Little Nudge vs a Big Whack

I kinda like the 3 card yes/no readings. 


I know that is a direct contradiction to my philosophy about "predictions". Readings really are food for thought, a way to solve problems more creatively, a way to ease stressful emotions.


The problem with readings and "predictions" is how seriously you take them. Sure they are fun when you are trying to predict your favorite hockey team (the Pens) will win the Stanley Cup against all odds, or that you'll get a date with your latest crush, or hoping against hope that you'll get that dream job...it's all good, until we make big, serious decisions based on readings. It can really ridiculous really fast. 


But for just yucks and chuckles, why not?


As I see it, these small, fun "predictive" readings can have a place too. Sometimes we need serious food for thought to whack our lives in the right direction, or something a little out of the ordinary (like an on-target reading) to get our attention so we can learn important lessons.


Other times all we need is a little nudge in the right direction, or a small pat on the back. That's where the magic-8-ball-paper-fortune-teller-gypsy-at-the-fair kinds of readings come in handy. 


Readings can be deep inspiration and communion with your personal spiritual beliefs. Or it can be putting a quarter into the Great Rigatoni machine at the arcade. All kinds of readings have value...it is just a matter of matching the right reading with the right person and situation...which isn't easy. People hate it when I tell them their fate is up to them...the future is decided by their choices, their actions control what happens... when all they want is a pre-packaged, no-brainer, easy way out.  


When it comes to whacks and nudges, I tend to get Confucian about it.


I've heard that one time Confucius gave two totally different answers to two different students who had asked him pretty much the same question. One student he told to act immediately. The other he told only to act after getting advice and permission from his father. When asked why he gave such opposite answers, he answered that each student had very different needs. One was very shy, and overly-reticent - that's the guy he told to jump in. The other one was impulsive, even reckless. That's the one he told to cool it. It was based on the needs of the situation, and the needs of the individual, not slavish adherence to principle. Luckily, Confucius wasn't a fundamentalist.


So why do I rant against "predictions" yet still enjoy "predictive" yes or no readings?


If the Confucian reason is too boring, think of it as the candy bar principle. The old candy commercial said "sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't"...when it comes to psychic intuitive and tarot readings...sometimes you need a whack, sometimes you don't (and a fun little nudge in the right direction will do just fine instead).


Ok, now...raise your hand if you have that candy jingle stuck in your head... 

Parallax -redux

Just as the brain uses the input from both eyes to navigate the world, it is ultimately ourselves, OUR choices that utilizes the information from a psychic reading. We are ultimately responsible for the choices that accept or change the envisioned path.

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

When is the answer a question?

Does that sound yoda-ish enough for you?

Questions have value. "The only bad question is the one you don't ask" as the adage goes.

I use this idea all the time when asked for specific predictions.

I make it crystal clear to every client that my style of reading is for ADVICE only, that predictions are not reliable, because CHOICE CHANGES EVERYTHING. Change your mind, change your actions, change your path, change your future.

Some people still ask for predictions like "will I get a new job"?

First I fight off the urge to answer with a snarky, sarcastic "I dunno, did you apply for one?"

Usually very concrete questions like that, rather than sparking a specific answer, bring a whole cascade of additional questions to mind.

No sarcasm intended...DID you apply for a different job? What is your dream job anyway? Are you happy where you are? Would a new job be an improvement or a loss? Do you need training or mentoring to help you get a new job if you want it? Have you talked with your current boss if you want to stay put? Is the change withing anyone's control? Or do you have to adapt to a larger situation? Is there anyone who can give you help of advice in your current field? In the one you want to be in?

And so on. When this cascade of questions happens in response to a specific prediction-request, it means two things to me...

1. that answer the questions in the cascade will give the person the answer to the original question...and

2. This situation calls for logic and action, not passively asking for a psychic prediction.

This paradigm works for me...it is like the old chinese parable. If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him and his family for a lifetime.

Giving a set prediction has the effect of locking the persons thinking into one pattern, either leading them to a self-fulfilling prophecy OR toward disappointment.

Giving a set of questions to ponder expands the persons possibilities, and helps them move toward their dreams.

