It’s been just over 30 years since I received my first Tarot deck from Christmas from my mother. Since then, Tarot has come to play a central role in my life. Quite simply, it turned out to be my calling and main professional tool. I wanted to share the story of how I went from a 13 year old playing with Tarot for entertainment to a committed professional Tarot reader. Tarot can be a lifelong journey if you are called to it. Over the years my relationship with Tarot and understanding of it has evolved greatly. In the first part of this story I will focus on my early experiences with Tarot and how I became committed to become a serious Tarot student and professional reader. In part two of this blog I will share the huge shift over the last year or so in my approach to Tarot reading.
On Christmas 1988 I received a copy of the now iconic Rider Waite Smith plaid back deck. A few years later in 1990, my mom also gifted me a copy of the Eden Gray, Mastering the Tarot. I spent about 25 years using Tarot as a game to entertain friends. It was a great tool for teenage and twenty-something girls who wanted to know about a potential love interest. Beyond that I used it once a year to do a year ahead spread. In short, I didn’t take Tarot seriously.
In my late 30s after facing some very traumatic life events I became committed to spirituality. One of my sources of spiritual inspiration with a weekly podcast from Sounds True publishing. Most of the episodes centered around New Age authors and practitioners. But one day on a walk I listened to an episode about Tarot. Theresa Reed was interviewed about her newly released Tarot coloring book. This episode changed my life. Having kids, working a full time job and moving to a new country had put a lot of my passions on hold including Tarot. Hearing this podcast stirred the memory of something I loved that. After that podcast my spiritual journey took an abrupt 180 degree turn and went from New Age/Buddhist to Pagan/Occult pretty much over night, but that’s another story. Most important to this story is that it launched me into some deep Tarot waters.
For the last 4 years, I’ve committed myself to a rigorous regime of Tarot study that involved 1 to 3 hours a day. Which translated to loss of sleep since I had small kids and a full time job. But it was well worth it because I’d reconnected with my passion for Tarot. There was so much to learn, I read everything I could get my hands on. I contacted Theresa Reed and we started a low key, informal type of mentoring relationship via email. When I asked about a course on Tarot she recommended the Tarot School’s degree course. So I signed up and discovered that it was called degree for a good reason. I felt like I was in university again. Almost 4 years later I’ve written over 900 pages and am only half way through the curriculum (but more on that in part 2). It is a fabulous course and I’ve learned so much. I also learned a lot from keep a daily draw practice going for the last 4 years. I highly recommend keeping a Tarot journal and doing some form of daily personal reading. It’s a powerful learning tool.
The intensity of my studies paid off and about 6 months later I started reading professionally. The reason I chose to take this big leap so soon after starting to study was primarily based in my experiences doing a lot of practice readings. Some people will say you need a certain number of years before doing professional reading but I think it really depends on the individual. Some of us are blessed with a natural gift and are able to take this step sooner than others. But I also learned that my decades of seemingly casual tarot reading had actual taught me a lot. The response I got to my professional reading was very positive. I realized that I had found my calling and something that I, not only loved, but was pretty darn good at.
If you are interested in getting a reading with me, book a reading and let’s dive in.
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