This particular reading was done for another tarot reader. The rephrased question was answered first and the client acknowledged her intuition had already identified the problem food. The actual question was then answered as an example of how a third party reading might be done. The client stated this is the same answer she had received intuitively already. It takes lots of practice to be able to tune through your client to another person. My recommendation is to learn to tune into your client and become a good tarot reader first. Then try tuning through your client to another person. Learn to rephrase your questions. Practice doing as many tarot readings as you can.

How to do One Card Tarot Readings - Part Seven

How?

How's a question demanding an answer.

How questions ask us to tell the other person how to do something. How is a simple question and all it requires is a simple answer.

One card gives us a simple answer. It tells us exactly how something can be done.

Ask yourself any how question. Write the question down in your Tarot Journal or Notebook. Go through your tarot ritual and draw one card to answer your question. Write down the name of the card and its meaning in your journal or notebook. Then do the reading. Write out your answer. That's all there is to it.

Here's a couple examples from my recent readings:

Q - How can I learn to read tarot cards?

A - The card drawn for your reading is the inverted Moon which means You have a problem deceiving yourself. My feeling is you've convinced yourself the experts are right and you're wrong. Therefore you're trying to learn the cards by memorizing how some expert does it. If this is what you're doing, you're deceiving yourself. You'll never become a carbon copy of that expert. But you can become yourself and you can learn to read tarot cards by using your own definitions for each card.

You may think this reading is made up, but it isn't. It's an actual reading for a beginning student who decided to build her own system for reading tarot cards. She's now doing a bang-up job on the Free Tarot network doing free one-card readings for the public. Her system works for her and she gives quite accurate readings.

Your system will work for you.

The more you try to memorize somebody else's system, the harder it'll be for you to learn top read tarot cards and the longer it'll take you. The more you rely on your own life's experiences, your own feelings about what each card should mean for you, the easier it is. The faster you learn. The better reader you become. The better your readings become. The happier your clients will be.

Your system will work for you.

So how do you create your own system? That's the purpose of the ATA Introduction to Tarot course, to help you build your own system for reading tarot cards. That course includes:

1. interaction with other students through the ATA discussion lists,

2. guidance from a mentor dedicated to helping you,

3. practice doing readings on the Free Tarot Network,

4. instruction through Free Telephone Seminars

5. help from several on-line short courses (like this one)

Q - How can terrorists justify blowing up the Twin Towers?

R - What does (client) need to know about handling issues involving terrorist activities?

A - The card drawn for your reading is the Wheel which means what goes round, comes round. You need to be aware what the terrorists are doing to others will also happen to them but to a greater degree. Their pain will be greater because they caused so much pain for others. You have no control over what the terrorists might do. You do have control over how you react to their terror.

This is an example of rephrasing which we discussed last week. The question was rephrased into terms about the client rather than the terrorists. Advanced tarot readers could answer the original question, but beginners are well advised to rephrase such questions. Here's how the original question might have been answered:

Q - How can terrorists justify blowing up the Twin Towers?

A - The card drawn for your reading is the inverted Hanged Man which means they have a problem with changing their thinking. Obviously the terrorists see life differently that we do and they have a problem understanding us. They can't reason things through clearly because their emotions are running wild. So they ignore the greater truth of their actions because they can't change the way they think about us.

That reading wasn't given until just now. My original answer was the one given using the rephrased question. This is an example of a third-party reading where the reader attempts to tune directly into the third party without going though the client. It can be done. With practice.

There's that practice word again. It must be important.

Q - How can I find a good meaning for the Four of Wands?

A - The card drawn for your readings is the Fool which means prepare for a new beginning. This indicates to me you've exhausted all the possibilities you've raised and didn't find anything that worked for you. The Fool suggests trying something new. If you don't use astrology, maybe you might find something there to help you. If you don't use numerology, maybe you'll find something there to help you.

Astrologically, the Four of Wands is normally associated with Jupiter the planet of good fortune, education, philosophy, religion, spirituality, good deeds and good things. Numerologically, the number four refers to bringing things back into balance, to squaring them, bringing order to them. If any of these things strikes a chord with you, you're on the right track. Please let me know if you need further assistance or if this information was helpful.

