spiritual practice
Can Anyone Read The Tarot?
During this past week alone, several people from different walks of life have asked me this very question. Yes, anyone can learn, but as some of my Tarot students have shown, it’s the passion you have for Tarot that makes the difference, and that can turn someone into a reader with a difference.
Tarot readings can be used for one’s personal growth only, or for doing readings for self and others. Often individuals learn the Tarot of their own volition, paying particular attention to its imagery and symbolism, as they develop their skill with practice, practice, and more practice.
Once they feel they can trust their higher self and their spirit guides, and feel they are being directed to the symbols and imagery in Tarot, which will kick start the required information to be revealed, they will be confident to do Tarot readings.
A good teacher or mentor will always encourage a student to be guided by the way the Tarot talks to them, and not just by learning ‘parrot fashion’ the many meanings each card may have.
It is the language of symbols which helps us more easily tune into the unconscious mind, especially when there is not always time available to spend many hours doing psychic development, and going within and meditating before a reading.
Many Tarot readers work with various spreads, or layouts, to help them answer specific questions and to define events, timing, important influences and important people in the questioner’s life. Tarot helps us find clarity as to the direction in which we are headed and even helps identify blocks which may lie ahead.
I have in my collection at least fifteen Tarot decks, but one or two would suffice for most people. I just love the way talented people have been able to bring Tarot to life in their own Tarot deck design, using their own imagery, shapes and color.
Strategies For Manifesting A Successful Relationship
Over the years I have worked with many clients who either want to improve an existing relationship or manifest a new relationship. In these readings, spirit consistently suggests three simple spiritual practices that can radically change our relationships and romantic energy.
We tend to get stuck by over-analyzing and over-thinking our love lives, to the extent that we develop a lot of emotional charge and resistance in relationship matters. With the guidance of spirit, I have found these three simple strategies to be very helpful in moving our love energy in a more healthy and happy direction, in a very short time. Try these strategies in your daily spiritual practice. It could help you finally step into the love life of your dreams!
Dreamwork
Begin your relationship work in the dream state. Before going to bed each night, ask your angels, guides and higher self to invite your current love partner, new love interest or a future partner to join you for an ‘astral date.’ I like to think of it as ‘etheric couples counseling’ on the astral plane.
Meeting your lover in your dreams can ignite a significant energy shift in your relationship life, which will eventually translate into the emotional, mental and physical realms. In this altered state of consciousness the higher selves of you and your partner do the work with the support of spirit. The limitations, judgments and preconceptions of your ego or ‘lower self’ are all deactivated while you are asleep and in the dream state, and therefore unable to interrupt or interfere with the process.
Connecting With Your Inner Wisdom
In a world rife with uncertainty and daily challenges, most of us are bound to turn to other people in our life to help us deal with our problems or regain a sense of direction. While this is perfectly normal and human to do, spirit teaches that it is best we also connect with our higher self to find the answers we are seeking.
Unfortunately, trauma and stress can significantly block the clarity of our intuition, prevent us from gaining access to our inner wisdom and divine guidance. The following strategies can help us reconnect with our inner being and build a stronger connection with our inner guidance system.
Ignore The Noise
Stop listening to the opinions and views of others. I am not suggesting that you should never take good advice, but be selective about who you choose to listen to. And if their opinion does not resonate with your inner being, walk away.
Too much external ‘noise’ can really block your instincts if you become preoccupied with what others think. There is also the fear of upsetting others or not living up to certain social norms or family expectations. If you were to give in to this, you may very well find yourself living other people’s dreams and ambitions instead of your own.
Avoid the kind of ‘well-meant’ advice that usually only serve the needs of the one advising you. Politely thank them for their interest and concern, but disregard their opinions and simply go ahead with what your inner voice advises. The Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu said, “He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”
Rediscovering The Untouched Soul
Our soul is always a clean slate when we are born. Knowing this and living accordingly is true spirituality. However, the virgin territory of our soul is often more or less blemished or darkened due to many traumas and challenges throughout our lifetime.
Along our life path, we often lose much of the spiritual innocence we had as children. Instead, we begin to dwell in shadows of darkness in various forms: indifference to the destiny of others, confinement in our own; laziness, vanity, greed, envy, violence, hatred.
None of us can deny having at times dark thoughts or toxic emotions, malicious habits or selfish behaviors. However, no matter how widespread and ingrained the darkness may become in us, it is also certain that something immaculate always persists in some corner of our inner being. Even if it is tiny, there is an eternal point of light within where our higher self always remains pure and original. The sacred we carry within cannot be defiled.
As much as life may have made us callous or cynical, we always have this sacred stronghold inside. Herein lies the hope of those who practice spirituality: to reach that virgin point and rediscover in it one’s original nature.
This original nature, pure and innocent, we have sometimes forgotten to such an extent that we need someone or something to remind us to look inside ourselves to rediscover who we truly are.
