With Tarot becoming an incredibly popular tool outside of the “taroficionados” circles, I feel it is more important than ever to warn people of the dangers of tarot. I am not the kind of person who sees the negative in all situations, even though I used to be – hat was actually my superpower as a lawyer – but I need to write this piece so that you can use tarot in a safe way if you are a newbie and just got your first deck. Tarot is like a knife. It’s a powerful tool. We all know, however, that knives can cut us if we are not careful. My blog post today is to help you keep you safe whilst you use the tarot.
Mistake 1: Use the tarot when you are feeling down
I have made this mistake so many times. I have been a professional tarot reader for over seventeen years and I still get caught by that one, albeit less often than I used to. Why is it such a mistake? Because if you are feeling low, you are most likely to make the card mean something worse than it is meant to, especially if you hit the “baddies” of the tarot such as the devil and the death cards. In the Rider Waite deck, which is the number one deck to learn to read the tarot, the Death card is pretty graphic. And so is the devil. And even though the death card only referred to actual death in one of the hundreds of readings I have done, it can still trigger us. My advice is to use oracle cards when you feel down. They are much more gentle. Even better, turn to angel cards. They are the gentlest and most encourage type of cards.
Mistake 2: Not set an intent for your tarot
This is something I have not heard from any tarot teacher when I learnt to use the tarot, yet it is vital. In order to illustrate this point, let me share with you a story that happened to me on an open day I did when I was still doing readings for people who came into my home. There was a lady that felt nervous in the audience. I approached her and we talked. “I am really nervous about the tarot”, she said to me right away. She then shared how when she was eighteen, she went to see a psychic with her best friend, who wanted a reading. The psychic told her friend she could see no future for her and her friend died in a car accident the same day. If you don’t set your intent for your tarot deck (and your intuition for that matter), you may receive unhelpful information because there will be no “filter”. I set my intent for my tarot deck to bring me information that is helpful, inspiring and helpful. So far I have never been disappointed.
Mistake 3: Asking the same question until you get the answer that you want
We have all done this. Asking a question until we get the answer that we want. And in truth, if that is the intent you set for your tarot deck, that is what will happen. But then, what value will it bring you? Just as with a best friend, you don’t want them to say yes to your every whim. If you keep asking the same question, your tarot deck will end up giving you contradicting answers because it responds to your energy and you are messing up with it. This does not mean that a question can only be asked once. Not at all. Sometimes we phrase questions in such a way that we get answers that maybe are not helpful so it is always a good idea to write a question down before you pull a card and maybe refine the question until it is more helpful.
Mistake 4: Asking unhelpful questions
“Am I going to marry him?” I am not mocking people who ask these questions because I asked them myself. That was actually one of the first questions I asked the first psychic I ever went to see with a friend. His answer was “I hope you want to marry him because you will.” I completely overlooked the way he phrased the answer but believe me, with hindsight, I can see he chose his words very carefully. A much more helpful question would have been “Am I going to be happy marrying him?” At the time, though, I would not have been ready to hear the answer. I had to see for myself and live with the consequences. Another helpful question could have been “Am I really suited to married life?” regardless of the boyfriend I had at the time. Now that I am wiser from thirty years of experience, I know the answer to that. My invitation is, don’t ask the first question that comes to mind. Write it first and then challenge it. Hopefully, it will lead you to a much better question
Mistake 5: Think that the answer is set in stone
I was talking about this with a client literally yesterday. If you ask the tarot a question today, it might give you a no. This doesn’t mean a no forever. It could just be a no for now. So don’t be afraid to ask the question again or at least ask if it is a question of timing or if it is an absolute no. The other thing is that, any prediction that is given to you by the tarot (or a psychic for that matter) is only valid for the you that you are today. We create our own reality through our beliefs, so if you changed your beliefs, then you can change the outcome of a situation. Remember that.
I hope that you have enjoyed my top five tips. If you would like to be informed of when I launch the next round of my Tarot for Business course, click here to sign up for my newsletter.
(c) Ange de Lumiere 2022
