Let’s face it: we all have somewhat of an interest in the supernatural. Not because The Vampire Diaries is a guilty pleasure of ours or because we find ourselves watching Paranormal State on a random Wednesday night. It's simply because there’s a part of all of us that believes the supernatural could possibly give us answers that the real world can't. We like to think (unless you’re a full-blown Redditor) that something is looking out for us and that something will be kind to you in the future. This is why, even if you don’t believe in it, you go to a fortune teller with your friends. Sure, it’s for a lark but you secretly hope that what he/she says will give you a righteous and comforting outcome, a flag to carry in the future of your love life/professional career/spiritual life/etc.
I’ve been reading tarot on and off since high school because I grew up in the suburbs. I’ve seen The Craft a million times and I was really into drama class. Over the years, I’ve been known to read a few pretty accurate spreads, which we can all blame on my awesome and attentive third eye (just kidding?). There have been moments where I've read something that pinpoints the subject's question to a T, so much it has actually scared me.
But the hobby of reading tarot was pushed aside, mostly because I put my deck somewhere and then couldn’t find them, and then forgot about the whole thing. I didn’t have time to dive so deeply into this world, mostly because I was never really sure if I believed in it in the first place.
However, on a recent cleansing of the room (borderline hoarder possibility), I found my deck of cards and wondered if I wanted to break out the ol’ third eye again. First, I read my own for funsies, the success of which really depends on how honest I’m willing to be with myself. Since I was focusing on my love life the answer to that is: not honest.
Going along with my constant professionalism, I decided to bring my cards in and read the office’s spread. Since it was a particularly gross Monday, everyone seemed pretty thrilled to come into one of the smaller conference rooms and find out about their future.
Now, I’m not going to tell you what I told my dear friends and coworkers because there is such thing as hobby-tarot-reader-readee-confidentiality (there isn’t).
How I read tarot is simple: the subject shuffles the deck and cuts it to their liking, all while thinking about their question. I lay out the cards (celtic cross layout, no reversals, for you fellow “readers” out there) and then begin weaving the subject's future, never once telling them that I actually know how and when they’re going to die.
Just kidding about that last part.
I won’t tell you if I’m particularly good or bad at this hobby, but that really lies in what I think about this hobby. Do I think it’s funny? Do I think it’s interesting? Do I even think it’s real?
Sure, everyone can Google this stuff until the cows come home. You’ll probably find some pretty awesome Geocities or Angelfire websites about it. There are a lot of readers and psychics out there who swear that they can read over e-mail, Skype or phone. This is mostly bullshit (I refer you to a pretty interesting confessional here). But I find that everyone seeking for that divination aspect of life, from the young teen wondering about a boy she has a crush on, to an old man trying to connect with the past, is really hoping for someone to pat them on the shoulder and tell them everything is going to be OK.
Now, this isn’t lying. I would say that in reading my colleagues' tarot, everyone had a generally positive reading. I have no problem saying I always read the cards in a positive sense. This doesn’t mean that I’m lying, that means that the cards tell me a bunch of things and I put all those things together. And most of the time I see things as positive, despite my own personal cynicism.
The point is, positivity comes from knowledge. This “knowledge” moves into a different kind of realm when you’re talking about the "Divine Process." Every person should know that a spread of cards, a bunch of lines on a palm, is not going to predict your future. What it may do, if you believe in that sort of thing, is help you make a choice that you’ve been battling. Do you want to move on to the next level of your relationship? Are you curious about your job security and wonder if it’s time to start looking for another? These are questions that you ask the cards, NOT “Does he like me?” “Am I coming into money?” and “When will I die?”
So this positivity, this emphasis on the good, is about the fact that your life, your happiness, doesn’t come from some external event. It comes from the fact that you make a choice and that choice turns out to be very good for you. And on the flip side, if you make the wrong choice, hey, you learned something. And generally, if you make the wrong choice, that’s what booze and sleeping in are for. Just for a couple of days, anyway.
Positivity in my readings means that first and foremost, I want you to be confident in yourself. What is the point of trying to feel better about your future if someone is going to tell you that something shitty is going to happen? You’re just going to be sitting there waiting for it and that will probably make the shitty thing even worse.
So then comes the topic of reality. In one sense, I would say I could prescribe to the theory that it’s real if you think it’s real. If you want to believe it’s all bullshit then it probably will be (it’s about the energy, mannnn). But most importantly, and let’s just say you believe in this kind of stuff, isn’t it most important to believe that some good stuff can happen in your life? That you will see some shit and come out the better for it? I’m not going to sit here with a big smile on my face and tell you that everything is beautiful and wonderful and things happen for a reason. Sometimes things just happen. But having the sense that you can deal with something is probably stronger than actually having the skills to deal with something.
So yeah, I believe that tarot’s real. Because if it weren't, at least when it comes to me reading for myself, things would be as bleak as I usually think they are. Everyone needs to know that there’s a little hope in the future and that’s probably the best divination of all.
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