I REALLY need some insight on this matter...

[Jaqueline]

Non-tarot - you say you have 2 college degrees - do those schools have placement services for graduates? If you don't work, they don't look good. Just a thought. And you have a car - should it be taking you somewhere new?

I agree with everyone in that readings should focus on what you could do to not be the hanged man or the 8 of swords anymore, or whatever card applies. If nothing else, the wheel of fortune is always turning. . . my heart goes out to you - good luck.

 

[Abrac]

There are lots of people who will tell you that you need to change your outlook, but if you try to pin them down about what exactly to change or how to change it the answers get pretty vague.

I'm not about to get into why bad things happen to good people or why things happen to us at all; the object is to understand what can be done to improve our lot.

First, I believe it's crucial to understand that a tarot card reading is not absolute and doesn't determine our fate. For some reason there's this notion that it's "written in the stars" or "in the cards" so we might as well just accept it.

Secondly, we manifest what we think about all day long. So, if your thoughts are "next month, or next year I'll be in a better position than I am now," when next month rolls around you'll discover that you've manifested exactly what you were thinking. You'll still be where you were a month ago thinking "just another month." It will always be just a month or a year away. The trick is to think in the present tense, "right at this moment I'm truly blessed" or "today I feel prosperous and secure because I know I'm capable and resourceful." If you persist in this way your circumstances will begin changing to meet your thought patterns. I've rarely (if ever) seen this fail in my own life.

 

[thorhammer]

I had to read for a nice guy who I was fond of quite recently, and his cards came up quite nasty. I looked up at him and said, "I gotta say, you don't look happy." He just looked at me, a bit green around the gills, for a second, and gave a huge sigh then said, "No, no I'm not."

His cards showed me that he needed to stop thinking a certain way, too. I think I managed to get through to him that he needed to stop being cruel to himself, to stop blaming himself and expecting bad things because he believed that he deserved them.

Seriously, this poor guy was speechless and ashen when he left the reading room; but he thanked me with a genuine smile and I think I made a positive difference in his life.

In your case, starseer, I think that the people who read for you may have not quite known how to tell you that your thought patterns are inviting these circumstances into your life, just as Abrac says. You say you haven't complained - well, complaining isn't always a bad thing! When it's pitiful whining it is, but if you're getting your back up against the world that's doing wrong by you, then your mind is in a place where it's just not going to take that shit. And that opens the way to a different set of energies that might allow you to see a better path, a new opportunity.

\m/ Kat

 

[214red]

a spade is a spade, if you dress it up, its still a spade....

I think that you have to be a realist, rose tinted glasses wont work in this situation.However i also beleive there is a way out, light at the end of the tunnel (however faint it is).
One of the best things about Tarot is using the cards to find that light, and make it brighter through its assistance...obviously the cards cant work miracles, but i am sure they can help show you a way that if action the advice it will lead you to something. However tarot can also highlight the patterns we repeat, and i think that we all have to take responsibility for our actions. Tarot shows everything, warts and all.

good luck,

 

[nisaba]

As Tarot readers, if you pull a set of cards that shows lost battles, hidden enemies, distress, and all around un-success for a period in a person's life do you call a spade a spade? ...

I'm confused. How do fellow readers feel? Would you be inclined to mislead querents in the name of neo-age-y "keeping it positive" when the reality of the situation is not so positive?

Third time lucky. I've told this story twice before in answer to similar questions, but I'll tell it again, because retelling it will probably take less time than scrabbling around looking for a URL of a previous telling.

I would stick with what's on the cards.

Firstly, the cards are a clear message to the client or hte person being read for: if they're not meant to know, it wouldn't be there.

Secondly, cards are my primary method-of-choice for finding out information that I cannot access through more normal sources.

I have a friend called Sean, who is blind. He has a Guide Dog, and the dog can see. Through Sean's "normal" methods of gathering information, he does not have sight. Instead, as the Tarot might tell me something I can't learn elsewhere, his dog (a lovely creature called Berry) tells him of things he can't learn elsewhere.

Now, imagine a day when Sean is in the city. There is a lot of ambient traffic-noise all around from all directions, echoing off buildings. He can't really tell whether there's a car coming or not. Berry is in harness, and is on-duty to guide him. Sean is in a real hurry - perhaps he's late back from lunch, or desperately needs the bathroom. He gives Berry the signal to cross the road: she hesitates, aware of a speeding car up the road. Sean is really desperate to cross, though, and gives her the signal again, possibly even jerking on the harness.

What should Berry do?

Should she think: "Sean is a lovely man, he feeds me and plays with me and lets me sleep on his bed. I don't want to frighten him. that car, maybe it'll see us, and if it does, maybe it'll swerve to avoid us. Sean wants to cross the road. Let's just cross."

