The cards are very slippery so you have to develop your workable shuffling tactics but once you get the hang of it they're nice to shuffle.  If you drop cards during a shuffle, you can just scoop them up any old which way and you'll have reversals.  

Speaking of reversals---I don't like just turning a section of cards upside down for reversals. Then you always have the same cards reversed.  I've decided to have the sitter draw

 cards from a fan, keeping all the cards face down. Once they've drawn their cards, then I'll have them draw X number more  from the first cards they've drawn, keeping the cards face down and those will be the reversals for that spread . Once the reading is finished, I'll put all the cards all upright again and shuffle a couple times and then put the cards away till the next reading.

But once I got it, I had an awakening.  Yes, plastic! Yes, gold foil!  I really like this deck!  It comes in a very sturdy little box that has a magnetic closure and will fit in pocket, purse or backpack.  It's heavenly to shuffle once you get used to it.  It's beautifully textured on both sides and on the side that's illustrated, it's really beautifully illustrated in color.  It's kind of holographic with a suggestion of 3D and then with beautiful texture in the background..  The cards are very sturdy and durable. You can let them fall on the floor and walk on them and they'll come up shining and dazzling.  You could do readings in a swimming pool---no problem. Let your toddler play with them---wipe them off and do a professional reading---again, no problem.

If you don't read with reversals, you might want to reconsider that.  You'll save yourself a lot of time reorganizing the cards back to upright positions if you just learn to use reversals..  Remember the old card joke "wanna play 52 card pickup?" and then the jokester would f-l-l-l-b-b-b-r-r-r-p-p-p the whole deck onto the floor and you got to pick up the 52 cards ?  Well, till you learn to shuffle this one, it's 78 card pickup sometimes.  

This deck would be great to keep in your pocket or purse if you're going to be reading in a public bar or psychic fair or other public space.  Spills won't phase it.  You can put the whole deck in the shower or bathtub with you if you want to.  In my opinion, I think every Tarot user should get one of these.  It's just $15 and change on Amazon so it's well worth the price.

For anyone who doesn't know what I mean, I'll try to explain it.  

First of all, I clear my mind of any prejudices and snap judgments.  Those things are just pitfalls for every person, whether they think so or not.  There are just always some of those things that plague all of us, I think, because  nobody is perfect..  I take a few seconds or minutes to shut that stuff out and tune into the cards.  If I just started reading without that I'd be hearing my own "stuff" and passing that on.  It would just taint the reading with my opinions and prejudices. By clearing my mind of all that stuff, I can truly give a reading that's what the cards are saying not what I'm saying.  That's why I say if I add anything of my own experience, I always distinguish which is "me" and which is the cards. And it's when I've cleared my selfish stuff out, that's when the stuff that comes from what I learn from this book and elsewhere can "float up" and I can convey the message from the cards.

None of us is omniscient. We think we know something about another person, but we can't read their mind and we can't really, unfailingly know what they're thinking, what they're going to do, what their life has been before this---we just THINK we know.  That's our judgment---our opinion.  We can't know what their Higher Power has in mind for them or what they need to go through next or what they've already been through and how it affected them.  I can read their cards if I clear my own "stuff" out of the way before I read but that doesn't make me a special person.  It just makes me a person able to read cards.  

What do I mean by truly randomized? Well, I was frustrated when I'd riffle and riffle and riffle my deck only to find out I was pulling the same cards in the same order as a spread I had just done sometimes..  Not always but frequently enough that it bugged me.  So I started dealing out the deck into four or five piles after a reading, gathering them all up, putting them away, and then riffling them again before the next reading.  

I always randomize the deck after a reading is done and then put it away.  Then when I'm using it again, I riffle for the reading and for any other cards drawn for that particular reading.  Then when it's over, I randomize again and put the deck away,

Well, guess what!  Now I know the secret and I make my own spreads for myself and for sitters.  No problem! And I'm even going to share my secret.  

All I had to do to get all my questions answered was just to ask each of my actual questions, give each of those questions a named position and then draw the cards. Presto!  There's the right spread!  It's also easy to help sitters find the right questions for their needs as well.  The more precise the questions the better.  

The art work is just exquisite on every card as well as in the book.  The only criticism I might have is that I've had trouble making out which are the Majors but I'm figuring it out slowly but surely.  The cards are borderless and each card is just full of symbolism. 