Do you see it?

There's my doubt coming back into my reading. Unfortunately the email was already gone before this came to my attention. My doubt made me ask the client if she needed further assistance to contact me. My doubt made me ask her to let me know if this was helpful. My doubt made me say if any of these things strike a chord she's on the right track.

Keeping my doubt out of my readings is work and sometimes we all get lazy. That's not an excuse. It's an acknowledgement my readings are not perfect. Readings never are. What they are is helpful, eye opening, inspirational and lots of other things but they're never absolutely perfect. Close but not perfect. Informational but not perfect. Good but not perfect.

All I need is more practice.

If you're not laughing, you're taking this too seriously. We say practice makes perfect. What it does is make us very good. In this lifetime very few people reach perfection and do perfect things. Most of us are prone to error. We make mistakes. We try. We all need more practice.

The very best tarot readers known to me are still practicing. Most of them every day. They practice by doing readings for themselves and others. They even get paid for practicing! So can you if you practice your tarot readings and continue to become better and better.

Q - How can I find peace?

A - The card drawn for your reading is the Magician which means pay attention to your spiritual path. The Magician tells me you've gotten away from your spiritual practices. You've become too involved in life's problems. It's time to pay attention to your spirituality if you want to find peace.

How true that answer rings for me right now in my life too. That often happens. Sometimes when we give readings for other people, we get answers that make sense in our lives right then too. Isn't it interesting the Universe would send us a client with the same problem we have? It happens all the time, so don't be surprised when your readings seem to apply to you. They might. But they also apply to your client. After all, the reading was done for your client. Not you. Your client and you, yes but never just for you. It's you client's reading. If it also applies to you that's a bonus. Just don't forget the client asked the question and you have the answer.

This short lesson completes our investigation into the Seven Rays of Discernment, the seven Questions of Journalism, and the Seven Spiritual Questions. They are: what, when, where, which, who, why and how. Almost eighty percent of the questions you'll receive will be in this form. Or they can be rephrased into this form. The other twenty percent is our topic for next week.

Have a great week reading for yourself.

How to do One Card Tarot Readings - Part Eight

Is? Are? Will? Am?

These kinds of questions beg for a yes or no answer. Using one card we can answer these kinds of questions using any one of several techniques.

You can decide upright cards mean yes and inverted cards mean no. This requires you to shuffle your cards in such a manner some cards remain upright and others are inverted. This can be done by cutting the deck into two halves and inverting one pile with respect to the other. Then shuffle. Repeat.

Prepare the deck and yourself to do a reading. Use your normal ritual. Draw one card to answer the question. If this card is upright, the answer is yes. If not, the answer is no. The meaning of the card itself can be used to explain the answer in a little more detail.

Q - Is Shawn going to ask me to marry him?

A - The card drawn for your reading is the inverted Seven of Pentacles which means procrastination. It appears Shawn isn't going to ask you to marry him at this time. He's procrastinating. You need to decide if you're willing to wait, want to push him out of his procrastination, or more on. Good luck.

Q - Is Shawn going to ask me to marry him?

A - Tarot gives great answers for us but has a hard time answering questions for others. In answer to the question What does (client) need to know about her relationship with Shawn? the card drawn was the Three of Cups which means romantic love and friendship. Evidently you've found a man worth having in your life. The two of you appear to be right for each other. If he's open to discussing these issues, you might want to raise the possibility of sharing the rest of your lives together. Good luck.

The first reading is the actual reading given to the client. The second is an example of how a beginner might handle the same question by rephrasing it. It's interesting to me how similar these readings turned out to be. The more expertise you have as a tarot reader the more you can expect this to be so.

Does that suggest practice?

Q - Am I kidding myself about becoming a tarot reader?

A - The card drawn for your reading is the Magician which means pay attention to your spiritual life. Yes, it appears you're kidding yourself about becoming a tarot reader right now. You have a higher priority right now and that's to pay attention to your spiritual path. Once you've addressed this issue you may find tarot to be a useful tool for helping you improve your spirituality. Good luck.

