Life Lessons from the Hanged Man

The Hanged man can be a very frustrating card to come up in a reading. It shows a man hanging upside down and it reminds you of a death sentence. It looks like the man is helpless and stuck and has no help whatsoever. We all look for answers and solutions during a reading and when the hanged man appears, we do not get our required answers. 

But the Hanged man is one of the enlightened souls of the deck like the High Priestess and the Hermit. The Priestess gains answers from within, from her intuition and feminine gut instinct and the Hermit from his wisdom and experience so where does the Hanged man get his answers from? Patience..

Very often you will get a tarot client who wants a 'now now now' reading and many a time you can explain that such readings done in a hurried fashion can be misleading or will tell you the same thing which I am telling you: Hold on your horses and be patient. That is when the Hanged man appears, mocking the situation. You can't force or hurry answers to come to you, they will come when they are supposed to. The major life lesson of this card is Patience. 

When you're upside down you have a different angle of the situation. You begin to look at things in a different light. When there is a lot happening in our lives, we stop thinking, wondering, pondering. We only start doing. When we stop and stare, we can realize our mistakes and know what is going wrong.   

Meditation or contemplation are the two ways of getting out of any stagnant situation. Make the most of a situation by meditating or musing over things. Contemplation gives you more ideas and solutions. 

The Hanged man is a very positive card, and though on the outside it may seem that nothing is happening, a lot is happening within. Pay attention to this card whenever it comes up in a reading. Look at it as a sign to meditate, relax and make the most of a stagnant situation. 

Lessons from the Fool

The Fool is a very important card in the Tarot. It is the first card of the deck and though it seems like an inexperienced guy is just going backpacking, it teaches us a lot.

Traveling changes a person.. When you go on a trip all by yourself, the experiences and adventures you come across could never replace any bookish knowledge sitting in a classroom. Even the misadventures like the loss of a bag or stealing of your money just makes you more responsible and confident. After a trip around the world, once a person returns he is no longer the same. He has moved a few notches higher in his ladder of experiences. This is the journey of the Fool. 

So, this Fool teaches us many lessons and we can learn a lot from him. 

1. Be bold. Don't be afraid to travel alone. As long as you have your senses and gut instincts you'll be fine. 

2. Ignorance is bliss. He is carefree and couldn't care less. He doesn't care about what the world thinks like the Hierophant or if he is in balance like the Temperance or if his wishes will be fulfilled like the Star. He just knows.......that he needs to go on this journey and SOMETHING will happen which wouldn't happen if he was sitting at home twiddling his thumbs. Just go. Take a risk. Move ahead. And the Universe will take care of you. 

3. Be childlike. Be innocent and be foolish. The closer you are to being a child, the closer you are to god. Make mistakes as that's the only way to grow. 

Today remove a Fool card from a deck of your choice and just look at him: carefree, a wanderer just waiting for something to happen. He's the Hero of the story waiting to happen. 

Tarot for Newbies

Many people have asked me this question. Can anyone learn tarot or do I need to have some special 'gifts' of intuition? There are many myths surrounding these cards, many of them created to create an illusion, to make the reader seem very god gifted and psychic and sometimes scary, with jewelery and dark eye make up. Some of these tarot readers on TV and portrayed in film seem really spooky like gypsies who predict death and who throw curses on you if you make them angry. Naturally the people watching this are skeptical and some afraid of tarot and even don't want to get a reading done, forget learning it. There are myths about it in our Indian culture as well which I don't think exist in other cultures as well. It is said that a tarot reader can never get married or live a happy marriage. I have never heard this about a doctor or a teacher. A tarot reader is a profession like any other and it puzzles me as to where these rumours or myths originate from. Another myth is that you need to be chosen or gifted to qualify as a tarot reader. Each and every one of us is intuitive. We are all born with intuitive powers and have it in us to know the real truth. This comes in the form of gut feelings or hunches. Many of us act upon those feelings and many ignore them. The decisions made on the spur of the moment without logical thinking are usually the right decisions, which we realize much later in life. In today's world, so much importance is given to logic, that our natural intuitive way of thinking is blocked. The more we ignore our intuitive side, the more it eludes us. 

To be a tarot reader what you need is a will to help people genuinely, a willingness to access the intuitive side of yourself, a will to learn something new and you could do with a love for reading as there is so much material and great books being written these days so it is a delight for avid readers. And yes, you need to buy a deck of your choice, not necessarily have it gifted to you, ANOTHER myth! 

I hope I have busted some myths and broadened your view about tarot reading. So pick up a deck which you feel intuitively drawn to and access the world of Tarot- It's a completely different world where you will meet many like minded souls like you, on a path to self discovery. 

A Long break-- I'm back!

I'm back on blogging mode after a long hiatus.. I delivered a baby and was really busy with her.. 😄 I have been posting Card of the day posts on my Twitter account @KareenaTarot and my Facebook page Kareena Narwani Tarot Reader. I will be using my blog to blog once a week about articles related to tarot or spirituality, some musings which have been coming to mind off late. I'm glad to be back!