Tarot card reading may not be the first thing to spring to mind at the height of summer. Most laypeople associate a tarot readings with Halloween and fallish activities, akin to bobbing for apples, pumpkin picking and trick-or-treating. You and I both know that tarot, unlike food, need not be seasonal to be fresh, delicious and fun every day of the year.
Happily, my tarot business booms during sultry midsummer months. Here’s a pic taken last Saturday evening at a gorgeous party:
You can’t see it in the photo but there’s a caricaturist behind, a henna artist beyond, casino gaming downstairs and hot, werewolfish, muscular, tatted circus performers swallowing swords and juggling fire around the rocky waterfall exterior of the hotel’s edifice.
Nothing unusual in working alongside other party entertainers. However, what strikes me is that “entertainment” is not an adequate word to describe what we tarot readers do. Too often, profound exchanges happens between reader and party guest. An exchange that qualifies as more than meer entertainment. I would call it art.
Where lies the value in bickering over the words “entertainment” vs. “art” in regard to tarot reading? If you are serious about what you do, there is good reason to consider this subtle yet important difference. It reminds us readers of our responsibility, while giving us something sublime to aim for.
Profound art, literature, film, painting, poetry, addresses you on the soul, spiritual, emotional level. It feels as if artwork was created just for you. As if the filmmaker, writer, poet peeked inside your mind, providing you with words, images expressing your inner truths. I’m taking about the art that flattens you, art that leaves you breathless, defines moments of your life and above all, validates your existence.
Great art inspires us, provides connection to something greater than ourselves. Offering an excellent tarot reading for someone does exactly the same thing.
All art forms are truly psychic exchanges. The intention is channeled by the artist into whatever form they use. The experience travels from their point of view into yours, often wordlessly. Example, you are reading the words occurring to me silently inside my head. In the not too distant future, you’ll read these words, I’ll be off gardening, swimming, flipping cards or whatever. It is just as psychic a facility as the way Picasso is communicating to viewers standing in front of “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” at MOMA this very second.
Tarot reading, like art is subjective. Artful tarot doesn’t happen with each and every guest or client who sits with you.
But when the right person comes along, the connections are made and the tarot reading becomes more than just entertainment. It becomes sublime . . .
There are many ways to get into the right frame of mind for party and private readings. I perform a particular walking meditation when on foot and on my way to Manhattan parties. A meditation that helps to ensure I will utter the words my party guests need to hear.
I’d love to hear from you what rituals, opening, grounding methods or any other special things you do to prepare before party readings. Please leave in the comment section.
Be sure to tune in next week when I offer you an excellent tarot spread based on the archetypes of a party!
In the meantime, go on with your supernatural self!!!
xoxo
Tarot Diva