Here's an example of how an upright card gave a negative response in a positive manner. My guess is this reader will incorporate tarot into her spiritual work and eventually become a very good tarot reader. Right now her first priority is her spiritual path. She agreed.

Q - Would you suggest we move from our present home?

Here's a puzzle you need to figure out for yourself. The client is asking me, the reader, to make a decision for the client. That's not my responsibility. Here's my response:

A - The card drawn for your reading What does (client) need to know moving from his present home? is the inverted Strength card which means you have a problem finding the strength within yourself to solve your problems. This suggests it doesn't matter where you live. What's important is for you to know you have the inner strength to handle all the obstacles in your life. You have this inner strength to solve your own problems and you can use this strength any time you want. That's what's important for you to know right now.

Making decisions for others is not my style. It always got me in trouble. Every time. Avoiding trouble is one of my goals, so making decisions for others is not a good thing for me to do. When clients ask me to make decisions for them, it's time for me to rephrase their question. Every time.

Please consider rephrasing client's questions.

There are a few variations of the Is? Are? Will? Am? question you also need to learn how to handle. These are the Could? Would? Can? Should? questions which also beg for a yes or no answer. They also beg for you to make a decision for the client.

Q - Should I marry Harry?

A - No, because the cards say no.

Right. That's not a decision I'm comfortable making. No matter what answer the cards give me, that answer is going to be wrong some time in the client's life. If the card is upright and my answer is yes and the marriage turns our badly, who's to blame? The client may blame me. The client's lawyer may blame me. The judge may blame me. Those options don't appeal to me. If the marriage turns out great will the client credit me then?

What if the card is inverted and the answer is no. The client either gets married anyway or calls the whole thing off. The client's fiancé may blame me. The fiancé's attorney may blame me. The judge may blame me. These options don't appeal to me either. Besides, the client's life may turn out badly and the client may blame me. So might the client's attorney or the judge. That's not good for me either.

Q - Am I pregnant?

Q - Is my husband sleeping with my boyfriend's wife?

Q - Are my children doing drugs?

Do you see a pattern here that might be dangerous to your financial well-being? Do you see any option for rephrasing these questions into What does (client) need to know about...? If you do, then you've found a safe way to handle these kinds of questions. If not, you might want to study how to rephrase questions to focus on the client.

The truth is these questions can be answered using tarot cards. The truth is the answers may not be well received. The truth is the client can make some changes in his or her life and change the answer at some future date. The truth is these kinds of questions are best avoided by beginning tarot readers. The best way to avoid them is to rephrase them.

It's fun to ask a friend these kinds of questions so the friend can practice rephrasing the questions. It's also fun fielding some of these kinds of questions and rephrasing them. Practice can be fun. Enjoy it.

Have a great week reading for yourself. How to do One Card Tarot Readings - Part Nine

Is? Are? Will? Am? Do? Does?

There are other ways of answering these types of questions besides using inversed cards for no and upright cards for yes. One way is to use numerology. Here all the odd numbers mean no and all the even numbers mean yes. Pages and Queens are considered odd (11 and 13) while Knights and Kings are considered even (12 and 14). Using that system gives the following answers for these made-up questions:

Q - Does my car need new tires?

A - The card drawn for this reading is the Two of Swords which means yes, your car needs new tires. You might want to double-check this with a tire expert in your local community.

Q - Is my cancer returning?

A - The card drawn to answer the question: What does (client) need to know about cancer and her health is the Three of Pentacles inverted. This card indicates your health is improving. Your question about cancer can only be answered by a qualified health care practitioner. My suggestion is you contact your health care provider right away to discuss this issue.

Notice how this question was rephrased. Any answer containing yes or no could be construed as practicing medicine without a license. That's not a good place to go unless you happen to be a licensed health card provider who can legally diagnose cancer under the law. Yes, you have cancer is a diagnosis. No, your cancer is not returning is also a diagnosis. There's no easy way to answer such questions with either a yes or a no.

