So, you'd like to know the truth about the tarot?  Well, there are a couple things you need to realize first before we dig into that:

1. People always use the worth "truth" to mean a universal truth.  When in reality, most truths are personal truths, which only apply to the person having the experience with said "truth". Meaning MY truth and YOUR truth can be two, totally different things.
2. The tarot is older than anyone living at this time.  Something that's been around that long has probably had many uses and many "truths".  So today's truth?  Is not yesterday's truth, and tomorrow's truth may look nothing like today's.  So keep that in mind when you're dealing with something that nobody can agree on, like the tarot.  

Is it good?  Is it bad?

It's freaking glossy cardboard.  How can you classify a paper product as good or bad?  The only way you can is to say "depends on how you use it".  

If you take a tarot card, and shape it into a knife and stab someone with it, sure, it's super bad.  But if you're just opening the package, laying them out on the table, and playing around with them?  Who on earth is that hurting?

If you're a con-artist and you say to someone "I can see everything with these cards!  Just give me $200 and I will tell you it all!"  Then YOU are bad, not the cards.  That's where the misconception lies.  When we lay the blame on the tool instead of the user of the tool, that's where the problems are caused. 

If I give you a hammer, and you build a homeless person a house, that hammer is amazingly awesome.  But if I give you a hammer and you kill a homeless person with it, then yeah, that hammer kind of sucks.

BUT is it the hammer's fault?  It's just metal and wood.  Metal and wood cannot jump up and do bad things. 

But, but, there's the devil and death and other bad stuff on in them!

So what?  Those aren't bad cards.  Those cards (among the 20 others which are called "the major arcana") are archetypes, which are symbols for universal life.  Endings are a part of life (which is what the death card means).  Every single card in the deck is a reflection of universal life.  Every single card can be applied to every single person, and it will make sense.  You can't fear pictures, that's just silly.  And if the pictures are REALLY scary, throw them away and replace them from some other deck with neat pictures you like to look at.

Simple.


But, don't you have to be psychic to use them?

Pardon my words here for a second, but only ignorant people think this.  The cards are tools, yes, but for anyone, not for "special" chosen people.  And the cards are no more magical than that hammer you used to build that house above.  Do psychics exist?  I have no freaking clue.  Maybe, and maybe not.  But, what does that matter in relation to you using them?

But as an atheist, I don't believe in psychics (because I don't believe in anything).  Am I okay with people thinking they are psychic?  Eh....not sure.   But I will say that there are many shysters out there looking for a sucker, and I don't approve of that at all.  Yet, which is almost worse, some don't even realize they're not psychic, and that's sad.  I know, because:

I used to be one of them.

Let me tell you a story....

I've been a tarot reader for over 30 years.  I used to believe hardcore in psychic abilities, ghosts, magic, and other junk.  Then one day, I got slapped in the face.

Granted, it was a metaphorical slap, but still, it kind of hurt.  I grew up my entire life with 2 certainties: I was psychic.  And my house was haunted (hell, I even wrote a book about it).  But then I started to learn about cold readings, and got really discouraged.  And then I wondered if anything I believed was true, so I stopped thinking about ghosts and guess what?  The hauntings stopped.  If I was actually being haunted, then me not thinking about it shouldn't stop it right?  But it did.  And that's when I reallly realized, it just wasn't true.

This turned my life upside down.  When I learned about cold readings, I realized that was exactly what I was doing in my readings that I was getting paid for.   I was the shyster!  But it wasn't on purpose...but the guilt was eating me alive, so I just put my cards away and didn't touch them again for almost a year.  How could I have been tricking people out of their money and not know it?  

But the truth was, I wasn't really tricking them.  The only thing I was tricking them about was how I was getting my information.  What I was doing true and real, because the way I read the tarot was never psychic at all.  In the 26 years I read the tarot, I only had a handful of people ever tell me what I said to them didn't apply, and yet not one of them asked for their money back.  So, why did my readings work?

Because of the way I read them.  

When I read them, I was not like Miss Cleo and told my clients a bunch of BS crap what "may or may not" have been real (most likely, may not).  I  counseled my clients with them, which is what I am best at.  I had clients all over the world (like Mexico, Australia, Europe, etc.) who contacted me on a regular basis to counsel them.  I made sure to tell them I wasn't a licensed counselor, I called myself a spiritual counselor...which I was.  But at my core?  I really did think I had some kind of psychic gift.  And that's why I felt so damn guilty when I finally realized I didn't.  And I felt like my entire life was a complete and total lie.

