Joanna Viva Tarot

Last night, I began listening to an audiobook on the tarot called Tarot: No Questions Asked: Mastering the Art of Intuitive Reading by Theresa Reed. The forward to the book was written by Rachel Pollack, author of Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom. The author spoke highly of the book, and from the first chapter, I began to see why. Because she expressed that tarot is a way of life, something within you that begins as a calling, to channel your intuition and help guide others through the cards. This way of thinking about the tarot is what drew me to them in the first place.

When I graduated college, I found The Star card sitting on the grassy quad of my university with my family on my way to the ceremony. My aunt told me that this was a powerful, fortuitous sign of good fortune. It was a long time before I began to learn and understand the tarot, The Star card specifically, and what finding this symbolic card meant for me.

I struggled at the end of college with trauma and mental illness. It took a lot of energy and effort to gather my strength and graduate with honors despite what I was going through. And see, The Star card comes sequentially after The Tower card. After a difficult almost catastrophic event, comes a time of hope, and gentle cosmic rebirth. The Tower burned and came down, and left destruction in its path. But seeing the bright star in the night sky reminds us that balance returns and wishes come true as the dust settles and clears our new way. These are some of the things my aunt taught me before she passed, and that I can understand more clearly now.

A few years ago, I began regularly reading my own tarot and learning about the cards while studying for my masters at Columbia School of Social Work. I read Rachel Pollack’s book and felt like it really resonated with how I wanted to use the cards. The cards became a source of introspective understanding. They became a form of therapy for me. I could see situations from angles that I hadn’t previously thought of before. And they often guided me toward doing the right things when it felt easier to go down darker paths. I think in this way, a tarot reader can help to guide others to follow their own right paths when they can see things through the light for themselves more clearly.

And this is why I believe that if your heart is in reading tarot and using your sense of intuition for the good of humanity, then there is no wrong way to read the tarot in a sense.

Now, this does not mean that you can just carelessly read the cards without putting in the effort to learn the symbolism and art of reading. What I mean to say is that, don’t be afraid to read when you feel ready. If your heart is there, then you can really provide tools to do a service for someone who could benefit from the wisdom of the tarot.

Right now, I only read for myself and loved ones. I’m nervous to read for strangers yet, even though I feel strongly that I have a gift and a holistic sense of intuition. Next week, I will be doing a workshop that certifies me as a tarot card reader. Maybe then I will feel more ready to read for the greater good. I wanted to share my fears here as a means of feeling less alone, because I am sure that there are others who wonder when they will be ready to read for others.

So do what feels right for you. Listen to your heart, as your intuition sits here and within the mind connection to your soul, putting you in the right direction and on the right path. It’s okay to be messy at first! Mind you, I write to take my own advice too.

Let me know what it was like the first time you read for others, and what challenges and fears you hold now if you are nervous to make that first leap into the unknown. Remember: the tarot starts with The Fool card, and sometimes it takes that first step into the unknown to experience all that life has to offer us as we continue along our journey.