The Tarot Institute Code of Ethics is a good place for beginners to start developing their own codes. Eventually each of us has our own code of ethics whether we write it down or not. We all have lines we don't cross. We all have lists of things we don't do. That's our code of ethics. The Tarot Institute recommends you write out your code of ethics so you know for sure where you draw the lines. The Tarot Institute also recommends you publish your code of ethics where your clients can read it.

Some tarot readers will actually answer questions of this type with a yes or a no. Whether they're right or wrong in their diagnosis really doesn't matter. What matters is whether the authorities hear about that particular tarot reading or not. Charges may be filed for practicing medicine without a license or for fortune telling. Neither charge does the tarot reader any good. Win or lose.

Charges may not be filed. An investigation into the tarot reader's activities may be initiated. Such an investigation will eventually cause the reader trouble. Why? Because we all tend to repeat doing the same kinds of things we've done before. Such readers seldom diagnose disease only once in their lifetime. Doing such a diagnosis while being investigated is probably not in the reader's best interest.

Charges may not be filed. The authorities may never hear anything because the reader was right. This means the reader was right for the rest of the client's life. Why? If things ever change, and things usually do change, the reading is now false. If and when this happens, the tarot reader's words may come back to haunt him or her.

Some questions are better answered after they're rephrased.

Q - Is my financial problem ever going to get better?

A - The card drawn for your reading: What do I need to know about my financial situation? is the Queen of Swords which means you need to change your behavior. You need to change your behavior with money and financial affairs before things improve. Evidently you're spending more than your income and tarot cards can't solve that problem for you. My advise is for you to seek competent financial advice from a financial expert. These people are trained to help you solve your financial problems. Financial advisors are listed in the Yellow Pages. Your family, friends, minister, banker or attorney may know a financial advisor who can help you. Good luck.

Again the question was rephrased and my personal code of ethics was enforced. The original question was not answered, but the client received useful information. This raises another question: Is it right to charge a fee for such advice?

That's a question you'll need to answer for yourself. The truth is you're entitled to a fee anytime you do a reading for a client. The truth is you may not feel this fee was earned. The truth is if you give the client valuable information that's worth a fee. Information has value and you're entitled to a fee when you share valuable information. My personal approach is to give such advice freely and not accept any fee for doing so. But, that's just my opinion.

Here again, some tarot readers do give financial advise. In my opinion they're flirting with the law and may not like the end result. When you give advice such as this without a license to do so, you're going to anger the people who do have a license to give such advice. Angry people do angry things. Judges and lawyers tend to favor persons with the proper license. When your advise is good the chances are nobody will do anything against you. However, if your advise turns sour, you may be in a bad situation.

The problem is time. Advise that's really great for today may be wrong tomorrow. Things change but the words you spoke yesterday do not change. People tend to forget the situation changed if they can blame somebody else for their problems. This is the way tarot readers get labeled as charlatans. Truth is police, attorneys and judges dislike charlatans. So does the public.

Whatever you do, be professional.

You cannot be the best you can be by giving advice in these situations. If the question begs for medical, financial or legal advice, your best approach is to refer your client to the proper experts. If the question begs for any answer you consider to be unethical in any way, your best approach is to refer this client to the proper experts. If the question makes your intuition scream: Don't answer that. Don't. Refer your client to an expert legally qualified to answer his or her question.

That's my advice.

Q - Will I get pregnant this month?

Q - Is my husband cheating on me?

Q - Will my brother go to Hell for killing that man?

Q - Is this the best stock for my retirement?

Q - Are my husband and I going to lose our home?

Q - Am I investing in the right stocks to make money?

Decide how you're going to answer these questions. Be prepared to refer your clients to attorneys, doctors, counselors, ministers and advisors of all kinds. Be prepared to rephrase your client's questions and answer the rephrased question. Be professional in all you do. That's my advice.

Or, if you're going to give any financial counseling of any kind, become a licensed financial consultant of some kind in your state, country or province.

Or, if you're going to give any emotional or psychological advice of any kind, become a licensed psychotherapist, counselor or minister.

