Missing Witches - WF Theresa Reed AKA The Tarot Lady： Wreck Your Deck

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00:00:47.900 a general content warning it's just a fact of this terrain of interrogating what is missing

00:00:53.940 we promise to hold those moments with care you aren't being a proper woman therefore you must 0.69

00:01:00.400 be a witch you must be a witch welcome witches welcome listeners welcome friends welcome 0.89

00:01:13.880 tastes of summer welcome to whatever state your body and brain is in today and welcome to our 0.98

00:01:25.920 super fucking badass guest it's the theresa reed it's the tara lady we had the opportunity amy and 0.97

00:01:33.900 i to meet theresa and i think about 10 minutes in we were like we need you on our show we need 0.97

00:01:40.800 likes more doses of you. We need to hang out more with you. And so today is the day that I get to 0.73

00:01:48.040 have that experience. I feel really lucky and excited to get to hang out. Welcome. Thank you

00:01:54.340 so much, Risa. It is such a joy to connect again. And I love talking the little Montreal talk and

00:02:01.060 cookie talk. So that's what we were talking about before we got live, y'all. So just happy to be

00:02:06.360 here. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for being here. How are you? Like, let's be on it. I mean, as honest

00:02:16.560 as you feel comfortable with, like, how are you? You're, you're a person in America. How are you

00:02:22.900 doing? Well, the politics here have been bananas. If anybody's been paying attention, it has been

00:02:31.300 pretty rough here in the United States. There's a lot of people who are trying to go backwards.

00:02:36.360 and to take us back to a time when women and LGBTQ plus and BIPOC people were under some

00:02:44.820 sort of thumb. I mean, we've never totally gotten out from under the thumb, but they are trying to 1.00

00:02:49.500 push it down harder than ever. So it's draining. We've had some wins recently. We've had some other

00:02:55.960 stunning losses, like what they're doing with Roe v. Wade and reproductive rights. It's been hard.

00:03:01.700 You know, I tend to be one of those people, though, that always likes to remind everybody

00:03:06.460 that nothing is permanent, not even these laws.

00:03:10.080 And those can be overturned, too.

00:03:11.800 We just have to come together and push back.

00:03:14.460 But it is hard not to feel depleted some days.

00:03:17.480 And some days you've got to turn the news off.

00:03:19.620 You've got to unplug from it because it can get so toxic and negative.

00:03:23.360 And it really seems like in the last couple of years, there's a certain part of the population

00:03:29.760 has gotten emboldened to really be despicable and when you're somebody who tends to be polite and

00:03:37.600 easygoing it's really also hard not to be impacted by that so in my own personal life my personal

00:03:45.280 life is fine but when i peek my head out the window and look at the state of the world i'm

00:03:49.200 like you know i think i'm gonna go back inside a little bit here just a little bit even with

00:03:53.840 the winds, I still feel sometimes like I have to go back a little bit. Yeah. I've seen some

00:04:00.000 glimpses of the way you approach tarot is really like empowering, really like, you know, we have

00:04:04.940 free will, change is coming, whether you like it or not. We aren't looking at things that are

00:04:09.840 written. Does tarot give you a sense of control over destiny at all or a sense of optimism?

00:04:18.260 I think tarot and astrology give you a sense of understanding. And when you have an understanding

00:04:23.460 of what's going on around you, then you have a much better chance that you're going to find

00:04:27.280 ways to deal. When we don't understand or when we don't stop to really think about what's going on,

00:04:34.280 well, oftentimes that causes us to be reactionary and to make decisions that are not going to be

00:04:39.040 for our highest good. So what I mean by that, I mean, here's how I tend to approach astrology and

00:04:43.740 tarot. I always look at astrology as this is our map. This is our map, what's going on. And when

00:04:51.760 look at our natal charts our natal charts give us a really good idea of how you know what kind of

00:04:55.760 vehicle we are and how we operate in this world for good or for ill you always have a choice for

00:05:01.360 good or for ill by the way there's no such thing as a bad chart and the current transits in the sky

00:05:07.040 they can give us an idea of the traffic that's operating and we can figure out okay well now we

00:05:11.200 know how things are operating we know what kind of traffic we're dealing with we can figure out

00:05:15.440 how to drive through this and if we also look at astrology we can see cycles historical cycles

00:05:24.880 and we can look at where we were in the past what the past history was how did that shape us how did

00:05:31.360 that teach us how to drive as the collective and how can we all now get on this freeway and start

00:05:39.040 driving in a direction it's going to be good for everybody and then when you feel like the traffic

00:05:44.080 isn't good or you're not operating on full speed or maybe the world around you isn't tarot helps

00:05:50.700 to show the detours here's how we get off the ramp here's how we can drive better so i love to

00:05:57.720 use that analogy because i do believe nothing is set in stone i believe things do go in cycles

00:06:02.960 nothing is ever permanent and we have to think about our choices and how we show up in the world

00:06:09.480 because ultimately that's what matters what matters is that you become a good person what

00:06:13.980 matters is that no matter what's going on in the world or what your history, you become a good

00:06:17.460 person. That is what you are here to do is to become a good person. And tarot and astrology

00:06:23.260 can help you in that realm. And we have to really think about that, that again, no matter what's

00:06:28.420 going on, am I being a good person? Am I showing up as the best version of me? Or am I looking for

00:06:33.500 an astral excuse or a tarot excuse or an excuse by the state of the world or excuse by what's

00:06:38.800 happened in the past, to absolve me of any poor behavior. You know, so I am always thinking,

00:06:45.580 how can I be a better human? How can I be out there making someone's day? How can I inspire?

00:06:50.480 How can I use what's working against me and turn it to my advantage? I'm not one of those people

00:06:56.320 that ever sits around saying, well, this is it, I'm going to give up. It's like, no, no, no, no,

00:07:00.620 no. Let's make this work. Let's figure a way out. Let's work together. Let's do this.

00:07:06.940 and when you're doing if that is your sort of primary focus your primary goal how do I be a

00:07:14.340 good person how do you avoid just total burnout you know what I mean like because I can just like

00:07:21.480 give and give and give until I collapse and then there's nothing there's not there's no further

00:07:26.300 there's no further giving Risa's completely gone she's depleted you know how do you keep that

00:07:32.520 balance. You can't always. And you've got to admit that

00:07:36.600 sometimes you're going to burn out, you're going to be so sick

00:07:40.080 of the state of the world, or other people are trying to take

00:07:42.460 the high road, that you just again, want to crawl under a

00:07:45.480 little rock and stay there. And so you are going to burn on I

00:07:49.040 think when we, I mean, so often you hear people talk about

00:07:52.020 self care, and this and that and all the things you should do or

00:07:55.200 could do or whatever, to stay balanced, and you can do all

00:07:58.680 those things, you can do everything. And I do all the

00:08:01.800 spiritual practices. I would just say I'm nice to all the gods just in case. But there are going to

00:08:07.820 be times when you just, you just have to call it quits for a minute. And you know, when that

