Cascade of Light and Cedars.. Thank you for your replies

I return home from Iraq on Sept 4th 2009 after a 12 month deployment in North East Baghdad. I took 39 days off before returning to my job (police officer) by mid October. Its been hard to get use to be home and settle with civilian life for sure, however.. little by little everything is settle down and falling place in the good way. I done with the military after 20 yrs of service, so this trip to Iraq was my last rodeo I didn't see no meaning in re-enlist or stay any further in the military, I am seeking a more spiritual life..

I hope to learn more about Tarot as the months pass, now that I have more time to be into it Thank you for your replies..

Blessings, Love and Light

Liz

You are welcome Liz and many blessings to you

I originally bought my first deck when I was 16 -- I was drawn to the images and symbolism. Three years ago my interest reawakened as I discovered Salvador Dali's deck.

I started reading regular playing cards when I was 8, by just playing around with them and asking questions. I started "reading" them for family members - aunts, uncles, etc and everything seemed to turn out scary accurate. I bought my first tarot deck on my own when I was 12. It was a tarot deck I was drawn to with pictures based on native american and animal symbolism. I started practicing on friends and family until I started doing tarot professionally when I was 18. I have several different decks now, but I still have and use my first set of tarot cards (which are all old, bent and frayed now lol)

I first became interested in many esoteric fields on my early teens. I believe I tried to learn Tarot at the same time as hand reading -is that how you say it?-, and got more proficient at the latter. It took me ages to be able to link all card meanings in a spread and come up with a coherent thread.

I was trying to somehow verify if these things worked from a 'non believer' point of view. Whatever I believed myself, I soon found out others found it very easy to believe: they wanted to believe! I guess they found it a relief that their life was somehow mapped out, must take a load of responsibility from their shoulders. So I read for others till I found out hand reading dealed too much with health issues and even life and death for my liking. That meant in some cases I never gave a complete reading: what's the point in scaring someone with an information I could never be sure of? So I kept it to myself but then saw it come true, since I was reading for people I saw regularly, and it was painful. So I soon dropped hand reading.

But I was still interested in every esoteric thing. I read about astral projection and tried it: it's not that hard, but it takes up too much time to do it properly. So I stayed with dream analysis, which I never stopped finding fascinating. I also learned about runes, made my own set and did some readings with them, but they never inspired me as the beautiful Tarot pics do. I bought any deck I took a fancy to and collected them just for their beauty. And I kept trying to find out how and why Tarot readings were accurate, when I was never too sure of the meanings myself.

With time, I have found reasonable answers to my questions and ease with the techniques, so I now relax and enjoy them for their sake. I read for others when asked, but I would rather teach them how to do it themselves, so they don't have to depend on anybody else. So I guess I wouldn't be much good if I had to make my living out of it, unless I just tried to teach