Tarot Reading at Public Events – Keep Calm and Think of Monty Python

The perfect mindset for public tarot
reading! From "OSHO Zen Tarot"©
 by Deva Padma

You’ve picked your reading venue, run your ads, packed up your table cloth and your favorite decks. You show up to your event twenty to thirty minutes early so you can clear your space, ground and acclimate your cards. It’s show time and you are ready. You’ve thought of everything. Business cards, notepads, a gift for your event host – now all you need is a querent. You sit at your table with an open and welcoming smile as you greet passersby.  Then the unexpected happens. A couple strolls towards you. One of them looks rather upset, points a finger at you and yells, “I know what you’re doing. I know what’s really going on here! You’re a witch! Witch!” Sounds completely over the top, doesn’t it, accept that it actually happened to me during a public reading event at a bookstore. I looked around half expecting Michael Palin to suggest they build a bridge out of me, or at the very least, Terry Jones wanting to see if my weight was equal to that of a duck’s.

 Public reading events aren’t every reader’s cup of tea. You can try to prepare for every contingency, but when you choose to read for the general public weird stuff happens and you have to learn how to roll with it. How calm you remain and how quickly you can think on your feet determines the success or failure of your reading event. In my case, the witch denouncer backed out of the shop, taking their friend with them as they continued to condemn my mystical proclivities.  I looked at the people around me who were nervously awaiting my reaction. I grinned at them and responded, “Was it something I said?” People started to laugh and before I knew it, everything was back on track. The truth is that the majority of people out there want you to succeed. They came to watch you succeed. However, they take their cue from you at an event, so it becomes very important to put their comfort above your own, because to varying degrees, they have already put their faith in you as a reader simply by showing up. 

Stay in the moment
another great reminder from "OSHO Zen
Tarot"© by Deva Padma

Most readers have expectations of a venue host. Usually they are completely reasonable – a discreet reading area, the ability to display your business cards, posters, someone to help steer querent traffic, etc.  However, some also impose their own bias on the people they serve.  Some refuse to read for children, claiming their energy is too chaotic. Seriously? Children are charming to read for – all wonder and excitement. Others won’t read someone who’s consumed any alcohol whatsoever. What are you going to do? Have them fill out a questionnaire first? Some of the most successful and joyful events involve reading for children.  Restaurants with full-service bars are another good venue selection.  It comes down to trusting your host to support you while you support their clientele to the best of your ability.  It serves no purpose to offend a business’s clientele with high-minded principles. Don’t confront customers about their belief systems. You’re not there to win an argument, you’re there to entertain and no matter how difficult it may be, never let your audience see you stressed.  Yes, you heard right, entertain and audience, because believe it or not, your readings are a performance.  

There are tarot readers who take issue with being likened to

Don't forget to enjoy yourself. it's
your party! From "OSHO Zen Tarot"©
by Deva Padma

an entertainer.  They are welcome to because that’s all the more venues for me.  Liberace once stated in an interview that, “Good piano players are a dime a dozen.” So ask yourself what makes you stand out?  “My readings are clear and I’m honest with my querents,” you say. “I work to enlighten them while I respect their feelings. I have integrity.” So do the majority of readers.  What makes you so special?  Simple answer – you do, your presentation, the personae you project.  You have ten seconds or less to engage a potential client.  Within that time they will judge you on appearance, perceptions about your attitude and whether, or not, their inner guidance system believes you to be ‘safe.’ Be aware, be present and don’t use their reading to seek validation.

The reader sets the tone at an event. It is their responsibility to put people at ease. Do it with style, do it with grace, but most importantly, do it in a manner authentic to you as a person. I use humor and when that fails, I pull out the Paula Dean brownies. I have no mercy.  

LADY ORACLE

“Seeking the Profound in the Ordinary”

Dan Millman, in his book, “The Peaceful Warrior,” states that there are no ordinary moments.  Each fragment of time and space is sufficient to itself and the expansion of the entire universe occurs as one dewdrop falls from a leaf.  Pretty weighty stuff and a concept that’s much easier to understand while sitting in a meditation garden with lutes playing in the background.  How many of us have the opportunity to retreat to a place of such ultimate contemplation, though, and for how long?  Sure, we can meditate for ten or twenty minutes a couple of times a day if we’re disciplined and lucky enough to grab the time, and that’s a great thing, but we must still exist in the ordinary world for more than twenty-three hours each day. No lutes, no garden. Each day we preform mundane tasks that on the surface appear to have little to do with enlightenment, but when viewed from another perspective, hold wonder.

