My evil twin Veronica is baaaack! She’s well rested, tanned and shockingly sober for a Friday afternoon. After a long, exotic vacation from her hectic lifestyle of sunshine naps and afternoon faps, she’s ready to rock!
Universal Waite Tarot (U.S. Games Systems Inc)
The Six of Wands is about getting praise and admiration for some kind of achievement.
You know what I say to that? BLEH!
If this sick society is patting you on the back for something, chances are you’ve taken a wrong turn.
Don’t live your life to impress anyone other than yourself. And no, I’m not a sociopath for saying that. You can still help others and be kind – but do it because it feels good for you.
And here’s a tip straight from Veronica’s Big Book of Secrets: when you live life on your own terms, don’t go expecting people to pull out the red carpet for you and applaud your decisions.
Living by your own rules and following your heart sometimes means that almost everyone will think your insane. Or worse….they might even feel sorry for you!
But guess what? YOU won’t feel sorry for you – you’ll be too busy living your fab life and rolling around in a bed of truffle wrappers, kittens and boy toys (or maybe that’s just me!)
But did you know that your Tarot cards actually have SO MANY questions for you? Yes, you.
You may have been looking at your Tarot cards for answers, but your cards have been trying to ask you questions….the kind of questions that, if answered, lead to those answers! So it’s high time you started paying attention…
Okay, let’s get down to business.
Step One: Pick a Card
Shuffle your deck and draw a card. That’s right, just draw a card but don’t ask a question.
Step Two: Question Time!
Now it’s time to hear the questions that this Tarot card is asking you. You may want to jot down your impressions on a bit of paper if that helps you process it and remember.
The first question is this:
1. How do I make you feel?
Take a moment to really gaze at your card. It may illicit feelings of relief, stress, confusion or joy or maybe you feel nothing at all. Just notice it.
2. What do you notice the most? What keeps drawing your attention?
The thing that draws your attention is the symbol you want to focus on first.
3. What does that symbol represent?
Just be literal here, don’t get all college kid fancy. In the card I drew for this exercise (7 of wands from the Heart and Hands Tarot) I see a fist clenching over a club. To me, that represents holding onto something, grasping, tightly holding, gripping, wielding a stick.
Heart and Hands Tarot by Liz Blackbird
4. What’s the overall theme of this symbol?
For me, the theme of the gripping fist is holding onto something in a desperate, defensive way or defending something.
5. Are you doing this in your own life? Where? How?
It could be something your doing that is holding you back or it could be something you need to start doing in order to move forward.
With the 7 of Swords, I’m asking myself what am I holding onto so tightly? Do I need to let go of anything? What am I defending? Should I be standing up for myself more?
6. How does this affect your life? Is it positive, negative, neutral? Both or all?
For me, the tendency to hold onto things for a long time (like my plastic hooker boots from 1999 and ancient Cosmo mags) can stifle my energy. Yet the ability to defend myself and stand up for my rights is a good thing.
7. Is this a quality you should invite more of? Less of?
In my case, I may want to invite more of the assertive, passionate energy of the 7 of Wands but less of the gripping fear.
Step Three: Putting it Together
8. Moving forward, what are you going to do differently as a result of these insights?
I plan to make a list of what I want to let go of, but also a list of what is important to me – what I feel is worth fighting for. Hopefully this will give me some clarity on what I need to focus on as I move forward with projects, work and relationships.
This last step allows you to put what you’ve learned about yourself into action in your daily life. Don’t skip this powerful step! It’s how you allow Tarot to work magic in your life.
Letting your cards ask YOU the questions allows you to experience the Tarot in a deeper, more personal way. A cards initial meaning may not really make sense to you at first, but if you do some inquiry and answer the above questions, I guarantee you will have an AHA! moment and any confusion will melt away.
Over to you!
What card did you draw for this exercise? What insights did you get from it? Feel free to share in the comments below!!!!
Every year I get countless emails from people who feel drawn to Tarot, yet are simultaneously afraid of it.
“I am so fascinated by Tarot but I don’t want to open a can of worms.”
“My husband says that Tarot cards are evil, but I don’t know – do I need to be careful?”
“Is there any danger of bad spirits entering my home if I use Tarot cards?”
So why is this? Why all this fear surrounding Tarot?
When you dabble in the psychic arts with things like mediumship, channeling, Tarot, psychic development and meditation, you are indeed entering another world.
