“Give me a fish and I eat for a day.
Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime”

Working with the Tarot cards is like working in a team. Together the reader and the cards make sense of the situation and find a way forward giving the querent knowledge, confidence and hope. And most importantly empowered and not dependent.

I have had people ask me if they should contact me once a week for forecasts, guidance and advice and my response is always a firm Never. Tarot should be turned to whenever we really, truly need it, and not as a weekly advisor. If we allowed others to make all our decisions, validate our every plan and analyse every soul we interact with, what power are we left with?

Empowerment is about tapping into our internal battery that all of us are equipped with as human beings. It’s the light in your soul that makes us unique from the other person, and it’s the fuel to our existence. Empowerment begins with self belief. Knowing that I have the power to change my life. Knowing that I am fully responsible for my choices. And knowing that ultimately only I can control the direction I wish to go in. One simple example would be negative patterns of thinking. Anyone can tell us “think positive”, some can give us techniques, but it is only us who has to work with our minds to train ourselves from shifting from the darkness to the light in terms of thoughs. Not at all easy, but can be done.

Another way of expressing empowerment is with knowledge. When someone tells us something about ourselves we know to be true, we feel the power. When we survive a crisis or tragedy, we are empowered. When we discover realities of life and the truth behind some people, we grow. When we work to train our minds with meditation and our bodies with physical exercise we are working towards adding power within ourselves.

The act of increasing our self confidence, believing more in our capacities to face the ups and downs of Life and gaining strength in the process is true empowerment. And it’s not a one time zap up of oneself, it’s a continual process, strengthening and restrengthening.

Wikipedia describes the capabilities of empowerment pretty clearly in

• Having decision-making power of one’s own
• Having access to information and resources for taking proper decision
• Having a range of options from which you can make choices (not just yes/no, either/or.)
• Ability to exercise assertiveness in collective decision making
• Having positive thinking on the ability to make change
• Ability to learn skills for improving one’s personal or group power.
• Ability to change others’ perceptions by democratic means.
• Involving in the growth process and changes that is never ending and self-initiated
• Increasing one’s positive self-image and overcoming stigma
• Increasing ones ability in discreet thinking to sort out right and wrong

In short, empowerment is the process that allows one to gain the knowledge, skill-sets and attitude needed to cope up with the changing world and the circumstances in which one lives.
Guides like the Tarot cards are nothing but signposts leading you to your own inner self. Because that’s where true power lies.

When I first began to study the Tarot seriously, the first thing I learnt from books and among the psychic circles was that these cards were simply a tool. Like a pen. Or a spoon. Or a keyboard. No way were they a substitute for our lives and how we lead them. Nor could they or should be allowed to rule our lives in any manner. Dependency on predictions alone by the Tarot would surely guarantee errors and disappointment, because the cards worked best as an understanding of the present moment. I remember the words of Monica one of my mentors, a 60 something psychic healer and reader in Singapore “Tarot reading is not fortune telling” she stated as she shuffled her deck.

What it is truly, and the way it works beautifully is as a tool of self discovery, or as a road map to our lives to help us find clarity and understanding about what was going on then, at that present moment when we turned to the cards. The future is not carved in stone and in the ever changing dynamics of energies, a Tarot reading was simply a snap shot of one moment, and the possibilities that may arise if certain actions are or are not taken. In a spread, a reader ought to stress not on the outcome, but more on the cards that come out in the advice position. Rather than when, it’s the how and the why that Tarot works best with.

In theory that made so much sense, and I incorporated a 5 minute introductory spiel to all my Tarot readings, stating it’s powers and also it’s limitations. But practice proved to be another thing all together. A large majority of the querents who came to see me were only focused on the future. A growing few began to evolve with the readings and I can proudly state I have clients who come for readings asking Why, How, How Can I rather than When. And who walk away applying the wisdom and benefiting from it in leaps and bounds. Marriages have been salvaged because a querent chose to listen to the message of acceptance and tolerance. And careers have soared as querents applied the messages in the cards as to how they could improve their professional situation. But that’s only half the story. The other half still came back again and again asking when they would marry a man who the cards clearly indicated was commitment phobic and would take time to propose (maybe even years), and others who were only interested in a rough time frame for their answer rather than how they could make things happen for them.

As cocreaters of our lives, I believe some opportunities are truly Heaven sent, but it’s what we do with them that makes us feel on top of the world. Information is power, and when the cards go into depth about why a certain issue may have cropped up again in your life, or how a personality trait of yours may hinder the blossoming of a relationship, it’s time to take notice.

Not for the Tarot’s sake. Or for the amount of time and money you have spent on a reading’s sake. But purely for your sake.

Let’s take an example.

