Sarah’s Musings on Learning to Read Tarot ©

When I picked up my first deck at age 15, the Hanson Roberts Tarot, a vibrant folk tale deck, I felt a rebellious thrill. I was no stranger to its occult reputation and enticing cloak of mystique. It felt titillating to open it until I realized what “learning Tarot” entailed: memorizing the meanings, symbols, archetypes, and traditions of 78 different cards. That felt daunting! Then, I opened a paper cheat sheet with my first Celtic Cross spread on it, and my head swam at the possibilities that each of the 78 cards could be read differently, given their placement in the spread. That is a whopping 780 possible interpretations. So overwhelming!

Hanson-Roberts Tarot Example Cards

As I slowly constructed a relationship between my cards and my life, days became months and then years. From my experience of learning to read Tarot, I wanted to craft a course for those who may feel similarly thrown into the deep end when approaching their card reading journey. I wanted to assuage the overwhelm of learning Tarot, so I created a two hour intro course.

Tarot versus Oracle Cards

Tarot and Oracle are similar in many ways. They use symbols, colours, stories, archetypes, and life experiences to help guide our path. They offer a wide variety of cards that represent life's highlights and lowlights. Both can be used for daily insight or for more extended readings, including many placements in a spread (e.g., your present, your challenges, your relationships, etc.)

Where Tarot differs, is in its structure. It has two main components: the Major and the Minor Arcana. It won’t be called a Tarot without these two parts. Arcana means “secrets or mysteries.”  So, the “Major Mysteries” are 22 cards that encompass more significant life lessons and shifts, whereas the “Minor Mysteries” of life are 56 cards that encompass our day-to-day experiences.

The Major Arcana always starts with the Fool (the seeker of a new path) and ends with the World (wisdom at the end of the journey.) The Minor Arcana resembles a deck of playing cards with suits and numbers or court cards like the Ten of Hearts/Cups or the Ace of Diamonds/Pentacles. They are affiliated with astrology because each suit represents the four significant elements of air, water, fire, and earth. So those with some astrology interest or background can find Tarot quite approachable, and those wanting to learn Tarot can also get educated in astrology. A total win/win.

From the Light Seer's Tarot

Oracle cards need not follow any structure, so their author and illustrator create the cards and their sequence at their whim. Due to their lack of consistent structure across all Oracles, it is not easy to master many Oracle decks like it is with Tarot. You will likely work with one Oracle deck, learn its meanings only, and find that you go back to being a “newbie” with each new Oracle you pick up.

I call myself a Tarot purist. I love that once you know its fundamentals, it’s transferrable to all Tarot decks. You may connect with an image of a Major Arcana card, like the Magician card in a specific deck more than in another. However, you can describe the original card to your client to help add another layer to the current card. They are both Magician cards, after all. (i.e., “In the Hanson Roberts Tarot, the Magician is seen blending all the elements using his intuition, so this card calls on you to use the art of alchemy. Whereas this Magician in the Light Seer’s Tarot here reminds you that the Universe is always available to co-create with you.”)

The Light Seer's Tarot The Hanson-Roberts Tarot

An Alternative to Memorization

The most difficult request I make of my Tarot students, especially in the first few months of learning Tarot is to not look up the meaning of the cards they pull in their accompanying guidebooks. My method requires firm reliance on building a connection to your cards through your interpretations and intuitions of the card. This takes time and practice. I recommend that they pick up a journal purely for writing down their daily card pulls and what associations those cards have with their feelings, thoughts, and daily events. The relationship with cards is first built by understanding how it feels in our own lives before we can accurately read for others.

Our society is overly identified with doing things “right,” so the urge to confirm the intuitive connection with the guidebook’s write-up is alluring. I have taught hundreds of students over the years, and I have never read a guidebook that has more accuracy for reading a person’s card than their intuitive insights provide. It becomes an exercise in trust. Those with the quickest success in their new Tarot reading journey shed the need to have the “right” traditional meaning in favour of trusting their interpretations of the cards.

Building confidence in our gut, third eye, and instincts pays off massive dividends—and not just in reading cards. A trusting relationship between yourself and your inner voice serves you in relationships, mate selection, navigating conflict, avoiding potential hazards or threats, and so on. I am so grateful to my Tarot journey for its Masterclass on how to trust and connect with inner wisdom and inklings.

