My Top Ten Tarot Spreads (your New Year’s gift from me)
Happy New Year, LearnTarotEasily readers! Winter is so naturally a season of looking in, reflection, and restoration… and my tarot readings at this time of year – both those that I do for others and those I do for myself- seem to reflect this inward- approach.
I love reading AND inventing new spreads at this time of year, so I have put together a complimentary mini training course to teach you my favorite ten tarot spreads 
I am going to link to trainings of ten of my favorite different tarot spreads and layouts here for you over the next ten days…
each of the ten mini trainings will focus on one of these tarot spreads/ layouts for you in video format.
If you’d like to, go ahead and opt in over on the top right hand side ( >>>) and I will email you each of the tarot spread training videos as I release them!
Here’s the hotlist of my personal top ten all-time favorite tarot card spreads and layouts,which is also the menu of what to expect from my free trainings over the next week if you opt in (I’ll email you a link to a video training for each of these spreads as my gift to you over the next week):
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Laura’s Top Ten Tarot Card Layouts/ Spreads:
1. The Celtic Cross Tarot Spread
2. “Two Paths” Choice Tarot Spread
3. Relationship tarot spread : The Meeting
4. “Mud to Lotus” Tarot Spread (how to grow something of beauty from a challenge)
5. Past-Present-Future 3- card tarot spread
6. Body-Mind-Spirit 3-card tarot spread
7. Simple Yes – or – No tarot spread
8. Zodiac Tarot layout- a tarot horoscope spread
9. Daily Tarot : the best ways to use 1 card spreads for yourself every day
10. for the New Year: a Wheel of the Year tarot spread for 2012 (or anytime!)
…again, go ahead and put your email address in over on the top right, and I’ll email you the training videos for each of these spreads as I release them this week.
Happy New Year,
Laura
Can the 5 of Cups have a “good” meaning? Ever?!
You know, every tarot card contains a good lesson to learn…
…and the five of cups cannot possibly be some sort of strange exception to that rule, just because it looks “sad”, now, can it? Nope. In fact, when this card has come up for me in the last year or so, I can truly say that I actually breathe a sigh of relief. Why? Because usually… not always, but usually, this card gives me permission: permission to feel a bit lousy about something that I was perhaps trying to gloss over or “look on the bright side” of. Now don’t get me wrong… I am all for positive thinking and consider myself to be one of the most proactive and resourceful people I know when it comes to “making lemonade” from life’s proverbial lemons. BUT… here’s the rub: in 2011, for some reason, we are all about putting a happy face on things that might actually, when looked at thoroughly, actually deserve a bit of grieving from us before we “let go”, “move on”, or “think positive” about it all.
Let’s face it: sometimes life deals us some hard knocks. Sometimes we try to gloss over how we feel about it all. My mum used to tell me that she saw me “bottling things up inside”… and yes, when I did this, inevitably and eventually the feelings would come through anyway… often in less than ideal or appropriate ways, of course!
It’s no good burying emotions and feelings that, in reality, when we are really honest and authentic with ourselves, we do indeed have.
The five of cups is probably one of the most important tarot cards to understand the deeper lessons and meanings of the tarot through.
the most difficult cards are usually the ones that we have the most to learn from, of course! Sometimes, for me it seems like the most difficult thing in the world to acknowledge how we are truly feeling, find a way to face those feelings properly and fully, and THEN move through them into letting go. It’s pretty easy to either get stuck not feeling them, or to get stuck feeling them over and over again! The trick is in feeling fully and authentically and then facilitating yourself moving through those emotions to a point where you can fully and completely let them go.
It ends up feeling a bit like an emotional feng shui session when you really confront this card: the five of cups asks us to detox our emotions: bringing them up to clear them out… so that, after emptying ourselves, we will perhaps have room to fill our spilled cups up with something new.
Will we ever feel excited when the five of cups shows up in a tarot reading?
maybe not… but perhaps we can face and meet the five of cups with at least some equanimity, and perhaps a touch of grace. If we can do that efficiently, deeply and completely enough, perhaps we’ll make some progress. At the end of the day, it is perhaps important to see that probably those three spilled cups in the Rider Waite’s 5 of cups have spilled for a reason: what they contained was no longer serving us, whether we wanted it to or not. They’ve emptied now… so that they can be filled up with something new and more appropriate for us in the future.
