Cathy’s Recommendations

Categories

Copyright Info

© Cathy Hughes and Interactive Tarot, 2009-2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Cathy Hughes and Cathy Hughes Tarot with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
May 5th, 2010

Denial: A River I Nearly Drowned In

 (and the tarot’s attempt at throwing me a life raft)

So, for those of you who read my second to last post (which was written oh-so-long ago) you know that I’d been seeing the Devil card come up quite a bit in my readings.  I knew that something wicked was brewing in my life that I didn’t want to deal with.  Interestingly enough, the something I suspected I was in denial about wasn’t actually the culprit.. but that’s another story for another blog.. the story here is the clever tarot and how it dealt with my denial.

Basically, the tarot, in an attempt to finally get through to me, played a little trick.  I did a reading for a friend, via email, and it was very worrying.  I looked at each card, gathering the meanings and my heart sank.  I didn’t want to send it to her, but I felt that I had to.  There was bad news all around–I mean this was a reading that struck at the roots of some serious personal issues.  Most of the time, I can handle readings like that, if there is a good bit of light at the end of the tunnel, but in this reading, I didn’t see much light at all.. at least not any light that could be come by easily.   I sent it along, anyway, hoping for the best and hoping it would help her out somehow.  Days passed and I couldn’t shake the reading.  My friend was too busy to reply with her thoughts, so I sat with it for a long time.

Then mid-March hit me like a tidal wave.  The “S” hit the “F”, if you know what I mean, and I felt like my life was in a shambles.  It was probably one of the worst months I’d ever had.  And, in the midst of my chaotic emotions, I remembered that reading and I thought, “Huh, that’s funny, that reading really could apply to me.”  So I sent my friend quick email, saying that some things were happening which seemed a lot like her reading and asked if it had applied to her at all.  It turns out not only did the reading not apply to her, but she’d been having dreams that the reading was really about me.  She didn’t know how to tell me because the reading was such a bummer.  At that moment, I knew the tarot had shown me what was happening in my life via what I thought was a reading for a friend and I needed to listen up.  Luckily, I did get the message after that and, while things did not get too much better right away, I did take the tarot’s advice and was able to stop the bleeding and work on making a new start.

I’ve only experienced the tarot’s unique response to rampant denial one other time and to a much lesser degree.  It was pretty much the same scenario: I was in denial about something in my life, did a reading for someone else (in person this time), they looked at me like I was Jabba the Hut, and then I realized (duh!) that the reading was really for me.  I believe that experience eventually led to me quitting a job.  Oddly enough, this last instance of trickster tarot is leading to me trying to get a job.

I don’t know what would have happened if I didn’t realize the reading was for me.  I know that, even if I knew it was mine before everything started falling apart, I wouldn’t have changed a thing about what I was doing.  But, when I was ready to accept the tarot’s message, it was right there, like a neon sign.  I had that email to go back to and use as a guide through the turmoil and out the other side.

It’s taken me an entire month to feel better and get over everything that happened; including the tarot’s little trick.  I picked up my cards for the first time last night and it actually felt good.  I remembered the part of the tarot that is like a friend and I remembered how I used to read the tarot to help myself and not just try and avoid this or that or the other.  I hope that, in the future, I’ll be more able to handle things that I don’t want to deal with, but it’s okay if I can’t because that sort of thing happens.

One thing I do know I’ll be more in tune to in the future is looking at each reading I do and see how it might apply to my life.  I’m sure every reading, whether it is secretly for me or actually for the person I’m reading for, has little gems of wisdom that can be applied to my life.

  • Share/Bookmark
February 19th, 2010

Life Balance Spread

This is a spread that I developed a few years ago.  It’s aimed at helping you find any blockages or imbalances in your life as well as what is working.

Life-Balance Spread Designed and Developed by Cathy Hughes. Copyright © 2010 Cathy Hughes and Cathy Hughes Tarot - All right reserved.

This reading is broken up into four different rows.  The top row is the various states of your life from work to love.  The second row is three obstacles that are standing in your way.  The third row is two things that will help unblock you and bring balance to your life and the final row is the wild card, whose meaning you will glean based on the rest of the reading.

Cheers!

  • Share/Bookmark
February 3rd, 2010

Denial: Not a River

Even after reading for years and years, I still have cards that I just don’t get, personally.  I feel like the reason for this can’t be as simple as having a lousy memory; it runs deeper than that.  I think that cards anyone has trouble grasping the meaning of indicate either a phase that they [...]

January 14th, 2010

Ask Cathy: Card Accuracy and Coincidence

Here is the latest question from Ask Cathy (I have paraphrased a bit to clarify this question):

How accurate are the cards?  Do you associate a spiritual aspect of life with the responses you receive and give? Or do you think of tarot as coincidental responses?

-Wanda

Well, Wanda, I am sure it will come as no surprise [...]

January 7th, 2010

Ask Cathy: Six of Swords for the Year

How to read a tarot card

Recently, a reader wrote in and asked:

What would be the best way to interpret the 6 of Swords as a temporary forecast for the year?

-Patricia

Thanks for your question, Patricia!  Sometimes, when people read tarot for themselves, they get a card that they don’t quite understand [...]

December 29th, 2009

I Dream of the Nine of Pentacles #2

I’ve decided it’s time to revisit my beloved Nine of Pentacles and see what’s going on with my relationship to this card.  If you would like to learn more about why I am working with this card (as well as how), please visit this post.  To do the exercise this time, I am going to [...]

December 23rd, 2009

Ask Cathy: Two of Wands in the Past

Yay!  I got my first official question in the Ask Cathy section of this blog!  This week, a reader asked:

The two of wands showed up in my recent past what does it mean in that position?

Not too long ago, I wrote a post about my own experiences with the [...]

December 17th, 2009

Please Pardon Our Appearance

If you think this site looks like a mess, that’s because it is!  I am currently working on relocating this blog from its current home: www.interactivetarotblog.wordpress.com and giving it a pretty thorough overhaul.   Please bare with me as I figure out what I want it to look like and try to learn some CSS [...]

December 16th, 2009

Rekindling Tarot Romance

In my last post, I talked about knowing when it is time to take a break from the tarot.  Sometimes, even after taking a break, it may take a while to ease back into using the tarot.  The following tips should help you rekindle your love of tarot.

Read a Good Tarot BookOver the years, I’ve [...]

December 1st, 2009

Knowing When to Take a Break #2

For those of you who have not the first part of this two-part post, you can find it here.

Spooky TarotSpooky tarot can lead right into tarot obsession and then, of course, spiral into intense tarot burnout.  As a result, it is best to nip spooky tarot in the bud before it gets its creepy little [...]