The ”Learn to Read Tarot for Yourself” course is offered one-on-one with me in person or online and is accompanied by a small course pack. You may borrow one of my Tarot decks or bring your own. I also offer small group options for Tarot classes as a more affordable option ($220 for one-on-one vs. $80/per person.) This can be a stand-alone class, or you can proceed through 7 more classes to reach your Tarot Level 1 Training certification. Classes 2 & 3 deep dive into the Major Arcana cards and their astrology, classes 4-7 are devoted to each one of the suits: cups, wands, pentacles, and swords, and the final class teaches the intricacy of reading spreads of cards like the Celtic Cross Spread ( a look at your present, challenges, themes, fears, relationships, and outcomes,) the Fool’s Journey ( a look at what has brought you to where you are and what lessons are still to come,) and the Relationship Spread ( a look at what you are here to learn about yourself through your partner and where they are at in their life, heart and head. Also, whether that is an energetic match with each of these areas for you). There is also a 5-class Tarot Mastery Level 2 that I’ve designed.

Please reach out for more information or to sign up.

Authored by: Sarah Mayes

Sarah's Musings on How Tarot Cards "Work"©

Freewill vs. Destiny/Fate

It’s natural to have curiousity and desire insight into our futures. To know the future would be incredibly advantageous. Wouldn’t it be amazing to know the lotto numbers, when our perfect partner will walk past us on the street or how things will turn out for our children? The truthiest truth is that the accuracy of premonition/prediction is inherently flawed because of free will. Therefore, nothing is 100% set in stone in terms of future outcomes because free will plays such a strong influential role in how our lives are shaped.

I have shared intuitions with clients eager for information about what sort of future partners will enter their lives. I’ve described their traits, their astrological sign, and even sometimes…a loose timeline. But consider how KNOWING that this particular person could be your FOREVER partner would negatively influence your first encounters with them. Light “getting-to-know-you” talk is expected during first dates, not…”I already know you’re the one I’ve been waiting for. Let’s skip all this banal preamble.” That sort of pushiness could raise red flags and may cause any potential suitor to abandon a future with us. The free will of your suitors then takes precedence over any “plan” that fate may have had for you two to meet. In my opinion, you would have been better served by not knowing. Truly. Because in the end, the opposite of your core desire to find love, plays out. You end up alone. And confused…because…your psychic told you…this was your person…and now, they’re ghosting or aren’t interested…devastating.

As a result of the above, Tarot readers can teeter in the dangerous realm of what I call “Playing God.” The implications for both reader and client alike can be dark and stormy. After a steep learning curve over 30 years of reading Tarot, I have landed on this: I feel that my ethics as a reader compel me not to influence future events so much that I could remove the variable of fate making its magical way into your life.

Readings are like a snapshot. Your hairstyle, clothing, surroundings, and other people in the photo crystallized for that one moment. But as soon as the photo is captured, everyone moves. The next day, you may style your hair differently, wear new clothes and choose different people for your next picture. A photo is never re-creatable. Holding on to a reading expecting it to materialize verbatim is like expecting to create the same photo of your life over and over. It’s just purely impossible. All a reading can really be is a guide. Indicating to you: possible paths & outcomes, possible influences & directions. Ultimately, too many factors are at the mercy of free will and therefore change, marring any reliable exact accurate future prediction.

Knowledge=Power?

Recently, I had a call from a new client that inquired whether I could predict if there would be a 3rd death in her family this year. Oooffff! What a loaded question! My mind spun wildly as I tried to succinctly explain the following to Margaret:

1. How would knowing that information serve her? Would she not be in a constant state of dread? How could knowing the exact day/time that anyone including ourselves will die, help or hinder us?

This was such a philosophical conversation to have under these circumstances and definitely, one that had a whole host of potential landmines for a “quick chat” with someone I’ve never met and was hoping would hire me.

2. I never fully know what will come through in a reading until I’m doing it. I can direct questions to the cards however, Tarot is not a direct yes or no tool. It is an advisor, a methodology of metaphors.

Sidebar: I have long been known for my claims that I am NOT a medium and yet, sometimes and from a place that I know not, comes a message from a deceased loved one bubbling up through left field. There is no way to know if or when that may happen. Medium work requires a fair amount of spiritual responsibility and sensitivity. In my experience, true and gifted mediums are extraordinarily rare. Some “readers” claim that they have this gift to dupe people out of their money during an excruciatingly vulnerable time. Many clients are desperate to communicate with their deceased partner/parent/child or friend when the mire of grief lays heavy on their hearts. There is no governance or policing for those who claim they are psychic. It’s 100% buyer beware. Those in deep grief are particularly susceptible to being de-frauded because they don’t have the same access to their own intuition about whom can be trusted when entering the selection process of hiring a medium, psychic or healer.

I offered Margaret some time to think about whether I was the “right” reader for her and call me back. Did I secure the booking with her? Unfortunately, no I did not. I felt a greater responsibility to warn her that anyone who would tell her that her family member would definitely die this year may not have a good code of ethics as a reader. Furthermore, her question put her at risk of losing her benjamin franklins.

