Telephones...

I’ve always had a bit of a frustrating relationship with phones. For some reason I don’t hear very well on them, especially when there is a lot of background noise. There’s no point taking calls when I’m out – people want to set up appointments and I have to look at my calendar which is at home, so all I can do is say I will call them back. But my iphone has terrible reception in my apartment…


Friends laugh when they hear my phone message, which essentially asks to send me an email. But emails are clean and reliable for me, and while a few do go astray, most of them are answered pretty quickly. However phone messages languish until I can find a moment... But that moment somehow is always after 11pm when I can’t return any of them…


All of which means, I apologize, but phone is really not the best way to connect with me, email is far better! (and yes, I am sending them out at 11 pm but that doesn’t bother anyone!)

Hope to hear from you soon,
Warmly,
Liat

Changing Decks

People like reading from old decks, there is something about the sense that other hands have handled these cards, that they have a history, that they (and I!) like. However, over the course of a year, hundreds of people will have shuffled those cards and after a while they start to look tired. I change my deck about once a year, when the old cards start to get frayed and dog eared. The time has come… today I start with my new sleek deck…

I use a version of the Rider Waite deck, called the Radiant Rider Waite Tarot, which is basically a brighter, more colorful version of their original drawings.

If anyone wants the old one, just drop me a line and you can come and pick them up…

Lots of pages

I've gone through each card individually, now I am going through clusters of cards. What does it mean if your draw lots of pages in your reading? Every time I start discussing the court cards I always feel that I have to add the warning that court cards in particular need sensitive readings and a generic approach doesn’t work with them. A page can mean many different things depending on the context.

Phew, said it, now I can go on with what does it mean if you draw lots of pages?


Well, first it depends how old you are. If you are under 26, it means it’s all good. You are starting, new, fresh, young, and putting yourself out there. However, if you are older, it means that you feel a little young for your position, and need more gravitas. And if you are over 40, it means you really need to examine your life, you should have older, more established cards and you are feeling too unsettled, too inexperienced, and are making too many ‘newbie’ mistakes… (Or it could mean that you have lots of children in your life… see, it needs sensitive readings!)

Lots of ten's

Over the past few years, I’ve gone through every single card of the tarot and looked at their meanings (just type the card you are interested in the upper left hand corner and it should appear!) Now I am looking at the numbers. I’m just finishing the pip cards – the numbers cards, and then it’s only the court cards left! What does it mean if we draw lots of 10's in our reading?



It means life is particularly action packed and intense right now. The 10’s link to the Wheel of Fortune, the card of karmic change. Tens are about completion but of course we’ve only really completed when we are dead, so at the same turn of the wheel, we start again…


10 of cups is when we want to hold the moment, have the ‘happy ever after’; 10 of pentacles is when growth and stability are hampered by tradition/family demands; 10 of wands is when the burden is too much and we feel like we are endlessly pushing the rock up the hill and the 10 of swords is when change is inevitable, we can’t survive the current situation, in order to be able to get up, we must change.


I read somewhere that the 10’s were the culmination of the physical and spiritual aspects of each suit, the end of the long road, and the last of the pip cards. If you draw a lot of tens, then you are coming to the end of cycle, but it’s an intense ending, with a bang, not a whimper…

September 11th, 2011

I live a few blocks from the World Trade Centre. We moved to the US in January 2002. I knew, of course, that 9/11 had happened, and felt horror and sadness and shock, but I didn’t understand what it meant that the city below Canal Street was closed; I didn’t know where Canal Street was. I did know that I found the Upper West Side completely overwhelming, and that when we moved into Tribeca in February, a mere 5 months after 9/11, at a time when most people were moving out, it felt like a small, quiet haven. There were often times when there were no cars on the streets at all in the middle of the day (almost impossible to conceptualize now) and when I walked around with my then 4 year old, people noticed us, said hello, seemed glad someone was moving in.


I’ve lived in Tribeca ever since, feel very much part of the village life here. I was president of the PTA at the local public school; I served for a few years on the Community Board, I’ve attended many meetings about restaurants and community growth, several meetings on the World Trade Centre specifically.


One year I accidentally booked some readings on 9/11, but I won’t do that again. The energy is too weird: too many people, too much grief, excitement, anger in the air. I won’t walk down there today. It’s too crowded and there is too much security. But I am glad that they are getting the pools filled. I look forward to walking by them one afternoon. My hope is that it will give a chance for reflection.

It’s all in the cards

Sometimes well meaning friends try to tell me that it’s not the cards that give information, rather it’s my training as a therapist, or my ability to read people, the cards themselves are so general and vague and the person can see whatever they like in what I say, they argue. But, I reply, I read for strangers every day, and every day I tell them something I could not possibly know, and it’s not vague at all, it’s specific and personal.

Recently I did a reading for a woman, and after 40 minutes of chatting she asked one last question about her mother. She had not mentioned her feelings toward her mother at all throughout the reading and this last question was almost an afterthought. She drew Star reversed/ 5 of swords Reversed / 2 of pentacles Reversed.


I looked at her and said you have a relationship where neither of you get what you wish for, either she or you feel like the other one is stealing their swords, and that you feel you are always dropping the ball around her and letting her down. And she gasped and said, ‘how did you know?’

I didn’t know… I only described that the cards told me…




The two gorgeous paintings are by Chidi Oyeke
Procession
Pot of Life

All information is useful…

I have been reading cards for over 25 years, both here and in the UK and in Australia. When I got to the US, I started reading for friends, and then friends of friends, but eventually that group started to wear thin. One day, in late 2009, I looked at the latest Groupon email and thought, maybe I could expand through them…

When I contacted them, their representative was not receptive. "No, we won’t consider you, you’re not professional."
What do you mean I’m not professional? I’ve been doing it for years.
"You’re not on Yelp, you’re not on City Search, we’re not interested."

And she hung up, leaving me feeling very unsettled and rather depressed. It took me a week or so, as I mulled over it, and I came to realize that she had given me really good information. So I looked up Yelp and Citysearch, and, shaking off any anxieties, I got myself listed on both of them.


In a full circle, about 7 months later someone from Groupon rang me - "We’ve seen your amazing reviews on Yelp and Citysearch, would you like to be on Groupon?" Their offer didn’t work out financially for me, but was I very pleased that they had rung!

That’s what I mean when I tell people all information is useful. Even when it is something you don’t expect or want to hear, once you know it, you can use it, and improve your situation.