Asking the Question, part 1

This is the beginning of a short series quoted from my book, The Playing Card Oracles, A Source Book for Divination. The information could as easily be applied to any type of divination: Tarot, Playing Cards, I Ching, Runes, etc... I take a breath, open the book, and give to you, dear reader, this passage for today:

(From the sub-chapter, Asking the Question, p.109) "...One of the best ways to be of service (with the cards) is to help people phrase their concerns in a way that works in harmony with the nature of the cards. The Playing Deck, and oracles in general, function with profound, childlike simplicity and will reflect the inquiry in just such a manner. Complicated or ambiguously stated questions do not evoke the magic of the cards. Make sure the wording you choose is clear, simple, and direct, and the answer you receive will be the same. Beware of two-part questions disguised as a single inquiry. Break multi-faceted concerns down into components in order to get a clear response. If you're doing smaller readings, it's better to do separate layouts for each aspect of the question than to glob issues together." (to be continued next week..)

--Ana Cortez, The Playing Card Oracles - Painting by Remedios Varo

Present Moment Miraculous

Always a discipline to choose the proper topic for the blog. I like to capture something very close to the present. Something cathartic yet helpful. It is my meditation.
Today I will write as I wrote my latest book, The Teacher Within. That is, staying intimately and fiercely connected to the present moment. From this place of magic where I found room to breath and expand, I write.
A bit like stream of consciousness, only connected.
My dog just farted.
Oops. A little stream of consciousness enters the page!!! Hard to ignore my dog's farts.
Still breathing (amidst the fumes) I trust that I will be called to the appropriate words for my readers and for myself. This is a practice I can take into my daily life - into housework and phone calls - and penetrate the usual surface of life, dipping into depths of present moment miraculous.
This is the same way I approach my Oracle Reading practice and Reconnective Healing practice, as well. The present moment is the place where I am helpful, where my life begins.

REAL CARD READING MAGIC

In seeking to deepen the connection to my clients, my art, and to the healing I am able to offer, I have come upon a new realization in regard to my work as a card reader, or as I have come to call myself, an Oracle Reader.

As I stated in my book, The Playing Card Oracles, A Source Book for Divination, "without you the cards are meaningless pieces of paper. The magic is in you." It is interesting how many layers I have discovered for myself in this truth.

I have come to see the magic of the reading as the ability to gain access to the secret, sacred parts of a person. The person allows you in - to parts where they have confusion or pain, parts that are private and hidden... sometimes from every other person in their life. As a reader you are given a key.

Tip toeing through kingdoms that cry out for healing and understanding, I traverse. I use my cards as cues on how to approach these delicate areas, and also open myself to any other means or method gained from my own personal challenges in healing as appropriate. The cards are one of my tools. They open a conversation. Without my own healing experience to back them I have nothing to give.

This is incredible for myself as a reader because it means I have the opportunity to step into the shoes of healer in the broadest sense. I am more that just a peek into the future, a psychic predictor of events to come... I am that and much much more. I allow the HEALING of the future. I HEAL the past (yes! that's right!) - all by healing with my client, one-on-one, in the present moment.

WOW.