In the back of the book, a spread called The Mystic Palette Spread.  There are two examples of readings done with that spread. 

I don't know if I'd suggest this deck for an absolute beginner to learn Tarot with. In my own experience, I tried with several themed decks and finally had to start with RWS, which I had always thought was very ugly and tried to avoid. However, once I gave up and just learned with RWS, then I finally managed to "get it" and now I can read with just about any deck.  I do heartily recommend this deck to anyone who has a pretty solid basis in Tarot and/or who intends to make it a permanent part of their life, or who just loves beautiful art.  

One of the biggest things I noticed is that, although she says she doesn't use the cards to predict, she actually does. Many of her spreads have the position of "outcome".  That's definitely a future prediction.  And others state "probable outcome if current pathway is followed" (paraphrased) or words to that effect.  That means she does predict, so we have that in common. I respect her belief that the Tarot shouldn't be used predictively but I can and do still use it that way and, in my opinion, so does she.  

I also haven't ever used reversals, but this book has inspired me to reconsider that. I've always just included parts of my spreads that would indicate reversed meanings.  Now I'm excitedly looking forward to exploring reversals after all. I've been on this Tarot journey for a little over 20 years.  Who says an old dog can't learn new tricks?😁

I thought it might be of interest to others who have the book (or who will buy it) to start this section of my blog.  I hope others will join in to comment on the sections as I work through them.  Maybe there will be some who want to go through the book chapter by chapter.  Are there any opinions or comments on this idea?

Has anyone else got this book and, if so, what do you think of it?  It seems there was a Tarot deck to go with it called Neuro Tarot but I haven't been able to find the deck. 

First of all, Larry Dossey, MD is the author of a book called One Mind.  Quoting what's written on the back cover of the book:

"In the 20th century, we were introduced ro several subdivisions of the mind: the conscious, subconscious, preconscious and so on.  But what we didn't know was that there was another level of consciousness, an all-encompassing, infinite dimension of shared intelligence: the One Mind. This universal consciousness connects all of us through space and time.

Emerging studies have shown that the One Mind isn't just an idea; it's a reality. In this book, Larry Dossey shares compelling experiences and research that supports the One Mind concept, such as:

     Shared thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations wirh a distant individual

     Communication between humans and sentient nonhumans, such as pets

     Acquisition of previously unknown knowledge from a person who has died

     Hidden or lost objects found through mental means alone

     Direct contact with a transcendent domain through near-death experiences

Rev. Wayne Muller, who I'm not familiar with, wrote this on the back of the book, too, but I want to include his comments as well:

"The Buddha said: Isolation is the world's great misery.  In an increasingly complex world , we feel overwhelmed, discouraged, and more and more alone.  Dr. Larry Dossey, a gifted physician of the soul , relieves the agony of modern isolation. He reveals our deep connections to everything around us, to reassert our belonging with everything everywhere."

This book is absolutely awesome.  Worth every penny you pay for it and then some, in my opinion.  I can't recommend it highly enough and I'm going to read it again----and probably again and again.  I hope many of you will, too.  I got mine on Amazon.

The second book is by Dean Radin, PhD.  It's titled Real Magic and from the back of the book:

"The chief scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences turns a critical eye toward such practices as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis.  Are such powers really possible?  Science says yes." 

To quote just a little from his first page, he says "this is about REAL magic" and he says "Real magic falls into three categories......"  The first category he calls "force of will"and he says it's associated with spell-casting and other techniques meant to intentionally influence events or actions. 

The second one he calls "divination" and it's associated with Tarot reading mirror-gazing and other practices.

The third one he calls "theurgy" and it involves evoking and communicating with spirits.  

a

First of all, just wondering about the question in general isn't going to give you any real information.  If you wonder about a situation in general and then just draw a few cards, trying to interpret them is like throwing an un-knapped piece of flint into a lake and then trying to figure out what the ripples are saying. It's going to be far more helpful by giving some deep thought to exactly what you want to know and then using named card positions and paying attention to the art work of the card.

I'll offer a small illustration. I do relationship readings a lot so I'll use a fictional relationship as my example:

The Sitter is wondering how a man she met is thinking about her after their first date.  He hasn't called her as he said he would.  She "piddles a puddle" by just randomly drawing 3 cards using the Universal Waite deck.  The cards drawn are 4 of Cups, 10 of Cups, and the World.  The 4 of Cups seems to her to say that she's the one offering a Cup to the man in question and he's ignoring it, but then the 10 of Cups she interprets as "happily ever after".  The World card she's just stumped by.  The first two cards seem to say two diffferent things to her. One says he's rejecting what she represents while the other she interprets as a long-term happy love and family life.