Or, if you're going to give any health and nutrition recommendations of any kind, become a licensed spiritual healer. See You Heal Yourself for a list of approved and accepted spiritual hearer licenses.

You can use the elements instead of numbers to decide whether the answer is yes or no. For example, the masculine elements of Fire and Air could mean yes while the feminine elements of Water and Earth could mean no. Using this system you need to decide how to handle the major arcana. One way is to always make them neutral meaning there's no answer yet. Another way is to consider the Keys I through XIV as positive or yes and the other Keys as no. My favorite way of handling the major arcana using this approach is to have them mean both yes and no. The meaning of the card can then be used to explain the situation. Here's a couple examples using that approach:

Q - Am I going to graduate from college?

A - The card drawn for your reading is the Fool which means before the beginning. This card tells me the answer is both yes and no. Yes, you will graduate from college if you decide that's what you really want to do. No, you won't graduate from college if that's what you decide to do. You're at the place before the beginning. To go anywhere you need to make the decision if you want to finish college or not.

Q - Is my ex-husband really gay?

A - The card drawn for this reading is the Four of Cups which indicates the answer is no in this system. But that's leading you astray. The card drawn to answer the question: What does (client) need to know about her ex-husband's sexuality is the Four of Cups which means organize your relationships. This suggests to me you need to decide what your ex-husband's sexuality has to do with you. You need to decide what impact this really has on you and how important it is to you.

Rephrase.

It doesn't matter how you answer the original question, you'll be wrong. If her ex-husband is gay and you say he is nothing may happen. Then again, he may go straight sometime in the future and make you out a liar. If her ex-husband is gay and you say he isn't, you made a mistake and mistakes can cause you problems. Those problems will probably be quite small compared to saying her ex-husband is gay when he really isn't. If her ex-husband isn't gay and you say he isn't, nothing may happen. However, he may decide at some future date he is gay and that makes you out a liar again. How can you win?

The real question isn't whether her ex-husband is gay or not. The real question is what she's going to do about it, how she's going to react, how she's going to behave, how it'll make her feel. The real question is about the client and not about her ex-husband. My suggestion is to answer the real question and forget about third parties as much as you can. Especially as a beginning reader.

Q - Am I going to get a raise in my present employment?

A - The card drawn for your reading is the Page of Swords which means yes, you will. The Page suggests bringing new ideas to your job will help you get a raise. This is the good news. The bad news is the financial situation with your employer may change and you may not get that raise. But if things don't change, you will receive a raise at work. My suggestion is don't spend that money until you get it.

The secret to success in all things is practice.

Have a great week reading for yourself. How to do One Card Tarot Readings - Part Ten

You've already learned how to handle most of the questions you'll be asked by using the seven basic questions and yes-no questions. Many of these same questions can be answered using an elemental spread. The five elements are Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Spirit. These can yield no less than ten basic questions by defining each element two different ways. Here's some possibilities:

Earth bodyhealthfinancial affairs possessions

Water

relationshipsfriendshipsemotionspersonal issues

Air

mindthoughts and ideasattitudes beliefs

Fire

energycareerintuition desires

Spirit

spirituality spiritual path spiritual goals spiritual obstacles

One card can describe any one of these things. Choose several things from this list and you have several one-card readings. Add to this list the things you decide the elements will mean for you. Delete those things you don't want the elements to represent. Make up your own list of possibilities for doing one card elemental readings. Then practice doing one card elemental readings.

Elemental readings are my choice for answering general questions about life, relationships, jobs, finances, health and other general topics. By intuitively tuning into your client you decide which of the categories you'll use and how many of them. Here's a couple examples from my readings on the Free Reading Network which offers free three-card readings to the public:

Q - Tell me about my job situation.

Note: By tuning into the client, the categories selected for this reading were finances, health and career. This could be called an Earth-Earth-Fire spread or a Money-Body-Career spread. My approach is not to name the spread but to name the parts of the spread. So one card was drawn for each of the one-card readings on finances, health and career. Then three separate one-card readings were done.