What is the nature of the profound and why do so many of us

The culmination of the OSHO's Zen Tarot©
Major Arcana, #22, beyond illusion
deck by Deva Padma

seek it?  When you are immersed in a profound thought or occurrence your connection to spirit is so direct, so pure that you see past yourself and your particular reality.  You glimpse the core of spiritual oneness that links all existence.  Those glimpses are a promise that there is more than just us in the universe and that we are all interconnected. Kahili Gibran, in “The Prophet,” says that children “are life’s longing for itself.”  If that’s true, then as spiritual beings having a human experience, isn’t our quest for the miraculous and the profound simply our longing for our spiritual home?

Assuming we sleep seven hours a day, we have sixteen hours filled with school, work, commuting, chores, errands and common tasks.  With this tight of a schedule it only makes sense to seek the profound in the ordinary if you wish to live a conscious-filled life.  Think about the rhythm of mundane tasks; raking leaves, washing floors, folding laundry. Your body steps into a flow. Contemplate the way your muscles work together to move – how many unseen cells join harmoniously to accomplish a single movement.  You fold a towel in half, measuring the edges so they match up just so.  You fold it in half again and place it on a stack to be stored in the linen closet.  In this simple chore you learn continuance, how pieces of life stack together in natural order and that once something has served its purpose in life, it’s time to let go and move on.

There’s a world of enlightenment in the ordinary.  Today try seeking the profound in your everyday routine – be it work, or errands.  Be the moment and see what you discover.

LADY ORACLE    

OSHO Zen Tarot is available through my website!

Check out cool decks!

6 of Wands - "You're Gonna Hear Me Roar!"

                                                         “I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing 

                                                              through the fire Cause I am a champion 

                                                                  and you’re gonna hear me ROAR”

                              

                                                                                                                   by Dr. Luke and Bonnie McKee

The zen version of tarot's Six of Wands
OSHO Zen Tarot©, illustrations by Deva Padma
a superior deck and a must have!

In life we should all have our own theme music – nice, snappy, up tempo numbers that pull us out of the doldrums and gets us moving again.  The same should be true of tarot cards.  Take the Six of Wands from the OSHO Zen Tarot deck for example. (see: OSHO Zen Tarot blog) It’s a great theme card – sort of “Rocky” meets “Life of Pi” (without the “Yo,  Adrian,” or the 3.14).  Nothing says leadership, acclaim and victory like riding a tiger through streamers of confetti.  I like pairing up OSHO’s Six of Wands with Katy Perry’s song, “Roar.” It’s particularly useful during breakups, or worst yet, when you’ve let someone’s opinion of you (even your own) become your reality.  

Wands are elemental fire and represent action and creativity. 

Beyond Illusion or #20 Judgment
seeing past the illusion easily pulls us to our higher self
OSHO Zen Tarot© illustrated by Deva Padma

In Wands, you don’t sit back and imagine a pretty picture, you get out your easel and paint one.  The Six proclaims victory over the confusion and conflict depicted in the Five of Wands.  Six is the turning point of the suit where you’ve become strong enough in your sense of self to accept that your actions have consequences and that one of those consequences can be conflict. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” The Six tells us to triumph over our detractors, even if those detractors are ourselves.  The card tells us to lead and if other people follow, that’s great, but if they don’t, then we must continue to celebrate our triumph over our own insecurities and claim our place center stage in our own lives. Once we’ve learned this lesson, we are ready to move on to the Seven of Wands, defending our territory and holding on to our convictions. 

Celebration, or three of Cups
a truly wonderful depiction from
OSHO Zen Tarot© illustrated by
Deva Padma

We all get the blues from time to time and we all fall prey to listening to the negative downloads from the big cloudplayer in our head. It doesn’t take much of a funk to decide the glass is half empty and that not only does it have a hole in the bottom, but there’s a chip in the rim as well.  When this happens, don’t simply wait for things to get better.  Take a proactive stance.  Select a tarot card that’s image gets your mental and emotional juices flowing.  Use it as a focal point for a meditation or keep it handy to look at all day.  Select a theme song – something that is personally uplifting to you.  Make it your anthem. Play it fifteen times in a row if necessary until you not only feel the happiness and success portrayed by the song, but you become it as well.