00:08:14.200 happens, when you hit a wall, I don't look at that either. It's like, oh my God, how negative. It's

00:08:18.620 like, okay, the universe now is trying to tell me you've been giving too much. You have not set

00:08:23.100 boundaries. Now you're going to go and sit and you're going to think about this and you're going

00:08:26.300 think about well how do we get ourselves back on track pick ourselves up and then maybe assert some

00:08:33.180 new boundaries or whatever you need to do depending on the situation so i think the the

00:08:39.660 myth of a balanced perfect life really is a myth and the myth that we can do all these things and

00:08:45.180 we're just going to somehow magically achieve this state where we're never perturbed is a myth right

00:08:51.580 And it's okay. It is okay. You know, I was even like talking to my daughter last week,

00:08:57.120 and this is a food conversation. We're always hearing all this advice about what you should

00:09:01.160 eat, shouldn't eat, do this, do that. My daughter says, God, you never count calories. I said, no,

00:09:06.440 I'm going to eat the things I love. I'm only here for X amount of years. I don't know how long I've

00:09:10.520 got. If I'm going to have a glass of wine, I'm going to have a glass of wine. I'll go walk. Maybe

00:09:14.400 I won't, you know, I'm not going to beat myself up. Just do the best you can. And sometimes you're

00:09:18.460 gonna you're gonna eat all the wrong foods you're not gonna sleep you're gonna stay up too late

00:09:22.300 you're gonna lose your balance and you know what that's okay tomorrow's another day so there's no

00:09:27.420 such thing as real balance it's a lie and by the way i think women we are under so much pressure

00:09:34.860 to have this instagram worthy life where we always look great and we live on green smoothies and we

00:09:41.980 never let anything bother us and we're doing all the spiritual stuff and i'm like that's not true

00:09:46.220 though that's for the privileged few most of us most of us we're winging it we're doing the best

00:09:53.420 we can and we're going to hit the wall every once in a while just be kind to yourself and

00:09:59.180 be extra kind yourself when you find yourself burning up that's all you can do can i ask

00:10:05.660 i know nap you know your your website and your kind of presentation in that world is the tarot

00:10:12.620 lady putting you know you've taken on so much astrology work and and storytelling was that a

00:10:20.540 change that came over time and also has your relationship with tarot changed over time all of

00:10:29.100 it's changed it's still changing everything's always evolving because you don't just learn

00:10:33.260 these things and then boom and you're set and forget it there's always going to be a new idea

00:10:37.500 a new way of looking at things which is why i read all the books i take classes

00:10:41.420 i've been doing this for 40 years i'm still learning i still get epiphanies and by the way

00:10:47.020 i came to astrology before i came to tarot okay yeah so for did you ever consider being like the

00:10:52.700 astrology lady no no no because here's the thing with astrology and me i use astrology every single

00:10:59.580 day of my life as soon as i started working with astrology i was in and that was a long time ago

00:11:05.420 you know it's over 40 years ago so i started studying astrology first and i love everything

00:11:10.220 about it but when I came to tarot shortly after tarot for me is more it gives you more down and

00:11:17.920 dirty answers right I like that with astrology yeah with astrology astrology is great when I

00:11:24.980 want to get really analytical and go down a bunch of rabbit holes and make my brain work really hard

00:11:29.100 with math my brain loves that and so I do dig that and I know living by the rhythms of the moon and

00:11:35.580 all of that is so great that's I mean I grew up with farmers that's what farmers do so I

00:11:40.220 I mean, all of that I love.

00:11:42.340 But tarot is down and dirty.

00:11:44.420 I know when I got a burning question, will I look at astrology?

00:11:47.720 Maybe.

00:11:48.000 But I always will look at tarot.

00:11:49.580 It's like, okay, what do these cards have to say?

00:11:51.480 What's going on here?

00:11:52.800 Reveal all to me.

00:11:53.940 Let me know what's the best path.

00:11:56.000 So I think of it like a Swiss army knife.

00:11:58.600 I mean, it really gives you the down and the dirty.

00:12:01.020 So when I started working professionally, there was always a little bit of astrology.

00:12:06.360 but I'm mainly focused on tarot because I can be efficient with the way I deliver information.

00:12:12.440 And I'm not like diddling around for a million hours just to produce 15 minutes of content.

00:12:17.800 Whereas with tarot, it takes me no effort to boom, here it is. So it's like, okay,

00:12:22.840 do I want to fiddle? Or do I want to get right down to brass tacks? And tarot is good for that.

00:12:29.240 I speak both fluently, but that's always what I go for it. Now, that being said, when it comes to

00:12:35.080 business, because I love business, I always look at what the plans are doing. Plans can tell you

00:12:40.560 a lot about how to operate your business. So I'm all about that. That's interesting. Do you

00:12:47.840 picture somebody on the other side of the cards? Like, do you picture somebody in the spirit world

00:12:55.560 or an ancestor or somebody who's like, here's the card for the answer you're looking for? Like,

00:13:00.820 How do you imagine that that side of the exchange?

00:13:04.280 Well, that's really interesting because, you know, you part of the question before

00:13:08.380 this was about how my relationship with tarot has evolved, right?

00:13:12.320 And when I was beginning to do tarot and astrology, I did feel that I felt very

00:13:17.880 much like there was some kind of energy around me that was like giving me the

00:13:22.720 information or coming through me in some way.

00:13:25.860 And sometimes I did have experiences that really felt like that.

00:13:29.180 But I found that the more I worked with it, I really started feeling like it was just something

00:13:34.780 more within myself. And so that may sound kind of strange, but it's like, no, no, no, this is

00:13:40.560 something that's always there within you. Maybe it's your spirit that's talking, not some other

00:13:44.180 thing. But I did really feel that, you know, that again, that there was some kind of a magical thing

00:13:49.820 coming into me. And now I'm like, no, it's always been there. Nothing ever came into you. It's

00:13:54.660 has been there all along. And I think the magic is really within us. And tarot astrology,

00:13:59.500 I think ultimately, that's where it leads you is to realize that if you're looking for

00:14:03.320 all the answers outside of yourself, ultimately, what you're going to find is, gee, you know,

00:14:07.320 it's kind of within yourself, you know, what's going on. So don't assume you don't, we all

00:14:12.300 have that wisdom that has been passed down to us through various incarnations and through

00:14:18.420 the life lessons and our life experiences, it's there.

00:14:23.400 Do you feel like there was a part of you

00:14:27.280 that spent a bunch of time memorizing interpretations

00:14:31.000 for cards to be able to speak the language

00:14:33.480 to give an answer that you kind of already knew?

00:14:36.180 Well, first of all, I think when people

00:14:37.340 are first learning tarot, you do kind of have to memorize,

00:14:40.460 you have to memorize something with those cards.

00:14:41.980 You have to build a foundation.

00:14:43.680 You can't just like wing it and say

00:14:45.100 whatever the hell's off your head.

00:14:46.460 Right.

