All of a sudden it seems like everyone is talking about artificial intelligence, or A.I. Even in the tarot community.
Open A.I. apps like ChatGPT and PFP.AI are becoming increasingly popular with people who want to update their profile pictures with artistic renderings, or who want to outline quick blog posts or other marketing content.
A.I. didn’t just come out of nowhere, though. The term “artificial intelligence” was coined in 1955, three years after computer scientist Arthur Samuel developed the world’s first self-learning computer program, the Samuel Checkers-playing program.
In our modern day, social media companies like Facebook and Google use machine-learning to deliver ads to users. Facebook also uses it to monitor content and comments, although human reviewers still often make final judgment calls on flagged content.
Voice-activated tools like Apple’s Siri, Echo and Amazon’s Alexa and Echo also use artificial intelligence. Siri was released in 2011, and Alexa in 2014. It’...
You might have noticed that I’ve started a new online tarot community, Tarot Study Hall, to build connection and conversation around the art of tarot reading.
One of the things I’m encouraging Study Hall members to do is set goals for their tarot practices.
But why? What’s the point?
It feels so linear to set a goal: You see where you want to be in the future, and you start working towards it.
Goal setting makes sense in so many areas of our lives. People set goals for their careers, their finances, their health, and more.
But when it comes to goal setting and tarot, it can feel counter to what tarot is all about: Why not just let your intuition guide you on your journey? Why not just feel it out intuitively and organically?
Letting inspiration guide you can certainly be part of the tarot journey. But structure can help a lot, too. Especially if you’re feeling overwhelmed by how much there is to learn about tarot, or you’ve been studying for a while but you’re not seeing progress...
A common learning curve that tarot readers share is figuring out how to synthesize the information in their readings.
So many of us learn how to read tarot card by card. A popular piece of advice is to pull a card a day as a way to study each card organically. This can be a useful practice, and one that breaks down what can be an overwhelming 78-card deck into bite-sized actions.
But where card-a-day practitioners end up getting stuck is when they want to transition into bigger readings. That’s where they start to feel unsure about how to combine cards, or find the patterns between them.
Similarly, when we’re relying on guidebooks to build our interpretations, multi-card spreads can end up feeling clunky as we work through them one card at a time.
This can also happen when we’re not sure how many details to work into a reading. Confusing complexity for potency in tarot reading can become a huge block for readers.
You don’t need to layer your readings with a bunch of techniques – ...
“Whenever I try to read my cards, I’m not sure how to tell whether my intuition is coming through, or if I’m just remembering something I read in my guidebook.”
This is a common refrain I’ve heard from aspiring tarot readers over the years.
I’ve talked about this elsewhere, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat it every now and then: I think that the assumption that every tarot reading has to feel like an intense psychic download is something that ends up blocking a lot of tarot readers from connecting with their cards.
Which is unfortunate when you think about it. So many of people are called to learn tarot specifically because they want to deepen their intuition and trust themselves more.
But once you’re putting tarot into practice, there can be a disconnect between you and your cards.
Maybe the messages don’t flow as easily as you expect them to.
Or maybe you’ve careful studied the little white book that came with your deck, but you’re not sure how those meanings fit once it’s time to...
Since opening the doors to Tarot Study Hall, I’ve had a number of people reach out with questions about what it is, and – most importantly – whether it’s the right place for them to be.Â
Tarot Study Hall is not another online course: It’s an ongoing immersion into the art of tarot reading. It’s a place where you’re able to implement what you’re learning about tarot. It’s a place to ask questions and find mentorship and guidance that will help you grow.Â
One of my former students, Elle, first came to me for mentorship a few years ago. Elle was spending upwards of two hours a day studying tarot. She would binge every tarot podcast she could find and loved collecting tarot decks.Â
But for all the time she was spending with her cards, she never felt like she was getting any further as a tarot reader. As a result, all those beautiful decks Elle was collecting felt like they were taunting her. “I feel so guilty that they’re sitting there, waiting to be used,” she admitted when we first me...
