Just Give me a Sign

Poor woman.  She came to me for a reading,  and the cards just hated the man she had recently started dating exclusively.  She drew The Devil,  Judgment reversed,  10 of swords. 

So we spoke for a long time about him and her feelings and how she wants it to work.  The cards were really clear,  and they did not see it working. 

And just before we ended,  she said to me that her friends don't like him and her therapist doesn't like him but she wanted to speak to a psychic,  and now I didn't like him (I don't know him! I just told her what the cards told me.)  She feels we are all being unsupportive and she is going to keep seeing him,  anyways. 

I felt like I was watching Steve Martin,  the The Man with Two Brains

She's getting all the signs,  she just doesn't want to hear them! I finally told her to come back in 6 months,  and we'll see where she is from there.  I know she is going to be disappointed in him,  but me knowing,  and her believing are two different things... 

How 'new' is the new boyfriend

A woman came in for her third reading with me.  I first met her 5 years ago and she was dating someone, let's call him Ian.  The cards never liked him.  She didn't like him all that much either,  but there are reasons people stay in relationships,  and it while was not great,  it was comfortable enough.

Finally,  on the third reading she came to tell me that they had broken up, he had moved out and she had meet someone new!  Let's call him Sam.

So he's richer, more accomplished, more together. Do the cards like him?

She drew Queen Pentacles Reversed / 7 swords / Devil.

Oh dear. 

When you draw the Devil card around your new relationship it often means that while the man is new,  the pattern is old - you are repeating old bad addictive patterns.

She turns herself upside down for her relationships,  her very fine Queen is reversed,  and the 7 of swords - the card of betrayal,  either he betrays her or she betrays herself and it all ends up with the Devil,  the same old song.  This is just Ian mark 2.

So we had a long discussion of what draws her to men,  what she finds attractive,  what pattern is repeating.  She sighed. She wasn't happy but she did agree with everything I and the cards said.  It was time to break the pattern,  let the attractive Devil go and look for someone she can just be herself with.

I hope she lets herself do that! 

The second question - finding work

After love,  the other most common question that people have when they come to me is about work.  

If you have options,  I ask you to give me no information,  just think about Job A,  Job B,  Job C etc and we draw cards and the discuss.  I laughed when one client drew the devil for his start up job and the 8 of pentacles for his much more stable,  still in a great industry,  job.  I told him I was glad I didn't know so it didn't look like I was guiding him to the more conservative,  reliable job.  And that it's clear that start ups can be the devil to work for! 

On a more practical level,  I tell job seekers to make sure their linked in pages are bright and shiny and up to date. It's now industry standard for most job searches. For more information on that,  go here.  And once it's gorgeous, put a link to it in their email signatures,  so it's on every email they send out and it makes it effortless for anyone networking for them to pass the information on. 
Clients have also recommended ZipRecruiter and Indeed.  

What I tell people is that job hunting can be exhausting,  and I recommend you do it,  really focus on it,  for 4 hours a day - preferably from 9 am to lunch. And then you give yourself the rest of the day off,  guilt free.  You can't actually job search for 8 hours daily,  all you will feel is burnt out and depressed.  Check sites,  answer emails,  find networking events. And then go to the gym,  have drinks with friends,  have fun.  Allow yourself to have a life as well as look for work.  

Love. Part 2

There is so much to say about love!  

Here's Part Two

Before love,  there is the quest for love.   Dating is such a complex and strange experience,  many people come to the tarot, to help sort it out.   People misbehave,  over-commit,  self-destruct,  straight out lie,  and then,  sometimes,  rarely,  but once is enough - prove themselves and are worthy and give the relationship time and attention and it all grows from there.  

But how do you know which one it's going to be? It's a real 7 of cups time.

The cards are often brutal about dating.  If they don't think it will work, they just say it.  I remember doing a reading and a girl asked about her boyfriend and drew the Devil Card.  She and I both looked at that clear message,  and I said,  "Oh,  honey,  it's not good."  and she nodded sadly and told me he was unfaithful to her and worked as a drug dealer.   Well,  clearly that was not what she wanted and the rest of the conversation was about why she was letting such a difficult relationship into her life. I didn't know him (or her,  it was her first reading with me) but the cards knew straight away! 

Other times the cards are more hopeful.  A young woman in her 30's came to ask about her boyfriend who was out of work and appeared to be happy to let her carry the load for a while.   She was getting anxious (as anyone would be) but the cards were surprisingly calm.  He was moving from the King of Cups to the King of Pentacles - from the boyfriend to the husband card and I told her to hang in there.   When she came and saw me about another issue (work this time) a year or so later,  it had all worked out,  he was in a better job and they were planning a wedding...   

So if you want to explore dating relationships,  tarot can definitely help! 

Looking at the Devil card again

In the Rider Waite version the devil card just looks scary, but it also looks alien. Who here sincerely worries about the devil? I explain that the devil is the repetitive bad patterns, addictive habits that lead us astray, taking us away from where we want to go.

And who understands the true work of the devil better than the housewife’s tarot – that chocolate cake, tempting us to gluttony, sloth and short term gratification, bringing out all our bad habits and vices.  So clear and easy to understand,  I just love it! 

A young man's experience

Recently I stumbled across this article.  In 2011 I did a reading for this young man, and this is what he wrote

“Liat Silberman, an Australian expat who reads fortunes in TriBeCa, wasn’t sketchy at all. She charges 100 bucks per reading*, is often booked months in advance, and does her tarot-card deciphering in upscale cafés. She was pleasantly matter-of-fact as she laid out a “Celtic cross” arrangement of cards and told me what she saw: I was low on money, anxious and uncertain about the future and not making enough time for friends – if I continued this way I might fall into repetitive, materialistic patterns of addiction, represented by a suitably ugly Devil card. She saw two women in my future, but – she turned over a card featuring a guy facedown with a mess of swords in his back – things weren’t going to turn out well with either of them.

Either she was more psychic than the storefront Gypsies or she was way better at bullshitting. But whatever the case, as I spread out my problems before her she reminded me that I was in my 20s and everyone in their 20s feels this way when they’re trying to figure stuff out. It’s no big deal. Her advice was to have some fun, enjoy the city, grow and adapt – the stuff I know but still need to hear again and again, because I’m an idiot – and she delivered it in the manner of that kindly, unhip aunt whom you feel comfortable discussing your drug use with…”

So there you have it,  I’m the kindly unhip aunt,  with whom you can feel comfortable discussing your drug use…    


*I’m charging $120 per reading now.

The Devil you know...

The devil, well he’s just so.. demonic in the Rider Waite card. All chains and misery. And that hand up, almost like stop sign.



I like the big bad wolf better, you can see the seductive element of the devil more clearly in that notion. When we meet the Devil our quest for excitment and adventure is leading us into the woods. We are putting ourselves in situations where we will be vulnerable to wolves, who do not have our best interests at heart...

More traditionally - our desire for physical and material things is out of balance, we hoard rather than rejoice, spend our energy collecting more things, rather than dealing with feelings. We long for material security rather than creative or spiritual fulfillment.



In this card, a woman is surrounded by addictions. The devil is about temptation, ambition run amuck, addictions over taking us…

One thing that the Tarot does emphasis is that all chains are of our own making. If we feel yoked to a way of life – too much materialism, too much competitiveness, then we can break those chains simply by becoming aware of them. Then again, if we refuse all joy, want everything extremely ordered and controlled, the devil card can be a message about breaking loose, letting go. It’s a very masculine energy, thrusting forward, fulfilling its needs. But, as the song says, the devil takes his dues, so beware of the costs, you may not want to pay them further down the line…