Liz Worth ~ Tarot + Astrology

One of the hardest things to do as a tarot reader is to feel like you’re the bearer of bad news.

People come to readings with a lot of hope. Sometimes they want to hear that a rough situation is going to turn around, or that an old flame is going to reappear in their lives. 

But it isn’t always in the cards – at least not as far as you can tell once the reading has started. 

I once had someone get quite upset with me when I told her that I didn’t see what she wanted me to see. 

“I’m not here to lie to you about what I’m seeing,” I finally had to tell her. “Would you rather I do that?” 

This wasn’t a defensive question – it was honest. I genuinely wonder if some clients want readers to just tell them what they want to hear rather than interpret the cards as they are. 

More often than not, though, people are open to receiving whatever may come. Even if the news is disappointing. 

...

In some of my recent readings, a few of my clients have asked, “How much information should I tell you?”

This question doesn’t always come from a desire to stay secretive or to test a reader: I’ve actually found it’s the opposite a lot of the time.

People come to tarot readings because they are trying to work something out within themselves.

Sometimes they are at a difficult or confusing crossroads.  Sometimes they are trying to make sense of an illogical scenario.

I’ve always seen myself as a neutral party for my clients. I’m not here to steer them in any one direction. I’m just here to listen and to understand what will be most helpful for them to take away from our time together.

If that means they want to explain where they’re coming from with a question, or they just want to talk things out for a minute without anyone jumping to conclusions, I can be that person for them.

You never know what a querent is going through....

Most of my client readings are focused on work or relationships.

I think that’s pretty common for most tarot readers, as those are the topics that people are usually most concerned with.

But every once in a while, I get some really fun – and unusual – questions.

I was reading at an event in a small town a couple hours away. It was nearing the end of the day when a young woman sat across from me said, “I’m not sure if you can tell me this, but is my house haunted? Because I feel like it is but no one will take me seriously when I tell them.”

I had been asked a lot of questions before this, but it was my first haunted house reading.

I shuffled the cards like usual and had my querent pull a few. When I flipped them over, we both peered down at them and paused.

The Seven of Cups, Wheel of Fortune and the Hanged Man stared back at me.

It’s not always easy to navigate such a direct question: Asking “is my house haunted” is essentially...

I am in the process of doing something I never thought I would attempt.

I am learning to drive.

I know that in many parts of the world, and especially in North American culture, driving is a necessity. And getting your license is seen as a rite of passage by some.

But I was never interested in driving. Maybe it’s because very few women in family learned to drive, either. Something seems to run in our blood to avoid it as much as possible.

My dad drove, though not always very well. My mother was a nervous passenger, which probably didn’t help.

And her nervousness quite likely rubbed off on me: I have always preferred to be a passenger, or a pedestrian.

I also spent most of my life in Toronto, a city where you can often get by without a car. There are streetcars, subways and buses to take you where you want to go. I don’t have many friends there who own cars of their own; a lot of them have let their licences expire out of lack of use.

My husband and I didn’t...

Whenever I pull cards for a tarot reading, I always take a moment to see what's there.

I call this "taking a breath," and I find it works best when all of the cards are face up so that they can be studied as one group. 

But that long, quiet pause? Boy does it ever make some clients nervous! 

Sometimes people worry and ask if I'm "seeing something bad." Or they think I'm about to deliver the worst-case scenario.

But I’m only concentrating. Thinking. Taking it all in and looking for patterns between the cards, or making decisions about what strikes me as the most interesting starting points. 

Tarot takes a certain level of focus. Even though many of us associate with intuition, that shouldn’t mean we assume or expect it’s always going to be easy and instant.  

It takes practice to tune into your intuition – to figure out how your instincts kick in, and to separate any distractions from the messages at hand.  

Tarot readings can...

Last week I wrote about a few pros and cons regarding predictive readings.

Whenever I talk about predictions, I get a lot of questions. It’s ironic that the mainstream of perception of tarot is that it is purely predictive, when in reality the tarot community is so diverse and diversified in how it views tarot.

And predictive readings are one example of that: Some readers love predictions, some will at least entertain them, and others stay away from them altogether.

I say this off the top in case anyone reading this isn’t resonating with predictive readings, or isn’t sure they want to go down this path.

But the aim of this week’s missive is to answer a great question that came my way, which is, “What does it mean if you can’t see the future in your tarot cards?”

What does it mean if someone asks you, “What do you see coming up for me?” and you lay down your cards and…you’re just not sure what to make of them at all?

This is the time of year when general, look-ahead readings become really popular. 

Everyone wants to know what’s coming up in the New Year:  

“Do you see love in my future?”  

“Do you see my changing jobs?”  

“Do you see if I will receive any unexpected opportunities?”   

Overall, these are pretty common questions that people bring to tarot readers all year round – regardless of the calendar date. But there’s something about the turning of the calendar that really ramps up these questions. 

Everyone wants something to look forward to. A New Year inspires fresh hope and optimism that a turning point is around the corner.  

And predictive readings can help to build that hope and anticipation for what’s to come.  

But there’s also something very passive about these types of questions. Predictions can keep people waiting and wondering when and how...

When I first started reading tarot for other people, I was actually surprised at how many wanted to know about love.  

I thought I would be answering different types of questions about spiritual journeys and personal transformations.  

But I quickly realized how important relationships are to people, and how much is at stake when we are talking about love, commitment, loyalty and companionship.  

Some of the hardest questions I’ve had to answer as a tarot reader had to do with relationships.  

They can be really complicated. Especially if the people involved are cycling through a range of emotions: One day they’re on, another they’re off.  

Divining a clear answer about a relationship is not always easy to pin down when the people in question can’t be pinned down in the first place.  

Another challenge can arise when clients are impatient about the answer: They feel like they’ve already been...

How are you? October was a big month for me. After the stillness of the last few years, this autumn has felt like life has really come roaring back in so many ways.

I had the opportunity to read tarot at some great Halloween parties, and also at the closing party of Likely General, a shop where I read every Sunday for two years. I loved having that residency and loved part of the community that had grown around that store.

Likely General closed its doors at the end of October, and I’m glad I could be there one last time to offer a few tarot readings as we all said goodbye to the space.

One of the things I found myself reiterating throughout my readings in October was that we have choices in life.

Whenever I read at events, I know I am going to have some nervous sitters on my hands. People are often curious about tarot. When they see a tarot reader in the corner at a party, they might decide that today’s the day they’re going to finally give tarot a try.

But...

I’ve been knee-deep in one-on-one readings this month and it’s been a wonderful state to be in.

Reading tarot isn’t always easy, though: It takes a lot of concentration and care. Readers see and hear a lot. We help to move energy in people’s lives. It takes a lot of time to sit with it all, but there is also great gratitude that comes with this path.

One of the things I have come to learn through my work is that tarot isn’t always pushing you towards a big change.

Often, clients come in for readings expecting to hear that something major is about to occur. Or that they have some kind of big opportunity on the horizon.

And there’s nothing wrong with wanting change, or working towards it, especially if you feel like you’re ready for a new experience in your life.

But sometimes we have to remember that things might be OK just as they are right now.

Our lives all go through different seasons. Sometimes there are seasons of change, and others of...