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Honestly, there will come a time when the figure in the classic five of cups card will be ready to move on from his sadness and turn arouund to see the remaining upright cups behind him… but he may have to spend a bit of time crying first, that’s all! That’s not always such a bad thing.
You know what I always wondered about when I was a mom of young children? When I and other mothers would be holding one of our crying children, and for all the right reasons we would say something like “shhhh! It’s okay! there there….” … now of course we were only trying to help our children feel better of course, but when you really look at that, I wonder sometimes: who were we to say that ‘everything was okay”? I mean, how did we know? Maybe everything wasn’t okay… until they’d had a good cry! And that was probably ok.
Culturally, many of us seem all too ready to console someone who is hurting… which is good, because we are trying to help and we are being empathetic, etc etc… but maybe we also need to consider if we have a deeper, more unconscious reason for being so quick to console. It is probable that witnessing someone else working through a “negative emotion” just might make us personally a bit uncomfortable. It makes us uneasy when someone expresses something negative. We’ve got to be careful, then, not to inadvertantly wash over the importance of their grief or sadness simply because it makes us uncomfortable. Grief is often healthy…as long as it doesn’t become depression, in fact, it is necessary.
Stifled emotions fester like an infected wound. Better to allow some things to air to clean them out properly before moving on, however uncomfortable that makes us feel.
Tarot TLC : a Spread for when you need to Love Yourself
I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of my readers gave up on me over the last few months: after all, I’ve been a slacker here at LearnTarotEasily.com! Sure, I could make loads of excuses for why I haven’t blogged as often as I thought I was going to, but here’s the reality: I’m going through one of the toughest years of my life. I have enough perspective to know that tough transition years always happen for a reason, and that, yes, I will in all likelihood be able to look back on this year in 5 years and say something like “ah! THAT’s why I had to go through all of that crud!” and so on and so forth… and yes, day to day, I am very very good at steering myself toward positive, inspiring experiences even in the middle of everything, which helps a lot… but still… a tough year is a tough year.
I’ve read a lot of cards for myself this year, often through tears, often curled up in layers of comforters on my bed, and always alone. I’m a really social person, but it’s always been hard for me to openly share painful things with others… I like to be a support for others, and give myself a hard time if I feel like I am using my friends as crutches, even though I have some awesome friends. So reading about tough stuff for myself? yup- I’ve chosen to do that alone, for the most part.
But here’s the thing: I’ve realized that sometimes it is better to share. (no, duh! you say..) Even if I don’t have an answer for anyone, it is often great for me to feel supported and listened to, and who knows? Maybe others might be going through similar stuff and will feel less alone if I am brave enough to share. So while I was doing a particularly powerful personal reading (again, on my bed) yesterday, I decided that i wasn’t going to be quiet about it all anymore. I got brave and decided to share.
So here goes: you’ll not only get a rundown of a beautiful deck’s use and a nice personal example of how the energies of these cards are manifesting for me, but you also get a nice new spread to work with if you want to. These days, I usually make up my own spreads when I sit down to read, just by feeling out what will serve me in the moment… I illustrated this one for you and outlined what I was doing with it and why… maybe you’d like to try using it for yourself! ok, so here goes:
A Tarot Spread for TLC
this year, like I said, has been tough. Let me try to summarize for you, in a sentence or two, so you have a bit of context: my husband of ten years, along with me, decided it was best if he move out in February. We’d been having difficulty for a long time, and I had taken a plunge in August 2010 and admitted to him that I didn’t think it was going anywhere positive. It had been a really tricky fall, where we tried to live together as friends to ease the kids into the transition… prove to them that we both loved them and cared for them and that it was going to be ok even though Mom and Dad might not be married anymore. But that was a really tough Fall. I basically lived in one room of the house, because the rest of the house started feeling too uncomfortable for me to cohabit with my husband. We were both emotionally in a state of near-paralysis in our marriage, where it felt like a bomb had gone off inside and we couldn’t muster the strength or desire to put anything back together properly. He nosedived into a massive depression that I felt incredibly responsible for, and we both tried to keep our own emotional noses above water while being good parents.