00:14:47.240 because first of all, that doesn't honor the traditions of tarot. And I think that's lazy as

00:14:51.520 hell. And I think if you're just making up things off the top of your head, would I feel then like

00:14:55.940 I could go to a tarot conference and go up to Mary Kate Greer and start just, you know, flapping my

00:15:01.760 gums and saying, no, this is what I think it means. Who cares what you think it means? So let's go

00:15:06.440 ahead and start getting the bones down. Because when you understand the history, the foundation,

00:15:13.540 with the foundational meanings the numbers the symbols when you understand those basics

00:15:20.500 now your interpretation will work beautifully because you've got bones and you will find your

00:15:27.640 own words start to flow and your intuition starts working so if i had to like create an analogy

00:15:32.780 you know learning the foundation is like you're building a house so we want to build a solid

00:15:37.820 house on solid foundation but then your intuition that is the interior designer that's coming along

00:15:43.360 and giving it that flair so definitely learn the foundation and I know there are a few people that

00:15:50.020 are out there telling people oh just say whatever comes to your mind I'm like that really feels like

00:15:55.540 you're not honoring the whole you know everything that's there for you it is a structure by the way

00:16:01.560 it is a system and so it's same like with astrology you don't just like read one book and

00:16:07.080 all of a sudden you're an astrologer there's a lot that goes into it and once you have the

00:16:11.460 foundationals down. Well, of course, you're going to find

00:16:14.160 your intuition helps you to make some interpretations and

00:16:17.140 correlations, but you got to have foundations that haven't

00:16:20.560 in anything foundational knowledge is really important.

00:16:24.120 How did you start to have that relationship with tarot with

00:16:28.140 the cards?

00:16:29.520 Well, the first deck I got was the more size. Because that's

00:16:32.580 all that was available back then at the bookstore. And I got

00:16:36.220 the rural area. Like I said, I grew up with farm folks, there

00:16:38.460 was there was nothing. And so I got my hands on the Marsai's

00:16:41.680 tarot. And it's a very, very hard tarot to start with. And I

00:16:46.080 was 15. And I was determined. And so you know, I just began

00:16:50.520 reading the little white book that came with it. And I had to

00:16:53.760 memorize those things because the pips were not illustrated.

00:16:57.360 I mean, you're just looking at seven swords. What the hell does

00:16:59.840 that mean? Well, let me look up that little book. Oh, okay. Now

00:17:02.880 we're seeing how this goes together. So when I first began,

00:17:06.860 I really had to rely on that book, because the pictures were so, you know, vague. And

00:17:13.200 then it was a couple months later, I got a Rider Waite Smith deck. Now the Rider Waite

00:17:17.220 Smith deck, the brilliance is, is that all the pips are illustrated. So now you kind

00:17:21.300 of have an idea, but I already had the Marseille's foundation. So I already knew, you know, like,

00:17:26.380 for example, the Seven of Swords was some kind of treachery or skullduggery going on.

00:17:31.840 And then when I saw the card, I'm like, Oh, well, this illustrates that perfectly. So

00:17:36.000 really actually helped with my interpretations because I'm a visual person. But it really was

00:17:40.480 sitting down, reading the book, practicing with whoever the hell would let me practice with them.

00:17:45.920 And the more size again is a hard hard deck. But you know, if you're really hungry to learn this

00:17:50.720 stuff, and that's all you got, you're gonna do what you got to do. How old were you when when

00:17:57.200 you had that first encounter with the deck? 15 15 15 is when I got my intro to astrology and my

00:18:04.000 intro to tarot. Everything happened at 15. Hmm. It's funny. We're kind of magical beings, I think,

00:18:10.480 in our teens. I think teenagers are the most magical. You know, it's really funny. I'm a

00:18:16.320 parent. I've got two grown children. I have a new grandbaby. Oh, thank you. The grandbaby is adorable.

00:18:22.560 But I gotta say when my kids became teenagers, I enjoyed them so much more than when they were

00:18:28.240 little. And that sounds weird because everyone says, Oh my God, teenagers tell me what? You're

00:18:32.720 nuts. They're so interesting. They're so weird. They're so terrible. They're funny. You see who 1.00

00:18:38.060 they're becoming and their interests. And you see them pulling away. And I just loved that phase.

00:18:43.820 And I think also, you know, I remember so well being a teenager. It was such an important time

00:18:50.080 in my life. Not because I was one of those people into proms or any of that crap. I wasn't one of 0.92

00:18:54.520 those. But I was a seeker. I was a seeker. And I liked everything that was dark and scary. And I

00:19:01.940 remember my art teacher used to say, you're very adult. Your art is too adult. Everything you're

00:19:07.700 doing is too adult. Like, you know what I want to be when I grow up? I want to be an adult. I want

00:19:12.020 to get the hell out of here. And I want to do adult things. So as a teenager, I remember just

00:19:17.580 really being so aware of all that stuff. And of course, that's what drew me then to wanting to

00:19:23.060 learn astrology. And here I want to figure out who the hell I am and how to get out of this place

00:19:27.080 I'm living in how do I get out of this one horse town you know so I I I sympathize with teenagers 0.97

00:19:33.180 I love teenagers yeah me too and I I agree with you I have such strong memories of

00:19:39.480 like especially now the work I do now and getting to talk to people like yourself that brings me

00:19:46.120 back and I'm being in the room that I was a teenager in right now it's all painted over now

00:19:51.680 It's all nice and mossy green in here now, but there's a lot of anger in here and a lot

00:19:58.040 of like pretty clear connection to my intuition and to the points of magic and to a sense

00:20:04.180 that the world could change and that it must.

00:20:07.740 And the world is always changing.

00:20:09.500 It's so much more different now.

00:20:11.500 And I mean, I know there's some things going on that are bad.

00:20:13.960 Okay.

00:20:14.320 So let's not be, I don't want to be like Pollyanna, but there are also some things that are so

00:20:18.920 much better.

00:20:19.540 so much better i one of the things i always say listen back in the day when you wanted to learn

00:20:27.180 tarot astrology you were screwed if you didn't have a teacher there weren't as many books as

00:20:31.640 there are now the tarot decks there were there were plenty i guess but it was not always accessible 0.70

00:20:37.780 now you got the internet one click boom you can find this book that book this vintage book that

00:20:43.640 deck oh my god there's a deck with cats oh my god there's a deck with baseball players i look at

00:20:48.380 nowadays I'm like, all right, there's, yeah, there's some crappy things going on, but oh my

00:20:51.620 God, the technology. Oh my God, how we can connect. It sounds like you're kind of an optimist. I

00:20:57.340 wonder when you look at the stars and you look at where the world is now, does it make you feel

00:21:04.120 hopeful? Well, there's two things that make me feel hopeful. One, I look at the historical cycles

00:21:11.340 of astrology and I'm like, oh, we've been here before and we got through it and we'll get through

00:21:16.880 this and also the young people of today blow me away i again let me get back to those teenagers

00:21:24.880 those young adults oh my god they are so smart and compassionate and tolerant and wise and they're

00:21:33.760 doing some great things right now the us is in their pluto return and a pluto return happens once

00:21:38.960 every once every 200 and something years and so we as individuals don't have pluto returns but

00:21:45.760 countries and cities and maybe companies have them and it tends to be a time that's very volatile

00:21:52.240 and the last time or the first time this is the united states first pluto return

00:21:58.000 when this country was quote unquote founded aka stolen what happened was we broke away from

00:22:03.840 england we decided hey you know screw you we're doing our own thing here we're we're gonna be

00:22:09.200 signing this declaration of independence and so that was when the country was founded now

00:22:15.440 our first Pluto return is here and it's been here operating since 2008. And during a Pluto return,

00:22:22.400 it's a time to tear down the old institutions and rebuild them. And the old institutions,

00:22:28.160 if we think about this country being, and I'm using air quotes, founded, was by a bunch of 0.93

00:22:34.080 white dudes. Our country doesn't look like that anymore. And so what's happening now is they're 0.92

00:22:40.080 trying to push us down. Kind of like England was trying to not allow us to be independent.

