Ask the Cards: A New Tarot Business
By: Diana McMahon-Collis
Dear Diana, Can the cards guide me in a new on-line project I’d like to start? It’s for tarot readings…. I do a lot of work with women who are in recovery and I’d use readings to help them explore issues. I’d like to be able to develop this online so I can make a bit of pocket money when I travel, but I’ve only got as far as buying a web address yet. Which I’ve had for 4 years so far, but never used!
Dear Kate, I will be using The Blooming Flower spread from the accompanying booklet, as it is ideal for focussing on success in new ventures! Here are the cards that have come up after shuffling, fanning the deck and intuitively selecting the cards for the spread positions, which are outlined below, first:
The Blooming Flower Spread:
1. Seed of the venture
2. What helps or has helped early growth
3. What aids fuller development
4. Who or what brings support
5. The best setting or situation for encouraging success
– to picture the spread, card 1 is in the middle and the others are like petals around it, with 2 to the left, 3 above, 4 to the right and 5 below.
The Reading
1. Seed of the venture – XV The Devil
I assume that ‘recovery’ relates to recovering from addictions – perhaps alcoholism, drug abuse and other issues that might come under the umbrella of something such as 12-step recovery. If so, then this card is completely appropriate! The seed is the desire to help these people, perhaps because of your own experiences, either on the inside or outside of that. I don’t want to make too many assumptions! But what I mean is that you might have the basis for understanding the issues of women in recovery especially well, either because you know the road yourself, or because you’ve been around someone else who has those struggles. Either way, it’s a subject you know plenty about and so this desire comes from a very sound base. I also get the feeling it just really matters to you – perhaps something to do with spreading the word, if that makes sense.
2. What helps or has helped early growth – 9 of Wands
I just get a very strong sense of this being a chapter of completion for you if you go ahead. So the 9 is all the stuff you’ve done so far, both with tarot and with your experiences around recovery (yours or others). In this card we can see a sort of plait of 8 of the 9 wands, interwoven diagonally across, with the 9th wand threaded down the middle of them. It is interesting because it is sort of ‘held’ by the other wands but it seems to want to break free from them. The 2 wands crossing it at the front seem to be holding it back – they may represent people, or just thoughts/feelings, or even practical factors. There might be feelings like fear, or just going blank on the next stage, or losing the plot. There is a sense of one thing on top of another – stuff piling up. But what helps, or has helped growth has been a mix of inspiration (love, even) and the desire to move things on. I feel there’s been a lot of courage, too – and a sense of divine intervention that somehow keeps you pushing forward, even when you feel a bit stuck.
3. What aids fuller development – 8 of Swords
In the Tattoo tarot card image, 6 of the 8 swords look like they’re pinned down into a similar point in the ground and there is a gold star balanced on their blades; the other 2 swords point down behind them, like pillars. One of the meanings of the card from the booklet is “beliefs and thoughts that can be changed”. This might be an angle for how you develop this business, then. I too have worked around a lot of people in recovery and the real turning point, for a lot, seems to have been around hope/faith and seeing the world differently – not to mention seeing themselves differently. So maybe the two swords at the back represent your strength and vision. A bit like the card here invokes the energy of the High Priestess between her two pillars – she represents some sort of safety and she hears a lot but does not repeat a lot, since much of what she hears has to be kept confidential. So, my understanding with recovery is the importance of anonymity issues. You would need to be super-vigilant about that aspect of it. So: GDPR compliance will be really important, keeping client data and content stored very safely (if stored at all). There is also this aspect of the swords that are more or less bound together; my first thought was not the usual entrapment associated with this card – although there might be issues there, which I will go into in a moment.
But more about needing to bring ideas together and to get energy really focussed so you can pin this project down! I am quite sure you have the determination for it. It is just about getting all the components together – and since these are Swords, you’d probably be working on the mental plane first and foremost with this. So it’s about organising your thoughts. Shoving any fears to one side, whilst noting what they may flag up and addressing the issues one by one.
I get the sense that something like meditation would be good here – or a mindfulness version. It might sound a bit dotty, but I get some of my best ideas when I take a few minutes to do a body scan with my eyes closed! I can be so in my head (or my feelings) sometimes, but not necessarily in contact with my body or the fuller part of my mind, so that I am not relaxed enough to access the bigger picture. But a few minutes in that state and – bingo! I’ve got answers suddenly. So can you put aside 2 minutes – 6 or 8 minutes for this, one time in the next week? Maybe one time each week, daily even if you can manage it. It might help you begin to piece the venture together more. The entrapment issue – I wonder if it’s a worry about how to manage the workload if you suddenly get very busy with it. And maybe especially if you are travelling – all the stuff about how to get to where you need to be for internet access; maybe accessing a laptop, having space and privacy for laying out cards – and so on. I am sure you can manage it all. But the Swords often show our fears and I feel they’re a bit layered up here. Yet I suspect if you pull them apart (like the swords) and examine them, you will see solutions underneath!