What if the family member does indeed pass this year, and the reader said they would not? Would Margaret then miss the opportunity to spend quality time with them? What about facilitating any heartfelt conversations that needed to happen if they felt that their family member was only Earth-bound for a short period of time?

Likely, this may be why some religions denounce Tarot & psychics as black magic. The tool itself is not dark, in fact, it can be healing, cathartic, encouraging, and uplifting. It is the tool in the hands of the person who reads it that dictates whether it’s used for positive purposes or not. Ashley Surowski said it so well in my (The Lilac) podcast interview with her: “The hammer can build a house or be used as a violent weapon. It all depends on the one who wields it.”

If not for predicting the Future, What is Tarot best used for?

I have studied my own hunches, inklings, and premonitions since my first tea leaf reading and obsession with ouija boards many moons ago. For me, intuition doesn’t always feel the same. Sometimes, it’s an in-your-face full frontal assault of the senses but just as often, it is a quiet, deep knowing. More guttural. Like when you first start feeling hungry. A deep rumbling. And sometimes still, it feels as wispy as a whisper. A tendril of an invitation to a premonition. And like many people, I have struggled to trust or even to change things in order to honour it. I’ve studied it for many years now and I have learned how to listen and understand it better.

Tarot is best used as the ultimate gut check litmus test. When I pull a card for a question I have or for the day to come, I’m essentially looking to see if it confirms what my hunch about it already was. So in essence, the Tarot is a gut-feeling, fact-checker for me to affirm that my intuition is en pointe; to check that I have reliable information within me and am not mistaking a fear, flawed core value, or worry/anxiety as an intuition. It helps me to affirm, confirm and proceed with more confidence in my inner knowings.

Often, I receive the feedback that someone’s reading really reflected back to them what they know in their hearts to be true. We are naturally pain avoidant as human beings, so denial is a coping mechanism that is often pierced through with a Tarot reading. Deep down we know what the cards are saying is true for us. i.e. We’ve outgrown our partner, we’re being overlooked at work, and that “friend” should not be trusted because they cannot help but gossip about our lives.

My best readings reinforce my clients' innate intuition about their lives by bringing the information to clarity. From the depths of your interiority, into the physical world. By giving a voice, to an inkling. Tarot is a tool best used to confirm what you already have a hunch about, but sometimes that knowledge is buried too deep inside and needs a helping hand to be lovingly unearthed.

Authored by: Sarah Mayes

Sarah’s Musings on Influential Reads Part II ©

“If a book is well written, I always find it too short.” ~Jane Austen

Cheryl Strayed’s Wild

From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

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I am in lust, love and infatuation with this woman’s story of backpacking the Pacific Crest Trail; her 1,100 mile solo hike from the Mojave Desert to Washington state. I saw the movie and later read the book during a gutting period in my life, one of realizing my marriage was decimated and the realization that he hadn’t just broken my heart, I had also broken my own heart with my lack of integrity, alcoholism, and loss of identity.

Cheryl’s story seared through in familiarity, not every detail mind you but our shared pain was palpable. It was indeed “art that is meant to comfort the grieving and confront the comfortable.” It’s firmly in my Top 3 favourite novels of all time.

There is a story I read about how Cheryl’s surname came to be ‘Strayed.’ When Cheryl was finalizing her divorce, she was presented with the opportunity to go back to her maiden name…or any new name for that matter. Cheryl chose Strayed as an encapsulation of her story that I found particularly vulnerable, honest and raw. Strayed is her chosen name now.

“I’d finally come to understand what it had been: a yearning for a way out, when actually what I had wanted to find was a way in.”

Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way

A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

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After a great aunt read my cards in my late teens, she impressed upon me the significance of purchasing and doing the weekly exercises and assignments of this book even if I couldn’t claim for myself the title of Artist. Her mystical reading had such an impact on me that I knew this book would be pure medicine.

I felt as though Cameron reached out and took my hand as she showed me a path through life, a way to connect to my Creator and lovingly counselled me through every doubt, every hang-up and every barrier or block I had. Thus, I felt free to pursue anything under the umbrella of making, playing, discovering or dreaming. I credit this book with my very first spiritual awakening. I was able to leave an incredibly toxic on/off relationship soon after reading this glorious text. It still remains the book that I have read the most at 4 times over.

“In filling the well, think magic. Think delight. Think fun. Do not think duty. Do not do what you should do–spiritual sit-ups like reading a dull but recommended critical text. Do what intrigues you, explore what interests you; think mystery, not mastery.”

Katherine Wayward-Thomas’ Conscious Uncoupling

5 Steps to Living Happily Even After

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This is the second book/course I’ve ever read that helped me through a relationship ending. Prior to this one, was an exploration of the stages of grief when I was a much younger woman. I listened to this as an audio-book and also had a Conscious Uncoupling therapist to assist me through the workbook that is provided with it.

