Fearless + Kind = Happy when we use Tarot

How did I get to happy from where I was using tarot as a key tool? Tarot showed me the way. Tarot showed me how to be fearless about leading the life that was meaningful and rich to me, I did the leg work and I was kind. When I wobbled as I did just last week preparing this presentation I turned to the tarot and stilled the old voices of hell revving up in my head. I took my hand out of the cookie jar and stashed the credit card because those activities after a while are simply not kind.
 I thought about my accomplishments and how I help people and how they help me. The voice that I chose to listen to was happy, fearless and kind spreading into content. It is interesting that two wand cards showed up in my three card spread. Author Rose Gwain states in “Discovering Your Self Through the Tarot” that we feel content when we are in alignment with our fire energy. For me that equates to being happy.

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.” Dennis Waitley

Again using the Gaian Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbert I pulled the third card of this spread for: What does happy mean or look like for me at this time? Up popped the Child of Fire. There he is with his cat at his side toasting his hands over an open fire. Glee and curiosity are written all over his face. And isn’t that just the picture of happiness? Tarot offers me the gift of spiritual connection, curiosity, learning, connection and warmth every time I pick up the deck. My business has grown beyond my wildest dreams. My personal life is rich with people and connections. My eldest son summed it up one day as I was vacuuming the house. He said “I didn’t know that you could vacuum without yelling Mom!” I laughed. I didn’t know I could either and it feels great. Tarot helps us find answers, connect to our community and our spiritual path. I am a student of life warming to the idea of living life as an adventure. Please pull a card and share it with us here in the comments. 

And finally here are five questions using the suits that you might enjoy answering:

1.   How does the suit of cups help you to intuitively see what else is happening in a situation so that you can respond with care and kindness?

2.   How does the suit of Wands help you find contentment within so that you can respond with kindness?

3.   How does the suit of Pentacles help you keep your feet on the ground and look after the basics and be kind to yourself?

4.   How does the suit of Swords help you see your own words and find a the kinder path?

5.   How does the tarot foster a kind way of interacting with others? 

Tarot + Happy

HappyTarot + Fearless + Kind =Happy. Now there is a mathematical formula that I can work with. How about you? Tarot gave me the guidance to see what might be. Sometimes it was not pretty at all. When the Hanged Man and the Five of Pentacles were permanent residences in my readings things were not feeling very wonderful. The Five of Pentacles even showed up at a Readers Studio conference to answer the question of “What does love mean to you?” And the worst of it was that card made perfect sense! It makes perfect sense to many clients who find love as an empty, lonely and bereft place.

 Yikes! It was a wakeup call for me that something was still wrong with my spirit. Thank you tarot for showing me this. Being happy in today’s world takes a lot of awareness. We need to pay attention to the triggers, the memories and the habits of old that derail happiness. We need to work from a place of abundance, of being enough, of loving life enough to engage in it fully right now.

How am I happy today? Tarot has helped me find a spiritual path that means I don’t have to drown my fears in wine today. My sons come to me when they need help and we can support each other even when we don’t agree whole heartedly. My clients feel supported and witnessed. Students in my home feel that they are safe and free of being judged. We can learn and share. I host a TV show on local television where I can introduce this community to the larger community. It is an important link I believe. Love is no longer a complicated thing. Love is or it is not. Being kind in love makes it much simpler to enjoy life. It is possible to be happy and content knowing that there are ways to deal with any situation. Tarot has given me a community of like-minded souls in my life.

 Best of all the people in my life who do not love tarot and the metaphysical world like I do have come to respect that it is part of my life in a big way. Walking the tarot walk, talking the tarot talk fearlessly and kindly has brought so much happiness in to my life that I will never again give this up.

Pull a card for what happy looks like in your life today. Share it here if you like.

Fearless Questions:What is it about using tarot cards that helps you find your fearless being?How can those tough cards show you how to be fearless?How do blocks and challenges in the tarot bring out your fearless reader?How do you approach reading for someone who intimidates, concerns or worries you?How do you deal with the tough stuff in a tarot reading?How does being fearless and using tarot help you know when to hold them and know when to fold them? Or more precisely when to take action and when to wait?