One of the main things I focus on when I’m reading and teaching tarot is the importance of the question:
What is the goal or the intention of the reading?
Early on, I was always taught to read tarot using spreads. So many guidebooks I came across recommended three-card spreads – such as past, present, future – or larger spreads like the Celtic Cross.
And as social media became a more common place for tarot lovers to share their passion for card reading, it’s easier than ever to access hundreds, if not thousands, of tarot spreads at this time, for all kinds of topics.
But when I started reading tarot for others, I often found tarot spreads to be too confining for the flow of conversation that often unfolded. For all of the spreads I’d studied, I didn’t feel adequately prepared for the wide range of questions that querents would pose.
The problem with spreads is that if you’re reading on a specific question, then the spread your using has to be able to support that question through ...
I’m excited to announce that the doors to Tarot Study Hall are officially open.Â
Tarot Study Hall is not another online course: It’s an ongoing immersion into the art of tarot reading.
As a member, you get access to monthly Q&A calls, live practice sessions, prompts, and more, all designed to give you the hands-on experience you need to start trusting yourself as a tarot reader.Â
Tarot Study Hall aims to be a safe space where you can practice, make mistakes, ask honest, open questions about tarot and – best of all – grow as a tarot reader.Â
Being a founding member means you are joining the beta launch of this membership. It’s an all new experience that will grow over time, and you will have the opportunity to shape the future of Tarot Study Hall for years to come.Â
If you’re looking for an opportunity to be nurtured and mentored in a community that is dedicated to the art and language of tarot, I’d love to see you there!Â
~ Liz
I have a general rule I follow when I’m online:
I don’t argue with strangers.
Not that I don’t argue with friends or acquaintances, either. I know better on all fronts that social media doesn’t often lead to good things when people are in disagreement.
This isn’t to say I’m against dialogue. It’s just that quite often, when I see people arguing, they’re spending more time trying to change each other’s minds than they are trying to understand each other’s perspective.
I find the same thing happens in the tarot community. When I first started connecting with other tarot readers, I joined some Facebook groups to meet other readers and have a dedicated space to share about tarot.
But after a while, I started to feel like those groups were counterproductive to what I was seeking. So often, posts devolved into virtual shouting matches, just like so many other experiences on social media.
And very often, the arguments that I witnessed were about tarot meanings or interpretations.
Years...
This year I’m doing something I’ve wanted to try for a long time: I’m taking a painting class.
When I was younger I used to love drawing, crafting, and creating all kinds of things with my hands. Like many adults, I’ve let some of those interests fall to the wayside over the years and I’ve come to miss them.
There is something incredibly grounding about working with your hands.
I’ve always been interested in painting, but when I’ve tried to paint on my own, I’ve often felt out of my element.
I don’t know if I’m applying too much pressure on the brush. Or how to make an image look the way I see it in my imagination. Or which details to put on the canvas first.
Basically, I don’t know where to begin or what to focus on when I’m on my own.
I know that art can be expressive and fun, and that technique doesn’t have to matter.
But the thing is, it matters to me: I can be creative in all kinds of ways in my life. But what I want to learn is not how to express myself, but the process of...
A couple years ago, a young woman named Gabby Petito had gone missing in the U.S.
It was a big news story here. People were obsessively following it online.
At the time, I was mentoring a few tarot students who were following the story, too.
They were particularly interested in seeing other tarot readers, psychics, and astrologers trying to crack the case through readings and divination on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
“I find these videos really interesting to watch,” one student admitted. “But is it ethical to do readings like this?”
There is a history of psychics helping to solve crimes, but this practice has a controversial past and uneven results.
Psychic medium Kristy Robinett famously helped police in the cold case of Ashley Howley of Ohio, who was murdered in 2004. The story of Robinett’s assistance later became the subject of a documentary called Restless Souls, produced by the Discovery Channel.
This is one example of how helpful this type of work can be.
But n...
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