Category: Tarot Blog Hop

This Tarot Blog Hop’s theme, Tarot Continuing Education, is something I think is very important. I feel that as professional readers, we need to be learning all the time to expand our practices. We can learn so much from each other as well as teach others our own way of readings. I feel like with every class I take I gain new insight that can expand my reading techniques and understanding of the cards.

I enjoy attending Tarot conferences and Tarot classes at places you might not expect to see Tarot. I have just finished my big Tarot conference season from President’s weekend at PantheaCon 2019 until this past weekend at Reader’s Studio 2019. I attended NorthWest Tarot Symposium and I also went to BABSCon 2019 where I learned how to read Tarot with the My Little Pony Tarot deck. Each of these events had classes that offered many different techniques and ways to read Tarot. There were well known Tarot Masters as well as the up and coming Tarot Luminaries and of course regular readers who have amazing businesses and creators and artists of brand new decks. With each class I take I learn a new thing that I can apply to my practice as well as see something new in my cards that others see that I may not have noticed.
When I think of continuing education I always think about my Tarot Practice and how I can get it to grow and thrive. I would say that you may find Tarot in the least likely of places.

As I mentioned above, I attended BABSCon which is a My Little Pony convention in the San Francisco Bay Area. I met the creator of a My Little Pony Tarot deck. He shared his way of reading and how the major arcana correspond to the way we have evolved from an agricultural civilization to an industrial society and on to the informational age. It was a way I had not thought to take the standard Hero’s Journey that many people have assigned to the 22 cards of the Major Arcana. I would never have thought to find a Tarot class at a Pony Convention. The room was very full of other people interested in learning Tarot. This is just one class that I took that grew my view of Tarot. I would say go to any convention or conference you can and attend any Tarot class you can.

You never know where you will find information that could expand your understanding of your Tarot.

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June 22, 2015

Imbolc Post and Spread I did for a Tarot Blog Hop a while ago

I have been so busy with being UberGeek Lady some times I forget to post my Tarot Loving Fun. I have a terrific group of people in my Fremont Meet N Greet Tarot Group as well as my Tarot Vision Podcast I do with Charlie Harrington. But I realize I want to share my spreads as well.

I wanted to make sure to share this and encourage you to do your own reading with my Imbloc Spread.
Rose Red’s Candle Spread:

Card 1- The Match – What helps light my fire.

Card 2- The Base where the candle sits-What is the area of strength I am coming from.

Card 3- The Candle itself-What is the work I need to do.

Card 4- The Flame of the candle- What actions can I take to brighten my work.

Card 5- The Snuffer- What can be challenges to my work.

What cards came up that surprised you? What card gave you an “Ah HA!” feeling? What one or ones was no surprise at all?

It is interesting to hear what others do with spreads I have created and how they change them to make them their own. It is a thing I love about the Tarot Community. We share and we appreciate each others genius. Yes there are times when that is not the case, but on the whole we are a Family and we do support each other.

I know I know…I am kind of a MarySue on things but over all I have had a terrific experience with Tarot and my community.

December 21, 2014

Tarot Blog Hop -Yule 2014- The Joy of Gifting

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Welcome from Morgan Drake Eckstein’s blog The Giving Tarot Spread.

This Yule we were challenged to really look at what Giving means to us and how we share with the world. The spread below was the suggestion to get us started on this Hop.

The Joy Of Gifting Spread:

What gift would you give the world if you could?
What gift would you want from the world?
What gift have you gotten that has brought you joy?
What gift have you given that has brought you joy?
What is one last thing you would like to share about this season?

For me this looked more like a predictive reading and so I viewed it more of what I could give, what I hope to get, what joy have I already received and what have I given as well as the joy I could share about this holiday season.

I used the Steampunk Tarot for my reading. Here are the cards I received:

1) The gift I could give the world: 8 of Wands- Vast options! Many choices with which to create using ones passion and love for life. You can try new things just reach out and grab a hold of that idea.

2) The gift I would hope to get: The Fool- Fresh views of the new year! There are so many possibilities with a new year that the world may surprise me with that I need to be open to these opportunities. Also take a friend along with you. You both can help each other.

3) The gift that has brought me joy: 5 of Swords-Opportunity for victory. Through all that I have done, I have been fortunate to come out ahead of the game if you will. I have great friends, a home, love and a good job. These gifts were not just ones I worked for but also were things that help me become whom I am today. Without them, I wouldn’t be me.

