“After I finished my reading, she looked disappointed and told me she was not happy with her husband and was not sure if she wanted to stay married to him. I never let that sort of “reasoning” happen to me during a reading again. That was a huge lesson for me, and so, no matter how strange or crazy a reading may seem to me, I tell what I see, feel, or hear. Period.”
And how about negative information in the cards? Tiffany told me that when, in a reading, she finds someone is really struggling or in extremely difficult circumstances, she tries to find a positive way to deliver the information. She doesn’t believe in leaving someone with negative news or thoughts, which she feels can add to their confusion and possibly frighten them.
“I find a way to offer a resolution to their circumstance,” she says. “It is very important to me that they do see the light at the end of the tunnel with their problems or concerns, even if it means they will continue to struggle for a while longer.”
Tiffany says she gets the most joy out of helping someone move forward. When she correctly interprets a message from a spirit and that person gets what was intended for them in order to move forward, that is pure joy to her. She told me, “Just recently I gave a girl in the United Kingdom a reading regarding her cat that had passed over before Christmas 2009. I was able to relay messages to her that had great meaning. She told me she had been smiling all day because of my reading. That was such a blessing — I felt so honored at that moment that I have a small part in making her happy.”
Friends and Family
Some people, she says, respond to her pronouncements as though everything she reveals is invented by someone with an overactive imagination, or they question her belief system. Her goal is to educate them. People can be educated, though, only if they want to be, and revealing your inner spiritual life to others can be risky.
Tiffany described one negative experience. “A friend on Facebook sent me an email message telling me I was playing with the Devil and should stop playing with Tarot cards. I found it interesting that this person never once asked me anything about what I do, but just assumed the bad experience they related as happening to them was sure to be mine as well.”
The Facebook friend told her that everything she was doing was wrong, all the while telling her how much she loved her. Tiffany ended the exchange by telling the person that they would have to agree to disagree, and wanted to move on from there. The person made no effort to try to get past their differences, and eventually dropped her from their friend list. The other side of this coin are people who only want to be Tiffany’s friend or to know her better because she is psychic, more than who she is otherwise.
Nothing frightens Tiffany about her abilities, although she is concerned that someone may try to harm her because they believe what she does is related to the Devil, or go off the deep end because they hated their reading or didn’t understand it.
Also, she tells me, “I do sometimes feel guilty when I know or sense personal things about others. I’m talking about people who haven’t asked me for a reading. An example would be a friend I reconnected with recently. She has become very religious, but was not this way when we knew each other many years before. I sensed she was trying to be part of what her new husband expected her to be with regards to his religion. It just felt that she was going through the motions but desperately was missing what her heart wanted her to be, which be unacceptable to her new husband.”
But, the woman had not asked for a reading, so Tiffany did not relay the message. She was validated later, though, when the two women had a brief conversation and her friend related how she had to work hard on her new faith and that sometimes she missed her previous belief system.
Sometimes, friends are lost without any real explanation. Tiffany and a woman became friends around 2004 when they met at a children’s birthday party — Tiffany’s daughter was in the same class as the woman’s son. “This was around spring, just as school was about to end for the year. Later, my daughter had a birthday swim party and we invited the class. She was one of the only moms to come and stay for the party and to actually go for a swim. I thought she was interesting, because most moms would never dream of going swimming at a birthday pool party, but instead are eager to leave for the two hours of freedom!
“We had a chance to talk, and she and her son stayed for a few hours after the party. We became best buddies and talked on the phone, went shopping and visited each other, and trained for and ran a marathon together. We even decided to make jewelry together, and did a craft show at the church I was attending at the time. Then I became pregnant, and very involved in my readings. I had other friends that read tarot, and my husband had bought a deck of cards and we all four would get together for weekly tarot night.
“At some point, I gave my friend a reading during the tarot night, and after a period of time asked for her to help with the accuracy since I was doing the reading without her present. I only asked it was a hit or a miss. She replied it was a miss, and I asked her to explain. The explanation was that I told her she would be earning a lot of money soon. She became the president for the PTA and ended up doing that for two years in a row because she earned the school a lot of extra money. Because she personally didn’t make the money for herself, she called the reading a miss, and she never talked to me again. I called her a few times, but she would not take my calls or return them. I had the baby and called her, and she still never called or even acknowledged the baby and I finally took the hint and tossed her number. It was very disappointing to say the least. I still to this day do not know what happened.”
Tiffany says her real friends accept her for who she is, and her abilities aren’t the main topic of conversation — they are too busy talking about other things going on in their lives.
Her children know that she reads tarot cards and that she can sense spirits, but that’s the beginning and the end of that until they get older. Tiffany says that all of her children have the ability to be intuitive. Her oldest son, she believes, is an empath — he’s very sensitive to moods and intonations. Her third child once told her he saw a man in his room with blood all over him; Tiffany believes he will become a medium. “My daughter asks a lot of questions, and just recently had a paranormal experience when visiting Alcatraz.” As for her youngest, he seems to always know where things are hidden; when she was pregnant with him, a psychic told her that the boy would be very psychic indeed.