LADY ORACLE

Thanks to Katy Perry for her inspiration check out her official "Roar" video on You Tube!

visit me at www.ladyoracle.net

Transcending the Ego - “The Power of Simply Existing”

#1, Existence from the
OSHO Zen Tarot© by
Deva Padma

Ego is both a Latin and Greek word meaning ‘I,’ or ‘self.’  Ego is also one of the layers that Freud defined as part of our psyche, or mental make up.  Spiritually, we are advised to surrender our ego to attain a truly enlightened state.  Dr. Wayne Dyer often uses the acronym, Edging God Out for his definition of ego consciousness.  He contends, as do most spiritual philosophers, that we close ourselves off from our ever-present link to Divine consciousness, as well as to our link with all living things when we view our life experiences solely through the lens of our own ego. 

Linda Jane Becker, in her book, “Living With Soul,” describes the healthy ego as an internal device designed purely as a safety mechanism.  Becker defines the ego’s function as one of assimilating information about our environment and in dangerous situations, activating our sense of self-preservation to help us avoid harm.  She states that when we depend solely on the

The Source from the
OSHO Zen Tarot© by
Deva Padma

ego to judge and guide our actions however, we pull life through the filter of our mind instead of through our heart.  By doing so, we trap ourselves inside our own perceptions of how life should be lived, rather than actually experiencing the life surrounding us. 

Our relationship to our ego-self often feels like the relationship between a behavioralist and a lab rat.  Our ego conditions us to react to certain situations with set responses much like a rat is conditioned to push a lever and collect a food pellet.  Gratification, or validation.  When we allow the ego to train us, we stand at a metaphorical food bar all day, every day, continually pushing that lever to get the same reward – a

#22 Beyond Illusion from the
OSHO Zen Tarot© by
Deva Padma

feeling of rightness and a sense of who we are as defined by what we have.  When we step away from the need for validation, we allow our hearts to open to the power of the Divine.  Make the effort to reconnect to your spiritual self today.  Use the path that is the most familiar and effortless for you and enjoy your journey.

LADY ORACLE

If you don't know about this tarot deck, you should.  It's at the top of my must
have list.  OSHO Zen deck clears the cobwebs like none other.


Click here for more info

Practically Magic

                                                        “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.”  

                                  Rosalind Russell in “Auntie Mame”  1958

I was in my early 30s when I stopped struggling and accepted

the amazing Kris Waldherr's "Magician" from
her deck, "The Goddess Tarot"©

the fact that magic is real and no matter what my attitude - good, bad or indifferent - I hold the ability to create my reality.  Life itself is magical.  It is a fantastic network of energy and vibration all linking back to one source of origin - the Invisible Divine.  When we allow energy to flow naturally between ourselves and Source, the miraculous becomes an everyday experience.  Here’s the kicker.  Our connection to Source energy is both personal and constant.  We are never out there going it alone, so to speak.  We are connected to Source and through Its network, we are linked to every other life form on this planet and beyond.  

Your relationship with divine energy is defined by who you believe yourself to be, what you’ve experienced in your life and, also by how you where raised.  If working with universal flow to create your life sounds like a daunting task, believe me, it is.  The first Step is a doozy. You have to give up excuses. You must accept responsibility for your own choices and live with their consequences.  

Conscious - our eternal link to the Divine
from Deva Padma's "OSHO Zen Tarot"©

Step two requires that you face your true intentions and attitudes when it comes to magical thinking.  It’s difficult to create positive and happy results when your thought process stems from a place of judgment, bitterness and anger.  The code word here is RELEASE.  Whether it’s a relationship, an attitude or a situation - if it does not promote your life in a positive manner, clear it out of your space.  Again, not the easiest thing to do, but the results will be well worth the struggle.

Step three is where the fun starts.  Suspend your disbelief.  Play the ‘what if’ game from a light-hearted, positive place.  What it I got that promotion?  What would my life look like?  What if I got my bills paid off?  How would that feel?   Mentally walk yourself through the sights, smells and tastes of achieving.  Perceive it, achieve it.  Do you think that sounds silly?  Why?  You do it every morning, but most likely in a negative way.  Perhaps you stand in front of a mirror telling yourself why things aren’t going to work for you, or creating fantastical scenarios in your head where people slight you and you get to deliver an amazing monolog that really shows them, boy.  You imagine being right, but in a very negative way.  