00:22:46.160 And it isn't going to work. It didn't work that time. It ain't going to work. If they think that

00:22:51.520 all the things they're doing right now are going to work. It's like you forget history. I look at

00:22:56.240 what's going on. I'm like, Oh, we're going to be fine. We'll be fine. We got the young people,

00:23:00.320 these beautiful young people. They blow me away. They humble me. And I'm like,

00:23:05.920 Like this generation is better than mine. 0.98

00:23:08.080 You mentioned the Rider-Waite-Smith. 0.92

00:23:10.560 Is that still your deck of choice?

00:23:13.440 The Rider-Waite-Smith is my workhorse deck.

00:23:16.460 Right. 0.98

00:23:16.840 That's what I'll use.

00:23:17.760 Or I use a version called the Wiser Tarot, which is a modernized version of the Rider-Waite-Smith.

00:23:22.880 It's got watercolors and it also has representation, which is really important because everybody needs to see themselves in the cards.

00:23:31.940 So that's my workhorse deck.

00:23:33.640 but my favorite deck of all time is the baroque bohemian cats tarot it is adorable it's cat

00:23:39.400 victorian clothes i love that deck no one ever gets to touch that one no one gets to touch that

00:23:44.360 deck so why do you think the the rider wait smith is still like the workhorse deck for so many

00:23:51.400 people why do you think that that one deck still connects so because it's a classic i love pixie so

00:23:58.280 much that's the first episode i wrote for missing witches was digging into her story sometimes i

00:24:03.240 see her when i'm pulling cards for myself that's why i asked about if you see somebody you know so

00:24:07.800 and i know it's my a version of myself but i feel her i still have a presence of like a feminine

00:24:14.920 and also kind of queer and playful storyteller presence when i'm playing with her deck those

00:24:20.920 were my vibes about it what are yours i think it's a classic you know it's like it's like a

00:24:26.040 striped t-shirt it's a classic it always wears well and so i think it you know that's first of

00:24:31.800 ball it's classic i think also because it is classic so many people are familiar with the

00:24:36.660 images so when you pull that out in front of people they know what you're talking about

00:24:39.740 they know which card when you mention the emperor most people will think of the emperor from the

00:24:44.560 rider with smith deck you know it is easy for people to connect with that because tarot is so

00:24:50.100 so connected with that deck and because it is the first deck that i really started to read from even

00:24:57.740 the liver sizes deck number one, the rider with Smith deck is when those

00:25:02.180 readings start to sing.

00:25:03.700 So for me, it's like, it's always the go-to deck.

00:25:06.380 I've got drawers filled with decks, but the workhorse deck will always be the

00:25:11.940 rider with Smith or again, the wiser, which is the modern interpretation.

00:25:15.840 Are there cards that you think maybe the common interpretation is lacking?

00:25:23.540 Like, are there sometimes cards where you're like, people are missing this

00:25:26.640 peace on the Hierophant. Cheryl and I were talking, who's here now in the, in the audience,

00:25:31.600 we're talking about the Hierophant today. They have a picture of it behind them on their walls.

00:25:35.600 Are there cards like that where you're like, oh, there's this subtlety to this that I don't think

00:25:39.760 gets picked up on enough. I think you can find lots of different little subtle interpretations

00:25:45.360 in every one of those cards. There's always going to be something you miss.

00:25:49.280 There's always going to be something you haven't thought about. And you know, there are so many

00:25:53.680 quote unquote standard interpretations that are really actually dry and tarot is so so richer than

00:25:59.200 that and as we work with different people in different scenarios and read for these

00:26:04.800 various situations they take on so many other meanings so like for the hierophant for example

00:26:12.240 what do we always think about obedience conformity you know religious rights and rules we think of an

00:26:17.600 uptight dude telling people what to do you know but when you look at the card and i mean let me

00:26:22.960 go grab my higher fit out of here what about those keys between his feet what about those communion

00:26:29.600 slippers they look like communion wafers to me i mean i always thought that was really weird that

00:26:33.760 nobody ever said that about it but like what the hell has he got these communion wafers on his

00:26:39.920 shoes you know look at the look at the way he's holding his hand it's a benediction maybe instead

00:26:46.000 of him laying down the law, maybe this dude is actually giving a blessing and telling people,

00:26:50.660 you know, go out and do your own thing. We can get so hung up on those quote unquote standard

00:26:55.860 interpretations that we can miss all kinds of various ways of looking at it. So again, if you

00:27:01.980 look closely at his beat, there's little, they look like communion wafers on his shoes.

00:27:07.520 And I just always thought that was fascinating because I grew up Catholic. I'm not a practicing

00:27:12.600 catholic any longer i like the art though but what did we know about communion wafers well when you

00:27:18.760 took the communion wafer you put in the body of christ in you you know and now that's got a lot

00:27:23.880 of meaning what i mean you can look at those slippers then and you can start thinking all

00:27:28.600 kinds of different types of things what are we putting in ourselves what are we ingesting you

00:27:34.200 can ask these questions i mean there's so much packed in that hierophant but i don't think the

00:27:39.640 the hierophant is as uptight as people think it is. I really don't. Those fingers say everything

00:27:44.740 to me. It's like, nah, he's telling, yeah, go on and do your thing. That's a great example of

00:27:51.160 exactly what I was thinking about. And you said it better than I did. But I find so often when

00:27:56.400 I'm like pulling cards and I don't have the right kind of memory to memorize the definitions, like

00:28:03.440 that's never really going to be a possibility for me. I always will have to pull and then

00:28:09.560 pull everything together and then drop it all that's how my brain works you know i have to

00:28:13.160 pull it all together and make something out of it and then drop it all and pull it all together

00:28:16.920 again but every time i go to pull those definitions for a card it's like nine times out of ten it

00:28:23.960 just doesn't feel as rich and as a nuanced and as weird as i think it really could be

00:28:33.080 yeah and i mean you never know what's this hierophant i mean first of all what i remember

00:28:37.240 when i started learning tarot the higher fit what the hell does that mean what does that mean i

00:28:41.960 remember just being fascinated how do i pronounce it what does it mean so i looked at that card as

00:28:48.040 being really super mysterious actually why do you call it the higher fit what is that you know what

00:28:55.000 is it i didn't get it and i think that that's why people also maybe come up with these more uptight

00:29:00.680 interpretations plus also if you did grow up catholic like i did you know those priests were

00:29:05.640 certainly for most people, a really negative uptight experience. I was actually very fortunate

00:29:11.080 because the priest that I grew up with was progressive and really kind and super nice.