Now let's have a look at what a pinpoint reading would tell her.

Specific question with named positions:

Why has X not called me?

1. Does he feel emotionally connected to me?  4 of Cups

2. If not, why not?  10 of Cups

3. What should I do now?  World

Interpretation:

1. No, the emotional connection is not there.  His arms and legs are crossed and he's not even looking at the Cup being offered.

2. He already has a relationship and children.

3. Move on and explore other possibilities. There's a big world out there full of them.

See how much more clearly the second example answers her wondering about him and why he hasn't called?  (I actually drew those cards from the Universal Waite to answer the imaginary question, by the way.)  So sharpen you Tarot arrow, don't piddle a puddle.

As we all go through our lives, we learn from everything we experience.  It all affects us in some way, even if it's only a smile from a passerby or stepping on a thumb tack barefoot.  We learn the lessons meant for us from every single thing.  My opinion of what my sitter should learn or what actions they should take based on my own personal life experience won't do them much good in most instances.  If they believe the information came from the cards and they follow it, the result might not work or might even be disastrous in their own situation.  

When I was new to reading, I felt really bad if the message I saw in the cards was something I knew would be bad news for the sitter.  There was a great temptation to slant the reading in a way I knew the sitter seemed anxious to hear.  Negative news needs to be  relayed honestly to the sitter, though, and it isn't fair that I not give them the information.  However, if I use compassion I can give the information in a way that isn't going to hit them in the gut but is still honest as to the message the cards show. It can be done with empathy and  learning to discipline ourselves to keep our personal opinions out of it.

I don't have a very good poker face.  People can usually "read me" by my facial expressions or body language pretty easily. I read others easily by those, too, even if they're just subtle clues. It took me awhile to actually understand the concept well enough that I truly took my own opinions out of the reading so they played no part in it and therefore wouldn't show in my face or body.  I had to give a lot of thought to the issue.  What I finally accepted was that my sitters were trusting me to give them information from the cards, not from me personally.  They came to me for answers for a couple of reasons.  One of those reasons might be because they faced negative reactions from friends and/or family and didn't want to face that again.  And/or they might have come to me because I'd read for them before and they knew my non-judgmental ways.  But the biggest reason I learned to take my personal opinions out of the reading was what I stated above----we all have life lessons to learn and it's not up to me to decide what lessons my sitter needs to learn or how they need to learn them.

Sometimes if I choose to share anything from my personal life experiences, I make sure my sitter knows this is coming from me and not from the cards.  But I don't use my own experiences to try to influence the sitter to my way of thinking.  I share with them to convey that they aren't the only one who has experienced what they're experiencing or that when I experienced something like that, it worked out well in the long run even though it was painful and distressing at the time. My aim is just to comfort and empathize with them.

There's a thread in the personal readings forum where I did give my own personal experience and I did hope to exert some influence, but in that kind of case, I do make exceptions.   And I did that because I could see clearly in the cards what the message was and I would have felt negligent if I didn't share my own experience.  

To begin with, back in the '90's a friend of mine sent me the Jamie Sams Medicine Cards and I messed around those a little bit but then I decided to investigate Tarot. My original intent was that I needed another way to earn extra money because I was raising two grandchildren as a disabled widow and I was already working day and night to keep my inventory stocked, going to powwows to vend my wares, and tending the house, the kids, etc. so I didn't have time to branch out into paintings or making more stuff and it seemed to me that if I learned to tell fortunes by reading cards, that would be a good solution.  I figured maybe a month learning the card meanings and I'd have another way to earn a little more money.  

When I first began, I'd read in books "just put out your spread, open your mouth and start talking".  And I'd think "oh sure, just open my mouth and talk about what? I'm not gonna do that." I thought the author meant just open your mouth and rattle out some made up stuff or something. I was at the "this card means this and that card means that" and cramming like crazy trying to learn card meanings, buying every deck I could afford (and some I couldn't) that accessorized the image I had of myself or my lifestyle and afraid to read others for fear I'd forget the meanings, look stupid and be mortified. 

