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This is a guest post by Brigit — a professional Tarot reader, blogger, author and owner of www.biddytarot.com.
Picture this. Your client comes to you wanting to know when love will come into her life. She is eagerly awaiting a positive and uplifting Tarot reading about her future love life and you can’t wait to help her out.
But lo and behold, you draw the Ten of Swords, the Tower and the Seven of Swords.
What do you do?! Quickly sweep up the Tarot cards and offer to lay them out again, hoping the Ten of Cups might make an appearance?
No!
You can do better than that. You can turn these seemingly negative cards into a positive and empowering reading using just a few simple techniques.
1. Interpret the Light And Shade in the Tarot Card
Every Tarot card has light and shade; good and evil; yin and yang.
For example, while the Sun is radiant and uplifting, too much of this energy can be egotistical or off-putting. And while the Ten of Swords indicates pain and betrayal, it also indicates the end of a painful cycle which will make way for new opportunities and beginnings.
So, if you draw a seemingly negative Tarot card, dig deep and draw out both the light and shade of that card. What is the ultimate ‘good’ in the card? How could this card benefit your client? For example, while the Devil often indicates unhealthy bonds, it can also be interpreted as a very strong, loyal bond between two people.
See the Tarot card for what it is, without emotion or judgement. While the Tower is often feared as a sign of upheaval and destruction, it can also be seen as a sign that something will change suddenly and unexpectedly, and the situation will never be the same again.
2. Return to the Previous Tarot Card to Understand the Lesson to be Learned
This technique is particularly helpful for reversed Tarot cards and is a technique I learned from Paul Fenton-Smith.
When a card is reversed, one suggestion is to return to the previous Tarot card to understand the life lesson that needs to be learned before the client can move forward in their life.
Let’s say you draw the reversed Five of Swords. Return to the Four of Swords and learn the lesson of peace, rest, contemplation and perhaps taking a more passive approach in the face of an argument.
This can also be applied to upright cards too, particularly if you view the Tarot cards as an evolution or a journey (e.g. the Fool’s Journey through the Major Arcana). If the client is hitting a roadblock with a seemingly negative Tarot card, then go back one step to the previous card and understand what they need to know and learn before being able to move forward.
3. Draw a Clarifying Card
Ok, before you shudder and say you never draw clarifying cards, consider this more of an extension of your existing Tarot reading.
If you encounter a negative Tarot card and don’t know how to turn it into something more empowering for the client, draw another card asking the Tarot, “What does my client need to do to overcome this challenge?”
Instantly, you enter the realm of empowerment and you have identified a plan of action for your client.
4. Include an Action or Advice Card in the Tarot Spread
I am a big fan of creating my own Tarot spreads. Often because it helps me to get to the heart of my client’s issue and answer their questions. It also means I can ensure the Tarot reading is indeed empowering. I do this by including at least one card focused on what the client needs to do to achieve the outcomes they want.
So, when you read Tarot cards for others, ensure you include at least one recommended action or advice card in your Tarot spread. That way, if the reading does turn out to be ‘negative’ in some way, you have that action card to bring it back to a more empowering Tarot reading.
5. Accept that Life is Not Always Rosy
Look back at your own life. Has it always been one happy, carefree journey? Probably not.
For most of us, there are challenges, setbacks and obstacles along the way that throw a spanner into the works. But it is these experiences that help us to learn and understand new aspects of ourselves.
It is the same with Tarot readings. The Tarot cards are not always going to paint a rosy picture, even if it is what you are hoping for. And it doesn’t have to be a bad thing, so long as we can understand what our lesson is and how to maximise the learning process.
Be truthful with your client and let them know what challenges you may see in the cards. Sometimes it is just knowing that there are challenges ahead that create an empowering Tarot reading. Forewarned is forearmed, right?
Putting it into Practice
Back to those three ‘horror’ cards – the Ten of Swords, the Tower and the Seven of Swords. Using the techniques above, how would you create an empowering Tarot reading from these seemingly negative cards? What would be your advice to your client?
Share your comments and ideas below in the Comments Section.
About Brigit
Brigit is a professional Tarot reader, blogger, author and owner of www.biddytarot.com. Her latest eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Tarot Card Meanings, is one of the most comprehensive resources available for learning the Tarot cards. Brigit also provides regular Tarot tips, techniques and advice at her Tarot blog.
Brigit is available for accurate and insightful Tarot readings at http://www.biddytarot.com/tarotreading
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