But that was just the start.
Because he was in such a dire depression, and I wasn’t doing much better, we racked up an incredible debt last year. Neither of us could really pull off much work in our states… it was just too much… but of course that didn’t stop the bills and mortgage from having to be paid. Consequentially, by January 2011, we found ourselves ear deep in 100k of debt, with no way of paying it off. We couldn’t even make the monthly minimum payments.
So… husband moves out in February, and I have been surviving the emotional turmoil of that, the stress and fear and desperation of the financial crisis… and many even deeper emotional and life pattern earthquakes that naturally become a part of such a year. Met some demons in my soul? sure. Jumped off some emotional cliffs? absolutely. Got crushed emotionally more than I ever thought possible? yup. Wondering if there is any more left in this shell of a human I sometimes feel I have become? roger that.Attempted to be a good mother, an adept large event runner and marketer in spite of it all? YES. And I did a fantastic job, if I do say so myself, all things considered. AND… time for some tarot therapy now.
So there you have it… all the context you probably need to relate to the crux of this reading.
As is so often the case in the last few years, when I am reading about something deeply moving and emotional for myself, I chose to use Lisa Hunt’s Animals Divine Tarot for this reading. For some reason, Lisa’s stunning artwork, the sweetness of the animals’ natures, and the love that is evoked in me for our planet’s soul companions helps tremendously to
Tarot Spreads!
Ever wanted to get a fresh perspective on how to use and read with tarot cards? Perhaps you need a new tarot spread idea! Check out my most recent radio show… a thirty minute primer tarot lesson all about different ways to read cards, and different tarot spreads and layouts to play with. There was only so much I could cover in thirty minutes, but hopefully you’ll find this useful. You can listen to the show by clicking on the play button below. Enjoy!!
If you enjoyed the show, let me know by “liking” this post. Thanks!!
you can find a link to the Mystic Faerie Tarot book that I reference so much in the show, along with a link to Mary Greer’s book that I mention, on the tarot books page of my website. Click here to go to that page.
The Fool in Tarot
here’s a 20 minute lecture that I gave on The Fool in Tarot as part of my most recent Tarot for Beginners class. You’ll learn a fair bit about all of the symbolism of this card from various different decks along with a lot about the myriad of potential meanings of Fool’s tarot card.
A quick Earth Hour Tarot idea for you: click “like” if you’ll participate!
So tonight we are all supposed to be switching off our electricity and utilities btwn 8:30 and 9:30 pm to show our support for Earth Hour. I just realized…. what a great excuse to enjoy a candlelit tarot reading! This is what I’ll be doing between 8:30 and 9:30, personally! I wonder how many other people will decide to spend their hour this way? If you’re IN, click the facebook “like” button … and share with your friends! Let me know what you think!
cheers, and happy candlelit-readings, everyone!
p.s… also just created a facebook event for this which you are welcome to invite your friends to here’s the link…:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=155794087815586
Laura
Learn to Read the Cosmic Gypsy Tarot Spread in 7 minutes!
hi there everyone! here’s a quick 7 minute video that we made for you all about how to read my new Cosmic Gypsy tarot spread. I hope you like it! feel free to share with friends and let me know what you think. it’s a pretty in-depth tarot spread for you. Enjoy!
cheers,
Laura
Why to Learn Tarot versus How to use Oracle Cards
hi there everyone! I thought I’d share this quick video I made for you: in it, I discuss why you would wnat to learn tarot, and the benefits of learning tarot versus oracle deck usage. I feel that Tarot can give beginning intuitives way more in-depth, detailed information, and I explain why here:
…enjoy!
Laura
Cheerful Tarot Decks for the Grey Months of Winter
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Ah, January. It is about this time every year, after all the brightness of the holiday decor has been put away in boxes and the newness of our resolutions has turned instead to the question of whether we are diligent enough to see them through, that a certain absence of color becomes conspicuous in my life.