Would that be a good way for Berry to reason, in order to protect Sean's feelings? No, because it he were hit by the car and dragged over the road for fourteen metres before it came to a halt, he'd be very badly injured indeed, if he were alive at all. It is Berry's JOB to warn him, and to allow him to make informed decisions either to walk into danger or to take evasive action. Likewise, it is a Tarot deck's JOB to inform us of unpleasant likelihoods, so that we can prepare ourselves as much as possible, brace ourselves, even make choices defferent to the ones we would have made wihtout that information that might result in us avoiding problems altogether.

Tarot is more than just a pretty playing - it is a WARNING DEVICE! Berry is more than just a pet, she is a WARNING DEVICE!

Disregard warnings at your own peril. And if you are the reader for someone else and you don't pass on a warning given to you by a deck during a reading they ask for (say - that they are at risk of being burgled or assaulted), and your negligence in not passing that information on means that they are quite willing to continue sleeping with the window open, rather than listening to your warning and being a bit more security-conscious then you are GUILTY. Not as guilty as the person sneaking into their house, stealing their goods and beating them to a pulp, but getting pretty damn close.

Warnings exist for a reason. Warning devices have a job to do, and you are no friend to a client if you edit what you are given. After all, Berry, who is only as intelligent as a reasonably well-educated *dog*, knows better than to refrain from passing on a warning to Sean! Are you smarter than a dog? If so, behave at least as intelligently as the dog.

 

[Alta]

A sobering situation, and as others commented, at least you are out of your car, however tenuously.

My big lesson I actually learned from the I Ching. In that entire book there is only one situation where you are actually lost and doomed forever. And in that situation you go into it knowingly and for a higher cause knowing that you will be 'finished' by it. In every other situation, even if it will last a long time, there is always a way out. I drank that in like mother's milk when things seemed so bad and never-ending.

It looks at situations that are bad showing that you that you can make them worse or better, and yes sometimes there is a deus ex machina in the picture too.

Anyway, back to tarot. Never forget to add 'past' positions, or 'unconscious drivers', they will help a lot with your own state of mind. Don't just focus on the future positions, it makes you feel helpless.

Alta

 

[ladyofhearts]

my heart goes out to you. things are really bad here in the usa. as far as unemployment, people losing their homes, being devastated financially. more and more middle class, working people are finding themselves homeless through no fault of their own. those that, "have," are worried every single day they will be next. and job situations are a JOKE. if you have a job, any kind of a job, the workforce is becoming beyond competitive, its becoming cut-throat, ruthless. i have seen it and heard it. employee's doing whatever they can to keep their jobs. and, companies cutting back hours to part-time, no benefits, cutting bennies, cutting staff, and working the cut staff into the ground. and, if someone does not like it..there is the door. dog eat dog has become rat eat rat.
i hate to sound gloom and doom, but i hear and see it everyday. state jobs being cut. healthcare jobs cut. hours cut. all of our manufacturing base in this great country has been stripped, putting hard working americans out of a job. for what???? GREED. corporate GREED. from what it looks like, it seems that the powers that be are trying to, "break," the greatest country in the world down to a 3rd rate nation. "kids want a job?" (since college offers no guareentees anymore) "join the army." middle class, poor kids their is a job for ya. come back with half your brains blown out, crippled, and the veterans administration IS NOT doing what it should do to help the vets. or worse, come back in a body bag. for what? the, "powers," that be. money, elite. ok, ENOUGH of a political speech. things are bad here, everyone has someone they know out of a job, or worried about losing a job. read the cards and look for HOPE. if you believe in a higher power, pray. keep the faith. someone posted take advantage of charitable organizations. salvation army, God bless them. they always help. hang in there..you are not alone. use the cards to guide you. look at them intuitively....whatever pops in your mind in a reading for help, use it. get help from charities like i said. its a step. if you have to, take 2 lower paying jobs. just keep active. talk to others. it helps. keep around people. the universe, God, or whatever you believe may not give you what you want, but there is always hope. you WILL get what you need. even if its basic survival. hang in there. believe me, its not just you. and, the way things are going..i hate to say it, but i think its going to get worse for the rest of us. ps. if this helps i just lost my job .....all of the things i stated above had alot to do with it. you are not alone. be well, hang in

 

[Grizabella]

When I was a little girl, my life was really grim most of the time. I won't go into that here, because so many people already know it. But I always read everything I could get my hands on. One day when I was feeling especially bleak at the ripe old age of 15 (and life really can be bleak at that age for some people) I read "I cried because I had no shoes till I met a man who had no feet". That hit me like a rock. I've never forgotten it. It may have kept me from suicide. No matter how bad life is, it could always be worse---and it IS worse for many people. That glimmer of hope from that line in an old poem kept me going many, many times in my life.