Many fear that by lifting the veil between the physical and the spiritual, you may be opening the door to not just helpful spirits and energies but negative ones as well.
But is there really a risk of inviting negative energy into your life when you dabble with Tarot cards? Or is this just something that religious relatives harp on about?
Well, there IS a real danger in using Tarot cards, but it’s not what you think. No demonic force is going to descend on you if you crack open a deck of Tarot cards, but that doesn’t mean Tarot doesn’t have it’s dark side….more on this in bit.
Often, the purpose of Tarot is misconstrued and it gets lumped in with things like Ouiji boards, seances and stuff like that.
But Tarot isn’t a tool for speaking with the dead or summoning spirits – it’s a tool for self exploration. While a Ouiji board is used to communicate with spirits, Tarot is used to communicate with your higher self or deeper wisdom. And really, how could that be dangerous?
Here’s an analogy that you won’t forget: Using a Ouiji board is kind of like going to an orgy where you don’t know anyone and not using condoms. Using Tarot cards is like staying home and masturbating. It’s pretty safe.
The Purpose of Tarot
Tarot is a wonderful tool for self exploration – it can be used to find solutions to problems, get fresh ideas and creative insights and to understand what’s really going on in a situation.
Tarot cards are full of symbols, images, scenes, colors, landscapes and numbers and these act as a trigger for intuition and imagination, coaxing you to hear the whispers of your soul!
Personally, I use Tarot when I’m in a bind and feel like I need to look at my situation with a fresh perspective. I use Tarot when I need inspiration for something I’m writing or a project I’m working on. I use Tarot to help others get new insights and ideas about their life. And I use Tarot when I want to connect with my higher self/soul.
Think of Tarot cards like a really great life coach or friend. They don’t tell you what to do – they help you ask the right questions so you can find your own epiphanies and solutions!
I am just going to come out and say something controversial:
Tarot is a really crappy tool for predicting the future.
So yeah, Tarot can give you a good sense of the energies around the bend, but as far as specific, major predictions – like who your going to marry ten years from now or how many kids you’ll have over your lifetime – Tarot is about as useful as a stiletto shoe for making long distance calls.
So let’s recap: Tarot is NOT a tool for summoning or communicating with spirits. It is a tool for connecting and communicating with your higher self, boosting your creativity and inspiring your life.
Taking Cautionary Measures
Despite what I just said, it’s still important to cleanse and protect yourself energetically before you really dive into doing a Tarot reading. But it’s not so much to ward off those pesky evil spirits, but to ensure your own negative energy and expectations don’t taint your reading.
Lots of Tarot readers put a lot of importance into clearing their deck before a reading, but I think it’s more important to cleanse yourself beforehand.
If you come to a Tarot reading feeling tired, down or anxious, it can effect the cards you choose and the way you interpret them. Imagine you’re getting ready for a super hot date – would you show up all smelly, bedraggled and cranky? I hope not. Think of your next Tarot reading as a date with someone special. Show up as your best self!
Here are some of my favorite ways to cleanse myself energetically:
Take a long, hot epsom salt bath or shower with some essential oils like lavender, rosemary and sage. And think of ABSOLUTELY NOTHING….bliss!!!!
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Spend 5-10 minutes sitting and observing my breath. Imagine exhaling any stress or expectations and inhaling pure, white light that cleanses every cell in my body!
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My favorite energy clearing tools
Exercise/dance!!!!! This is a very powerful way to move energy in your body and rid yourself of accumulated stress.
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Listening to some gregorian chants or soft, rhythmic drums, lighting a few candles and burning some incense
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Lighting a big stick of dried sage and wafting the smoke all over my body
You can do one or all of the above suggestions or make up your own cleansing practices.
Cleansing Your Deck
Of course, cleansing your deck is an option too. Some readers believe that the cards can absorb surrounding energy and that if it’s not cleansed before each reading, your readings will be “dirty” …or something like that! I don’t know. I used to think that too, but I feel like my deck cleansing rituals are really just a way to get into the reading groove and set myself up for a good reading.
You can cleanse your cards by:
knocking once on the deck and then wafting your hand over it, as if to waft away a bad smell or something.
Just shuffling the cards breaks up any stagnant energy – this is the easiest way, in my opinion!
Place your deck in the moonlight overnight
Put your deck in a bag of quartz crystals
Waft sage smoke over your cards – it’s very smoky and smelly, but oh so satisfying!