I like questions. Sometimes questions are the answer.

Baihu

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

Alice, Twilight and the Ace of cups

(To order a tarot reading by the blog author with a similar philosophy to "Alice", please visit www.modern-oracle-tarot.com.)

I still love tinkering with the ideas in Twilight. Stephanie Myers got it so right with Alice. The choice, the changes. Very Yoda like…”always in motion is the future”

Twilight reflects another thing very well… the way everyone depends on Alice’s visions and the minor meltdown that happens when she and Jasper….well, I won’t spoil that bit…

Real world psychic readings are like that in a way…it is so easy to depend on readings rather than take responsibility. I’ve ranted for YEARS about how it is a matter of choice and personal responsibility…NOT fate, time or predictions….yet all the time people still ask when they’ll get pregnant and if their boyfriend will come back to them…

The truth is, we don’t need to rely on readings, to obsess over them. They are guides, signposts…but they are not the path OR the one walking it…

We don’t need to rely on Alice because in reality, there is a little Alice in all of us.

Today’s card is the Ace of Cups: it’s traditional meaning is “inner light”. The meditation that comes with it is “we are all psychic”

As a general rule, barring age and physical debility exceptions, everyone can drink from a cup. We all have intuition, and we all can access it one way or another.

So why are some more sought out? Why are there the “Alice”s of this world?

My opinion is that it is right hemisphere access…the corpus collosium for all you science geeks out there. We all have a right hemisphere to our brain. We all have intuition…some of us can bring that information over to our language centers and communicate it a little better than others.

Everyone can drink from a cup, but some can describe the wine inside a little better than others.

It may not be your talent, your passion to read for others, but you CAN follow your own intuition.

You may not be able to wax poetic over what you taste, but you CAN drink from the cup of psychic ability.

You may not be able to see trackers and hordes of vampires, but there is a little Alice inside all of us letting us know what path to take.

Wishing you a satisfying drink from the psychic cup.

Baihu

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

Alice got it right. Twilight predicts the future...

…or more accurately tells what telling the future is like.

After getting some requests this fall to work at Twilight themes parties, I read the books just to see what all the buzz was about.

Today, finally saw the movie…

As an aspiring writer wannabe (nonfiction), I’m impressed with Ms. Myers skill. I full on expected to hate the books, and thought it was going to be some superficial bubble-gum teen angst romance. In some respects, it is. But I was sincerely impressed with her skill at using the first person. It creates enormous empathy with Bella, you experience everything with her. And the sudden shift to Jacob’s point of view has all the more impact because of it. Well done!!

Of course, being in this business, Alice is one of my favorite characters. She has it exactly right. Her visions change in response to choice and decision. What she sees now, might be totally wrong if someone changes their mind and intention later. She sees along the path of greatest probability, not some sort of fated certainty.

That is exactly how it works. At least in my experience. Asking Alice to see something isn’t a lock. Asking a psychic or tarot reader is even less of a certainty. The web of choice, decision, intention and change is even more complex, wavering and unstable than in the fictional world of twilight.

So hats off to Stephanie Myers for putting that idea into the mainstream. It’s going to make my life a LOT easier. It is true that fiction can tell more truth than reality. I can talk until blue in the face about how choice impacts future, how you can CREATE your own future by the CHOICES you make. Here this teen romance (with enough vampires and shape-shifters to keep it interesting for the rest of us) has make the idea real, and understandable.

Plus it is just a well – crafted, entertaining story, start to finish.

If you haven’t read it, I can recommend it for teen girls and women. Might be a little too high estrogen for the guys though. Although the vampire aspects did keep my attention and I would typically rather shove bamboo under my fingernails that watch sappy romantic dramas. I’m all about the action, sci fi, fantasy sort of fiction. You know, Dune, Harry Potter, Tara Harper, that sort of thing. So Twilight might be palatable for guys that like that sort of thing too.

Well there you have it…a fortune-teller sort of book review. FINALLY a book and movie that gets the psychic / tarot prediction thing right, in a simplified sort of way.

Bravo and thank you!

Baihu
www.modern-oracle-tarot.com