Kind Questions:Can tarot teach us the language of kindness?Can tarot show us where we are kind and where we might need to be kind?Do you find kindness something that is worthwhile in your life?What is the kindest card in the deck as far as you see today? Why? What does it tell you today about you?

HappyWhat does happiness feel like to you? Do you recognize it?How does a tarot reading take the challenge out of the moment, day or week ahead?

Tarot + Kindness

Yet it was kindness that opened me back up to living life. As I opened so too did my intuitive gifts and the need to share them with others. As I became softer and kinder people started to trust me in ways that being tough had denied me. As I found kindness my life of fear, perfection and anger disappeared. The tarot and working with other people gives me the opportunity to be kind daily.

Kindness has boundaries. It is not about giving so much of me that there is nothing left of me. It is offering what I can and letting the client take what they need if and when they need it. I am not attached to outcomes only in delivering the message as it is presented during the reading. Kindness lets me hear and witness a person’s pain without being destroyed myself. Kindness is what people need today: to be heard, witnessed, supported and acknowledged. This all happens in a reading. That is what tarot cards can offer when we ask them for guidance.

The Five of Wands from the Gaian Tarot came up to answer the question of what does kindness mean to me now?  Here is a man belching fire from his mouth. The fire appears to be full of demons and gargoyles. I cannot say that this card struck me as a picture of kindness. It offered very little to me. It reminded me of all the years of control, perfection and anger stored up inside me. 

Then I started to laugh. Those things still happen to me. What the card offers so eloquently is to release those demons promptly and fully so they do not scorch me inside or out. When I am aware of my demons and challenges and deal with them I feel kind and can offer it to others. Inside work must be done first. This is the Spiritual aspect of releasing the old and finding your true self. Kindness is a direct result of this release. Note that there is no one being scorched as the pressure within releases to the heavens. 

Seeking further guidance I reached for “Journey through the Gaian Tarot” by Joanna Powell Colbert. This lovely book accompanies the cards. And right there on page 164 for the Five of Wands it says ““We can let the circumstances of our life harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid” says the Dalai Lama. “Or we can let them soften us and make us kinder. We always have a choice.”” And for that I am very grateful for the tarot. Tarot always show us the choices available to us. Tarot also has a great sense of humour. 

Your comments are most welcome here today. Join in the discussion if you feel like it.

Tarot + Kindness

When I started my new life away from alcohol, working in psychiatric hospitals and jails, as a widow with two heartbroken sons I believed that I had to get tougher. Believe me I was pretty tough already. My councilor said “No you don’t have to get tougher, you have to get softer.” I looked at him like he was out of his mind. Doing that was the most unimaginable thing in the world for me. 

Working with tarot cards helped me. The cards kept showing me where I was fearful and how that fear blocked me from living the life I wanted. The Hanged Man kept showing up along with the five of pentacles and then the five of swords. Enough already! I did not want to wait for anything anymore and I wanted what I wanted today. The Hanged Man reminded me that this was a slow, sacred journey. The term I use today is sacred waiting. It is a time of letting go of fear, finding the kindness in your soul to be gentle with life and then and only then do you move on.

Living from a place of kindness has allowed me to trust again. Trust myself, then others then Spirit. I am a slow learner. Kindness requires two actions. To give kindness is often easy. To receive it seems so much more difficult. That requires trust, belief in yourself, a feeling that you are enough and that receiving is a positive action not a sign of weakness. Getting softer took so much courage for me. I can tell if I am well by how kind my thoughts and actions are each day. If my reaction to something is being tough the tarot cards come out to show me where the fear is and what the solution might be today.

Kindness has yielded so many benefits. Where I thought that I had to do everything myself I have found community. Where I thought I was all alone I have found others just like me. Where I thought that I had to fix it I discovered the gift of listening and witnessing as a kind and effective tool. That is what the tarot cards do isn't it? They listen and witness our life and show us how to be who we really are. Tarot shows us our spiritual core and ask us to live from that center.

You might like to pull a card on what kindness in your life might mean today. Share it here if you like.