4) The gift I have given to others that has brought me joy : 10 of Pentacles- Encouragement for other to shine. I have been told that I encourage others to be the best they can be and that they have taken steps to do the thing they thought about because I have encouraged them. These stories actually make me proud and surprised. When you think you don’t touch lives, look around you. You are connected to more people than you think. It is awesome to realize that just saying, “That is a great idea. I think you can do that!” really does mean something.

5) Something to share about this holiday season: 2 of Swords- Find your balance. Well I guess the Tarot is reminding me that I love to read. I love to share cards. I love Tarot and the people I have met through the cards. There are days when I look at my deck and wonder what I am doing? Can I really read these picture cards? The I recall all of the people I have met, people I have read for, people who have shared their gifts with me and I think that the Tarot Community is a special gift that I am fortunate enough to be a part of and how much it is part of who I am.

I am not sure if this is how I was supposed to work with this spread but I know that as I look at it, I see more and recall more than I expected. I have been given a gift of connection to the Divine in me as well as in the others with whom I share this love of reading. We all have different styles. We all come from different walks of life but Tarot brings us together. We can be in different parts of the world and yet here we are on this hop, sharing in this joyful season together because of the colored paper cards we love.

That is really quite special. Thank you for letting me be part of your holiday and thank you for being part of mine.

Now head on over to Karen Sealey’s Blog!

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October 5, 2014

Mabon Tarot Blog Hop 2014

Thank you for hopping over here from Joanne Sprott’s blog!

For me Tarot has been very fluid in my life. I found it at 18 when I was first branching out in to other religions and a friend gave me a How to Read Tarot cassette tape with instructions from Mary K Greer and a Color Your Own Tarot deck with key words printed on it. It was an amazing tool and I loved it but as I was 18 and first really getting out on my own from my parents, my Tarot love and study really didn’t hold my focus. The deck and tape got packed away and moved with me as I moved from my parents house to college.

When I turned 28, I had a whole new life change. I had graduate college, gotten married, gotten divorced and was struggling to connect with people again. I walked into a local Internet Cafe in 1998 and the owner’s wife was playing with cards. It struck me that I had seen those kind of cards before, on TV, in movies and then my brain recalled my deck and cassette from my teen years. I found the deck and cassette, which still worked, and was excited. But I really didn’t connect with the deck. Meliny was more than willing to show me her deck as well as the one her husband used. (Wait … Men read cards too?!?! my brain was shocked I tell you!) It was amazing to see the variety that were outside my Rider Waite knock off.

This lead to me studying with her and going to my first PantheaCon in 2000. I went to every Tarot class they had that year and got to attend a class taught by Mary K Greer. It was on 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card. It was before her book on the topic of course. It was fascinating to be in the same room with this person I had only known via a cassette. I knew I had to learn more. I was gifted my second Tarot deck, The Goddess Tarot by Kris Waldherr and I bought my next deck, The Sacred Rose Tarot by Johanna Gargiulo-Sherman. I was on a roll! I loved reading for friends and finding interesting decks. I even found a Role Playing Game that had it’s own deck, which I found a touch creepy but was still interesting. Tarot was showing up everywhere for me.

I kept going to PantheaCons and attending classes and meeting Tarot people from all over. In one of my classes there was an amazing woman who taught Tarot near where I lived in Oakland and so I wanted to attend her series of classes. I had been to her presentations at PantheaCon so I could tell I would learn much from her in the smaller group setting.

I headed to Ancient Ways and went to my first class on the Tarot as taught by Thalassa. I met Artemis J in that class. We worked with each other and there was this magical connection as if I had found a kindred spirit who understood Tarot and loved it as much as I did. We both couldn’t stop talking about the cards and what we saw when we read. We were entranced by the lessons Thalassa shared as we explored the Majors and Minors of the basic Rider_Waite. I saw more meaning in the symbols and was able to ask questions and hear what others saw in the same cards. Yes the books are great tools and going to Tarot events once a year helped connect to others, but that small class series gave me my first Tarot Soulmate. We went on to create our own study group from there.

During one of those study groups Anastasia, my friend from Renaissance Fair, came as she was a reader as well, and Artemis and I enjoyed having her share her knowledge and love of the Tarot with us. The three of us would share and study different decks and talk about readings we had done and decks we enjoyed.