I have vivid memories of walking in the evening with ear-buds in, listening to Katherine’s buttery smooth voice soothe the ache in my heart as I came to terms with the ending of my marriage. Her superb creativity with the lexicon, aligned value-systems was a consistent nudge towards a path of high integrity during one of the messiest, and darkest times of my life. Her teachings on core values and where they originated as well as getting to the heart of where our original heart-wounds first started was ground-breaking for me. I still use the words “co-create” and “curate” on the regular because of her.

“Because we believed so strongly in the ‘until death do us part’ concept, we see the demise of our marriage as a failure, bringing with it shame, guilt, or regret. When we examine our intimate relationships from this perspective, we realize that they aren’t for finding static, lifelong bliss like we see in the movies. They’re for helping us evolve a psycho-spiritual spine, a divine endoskeleton made from conscious self-awareness so that we can evolve into a better life without recreating the same problems for ourselves again and again. “

Gary Chapman’s The Five Love Languages

The Secret to Love That Lasts

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I still use this exercise to identify how a person expresses and wants love expressed to them in a relationship. In readings, a common question I ask is: Do you know your partner’s love language(s)? Until this book’s emergence in 1992, I, like millions of others, kept misunderstanding how to fulfill my partner’s needs and more painfully, they just could not seem to fill mine, time and time again.

Who can resist a good quiz and personality assessment after all? Especially when the promise is one that may improve the quality of your love and satisfaction with your relationship. *Spoiler Alert* You tally points towards the areas of Words of Affirmation, Acts of Service, Gift Giving and Receiving, Quality Time Together or Physical Touch. Most of us have a combination of a couple of these as dominant themes but what is key, is discovering what your partner’s languages are. Talk about a game changer.

“When we choose active expressions of love in the primary love language of our spouse, we create an emotional climate where we can deal with our past conflicts and failures.”

Adam Grant’s Think Again

The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know

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We know what we know, right? Or is it true that knowledge and ideas change over time? And that they should? What are we absolutely certain about and how? Is there rigidity or creativity to your thinking? This is a book sent to challenge every single thing you think you know definitively and to coax you towards new horizons of IQ and EQ. What blind spots have created our biases and assumptions?

At times, this one is a total mind bender. At other times, it is terribly confronting as it’s like a mirror shining any of our narrow-mindedness back to us. This book lives up to its title…I thought and re-thought through an incredible amount of information while reading this book. My particular favourite was the article about the prejudices inherent within astrology, even though I am still a huge advocate of its assistance to help us understand ourselves.

“In a constantly changing world, it pays to change your mind.”

James Fray’s A Million Little Pieces

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The picture painted by this painful memoir of the ravages of addiction is a choppy, poetic minute by minute style the likes of which I had never read before. The language is not fancy but it is raw. It was my first look inside what detox and recovery was like and the resilience required to endure the pain, confrontation and loss that accompanies life in recovery from addiction.

This critically acclaimed Pulitzer prize winning book, was debunked and rebuked by various critics as it was proven not to be a non-fiction as the author had claimed. Yet, the poignancy of the story was nonetheless a haunting and imprinting story of the grind and grit required to get clean and sober and stay that way.

“The wounds that can never heal can only be mourned alone.”

Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love

One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

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This memoir stayed on the New York Times Best Seller List for 187 weeks! It is relatable in a way that when we read her heartbreak story, we see parts of ourselves in her. Parts of ourselves that wish we’d had the lady-balls to hop a plane to Italy, then India and top it off with Indonesia when life had kicked us down. The key here is that all the countries she visits in this riveting novella start with “I”, which is what Liz is searching for: Herself.

“The Bhagavad Gita–that ancient Indian Yogic text–says that it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection.”

“This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.”

Honourable Mentions:

Melody Beattie’s Codependent No More

How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring For Yourself

A comprehensive look at how to cope with being in a relationship with anyone suffering or recovering from addiction. Eye-opening albeit confronting, as it becomes evident that codependency is nearly impossible to avoid if you love an addict.

Rupi Kaur’s The Sun and her Flowers

A beautiful and relatable new school Canadian poet who also illustrates the concepts of her poems in scribbles. This book’s chapter topics of Wilting, Falling, Rooting, Rising, and Blooming are haunting and feel almost like I could have written parts of them myself. Revelatory and approachable. Plus, the illustrations become her secret sauce.

Scott Peck’s The Road Less Travelled

A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth

Full disclosure: I read this book when I was 19 so I have no idea if the book would be as phenomenal a read at age 44. At the time, it was earth shattering for me. Maybe it is only an after-shocks kind of book. “Certain pathways in life are less travelled because they’re more challenging, but, in this case, the path to enlightenment is also far more rewarding.”

Authored by:

Sarah Mayes