The Brave People - A text for all Tarot readers

MareSaturni

I've seen many people here write beautiful texts about the art of reading tarot. Inspiring texts. But i'd like to do something different - i want to dedicate this text to all tarot readers here. The professional and the starters, the fortune tellers and the spiritual seekers and everything that is in between.


It's not easy being a good tarot reader. It doesn't take just a book, a deck and some curiosity. I doesn't take just a super developed intuition. It might be enough in the beginning, but as you learn further...those things aren't enough. Tarot requires lots of living, much more than books, and living isn't an easy thing.

Fool's journey after fool's journey...most of us here have faced The Wheel of Fortune, the Tower, the Devil, the High Priestess more times than we can count. Yet, we all discover something new about the cards...something that comes much more from waking up everyday, getting up and facing life than reading books. Not that books aren't important...but after a while, they just can't give you enough about life.

My opinion is that a great way to learn tarot is living it. Life embraces what books cannot.

That's why tarot is something that requires...love. You can't learn tarot in a deeper level if you don't love it, if you don't believe in it enough to experience it. One thing is to believe that it works in times of despair, like many do, only to later dismiss it another 'esoteric blah blah blah '. When you are a tarot reader...you have you love it all the time. Believe in it's purpose, trust it even when it confuses the hell out of you.

I don't know how it is elsewhere in the world but...i'm the daughter of two doctors. It happens that they are very rational people too (they, my parents, not every doctor of course), and even...disillusioned. Nothing is magical for them and just the idea of tarot seems pretty 'out-of-this-world'.
For now, i study in college and read tarot. But as the time passes, i get this feeling...gut feeling...that the tarot will be something more in my life. That maybe i'll have to chose to take it more seriously...and it's not too far now! I feel this time approaching...and i know for sure that my parents won't pat me on the head, clap hands and make me a big dinner-party in honor of my choice. They'll probaby think i'm round the bend.

For most of people, choosing tarot as a way of life is madness. But tarot readers are brave people

Tarot is very much about love. I'm sure that everyone who reads tarot more professionally - i mean, makes tarot an important (if not essencial) part of his or her life - believes in it. And loves it. They are people who could be engineers, doctors, teachers, lawyers...maybe they even were one day. Maybe they still are. But they have decided to pursue the tarot, even if other people would think they are nuts. They decided to pursue something that other have rejected as a lie, accused of scam.

People will tell you you are ruining you life. Tell you that you are living a dream. And, heck, life is gonna hit you in the head with a brick sometimes and show you the world out there isn't nice. But you'll keep going, because there's a moment in which you just can't imagine yourself doing anything else except what you love...and it's a courageous leap of faith. I believe that tarot readers - you, who are here reading this - are brave people, even if you are not professionals. You are studying and pursuing a thing many dismiss as bullshit without even trying...and you haven't given up even after all the challenges. You are brave people. You help others, and sometimes you'll take what they can give in return and that's not much.

Where does this Strength comes from? I've met many interesting people over the years here and they all have it, even if they don't know. Even if they, like me, don't hear voices, don't talk to guides and spirits and don't have a supernatural background. Even when they felt they lacked what it took to be a good reader, they faced the challenges and learnt from them. They faced the criticism, they faced bad readings and bad sitters and...nothing could stop them.

Because tarot readers are brave people. Brave enough to change over the time, to reconsider what they before dismissed, to dismiss what they considered rules.

I'd like to thank you, Aeclectic Tarot Forum tarot readers, for making this community a beautiful place. We fight and we agree, we misunderstand and are misunderstood. We believe dogmas just to see they fall a part, and we help to dislodge the bricks of some people's towers. We find the best book, only to later put it away and learn to stop reading through another's eyes.

Since i first logged here until today, i've seen my tarot views being constructed and deconstructed many times. But ladies and gentlemen...it was a pleasure to suffer, or maybe to enjoy, these changes by your side. It was a pleasure to meet the brave people, to learn from you, and maybe even to teach one thing or two. It was pleasure to know a bit about you and your lives because that's what tarot is about - life. You are really inspiring people, even when you play the Devil's Advocate. Even when you aren't being nice. Even you are having a 'bad hair day'.

You are still the brave people.


So like Steve Jobs said - Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

And keep tarot-ing.


~Marina
 

moderndayruth

Wow, Marina, what an inspirational post! Thank you :heart:
Have you ever considered becoming a motivational speaker? ;)
 

Baroli

Yep,.... you get it.


Baroli
 

MareSaturni

moderndayruth said:
Wow, Marina, what an inspirational post! Thank you :heart:
Have you ever considered becoming a motivational speaker? ;)

Thank you :D

I don't think i'd be a good motivational speaker...well, i never tried to anyway...hum...hehehehe :)

Baroli said:
Yep,.... you get it.

Eventually we end getting it...don' we?

~Marina
 

lilangel09

What a wonderful piece... I think you've put into words what some of us feel. I can identify with the parental disappointment thing, but I figure I'll take a jab at the 'normal' job before I decide if I want to go pro. Some professional Taroteers (omg this word is becoming a bad habit) have had their run of their careers, interrupted them, are still working, or are retired. Many are extremely intelligent. They take the weird looks and deal with all the flack that people give when it comes to Tarot. They also deal with the needy people. The only ones I see ruining their lives are the people that don't live at all or refuse to budge. You have to deal with other people's lives, and it's really scary. What you say and the tone you say it in can either destroy or liberate.. It's scary. You're going to have to be clear to them, and they're going to respond to certain things in ways you didn't expect them to. Sometimes you won't know what's coming out of your mouth and the sitter is going to say how right you are... but you had no idea what you were really saying, then what are you going to do? What we hear and what we want won't always agree... but we go do what we hear anyways, and it is usually for the better.

Readings can be serious business, but they can be fun too. Sometimes too many serious readings can take their toll on you, and you just have to move on. When I look at people say how "fun" readings are in the reading exchange, I cringe a little... I get that they want to keep everything appealing and light (no one would want a reading if they thought it was depressing), but it sort of misrepresents in ways. You really have to like Tarot, and what you do with Tarot to read. Which is why those two questions Umbrae keeps reiterating for us to answer are "Why do you read Tarot?" and "Why do they come to us?" Some people are going to think you're psychic, some people are going to tell you about how they've had readings from another reader before and how they were better than you, they're going to place expectations, and you can either try to educate them about yourself, or you can just read cards with their expectations in mind.

You really have to love Tarot.. and remember that Tarot reflects life and not the other way around.

One again, lovely piece. Good one to ya!
 

Sinduction

I was just thinking today, about how much I love the people here. How generous we all are. From sending hugs and healing thoughts to giving away books and decks just for the heck of it.

It has been a pleasure to learn from all of you. :heart:
 

firemaiden

Thank you for your beautiful and inspiring post Miss Yuko. I will think about this for a long time. I am asking myself now, what it might mean to "live it". I will chew on this for a while. :)
 

Mellifluous

What a nice valentine to everyone! :)

You're absolutely right about life experience and love informing your reading abilities.

Thanks for sharing!
:love:
 

Disa

Thank you for writing this inspiring piece. I'm sure I will go back to it again and again when I begin to feel disheartened by those who don't understand and are critical of Tarot due to their lack of knowledge on the subject. Your words are words I needed to hear today.

Thank you,

Disa
 

inanna_tarot

thank you miss_yuko..
Youve inspired me and given me lots of questions and things to think about in my own tarot journey.