Vol. 11 #4 / June 1, 2019
In this Issue:
- Welcome
- Tarot Tip: Tarot for Ritual
- Tarot School Aphorism
- Diviner's Corner: Pendulum Divination
- Best Practices: Sneaky Peeks – Clients Who Ask For Free Psychic Advice on the Sly
- Upcoming Events
Welcome to a new issue of Tarot Tips!
And a special welcome to our new subscribers.
photo by Monte Farber
The 2019 Readers Studio and Divination Day were a
smashing success! It was the biggest yet, and all six
presenters got standing ovations! A great big THANK
YOU goes to all the people who helped create the
magic, and everyone who was there to share their
own bright spirit. If you'd like to see recaps and
pictures, and connect with the community, check out
the Readers Studio Facebook Group at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ReadersStudio/
We’re already in the planning stages for RS20!
If you’d like to know the line-up of stellar presenters,
they are…
2020 DIVINATION DAY:
• Karin Dalton-Smith: Tea Leaf Reading
• Gina Jean: Domino Divination
• Mitchell Osborn: Animal Communication
2020 READERS STUDIO:
• V.
• Liz Dean
• Barbara Moore
The dates will be April 23 – 26 and registration will open
later this year so watch this space for details!
In the meantime, we're happy to keep the tarot love going!
Tarot gives us a sense of direction and purpose in many
ways. It is often called a guide or a guidance tool and is
constantly gaining ground as a preferred tool for many
wisdom seekers.
In this new issue, guest contributor Carolyn Cushing
writes about using tarot for rituals, The Diviner’s Corner
highlights pendulum divination, and the Best Practices
for Professional Readers column provides help on
dealing with clients who try to sneak in a free reading
by asking "What do you think?" questions.
Enjoy!
photo by Rachel Mukon
Baby's First Readers Studio! Molly and I
got dressed up for the RS banquet. My
little Lovers-Devil granddaughter was
the belle of the ball.
With love and gratitude on the tarot journey,
Ruth Ann, Wald, and Gina
Tarot Tips is here to help you with the practical side
of your Tarot journey. In order to take the greatest
advantage of this newsletter, please send us your
questions regarding any aspect of your tarot study
or practice and we'll do our best to answer them
in an upcoming issue.
Spread the experience of tarot - share this newsletter
with other Tarot Enthusiasts!
Tarot Tip
TAROT FOR RITUAL
By Carolyn Cushing, Soul Path Sanctuary
Image from Tarot of the Moors by Gina Thies
To paraphrase Tarot teacher and writer Rachel Pollack,
ritual builds a bridge between the physical and the
spiritual. Actions undertaken with intention – and often
repeated in daily, seasonal, or annual intervals – as well
as the objects used are the piers and cables, roadway
and ramp of ritual. You can have a very simple bridge
(a log over water) or a masterwork (the Brooklyn Bridge).
When we pause to stand upon these ritual bridges of
connection between earth and spirit, we tend our souls.
Taking this time prepares us to move with greater wisdom,
love, and strength through our everyday lives. Tarot can be
both a guide for creating ritual and an element of a ritual.
The details of one card can show you a complete flow for
a ritual. For this year’s Opening to Wisdom Ritual at
Readers Studio, for example, the 8 of Cups from Tarot of
the Moors was all the inspiration we needed. In the image,
a figure walks along the edge of desert dune away from
8 cups and toward a deep blue sky filled with the constellation
Pisces, the planet Saturn, and a full well of water.
Our ritual began with participants calling to mind the roles
they play in their everyday life and imagining putting these
responsibilities behind them. With Moroccan music playing
in the background, they were then invited to walk around the
ritual space, feeling themselves walking more lightly having
left their burdens behind. The ritual continued with participants
going inward to make an imaginable connection to a star or
flow of water and to receive a message about what intention
to set for their time at Readers Studio.
Cards can also take their place along with candles or bells
as consciousness-shifting or attention-focusing items in a
ritual. Their symbolic meaning as well as special beauty
make them fitting additions. And their portability support
creating rituals-on-the move. Each year in the weeks leading
up to the Summer Solstice, I wisdom wander with handfuls of
cards in nature or around town. When something beautiful
calls my attention or I experience a synchronicity, I will
reach in and pull out a card by chance. I connect the card
and what called to me, often doing a little arranging of
natural elements to create a mandala. I’ll pause and offer
words of prayer. I might take a picture before returning
things to the way before I arrived so I can have this image
from my impromptu ritual for continued contemplation.
Finally, the wisdom figures and powerful symbols of Tarot
cards can inspire invocations to begin your rituals. The
first ritual offered in the meditation room at Readers
Studio was guided by Persephone from Ellen
Lorenzi-Prince’s Dark Goddess Tarot. I wrote this
invocation for us to use as we began an underworld journey:
We come to the threshold of life and death.
We remember death down deep in our bones:
the star that exploded to give life’s form.
