Last Sunday my older daughter rang to say she had applied for a job at a vet’s practice. She had been considering a move for some time, due to lack of further training prospects at the vet’s she had been with for three years.
Hearing there was a job going, she called the recruiting practice only to found the closing date for applications had already gone. She was downcast, then thought, what the hell, sent her CV and a letter of application anyway and was rewarded for her intiative with an invitation to interview.
Would she be offered the job? I was disinclined to look. I didn’t need the cards to offer suggestions for tackling the interview. I used to work in recruitment amongst other things. Applying for the job was a no-brainer; no help asked or needed from the Tarot on that score. What would be, would be etc.
On Tuesday my mother rang, and we got talking about it. I quickly shuffled the cards while on the telephone, asking to be shown a card connected to the outcome of the interview. I was sneaking a peek with no intention of passing it back, as, whether the outcome looked positive or not, I had no wish to interfere with my daughters own processes.
This card of arrival, reinvention, reincarnation, setting forth, is above all a harbinger of new beginnings. Much energy and enthusiasm attach to it. Notice the dog. My daughter’s special interest is dog training and she has run puppy classes.
The dog in the card represents common sense. The Fool card, when drawn upside down indicates either over-timidity or recklessness, immaturity, irresponsibility, bad timing…and very occasionally, death, because the card is associated with number zero…
Looking at The Fool I remarked to ‘Grandma’ that I felt the prospective employer was going to like her. Being dignified, right way up, this was a great card for job hunting. If she didn’t get this one, she’d be getting another soon. My mother sniffed, unimpressed, declaring that of course they would like her; such a neat and efficient button-like person. A proper grandma is nothing if not loyal.
The interview was on Wednesday. On Friday evening my daughter rang to say she had got it, and though she’s not much ‘into’ what I do, she’s absorbed enough not to have been unduly perplexed at my turn of expression as I congratulated her.
Jung coined a phrase to describe how he thought tarot worked: ‘synchronicity.’ Something in the reader connects with something in the cards. The cards are shuffled blind and drawn at random. However, synchronicity proposes that actually the selection isn’t random;
”[In synchronistic experiences] the perception of wholeness derives not from our ego, our conscious sense of self, but instead from the way in which the meaning unites all of who we are, parts of experience we were unaware of, potentials we have that have lain dormant or underdeveloped, elements of our personality that we didn’t know existed”
One evening a client left after an intense reading, and that day I had been very, very tired. I went upstairs with a cup of tea to lounge with a book. My teenage daughter came in asking me to take a look in the cards for her.
I said, ‘not right now, sweetie, I’m too tired. Give me half an hour’.
She persisted, and as I knew the question, and knew it wasn’t serious, and could wait I became annoyed.
‘If you keep on asking when I’ve said I’m too tired,’ I said. ‘I’ll show you the Devil card! Now then.’
She asked again. Oh, dear.
‘Right!’ I said and whipped the cards out from their cloth and shuffled them furiously.
‘Now see THIS!’ I hissed, pulled a card and brandished it at her, and knock me down with a very small chick feather, it was, it really was THE DEVIL CARD. Look atta ugly mug.
Ooh-er. A Devilish Tarot Tantrum to match my own.
She was I might say, suitably impressed. In fact she ran from the room howling for her dad, who was watching the footie and wasn’t remotely interested in this psychodrama, while I sniggered, feeling better now, peacefully drinking my tea.
Hey, you old Devil… you said it for me, heh heh! Now go away again, thank you.
Not long ago I did a reading for a father, worried about job and training prospects for his sixteen year old son who had just left school. The teen years had been turbulent. It seemed important that the young man should be helped to find his feet with a new role, routine and responsibilities sooner rather than later.
The Tarot indicated that the hiccups were not yet over, but the cards offered encouragement by way of these three cards. The reading timeline indicated that the developments illustrated by the cards were likely to materialise within 3-4 weeks at the soonest, six months at the latest,
Most promising was the appearance of the 2 of Wands, the 8 of Coins/Pentacles and the King of Wands.
The 2 of Wands indicated an agreement or contract to come, career related. A job therefore, or work placement or traineeship. Travel, relocation, even migration are sometimes associated with this card.
Rider-Waite's Two Of Wands: U.S Games Systems
The 8 of Coins or Pentacles indicated again, an apprenticeship with pay, in which hard work, consistency and attention to detail would be expected.
The King of Wands indicated a man of business, bluff, outgoing, direct in all his dealings. A no-nonsense employer. I asked the father if he was already aware of such a placement provider yet. He wasn’t sure…he had been casting about and had one or two possibilities in mind. Wands is a suit I have come to associate with sales, estate agencies, travel and transport. I sensed heat and thought of engines. This King of Wands might possibly be a garage owner? Or something else connected with cars, maybe motorbikes?
The Rider-Waite's King of Wands: U.S. Games Systems.
The client had actually already considered this idea, which was interesting.
A month later, and I learned yesterday that the young man had relocated to take up a work placement traineeship. It wasn’t with a garage. There wasn’t such a placement available at present through the Jobcentre. But it was a placement that would be reviewable in 13 weeks, when a change might be possible. Meanwhile, it represented an arrival into the world of work.
Good luck to him, there may still be a garage placement when the 13 weeks are up and he could be re-allocated. I hope he’ll stick with the start he’s made meantime, as shown by the example of the apprentice in the 8 of Pentacles. It can be a hard and fearful leap, from the safety of home out into the wide world, but for the well supported child, as this young man has been, at least it can be made in guided stages and with a safety net. Many might think that a luxury.
