The Doubtful Diviner

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by T. Susan Chang, author of Tarot Correspondences, Tarot Deciphered, and the new Living Tarot.

If you’re like me, reading tarot is not always, or even usually, a blast of truth and blessed certainty from on high. The faint stink of doubt can linger at any and every stage of the process:

• Did I draw the right card?
• Did I have the right intention when I was shuffling? Was I distracted?
• Am I just projecting my own hopes and fears onto the reading?
• What if my prediction doesn’t come true?
• I’m not psychic—why I am even doing this?
• Does tarot even work?!?!
• Are my cards just messing with me?

It’s OK to be doubtful. After all, the best answers are almost never the easiest answers. But if your doubt is getting in the way of your finding *any* meaning in the cards, that’s a problem. So I am here to tell you that there is an easy way to eliminate those initial doubts when you are first drawing your cards, and that is to USE YOUR BODY.

Doubt is a child of the mind, not the body. Most of the time the body knows what it wants: food, or water, or sleep, or sex. And it’s not just the obvious things. Try this thought experiment: Think of something you absolutely love. Notice how your body relaxes and warms with the thought, how the ghost of a smile plays on your face, how your blood seems to tingle in your veins. Now think of something you absolutely detest. Notice how you hold your breath, your eyes narrow, your muscles tense.

As readers, we can use the body’s certainty to our advantage. Try this: as you shuffle, imagine that feeling of something you absolutely love filling you from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet; imagine the feeling streaming through your fingertips. Notice that, as you do this, there is no room for doubt! Your entire body is issuing an invitation to the Universe to conversation through the cards. How can the Universe refuse?!

And that’s not all. When you’re asking the cards a question, you can fill yourself with the feeling of what you want to know. Suppose you want the cards to give you advice on how to ace your job interview: imagine the “before” feeling in your body—the nerves and anxiety, maybe even uncertainty and fear. Now imagine that nervous feeling dissolving into a sensation of relief and pride—the feeling of someone who has just gotten the job offer! As Feeling A dissolves into Feeling B, draw the card.

Why does this work? I don’t know. All I can tell you is that it does. My best guess is that by getting mind and body to collaborate, we jump-start the meaning-making process. We put ourselves in the expectation of finding meaning in the card, and voila! Meaning arises.

For more hard-earned pearls of wisdom just like this one, check out my new book: The Living Tarot: Connecting the Cards to Everyday Life for Better Readings. I have no doubt whatsoever that you’ll love it!

Our thanks to Susie for her guest post! For more from T. Susan Chang, read her article, “World’s Smallest Problem-Solver Tarot Spread.”