More experienced readers suggested learning from Rider Waite but I thought that was a godawful ugly deck and didn't suit me at all.  I decided I need the Ancestral Path deck because I was into Native American stufff.  I do bead and buckskin work and back then I was a powwow vendor so the Ancestral Path really appealed to me, plus I love the artwork on the deck and I'm also of English ancestry.  Anyway, after buying a bunch of decks that were not RW and getting nowhere, I finally bought the book called Tarot for Dummies and buckled down to business.  I found that it wasn't going to be just a month till I learned it all, though. Instead I found myself fascinated and devoted to all things Tarot and I'm still learning over 20 years later.

 I belonged to a huge forum that wasn't Tarot-related.  I wanted to try reading for others so I read for my cousin and his friends.  I did well---better than I thought I'd do so then I decided to offer readings for free on the forum I belonged to as a Christmas present for anyone who wanted a reading.  I recommend you never do something like that. 😐 About 200 readings later, I was so exhausted!  But I got them all done, although I don't remember much about it except for how stressed I'd felt and how tired I was. Remember, I was new to Tarot and I had no idea that many people would even be interested in getting a reading.  I was a Pentecostal religion "escapee"---I thought most people would be afraid or critical and that I might not get many takers at all and might even be told I was Satanic or something.   I figured maybe a dozen or so would probably be a good turnout.  I reminded myself of a video I once saw on the news that was about a roach poison somebody invented.  I forget the specifics but it involved giving a female cockroach something that would attract male roaches and the deal was that it would kill them.  They turned the female loose and she went crawling along on her roach-ly way, unsuspecting of what was coming.  The stuff worked so well that this poor female got absolutely mobbed by literally hundreds of male roaches.  I suspect it surely killed the female whether it killed the males or not.  The last I saw of her she had been bowled over onto her back and disappeared under a huge pile of frantic male roaches.  Not that my former forum friends should be likened to roaches, mind you.  It's just my gallow's humor that kicked in about myself having been naive enough to volunteer free Tarot readings on that forum. 

Anyway, where was I?  Oh yeah----back to how it works for me and all that.

Now that I'm much older and wiser and have gotten lots and lots of reading experience, the way it works for me is that I just put out my spread, open my mouth and start talking. 😂 How did I get here?  Well, I learned that it didn't matter if anyone considered me to be "accurate".  For one thing, no reader is ever, ever 100% accurate.  For another, I'll probably never see most of my sitters again to find out how my reading proved out for them anyway.  Therefore, even if my sitters declare I'm 100% wrong, I don't really worry about it because many of the sitters I've read for have told me that the cards were right when I've run into them again.  Some of them were sitters who flat out argued with me that there was no way this was right.  It isn't me----I just do my honest best to interpret the cards that come up. That means keeping my ego out of the reading and just being honest, empathetic, and non-judgmental in relaying the message.  I know that I can't sugar-coat a reading that may not be very pleasant, but I won't hit them in the face with it, either.  My goal is to provide a reading that's helpful and informative for my sitter that comes only from the information I see in the cards untinged with my own prejudices.  For example, if someone asks me about a love relationship they're in and their love interest is a jerk, in my own opinion, but they want to know how they can make the relationship work and I ask the cards that, but the cards that appear give the message telling the sitter what the sitter can do to try to improve the relationship, I won't tell the sitter a message I'd prefer for them to have telling them to kick the love interest to the curb. I give them the information I see in the cards.  I keep myself in the position of being what someone once termed as "a messenger from the Universe" or some such.  I don't remember the exact term they called themselves.

Now, about this "just open your mouth and start talking" thing----I've found that when I keep myself out of the way, relax and just look at the cards while relaying what comes to my mind, that's going to turn out to be that message from the cards that the sitter is supposed to hear.  In relaxing, keeping my own personal thoughts and prejudices out of the way, and then telling the sitter the thoughts (which are really not thoughts but whispers from the Universe) that I see in the cards I'm providing the service I'm meant to provide in the way I should be.  So that, for me, is what "just lay out the cards, open your mouth and start talking" means.  It means I'm not worrying about whether I'm going to be right or how the reader is going to like it or dislike it or what my personal opinion is, etc. etc.  I'm just letting it flow from the cards.  It's kind of like emptying my mind of everything concerning myself and my own thoughts.  I don't know if this makes sense to my readers, but I've explained it the very best I can.  I'll answer questions if I can if anyone wants to know something else.