One of these glorious evenings Anastasia took out her Minchiate Tarot by Brian Williams, and pulled 3 cards for us to ponder the question of what we saw in the reading regarding the 3 of us at the table. The middle card was the 3 of coins whcih represented each of us. The other two were the Emperor of the East and the Emperor of the West. To me it meant that we three could create tarot magic where ever we went or where ever we choose to go. We decided to work with Anastasia on Tarot-To-Go and that expanded into me working for her at Tarot Media Company. I got to work at SFBATS and work at The Reader’s Studio in New York. I was introduced to Mary K Greer, who is as amazing as I had hoped, and many other terrific Tarot people across the country and from all over the world. I helped to start our local meet up, SF Tarot Cafe and then went on to host my own meet up, Fremont Tarot Meet N Greet.
I currently do a podcast with Charlie Harrington called Tarot Visions and continue to attend workshops and events all over the country.

Mind you all of this took a quantum leap of faith on my part as I was not sure what I could do with Tarot cards for my future. But, because of taking that chance, attending those PantheaCons, then the Tarot series with Thatlassa, only to meet Artemis J and to the Tuesday night study sessions with Anastasia, did I end up working in publishing, exploring all aspects of social media, being more proficient with WordPress and Twitter, and then expanding into podcasts and teaching. And to think it all started from a friend handing me a “Color Your Own Tarot” deck and a cassette with Mary K Greer on it.

Thanks for reading and get ready to hop on over to Louise Underhill’s post.

October 30, 2012

Tarot Blog Hop -Samhain Shadow Reading Spread

Welcome from Arwen Lynch post. This is my Samhain Shadow Tarot Blog Hop post.

Shadow work is very difficult. Many of us try to avoid it because we like to pretend that we don’t have dark sides. Samhain is a time to look past the masks and the veils to see ourselves. It is time to spend in contemplation. We each take our own paths to get to that place where we can get past our own personal facades and get to the soul of the matter – the parts of ourselves we need to work on and make better. For each of us this can be a personal journey.

I generally turn to the cards because it makes it easier and I can’t ignore what is in front of me. This year I will be doing my 9 card spread as I do every year when I want to look at my shadow self. And I am going to share my layout with you here.

Rose Red’s Shadow Spread:

First card: where I am at = what’s going on currently for or with myself.

Second card: current situation – what things are coming up currently that I am dealing with.

Third card: What’s coming up – that will help with the situation.

Fourth card: (under the first card) – things I am ignoring about where I am at. This is the shadow of the first card.

Fifth card (shadow of the 2nd card): Things not being acknowledged about the current situation.

Sixth card (Shadow of the third card): what wont help with the situation.

Seventh Card (above the first): Things to remember about where you’re at – something positive to keep in mind when going thru your shadow side.

Eighth Card (above the 2nd card): Something positive about the situation you may be ignoring.

Ninth Card (above the 3rd card): Something to help deal with all that you’re dealing with.

While this seems like a very simplistic layout, this spread can give depth to dealing with your shadow material. Always remember: that you only go as deep as you allow yourself and while this can be used for a ‘lighter’ reading, you can hone it down using only major arcana cards to build this reading. Using bigger-picture cards means dealing with bigger-picture issues. Alternatively, you can just use the minors (or a specific minor suite) to deliver a less dramatic dip into your shadow side.

Now hop on over to Jaymi Elford’s post! Happy Samhain and exploring your own Shadow side.

September 22, 2012

Mabon Tarot Blog Hop

Thank you for joining me from Chloe for TABI Tarot blog.

I look at Mabon as the beginning of my favorite time of the year, Autumn. It shows us the harvest of our work as well as the glory of the summer’s end with the beauty of the fall leaves. We transform from the bright light of summer to the golden light of fall.

As we go out into the world, we go through the “Interesting Years” where we try new things and begin to find out who we are and what is really important to us. We find our own paths and leave our parental homes to find out own places. We grow and change our viewpoints as we discover our personal goals that feeds our souls.

I find that when I get stuck in this process I do personal readings. Here is my Transformation Reading to find my own goals and get back on my Transformative path of life:

The first card is where I am at.

The second card is my goal or path to follow.

The third card is my resources.

The fourth card is the people who can help if I let them.

The fifth card is the hidden gift that will help me grow if I let it in.

