Spirit guides in readings

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 04 Nov 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

moggy	04 Nov 2003
Hi all.. Recently I keep hearing about how readers have picked up spirit guides in the cards on behalf of querents, which puzzles me. Exactly how would you know, or what cards would lead you to believe, that a spirit guide is around the querent or trying to help them with a problem/issue? Does anyone have any insight pls?

miss_apples	04 Nov 2003
Well Ive never picked up spirit guides from cards but my own spirit guides help me read my cards.

TemperanceAngel	06 Nov 2003
The Hermit, for me, can signify spirit guides in readings. Of course that wouldn't be the only interpretation I would have for the Hermit. When I first started to meditate and ask my guides to come in The Hermit image would appear in my minds eye. I feel a great affinity for this card as I would a close friend. My first psychic fair I ever worked at The Hermit came to me in a dream the night before the fair. Over the next three days that I worked at the fair, The Hermit came up in everyone's reading. I did 10+ readings per day! A couple of weeks ago I ran my first Tarot workshop (very exciting!!) and the card that I pulled for the day was, yes you guessed it, The Hermit. This interpretation came to me through meditation, so would not suggest that it would be an interpretation everyone would use. I hope this has been helpful to you miss_apples??! XTAX

TemperanceAngel	06 Nov 2003
P.S. That was meant for Moggy and miss_apples if she finds it helpful!!!

moggy	07 Nov 2003
Temperance Angel, thanks for your reply, yes that is helpful. I've been doing mediations trying to reach my spirit guide and the image I got - even though I wasn't especially in "tarot mode" while or before meditating, was of the lovely woman in the 9 Pentacles. Since then I've been pulling that card quite consistently in my daily draws - and since i've been trying to contact my guide, I've taken to read that card as my Spirit Guide..

Thirteen	08 Nov 2003
Quote: Originally posted by moggy Hi all.. Recently I keep hearing about how readers have picked up spirit guides in the cards on behalf of querents, which puzzles me. Puzzles me too! On behalf of the querent? That's interesting--what's the purpose of it? I mean, all cards in a reading are "spirit" guides working on behalf of the querent to clarify a situation or problem and give them insight into that situation, problem or their own truths, right? That, in a way, is what a tarot deck IS. A spirit guide for that querent, for that moment, with the reader as interpeter of the message. But I suppose the deck could reveal to the querent their personal spirit guide...though I've found it best to let folk find their own guide via a particular meditiation involving a journey into a cave. Meaning, I'd find the guide first then the card that stands for it, not the other way around. Getting back to the point at hand.... How would you find this card? There are several ways. The first I'd use would be to have the querent go through the deck and pick out cards that attract them the most strongly. I'd lay out those cards and have them pick out the three that are the strongest of those. And finally lay out those three and have them pick out the strongest ONE of those. That would be their spirit guide. Afterall, it's their spirit guide--my job is to interpet what the guide is and what it's trying to tell them, not pick it for them. If the querent insisted that I pick--or rather FIND their guide for them, I'd still have them pull the cards that attracted them strongly, but also the cards that bothered them the most, the ones they didn't like. I'd examine the not-like cards, see what's difficult for the querent to deal with given those not-like cards. THEN I'd pick out whichever one of the like-card seemed the best and most helpful in dealing with those things the querent didn't seem to like. That, after all, is what a spirit guide is for, yes?

moggy	08 Nov 2003
Thanks for your input. I'd agree that our spirit guides are the ones communicating through the cards, but the particular situation I was asking about had to do w/ a reading that I had done a little while ago. The reader - who was actually a psychic using the tarot deck, if that makes any difference - was pretty insistent that I had, at the time, a particular guide around me, for a specified amount of time, who was here to help me with a lesson. And that the guide wanted to get a message to me, through other communication means. The other cards gave hints as to the message, etc. She said that this guide kept popping up in my reading, and that it was an important message. I've never had this come up w/ any other tarot reader, but interestingly the same information had come up for me the year before through another channeler. The info "jives" with what I've been experiencing on other levels. Perhaps she was picking up this info intuitively, but I was wondering if there were a particular spread of cards - say the Priestess coupled with the Lovers - that might indicate the presence of a spiritual guide...