00:29:17.080 So I did not have a terrible experience. I didn't experience that weird stuff. I mean,

00:29:22.600 my parents were like religious hypocrites, but the dude who was like running the show was actually 0.90

00:29:27.800 pretty cool. And so I only had good experiences with him, but I knew from a very young age,

00:29:33.720 i was never gonna be one who went to church as soon as i was an adult yeah i find it so interesting

00:29:40.040 to think about what what pixie was drawing on like what yeah what did we give her you know he

00:29:46.600 said he decided he could trust her and he would show her these these mystery books what did he

00:29:52.840 give her what were the notes like and then he also says you know he gave her basically no

00:29:57.880 instruction for anything else yeah arcana so that's just like her own reading you know what

00:30:05.560 do you know what i think is really fascinating about the rider waite smith deck and if you look

00:30:11.240 at all of the figures almost every single one the expression on the face is neutral

00:30:18.520 and i just think that is so fascinating why did she do that well she did that so we could

00:30:23.720 you know come up with many different interpretations not just one there's very few

00:30:28.200 that have a certain expression like the five of swords the dude is smirking but for the most part

00:30:33.880 when you look at the higher fin he's very neutral that's why again is this guy really like trying

00:30:38.520 to tell us off or is he just saying go do your thing what are we projecting on this right you

00:30:44.840 know so in a way the cards are kind of like a mirror where you can see whatever you want to

00:30:51.000 see in it most of them are neutral that's really fascinating to me me too do you maybe this is such

00:30:59.500 a beginner question and forgive me if it is do you believe in interpreting them differently if they

00:31:05.560 come up inverse like right side up or right side down i know some people do some people don't but

00:31:10.780 i don't know much about the debate around that well if you want to get terrible people mad start

00:31:15.240 talking about reversals. Oh my God. So many people have strong opinions about them. Now

00:31:20.740 I work with reversals. And the reason why I work with reversals is simply because when

00:31:26.080 I started working with tarot, you know, it said in the book, reversal. So I assumed you

00:31:30.480 had to learn reversals. I mean, I was like, what did I know? And I did not know that people

00:31:36.140 did not read with reversals until I was an adult on the internet. I mean, it took me

00:31:41.880 that long and i'm like oh my god am i the only one reading reversals what the hell and people

00:31:47.240 would tell me oh you don't need them oh they're too negative and i'm like but it gives you 78

00:31:52.040 other ways of looking at the card so you're getting a new perspective why wouldn't you want

00:31:57.000 more more than one perspective so for me reversals means that i get to look at the card in every

00:32:02.040 single direction and try to figure some stuff out here and does it change the meaning yeah absolutely

00:32:08.440 sometimes subtly sometimes more in your face i also have a few round decks and i've got this

00:32:14.680 one by martha e miller it's the natural tarot the natural ink tarot and i really recommend this deck

00:32:20.680 it's a round deck and she created it by making ink from all kinds of things in nature like trees

00:32:27.960 and leaves and all of that and so the deck is made with this handmade ink and the cool thing

00:32:34.360 about the round deck is sometimes the deck is turned on its side now i've got more interpretations

00:32:41.800 now maybe i'm just a greedy gemini but i love that so sometimes i'm like i need more interpretations

00:32:48.440 and i'll pull out that little round deck there's other round decks but that's the one i like for

00:32:52.280 the round decks martha e miller's deck you can find it on etsy if people are looking for it and

00:32:57.080 again it's called the natural ink tarot it reads brilliantly it's based on the rider wade smith

00:33:02.280 but it's round and let me tell you something it really works well and you get now more

00:33:06.760 interpretations oh i i i feel really drawn to that because what i don't like about

00:33:12.760 reading the inversions is i always feel like well maybe i should have shuffled differently like i

00:33:17.960 should have prepared the deck differently because i you know maybe i started with most of them right

00:33:22.520 way up and then i put just some of them in back in wrong and so it's not you know what i mean like i

00:33:27.400 can i can doubt myself like that but i love the idea with the round they're just kind of spinning

00:33:31.400 on their own yeah i mean that is so cool and i i love like i said the more the merrier for

00:33:38.600 interpretations and you know this is why again when you're learning tarot you want to learn the

00:33:45.800 meanings but then what you want to do is you want to read for as many different types of people in

00:33:50.360 many different types of situations as you can because suddenly now that card okay let's look

00:33:55.960 at the hierophant for example since he's in my face let's say you just pull it for random guidance

00:34:02.680 and maybe the guidance you might get is like oh you need to take your issues to a wise counselor

00:34:08.360 they'll help you sort it out that's your guidance but let's say you're asking a specific question

00:34:13.880 now you're asking about your work this might say okay the boss is going to be really acting like

00:34:18.200 a dictator today or maybe you ask about your relationship and this card then you might look

00:34:23.960 and say oh i see a wedding now let's say it's reversed and you're asking about your kids they're

00:34:29.720 going to be on a full-on rebellion or maybe it's reverse and now you're asking about work and this

00:34:34.360 could be you're getting let go i mean there's so many ways you can look at these cards and the

00:34:39.800 only way you're going to learn that is by reading for every type of situation and every type of

00:34:44.440 person that you can imagine from every age group from 13 all the way up to 95 open your mind and

00:34:52.920 boy let me tell you those cards are going to open up they're going to open up in ways you have never

00:34:57.640 imagined i've had all kinds of bizarre readings because you know i've read for the public and i

00:35:03.000 was a high volume reader for many years and i would have situations that were so weird and

00:35:08.440 interpretations that i would be laying on like what the hell am i about to say and it would be

00:35:13.960 like so spot on and just so off the wall and not maybe what you would think of when it came to that

00:35:20.120 that particular cart, but that you're only going to experience

00:35:22.880 that if you read for many, many people.

00:35:26.720 Do you feel like tarot is, it's funny to use the word medium,

00:35:32.020 but tarot is a medium that you use and it could have been

00:35:34.860 something else that allowed you to have the perceptions that

00:35:39.800 you, that were inside of you, that you were maybe going to

00:35:42.160 be able to have anyway.

00:35:44.220 I think tarot is a tool.

00:35:46.280 It's a tool.

00:35:46.920 And I grew up and now remember, I said, I grew up with farm folks.

00:35:50.420 Well, here's the thing with farm folks, they're very superstitious, at least the

00:35:53.680 ones I grew up with, my parents were both eighth grade educated.

00:35:57.640 That's it.

00:35:58.160 They stopped at eighth grade.

00:35:59.360 And oftentimes I wonder how the hell did these two make it in the world?

