help me sleep. • Suspended Mind: I quiet my mind by picturing the card and I identify myself with the suspended figure. • Mem: I picture the deep, black, warm waters of “Mem.” Then I choose to “dissolve” my sense of self by imagining myself dissolving into the waters of Mem. I experience the edges of my body dissolving into the water, which leads to my falling asleep. Conclusion I am always so impressed by how helpful my Tarot deck can be to me as I try to solve daily, practical problems. So many sound psychology principles and methods were embedded in the cards by their designers. My five-year apprenticeship at The Tarot School (I hold three degrees in Tarot from the Amberstones) combined with my lessons from the Builders of the Adytum Mystery School (www.bota.org) have helped me find many uses for my cards in addition to divination. ![]() is an internationally renowned Gestalt therapy trainer who specializes in teaching the diagnosis and treatment of Borderline, Narcissistic, and Schizoid adaptations. She has been studying tarot since 1995 and is psychology consultant to The Tarot School, where she earned a Third Degree in Tarot. She is a member of B.O.T.A. (Builders of the Adytum) and has been certified as a professional tarot reader by the American Tarot Association. Dr. Greenberg is the author of Borderline, Narcissistic, and Schizoid Adaptations: The Pursuit of Love, Admiration, and Safety, which demystifies the diagnosis and treatment of personality disorders. http://elinorgreenberg.com/
![]() We knew our Tarot School website and e-commerce infrastructure was outdated, but what we didn’t realize is that it’s downright prehistoric! When orders stopped coming in a couple of weeks ago, we were concerned that interest in tarot (and especially in us) was seriously waning. What we discovered instead was that our online store had been disabled. We’ll spare you the technical details, but our ancient store is incompatible with the new server updates — and there’s no quick fix. We essentially have to rebuild it from scratch! We were given a reprieve of 2 weeks. The good folks at our server were able to revert our platform to the old one — BUT ONLY UNTIL JUNE 13TH. Then they pull the plug. We’re essentially dinosaurs and there’s a big asteroid heading our way! We’ve started the upgrade process, but we have no idea if the new store can be ready in two weeks. So in order to keep from going extinct during this period… WE’RE HAVING THE BIGGEST TAROT SCHOOL SALE EVER! From now until June 13th, we’re offering you 50% OFF EVERYTHING currently in our store except the Tarot Salon and the correspondence course degree program with coaching. That’s 50% OFF: • All audio courses • All study guides • All books • All decks • All music and meditation mp3s • The Tarot School Correspondence Course ![]() (Note: Digital products will be delivered to you via dropbox because the automatic download feature is also downright Jurassic.) This is your chance to stockpile some great tarot instruction, while supporting The Tarot School and Readers Studio. But don’t wait — the sky is starting to glow and that asteroid is getting closer! http://www.tarotschool.com/store/ Best Practices for Professional Readers WHY CLIENTS DECIDE TO CHOOSE YOU By Gina Thies www.tarotadvisor.com / www.facebook.com/tarotreaders www.tarotcoupling.com / www.oraclesoup.org Sustaining a thriving business means a constant flow of clients for the professional reader. This means thinking of ways to find the right people and closing them. I recently did a little survey of my clients asking why they chose to work with me. There is a ton of expert information about how to find your ideal client based on what works for them, but I wanted to know what was going on with the people who had chosen to give me their money. Here are some of their responses: I felt drawn to you. I was referred to you from __. You seemed like the right one. There was something in the words you used. You seemed familiar. I was looking and found you. You popped up in my search. I don’t know, I was just led to you. Now, if you have been following my column for the past few years, you know I talk a lot about marketing strategies and how to find your ideal client. In reviewing the responses above, could you make sense of how to take this information and find a specific “ideal”? It is obvious they are “seekers” butwhat struck me the most was the comment of “something in the words you used.” This was in reference to my copy. I think it all boils down to feeling connected, either through words or brief in-person interactions with me. The lesson I am taking from this is that in some way people make decisions to buy based on what/who they feel connected to, and it is easy to see why branding becomes important. One of these days, I need to write a book about it! Cool Tarot Find
THE FORTUNE TELLER I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of The Fortune Teller by Gwendolyn Womack. I'm about halfway through and am enjoying it immensely! The book is billed as "A sweeping and suspenseful tale of romance, fate and fortune." The story spans several centuries –– part of which takes place in the Library of Alexandria! It's well-researched and has memorable characters. If you're a fan of Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches, you'll enjoy this one. And tarot plays a starring role! To find out more about the story and it's award-winning author, visit Gwendolyn's website: http://www.gwendolynwomack.com/the-fortune-teller/the-story/ Tarot Salon
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