So after giving my first reading to Brian, a professional Tarot Reader I had run to the toilet.
I was sitting on the toilet seat deep breathing. What should I do? Should I stay or should I leave? Should I leave the weekend Body Mind Spirit show and call it all a bad dream? For Part One, click HERE. For Part Two, click HERE.
After what felt like a lifetime, I decided I would try. That decision is how I learned Tarot.
I would try to read Tarot Cards for people today. Then I could decide what to do about the rest of the weekend. I would either drown or swim, but I would try. Perhaps it would help me learn Tarot. It was now after 9am and the doors to the biggest Body Mind Spirit show of the year in Dublin, Ireland had started and people were pouring in. All the New Age Hippies were going to walk past Joes stand soon.
I returned to my mentor Joes stand. Joe was holding a cup of tea. (Joe at the time was a serious drinker of tea. 20 cups of tea a day was his liquid sustenance).
‘Well?’ he asked looking through his glasses at me.
“Well, what?’ I snapped. Even though I was standing in the middle of a huge ‘Love and Light’ weekend exhibition I was not feeling particularly full of pink love right at that moment.
Joe ignored me and pointed to a piece of paper on the deck. ‘I have this page here and people can write down their names. I’ll give you 15 minutes for each reading. That ok?’
‘Are you asking me or telling me Joe?’ I said, my voice full of icicles.
Joe stared and me, shrugged his shoulders and took a sip of his tea. I could tell he was trying not to laugh because his face kept twitching. I clenched my fists.
I am SO going to kill this man at the end of the day. What a nerve to put me in the deep end like this! People were now walking all around us so it was probably not a good time to swear at him or claw him with my nails. We were in Hippy Heaven. The world of meditation, chakra’s, aura cleansing and whale healing. It would not look good if I turned into a shrieking harpy! I was not appreciating his method to help me. This was not the way you learned Tarot.
I took a deep breath and gave Joe an extra sharp dagger look.
‘Hello?’ said a woman’s voice. I turned around. A blonde haired, middle aged woman was looking at me, ‘Can I have a Tarot reading?’
‘Sure’ I said with a big smile showing uber confidence that I did not possess, and pointed to the seat beside the little round Tarot table, ‘Take a seat’.
I sat down and this woman (let’s call her Amy) immediately started telling me about her Soul Mate – or should I say – a lack of one. I nodded and handed her the Tarot pack. ‘Why don’t you shuffle the cards while you are talking,’ I suggested, ‘that way your energy will be in the cards’.
Amy took the cards and shuffled rather badly (not a shuffle expert like Brian the professional reader I had just finished with). “I just want to find my Soul Mate”, Amy explained. “I’m lookin, lookin, lookin and I can’t find him anywhere”.
I nodded, exuding deep wisdom. I instructed Amy to spread the cards, close her eyes, take some deep breaths, open her eyes and then pull 6 cards. Why 6 cards? No idea. Remember I knew nothing at the time. Had I learned Tarot – of course not!
I turned the cards one by one. I didn’t know anything about the meanings in the Tarot cards but I remember even now that all the cards that she choose were Cups cards and The Lovers card. I didn’t know what Cup cards were at the time but everyone in the cards looked happy, blissful and smiling.
I think any minute now’, was my answer.
Amy squealed, ‘eeeeeeeeeee’.
Joe, standing in the background jumped!
‘Yes, your Soul Mate will appear very soon’ I confirmed with confidence. I did honestly feel that at the time. Amy was ecstatic and asked a few more questions and the 15 minutes was up. (15 minutes goes SUPER FAST when you are reading tarot). Amy jumped up full of glee and went to explore the other stands at the show after dutifully paying Joe five Irish pounds (the days long before Ireland switched to the Euro).
There were two people standing waiting and the day continued. When you give readings for 5 pounds and everybody else is charging 15/20 pounds you can guess who is going to be busier! Me! And I had not learned Tarot.
I didn’t have much time to breathe let alone eat or pee. Joe gracefully created an hour break for me at lunchtime but by the time I finished my morning list of clients I only had half an hour. I went off to the toilet and after that to the gluten free, sugar free, lactose free, not very tasty hippy stand for a salad. I was already fully booked for the rest of the day and I even had a few bookings for tomorrow. I wasn’t sure if I would come back the next day but I didn’t say that to Joe.