We sometimes need someone to explain that we suffer because we have stopped believing in purity, beauty and what is good. We need someone to remind us that our deepest identity is virginal and fruitful, empty and full, both things, however contradictory this may seem.
You Are Stronger Than You Think
It is a lesser-known fact that depression can show up in our lives at any time, at a moment’s notice, with no warning. You can be in the happiest time of your life, and it can still sneak up on you.
Depression is a sneaky mental illness. You can do the therapy and treatment, the journaling, meditation, affirmations, and energy healing work all you want, but for some of us it can return at any time and still negatively impact our lives.
Emotionally exhausted days in bed or walking around like a zombie with no motivation or life direction. It is like carrying a bag of rocks on your back that gets heavier and heavier, until it finally overwhelms you entirely.
A person with high-functioning depression can fake a huge smile on the outside, while underneath they are falling apart. Their upbeat laughter and busy schedule are simply a coverup for the dark, ominous shadows that follows them everywhere they go.
For some it ends in suicide. Many of the lives tragically lost over the past year were not all directly due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The pandemic has also taken the lives of many people who simply could not cope with the trauma of these challenging times.
The world remains so judgmental about mental illness, despite the recent pandemic that has so brutally exposed its prevalence in our society. The pandemic has also not brought people closer together, as one might expect. Instead, it has torn already dysfunctional families, friendships, and workplaces further apart. It has given rise to abuse, anger, hatred, fear, and intolerance.
But you are stronger than you think. You may even be someone else’s rock at the moment and not even know it. And if the worst is currently upon you, or someone you love, call upon your angels, spirit guides and ancestors to hold you up, to guide you and to lift your energy.
Raising Your Vibration Changes The World
When I was a Yoga teacher, I often had students invite me for dinner or a social visit to help them clear the energy in their home. I would always remind them that, while I may be able to improve the vibration of their home and clear any negative energy, the results would only be temporary.
Attaining an improved energy frequency in this way, of feeling light, happy, hopeful, and positive, can be like a ‘quick-fix crash diet’ to get some weight off quickly. The instant, easy results may motivate one to lose weight more permanently with a sustainable, sensible nutrition plan and fitness routine, but it will never be a long-term, lasting solution on its own.
I have been practicing energy work and raising my vibration since I was teenager. My practice intensified when I began to study Kundalini Yoga in my 30’s.
Raising one’s energy vibration is a basically a process of expanding and strengthening the aura – our personal energy field. Various energy influences can cause our aura to retract and become diminished, for example as we grow older, or when we are traumatized in childhood. The aura ‘pulls in’ to protect us, much like someone might hunch over when they are being physically attacked.
Poor posture is often the result of the fourth (heart) chakra and the aura retracting to protect the self. Our energy vibration is a combination of the aura and the chakras or energy centers. When you realign and balance the chakras, you basically ‘take out the psychic trash’ and your vibration is heightened.
Having a consistently high vibration, however, can come with its own set of challenges. For example, I cannot wear a watch, for because my vibration tends to make them break down or stop moving. I often have problems with machinery and technology in my environment. I have also been told that went I walk into a room, the vibration changes.
Just like when a really negative person can bring everyone in down, or even make you feel ill, a positive, high vibration can make a room light up. People literally get high off the energy. The feeling is similar to falling in love or after one has given birth to your child. A raised vibration is a kind of low-level euphoria anyone can achieve.
Seeing Yourself As You Truly Are
The art of ‘being seen’ begins within. It is not in the eyes, or heart, of an external beholder. It is the grace of being able to see oneself through the Divine Eyes of our Creator.
Every soul is unique. No two are the same. Each soul emanates from the Supreme Loving Source to offer its unique beauty and pleasure to God in an incomparable, individual way. When we look at ourselves through this lens, the true beauty, light, and power of the spiritual spark of our being shines upon our inner vision.
Relationships offer mirrors too. But what they show vary according to the quality of the reflecting surface. And what we see in them depends upon how well we know, see, and stand in the truth of our own higher self.
For example, if I look at myself in a broken mirror, do I see a crack in my face? I might…if I am not sure of who I am. However, if I know myself to be whole, I can readily recognize that the crack is in the mirror, and not in my face.
Similarly, there are relationships in life that reflect broken images back to us. That does not mean that we are broken, nor that the other person or people involved are broken either. We all have wounds and scars and other gaping holes yet to be healed, or not.
Whatever the case may be, it is the relationship itself that offers up the reflective element. It is the dynamic of exchange that shows itself as either clean, clear, balanced, cracked, smeared, skewed, and so on.
Knowing oneself in truth and wholeness is thus extremely valuable. If we do not possess such certainty of self, we may accept a broken or distorted impression projected by an ill-functioning relationship to be a reflection upon ourselves.