Usually Sunday posts are about the Tarot card of the week, but I didn’t feel like doing that today. Instead I’m thought I mix up a batch of Tarot Card potpourri.

I’m often asked how I got into the business of reading cards. While I’d always been fascinated by magic, witches, spells, and the supernatural, I didn’t pursue that interest until in my forties. I missed a huge opportunity because of that. I lived in Salem, Massachusetts just minutes away from the official witch of Salem, Lori Cabot. I’d see her walk the Salem streets in her black cape and shoes and smile to myself thinking how cool. But it wasn’t time for me to follow her footsteps. Years later when I had moved back to my home town of Fayetteville, Arkansas the time was right. I attended a spiritual gathering where one member advertised a beginning Tarot Card Reading class. I bought a deck of Rider-Waite cards and the rest is history.

They say it’s better to receive a deck of Tarot cards as a gift instead of buying them yourself. I don’t know who “they” are or the reasoning behind this theory. Perhaps it’s because a gift is usually presented out of love, making the energy around the cards totally awesome. I’ve given cards as a gift. My ex-husband gave me many decks as birthday and Christmas presents but the deck I read with, the deck that speaks to me, the deck that is my old friend, is the one I bought over twenty years ago.

Another popular theory about the cards is to make them your own. Imprint your energy on them. It is recommended that you sleep with a new deck under your pillow for a couple of weeks before using them. I did this. I loved the idea. And to answer your next question, no. I didn’t have unusual or fantastic dreams during this time.

I also keep my faithful friends in a blue silk bag. It is said that inanimate objects, such as a deck of cards, can pick up past impressions that can screw up your readings. For some reason silk material rejects these vibrations. Who came up with this theory? I have no idea. It is true? I have no idea. Why do I keep them wrapped in silk? Why tempt fate?

When I read, I love a quiet room. Light scent of incense circling. Candles burning, white for purity and protection, pink for love, and green for prosperity and abundance. A pretty silk table-cloth, maybe a few crystals lying around. However, I have read sitting in the front seat of a car spreading the cards on the console. I’ve sat on the floor. At many kitchen tables with the family cat beside me. (I love this. Pets are very in tune with energy, especially cats. When Morris sits beside me it gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling.) So, as you can see, for me, it doesn’t matter how or where I read. Messages from Universe could care less about such things. But I do enjoy setting the mood.

Cards do not foretell the future. Get that straight! They offer up events that could happen. But. We humans have free will and can change the outcome of anything with just one blink of an eye. If you don’t like what is being presented, you can change it. If in a reading it is suggested that on a certain date you will be in a car accident. Don’t drive that day! It ain’t rocket science, people.

Tarot cards are a tool. A way to make the reader focus. There are many people who can tap into messages from Spirit without using cards, crystal balls, or tea leaves. I’m not one them. Yet. I have started a reading and half way through I quit looking at the cards and just went with the flow.

But the plain truth is, I like the cards. I think it’s important for the client to physically touch them. Cards make the client involved in his/her readings. Which is only right. It’s their reading after all.