How's Life Flowing?

Temperance (14):

This is one of the hardest cards to interpret. It’s a card about merging, healing, synthesizing, blending. It’s about balance and fluidity. But mostly it’s a card about moderation (not a New York concept at all!) If things are going well, then Temperance means that negotiations will be successful, a good balance of life and work, there is co-operation and coordination happening. But if things are not going well, then it’s about imbalance, conflicting interests, things not pouring smoothly, one to the other. It’s about trying to combine too many or the wrong elements in too short a time. (Maybe it’s more New York than I first thought.)



One of my mother’s favorite saying was ‘everything in moderation’. Temperance is saying that we need to moderate, to look at what we are trying to mix together, to make sure that there is balance or if we draw the card reversed, we could get a chemical explosion…

Not Death, but Change

Death (13)
Everyone flinches when they see this card, but it is not a card predicting an actual death! Rather, the Death card portrays symbolic death - a change or transformation. It's the death of the caterpillar to give birth to the butterfly. After this card, nothing will be the same.


I chose this tarot image because as the artist says, the Death card reveals a permanent change--and what is more permanent for a tree than being cut? But, she assures us, the wood will live on--in paper, furniture, the flame, or even as food for other plants.


Tarot looks at cycles, and in this card it tells us a cycle in ending, and simultaneously, that another is beginning. Of course some people fear change more than they fear death, so this is a card about facing fears, to see how we can grow. I just came across this fabulous quote - “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” Richard Bach, which perfectly epitomizes this card.


Here is my favorite death card image:- which shows it how I think it is, as a gateway card. None of us know what's beyond the gateway, but our expectations reveal a great deal about us and how we deal with life...

Hanging in the moment.

The Hanged Man (12)



Some cards are easier to explain than others, some resonate more in a Western, fast paced culture. The Hanged Man is not a card that New Yorkers necessarily want to find, but it is a card they often need. In the hanging moment, in the stillness and suspension, answers become clear. Solutions to problems are found.



The Hanged Man is about insight. Suddenly the pattern will emerge, and you will something truly, clearly. But there was a reason you weren’t seeing clearly before, and sometimes clarity can hurt. Sometimes a really clear insight means there is no going back. I like the alien abduction card as a visual metaphor, because once you know something so extreme, you can never be the same...

Which Cards do I use

Someone recently asked me to mention on my blog which cards I use. I use the standard Rider Waite pack, in every reading, it is one of the most popular packs in the Tarot World and many other packs use it as a starting point for their own images.



The second pack I occassionally use, but always have on me, is far less well known, and is based on Fairy Tales. The Inner Child cards are colorful and delightful, but also full of more familiar images than the tarot. I get a lot of good insight from them.

If you are starting to learn tarot, I would recommend the Rider Waite, as they are the most popular, before bridging out.

Justice is blind...

Justice (11)

Justice is about fairness. The catch cry of ‘it’s not fair’ resonates with us all, and the wise parents response of ‘life isn’t always fair’ comes back. But Justice is about an objective balance which may not seem fair to us anyway, because it is about consequences - you can’t smoke and party without paying with your health, you can’t focus solely on career and ignore your family - all your actions will have consequences. Justice is not about punishment, it’s about adjustment. It not about the law, it’s about natural consequences. And it’s not about compassion, it’s about results.


And, of course, not all of us want to meet the fair and rational results of our actions. Often life has given us special treatment, because of our looks or charm or luck. Justice won’t give us that, and that’s when absolute fairness can feel implacable.



I like the Inner child version of Justice, with King Midas, because it shows two things – be careful what you wish for and a fair and scrupulous consequence can be a painful thing indeed.

Turning the Wheel

The Wheel of Fortune, the 11th card in this Tarot Journey.



Sometimes you just get lucky - you spin the wheel and the right number appears. This is a card of luck - almost always good luck – you are going to get what you want, something unexpected and good is coming your way.



I like the Alice in Wonderland round about, which gives you the giddy feel that good luck can bring.



However the reason I liked the spider web image, which is more sinister than other images out there, is because this is a kind of karmic good luck. So if you have done good, good luck is coming. But if you have done bad, then it’s karmic payoff time… So be kind when you break up, because Karma is a tough love goddess…

Going it alone

The Hermit is a very clear card - it means a time for turning inwards, for introspection and quiet solitude. But the hermit portrayed is not sitting on his lonesome, looking for enlightenment. Instead he is out with his lamp, gathering information, analyzing, actively contemplating. The Hermit is about searching for knowledge, being on a quest for enlightenment. Once when a woman asked me if her new relationship was going to work, and the Hermit card came up, We both looked at each other and said, ‘No.’ Sometimes we need to answer questions within before we can reconnect with others.



I really like the inner child variation on the hermit – here we have a Snow White having collapsed after the queen gives her the poisoned apple. One thing the inner child card talks about it wise discrimination. Don’t bite every apple that’s offered. Don’t live in fear, but do think about who is offering you things and why. If a queen is out to get you, then don’t pretend she isn’t. This version encourages you to be more discriminating in your choice of friends and business associates. Give yourself time to think before you act.