Reading the tarot as many years as I have, I’ve come to know the warning signs of looming tarot burnout. Many times, it’s when it’s hardest to let go of the tarot that we need to leave it the most. If you’re a regular reader of the Interactive Tart Blog, you’ve probably noticed my absence during this past month. By the end of October, I realized that I needed to take time off to restore balance in my life. Today, I thought I’d get started up again by posting about my experiences and thoughts on taking a break from the tarot.
Throughout the thirteen years that I’ve been learning and reading the tarot, there have been times when I didn’t touch a deck for months. There was even a period when I didn’t touch a deck for over a year (which, technically, means twelve years of learning and reading the tarot!). My longest absence was certainly the result of a tarot burnout, which ended when my future mother-in-law, who did not know about my tarot hobby, randomly bought me a deck for Christmas one year. That gift brought my old friend back into my life and I spent the rest of the day surprising Jonathan’s family with reading after reading.
My tarot burnouts eventually led to short tarot breaks when I started identifying the warning signs. There are a few different signs, the most pressing of which is tarot obsession.
Tarot Obsession
Tarot obsession can start out simply, with a great tarot reading that gives you sound advice. You know the reading is good because it matches your inner feelings and confirms what you’ve already felt to be true, while possibly adding in a few unexpected insights along the way and accurately predicting how things will turn out. Of course, there is nothing inherently bad about a reading like this. In fact, it’s what I strive for most in my readings. The trouble starts when you stop listening to your inner feelings and, instead, look the tarot for all of your information.
I’ve had this happen to me as well as clients. Many times, it happens when I am in denial about my current situation and my feelings about the situation. I turn to the tarot to tell me my feelings are wrong. When the cards come up and don’t confirm that I’m just being silly, I shake my head impatiently, reshuffle the cards, and lay them out again, possibly being real creative with my interpretation and putting my worries to rest (of course, this creativity is not a conscious decision because I can’t to listen to my gut. I think the reading is genuine and I feel genuinely satisfied by it). Ignoring whatever intuition I initially have in the beginning of the reading (as well as what I’ve already felt in my heart), I use the cards as a tool for remaining in denial. Not only do my readings become inaccurate, but I become obsessed with the tarot, reading it constantly. The tarot becomes both a way keep wearing those rose colored glasses and a way to fudge some sort of balance in my life; now, since I can’t rely on my gut feelings, I start to rely solely on the tarot for cues on how I ought to feel.
If I don’t recognize that I’m doing this at the time, then I’ll continue along this path. I’ll pick up my cards every morning with an anxious hunger in my stomach. It’s almost the same feeling as when I spend money I don’t have in order to make me feel better.
Eventually, however, the bubble bursts. The thing I’ve been in denial about all this time is unavoidable. All of a sudden, those cards that have been coming up over and over again make sense in a new light. Since I did not realize (or wasn’t willing to realize) that I read the cards in order to stay in denial, this feels like a slap in the face. Not only do I question my abilities as a tarot reader, but the tarot, itself, actually freaks me out. How did it know?! Why didn’t I see it?! (It’s a pretty incredible web that denial weaves, no?) I get so upset and freaked out that I stop reading the tarot for a good, long time. Eventually, I face the facts that it wasn’t really the fault of the tarot that all this happened and that, if I really sat down and thought about it, I knew things weren’t right for a long time. This process of healing can take a while, but at the end of it, I always come back to the tarot a little wiser than before.
Of course, there are variations of how one comes to tarot obsession. I’ve had clients who weren’t necessarily in denial, but questioned their good instincts due to outside interference and, as a result, looked to the tarot too frequently in help with making decisions. Or, another obvious trap that many people fall into is being obsessed with finding out the future. Either way, the basic formula is that, for one reason or another, you stop believing and trusting yourself and start looking to the tarot for all your spiritual and psychological needs.
Continue to Knowing When to Take a Break #2
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[...] December 1, 2009 by interactivetarot For those of you who have not the first part of this two-part post, you can find it here. [...]
I always feel if you consult the tarot too often with the same question then it begins to throw out psychic garbage.
Almost as if it’s saying ‘hey, you’ve already asked that question, accept the answer given and act upon it and stop bothering us’
Hi Linda,
I’ve had similar experiences where it feels like the deck is giving up on me because I’m not getting the message. This is another great sign that it’s time to take a break.
Thanks for sharing!
Cathy