A - The cards drawn for your reading are:

Finances - The Tower inverted (problem knowing only a little)

Health - Two of Cups (friendly)

Career - The World (ending portending a new beginning)

You have a problem not knowing the financial situation in your present job. This is a major problem for you and suggests you may be looking for another situation.

Intuitively your health became an issue for this reading. The message of the Two of cups is your health is friendly to your career and is not being adversely affected by it. However, if health is a concern for you, my suggestion is to contact your health provider and get some answers. Put your mind to ease.

The final card tells me you've already decided to end your present situation and you're actively looking for a new position. It's a wise decision to find your new position while you're still employed. This card also tells me you will find exactly what you're looking for.

Three things you as a student need to know about this reading. First, the last statement was made because two trumps appeared in a three card reading and that's very positive for the client in my system. Secondly, each one of these three readings stands alone as a one-card tarot reading. Thirdly, this is not your standard Mind-Body-Spirit spread. Both the M-B-S spread and my spread are examples of elemental spreads.

Q - Give me a general reading.

A - The cards drawn for your reading are:

Finances - The Moon (deluding one's self)

Relationships - Two of Swords (remember past ideas)

Spiritual - Knight of Swords (change your ideas)

The cards indicate you're caught up in your own thoughts and ideas (Swords) and may be applying too much mental activity to your relationships both physical and spiritual. The Two of Swords advises you to remember past ideas you've had regarding relationships. Follow those ideas forward in time to the final result in the relationship. Then use this knowledge to forge new relationships. Intuitively this card is telling me you need to learn from past mistakes.

The Knight of Swords indicates you have some wrong ideas about spirituality and what a spiritual-based life looks like. True spirituality operates for the good of all. It is not selfish. It's not about you. It's about the people in your life. Change your ideas about spirituality and you change the results you've been achieving in the past.

This brings us to the Moon which tells us you've been kidding yourself about your financial situation. My guess is this is all tied up with the relationships in your life and your spiritual outlook on life. Money can be both a blessing and a curse. If you use it for selfish means or to gain control over others, money is a curse in your life. If you use it for the benefit of others and to free yourself, money is a blessing. You get to decide how you'll handle your financial affairs. The Moon advises you to stop deluding yourself about money and make it part of your spirituality, part of your spiritual path.

Note: Again this is three separate one-card readings. The power of the trump weighed heavily on the other two readings. That points up both a benefit of larger readings and a problem interpreting larger readings. The beginner is not prepared to interpret the nuances of a three card tarot reading. Those who stumble ahead without first mastering one card readings, rarely succeed.

Having been in the position to evaluate not hundreds, but thousands of tarot readers, this truth emerges above all others: It doesn't matter how long you've been reading tarot cards. What matters is how well you read them. It's been my pleasure to watch an eighteen year old child do marvelous tarot readings after studying for less than one year. This young person is a master of one-card tarot readings and does superb readings with the Tree of Life and the Celtic Cross spreads.

It's also been my unfortunate duty to inform a person with eighteen years experience doing tarot readings that he/she did not qualify as a Certified Professional Tarot Reader. Later it came to my attention two other evaluators had previously given her/him this same news. He/she never learned to use any other spread except the Celtic Cross. Her/his readings with this spread are disjointed, confusing and almost incomprehensible. Nothing makes sense even to him/her.

Rarely does anybody ever ask her/him for another reading. He/she's always looking for new clients and not building positive reader-client relationships. Professional tarot readers will tell you the secret to making money as a professional tarot reader is repeat customers. Repeat customers are the single most important thing you need as a professional tarot reader.

My suggestion to this person was to learn how to do one card tarot readings. The Celtic Cross is really nothing more than a three-card Past-Present-Future spread, a one-card spread about the most important issue in the client's life, a three-card Support-Situation-Obstacles spread and four one-card spreads up the side with the last four cards. To my surprise, she/he joined the Free Tarot Network, signed up for the Introduction to Tarot course and started working from the beginning. Within sixty days this person was enrolled in the Intermediate Tarot course and doing three-card readings on the Free Reading Network. It pleases me greatly to tell you today this individual is not only a professional tarot reader but a good tarot teacher and mentor who attained the rank of Certified Tarot Instructor in eighteen months.