 But had I known?  Had I known I wasn't psychic and informed my clients that I wasn't?  I could have went on with my tarot practice without guilt.  But I was ignorant.  I didn't realize the truth.  


What is my truth?  


My truth now?  Is that the tarot is tool for everyone.  And it takes absolutely no psychic ability to read them.  And knowing how to read them is a gift.  Not from god or the universe, but from you.  You give yourself the gift of ability to do something when you work hard and hone your skills.  And the other gift you give yourself and your clients is: honesty.  You don't pretend to be something you're not.  You don't pretend to know things you don't.  The human mind is pretty suggestive, and if you go around suggesting something like, oh I don't know, that someone's husband is cheating on them (as I once did in my early 20's)?  You might ruin a marriage.  Or worse.  

(note: He WAS cheating on her, but it wasn't for me to be the one to tell her with my tarot...the signs were obvious, but she had to be the one who saw them....as a tarot reader, I could had explored the idea of why she thought he was cheating with her, and let her see it for herself and not tell her myself what was obvious.  It needed to be obvious to her.  He, in turn, used the fact that she heard it from a tarot reader that it "obviously wasn't true" to get her to believe him.  Which she did.  Ethics, my friend, don't use them properly and it could blow up in your face.)   


Am I telling you to use the tarot for others and run out to become a reader at the local fair tomorrow?  Sure, if you want to.  But, honestly, I think you should wait a second first.  I'd rather you use the tarot for you first.  Learn how to use these gorgeous and amazing tools for your own personal growth before you go read them for others.  But don't learn how to read them from the booklet, that never works.  And other places online will teach you how to read the meanings of the cards in a "psychic" way, which is kind of foolish if you ask me.  And yet other places will tell you silly things such as "wrap your cards in silk to keep out negative energies!"  Where is the scientific basis for that?  What studies have been done?  None, that's how many.  Instead, just follow my instructions below on how to read them for yourself. 

 

Long ago I discovered four cards that took the energy of their suit and maximized it to the extreme.  I usually say it doubles the energy of the card, but it could possibly represent up to a hundred times the energy of the card, depending on your situation or the person it's referring to.  What I mean by "energy" is that the energy of a card depends on its affiliation with the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water.  

• Earth energy is represented the actual earth, money, physical health and fitness, leadership, nature, patience, stability, honesty, balance, resourcefulness, our homes, employment, growth, prosperity and wealth, grounding, sustenance, survival, the great outdoors, etc.  In the four-grid elements of human existence, this is the physical realm. 
• Air energy is represented by the actual air, all forms of communication, the intellect, travel, writing, contracts/agreements, mental strength, memory, purification, music, breathing, sound, speaking, fragrance, ideas, knowledge, inspiration, imagination, dreams, wishes, freedom, etc.  In the four-grid elements of human existence, this is the mental realm. 
• Fire energy is represented by actual fire, passion, anger, transformation, cleansing, destruction, protection, energy, rebirth, purification, truth, hope, enthusiasm, brightness, illumination, activity, heat, concepts, alchemy, conversion, etc.  In the four-grid elements of human existence, this is the spiritual realm. 
• Water energy is represented by actual water, emotions, love, creativity and creation, regeneration and rebirth, movement, cleansing, healing, friendship, life-giving, nurturing, fertility, happiness, marriage, dreams, sleep, peace, etc.  In the four-grid elements of human existence, this is the emotional realm. 

 

I am so excited!  I finally finished the Rainy Day Tarot Journal for you to download and enjoy!!  Here is a sample of what's in it: 

It's 50 pages of tarot journaling prompts, blank journal pages, a printable mini tarot deck, some tarot spreads, various fun worksheets, major and minor arcana keywords, and a list of major arcana archetypes (something I cannot find anywhere, so I had to create one myself!).  And so much more!!  You can get yours here (just click on the cover below!)

Don't forget to pin this to your Pinterest below!!! 

 

 

Hey guys!  I hope your 2020 has been ending on a better note than it started!  So, because this year has been crazy and totally unexpected, I decided to create a quick little daily tarot planner for you to use for the coming year.  It's my gift to you as a way of saying thank you for visiting my site and good job on making it through 2020.

