I have people come to me every now and then for tarot readings.
When it comes to the tarot for my own individual use I mainly just study or use them as mediation aid. I do a lot of dream analysis too.

When it comes to other people it's usually more of a spiritual counseling session really then any kind of divination.

Alafia community,

I am a Obatala priest (BabalOrisha) and omolawo (one-hand of IFA). an Ifa and/or Orisha priest does divination with 16 cowiries, Ikin and/or Opele. I practice traditional IFA, not to be mistaken for Santeria, Voodoo, etc., We pratice divination to align our Head(Ori) and Heart. We are not fortune teller. WE divine to fulfill our detiny. We only have one GOD and many enrgy (dieties and consciuosness of GOD. Check out AWO Study Center to get a better idea and knowledge of IFA/Orisha. this form of divination is accurate and utilizes the same principles that a computer operatives. Ifa is dated to be thousand of years old which predates most of our religions. We use bit of 8 (tretragram) to derive our conclusion and relie on 256 Odu to come up with solution of problem. Tarot can not derive inner problems and solution as IfA/Orisha divination. In addition, we can talk to the spirits (energies) and ancestors. Ire, Efunlola

Dreams, animal medicina cards, runes, animals, and fire divination for me. Been working with the I-Ching, pendulum, tarot, and Ogham, but haven't gotten a feel for it yet.

This is how I read for myself. I ask the question and designate the tarot book interpretations I will refer to. Then I draw the cards.

I do a quick personal interpretation and then I refer to the book for further meanings I may have missed that pop out at me.

The books I use are "Power Tarot" and "Learning the Tarot." But any book you like will do.

This way, I don't miss something or worry about being too close to the situation to be impartial.

I used to have a ton of Tarot books. Now I only have Learning the Tarot. I have found her interpretations of the cards the only ones that I can truly relate to and agree with. As a side note, she has the whole book online at learntarot.com. It's a great website.

Your advice is good about reading for myself. Thank you.

Yes I really love that book and I am growing to respect it a lot now that I have become more familiar with the tarot. My sister likes it a lot too.

We are checking each card I designed with her meanings and energy. I intend to really study it well for future public reading.

She also has a book on learning Tarot reversals. I don't usually use reversals, but if I ever decide to start I am sure I will get that book.

Yes, of all the sites I've explored thus far I like the way Bunning lays out the meanings of the cards best. I like the way she uses lists of keywords and phrases and groups them into various categories of what they relate to specifically. She leaves it wide open to personal interpretation which is the way it should be, I feel.

I've seen other sites that give very specific and restricted meanings to the cards. And often times I just don't feel that their meanings could even relate to my personal life at all.

One thing about the cards is that absolutely need to be flexible. After all if two entirely different people ask two entirely different questions and the same cards come up (which could happen), they aren't going to mean the same things in those different situations.

The bottom line is that humans truly are unique. What applies to one person may have nothing at all to do with another person.

So I like Bunnings lists of keywords because they are extremely flexible and non-specific.

Yes, I like her's the best also. The answers the cards give really do depend a lot on the question asked and / or the situation in question.

This is why a general reading with no subject is not always accurate or does not always make sense, and this is why I prefer a person to name s subject or situation they would like to know about.

When I was a teen, Tarot Cards, and scary accurate.
As an adult, I Ching, with coins. (I really like this method)
Currently use Runestones, and have renewed interest in Tarot.

I have always been interested in runes, but have not found the time to study them. And, accoring the people I read for, my Tarot readings are very good. Guess I will stick with what works for me.

I used to do rune readings many years ago, just for friends. It is very easy to misread the meaning. A friend asked if her current boyfriend was "the one". She drew gebo - relationship/marriage; berkana - new beginnings, health, fertility; and jera - change, inevitable development.

I told her that it was favorable that this was the right man for her, possibly children in the future.

About a month later, her boyfriend broke it off with her. Turned out he was married and his wife just found out she was pregnant.....Boy did I read that wrong!!!

That's the last time I did a reading.

I had a reading done for me once that was completely wrong. It was similar to Lilypetal's reading. I often think about that reading and how it could be so completely wrong. Here's the possible conclusion I came to:

There were plenty of other signs I should have seen to tell me that something was wrong. But I ignored all those including my gut feeling. I think when we are just being stupid or ignoring what the universe is trying to tell us in a million other ways, the cards just say "here. This is what you want to hear and you're going to believe what you want anyway."

And, that's how come that sometimes happens. IMO.

I don't like those kinds of questions because they assume that there is one person out there that is "THE ONE" for you. A soul mate or something. That's just not true.

The meaning of life is not to search and find "The One" that will "make you happy," or "The One" you will marry and pop out kids with and go into debt buying a house with.

People should not expect someone else to make them happy or complete their lives. They need to learn who they are.

Oracles seem to point in a general direction, we are not bound by them.
Kind of a 'heads up', here is what appears to be on the road ahead.

Actually, looking at that rune reading above it did indicate marriage and a baby. Which is exactly what happened. Just not for the person she had hoped for.

So what was wrong with the reading?

You got the relationship/marriage part right! It just wasn't the couple you were thinking of.

You also got the new beginnings and fertility right, the guy's wife was indeed pregnant.

You also got the change part right. Her boyfriend did break it off with her. That's a change.

So the reading was right on the money. It just wasn't referring to the relationship that you had in mind.

Just as a personal comment on the following:



If someone came to me with that kind of question I would tell them that, as far as I'm concerned, the tarot doesn't address those kinds of questions.

In fact, I read some good stuff about the kinds of questions that should be asked when looking to tarot for ideas.

The question this woman should have asked is, "Should I pursue this relationship?"

Asking if someone is "The One" is a bogus question to begin with in my opinion.

Some people who do readings are picky about what kinds of questions they'll work with. Other people will attempt to do a reading for any question that's asked.

I haven't done many readings for other people. Also, when I do I make it perfectly clear that I'm not a 'psychic'. I tell them that I learned the process of tarot, I can go through the process with them and see if it had meaning for them.

I'm not about to actually try to read their cards for them. I tell them what the positions in the spread mean, and when the card come up I give them the meanings from Joan Bunnings web site and let them decide what the cards mean for them.

In fact, I even make them shuffle and deal out the spread. I won't even do that for them. It's their reading, not mine.

That's how I feel about it. But I do know that a lot of psychics perfer to handle the cards themselves maybe just getting the client to cut the deck or possible shuffle, and that's about it. But the psychic often deals out the spread. Which makes sense if they truly are "psychic".

I don't consider myself to be a "psychic". I have a hard enough time doing my own psychic work much less trying to tap into other people's psyche.

That's the way I see it too. I'm more of a spiritual counselor than a psychic. I just try to pass on techniques. I can help them frame their questions for what I believe will give them the best response. I can help them chose a tarot spread that best fits their question and spirit. I can give them feed back on the meanings of the cards and what the positions in the spread mean.

But ultimately they have to come to their own conclusions concerning it it all means to them.

I do tarot from a very pragmatic point of view. And I still feel that it has value that sense. I know it does for me.

I Ching....and thusfar I have been about 85% accurate with the coins. I use the method laid out by the Sorrel's, it works. at least for me.