00:36:03.400 Right.

00:36:03.660 You know, they were very, very simple, very, you know, undereducated, but my

00:36:08.600 mother was very, very psychic.

00:36:10.440 My dad was pretty perceptive too.

00:36:12.420 And a lot of times what I found being around farm folks, they tend to really

00:36:15.720 go with their gut and the cycles of the moon and all that stuff. They're kind of witchy, even if

00:36:20.360 they don't think they are. And because our family was really super Catholic, there was all the 1.00

00:36:24.960 superstition. My grandmother would like candles at every storm. There'd be prayers. You'd pray to

00:36:29.680 this saint, that saint. So I grew up in this household where maybe nobody read books, but

00:36:36.600 there was all kinds of like belief and dreams or intuition. And my mother would have these psychic

00:36:42.440 things happening, this weird phenomena. And we just took it for granted. So I was always really

00:36:48.520 attuned to energy like that, just because I grew up in a household that didn't squash that, like

00:36:53.480 it was weird. That was like, oh yeah, you had that sign. That's what that means. And so be it.

00:36:59.240 You know, my mother had this one that was really super dramatic. I always love telling this. One

00:37:04.200 of her big signs, the doorbell would ring and only her and the dog would hear it. And she'd go running 0.90

00:37:11.440 to the door she'd open it up there'd be nobody there she slammed the door shut and turn around 1.00

00:37:15.680 really dramatic and she had a mood of leo so my mother was very dramatic and she said 0.99

00:37:18.800 there's gonna be a funeral in a few days and there would always be a funeral within a few days now

00:37:24.880 was that psychic or was it just the fact that we had a gigantic family so the odds were in her

00:37:29.120 favor who knows but growing up with that there's something about that that's very magical yeah and

00:37:36.480 so i was always very attuned to things like intuition and the idea of magical things

00:37:44.000 none of that was weird to me so as far as tarot being a medium again it's a tool do i need it no

00:37:50.400 sometimes i get on my own weird things and prophecies which my husband thinks are very

00:37:55.200 witchy and i'm like okay listen i had a dream this what's gonna happen and stuff goes down

00:37:59.920 alone and we believe yeah yeah it's funny a lot of that stuff I would keep to myself or I would

00:38:06.960 frame it in a way that was like non-threatening to people you know just like but increasingly

00:38:13.380 being in the woods and being surrounded by people where it's a little bit easier it's a little bit

00:38:17.840 easier to be like I know that this is going to happen like I know that you will own this you

00:38:23.260 will own this house and that like I just I don't know I don't know what to tell you about that but

00:38:29.920 You know, I got to tell you, there's some people who really freak out about that.

00:38:34.280 There's people who want to prove psychics to be wrong.

00:38:37.240 They think like, oh, you can't talk to the dead.

00:38:40.280 Dreams are, you know, whatever.

00:38:42.560 But if you are approaching things from that perspective, well, you will never know magic.

00:38:47.600 If that's the way you're going to learn it, you're never going to know what it feels like

00:38:50.060 to experience a miracle.

00:38:51.600 And you're never going to.

00:38:52.600 It's not true.

00:38:53.600 Yeah.

00:38:54.600 Yeah.

00:38:55.600 And that's, that's totally fine.

00:38:56.600 If you don't believe in me thing.

00:38:58.300 things i i always say i'm not here to convert anybody if you're not into it i don't care

00:39:01.980 yeah i'm not interested in converting you and i always say i'm not into sports don't try to

00:39:06.540 convert me it will never happen you're wasting your time you're never going to see me at a

00:39:10.700 basketball game so don't even bother it's the same thing yeah yeah we don't need to like the same

00:39:16.860 things and yeah maybe i'm missing out on something you know maybe i need to get into it but i don't

00:39:21.900 want to. I would love if it's okay with you to open it up to see if the folks listening

00:39:29.720 have a question or just a response. But before we get into anything like that, I like to

00:39:36.540 kind of make sure the episode feels like spiraled into a tidy place for myself and

00:39:43.580 my brain before I open it up to other people. And so that would one mean thanking you so

00:39:48.840 much. It's so fun to get to spend more time with you. I want to come visit you and hang out with

00:39:53.040 you. And two, I like to ask if there is a practice, a ritual, a song, a habit, a spell. Is there

00:40:06.540 something that is like working for you now that you don't mind sharing with our listeners kind

00:40:13.300 of as a way that they can be closer to you and to the ways that you've learned or practiced?

00:40:18.840 Well, I am very musically inclined, although I have no musical talent.

00:40:24.200 And I believe that everything and everyone has a soundtrack.

00:40:28.280 And so I have soundtracks for everything.

00:40:30.160 I have soundtracks for every person in my life in the back of my head.

00:40:34.480 And I have soundtracks for every single tarot card in the deck.

00:40:38.560 I think if you create a song that you can, that will remind you of each additional card,

00:40:45.840 that can really be a way, first of all, to help learn.

00:40:48.220 also I call this musical oracles okay so not only do I have a soundtrack for everything but I always

00:40:54.060 pay attention to music and like for example if I'm doing a reading and I don't read for the public

00:40:58.940 anymore but when I would do readings sometimes I would get lyrics that would come through me

00:41:03.900 and I'm like okay well hey I got this lyric from this Bowie song does this mean anything to you

00:41:08.460 and it would blow people away but I look for musical oracles all the time I will be doing

00:41:13.740 something, a song comes on, and I'll be kind of like half listening to the lyrics. And all of a

00:41:18.620 sudden, I'll be like, I got the message. Thank you. So music is very important to me. I've always

00:41:24.660 lived with musicians all my entire adult life. I've always hung out with musicians. I've only

00:41:29.420 dated musicians. I say, I don't know what it's like to date a normal person. I've always been

00:41:34.200 around musicians, musicians, musicians by the time I was old and up to date. And music is also

00:41:41.360 really a big big part of my intuition and so one thing that people can do pay attention the music

00:41:47.760 that plays around you randomly it's probably not random listen for the message there connect a song

00:41:53.600 for every card in your deck that will help you to form your own special relationship with that card

00:41:59.440 and also connect songs to people i definitely do that i don't tell people what their song is

00:42:05.840 It's just for my own personal reference.

00:42:09.440 And sometimes if it's someone who's passed on, I'll hear the song.

00:42:14.220 And I look at that, like if it comes on randomly, that is a message from so-and-so.

00:42:18.460 So music really plays a big part of my intuitive processing.

00:42:21.840 Wow.

00:42:22.840 That is so interesting.

00:42:25.080 I think, especially when you think about, you know, we're trying to, I feel like culturally

00:42:30.420 wrap our heads around the implications of neurodiversity and how narrow our understanding

00:42:35.780 of that has been and how joyful it can be to kind of bust that open. But also there's some

00:42:41.000 mourning involved in that, like, geez, we were really stuck in this tiny little thing. In this

00:42:46.480 way, in addition to all these other ways, we were kind of stuck. But it's tricky to kind of adapt

00:42:51.400 magical practices, spiritual practices, divinatory practices, religious practices,

00:42:56.940 to our different neurodiversities. So I think that that approach of tying it to music

00:43:04.520 could be really useful for. It's helpful. Music is everything. Music is life. Musicians blow me

00:43:12.320 away because of the way their minds work. They fascinate me. I was watching a documentary

00:43:17.280 on the Bee Gees. Now I'm not a big disco person, but once in a while I'll get my disco on.

