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! 

My current favorite review

Written by Susanne B on Citysearch -

My tarot reading with Liat was exactly what I had hoped for. In the beginning she did what she calls a cold read, ie she lays out the cards and tells you what she sees without knowing anything about you. In my case her interpretations were spot on. I read the cards for myself sometimes and had been looking for an unbiased read. Afterwards we talked about strategies to modify certain aspects of my life/environment to clear my path. I sought her out based on the reviews I had read online and based on her experience as a counselor/therapist. My reading with her was a very cleansing, enlightening and solid experience. I am sure I will see her again in a little while down the road.. and I am very much looking forward to it.

Always so happy when people get what they wanted.  I always start with a cold reading,  where I don't know anything about you,  but after the cold reading,  the more you say,  the better the reading becomes...

Drawing the same card twice

Eva and the Snake by Christian Schloe

I recently did a reading for a woman who was contacted by a man she knew 25 years ago, when she was in college, via LinkedIn. This scenario is more common than you may think. 

Both she and the old friend were married, and she agreed to meet him for drinks.  And he gave her that line that is so seductive – she was the one who got away, he made a mistake, he should have married her.  But when it became clear that she would not sleep with him, he abruptly dropped all communication with her.

She wants closure, or friendship, or to know what the hell happened.  She drew Justice Reversed around him.  She was not going to get the closure she wanted,  he had acted badly,  and that was the ending.  At the very end of the reading, when I had drawn all the cards together and was shuffling them to prepare them for the next reading, she asked me if she could just draw one more card around him.  And then she pulled out Justice reversed again. She looked at me. 

And I said, this is your goose bump moment. The cards are clear.  You need to let any thoughts of him go, he’s not coming back.   She sighed and then said she actually felt much better. The cards were so definite, it was time to let him go and move on.

How old do you want to be when you die?

Everyone has a secret number, the number they want to get to, before they die.  Recently I had a reading with a woman who is 78 years old.  She has some complex medical issues.  The cards saw pain and difficulty but then the possbility of a good recovery.   I asked her what number she wanted to get to and she said 93.    If she wanted to live to 80, then perhaps she wouldn’t want to spend 18 months in surgery and recovery, but if she wants 15 years, it is worth undergoing a painful surgery. 

Elizabeth Slettness

We often have these secret numbers in our head and we should take them into account when making decisions.  A friend of mine recently said that he wanted to live to 100.  That’s not my magic number; I worry about finances and frailty and human connection and I don’t think I want to get that far.  But if you do, you should start taking care of things now, so your foundation – health, wealth and community, is solid.

Infidelity

I like Nerve Magazine,  (not just because they did a small piece on me once  )

I was reading them recently and they had a terrific interview with Ira Glass,   and he said something so interesting,  that I really believe, about infidelity:

“For example, before people begin an affair, before they cheat, the real transition begins when they confide in someone else. That’s where the betrayal begins…And as soon as he starts having truths that he doesn’t tell to her but that he tells to someone else…that’s the beginning of the end for them.”  

I see this all the time in the stories people tell me. When you are confiding more to your friends than to your lover/spouse, if you are being more intimate with others than with them, that’s when trouble starts.  It’s not that you can’t be intimate with other people, it’s just that you can’t have stories you withhold from your lover but share with others, especially others you find attractive; that is a tiny crack between the two of you, which can easily grow if you put enough pressure on 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.

Inspiration

I always encourage people to record the readings.  But after each reading I also give you a postcard and write the cards you drew on it.

 

You can then go and look up any cards on my blog (or any other blog) and I often asterisk the important ones.  I encourage people to find certain ones and print them up and put them by their computers, to remind them of our discussion. 

 

One client just sent me this image – all her important cards, pulled from her own deck, sitting in her work station,  showing her the way…