Archive for ask silver path

How Do You Even Read by Email?

January 9, 2012 Catriona ask silver path, tarot, tarot cards, tarot readings

showing clarifiers and reversals

There are a lot of hurdles to jump when it comes to tarot reading. First there’s the fact that it involves tarot cards and if you’ve not grown up around them or had a reading with them before they can be kinda freaky. It’s not devil worship, it’s not hokum, it’s weird, sure, but they’re just a tool that Kore and I use to help us tune into the forces we need to so that we can advise you better about what’s going on with your life now or what will be coming up for you in the days, weeks or months ahead.

So, okay, you’ve got over that part but then you’re expected to believe that we can do all this for you without you even being here. It may be hard to believe but I get it. I do. I spent several years trying and testing whether or not I really could tune into people and see what they needed to be told without them sitting across from me sharing energy with me and with the cards.

I’ve always been one to experiment and prove. I tested myself sending and receiving with Xener Cards when I was still in high school, and I did the same when it came to reading cards; joining groups called “Tarot Trade” where I could practice reading for other readers in the same boat, and in the end, just putting myself out there and reading for people in other areas. It wasn’t until I read for a gentlemen late one evening and was praised by him and then found out he was in Ireland that I really felt comfortable saying that I was capable of reading online. Since then it’s been tried, tested and proven over and over again.

Still, you may be asking yourself, what happens when you sign up for this reading. For one, I’m not going to ply you for information. You click on the link in the shopping cart and you tell me what you want me to know. The only thing I ask you to share is this your name, gender preference and starsign or date of birth. This is for two reasons, one so we can address you appropriately and a bit more personably than “dear sir or madam or persons neutral”, and two it does help us tune, by which I mean it’s something we can hold on to and repeat to ourselves as we shuffle the cards and prepare for your reading.

In the run-downs of the type of readings we offer it does say that we’d like an “area of focus” this can be as brief or wordy as you’d like. Some people just write “job” or “love life” and that’s fine, others give us a run-down of their last week and ask for a projection forward both of these are fine and entirely up to you. You can even leave that part out all together and then the reading will focus on whatever the universe/cards feel is the most pertinent to your needs and we’ll go from there.

The next stage is the bit you don’t see. Kore and I both shuffle and deal very differently. She deals from the top down whereas I run my hand along the spread out deck and pull out which cards feel “hot” to me and read from there. We both read reversals (which I’ll talk more about in a different post). We both draw clarifying cards here and there but I will tend to draw clarifiers for court cards any time I draw them though I don’t count those against the number of cards drawn. If you ask for a three card reading and I draw the King of Swords, then the Two of Cups to help me sort out if the King is being a person on situation. I will still draw another two cards not just one. The clarifier is on me, not you.

After the cards are drawn comes the interpreting and note-taking and then the wheedling everything down so that it can be shared with you in a way that makes sense and isn’t just “King–oooh, annoying person, work, trouble, frustration, grr, argh!” along with picture taking and then email compiling and sending. Which is hopefully then met with understanding and appreciation.

Neither of us likes ending things on a sour note, if the outcome of the reading seems overly stressful, frustrating or nasty we’ll pull a few more cards so that we can help get things to a more positive spot for you. Nobody wants to end on a downer. We want you to be happy, or have tools at your disposal to get you to that better place. The reading is about you and what you need, not about us and what we want to share.

Always, always if something doesn’t quite make sense to you in your reading get back with us and we’ll help you with it. Occasionally we’re not as clear as we think we are.

If you have any other questions about tarot or the processes we use feel free to Ask the Silver Path

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Ask the Silver Path: What do you Mean Attune to Your Cards?

November 8, 2011 Catriona ask silver path, tarot

This is just something I thought would be good as a topic here. No one specifically asked but Loretta at Stitching the Night Away got me thinking of it.

What do you mean you’re attuning to your cards? What does that involve?

This question came up when I was still operating “Look Beyond Mirrors” as my tarot business. At one point I took a week off to attune to my cards and then came back and did a three card reading special to ensure that I’d sorted everything out.

Rapport with your tarot deck is very important. It pays to spend a lot of time with your deck, even one you’ve had for a while. I’ll rotate out which deck I carry with me in my purse, and if I’m killing time waiting somewhere I’ll often pull them out and shuffle them a few times to keep the energy flowing. When I get a new deck I will devote my attention solely to that for at least a week.

The first thing I’ll do is cleanse them with sage and a quartz crystal as soon as I get them home. I’ll also sleep with the new deck under my pillow for a while. Then I’ll do some mini readings drawing cards and writing down what they appear to mean to me. I find that the meaning varies from deck to deck and reading to reading. The Three of Wands in the Cosmic Tarot means different things than Three of Wands in Shadowscape Deck, for example. The meanings will share a theme overall but often the new deck’s imagery is slightly different and that can change what the cards are saying. It helps to familiarize yourself with each new image in the deck and the initial impressions so that when you’re using them in a reading for someone there’s less of the “Um…um…uh…”. I’ll admit I still get that occasionally if the tune isn’t quite there, but the more comfortable you are with your deck and imagery the better the reading experience for you and your client.

When I was learning with my first deck it was recommended to me that when you get a newer deck you should pair each new card with it’s equivalent in the old deck and let them tune to each other that way, but as I’ve become more comfortable with the tarot I’ve found that’s less necessary, especially when each deck’s meanings tend to vary.

So, if I say I’m attuning to cards I’m getting used to the new imagery and what the universe can tell me through these new cards that is different from the previous deck.

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Ask Silver Path: Bad Juju

October 17, 2011 Catriona ask silver path, health and wellness, home blessings, protection, semi precious

Here’s our first question! Thank you June H.

June says:

There’s really bad juju at one of my friend’s flats. She’s not up on a cleansing or smudging or whatever so I’m not going to bug her about that. I guess she just doesn’t notice it from what she’s said. What would you recommend for me to do so that I don’t bring the yuck back to my place as I’ve done the last couple of times I’ve been over there?

First bonus points for not badgering your friend to do something that she’s not comfortable with.
Second our main recommendation is to get hold of hematite, salt and quartz. Hematite is a great stone for absorbing negative energy, salt has long been used to purify spaces and quartz is one of the best and most common positive energy stones in existence. Quartz is also good for charging other stones. Charge the quartz in whichever window you have that receives a lot of direct sunlight and keep it at your house as a detox stone. If you have hematite jewelry wear that when you go over there. Otherwise you can just carry a piece in your pocket. The point is to keep it close to you and focus on any negative energy around you going into the hematite while you are there. The negativity will sink into the hematite and not into you.
The salt comes in after you leave said bad juju place. On the same window that you have placed the quartz, Place the hematite in a bowl of salt. The salt will help cleanse the negative energy and you can use the quartz to recharge both the hematite and yourself when you need to.

~Cat & Kore

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