By Melanie Marquis
Want to improve your Tarot skills in 2010? You can hone your technique through new experiences and greater applications of your psychic sense. Try our ten quick tips for increasing Tarot prowess, then check out the great advice we gleaned from the pros. Here’s how to make 2010 the year of better readings:
TR’S 10 Quick Tips:
- Do listen to your client. Pay attention to verbal and non-verbal communication.
- Connect with the greater Tarot community and make use of resources. The ATA’s website, www.ata-tarot.com, is a great place to start.
- Offer positive options. No reading is set in stone; make sure the client understands this.
- Read for a variety of clients.
- Read with a variety of decks.
- Double-check the accuracy of interpretations by using other divination mediums.
- Don’t overwork yourself. Take frequent breaks between readings to avoid energy drain and to increase psychic endurance.
- Study the cards. Even if you’ve worked with them for years, further exploration and meditation provides benefits.
- Try new spreads and new mediums (in-person, over-the-phone, and via email readings) to expand your versatility.
- Stay connected with your psychic mind through frequent exercise and application.
What the Pros Say:
Raymond Buckland:
Creator of the Buckland Romani Tarot, www.raybuckland.com
Tap in to what comes from "spirit" (for want of a better phrase) rather than simply repeating interpretations learned from books. Go out on a limb and say what you feel/sense/intuit rather than what someone else has said the particular card means. We are all individuals so no one card means the same thing for any two people.
Juliet Sharman Burke:
Creator of The New Mythic Tarot
My position is that if you learn the symbolic message of each card and do the work, by which I mean meditating on the images, associating them with things you are familiar with in your own life, and learning the symbolic and mythic associations, then the meanings of the cards will naturally unfold.
Elizabeth Hazel:
Creator of The Whispering Tarot, www.kozmic-kitchen.com
People can choose the level of reader they become by what they’re willing to absorb from the world. The readings a reader gives generally will sound like the books that he or she has read. It’s a good idea to absorb several different books on tarot to get input from various authors, and to view the tarot as a multi-disciplinary medium. It’s as valuable to read Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Homer, Plato, Marsilio Ficino, or Sartre as it is to read Mary Greer or Rachel Pollack. The more a person brings to the table in terms of breadth of knowledge and experience, the better of a tarot reader one will become.
John Holland:
Creator of the Psychic Tarot, www.johnholland.com
I recommend taking a psychic development class, and learning to meditate. The quieter the mind, the better psychic information can be picked up. Begin to notice everything about the cards that are in front of you. Colors, symbols, words, numbers, images—when you begin to notice and act on them, then you will see how your Tarot readings will be improved.
Terresena Bakens:
Co-creator of The Fifth Tarot, www.thefifthtarot.com
Let go of what you think you know and follow your intuition. Coming from the heart, rather than the mind, allows us to get to the heart of the matter.