Celebrating Love

During the month of February, I'm offering Couple's Readings for 25% off (a couple's reading costs the same as a one-person reading -- no extra charge). It's an excellent way to explore who you are both as an individual and as a partner in a relationshop.

A two-person spread works in much the same way as a one-person -- you ask a question or bring forward a specific concern or you just open yourself to whatever the Universe would like to share (my favorite approach). It won't reveal the future gift-wrapped and ready to open, but it will give you a good idea of the energies that each person is bringing to the relationship, as well as show you how the relationship itself is combining them.

You'll learn a lot about yourself, and your partner. I guarantee. Call, come by the shop, or drop me and e-mail. And celebrate hearts in a real and lasting way this Valentine's Day.

Deck Recommendations

If you've signed up for one of my workshops, you'll need a tarot deck. Now some people say that you should never buy your first deck, but that it should be given to you as a gift. I think this is a great idea in theory -- and I have used it as an excuse to buy many friends their first decks -- but I'd still be tarot-less were I relying on my friends and family, who don't know an Aquarian from a Zoroastrian deck. Plus, buying your own deck enables you to choose one with images and symbols that appeal to you. I mean, some people like cats in Baroque costumes; other likes Gummi bears. One woman's trash is another woman's tarot.

But if you're just starting out, the blizzard of options can be blinding. So here's my choices of good basic decks that won't let you down or weird you out. Some might even become your favorite (because truthfully, I have purchased many decks since that first, but the Morgan-Greer remains one of my favorite working decks). All are pictoral decks, meaning that each cards has images to help you remember the card's meaning, not just four wands sitting there for you to puzzle out.

The Classics:
The Rider-Waite-Smith (the King James of tarot decks)
The Morgan Greer deck (Portrait-style, with no borders, and vibrant colors)
The Connolly deck (with images like stained glass)
The Aquarian deck (Art Deco and eclectic)
The Golden Tarot (Medieval and glorious, like an afternoon in the Lourve)

Other Interesting Decks
The World Spirit Tarot (woodcuts with imagery and characters from around the world)
The Llewellyn Tarot (watercolors with major arcana based on the Welsh Mabinogion)
The New Palladini deck (like the Aquarian, only more Art, less Deco)

Sample Celtic Cross JPG

When you get a tarot reading, one of the extras I include is a digital image of the spread using whatever deck you chose for the reading. Here's a sample Celtic Cross using the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.

Why I Charge for Readings

I charge for tarot readings. I base my rates on what is customary in my local market, on what I feel is a fair value for what I offer. There are two main reasons I do this:

1. It helps value what I do, which makes me a better reader. To offer readings for free isn't exactly pearls before swine, but it does set up a situation that is out of balance. Too much giving without any giving in return dries out the well, and a dry tarot reader is a lousy tarot reader. The current vocab for this kind of give-and-take is "energy exchange." Sounds reasonable to me.

2. It helps my clients value what they get. It's a truism across the board -- people value things more when they have an investment in them. Services such as tarot are no different. I always say that during a reading, my client is the one doing the hard work, and that's true -- I'm the interpreter, the guide, the helper (which is hard enough, this is true, but no matter how well I do MY job, if the client isn't doing HER job, then all my efforts are in vain).

Why I Don't Practice Fortune-Telling

Ever heard someone say, "It just wasn't in the cards"? As if fate and destiny come already gift wrapped, and all we get to do is pull the shiny paper off our future?

This isn't my tarot philosophy. I believe in the power of choice and free will. I believe the tarot shows us our options, and by doing so, allows us to make informed decisions about what's happening right now. It's a simple formula -- the only way to change the future is to change the present. Consequence follows cause. And tarot does an excellent job of showing the forces in play at the time of a reading so that you can decide whether you want to go with the flow . . . or swim upstream.

Knowledge changes the flow of events. Understanding puts the rudder firmly in your hand.

Of course, some forces are larger than the individual. Hurricanes. Recessions. The breaking dawn. Tarot shows this aspect too. It's actually two decks within a deck: the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The former refers to big universal energies, archetypal powers, huge forces. The latter are the personal energies, the day-to-day ways that we make our choices manifest in the world. It is the interactive tension between these two that makes our lives so interesting. Sometimes we can turn the tide, and sometimes we can only ride it out. Tarot shows us these forces at work in our lives, so that we can act in wisdom and truth and love.

Or not. My job is to help you interpret what the cards mean to you, not tell you what to do about the situation. I work with you so that you can access your own inner guidance, so that you can keep what works for you and change what doesn't.

The cards don't reveal your future -- they reveal your present moment. And that is the more valuable gift.