Thirteen	08 Nov 2003
Quote: Originally posted by moggy I was wondering if there were a particular spread of cards - say the Priestess coupled with the Lovers - that might indicate the presence of a spiritual guide... OH. Okay. That's a very different question. The reader might certainly be able to sense the presence of a spirit guide if they're sensitive to that. However, I don't think there's any spread that can tell you if a spirit guide is present, although you easily could create one. You could also just ask the cards to give you an idea of who this spirt guide was and what they wanted and lay out a few cards to find out. I don't quite see how the Priestess + Lovers would lead you there outside of helping you via meditation--which, again, is the best way to find a spirit guide--but if you feel concentrating on them will help, by all means! Use any card to help--Hermit, absolutely, HPS, Magician and likely Hanged Man are all useful in this area. Here, by the way, is the only meditation I know to find a spirit guide--when it works, it's pretty powerful. There are five easy steps: 1) Make sure you're in a dark, comfortable quiet place--with the cards you want to use to help you in place around you. Relax, shut your eyes. Start in an imaginary environment that suits you--a meadow, a desert, whatever. Stay there till you really feel yourself there--the smells and sounds, etc. 2) Envision a road traveling through your land and follow it. With each step, tell yourself you're going deeper into meditation. This road leads to a cave--in a mountain, in ice, whatever is right FOR YOU. Enter the cave and travel through it; it's your cave, as large, small or wonderous as you like. Again, with each step, deeper into meditation. 3) There's an exit out of the cave. Exit out onto a plateau overlooking your landscape. Envision the following one at a time: (a) a whirlwind, (b) a fire, (c) water--either rain, pool or a stream, (d) a large rock, pile of pepples or crystals. You need to approach each of these elements, one at a time, feel them surround you, envelop you, sense everything about them and absorb them into you. 4) Think about which of the four elements you sensed the strongest. Which was the most real for you, the most powerful? Perhaps one, perhaps two, perhaps three--but decide which ones. This is very important. 5) Last step--re-enter your cave. Think about the elements you were most attracted to. As you travel back through, you'll meet your spirit guide, likely in the form of an animal that corresponds with one or more of those elements that were powerful to you; it is a spirit, so nothing like size will matter--it won't bump its head on the ceiling of your cave or die if it's out of water. If water was the element you sensed best, you might see a water animal, a shark or whale. If Water and Earth, likely animals happy in both, like an otter or seal. If Water and Fire, likely amphibians, like a turtle, if Water and Air, sea birds. If fire, you'll likely see reptiles or desert animals. If Earth and Fire, likely animals that are fire colored (red or orange). If Air and Fire, likely desert birds. Air is winged creatures or those that live high up or among the tree tops; Earth is generally four legged creatures, especially those that are weighty, heavy. End the meditation by letting the spirit guide you out of the cave and back down the road. Listen to what it has to tell you--and get an idea of how long it's going to be with you. Sometimes these guides will transform along the way to show you their human or angelic form as well. Once back where you started, come out of the meditation with the knowledge that the guide is at your side. You can always return in meditation to speak with it and get its advise. Good luck. Hope that helps.

WolfyJames	09 Nov 2003
Wow! What a great meditation Thirteen! I'm going to try it for sure!

Thirteen	09 Nov 2003
Quote: Originally posted by WolfyJames Wow! What a great meditation Thirteen! I'm going to try it for sure! Glad you like it! I wish I could remember who taught it to me so I could give them credit. Let me know if it works for you.

TemperanceAngel	09 Nov 2003
Glad I was of help, Moggy, that is the first time that someone has said that to me here....SHUCKS!!! The Nine of Pentacles is a great card to represent your spirit guide. sometimes I find that when the Hermit is in a clients' reading, it is actually a message for me to say that my guide(s) are working with to assist my client. XTAX