I was dazed and totally out of it as I stood in the queue to order my salad. Those were the early days of my explorations into spirituality. I didn’t understand psychic protection, grounding or any of that stuff that comes in handy when you are reading Tarot cards.
‘Eeeeee’ someone squealed behind me. I jumped and turned around. It was Amy – her energy was on fire.
‘I met him, I met my Soul Mate, you won’t believe it, I went outside and was having a fag* and I couldn’t find me matches and this man came over and lit my fag for me and we got chatting and he is so lovely and so cute and then we chatted some more and he asked me did I want coffee and I said yes and we chatted more and he bought me cake and then we went outside and had another fag and he asked me out on a date tonight. Oh My God – I think he is my Soul Mate. You were right – any moment now you said but Holy God I didn’t think it would be that fast. You are such a great reader – I’m telling everybody about ya all morning. Eeeeeeeeeeeee’
Everything Amy said came out in one gush without a breath. It took me a moment to catch up. ‘Eh….Amy that’s great!’
‘EEEEEeEeeeeeee’ she replied, jumping on the spot and gave me a massive hug. I didn’t know what to say so I said nothing and just smiled as Amy ran off (probably to have another fag).
I looked at my watch. Crap it was time to go back. I didn’t even get time to order a tasteless salad. I grabbed a chocolate Mars Bar (now known as Snickers) instead. At the end of that first day I was exhausted but exhilarated at the same time. You know that feeling when you are totally terrified of something and you do it anyway. I was feeling that feeling.
Ah hell, I silently thought to myself, I might as well stay for the next two days. Joe and I worked till 9pm at the show and then we went to a local restaurant afterwards where I devoured a serious amount of food.
I no longer wanted to kill Joe. Perhaps his crazy mentoring technique worked. I was no longer frightened of the Tarot cards. I had many happy customers to prove I was doing something right. Maybe I could do this Tarot thing!
I could share more stories about that crazy weekend or the many other shows that I attended after that…crazy stories…strange stories…
How my eccentric friend Daniel arrived, told me I was floating off into space, took me outdoors and proceeded to fill my Doc Martin boots with mud so I would ‘get grounded’. I squelched back into the show but it didn’t work. I was left with sticky toes.
Or the story one year about the man that asked me would I beat him up after the show was over because I looked like a strong woman. Seems he was into BDSM!
Or the high class prostitute that was offered a very lucrative job in New York. As she was explaining in GREAT detail about this potential job, she opened her wallet to show me the most amount of cash I have EVER seen in my life, and asking should she buy a ticket!
OMG! The responsibility!
Or Molly that came every Friday to a place that I worked at, in Melbourne. She would ask for the winning Lotto numbers. I would say I could not – that in fact if I won the Lotto I would not be here, I would be in Fiji. And lo and behold she would be back the following Friday to ask again. Week after week after week. I did eventually go to Fiji but I don’t think Molly won the lotto.
You meet all sorts of people when you read Tarot for others. Never a dull moment. One thing is for sure. I didn’t drown that weekend and it launched me into the world rather dramatically as a professional learned Tarot reader. In hindsight, I have to say…thanks Joe.
If anybody is interested in Joes mentoring style you can actually contact him at AnamSpirit. You can learn Tarot super fast with Joes random techniques! Joe mentors, trains, heals and guides in the areas of Shamanism, Tantra, Dowsing, Angels, Tarot, Ritual and Land/Space clearing. He has authored a few books and is well known in Ireland as ‘the man who gets rid of things that go bump in the night’. In short, Joe is an Irish shaman! His methods work. I guess I am proof! By the end of that first weekend, I had learned Tarot.
So, that’s how I learned Tarot. On that note, I will say goodbye and remind you that nothing is too hard to try, especially if you feel manipulated into doing it and your ego decides to prove them wrong. Perhaps it is the Irish way to learn Tarot…
* A fag is an Irish word for cigarette. ‘I’m goin for a fag’ means a person is about to light a cigarette. They may not actually be ‘goin’ anywhere in fact.