Here is the reading I did this Mabon for this layout, using the Druid Craft deck:

1) Queen of Swords- Strong, independent woman, you have many ideas in your head and much you want to do.

2)Magician- You are working on being a leader and trying to get the tools at your disposal to be of the best possible use to you.

3)The 6 of Wands- You have many friends and people you can call on once you put your intentions out into the world. You just need to sound the call.

4)5 of Wands-There are friends who will remind you about the details which you may be overlooking because you are too focused on the big picture. They can hep you get grounded if you listen but may distract you as well. Keep that in mind when you ask for their councel.

5)Cernunnos-You have grand ideas and must fertilize them for them to flourish. Your gift is the power to feed their growth as you wish. You must take responsiblity if you follow this path.

So over all this says to me that I can transform the ideas and dreams into solid plans with the help of friends and good colleagues. I can do what needs to be done to make dreams reality as long as I feed the dreams and not give up when things get hard.

I hope this simple spread can help you find your goals and transform them from dreams to reality.

Now hop on over to Kareena Narwani blog for more on the Mabon Tarot Blog Hop journey.

May 2, 2012

Beltane TarotBlogHop- “The Fire tends to All”

Welcome along your TarotBlogHop from the Jordan Hoggard of Mystereum Santa Fe.

While in the middle of Reader’s Studio 2012, am fortunate to see all the wonderful people who add to the Fire that is Tarot. We have readers, teachers, mentors, deck creators, book writers, game creators and publishers to mention just a few. All these people inspire us in small and large ways. We share our insights, love and experiences with Tarot in our lives.

My thought was ‘What do I contribute to Tarot and my Tarot community?” It was not clear at first because when you are sitting with the likes of Rachel Pollack and Mary K Greer, you sometimes forget what you as a person actually add to the conversation. I realized that I am enthusiastic about learning new ways of using Tarot and sharing it with my community back home. I will be meeting with my Tarot MeetUp group back home and sharing all that I am seeing and learning at this event as well as how my readings will have grown because of the master classes I am taking here. My community will grow with all the new people I meet as well as the old friends I connect with at Reader’s Studio. I also realized that I get inspired but my Tarot Family as I call them to create spreads that reflect what I have learned.

So how do I tend the Fire to All? I try to create new Tarot spreads that can be used by any one. And I have a new one for this TBH for Beltane.

BELTANE SPREAD:

Card 1: Match- What ignites your passion?

Card 2: Kindling- What burns in your soul to keep that passion going?

Card 3: The Flame- What do you need to do to manifest that passion?

Card 4: The Smoke- How do you return that energy to the world to create the next cycle?

Here is the sample reading I did using these cards:

Card 1: My Match – King of Swords-Making plans helps to create the patterns I need to do the things I love.

Card 2: My Kindling – Ace of Cups- My ideas flow as I feed them. When I let them grow, I get a better return on them.

Card 3: My Flame- V-Hierophant – I need to be a teacher and share my love of tarot with others. I can share my ideas and encourage others to explore their interests in the cards. By doing so I can create more community.

Card 4: My Smoke- XXI- The World- My next step is to keep doing outreach and sharing as well as teaching. The best thing for me to do is share, share , share. I have my own ideas that others may respond well to and I need to get over my fear and just share them. It is a good time to try.

So there you have it. It is now time to join TABI Tarot and see what they are sharing as they are Tending to the Fire of Tarot themselves. Happy Beltane!

March 19, 2012

TarotBlogHop-Ostara~ Paint a Journey with a New Life

Thank you for joining me here from Aisling http://tarotwitchery.blogspot.com/

As I was thinking about how I could approach this topic, I thought about the renovations being done to the chapels in Florence and Rome. As the frescos are being restored, the colors are coming back to life. It struck me ,that when painting all colors break down to the three primaries, red, blue and yellow. This of course got me thinking of a a three card spread to help me paint a journey with new life. So here is my spread for using this delightful color palate to start painting your own journey.

Red- This is your Passion Card! It is what drivers you to use your talents and challenge yourself.

Blue- This is your Nurturing Card. It is what helps you get grounded and find your center when you are feeling chaotic and overwhelmed.

Yellow- This is your Energizer Card. It helps you to move forward with your plan or your goal.

Using this spread I found helped me find focus and revitalize myself to find new ways to handle my upcoming projects.

Continue your hop over to Matt’s blog: http://personaltarotwithmatt.com/blog