What it means to be psychic
Tiffany believes anyone can learn to be psychic; that it’s our birthright as humans, although she doesn’t believe we can all attain a high level of psychic ability. She uses as an example differing abilities at mathematics: “Some people come into this world just seeming to know things like math. Numbers always make sense to them, and they always excel at math or anything with numbers. I think the same is true in learning how to use our psychic abilities. Some people will work years trying to develop very basic skills, while others will be born at a level that just seems off the charts. I do believe almost everyone can experience their own level of psychic ability.”
For those wishing to further develop their own psychic ability, Tiffany recommends reading anything you can find on psychic development, and find a reputable psychic to teach you what you need to know if you want to do readings. Metaphysical stores often hold classes in tarot reading or development of psychic gifts.
One question I asked everyone is: Do you feel “chosen?”
Tiffany responded: “I do feel ‘chosen,’ and because I feel chosen to do this job, I have a responsibility to myself, to the Universe, and to anyone who chooses me for a reading to be the best I can be. Trust me, there are times when I am tired of trying to explain for what seems like the millionth time, a section of a reading to someone so they will get their message, but it is my job to make sure that everyone who comes to me understands their reading. I try my very best to follow up on readings that are sent out to make sure they did get their reading and understood their
reading. This is all I can do but I know I have given my best to each client and that is what I have been chosen for, I believe.”
She adds, “I want people to know that psychics are not God, either. We do not pretend to be God or be closer to God than anyone else.
“I also would like others to know that we psychics are rather ordinary people. We have a recognized gift (similar to playing an instrument or writing a book, etc…) and have studied our gift or found a teacher to help instruct us, much like everyone else learning or trying to improve upon a talent. I want people to know that not all psychics are bad and only out to con people out of their money. I want people to know that psychics have feelings too, and that we raise children and contribute to the community just like everyone else.”
You can contact Tiffany at www.tarotempress.biz
Chapter 3
About the Tarot
I’m going to be deliberately vague here. Tarot is an extremely deep subject. Those who read tarot walk an individual path, and what a card means to one will differ with another. Everyone who reads tarot will individualize card layouts in a way that makes the most sense to them. If you want to learn more about tarot, there’s some great information on the web. One great place to see and read reviews on lots of different tarot decks is www.aeclectic.net/tarot.
There also is a section for beginners: www.aeclectic.net/tarot/books/beginners.shtml. “Tarot for Yourself” by Mary K. Greer is an excellent book for those wanting to use the tarot for personal transformation, rather than reading for others.
The origins of the tarot are muddled. Depending on which source you choose, it either originated in the thirteenth, fourteenth or fifteenth century, in Europe, Italy, France or Egypt.
One website says that tarot cards are an early form of today’s playing cards, entering Europe in the 14th century in Italy and France. One of these supposed early decks, the 15th century Visconti-Sforza Tarocchi Deck, is still available today.
For practical purposes, since there are many different tarot decks, all references to suit and major arcana names are those used by the Rider-Waite, said by several sources to be the most popular deck in use today by people in the English-speaking world.
There are 78 cards, with suits representing the hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades of an every-day poker deck. These suits are cups, pentacles, wands and swords, respectively, for the tarot. There are cards that number one through ten for each suit. Jacks are represented by Knights, Kings as Kings, and Queens as Queens. In addition, there is the card of the Page, which comes after ten and before the Knight.
The additional 22 cards are knows as the Major Arcana. Many of the Major Arcana cards show an archetypal figure. Some of these archetypes might include: a warm nurturing mother, a person of authority, a traditional religious leader, or a magical, mystical, or mysterious figure. Archetypes are represented by renderings of people or as abstract symbols. Known as the “heart of the tarot” to many readers, the Major Arcana cards are thought to represent the strengths, hopes, fears, weaknesses and triumphs of humanity.
Cards are laid out using various “spreads,” where the position of the card is given a specific meaning. One of the most popular spreads is the Celtic Cross, which is made up of 10 or 11 cards, depending upon whether or not one uses a “significator,” which is a card chosen to represent the seeker.
The spread above is a Celtic Cross spread, with a significator, using the Rider-Waite deck.
The positions of the cards are read as follows:
1. The first card is the significator if used. Otherwise it represents the general tone of the issue at hand.
2. The second card goes on top of the first to indicate the basic problem, obstacle or antagonist.
3. The third card shows the foundation of the issue: worries, desires, influences etc.
4. The fourth card shows the immediate past, what led the seeker to the current situation.
5. The fifth card “crowns” the situation. It is the goal,.
6. The sixth card is the immediate future. This is not the final outcome, but the next step on the journey.
7. The seventh card represents the seeker and how they approach the situation.
8. The eighth card represents the seeker’s immediate surroundings - house, workplace, people, etc. and how they effect the situation.