4. Who or what brings support – 3 of Coins
The experience of other people doing something similar could be a help here, as this card is so often to do with highly skilled workers, probably experts or those with long term experience. Also, some of the support will come from actually doing the work. That might sound obvious, but I’m not sure that it always is, because fear can often stop someone from going forward into the practical side. So they never know that half the answers will come from actual experience. I don’t know why, but the word procrastination keeps coming into my head. Perhaps a deeper part of you has been putting this off because you feel you’re not quite ready, or believe, deep down that you’re not yet good enough. But you probably are ready enough and good enough! The missing links are the hands-on part of walking the path – because you’re not going to know exactly how this will shape up until you get your hands in and work the soil, as it were (not sure where this imagery is coming from – but the card shows a lot of green on the coins and quite a lot of practical tools!) Do you know that old movie Being There? I love the garden imagery in that. If someone can blag their way in an aspect of business or politics through garden metaphors, then an already pretty skilled tarot reader can probably deliver a good enough reading to someone in need, in recovery!
5. The best setting or situation for encouraging success – Knave of Wands
Between you and me, I feel frustrated when a reading seems to ‘end’ on a Court card! It seems so open-ended to me. Therefore, I always tend to ‘clarify’ that card with another. Before I do, though, let’s just note that this fellow – the Knave – has a very intense gaze. Like, he means business! Little flames are alight around him and even his jacket has flames on it. He’s burning with desire, ready to go. I think this is a symbol of you revving up for this venture. Something perhaps needs to ‘ping’ that ambition and enthusiasm to set it alight. You know that sense of someone being ‘on fire’ with a project? They are just generating a certain energy around it. So if things have been feeling a bit stuck with this venture, maybe it’s that you’ve gone a bit off the boil on it for a while. I’m not sure you can force anything, to be honest – at least, my experience is that if it ain’t flowing, there’s a reason. But when the time is right you will be able to put your energy fully behind it, if it’s got that ‘meant to be’ sense around it, generally. So, I’m thinking that it would be good to look back and remember what you felt when you registered that web domain and when you first had this idea.
And also note when you’re given any sort of boost around it – any signal from life that tells you ‘yes, I’m on the right track with this’. And then you may feel you can take another step forward with it.
Let’s just clarify the Knave with another card… the deck stack seems to be slightly split at one point, so I’ve gone for the card that’s just poking out – it’s the 2 of Wands. Well, to me, this is always that decider card. You’ve kind of got bored with some aspect of something (either where things generally are in your life, and so this would be the new venture, or the idea has gone a tiny bit stale and needs a jolt from the universe to get the engine going on it again!) The card shows sections of brick wall either side – either what’s established so far, or you’ve hit one! (a brick wall). Above and below are crowns – it’s still a noble idea (upright crown) but maybe some aspect of it feels awkward or no longer appealing. In the middle are the two wands, criss-crossed. They really make me think of a majorette!
So I see you getting into the swing with this. You need that majorette energy, with all the pom poms, groovy outfit and music and dance. Those girls are very athletic and they work in teams. So it’s something about agility, physical ability and team work. You might even need a second person to back you up, somehow. Given that both cards in this position are Wands, I do feel that some sort of divine intervention is a part of this. So maybe an opportunity is going to come your way. It will be the right place/right time sort of thing. I totally know this can happen! (from personal experience). And I think the 2 is saying that it’s got to be a meeting of the circumstances and your courage, actually. So you may cross paths with someone and there will be a chance to push your project forward – and even if you have not found words for it before, you’ll suddenly feel you can talk about it. And it may change your life, open a door…
I tend to note the cards at the base and top of the deck, after shuffling, in case they add anything useful. Here we have X Wheel of Fortune at the base, and 6 of Coins at the top. So…perhaps circumstances were a bit different when you first got that web domain registered. And perhaps they have been challenging in various ways meanwhile, which have kind of gone against your making progress with the venture. You know how it is, though – the wheel turns over time. Every dog has its day! The time will come when things are better aligned again. How interesting about the 6 of Coins. I think of it as an investment card, one about give and take. There are two hands holding an envelope in this one – an agreement, maybe, or a contract. A partnership, even. It also made me think about giving some readings freely at first, in this venture of yours. Not loads, but a few – so that you can get a feel for how it’s going to work, without risking too much (if that makes sense). It might take the pressure off, at the start. And if people like what you do, they will perhaps be happy to recommend your services to others.
Overall, I feel there’s the potential for movement in positive directions with this project, with a bit of help from others and the willingness to gather up your courage, strength and skills and just do the thing! But it may also take a sign from the outside, or an opportunity to emerge that pushes open a doorway, whereby you feel able to be carried forward and it doesn’t feel quite such an effort. I do feel you will get there – maybe quickly, maybe slowly – but with the universe watching your back, either way, giving the guidance you need.
I feel the reading has reached its natural end point there, Katie. I hope some – ideally most – of it has made sense to you and will give you some inspiration for the future! You are welcome to ask if anything I have said is unclear or you have any questions about how the reading was carried out. I would love to hear any feedback you may have.
Kind regards, Diana
This reading was created by Diana McMahin Collis of Mindbliss Readings who created the Tattoo Tarot. The reading was made before the release of the deck, and was instrumental in giving me to motivation to finally work on this website and get it published!!
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