Life is magic and magic is real no matter what your belief

Corrine Kenner and John J. Blumen's
terrific image of #21, The World from
"Wizard's Tarot"©

system.  Honor the magical connection to the Divine that lives in you and watch your life become filled with amazing texture, color and vibrancy.  This is your life.  Use it.

LADY ORACLE

The Zen of Tarot

"Zen - the philosophy that enlightenment is gained by meditation, self-reflection and contemplation."

Existence, the OSHO© deck's counterpart to
The Magician

Generally speaking, tarot sites and blogs talk about the meanings of card in terms of symbolism and keywords.  That's extremely useful information, but any of us who read tarot consistently know that readings are also about our personal connection to our cards and the connotation that each of those cards holds for us as individuals.  For example, what my cards recognize as a pattern for repressed anger and secrets in a client and what your cards recognize as those traits for the same person, can display differently in the spread because of how our deck relates to us.  Too often the term, "intuitive," becomes a catch all phrase and the bond between a reader and their deck, or decks, gets lost in the shuffle.  Pun intended.  Good readers will convey the same information to the same client, albeit a little differently.

One of the best and most insightful decks on the market is "Osho Zen Tarot."  I refer to it as my bunny slippers deck.  It's my comfort deck when engaging in the not always pleasant work of sorting through personal issues.  Though many prefer the images of traditional Ryder Waite (RWCS) based decks, there are times when the kings and queens are too weighed down by the consequence of their own archetypes.  That's when I head for the colorful and contemplative Osho deck.  Believe it or not, the messages from both decks go hand in hand.  Okay, that's the last pun.  I promise.

Below are some of the keywords for both  #1, The Magician and #2, The High Priestess in RWCS and verbiage from the Ohso card book.  Osho's #1 is, Existence and #2, is Inner Voice.  My take on the lessons portrayed in both cards is printed in italics.

Magician                                            Existence

Action                                               "go outside." "Get out of your head." (Make something happen.)

Conscious Awareness                      "You are not accidental."  (Make decisions with your eyes open.)

Concentration                                   "take time to savior it so it can deepen"  (Set your intention. Focus!)

Power                                               "the whole of existence will miss you." (You have an established 
                                                           place in the Universe that you, and only you, can fill.  This gives
                                                           you great power. Use it productively.)


High Priestess                                    Inner Voice


Non-action                                          "Seek silence and centering within."(Contemplate your path)

Unconscious Awareness                    "wordless language of the heart" (Use your divine intuition)

Potential Mystery                               "an oracle that speaks only the truth." (To truly live is the biggest
                                                             mystery of all.)


Both decks give us the same information, however, the

OSHO's Inner Voice match's The High Priestess
Note the lunar horn head dress

presentations are different.  RWCS offers information to a querent, who seeks to identify his own character through the form of actual archetypes. First, we have a powerful Magician, who through concentrated effort, bends and forms his world to manifest his desires.  Next we have the intuitive and reclusive High Priestess; aligned with the moon and lighting the path of the inner journey.

Osho,  presents the same information without form, as concepts rather than as beings.  #1 is the concept of Existence and # 2, Inner Voice.  The Osho deck offers information to aspirants - seekers who aspire to embrace the concepts rather than specific traits.  Two philosophies, two sides of the same coin.

If you're not familiar with the Osho deck, you can follow this link to my on-line store. Please take the opportunity to look at this deck.  Tarot is a living and evolving form of self discovery.  You can go as far down the rabbit hole as you wish and there will still be more depth for you to discover on your next trip.  Be bold and experiment.  And as Alice said on her jaunt through Wonderland, "Curiouser and curiouser."


LADY ORACLE

OSHO Zen Tarot is 
available through 
www.ladyoracle.net

Dream Symbolism – "I Know I Was Wearing Pants When I Left the House"

"OSHO Zen Tarot"© #1 Existence by Deva Padma
If your going to dream your naked,
it's best to be somewhere splendid like this.