00:43:22.720 And in this documentary, Barry Gibb was talking about the time they were driving and he heard

00:43:29.120 this, like the tire had some kind of like something wrong with it.

00:43:33.260 So it would hit and it would make this noise.

00:43:35.960 And he said he was sitting in the back of the car just listening to that.

00:43:40.120 And he got home and it was in his head.

00:43:42.840 And from that, he wrote Jive Talking.

00:43:45.660 That blew me away. 1.00

00:43:48.140 Musicians' minds work very much.

00:43:50.480 Musicians and artists work very much like tarot readers.

00:43:53.480 Very, very, very much.

00:43:55.480 They're also looking for inspiration and signs and all that stuff.

00:43:59.480 How do you pull a song out of thin air?

00:44:02.480 How do you do that?

00:44:04.480 How do you make a prophecy about the future?

00:44:07.480 How do we do this?

00:44:08.480 How do we make magic happen?

00:44:10.480 I mean, it really is pretty fascinating.

00:44:12.480 Those are questions that I never get sick of asking ever, ever, ever.

00:44:18.480 music is tied very, very strongly to my life. Incredibly. I think next lifetime, I'll be a

00:44:22.960 musician. It sounds like you've probably inspired some songs in your life. I don't know if I've

00:44:29.120 inspired any. I mean, you did a lot of musicians for sure. There are songs out there about you,

00:44:34.800 Teresa. There might be something out there. Who knows? Who knows? Would you be willing to tell us

00:44:40.560 a song for you for the Hierophant? Oh, the song for the Hierophant. We're really in a Hierophant

00:44:46.480 mood okay the authority song by john mellencamp okay that's what i put for the higher fence

00:44:54.000 authority song yeah because you know we look at the higher fit like again like they're trying to

00:44:58.720 lay down the law but that song has actually got quite a bit about rebellion and about getting

00:45:03.920 your ass kicked by authority it's a really really kind of a fun song cool we reverse that card for

00:45:12.080 for the Hierophant, if I had to pick a song, 0.99

00:45:14.160 it would, of course, be Rebel Rebel by David Bowie.

00:45:16.420 It would have to be.

00:45:18.200 Of course.

00:45:21.060 I don't really have much of a question.

00:45:23.440 I'm a newbie to this whole thing, kind of.

00:45:26.960 50-year-old newbie.

00:45:28.660 I kind of wanted to play with it when I was a teenager,

00:45:31.320 and I did something wrong, and I hurt people,

00:45:34.600 and I ran away really fast.

00:45:36.920 But my heart kind of always kept calling me back.

00:45:39.380 and tarot is one of those things that is has always seemed so extremely daunting in my brain

00:45:47.380 because I I I'm a lot like where I'm not going to ever memorize it I have a brain disease but so I

00:45:56.500 have actual physical damage in my brain and sometimes just working I'm working today just

00:46:02.720 working is enough for me to just go I'm so done by the end of the day to try to learn anything

00:46:07.560 no i just can't and i want to learn this i just i'm gonna have to find ways to do cheat sheets

00:46:13.340 i just know what let me tell you when i work with my students who are very new

00:46:17.900 one of the things i tell them get a tarot deck get anyone probably a writer wait smith get a 0.95

00:46:23.540 black marker and write the meaning on the damn card as a don't worry about wrecking the deck 0.94

00:46:29.060 you can buy a new one but really that that works like magic because suddenly you're it's like 0.99

00:46:35.900 giving your tarot card some training wheels and it will help you like just pick some keywords that

00:46:41.960 help that help you get the essence of the card write it in marker and then turn the card reverse

00:46:47.140 write the reversal on the upside down let me tell you it will work it will help you and you might

00:46:53.020 find that you prefer that maybe you'll stick with your deck like that forever there is no shame in

00:46:58.480 that i mean keywords are helpful and why not write on those cards they're just paper who cares

00:47:03.660 you just gave me the best thank you i i attended you know yesterday we had jasper's class

00:47:11.140 tarot class and i attended that and it was it was sweet and it was nice but now i'm gonna have to

00:47:17.220 just dive on my own in that thank you you just gave me such peace knowing that me doing that

00:47:23.820 isn't going to be like wrong and i did give myself a i got it i got a deck on amazon i know we really

00:47:30.120 shouldn't be dealing with that. But it was so freaking cheap. I couldn't resist. I'm going to

00:47:34.820 say something controversial about Amazon and Walmart. There are a lot of people say you should

00:47:39.360 only do indie. You got to support all the local bookstores, blah, blah, blah. And for some people,

00:47:45.880 okay, you may live in an area where that's not possible. I know plenty of folks who live in

00:47:50.500 rural areas. The only way they're going to get their hands on a tarot deck or book is through

00:47:53.820 Amazon or Walmart. And I never judge somebody if they have to get it from that source because

00:47:59.440 if that's it listen again I grew up in a rural area how I would have given my IT to have Amazon

00:48:05.640 I had to wait until we went to the mall which was a rare thing and had to save up the money to get

00:48:11.360 it and everything was more expensive because we didn't have the money so there's no shame in

00:48:16.220 Amazon there's no shame in Walmart and also like for example too you know there are people also

00:48:22.180 who are physically they have issues and to have somebody deliver things to your house

00:48:27.300 is a blessing so i'm all about if it's amazon if there is walmart don't let anyone shame you

00:48:33.200 if it works for you it's nobody's business thank you nobody's business you've just done thank you

00:48:39.400 seriously i sincerely i have to i'm gonna cry i'm very emotional so thank you i'm gonna shut up now

00:48:45.860 because i will cry thank you okay no problem and i will also add that when people get mad at folks

00:48:52.440 for shopping at Walmart or Amazon, there's something about that that's very puritanical

00:48:57.800 and classist. And it's like, you don't understand it. Maybe you didn't grow up poor. Maybe you are

00:49:04.780 someone who can be able-bodied to go to the store, to go to your local indie bookstore.

00:49:09.300 You know, so I just think we have to be very, very careful about passing judgment on folks

00:49:13.400 for that. All I care about is that you got a tarot deck in your hands. I don't care how you got it.

00:49:18.640 I don't care where you got it from. I'm just happy you have a tarot deck.

00:49:22.440 Teresa, by any chance, did you have a, I had a big feeling when Hope said I did something

00:49:31.000 wrong and I hurt somebody when she talked about her first encounter with Tara, like

00:49:36.100 I just wanted to wrap Hope in my arms and tell her that, that, that, that wasn't her

00:49:42.200 somehow.

00:49:43.240 She didn't hurt anybody.

00:49:44.280 It didn't hurt anybody.

