A Taste of Tarot by Hilary and Lessons Learned

The beginning of a internet journey...

Guess what! My fully functional website launches this Friday! (so you better stop by then to find out what goodies and reading specials are happening!)

This website is the cumulation of nearly five months of work with my tarot mentor, Theresa Reed. It is something I am extremely proud of, and something I will continue to be proud of. Most of this work has been a cosmic kick in the pants, the crux of the message being to not hide my light under a bushel. This is somewhat terrifying to step into the limelight (much like that Fool above teetering on the precipice), but I acknowledge that it is something I need to do to help my business grow. If you have been "hiding" your talents in some way, take my advice: Stop. Stop it right now. You are worthy of so much more than you give yourself credit for.

Lessons learned (so far):

1. If you are not happy in the job you're in, take the steps to change the situation. If you cannot change the situation, change your perspective. You may find the results liberating. 
2. We make SO many excuses when we are afraid. My excuse was the tax man/IRS/blah-blah-blah/etc. were going to come get me if I even thought about making tarot my business. Guess what? It's an excuse. And if I do everything through the correct channels, my fear of the guvment (misspelling intended) is unfounded.
3. Damn, a lot of us tarot readers have low self-esteem. Were we not loved enough as children? Where the hell did this low self-esteem epidemic come from? I know a lot of amazing readers (listen, peeps, these are published authors of tarot books) that suffer from low self-esteem. Surprising, right? We all have our issues. Doesn't make them real. Doesn't make what we think true. Pluck up and see above: you are worthy of so much more than you give yourself credit for.
4. You gotta spend money to make money. Sadly, a truth to some degree. But if you keep up to date with your bookkeeping and use a spreadsheet... who knows what success you can accomplish! There are also plenty of ways to advertise for free or on the cheap. Applying a creative brain to it absolutely helps. And the phrase "I'm just not a business person" is... guess what? Yup. An excuse.
5. There is a wormhole that is directly and inversely proportional to the amount of time you put into this. Surprisingly, as busy as I've been, time seems to warp and allow me to do everything I want to do! The mantra of work hard, play hard has been really working for me! Also, every social opportunity I turn into a "marketing" opportunity (in a non-skeezy way, of course). I run in some weird, strange, esoteric circles. Tarot is a subject that happens to come up a lot in social situations. And I say... "What a coincidence! I'm a tarot reader!" I'm letting it all hang out.
6. A mentor is a wonderful thing. They push us SO much farther than we're willing to go ourselves. They tell us stuff about ourselves that we pooh-pooh or explain away. They make us do things that we're afraid to do. They allow us to grow and flourish under a watchful eye. They give us advice so we don't make costly mistakes. So, in case I haven't said it enough: Theresa, thank you. A million times thank you.

"Leap, and the net will appear."--John Burroughs

The Post-Conference Rundown, Part II

The first card I pulled from the "cauldron" at SF BATS. A definite reminder to "go with the flow."

The final class on Saturday afternoon I decided to attend was Ellen Lorenzi-Prince’s “Discover Your Tarot Genius” where Ellen took us through both the ancient and modern concepts of genius by giving us exercises with our decks, pulling cards and speaking from our “genius” (spirit) self, and then giving another person a reading, speaking from that “genius” self. I think my genius self likes to speak to me by playing songs in my head that spark my intuition as I pull cards. Those songs usually correspond to any reading I’m doing, so no matter how strange or “off-point” they might seem, I always acknowledge the source and pass on the message (and usually am greeted with "How'd you know that?").

On Saturday evening was the “Bats in the Belfry” cocktail hour/mixer, where it seemed everyone but me was dressed up to the nines. I used my “carry-on only” excuse to beg off from dressing up, but after seeing all the fabulous outfits, I did feel a twinge of guilt, which was soon remedied by Merlot and good conversation.

After the mixer, I was invited up to Jude Alexander’s room to play The Tarot Game, her creation. And by “play”, I mean howl laughing with fellow tarot readers. We were the “rowdy” group of players, where tarot and pole dancing combined, and where we created a song while looking for a specific card in a deck.

~*~

Sunday morning the conference reconvened with a performance by Nancy Antenucci, Rhonda Lund, and Dan Pelletier. Nancy co-wrote the short vignette to demonstrate facets of reading psychically. This performance directly led me to buy her book Psychic Tarot. I had been hearing such wonderful things about it previously, but had been on the fence about purchasing it. My doubts were swept aside with the performance. I will enjoy her book, and Nancy is lovely!

There was only two classes to squeeze in before the panel in the afternoon on the tarot (where it’s been, where it’s going) so I hustled off to the first class of the last day. Let me quickly explain: There was a choice of three to four classes during each 50-minute class period, and it was extremely difficult to decide which classes to attend. However, on the second day, I had no doubts as to where I was going. I had to give my props to my tarot homegirls.

The first class was Courtney Weber’s “The Tarot of the Boroughs”. Now, you all may remember my review of this deck (if not, see here). This class was all about the deck’s creation. Moreover, it was about what it truly takes to create a tarot deck, and by the way... if you want to learn tarot, the best way is to create a deck. Why? Because if you create a deck, you live the tarot. I cannot say enough good things about this deck.

After a lunch break, the second class was Theresa Reed’s “From Prophet to Profit-- Transition from Tarot Hobbyist to Tarot Pro”. I am a very lucky girl to have Theresa as my tarot mentor, and everyone that attended this class was given a huge amount of information to take their talents to the next, and marketable, level. Even with me working with Theresa for the past four months, I still left this class with information I did not previously have, such as her 3-Step Process for success as a tarot reader.

Finally was the panel with some of the esteemed presenters from the conference. The crux of it is that tarot has come a long way, and the future of tarot is technology. There is no need to feel alone if you are a reader. Your tarot tribe is a mouse-click away. And if you need a reader, there are many ways to get a reading without having to be geographically local. Through technology, discussions on tarot continue to happen, and conferences such as the one I just attended get planned and get coverage.

Ask me in-depth questions about the conference by posting them in the Comments section below!