It's not a planner in the sense of a calendar, but rather a daily three-card reading, a weekly roundup, and a monthly five-card reading so you can plan your week and month accordingly.  And with the true Soul Archaeology way, we don't do predictions, but rather more of a "what should I concentrate on" type of reading each time.  

You can purchase the planner here! (<--click!!) and if you like it, tag us on social media as #rainydaytarotplanner. It's undated so you can use it for years on end! 

Doing a daily reading is a way to ground yourself and stay in the present moment, which is sorrily needed at this time.  Getting caught up and swept up in the news and what's going on in the world around us isn't mentally healthy for anyone.  So, keep safe, wear your mask, wash your hands, social distance, and stay home and do some tarot readings! 💓🎴🔮🤗😁

So, in case you haven't heard, Doreen Virtue, aka the Goddess of the Oracle Decks, is putting out a call for every single one of her decks to be destroyed.  I wish I were exaggerating.  Not only that, all of your tarot cards should be destroyed as well.  In a fire.  Because, demons.  Duh.

*sigh*

Well now.  Ain't that a head scratcher?

It's not like she's new to the God scene, either.  Most of her publications (over 50 books, tarot, and oracle card decks) were based on angels, which are a bible-based belief.  Some of her decks depicted mermaids or something else mythological, but most were angels.

But now, apparently, she's found Jesus and she thinks we're all going to hell (or, in her words, "possessed by demons") for using new agey things.

Oh my goodness.

I can't pretend to know what would cause this sort of turnaround of events in her life.  Sometimes it's mental illness, sometimes people find sobriety and lean on religion so they can get through their addictions, and sometimes it's just a natural progression of a thought process.  And sometimes, we replace one obsession with another.

I had a friend who was a "crunchy pagan" back when I used to be a pagan.  She was so much more pagan than I was (which is something that goes on in pagan communities--the comparison of just how "crunchy" or hippy you are).  She dedicated her life to paganism.  She held onto paganism in the way I see born-agains hold onto their faith.  She raised both her kids pagan.  It was totally hardcore. 

But then she found a new boyfriend and converted to being a Christian.  Just.  Like.  That.  Huh??  What happened to my crunchy pagan friend?  Who whole-heartedly believed that our coven leaders embodied the actual god and goddess during a particular Samhain ritual, that left her in tears from the overwhelmingness of it all?  The girl who never missed a drum circle or never once wore underwear to a ritual??  (If you don't know why this is important, you're not "crunchy" enough!)

Now her kids participate in all the churchy stuff and are hardcore Christians when they were used to attending Burning Man with their mother.  Go figure.

One person may say adaptable.  But another (like myself) might see this as a narcissistic splitting, or the "idealization and devaluation" that goes on when a narcissist decides they  no longer value what they once HARDCORE VALUED at one time.  And my old friend?  Is 100% a narcissist with NPD (long story).

Narcissists mainly do this to people (idealization--love bombing, devaluation--ghosting you, etc.), but also to activities, ideals, and obsessions. Something in one moment is "the best thing ever!!" and the next moment (or maybe years later), it's the "dumbest idea ever!" (and the new thing they're into is now the "best thing ever!").  Now, I am not mental illness shaming here.  It's not just narcissism that does this, but also autism (black and white thinking--though this is a lesser degree than an actual personality disorder), borderline personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, among many others. 

But I have absolutely no way of knowing if Doreen Virtue is a narcissist or maybe has aspergers otherwise, but on the outside, she sure looks like she's splitting.  

She is literally swinging from one end of the spectrum with her strong belief in angels to the other end, now, with demons.  

But just because she didn't talk about demons in her work (or that I know of, I honestly can't say I read any of her books, I only owned her oracle and tarot cards), doesn't mean she didn't always believe in them.  Maybe this isn't as big of a leap as I am assuming it is?

But it sure seems to me that a person who has developed over 50 different new age products in her lifetime so far to just not only stop creating them but urge people to burn them??  It feels a bit more than just a leap in faith.  It feels like a betrayal to the people she was marketing her work to.

