37 Years 37 Tarot Lessons

Tommorw is my 37th birthday and for my 37th I thought to share with you, dear reader, 37 stories, nuggets of wisdom and interesting facts about tarot and about what I have learned as a tarot reader and who I became as a tarot reader.


 Without further hullabaloo, here are 37 things I have learned or lived through and wish to share with you.


1. Reading Tarot means to deeply understand that the universe is working in our favor and wants our greatest good. A tarot reading is to witness a communique that is for our benefit, even if it feels like bitter medicine at first.

2. Tarot tells us what we need to hear, not what we want to hear.

3. Lessons that we fail to learn are repeated indefinitely, one does not fail out of living as humans; this also means it is never too late to learn them.

4. Sometimes the more we demand information about an outcome in a reading the less the deck will tell us. The current struggle is so important to our development that the universe is not allowing for spoilers. Not knowing is part of the spiritual distillation process.

5. Some of the most honest, spiritual, truthful, giving and healing people I’ve met are tarot readers.

6. I started reading tarot encouraged by a group of drag queens who lived across the street from me. They would have me at the age of 14 read at their parties, and encouraged me when I doubted myself and was taking my first wee little psychic steps. I have had an immense soft spot for drag queens ever since, beauty and truth and acceptance are often found at the edges of things. Drag Queens of the world, I adore you, thank you.

7. Being in a profession where society questions my honesty and integrity is funny because it this profession that I am the most honest and moral. Question tarot readers less-- question bankers, spin-artists and corporations more.

8. I faithfully read with one deck for the first 15 years of my career, whenever I use this deck it is like my hands are coming home.

9. All kinds of people come for tarot readings, surgeons, accountants, reiki healers, lawyers, housewives, the unemployed-- there is no ‘type’ who get readings except the type who are curious about their lives.

10. We can keep asking the deck until we get the answer we want, but that’s cheating.

11. Tarot often directs us to the hard choices, but if the choices were easy we most likely would not be consulting the cards about it.

12. Feeling lost is not the same as being lost. The subconscious is shifting things into place before washing them up on our shore. Trust not knowing, it really is ok.

13. Asking, “Am I a failure? Did I lose?” means you aren’t and you didn’t. Those who truly become lost don't ask.

14. Tarot can be used to: contact the other side, conduct pet readings, look at the nature of your energy for reiki healings, connect with guides and higher powers all in addition to the things people normally come to tarot for. Tarot is actually a swiss army knife but people usually only think it as a cork screw.

15. When you feel at your most lost is right where radical transformation happens. You are not really lost, you know.

16. Tarot is not a crutch. I was clairvoyant before I picked up tarot and it took years to get my clairvoyance to use tarot. Like a gymnast uses the beam or the high bars, its an addition to skills that are already there and creates something beautiful and unique, the tool does not negate or change natural aptitude or ability.

17. Tarot will enhance and strengthen intuitive abilities.

18. But you do not need to be intuitive to use tarot.

19. Being clairvoyant, I thought everyone was like me, that everyone had a perceptive ability, it wasn’t until my teens did I realize that I was different. Most intuitives believe its the norm until we are taught it is not.

20. I do not believe in a one and only soul mate. I believe there are those who are soul connected and we can have many of them. When I hear ‘twin flame’ I want to barf a little bit.

21. The death card actually rarely describes death, but there are many other cards that I have seen that do. The very big obvious things we fear are not always the things we should be fearing, its often the quiet side-ways thing.

22. Ambiguity is a friend. The need for certainty makes a life small.

23. Anxiety feels big, bad, and scary but it is only an over-stimulated flight response. Our society and culture is causing this, this is not normal and is not indicative of a broken person but a broken system.

24. Mister Right will not show up at the door with a bouquet of flowers, most of the time true love doesn’t just happen, we have to search for it like everything else. The search, the call is beautiful and the search makes us ready to receive that kind of love, too.

25. Life is too short to deal with an asshole boss, leave. There are always options, always.

26. I have my theories but I am still not sure exactly how tarot works, no one does. But work it does. Accepting the mystery makes me a better reader, over-analyzing it stops the process.

27. Fear of leaving, fear of losing, fear of what others think and fear of success are the four horsemen of staying in a cramped life.

28. I trust the cards completely but my interpretation of them can be off.

29. A tarot reading can point you in a direction but it is up to you to choose the course.

30. I dream about tarot and when I hear songs I think about tarot spreads that could describe the situation.

31. I really dislike reading for close friends and family. I also dislike reading for myself, contrary to popular belief the more objective I am, the better reader I am,

32. Predicting the future is  tricky business because the moment a probability is spoken, the nature of the probable outcome changes.

33. Try your best to let go of old trauma, the new person in your life deserves your trust.

34. I am not going to be a reader for everyone, energy meshes and melds in highly individual ways no one can be all things to all people.

35. Being asked specific questions for a reading does not mean its fake. Asking questions is about keeping the readee in the driver’s seat of the experience. Its a conversation not a monologue. A clairvoyant is not a mind reader.

36. Tarot bridges the awake from the intuitive mind, the mundane to the spirit, the linear to the concentric, tarot is a shining path connecting the known with the mystery.

37. Take the leap, Spirit will carry you over gap.