Incense and quartz are fabulous deck cleansers!
Intention, Intention, Intention!
Intention is the most important aspect of doing any metaphysical and spiritual work. Your intention will dictate the kind of vibe or energy that you put out there and this will effect the kind of experience you have.
Set a clear intention before doing a reading. Why are you doing this reading? What would you like to gain from it? Keep your intentions pure and non-creepy.
An example of an impure/creepy intention is this:“I intend to use my tarot cards to read my ex-boyfriends mind and find out if he was banging that waitress.” A more positive intention might be“I intend to get some new ideas for how I can move on from my past relationship.”
The REAL Danger of Tarot Cards…
Tarot can pose a risk to you if you misunderstand your Tarot cards and if you take your readings way too seriously. Let me explain that a bit.
If you’re a beginner and you don’t quite fully understand that every card has multiple meanings, you might get the Death card and think it literally means Death. Or you might get The Tower and assume it spells disaster. This can be frightening and it can taint your Tarot experience.
This can be even more frightening if you take your reading very seriously! Tarot readings can be illuminating and they can tell you all kinds of fascinating things, but they are not the last word. A Tarot reading is meant to be contemplated, not obsessively believed.
One of the things that made me really uncomfortable when I was doing professional Tarot reading was the number of people who seemed to believe every word I was saying as if it were THE TRUTH. Question your Tarot readings – or better yet, use the cards to ask the right questions.
Think of your Tarot cards as a good friend. I have some great friends who give me all kinds of advice (whether I ask for it or not) and I don’t always take it. Especially if it’s really shitty. Often I see that their advice is coming from their own biases, fears and opinions and for this reason I take it with a grain of salt. Take any Tarot reading you get with a grain of salt and remember there are many ways to see a Tarot card.
What has YOUR experience been?
Have you struggled with preconceived negative beliefs and fears about Tarot? How did you get over them? You are invited to share your experiences and ideas in the comments below 🙂
Blending food and Tarot, this blog series takes a look at each Major Arcana and asks the question “what would this card be like in the kitchen and what food would they make?”
The usual Friday’s with Veronica posts will return in October.
Crystal Visions Tarot
The Empress is one laid back lady. She doesn’t fret or fuss, she just lets things unfold as they may while she sits back and enjoys the show.
In the kitchen, she’s low effort all the way. She enjoys the fruit of her fertile garden and prefers raw veggie snacks not because shes a raw foodist but so she doesn’t have to piss around cooking things.
The simpler, the better!
But make no mistake, The Empress isn’t into scrounging or lite snacking. Nourishment is important to her and so everything she makes is deeply satisfying.
Fresh fruit fanned out beautifully, carrots, snap peas, kale, radishes and cucumber, served with a tahini rich hummus and green olives. This is a divine snack that should be enjoyed regularly.
Veggies and Hummus (Empress style)
So I know this sounds boring, but trust me, it’s more lavish than it sounds….
1 can cannellini or butter beans (or any kind of soft, white bean)
splash or two of olive oil1/2 lemon, juiced
1 heaping Tbsp tahini
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 clove garlic, crushed
Serve with carrot sticks, cucumber rounds, green olives, rice crackers, tomatoes and kale or collard leaves. You can dob some on a big kale leaf then fill with olives and cherry tomatoes and roll up to eat it. Fun stuff!
Blending food and Tarot, this blog series takes a look at each Major Arcana and asks the question “what would this card be like in the kitchen and what food would they make?”
Mystic Meg Tarot
The High Priestess is mysterious, powerful and wise. In the kitchen she gravitates toward making things that not just any joe schmo could make.
Like fermented foods!
Fermentation has a fascinating, internal process – also known as rotting – that transforms ordinary food like cabbage into complex and sophisticated condiments like sauerkraut and kimchi.
Intuition, dreams, the unconscious – these are the realms of the High Priestess and she guides you on making this trip down into your underworld, to meet with your inner knowing.
And just as the human psyche has much bubbling and brewing underneath it, fermentation is a process during which food just appears to sit there and do nothing, yet wild microbes and bacteria are doing all kinds of crazy shit!
Can’t you just imagine the High Priestess’s kitchen? It would be filled with bottles of herbal tinctures and jars of fermenting foods – secret recipes that have been passed down through the generations.
