Consciousness evolution in tarot readings

For many years I have regularly seen people who are rising in consciousness when they come for a reading. Now, a far higher percentage of my readings are to do with this phenomena – it happens every day.

Defining consciousness and spiritual development is very tricky, but it has been my favourite topic of study for most of my life, as I  spent most of my teenage years meditating, and then of course I met Punditt Maharaj in my early twenties. Punditt is a Sufi, and Sufism is all about consciousness transformation and evolution, and so I must make it clear that Sufi practices enhance spiritual development in a different level to reading tarot cards.

You might think that tarot readings are supposed to be about predicting the future, but the passive nature of prediction (“this will happen…”) is totally disempowering to the querent. Instead, the focus needs to be on the state of mind of the querent, who can be confused, distracted, lacking clarity and direction, lack confidence, or unable to make a decision. Clients can also be fatalistic – believing that everything is fixed – nothing can be changed.

All these states mitigate against the tarot reader, for if the client does not know what he wants, how can the reader possibly make any kind of prediction? I find fatalistic scenarios higly dispiriting, to the point that I would rather not continue with the reading if the client will not, or can not entertain the notion that there is Free Will, and that anything can be changed. One problem with fatalism is that it robs us of any choice – we are stuck on tramlines with no chance of switching tracks. The fatalistic approach is externally directed – we rely on others to tell us what to do or endorse our activities, a scenario that is perfect for governments, politicians, and all other authority figures (this includes teachers, parents, doctors and other professionals), who require  our unquestionly loyalty and subservience. A fascinating side effect of the Credit Crunch is that it is harder to hide the truth (MP’s expenses is a good example) from the general public. This of course erodes public confidence in our political masters.

One reason why people come for a reading is that they no longer have faith in their peers – let’s face it, going for a tarot reading can easily be seen as a sign of desperation, let alone an admission of gullibility – and the tarot can be as good an alternative as anything else. We could then see the need for a tarot reading as a sad indictment of the failure of society…  This of course puts the tarot reader in an interesting bind, for why should clients listen to a tarot reader, when everyone else has let them down?

For this reason the key is understanding the state of mind of the client, but we are missing something – what about the state of mind of the tarot reader? This is a question that rarely appears in tarot circles, and it is easy to see why – tarot has no answer to the question. The reason, I think, is that our tarot experts are stuck in paradigms that have very little relevance to the real world. Top of the list is the Tree of Life. We need to look at the tarot in a different light.  Whatever the state of consciousness of the client, the tarot reader has a responsibility to raise his own levels, to be self-aware, otherwise how can we comment on another?

For this reason, the need for the Master lessons in Tarot become paramount. Current generally accepted methods of reading the tarot do not adequately take into account the evolution of consciousness, so now is the time to start learning new methods.

Here are some of the signs of growth in consciousness that I have seen in clients:

• Loss of focus or interest in current activities
• Lack of direction
• Knowing what they do not want, but not knowing what they want
• They have gone beyond black and white – everything is a shade of grey
  • Therefore neither loving nor hating is desirable, nor is taking a position
• The realisation that there are no ’signs’ to show progress
• A lack of faith resulting in lack of faith in their own abilities

These ’symptoms’ are signs of rapid spiritual growth, and it is important that the tarot reader knows and understands what to say, and be able to suggest opportunities for future growth. As a sidenote, it is easy to see these signs as indicating depression – I know at least one person who was prescribed strong antidepressants by their doctor!

There are more and better ways of dealing with transformations in your life – and there are people who understand what you have been going through, and they know that these processes are natural. I spend a lot of time with therapists and healers, who are also recognising that what many people think of as depression is actually a sign of a new life with new opportunities for success and happiness.