The secret is not how long you've been reading the cards but how well you read them. In my opinion, those tarot readers who learn how to do excellent one-card tarot readings have a very real advantage over those who don't. They learn more quickly. They learn how to do better tarot readings. They become certified faster and higher. They really are better tarot readers. They understand their tarot cards better and they give better readings. Their clients come back for more.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

Practice one card tarot readings until you master them. Search the Internet for groups looking for tarot readers to do one card tarot readings. Start your own free tarot reading website.

If you do this you need to advertise your website. In the beginning things will be slow. But once people know how to find you, you'll have more business than you can handle. That's when you decide to invite other readers into your network or do what you can and announce on your website something like: I respond to as many requests as possible on a first-come basis. Sorry, but I just don't have enough time to give everybody a free reading.

Your other option is to start charging a donation or minimal fee like $5.00 per reading. You can accept payments through Pay Pal or by mail to a post office box or business address. It's not a good idea to use your home address for this purpose.

Practice. Practice doing as many different one-card elemental spreads as you can for yourself and others. Learn how to use the power of the spread to obtain great answers. Relate the meaning of the card to the element of the card. Then relate this to the element you chose for the spread. That's all there is to it.

Have a great week reading for yourself and others. How to do One Card Tarot Readings - Part Eleven

Pick a subject, any subject. Decide which element this is and you've just created a one-card elemental spread. Pick another subject and another. Decide which elements these are and you've just created a three-card elemental spread. Pick as many subjects as you want and create elemental spreads of any size. Then practice doing one card readings with as many of these as you decide.

The time to start tying them together into a comprehensive reading is later. Right now concentrate on doing great one-card tarot readings. You'll be absolutely amazed at how accurate your readings can become. You'll be invigorated by the power of one card readings.

In one of my classes several students challenged me to do a ten-minute, one-card tarot reading. They thought the reading could be covered in a couple minutes and more cards would be needed to get a good answer. One student picked the subject. My choice was to do an elemental spread of one card. The reading kept them all spell-bound for almost twenty minutes. That one card gave them more information than they thought possible. Today most of them can do the same thing.

Once you know your cards and understand one-card readings, you can talk for a long time about any one card for any one reading. That's a gift. It's also a curse.

Clients generally want simple and quick answers. Especially of they're paying by the minute. You need to learn all you can about each of the tarot cards. You also need to learn how to give precise answers to questions quickly and efficiently. How can you do this? Are you ready for this?

Practice.

The more you practice the better you become. The more you practice the quicker you learn. The more you practice the easier it is for you to do tarot readings. That's tarot readings using spreads of any size, any time, any place. Better tarot readers who know more about their cards and give better readings make more money than other tarot readers. You can bank on that whether you decide to become a full-time professional tarot reader or a part-time one.

There's one more type of spread you need to consider. It's temporal spreads. Temporal is a fancy word meaning time. So, these are spreads concerning time. Time in the past or in the future can be divided into segments of any length. Time in the present is now and only now. Therefore, temporal spreads can have as many cards in the past and in the future as you want, but the present is best served by just one card.

One of my favorite time spreads is to look at three, six and twelve months ago as well as three, six and twelve months into the future. The present situation is represented by one card. That makes an intense seven-card, in-depth reading on any subject the client wants to discuss. It's so flexible it can be used for a fifteen minute reading or a one hour reading.

If this looks like a series of one-card spreads to you, that's a very good sign you're learning how to do professional quality tarot readings. You're not there yet, but you're learning. You can make it if you do three things: 1) Practice, 2) Practice and 3) Practice.

You're at least smiling, right?

One card time spreads can really be quite illuminating. All when questions are based on time. Some what questions relate to time. Here's some sample questions asking for an answer based on time:

Q What's the most important thing for me to learn this month?

Q What changed three months ago to get me where I am?

Q When will my financial situation start to change?