• I used to be a breastfeeding Nazi, and believed that people who bottle fed their babies were assholes (I even had a website dedicated to shaming mothers who bottle fed! UGGGHH!!). Then I learned (with the help of nutritional education) that both are valid ways to feed a child, as long as the child is fed.  
• I used to believe gmo's were unhealthy and that organic was best.  I then learned (also through nutritional education) that gmo's are harmless and organic is just a buzzword that is intended to rape our wallets.  I also learned that organic food has MORE pesticides on them (because the organic ones--which are still poisonous to drink, btw, do not work as well) and as long as you wash your produce in water (nothing else needed) both traditional and organic pesticides wash away, leaving nothing left on it to hurt you.  
• I used to be scared to death of vaccinating my children (but did it anyways--somewhere deep inside of me, my brain was working) because of my "crunchy" friend above, who never vaxxed her kids (well, until one day, their father wised up and took them to get all updated on their vaccines) who got it into my head that I was hurting my kids by doing it.  Now, after learning how vaccines work and understanding why they are needed, I am still being an asshole because I wholeheartedly believe that not vaxxing your kids is child abuse (not child abuse on purpose, but still child abuse) and a danger to the human population. 
• I used to believe in magic, psychic ability & ESP, ghosts, and all that jazz (like for real, my husband and I met in a ghost hunting group!).  I grew up abused and used that shit as escapism.  I wanted so desperately to believe there was something more than this mundane (and awful) human existence.  I even saw a gnome once as a kid!  I read all sorts of books about fantasy and lived in a fantasy world.  I thought the real world was filled with awful people who just wanted to hurt you.  As an adult, I felt the same way.  I was a popular tarot reader with clients all over the world.  I made some good money, but mostly, I believed in what I did.  I helped people!  But then I had an epiphany, and mind-altering experience (no, I wasn't doing shrooms).  My thoughts were slowly shifting to science (as they had been for a long time) and I realized that everything I was doing was a delusion I created in order to deal with my abuse.  So instead, I worked on healing myself and as I did, my need to escape from reality melted away.  I became an atheist.  At first, I hated being an atheist.  It was fucking depressing.  But now, years later, I shifted my view from thinking science was a cold, dark place to understanding that science is fucking exciting!!  AND that introspection is more important than flights of fancy (although I am still an avid fantasy reader and writer) when it comes to feeling "connected" to the world around me.  My journey has also taken me to understand mental illnesses more and to really get what makes a human tick (how their brains work and why they think the way they do).  It's god damn fascinating!  This has brought me to a greater understanding of humanity and why the adults in my life chose to abuse me as a child (it's better to understand rather than assume).  I don't need to escape my feelings anymore with magical bandaids, I can use tarot as one introspective tool to figure out why I am feeling the way I do.  This clarity led me to finally getting rid of lots of my own metaphysical stuff I'd been holding onto for years (which kind of mimics Doreen's journey in a way, except hers is with religion instead of science).  (You can read my full journey on this here.)

It's time to get excited!

Maybe you don't have a tarot deck of your own?  Or maybe you just want something quick and fun and less messy than dealing out a deck of cards?  Then you need my tarot pendulum sheets!

They are absolutely *FREE*!  

If you haven't used a pendulum before, then let me tell what they are and how to use them!

What is a Pendulum?

It's a small piece of something heavy, usually pointed, suspended from a string, ribbon, or a chain.  It can be a stone, a small glass ornament, a crystal, metal, or anything that has a good weight to it. Plastic usually won't work as it's too light.  When you pick it up, it should feel weighty compared to the chain.

You can buy them online or in metaphysical shoppes, but you can also easily make your own!  The easiest way to make your own is to use a ring or a washer or a key attached to a string or thin ribbon.  Just tie the string to bottom and you're ready to go!

How to Use a Pendulum?

Now, many sites will tell you to "charge" or "calibrate" your pendulum.  I am here to tell you there is no such thing (just as there's no such thing as "charging" or "clearing" your tarot cards).  If you charge something, it won't work any different than doing nothing.

Now, with that being said, if you are the type of person who needs ritual to feel connected to what you're doing, then by all means, ritualize your spiritual activities.  Just know that you are only changing *YOU*.  It's all about how you feel, not some mystical magical energy that's imbued on your tools.

So, once you build your pendulum and you print out some pendulum sheets (or make some), then hang your pendulum between your fingers (either your thumb and first or middle finger) over the area where you're supposed to be hanging it (the sheets will tell you where).  Let the pendulum start swinging and see where it lands!

You can then use a tarot book to look up the meanings (but remember, traditional meanings only work a certain way with the Soul Archaeology method) or use memorized meanings. 

OR

Check out my Tarot Guidebook here! (coming soon)

This is a fun way to get guidance for the day in the same way you use oracle cards: for inspirational advice.  



So print out your sheets and have some fun!