I love Alice in Wonderland, the book, the various movie incarnations with their amazing dream sequences - the whole shooting match.  We watch Alice's travails and then find it was all a dream on a lovely summer's day. We face ourselves in dreams.  There's no hiding from your hopes and fears in them - not for us, not for Alice.  Often we convince ourselves images in dreams have no real significance.  We wake up in the morning confused as to why on earth we dreamt about painting a fence using a goldfish as a paintbrush.  Must have been that 7-Layer Taco Dip before bed.  There's an old wives tale that says if you eat Welsh Rarebit before bed, you will have nightmares.  I think that's a safe bet for anybody who has ever experienced acid reflux.  I know dreams mean a great deal.  They can be a warning, a chance to say good bye to a loved one who's crossed over, or a reminder from the universe that you shouldn't take yourself too seriously.  I get that last one a lot.

Much of dream interpretation is common sense.  A dream about crossing a bridge is clearly a dream about transitioning from one aspect of life to another.  Past to present, present to future, or even an actual change in locations.  Building a bridge can be about constructing an exit strategy for a situation, or re-directing your life to reach a desired goal or benefit.  What we see in dreams can be a portent of some future event, but it is often a representation of our attempt to deal with an issue.

The Lover's from "Shadowscapes Tarot" ©
by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
Romantic dreams are the best.

A few weeks ago, my husband received a promotion.  The night before his meeting, I dreamt I was standing on a hillside under a bright and sunny sky.  The wind was howling past me, rippling the flowers and grass to waves.  It wasn't a cold wind, just very, very strong.  I woke up with one phrase echoing in my head. "The winds of change."  That evening, I learned of my husband's good fortune.  However, the significance of the symbolism introduced in my wind dream didn't end there.  Earlier this week, I learned that changes in my husband's world could result in some pretty big changes in mine.  And, you guessed it.  The wind came back.

This time, like Dorothy Gale about to head for OZ, I was

The Tower from Ciro Marchetti's
"Legacy of the Divine Tarot"©
Let the winds of change come. They simple
give you a fresh start!

standing in a quaint little cottage with casement windows.  Outside, the sky was stormy grey and the wind at hurricane force.  The casement began to rattle and I grabbed onto the latch.  Suddenly the wind ripped the entire window out, casement and all.  I was pulled halfway through the hole trying to pull the window back into place.  Two strangers stood behind me shouting, "Let go! Let go! You'll hurt yourself trying to hold on to that!"  I let go, the wind took the window and it blew across my new car without even damaging it.  The moral: Resistance causes suffering i.e. my arm being yanked out of its socket by trying to halt a change in the wind.  Let go and perhaps the damage you fear will not materialize at all, or will be much less than you expect.

I told you all that to tell you this.  In tarot readings, people fear the appearance of The Tower, or as Hollywood loves to describe it, The Tower of Destruction ( insert appropriate organ music here).  The lesson of The Tower is not the, sudden and dramatic change indicated.  It's about how you deal with that change.  Do you fall screaming, muscles tense in resistance, or do you fall acrobatically, arching and turning your body for the best advantage in landing?

Below is a pretty generalized list of dream symbols.  See how they fit for you and start thinking about how your dream images can reflect your inner feelings. Check out some books on the subject and above all, have fun with it.

Lady Oracle


Car Out of Control - Passenger, feeling powerless to alter an event or situation.   Driver, unable to control the direction of your own life.


Cat -  Power and independence


Key - A secret


Apples - Fresh and firm, good fortune.  Rotten, goals not being realized


Hammer - Building/forging new opportunities


Burial - Saying goodbye to the old.


Hawk - Keep an eye on something. Bird's eye view


Deer - Gentleness, beauty in motion.


Butterfly - Transformation and beauty


Fountains - Emotions (water is always emotionally based)


Flying - Happiness and freedom.  Escaping restriction


Mirrors - A vision of yourself.  this can be unsettling as our self-perceptions frequently are.


Ships - The unconscious mind and the realm of emotions (what is the water like?)


Climbing - An attempt to move past obstacles


Clocks - Schedules and control.  Timeliness.


Stairs - A rise or fall of social or economic status.


Lightening - Sudden awareness.


Thunder - Calling your attention to something (what else is happening?)


Elephants - Memories or the importance of remembering something


Castles - Rewards and praise for achievements