Right now, looking out of my window in the high desert, I see grey. The snow is more like ice right now, and the sky seems tired, washed out and haggard. I am told that in some very conscious Northern countries, people make a point of painting their houses in very bright colors in order to gift themselves some eye candy in the darkest months.
So, with that in mind, I decided to make a point of breaking out some of my more colorful and whimsical tarot decks this month. After all, something about this time of year has many of us in a very contemplative space… like we are in a cave or a tunnel of sorts, hibernating with our deepest queries. And, because of this wintry behavior, it is all too easy to lapse into a very somber state. I for one need to be very mindful of this tendency. So, because I tend to be reading about deep or somber subjects already, I always try to remind myself not to take myself too seriously… or, moreover, because I am already often dealing with more melancholic subjects in my readings, I should lighten the tone and cut myself some slack by reading with a more cheerful deck.
Even at other times of the year, I try to bear this in mind as a sort of management tool, especially when I am reading for others. If they are getting a reading about something that is already particularly emotional or painful for them, using a more “serious” deck can often leave them feeling worse. A whimsical, colorful deck can help them see the good, or at least have a more positive outlook on what is going on. And that’s important: after all, so many of us consult cards to help us out in some regard… so why sabotage that effort? Do what you can (when it feels appropriate) to lighten the tone of a reading if you or someone else is already having a difficult time of things. Be kind to yourself!
So, that being said, I thought I would leave you with some images from some of my favorite “brighter” decks. I hope they brighten and inspire your day!
This first one is the Guardian of Wands from the Inner Child Deck: a Fairy Tale tarot by Isha Lerner and Mark Lerner. It was originally introduced to me by a Waldorf teacher who had used it a lot to read for her children. I love it for adults too… reading with it always brings out a sense of
wonder and innocence and self-love for the querent, in my experience. These cards are also oversized… which gives you the experience of feeling like a small child when manipulating them: it is way easier to spread them all around on a table than to shuffle them! The deck has guardians instead of kings, guides instead of queens, seekers instead of knights, and the Child replaces the page. It always brings a smile to my face.
…. this next one is the five of pentacles from the Whimsical Tarot, by Dorothy Morrison, and illustrated by Mary Hanson Roberts (also check out her Hanson Roberts tarot, which is based on the traditional Rider Waite illustrations by Pamela Colman Smith, but, well, whimsically drawn by Roberts and also, in this way, quite cheerful). I wanted to show you the five of pentacles, as this is usually such an awful feeling card for people (some often call this card “poverty”). The Ugly Ducking seen here isn’t the picture of happiness of course, but it does sweeten the message of the card enough, I think, to at least stir some nurturing compassion for ourselves if we draw it, and maybe even allow us to smile a little!
…. here’s a deck that I have had for about two years now: the Mystic Faerie Tarot, illustrated by Linda Ravenscroft with a beautiful companion guide written by Barbara Moore. The thing that I love the most about this deck is that each suit of the minor arcana has a sweet story that progresses through its’ numbers 1-10. The story that Moore tells about the wands in particular (here is their six of wands!) is so good that I often tell it to my students when I am teaching my basic tarot reading class. In the wands, we see two fairies who find a dragon egg, and decide to hatch it and rear the dragon! Of course, all does not go entirely smoothly. This is such a great story of wand- like spunk that it is fun to retell. I often think of my wands in readings now as my “dragon” cards.
… this last card is from a lesser-known deck called the Tarot of the Magical Forest. It was originally published in Taiwan, but has now been reissued by Lo Scarabeo. The deck needs to be seen to be fully appreciated. Basically, a Rider-Waite-type pattern is followed throughout, but definitely with different color usage, and with furry animals replacing the people.
So there you have it. Hopefully you spotted a deck that you like the look of to brighten up some of your readings. There are so many wonderful, whimsical, colorful decks in the world, though. Feel free to post a reply here telling us about your favorites!
Cheers,
Laura
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Tarot and Epiphany: Stars, Seven Sisters, Desire, and Kings Bearing Gifts
