Tarot for Family

I had the most amazing experience last night. My late uncle's sister, Cathy, was visiting from Chicago, so my Aunt Frances, my cousin Peggy, and my daughter and I all went to my parents' house for dinner. To my extreme surprise, Mom asked me to bring my tarot cards.

No one in my family except raptures_shadow has ever shown the least interest in tarot. It's one of those things that I've had the distinct feeling they all simply pretend does not exist. But my aunt has become far more open to the metaphysical and the occult since my uncle's death last year.

It was a highly enjoyable gathering. I asked my dad to print out a copy of the "Soundtracks 2, Fundamentalists 0" post and that got a lot of appreciative laughter. Then, after dinner, my dad retreated to his study, my daughter went to watch tv, and the women cleared space on the dining room table for readings.

Since only Cathy had ever had a tarot reading before, I began with a general introduction to the types of cards and how a reading works. I explained that I could do a general "snapshot" of a querant's life (using the modified Celtic Cross spread which is my default) or do an intuitive, on-the-spot spread in response to a specific question.

My aunt went first, and it was one of those difficult spreads with a lot of inverted cards, but she said that it made sense to her even when it was murky to me. (I don't claim to be psychic and able to pick up what's going on in a person's life. I just talk with the cards.) Cathy was next, and hers was much easier. Her significator was Queen of Swords, which I found interesting.

Then I tried to do my mother's, and I made the mistake of not asking what she was interested in. Her signficator was the Moon, inverted. Atmosphere (what covers her, in the traditional spread) was Judgement inverted. Crossing was 6 of Cups inverted. I was getting a highly atypical "bad feeling" and ended up sweeping the cards away and declaring the reading over. I have never done that before. I've stopped a reading when I was getting a "busy signal" but never did I feel this kind of uneasiness and urgency. It was only then that Mom told me that her question had been about life and Dad's Parkinson's. Now I wish I'd gone on, or had asked before I swept the cards away. With the context, I would have coped better. I think.

Peggy didn't want a reading. Then it was my turn.

( My Romantic Reading )

All in all, it was a rather unusual evening. A good one, but nothing like any family gathering I've been at before!