9. The ninth card represents hopes and fears. This can be the best or the worst.
10. The tenth card is the final outcome. It must, of course, be read in conjunction with the other cards in the spread.
As far as interpreting the cards is concerned, most tarot decks come with a booklet explaining the meaning of individual cards, but to do a reading, you must know the meanings of the cards as they relate to each other. It’s like pieces of a puzzle or a series of photographs, which, when put together, tell a story.
The one book I can recommend for basic tarot meanings for the Rider-Waite deck is Mastering the Tarot, by Eden Gray. Published in 1973, it still gets rave reviews as a guide to self-teaching the tarot.
There are many, many tarot decks. I own about twenty, mostly because I like the different art (most tarot decks are beautiful), but also because different decks seem to resonate with different issues. Some readers use specific decks to answer specific questions.
Everyone I speak with who reads tarot cards (including myself) has a favorite deck. It might be their first deck, it might not, but it’s always the deck that “speaks” to them and the one they find easiest to interpret.
Chapter 4
Jason Lindo
Jason Lindo, a sensitive, is a Jew who grew up in Hawaii, where, he says, everyone believes in ghosts. And, as with some of the other subjects in this book, it’s all in the family.
I met Jason in 2004, when he accompanied a group of ghost hunters to my bookstore. He was able to communicate with the spirit of a German shopkeeper there, as well as the other spirit inhabitants. We subsequently attended some investigations and ghost conferences together. He’s also a good friend of Dee Disparti, another subject in this book.
He has been a hospice social worker for the Sacramento AIDS Foundation and is now a supervisor with a large social service agency, where he is a case management supervisor.
Jason grew up in Honolulu, hearing tales of supernatural experiences that happened to family members. Some of the stories were several generations old, so there was no stigma attached, and no “coming out” about his ability to see and sense spirits. Whenever he had an experience, he would simply tell his grandparents, who would try to interpret it for him.
His realization of his abilities came early. His sisters says he had imaginary friends, two older women he called Chlora and Chleena, with whom he used to have conversations. Both of his sisters can see spirits, and his oldest sister believes that the women were not imaginary, but the spirits of two women who were watching over him when he was young, most likely because he had very bad asthma, which kept him in and out of hospitals as a child.
When Jason was five years old, his maternal grandparents began taking him to visit the family graves on his mother’s side. “I was the youngest in the family, and the Hawaiian tradition is the youngest child is allowed to be raised in part or completely by the grandparents,” he explains. “Among the reasons for this is for the elders to pass down the family history and traditions. Visiting the family graves is a very important tradition.”
They were visiting at the old Luke Society Chinese cemetery on the slopes of the Punchbowl, an extinct volcano that has a veterans’ cemetery in the crater. Jason’s great-grandmother, a member of the Hawaiian royal court – a lady-in-waiting to the last queen - and his step -grandfather, a Chinese immigrant, are buried there. They parked near the gate, where his grandparents went to a spigot to fill the coffee cans with water for flowers.
Jason remembers, “I ran ahead, and when my grandparents caught up to me, they found me standing in front of my great-grandmother’s grave. I had never been there before, and my g
randmother asked me how I knew where her grave was located. I told her that I had seen a woman dressed in a white muumuu. I thought she was my grandfather’s youngest sister, Leilani, who we all called Aunty Babe. When I got close to the woman, I realized she looked a lot like Aunty Babe, but I knew she wasn’t.
“She was solid, like a living person, and she was standing behind this tombstone. She smiled at me, and then slowly disappeared. I thought she was hiding. I described her in detail, and my grandmother told me calmly that was my great-grandmother, Cecilia Ku’ualoha Kaha’opulani Ka’upena. I had inherited my asthma from her. My mother’s Hawaiian name, Ku’ualoha, was given to her because my great-grandmother had died several months before my mother was born. My grandmother told me that since this was my first time visiting her grave, she was there to say aloha to me and welcome me as a grandchild she had never met. To them, it was perfectly natural that I saw her.”
Jason’s grandparents simply told him not to be afraid. And he wasn’t.
As a child, he also discovered that he had the ability to tell when a storm was coming. He would also see in his mind’s eye, and sometimes physically, spirits in the homes of relatives and friends.
“I always told my family members, as it is considered a gift that many people have among Native Hawaiians, to see or sense spirits, so there is no stigma involved in talking about it,” says Jason. “I have had relatives ask me to come over to their home to see if I can sense a spirit or to bless the house or to communicate with the spirit. I pick and choose what I disclose to friends because I have had friends either come right out and accuse me of making up what I am sensing, or become upset that I told them I sense a spirit in their home, and have never invited me back. I have had some friends since high school who have asked me to try to communicate with the spirits that haunted their homes.”
The Psychic Next Door: Ordinary People with Extraordinary Powers Page 5