I know what it's like to be homeless. Homeless in just about all kinds of weather. In winter, it's bitter. But at least you had the car. Millions of people don't have one and sleep totally out in the weather. If you had the car, maybe you had gas---millions have cars but no gas and no hope of getting any if they don't want to steal. If you had the car and you had gas, maybe you were able to drive to a place that gave free food or other things you needed. I once had no car and no way to carry the food I got, much less any way to cook what they'd have given me and I didn't even have a way to open the cans to get at the food, anyway, for things you could eat out of a can without cooking. (People who give free food don't think of things like that because they've never been destitute. Bless them for trying, though.)

I grew up very, very, very poor. When you face that, without realizing it you develop what I call "victim mentality". (I know that's a psychological term but I'm not sure it's the same as mine.) My "victim mentality", learned from living in a hopeless and feeling helpless frame of mind, caused me to believe that I couldn't have or do a lot of things that others had and did. I saw inspirational people climbing out of lives like mine but I didn't believe it was possible for me.

Then I met my late husband. He had been born with the whole place setting of silverware in mouth, not just the spoon. At the time I met him, he didn't have two pennies to rub together, though. We were both in early sobriety. His family had pretty much kicked him to the curb because of his addictions. But I guess because he was raised differently than I was, he didn't see things the same way I did. His best friends called him "Joy Boy" as kind of an affectionate reference to his mindset. To him, everything was hopeful and he embodied the sentiment in that old song, a refrain of which is "whenever you're down and out, the only way is up." I learned from him that "Life is what you make of it. Thinking makes it so." He was the Tigger to my Eeyore.

The point I mean to make is that you'll see in Tarot whatever you're expecting to see. If you're expecting doom and gloom and more of the same, that's what you're going to see. The mind can be the most inescapable prison there is. But if you can get the prison door to open even a little crack to the possibility that there isn't gloom and doom in those same cards, you'll start to see them much differently. No cards are all gloom and doom. Not even the ones that reputation has it are "bad" cards. All of them have many, many facets. So open the prison door a crack and let the light shine in on the cards a little differently. Start thinking of the ways that living in your car in 19 degree weather has made you a different person. Then go forward from there and use that insight to help you create a job for yourself if you can't find one. Become an advocate for the homeless. Write a book about the insights you've gained from the experience. Life is the best university you can attend. Take the knowledge you gained from the underside of it and put it to good use to create a better future for you and others.

And if you can't see better times coming in the cards, then put them away for awhile. If you can't see better times in them, then they're holding you back.

 

[Venusian]

I didn't expect to log on today to so many more responses.

I appreciate the concern that I sense in many of the posts.

From the top down I will address the comments that I feel directly relate to my situation.

Jaqueline asked why didn't I get in my car and go to another market. Honestly, that wasn't a practical option for me. At the top of the year gas prices were very high, so much so that I tried not to drive much at all. I sat at Panera bread everyday all day with my laptop applying for jobs online. The market that I am in Atlanta, happens to have been one of the hardest hit markets in the country w/ unemployment still in the double digits. So I was applying for positions that I was clearly qualified for in other markets in the Northeast, but I had to be patient and wait to hear from a potential employer for a job interview. I couldn't just get up and start driving up and down the interstate. Plus my car windows are not tinted so I felt safe sleeping in the same parking lot that I was night after night.

I didn't lose my job per se, I have been self employed for the past 8 years, so my business failed as I was unable to generate new business when the economy tanked. Many of my clients whom I relied on for steady business went out of business themselves. It was a chain of events that forced me back into the job market. This Summer I was finally able to secure a client, and I worked my ass off until I saved enough to get a small place. Im sleeping on the floor because I had to give most of my furniture away. But as I mentioned, I'm not a complainer. It's better than the car. LOL

However, my concern is not with the past because what has happened has happened already, I can't change it. I'm not angry about it (anymore), and I don't feel like a victim, more like a survivor. My issue is with the whole "change your outlook" thing. For someone who went from a nice 2 bedroom condo to sleeping in my passengers seat, I think I took it all pretty well. I just did what I had to do until I got on my feet, I created a plan, and somehow I got out of the rain.

Now, I rarely do Tarot readings for myself unless I'm trying to discern someone who is close to me. But I did a few exchanges in the exchange forum, and two different readers in last 6 months made that same comment. And you know, I didn't bring it up because as Abrac mentioned if you try to pin someone down about what exactly needs to be changed they more than likely can't tell you. Plus I didn't want to come off as ungrateful, so that's why I came over here to ask in a more general way.