A dynamic corporate manager in her 30’s comes to ask about her job security at a large multinational that’s recently undergone policy and management changes. The cards answer “Yes there’s security BUT you may need to improve your interpersonal skills and be a little proactive” She walks away smiling.

Months later I hear she has lost her job. And the Tarot was to blame.

For a few minutes I felt awful, even responsible in a way for her loss. After all hadn’t I told her job would remain secure if she learnt to get along with people. I listened to her ranting. And remembered Monica’s words from way back when. Tarot is not fortune telling. Focus on the advice and not the outcome.

It seemed pointless to remind her of the Tarot, somewhere perhaps she may have become complacent by the outcome of the cards. She didn’t listen, it was past, I gently told her about the fact and she calmed down remembering that in my introduction I had told her clearly that the future can always change. I don’t know if I took the blow or she did as the message came hurtling down on the telephone.

But somewhere it made me think all over again to the true meaning and purpose of the Tarot. Why blame the cards when they weren’t ever meant to be predictors in the first place? Why not focus on the guidance the cards have to offer instead of focusing only when and just when?

Mita Bhan

Good Card-Bad Card

“Oh No, that’s a bad card” she exclaimed when she saw the Death card in the spread in front of her. And before she could react any further I clarified that the card had nothing to do with physical death, which isn’t for a merely mortal reader to see in the first place. It had to do with endings and beginnings, which isn’t necessarily bad, at all. For example, the Death card appeared as possible outcome to her current job which wasn’t giving her much satisfaction or returns. And would signify, a time for positive change. By saying goodbye to her present situation and by opening her mind to new possibilities, even in new industries, the Death card would usher for her, a brand new chapter in her career.

The Tarot cards are here to encourage, give hope, identify options for future behaviour and give us that inward glimpse of our own soul. No where is it written or said that they are good or bad. At the end of the day there are no bad cards, only bad interpretations.

Take for example the Devil card which could mean obsessiveness, control, greed domination, addiction, lust, darker sides of human nature yes, but nothing to do in the literal sense. If this card appears in a reading it may be describing a side of your personality, for example are you asking the same question again and again to the reader or a situation where you may need to learn that the harder we hold on something, the more we need to learn the art of letting go. I have heard of a case where a middle aged man was told that the Devil card was a ghostly spirit in his house and it would require intricate and expensive poojas and rituals to remove it. Clearly a misinterpretation motivated by someone’s greed.

If you see a lot of Swords in the spread ahead of you, you’re not getting stabbed all over the place, it only signifies a lot of energy in the mental plane. Maybe you’ve been thinking too much or worrying needlessly.

The Tower with its grim picture of people falling out of windows and rooftops speaks to us of the unexpectedness of Life. At the end of the day, nothing is in our hands is it? No reading will reveal every single thing that will happen. No person will be ever be able to tell you everything in advance. The majority of the knowledge truly does lie out there in Universe. And Tower cards which could signify shocks and surprises is just the way Life operates when we need to learn certain life lessons. If the Tower appears in a relationship reading it may signify a shock, and a time to learn about people, love, relationships, trust.. It may appear painful or tough at first, but in the long run it will make us stronger and wiser.

At the end of the day the cards serve only as a guide, and another way of making sense of the world around us. If we look at our Lives and label everything as “good”, “bad” then we allow life to treat us in that manner, giving us those kind of experiences. But if we look at life as just is, and the cards as just what they mean, we discover that every challenging experience has something valuable in it to learn from.

Remember to always trust your own feeling about a reading. Don’t judge one card and think its all downhill from here. Look at the spread in totality, try and understand the deeper meaning and the overall message of the Tarot cards. And realize, every message is for highest good, even the tough ones.

Code Of Ethics

(World Tarot Network – USA.)

• I respect a client’s right to confidentiality
• I will interpret and read the cards honestly and to the best of my abilities
• I will share with a client all possibilities and offer any suggestions I feel will help a client focus clearly and intently. A tarot reading is not a substitute for medical diagnosis, legal counsel or stock advice – that is left to those professionals.
• I will advise the clients of the costs of a reading before the appointment is made. There are no hidden extra charges.
• I may refuse to read for any client if I feel the reading at all is unethical.
• Time in the future is in transit – unformed and undecided. The future is not a fixed event. Decisions we make today affect our tomorrows.
• The Tarot experience is a way of looking at what energies are currently in the life of a client and a possible outcome if certain actions are taken or not taken
• Tarot cards are neither good or bad, they can be used to encourage, give hope, identify options for future behaviour
• I believe we control our destiny and are responsible for our own decisions. The Tarot provides insights based on current circumstances and as those conditions change, so does the outcome.
• I believe all people must act according to their own beliefs and to search their own consciousness for the answers from within.
• I serve only as a guide or tool for my clients.