Q Is this month or next a better time to start my business?

Q What in a previous lifetime can help me learn this lesson?

Yes, time readings can be used to explore past lifetimes as well as this one. You can probe your early childhood and even your experiences in the womb. Time is eternal so you have no limit as to what past or future time you can explore. One caution.

As you explore these things make very certain you don't let your imagination get carried away. Write everything down and keep a full and complete record. Invite and expect intuitive insights but don't over-think anything. With practice you'll become very competent working with time ion your tarot readings.

You can also use time spreads to identify the lesson being learned right now. Here's a recent reading to illustrate that point. The client identified three turning points in his life and wondered which one of them was impacting his present financial difficulties the most. The cards drawn for his reading were:

1. Turning Point 1 Key 13 Death

2. Turning Point 2 Five of Swords

3. Turning Point 3 Seven of Cups

It's immediately obvious to me the first turning point is the one having the most impact on his present financial difficulties. The deceit seen in the Five of Swords and the illusion of truth ion the Seven of Cups are minor occurrences in life compared to the Changes brought about by a trump card. A major change in behavior is called for by Death.

Turning point spreads are more difficult if no trump card appears in the reading. That's why some tarot readers keep adding cards to the spread until a trump appears. Lets say the seventh card was the first trump. The first three cards were distributed to Turning Points 1-2-3. The second three cards were also distributed to Turning Point 1-2-3. The seventh card would go on the first stack and no more cards are pulled for this reading. Otherwise you need to analyze the cards drawn and the turning points to make a decision.

Turning point readings are also more complicated if more than one trump card appears in the spread. You can use the number of the trump if you like. The higher numbered trump card is the one most readers use as being the stronger of the two. You can also compare the trumps to the turning points to see which has more implications on the client's present financial situation.

You also have the option of drawing more cards to clarify the situation.

Another way to handle Turning Point readings is to draw one card and see which of the turning points this card is most closely aligned with. The single card will resonate with one of the turning points more than the others. You've just identified the critical turning point for this client's question.

Any time you have several options, you can draw one card to identify which option is the preferred solution. This process is similar to how you'd handle which questions. Some such questions actually are which questions. They can also be when questions.

Take a turning point and ask when this turning point will be filly resolved. Or ask when the outcome will be realized. Or ask when this turning point will be repeated. Such questions actually are when questions. As we learned earlier, they can also be what questions.

The three-card temporal spread of Past-Present-Future is probably the most commonly used three card tarot spread. It's really three one-card readings tied together by a common spread. Looking at all time spreads in this manner will make these spreads easier to do. Try a few temporal spreads this week.

Have a great week reading for yourself and others. How to do One Card Tarot Readings - Part Twelve

Some professional tarot readers like to pull an Outcome card as the final card for any reading. An outcome card is a one-card tarot reading addressing the final result. You can add an outcome card to any spread.

Some tarot readers like to have a card dedicated to Obstacles which identifies problems which need to be resolved. Obstacles can also be issues or concerns. No matter what you call them, they're just another example of a one card tarot reading. You can add an obstacle card to any spread.

Some tarot readers like to have a card dedicated to Assistance which identified what kind of assistance you can expect from others or from the Universe. You probably already guessed this is another example of a one card reading which can be added to any spread.

As a tarot reader you get to choose what spreads you'll use. You get to choose what names you'll give to the positions within the spread. You get to choose how you're going to do the reading. In short, you get to decide:

01. What questions you answer02. What deck you use03. How you'll define each card04. If you use inverted cards05. If you use dignities06. How you'll define the elements07. Which elements you assign to which suits08. How you'll care for your deck09. How you'll shuffle the cards10. How you select the cards11. Which tarot spreads you'll use12. What the positions within the spread mean13. When to rephrase a question14. How you interpret the reading15. and a whole lot of other things

Practice. Practice. Practice.That's my advice.

This completes this short course on doing one card tarot readings. Thanks for taking the time to take this short course. May it be a blessing to you. Have a great week, every week, reading for yourself and others.

Thank you for reading this short course.

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