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Who to choose to read your cards?
Not long ago I went with a couple of friends to a local mind-body-spirit fair. I arrived pretty early and decided to book a tarot reading – something I hadn’t done for twenty years.
There were over a dozen people offering readings in the room, so how to choose?
For me, the best way to decide is to feel into the energy.
- Do they make you feel comfortable when you meet their gaze?
- Do they feel light and open or dense and heavy?
- Do they seem to love what they do, or do they seem a bit jaded?
- Do they appear to be in their hearts or their heads?
- Do they channel when they read, and if they do, what energies are they channelling, and are they appropriate for you and from the highest source?
- Do they make you feel like your experience is most important, or do you pick up pushy, sales-y energy where what they get is of primary importance?
- Do you feel good connecting with them and feel safe to open up?
If you have some of these questions in mind you can let your intuition read the room super-fast.
My friends and I felt drawn to one fellow who had lovely gentle, kind energy. I heard him say, “I hope you don’t want to book too early because I need some time to land and settle into the space, otherwise I wouldn’t give you as good a reading…”
Then he asked to make sure that we were drawn to his energy before we decided to go ahead.
Self-care and integrity… A good sign!
We all decided to have a reading with him.
The reason I wanted to have a reading was because I’m in transition. There’s a lot moving. I can see where I want to be and what’s potentially possible, which is exciting. I can see new opportunities coming in at a future stage, I can see my gifts and the results I help people achieve, I’m grateful that things seem to be gathering momentum, and I know I need to make shifts in my business to fit in with some life changes.
But I’m in a gap, and I wanted clarity about how to navigate the first few steps between where I am now and where I’m heading because I can’t see the map. I know the answers are inside me, but I’m finding it hard to focus.
It’s like going to Ikea and seeing the piece of furniture you want. You can imagine how perfect it will be in your room, and you know you have some work to do to build it… BUT there are no instructions in the box!
I can guess how some of the pieces should fit together, but if I don’t start it in the right way or do things in the correct order it might fall apart or not be fit for purpose!
So the reading began.
He shuffled the tarot deck and pulled out 11 cards…
… and then a really strange and frustrating 30 minutes ensued.
This reader was a psychic medium. During our time together he chatted with his guides for information to pass to me, he channelled them so they spoke through him at times and at certain points he veered off into light language.
He told me things about myself that I’ve been told by other channels and intuited, or read in the cards myself, over and over and over again.
So he did a good job reading me, but it was nothing new, nothing I needed, a bit waffle-y, vague and flowery, and not very practical and grounded. Plus it was all one-way information. He didn’t check in with me to see if what he was saying was relevant or helpful.
However, my friends loved their readings and were happy with the confirmation. And if I’d not heard it so often before, I’d have been happy with the confirmation, too. But I found myself feeling more and more frustrated because it didn’t help me to get out of my own way, empower me by helping me connect with my own inner knowing, or provide clarity about the next aligned steps I needed to take.
Then it dawned on me that I’d been expecting him to be able to facilitate a breakthrough tarot session for me in the way I work with my own clients.
And that is not in the remit of a tarot reader.
Tarot readers and psychic mediums are NOT coaches.
They don’t hold safe space to help someone work through their inner obstacles to claiming the opportunities in front of them – even if that abundance, relationship shift, career change, or health breakthrough is shown as a possibility in the cards.
They don’t create a space to help clear the fears and limiting beliefs that are blocking someone’s path to true fulfilment.
They don’t empower a client to connect with their own inner guidance to feel into what their next aligned steps towards that potential might be so that they can confidently and immediately take action.
They don’t help a client formulate specific powerful questions that will help them find their answers from within themselves.
A tarot reader’s work is not about transformation, it’s about holding a mirror up to how you are in the present moment and signposting the potential available.
You still have to do the work, meet your inner resistance, get out of your own way and make the ‘right’ choices. If you’re looking for more than that, then you would be better off working with a coach, therapist or healer who’s trained to partner with you on that journey.
But although getting a tarot reading at a fair won’t help you with the actual inner work to make the breakthroughs you wish to see in your life, if you get someone good, their guidance can give you a lot of confidence and a sense that you’re on the right track, which is great.
What this experience gave me is a big light bulb reminder that the unique way that I work with tarot cards in my coaching programmes and sessions not only holds up that mirror so you can see what’s possible and most aligned, but the in-depth coaching process that empowers you to connect with your own inner guidance and subconscious programming through the visual imagery of the cards brings about rapid, lasting and effective transformation that feels amazing!
MUCH MORE THAN JUST A TAROT READING!
To illustrate, here’s a very short video review of my ‘Transformational Tarot Coaching’ programme from my client, multi-passionate entrepreneur and busy mum, Rachel, where she shares the incredible results that she experienced after doing just six sessions with me.
(There’s a bit of a sound glitch part way through)
If you’re feeling stuck, bored, jaded, unfulfilled, confused, procrastinating over making a decision or struggling to take action with confidence… or if you want to make a bigger impact in any area of life and you’d like to try something a bit different, let’s chat!
I would love to help.
Feel free to book a no-pressure possibility call with me to discuss how transformational coaching with tarot could work for you. Just click the link and it will take you to my online booking service.
And if you like doing your own readings, but your mind goes blank trying to think of specific questions to ask, download my FREE guide, 111 Questions for tarot, oracle cards and journal prompts.
Powerful questions can help you make powerful decisions – which leads to taking aligned action steps that change your life for the better.
I hope you find it helpful!
Much love, Cathy x
I’m an intuitive transformational coach, healer and women’s circle facilitator based in the UK. I support women to move beyond burnout, overwhelm and staying trapped in conditioned ways of being that hold them back or stop them from following their true path. I’m passionate about empowering women to live more authentically, more abundantly and more from their inner power so that they can live a life they love aligned with their highest purpose.
Clients can work with me in person and online globally, through 1-2-1 mentoring programmes, channelled sessions, Transformational Tarot sessions, group programmes, VIP days, workshops, wellbeing days and online courses.
Find out more at my website: www.cathyballard.com