A lot of the tarot readings I do are party gigs. The host pays an up-front fee for me to show up and give three-card readings to the guests for a specific amount of time. ask a nurse . Because I’m part of the entertainment, I usually wind up reading for lots of people who have never had a tarot reading before, and would never seek out such a thing.

Oftentimes they sit down and want to know what their future holds, and they are surprised when I tell them that they won’t be learning about their future from me. I know there are readers out there who do see the future, or claim to see it, but I’ve never worked that way. To me, the present is much more interesting and relevant…and can help you create the future you want.

I view tarot as a mirror; it only shows you back to yourself. You may not like what you see when you look in the mirror, but it’s good to have an objective outside opinion about why things are the way they are. Actually, that is not entirely accurate – the person sitting in front of me picks out the cards, so it’s a reflection of what you might need to know/hear in the moment.

One of the most popular questions I get is about romance.

Osho Zen Tarot Lovers card. Often the Lovers encourages you to love yourself.

Single people always want to know when they are going to meet the love of their life. If I were a more traditional tarot reader, I might say something like, “two weeks from now, you’ll be sitting at the bus stop and a guy in a blue backpack will walk up and strike up a conversation with you. He is your next boyfriend.” And the person getting the reading hops off on their merry way, convinced that they have to do nothing other than sit back and relax and wait for this guy to show up (and likely too they will come back and get another reading soon – after all, the reader made them feel happy).

So what if this really does happen, and the person getting the reading does meet this knight in shining backpack, and starts a relationship? Usually, things can click along well for about 3-4 months…and then the same relationship problems start happening again. The same problems experienced in the last relationship.  Why is this? Doesn’t meeting the man of your dreams make everything okay?

Yeah…not so much. When I get asked this question, the answer might have to do with a fear of intimacy or rejection, an inability to be vulnerable, not noticing when people are interested or baggage from a previous relationship that needs to be given closure. Because ultimately, the only person you can control is you. And doesn’t it make more sense to work on the aspects of your own heart and mind instead of waiting for someone else to come along and fix it for you? It’s usually the opposite that happens: rather than fix it, once the honeymoon period wears off a new love interest will bring the problems to the forefront of our consciousness. Every. Single. Time. Why not get a jump on working on them?

Longer readings (which I vastly prefer doing) are designed to delve deeply into a single question and bringing many aspects of the issue to light. People often tell me that it feels like a year’s worth of therapy, or a time-release capsule which will continue to yield information long after the reading is over. I won’t solve your problems for you, but I will definitely make you think…and keep you thinking.

There’s little in the way of mysticism or magic to what I do. Rather, it’s just a game of connect-the-dots. You can take the information in, digest it and decide when/if you want to make a change. Maybe it’s easier in the short run to have someone else tell you how it’s all going to turn out, but growth, change, healing and evolution yield much better results.

Just as the tarot is a mirror, so is the world around you. Our experiences, thoughts and feelings (especially in the arena of love) manifest back to us. If we’re not paying attention to the parts that are hidden in shadows, they can often show up in unpleasant ways. Why not take a good, long, hard look, at the parts that are good and the parts that are bad, and reshape them into something beautiful and sustaining?