moggy	10 Nov 2003
You're welcome Temperance Angel! Hi Thirteen, thanks for that spirit guide meditation. I'm going to try that and see if that helps me get in contact w/my guide. I've tried a similar meditation but havent had good luck. I do get something- more like a sensation of light coming through, and images of beautiful figures, but it's not completely clear. Also, most frustrating is that I dont feel I'm getting the epiphany message that I'm looking for. I guess I'll have to keep trying But to rephrase my initial question, let me ask it this way and see if I can clarify what I'm after. If I came to you as a querent with a general reading request - on relationships, career, etc. - what would you see in the cards that would lead you to tell me that a spirit guide was with/around me to help me w/ a lesson? Assuming that looking for the presence of spirit guides isn't part of your typical reading? Perhaps what is confusing here is that the reader didn't do a Tarot spread on me - she was uing the cards to guide her reading, but I dont believe she had a specific spread in mind. It was more like she started out w/ a definining card for the reading and went from there, putting down cards. Hope that clarifies my question. Maybe I'm going off in the wrong direction here? Maybe she was just using her intuition and letting the cards guide her answer?

WolfyJames	10 Nov 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Thirteen Glad you like it! I wish I could remember who taught it to me so I could give them credit. Let me know if it works for you. I really like it and I copied-pasted it and kept it preciously. I'm not very good at meditation because I'm not as much as visual as I thought. It is very difficult for me to make visualisations. I've used yours a few times and so far I can see hedges and plants, but nothing further. Still, it is better than what I usually get: nothing. I'm still working on it and I hope to get further in the visualisation and to make the images clearer. Thanks again!

Thirteen	11 Nov 2003
Quote: Originally posted by moggy If I came to you as a querent with a general reading request - on relationships, career, etc. - what would you see in the cards that would lead you to tell me that a spirit guide was with/around me to help me w/ a lesson? Assuming that looking for the presence of spirit guides isn't part of your typical reading? Well, looking for a spirit guide certainly isn't part of my typical reading. I honestly cannot think of a card or set of cards that would signal me in bright flashing lights "Spirit Guide Present! ;) And it really would have to be more than one card--if I got just say the Hermit, I'd probably intuit a very human guide (a teacher or elder). Ditto if I saw the High Priestess. I imagine if I for a reading I pulled: The Hanged Man (new insight, sacrifice, a time of suspension), with 8/Cups (following a dream or vision), the Moon (illusions but also dreams and psychic insight), the Star (insight), and a combination of Queen Cups (psychic), High Priestess (secrets, mysteries, the moon) and Hermit (wisdom and inner knowledge)...I'd most certainly say in that case that you were on one serious spiritual quest and about to be taken to some strange places. Under those circumstances I might venture to say that the Hermit, in particular, could be a kind of spirit guide rather than a real person. The High Priestess and/or Magician could serve as well, but the High Priestess seems less a *guide* than a dream spirit, goddess or person who might tell you secrets. Ditto the Magician, who might point the way--but wouldn't stick with you, wouldn't guide you (hm, let me amend that. In his aspect of Mercury, you might have a psychopomp, but that's not quite a spirit guide). The Hermit, with his lantern and traveling cloak, certainly seems to be a guide. And that lantern illuminates things hidden to the eye--but clear to the inner eye. Keep in mind, however, that cards don't always mean the same thing for the same people. That reading, those cards were for YOU. When she saw those particular cards, with you, in particular as the querent, she got the message: "spirit guide." It came into her head and wouldn't leave. Had you been someone else, those same cards, laid out exactly the same way, might not have given her that message at all, but something completely different. And if you go to her a year from now, and she gets the same cards, they might not mean "spirit guide" again--that might be over and done with. So when I say, "these cards could mean this--" I mean they could mean this only at the right time, with the right person.

moggy	11 Nov 2003
Those are great thoughts Thirteen.. I do think you're right in that it wasn't one particular card. She did say tha it kept coming up in my reading several times.. Thank you!

sunflowr	10 Apr 2004
I know this is an older thread, but I just wanted to add that Temperance can often be seen as an Angel or spirit guide. One of my cousins had a tarot reading done awhile back and Temperance showed up. The reader said it meant she had a spirit guide with her, guiding her in the issue she was asking about.

moggy	10 Apr 2004
Thanks Sunflower for the thought - the angel in the Temperance card would certainly make sense as well for a spirit guide! And hellow to a fellow Angeleno!

The Spirit guides in readings thread was originally posted on 04 Nov 2003 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.