So here is my absolute favorite fermented foods recipe:
Fermented Lemons!
5-7 organic lemons
2.5 Tbsp sea salt (either coarse or fine – but if you use fine, you can use a bit less)
1. Halve 5 lemons and juice them, pouring juice in a medium sized mason jar or large sized jam jar. Add 1 Tbsp of salt to lemon juice and stir to dissolve.
2. Cut each lemon halve into four pieces. Place some of the lemon bits into the jar and add some more salt, then add more pieces and more salt until all the lemon bits are in the jar and there’s no salt left. Place a heavy rock or paper weight in the jar to press the lemons below the liquid. If there isn’t enough liquid to do this, juice the other two lemons and add that.
3. loosely screw the lid on – you don’t want it airtight though! Sit it on your counter and let it ferment for about 3-4 weeks. Mold may grow on the top, but don’t get all squeamish – just skim it off and get on with life.
4. After 3 or 4 weeks, taste a bit of lemon. It should taste like lemon preserves but without the sweetness. Like candied lemons that are salty instead of sweet. If they still taste more like raw lemons and not magical enough, let them sit a few more days. But if they are satisfactory to you, transfer them to the fridge where they will probably keep for a very long time.
But what the f*ck am I going to do with fermented lemons?I hear you whine. Put them in tabbouleh salads, pasta salads, moroccan Tagines or even tomato-based pasta sauces and soups! I sometimes put a bit of fermented lemon on goat cheese and crackers or skewer a bit of lemon along with a green olive and dunk it in my kombucha or Ceasar. The sky’s the limit!
Oh, and if you have sugar cravings, just a bit of fermented lemon will kill it. You’re welcome 😉
Blending food and Tarot, this blog series takes a look at each Major Arcana and asks the question “what would this card be like in the kitchen and what food would they make?”
Cosmic Tarot
The Magician is part trickster, part seducer, part alchemist and nothing is more magical and seductive than delicious baking! Well, unless your gluten intolerant.
The fact that you can put a bunch of gross, globby dough or batter in a pan and then have the oven transform it into some puffy, buttery goodness is a thrilling concept.
All good cooks are magicians. And all good cookbooks are like magic books with spell-like recipes inside!
I have this one cookbook, called Let Them Eat Vegan and some of the recipes look like they would be super crappy – for example, walnuts, almond milk, rice pasta and broccoli were the main ingredients in the casserole I made last night. But guess what? That recipe turned out to be awesome! True alchemy!
So in the kitchen, The Magician chops, kneads and whisks with sexy confidence and mischievous charm. The sword is his knife, the wand his stir stick, the cup is his measuring cup and the pentacle is like a cookie cutter….or maybe one of those weird things people put in sugar jars to stop it clumping.
What does the Magician love to make? Mmmmmuffins! And here is a recipe that I’ve adapted from my Best of Bridge cookbook and have been making for years. Everyone is always really impressed when I make these and then I kind of feel guilty because they are so easy:
Magic Muffins
1 orange
1/2 cup orange juice
1 egg
1/4 cup oil (I like grapeseed)
1.5 cups whole spelt flour (but you could just use crappy white flour if you wanted to)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
handful of dried fruit of choice, chopped into bits (I like dried apricots or cherries)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1. cut orange into 8 bits and blend in blender with orange juice, egg and oil until its smooth.
2. Add all other ingredients except dried fruit and nuts. Blend.
3. Now, add fruit and nuts and blend only a little – until it’s mixed.
4. Pour dough into a lined muffin tin (makes 12 muffins) and bake at 375F for 15-20 minutes.
If you’re wondering where the hell is Veronica? don’t worry – she’s on vacation for the entire month of September, sipping chocolate martinis and slapping man butts in some exotic locale. She will return in October, the month of black cats, falling leaves and slutty costumes.
For September I bring you a new series of blog posts in an attempt to meld my two loves – food and Tarot! I just finished a one year program to become a Holistic Nutritionist and I’ve been itching to work my way through the Major Arcana, putting a culinary twist on each card….
The Fool
Fairytale Tarot by Karen Mahony
In the kitchen, The Fool is bold, daring and free. He doesn’t bother with recipes, preferring to freestyle it instead.
The Fool is about trust – trusting that your recipe will work out, even if you kind of winged it. And knowing that if it sucks, it doesn’t really matter because you can always just try it again.