00:49:45.320 Did you, did you want to respond to that at all?

00:49:47.480 I don't know.

00:49:47.940 So here's the thing, you know, sometimes, especially when you first begin, you might

00:49:53.740 use words carelessly and say something that later you think, I could have probably said

00:49:58.080 that differently.

00:49:59.240 Or maybe you'll interpret something based on the book that says like, oh, the devil's

00:50:03.420 negative.

00:50:04.320 And maybe the devil's not really meaning anything negative.

00:50:06.380 So there are going to be times where your words or the way you put things together,

00:50:10.360 you may assume it causes harm.

00:50:13.180 But that's how we learn to become good readers.

00:50:16.520 You're going to make mistakes.

00:50:17.520 you're sometimes going to open your mouth. And don't get me wrong, if anybody ever thought I was

00:50:21.260 the smoothest tarot reader right from the get-go, hell no. I did some readings that were like,

00:50:26.660 oh my God, what did I just say? And I was doing it when I was a teenager. So of course,

00:50:31.380 everyone expects you to be a jerk when you're a teenager. So I mean, it didn't do maybe too much, 1.00

00:50:37.040 who knows. But that's how you learn. You're going to make mistakes. You're probably going to say

00:50:42.300 something really super negative. Maybe someone's going to freak out. They don't like the reading.

00:50:46.340 those things will happen that's how you become a good reader that is how you become a good reader

00:50:50.700 sitting with that saying okay let me take the data what went wrong here why did this feel like this

00:50:56.160 was a negative thing what's going on what do I need to process so look at it as an opportunity

00:51:01.920 for inquiry not condemnation that because you're going to make mistakes now here's the thing for

00:51:08.840 tarot readers and I've been around lots of tarot readers in my life too the tarot readers who do

00:51:15.340 the most harm are the ones that tell folks you got a curse on you give me x amount of dollars

00:51:20.380 to take that curse off of you now that's doing harm saying a careless word or sometimes giving

00:51:25.740 a wrong prediction that's human we're going to make mistakes you're going to do that that's part

00:51:30.940 of learning to be a good reader that's not causing harm what's causing harm are the people who are

00:51:35.420 trying to rip folks off that's where the problem is so i have a feeling you probably didn't do

00:51:41.660 anything as terrible as you thought, that you're probably being way too hard on yourself. And you

00:51:46.540 were also not being forgiving when you're in the learning cycle. In the learning cycle, you are

00:51:50.820 going to open your mouth and you're going to say all the things. And believe me again, I've said

00:51:54.240 some things. I was a teenager. I mean, that's like giving a teenager a card, a six pack of beer.

00:52:00.040 That's what tarot is like when you're a teenager. Lots of bad things could happen. But that's how

00:52:04.680 we learn. So don't beat yourself up. You ain't going to learn if every reading is like gumdrops

00:52:10.600 and sugar bears and all that stuff.

00:52:12.400 That's not the way it is.

00:52:13.700 You're going to make mistakes and not every reading is right.

00:52:17.020 Not every reading is going to be positive, but then we learn from that.

00:52:19.900 And then we learn how to empower people.

00:52:22.220 It takes time to get there.

00:52:24.100 It takes time.

00:52:24.700 And by the way, there's a lot of people, I'm going to say, this is a controversial

00:52:27.680 opinion who are in such a hurry to monetize their tarot habit or hobby or habit,

00:52:33.760 whatever you want to call it.

00:52:34.660 They're in such a hurry and they'll like read a book, they'll do tarot for six

00:52:39.580 months, and now they're a professional tarot reader. I read tarot for 10 years unpaid before

00:52:46.620 I became pro. 10 years under my belt, high volume reading, reading at bars, reading wherever

00:52:52.640 anybody would let me. Lots and lots and lots of readings. And so I had a lot of experience under

00:52:58.340 my belt and made a lot of mistakes 10 years. And that is really important. And I think people

00:53:06.100 also they hear a myth because there's some of these tarot teachers that say oh take this class

00:53:10.340 and in six weeks you get a certification and now you're a professional it's like you're doing damage

00:53:15.380 because here's the thing a good tarot reader is going to do you're going to take time you're

00:53:18.900 going to do many different readings but you also have to learn how to deliver information and a

00:53:24.740 good teacher is going to teach you that they're also going to teach you what do you do if you

00:53:28.420 have a client how do you talk them off the wall if they're on the ledge how do you deal with

00:53:33.140 somebody who's got a really complicated situation what do you do if somebody's coming to you and

00:53:38.100 they confess a crime what do you do if you're going to a tarot party and you walk in a true

00:53:43.780 story by the way i walked in it was a gang that i got hired to do readings for and i'm reading

00:53:49.620 for these people the head gang guy and he goes so can i trust this person can i trust this now let

00:53:56.340 me tell you something doing those readings i'm sweating the entire time turning over the cards

00:54:00.500 and praying please don't let me turn over something negative and i get somebody killed tonight

00:54:04.820 i mean nobody prepares you for this and that's why you do need time and you need to work with

00:54:11.860 good teachers who are going to prepare you for every possible scenario what do you do if you

00:54:17.140 have someone breaking down in front of you what do you do if somebody presents you with a moral

00:54:22.580 dilemma and you don't want to be a judgy i mean there's so much that goes into reading professionally

00:54:29.860 and i when i see these people that come straight out of the gate reading one book taking one class

00:54:34.660 and they're doing professionalism i'm like number one you're not going to last those people never

00:54:39.220 last long and number two now we're going to create problems because you're pro before you're ready

00:54:44.260 so i probably would guess that you weren't trying to be a pro back then hope you did a couple

00:54:49.700 readings you got freaked out and that's okay that's part of the learning process but you weren't

00:54:54.340 out there trying to charge a bunch of money those are the people who are more dangerous

00:54:57.460 that's dangerous stuff you need time develop your voice learn how to be a responsible reader

00:55:03.460 learn to be responsible with your words thank you so much thank you all of you so nice to see your

00:55:10.340 faces remember that we're called to this work we're drawn to this tool tarot or or whatever it

00:55:21.540 is because i think as you said theresa there's already something in you that is offering those

00:55:28.580 insights so but do the work we'll get the bones we'll get the foundation we'll wreck the deck

00:55:35.860 but also recognize yeah there's there's a live wire that's that's part of you 0.98

00:55:41.380 mm-hmm well said and bless it fucking be i guess 0.98

00:55:48.620 right on 1.00

00:55:52.840 you must be a witch

00:55:58.460 the missing witches podcast is created by risa dickens and amy torok with insight and support

00:56:06.380 from the coven. Amy and Risa are the co-authors of Missing Witches, Reclaiming True Histories of

00:56:11.820 Feminist Magic, which is available now wherever you get your books or audiobooks, and of New Moon

00:56:18.400 Magic, 13 Anti-Capitalist Tools for Resistance and Re-enchantment, coming fall 2023.

Missing Witches - August 03, 2023

WF Theresa Reed AKA The Tarot Lady： Wreck Your Deck

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