Dear Soul Arcanum:
I recently attended a Spiritualist service for the first time, and I loved everything about it, with one exception. I have been reading tarot for a few years now, and when I mentioned this to a minister there, she was clearly disapproving of my interest in the cards. This really surprised me. I thought that at last I’d found a church I could fit into, so I was pretty disappointed. I understand that you are a Spiritualist minister, so I’m asking you: is it somehow better to be a medium/ clairvoyant than to read tarot? Is there something wrong with reading tarot?
Carol
Dear Carol:
While Spiritualists generally pride themselves on being undogmatic, I too have encountered this attitude toward tarot amongst their ranks. Obviously, it’s unwise to generalize all Spiritualists as sharing the exact same perspective. Many Spiritualists do, however, assert that divination tools are simply unnecessary when we can directly communicate with Spirit, and may be limiting if they become crutches that impede our psychic development. Of course, the main goal in Spiritualism is not predicting the future, but rather proving the continuation of life beyond death, so in some ways we’re comparing apples and oranges here. Generally speaking, however, tarot readers are more limited in the information they can access than mediums/ clairvoyants.
My own psychic journey actually began mildly with “sensing” when something was going to happen, who was on the phone, etc. Then when I was pregnant with my first child, my psychic doors just blew open, and suddenly I was experiencing unprovoked and confirmed spirit communication right and left. At this point I had no control over the spirit communication. It was not something I sought or could initiate, so I began to study something that I COULD control and initiate: tarot. My early professional readings were therefore tarot readings with some spirit communication thrown in if we were “lucky.”
Soon, however, I was led to a wonderful Spiritualist school for the development of my mediumship, where I learned how to initiate spirit communication and more or less control it. It was there that I first encountered some negative opinions about divination tools and in particular tarot. Interestingly enough, as I began to ask Spirit directly for answers, I often got those answers in the form of a mental image of a relevant tarot card. As tarot was the most developed symbolic language in my consciousness, Spirit used it to communicate with me. Despite the disapproval I encountered in school, I did not throw my cards away, for I had come to appreciate some benefits of working with tarot.
For example, when reading in person, I’ve learned that many people are far more comfortable if they have a visual aid they can focus upon. If they see the cards laid before them, even if they don’t know what they mean, they think they can see where I’m getting my information from. Even when I explain that everything is coming from Spirit (and that this is a good thing), many people are reassured by seeing those cards. Similarly, I’ve known some wonderful psychics who read palms, cards or use some other divination tool, who are all the while simply relaying what they get from Spirit anyway. They can’t or don’t want to explain how they’re doing what they’re doing, so they present a method that they know how to explain. I’m all for doing what works so long as the results are positive. If some people are more open to hearing Spirit when they have something tangible to focus upon, that’s fine with me.
Also, I’ve found that tarot spreads can provide the focus, direction and detail necessary to a full and satisfying reading. From Spirit’s perspective, so much of what we worry about is not ultimately that important. So if a client asks, “Should I be worried about losing my job?” Spirit’s answer might simply be, “No. You’re learning valuable lessons through this experience, and you will be provided for and guided every step of the way.” While that’s reassuring and all, that client still probably wants to know if she should be updating her resume or not! In my experience, the best readings offer both the wisdom of higher planes and the mundane details that are so essential to making wise, informed decisions in this world.
Despite all of the above, I no longer use tarot in my readings, for my aim is always to bring through the very highest sources of healing and empowering guidance. I also feel that Spiritualists have a point: in terms of accessing Spirit, tarot and other divination tools are a few times removed from the heart of the message, and the less dependent we are on symbols, the purer our messages will be. Reading tarot is like speaking to Spirit through several intermediaries instead of just going right to the source. First Spirit must orchestrate the selection of those cards that will convey the right messages. The reader then has to accurately interpret the symbols and meanings she personally associates with the cards in light of the situation at hand, and effectively communicate what she’s gleaned to the person asking for guidance. There is a whole lot of interpreting going on here, so there are many junctures where the true message/meaning may be lost or distorted.
Symbolic clairvoyance is a bit purer, for we aren’t dependent upon and restricted to the symbols in the cards, but even this has considerable room for error. If we associate snakes with deception, then to communicate deception, Spirit will show us a snake. Every time we are shown a snake, we may then translate it into “deception,” which would be a mistake, because we need to learn to distinguish between symbolic and literal information. Perhaps the snake is not a symbol at all, but a real live pet, or even a validating bit of information from a loved one whose nickname was “Snake.” Sorting symbolic and literal information is also an issue with clairaudience. For example, I recently did a reading in which I brought through several loved ones from Spirit. I offered two names of loved ones in Spirit (and these were verified by my client), and then I started hearing “Edward…Edward John…John Edward.” On a hunch I then asked Spirit to explain, and perceived that this was a reference to the now famous medium “John Edwards.” This clicked with the client, who said that she is a big fan of John Edwards and had been longing to get a reading with him, but wasn’t sure it would be worth the money and effort it would require.
So with tarot and even clairvoyance and clairaudience, readers often just have to offer whatever they pick up in hopes that the meaning will be clear to whoever they’re reading for. The reader herself may never know whether the information given is symbolic or literal. If, however, the reader has developed the ability to communicate with Spirit above and beyond symbolic language, he or she can simply ask Spirit and get a literal response.
Even if spirit communication is not your goal, if you just want to be able to predict the future and offer psychic guidance, it’s wise to be able to communicate directly with Spirit like a medium, for then there are no limits to the range and quality of information you can bring through. There is nothing “wrong” with reading tarot, so don’t throw your cards away. Just recognize that you can access a higher, clearer connection to Spirit without them, and keep stretching your abilities!
– Soul Arcanum
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