In search of excitement and adventure, The Fool shuns bland food but resists finicky bullshitty recipes like making ravioli from scratch or anything that takes more than 15 minutes, really.
So here’s a smoothie recipe, inspired by The Fool. It has no measurements because The Fool doesn’t waste his time dicking around with teaspoons and measuring cups:
Tropical Green Goddess Smoothie Drunken by Mayan warlords for thousands of years during worship rituals for the fertility goddess Ixchel (well, if they’d had blenders that is)
1 banana
some frozen pineapple chunks
a bit of coconut milk, coconut water or watersome greens (whatever you have on hand – kale, spinach, chard)
nut butter (peanut, cashew, whatever)- this gives it a rich, decadent flavour, so skip it if you want more of a light smoothie
Put all ingredients in a blender and blend the living crap out of it!
Veronica is my evil twin and fellow Tarot reader. She banged out this reading on her laptop in between episodes of daydrunkeness, so I hope you like it!
Linestrider Tarot by Siolo Thompson
There’s pleasure in misery and no one depicts it better than this mopey owl in the Five of Cups who seems to be dwelling on her busted eggs and ignoring the good ones just so she can whine endlessly about it to her friends later.
Ever wonder why you tend to focus on the negative in your life and ignore the positive?
Ever wonder why you remember that one person who was a total dick to you today but you’ve already forgotten about all the boring nice people?
It’s because you want an excuse to be a bitch to everyone….as if you needed one!
Whatever you do don’t focus on the positive. That’s for average people with no imagination. Artistic creativity always emerges from endless bitching – or is it endless hardship?
So focus on what didn’t go right with your day – talk about it, gossip about it, dwell on it, re-imagine it in a more painful way or even write a piece of short fiction about it. At least no one will be jealous of you!
Veronica is my evil twin and co-tarot reader and on Friday’s I let her take the reins. She wrote this while eating pink frosted cupcakes on a red velvet divan, being fanned by willing boy toys.
Housewives Tarot
The other day I was bored and scrounging in my freezer and I found a sad little ziploc bag with three broken shortbread cookies.
These cookies were old, store bought and not even that good when they were fresh. Yet I opened the bag and ate them. I did not enjoy them, but I didn’t stop at one – I ate all three.
It made me wonder….if I wasn’t even hungry and I didn’t even like them, why did I eat them?
I ate them because they were there and I was bored.
It suddenly dawned on me that perhaps this is why everyone is so miserable all the time! We are making choices based on what’s in front of us and not what we really want.
Having sex with your spouse, socializing with your neighbor, shopping at Wal-Mart – are these things you enjoy doing? Or do you do them because they are convenient and right in front of you?
Remember when you were four and your conniving mom would be all like “do you want a carrot or a celery stick?” as if twizzlers didn’t even exist and now your government is all like “will you be voting republican or democrat?” as if anarchy wasn’t an option.
Just because something is right in front of you and easy pickins, doesn’t make it a good choice. This weekend, let your passion guide you – no more easy, mediocre choices – and who knows? Maybe you’ll end up having sex…with your neighbour…in Wal-mart!
Happy Friday! Let me introduce you to my evil twin sister, Veronica. She lives to smear her bitchy attitude all over your mind and dish out her best advice. When she isn’t busy seducing everyone, day drinking in her backyard and doing nude kung fu, that is.
Housewives Tarot
While trolling online dating sites for young men last night, I kept seeing phrases like I don’t want to play games or no games, please.
You know what? I call bullshit.
Would a cat enjoy it if you threw a dead bird at its feet? Of course not. It wants to hunt, to play, to sink it’s teeth into something warm, pounding and alive!
When it comes to romance, not playing games is like being a dead bird. And no one wants to f*ck a dead bird, trust me.
But it got me thinking….everyone’s all like just be real, man and yeah! authenticity! and you know what? I don’t think that’s what anyone actually wants. Mystery is hot.
We’re on this earth to play games, to throw ourselves headfirst into the drama and to pretend we are something we are not – it’s the whole point of life!
So this weekend, don’t hold back. Play those games! Keep secrets! Flirt with inappropriate people! And watch your life become your very own reality TV show – when you’ve got your own drama, you won’t need shitty TV.
Veronica is my evil twin and fellow Tarot reader. She banged out this reading on her laptop in between episodes of daydrunkeness, so I hope you like it!
