René Aceves Tarot and Astrology

WHAT TO ASK WHEN GETTING A TAROT READING

Last month a guy and his dad came by for a card reading appointment they’d scheduled weeks before. I asked the son for him and his dad to think of questions or topics to ask about. “Oh definitely, we will” he assured me eagerly. When the day of the reading arrived I asked each man in turn to state any questions or areas of inquiry they’d like guidance with. You’d think I’d asked them what the circumferance of the moon was in centimeters. Big shrugs, followed by “what do people usually ask about?” I suggested some possible topics that people generally ask about, and they ended up getting a lot out of their respective readings.

With astrology, it’s strictly optional for clients to come equipped with specific areas of concern. Some people barely say anything while I read for them, others have a laundry list of questions. The horoscope (the chart, not the newspaper column) is so multi-faceted that it can reveal information regarding just about anything. Tarot is different. A given layout of the cards by necessity yields a helpful, but limited amount of information If you want to cover more than one topic then there’s going to be more than one shuffle of the deck. I’ve heard of some readers dealing out all 78 cards in the course of one reading. Whatever works, but to me, what’s missing from the layout speaks volumes.

Here’s the thing: just about all the cards are open-ended enough so that the context affects their meaning.

If a client wants to know about their job, a card like The Lovers will have a different meaning than if relationships is the topic being discussed. At work The Lovers could indicate an ally or perhaps some particularly harmonious collaboration or teamwork.

Here’s a sampling of the types of queries I get:

“I’m at a crossroads in my life and I don’t know which direction I’ll end up going in. Whatever it is, will it make me happy?”

“When will I be happy again?”

“When will things stabilize, and how?”

“Is my boyfriend thinking about cheating on me?”

“What’s happening between me and my friend? Things have felt weird between us lately.”

“Should I move out of state, or is there a good reason for me to stay?”

“Stay at my job or try to find something better?”

When people ask about their health I always remind them that I’m not a doctor, and then ask if they’ve been feeling basically fine or not so much. The extent of what I can tell them is fairly limited: will their health stabilize or is the worst yet to come? If their present condition restricts their mobility or activity, will they regain full capacity, and how soon roughly? Will they be able to enjoy the things that gave them pleasure again? How soon can they go back to work? Should they get a second opinion from a different doctor? Is their immediate environment making things worse?

When a client asks whether or not they should stay in a relationship, I avoid automatically assuming that the absent person is at fault. After all, they aren’t there to defend themselves. If I see really bad cards, that’s obviously not a positive indication, but it’s important to ask how strong or flimsy the relationship is to begin with. If positions indicating the past contain excellent cards, maybe the foundation is good and, therefore, maybe there’s hope. Less so if they’ve been together only a few months or weeks. One bad future card isn’t enough to make me give up on them. It can be complicated, but so is love and life.