 Tarot is a deck of playing cards that's been around from the 1450's, originating from Italy. The traditional decks consists of 78 cards, including 4 suits (14 pip cards from Ace to 10 with the Page, Knight, Queen and King in each suit) and 21 trump cards (major arcana) and one single card, 0, known as the Fool. Different variations of the original games are still played today. Tarot has been used in divination practices across Europe and America since the late 18th century and the practice is often associated with the travelling romani population. Many psychics and mediums have adapted tarot into their own practice as a tool to receive messages from the spirits. Tarot has also been hugely associated with the occult and modern witchcraft. However, tarot can be, and in my opinion, should be very far from all that. Tarot can be a very useful tool in therapy, meditation and self studying. All you need to succeed in reading tarot for yourself and others is the ability to think creatively, think outside the box, from a different perspective, create a story and connect the dots. Intuition and empathy helps the process. And what helps intuition, is imagination. There really isn't anything mysterious or unexplainable about tarot! Reading tarot is a creative thinking technique, called Conceptual Blending. This technique has been studied and incorporated by many corporations and workplaces today. Conceptual blending is a creative thinking process that involves two or more concepts in the same mental space to form new ideas. With this technique we can resolve a problem, find an answer and potentially predict an outcome. You might have to learn meanings to some of the cards to read tarot with confidence, but most of the time you can find those just by looking and describing what is happening in the card. Each tarot card's meaning is fluid, not rigid. The card answering one question can, and often will, have a completely different answer to another question. Each card can help you find answers to whatever issue you are looking into at the time. This is why each reading also feels so accurate, as your mind will conceptually blend a tarot card's meaning to the position. It is placed in a way that will fit and make sense to what we are looking into.  From a book called Stray Tarot: How to survive as a tarot reader, by Vincent Pitisci I've been asked this question, how does tarot work, so many times and I have to admit, most of the time I could not give an answer that would make sense. But somehow Vincent Pitisci in his books and other writings has managed to put my internal thoughts into actual concepts!
Tarot doesn't have to be anything mystical and magical, it's just been proven to work by cognitive scientists. In slightly other news, I've just completed my 2nd Therapeutic Tarot Series workshop with Stephen McCabe, regarding running tarot group sessions, and this gave me so many good ideas! I aim to organise small tarot related group events and maybe even workshops here in Eastbourne, once I've got it all thought through. Better use my conceptual blending habits on figuring a few things out! -Enni
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I had a pleasure to attend a wonderful online workshop this Wednesday! It's part of a Therapeutic Tarot Series workshops, hosted by ecotherapist, tarot reader, counsellor and ordained Zen Buddhist, Stephen McCabe. The subject was right up in my alley, Person-Centred Tarot Reading. My approach to tarot reading has always been; the querent always has the answers. Me and my cards are just a tool to bring these answers forward by physically being spread on the table in the form of the images on the cards. The cards help you voice things from the depths of your mind. I want to say that my approach is "down to earth", less mystical and I want my clients to be involved in the whole process as much as possible, as after all, this is their reading and the client is the expert. What even sparked my urge to pursue my tarot journey professionally, was the fact that I have a deeply loving and nurturing side to my personality. I want to empower people to do the things they want and need to do in life. And I believe tarot is a great tool for that, or so it has been for me. This workshop gave me so many practical tools and tips I can incorporate in to my reading practices, and Stephen's experience in using tarot cards in counselling sessions as a tool was inspiring. The next session in the series is next week and I just can't wait! Therapeutic Tarot Series: Running Tarot Group Sessions! -Enni   Yesterday, I finally made a Facebook network group that I, myself have been missing and looking for!
This is a network group for any tarot readers, mediums and psychics, to collaborate with each other, as well as for those who are interested in tarot and are looking for services and events. Advertising your own services in this group is 100% allowed and advised! I really do hope it will get the attention what I'm hoping for, as I have been looking for such a group for year, only just now had the courage to do it myself! If you're interested, do join us on Facebook: Tarot East Sussex - Network -Enni  A lot of thought has gone in to building my website and its look, the name, including the logo above. I'm also an artist and I especially work with clay to make sculptures, I also restore antique taxidermy. I sculpted the vertebrae for the mink skull to pose as a stand for its open mouth. It almost looks like attacking snake when it's hanged on my wall from its frame. In the logo it looks like it's coming back to life, gone past the ending and starting a new cycle. Resembling the Death card, which has always brought me comfort more than anything else.  The Death card also inspired the colours, black and white, which I also associate with beginning and ending, yin and yang, darkness and light. I've always found comfort in the darkness (partly because my very sensitive eyes), spending a lot of time in the vast dark forests in Finland, I never felt fear. The idea of death has never frightened me either. My family has followed the old Finnish/Saami belief system for generations, we believe in reincarnation, new life blossoming from the one that's ended. I wanted to incorporate this philosophy in my "brand look" and in the images I use. Ihana is my favourite Finnish word. It means "wonderful", "lovely", "marvellous", "glorious", "delightful", "adorable", "dreamy", "beautiful" and "fantastic". All that in one sweet word. That's what my journey with Tarot has been like over all, ihana. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't been easy at all, and I've often been called out for my own bull shit, which I have later much appreciated. Learning tarot has given me so much hope and sparked my passion and inspiration in so many ways. This is also the reason why I now want to start taking my learning more seriously and share my knowledge, as that often is the easiest way to learn more about a subject. In Inari Saami language my name, Enni, means "mother". For a long time in my youth, I did not like my name, as to me it sounded old-fashioned and dated, and instead used all sorts of nicknames to introduce myself with. I almost made the choice to use my nickname, Endi, when I started offering tarot readings online, as that's how many English speaking folk interpret my name as. Then I read the Archetypal Tarot by Mary K Greer, and discovered my birth card to be The Empress, the mother in the tarot deck. This card has always stood out to me and now especially it resonated with my belief about myself, as someone who is and always has been very creative, always birthing something new. So, I decided to respect my elder's choice of that name, Enni, and introduce myself as I am, a creative, empathetic, intuitive, sensual and nurturing. In the Finnish folklore, women are the gateway to death, as they can bring life from death (the underworld, Tuonela) by giving birth. They also bleed for days every month without even slowing down. Hence why Finnish women have always been respected and bearing a high status in the Finnish society, often been titled as healers, shamans and seers. Those women have been the mothers of death, and I can only wish to be one of them someday. (I have another blog post in mind where I will elaborate more about the Finnish culture and history of women in the old society!).  The mother of Lemminkäinen by the river of Tuonela;
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