We remember life deep down in our bones:
the spark of each cell that helps us rise up.
We ask to pass under its lintel.
We ask to step over its sill.
We ask to go down to the Underworld.
We offer ourselves to the Queen of the Dead
These are the ways I have used the Tarot in ritual.
I hope they entice you to experiment and create rituals
of your own with the Tarot. As a creative and flexible
tool – just shuffle when you need fresh ideas and images!
– the Tarot can create just the right bridge in any moment
for you to travel between the realms.
About Carolyn:
Carolyn Cushing loves to work with people to make
positive life transitions, grow spiritually, and
develop creatively. Through Soul Path Sanctuary,
Carolyn offers monthly missives to support practice
and soul tending in everyday life as well as cyber and
in-person retreat experiences. She has taught and
facilitated Tarot classes groups, and rituals from
Western Massachusetts to Portland, Oregon as well as
on-line. Her Tarot processes and spread are included in
the Gaian Tarot companion book and Tarot for Troubled
Times. She is a co-founder of the Massachusetts Tarot
Society and contributes a regular column on Tarot for
Practice to the Cartomancer.
Carolyn Cushing
Shape shifting from Art of Change Tarot to
Soul Path Sanctuary
Find her online at soulpathsanctuary.com.
carolyn@soulpathsanctuary.com
413-529-9759 (text/call)
Tarot School Aphorism
Diviner's Corner
PENDULUM DIVINATION
Pendulum divination, also called pendulum dowsing, is a
simple technique used for hundreds of years as a divination
art. It is an easy to use tool that can help anyone quickly
tap into their intuition. In its most popular use, a pendulum
is used to answer yes-or-no questions through moving in a
direction in response to an inquiry, and is commonly paired
with other tools such as tarot cards.
A pendulum is a balanced, weighted object, attached to a
string, cord or chain. It can be a crystal, bead, or favorite
small bauble. It can be used with or without a pendulum
circle that is drawn on a cloth or sheet of paper. The
pendulum circle will depict yes, no, or maybe as
possible answers and may include “do not answer” as
a choice.
To start a pendulum divination, center yourself and focus
on a question. Hold the pendulum in between your thumb
and forefinger, allowing it to be as steady as possible
about 1-2 inches above the pendulum circle. For best
results, you should rest your elbow on the table, and
preferably be in a seated position.
It is highly recommended, as with most divination inquiries,
to ask a clear question that can be answer by a yes or no.
You can predetermine which direction would answer yes,
and which direction means a no for your inquiry.
As with the Ouija board, it is often a question whether the
pendulum is moving independently or due to the user’s own
motions. It takes practice to perfect this art and lots of
patience to see it work. As the saying goes, the proof is in
the pudding.
Additional Resource:
This guest blog post includes suggestions on
how to use a pendulum with tarot!
Pendulums and the Language of Divination
by Desmond Stern
http://blog.littleredtarot.com/how-to-use-pendulums-divination/
We’d love your suggestion or submissions for this
column! If you have an idea or would love to
contribute, please contact us at tarot@tarotschool.com.
Best Practices for Professional Readers
SNEAKY PEEKS:
CLIENTS WHO ASK FOR FREE
PSYCHIC ADVICE ON THE SLY
By Gina Thies
www.tarotadvisor.com / www.facebook.com/tarotreaders
www.tarotcoupling.com / www.oraclesoup.org
One of the best compliments you can receive as a reader
is to gain repeat clientele. It’s a shoo-in when you have
your regulars and when they send your referrals because
they know, love and trust you.
Often, the hard work it takes to become a trusted
source may be taken for granted, especially when
clients become comfortable with you and they began
to blur the line between professional and friends.
I don’t think any of us who are professional readers
are immune from crossing some boundaries. It happens,
and it is best to nip it in the bud at the first signs or
occurrences.
One type in particular may be hard to detect at first
because if you are like me, you want to help. You
place yourself in a position that is par for the course
in terms of being helpful, but there are always one or
two who just need to ask you something.
It may come in the form of a phone call or email, and
may sound something like, “Give me a call when you
have a moment” or “I have an update about your
reading” or they may send you an image or picture and
ask your “opinion”. When you respond to see what
they want or if they want to schedule an appointment,
lo and behold it’s “No, I was just curious and had
a question” or it may be in reference to something or
someone that came up in a previous reading and they
want to know “Is this who you were talking about?”
or any other question that ends up really being about
wanting further information without paying for your
services.
The thing to do is to clarify and if necessary,
reinforce boundaries. For some of us this may be
difficult. On the one hand, you may be the only support
they have but on the other, you need to not be taken
advantage of by your client. I find it helpful to let
them know when they are on the clock and will be
charged. People need to understand that it is not
just the reading they are paying you for but your TIME.
Paying for your time will also keep that necessary
boundary in place.
Upcoming Events:
• June 3 10, 17 and 24, 2019
Forest Hills, New York
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