And like 214red I like to consider myself a realist (my natal Mercury is in Scorpio) so I prefer to see things for what they are rather than how I want it to be or how it should be or how it might look better to someone else. I am very "matter of fact"-ly, so for me to view the past several months like it was a blessing in disguise is...let's just say that I don't agree with that. LOL It wasn't hell, but it wasn't a blessing either. My life was turned upside down, I dealt with it, and I moved forward, but I'm not going to sugar coat it.

LadyofHearts, I could FEEL your emotion in your font. I chuckled to myself half way through your post, not because what you wrote was in any way funny, but because I sensed your passtration (passion and frustration all balled up in one). The way that you wrote in all small cases, only using caps for emphasis, I could tell you were pouring out from your heart. My heart goes out to you as well! I sincerely hope all turns around for the better for you!

Grizabella it sounds like you have empathy for me that comes from a place of personal experience. My childhood was rough too, but I must admit I have never suffered from lack. This was my first experience with this kind of hunger. Some days the only thing I had to eat was an apple. But as I mentioned, I didn't feel sorry for myself. I was pissed off though. LOL I felt like I had gone to college for nothing, I had been a decent person for nothing, I had helped others for nothing, I had sacrificed for nothing, just to end up sleeping in my car. But as I said, I rarely even think about that anymore as I am in a better place, but I am still struggling to maintain what little I have.

Well again I thank you all for taking the time to chime on frank communication when doing readings. I definitely did learn something.

-Sol

 

[ladyofhearts]

yes, starseer i do kinda run from my emotions, albeit, not a good thing at times! especially in this world and economy the way things are. YES, i am frustrated. i survived on layoff several years back due to outsourcing, now i got the boot because of a cutthroat /corporate/greed-driven employer. yes, like atlanta, north carolina has been hit very HARD by layoffs, and lack of suitable employment. state cutbacks are coming, i heard on the news, very deep. you know, someone posted about how people say you should try and see things better, be more positive. something in that vein. well, i was watching dr. phil on tv the other day, and he had a couple on who were worrying, she had a heart surgery, worrying about losing their home, jobs, etc the way things are currently in the usa. he was trying to tell them its not worth losing your health over. then he said something along the lines of,"isn't it better to live down by the river like a hippie?" the no stress thing. i sat there and yelled at my tv," YEAH, DR. PHIL YOU GO AND LIVE DOWN BY THE RIVER IN A VAN LIKE A HIPPIE, GIVE UP YOUR MULTIMILLION DOLLAR HOUSE, YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, YOU MILLION DOLLAR SALARY, AND ALL YOUR BILLIONARE FRIENDS LIKE OPRAH WHO GOT YOU YOUR START!" caps..lol. good thing i wasn't on as his guest. i would have told his @ss off. PRONTO. then i would have asked him,"if i lose it all tomorrow, will you help me get a job, through you or one of your billionare buddies?" "you know, phil, "hook me up." when the show was over, the camera panned the auidence, and the wife was starting to cry." alot of good that oracle dr. phil did her. people have real worries. my personal opinion is jack@sses like dr. phil got theirs. they care about one thing..ratings. i am ready to cut my cable off, save money. nothing on there but jerks on reality shows, mothers having boatloads of babies they cannot afford, and want to exploit the children for the sake of profit. think octomom, and kate gosslin. there are real issues in this country not being addressed. not yet. wait till more people are out of work, and homeless. my point is, before i really get on a roll, as i said before, you are not alone. when you end up in a situation like you were in, you owe an EXPLAINATION to no one! i just got back from the unemployment office and what nightmare stories i heard from others there! if you are a working joe, believe me, it could be you next. one lost paycheck, just one is all it takes. first, food, medical bennies gone, then home or apartment, gone. if you are lucky to have a car, hopefully you will have the gas money to run it, to look for work. yes, i agree with what grizabella said. ( i think it was grizabellas posting). if you come out the other end, help others from what you have learned. help the homeless, foodbanks. and, make yourself a job, a meaninful one, if you can by what you have learned. another thing, in the south of the usa, we are in, "right to work states." that means the employee can fire you fro no reason at all. if he or she just does not like you, or for whatever reason they want to. that has to change. we need legislation to ABOLISH, "right to work," states. in this economy its lethal, and boy employees will take advantage of it. ANYHOO..been rambling way to long. taking it out on my keyboard. GOD bless you! good luck! let all just hope that what charles dickens wrote about soooo long ago, will not come true again in this day and age. but, things do not look good. know you have others out here all over this country going through the same issues as you are. we need to be on the media, NOT DR. PHIL and his priceless advice! GOD bless america and her people! as tiny tim said in, "a christmas carol," God Bless us one and all!" that s for all the corporate scrooges of the world!