Paul, those who know me know how adamant I am about the importance of well-crafted questions in the tarot experience, so I was thrilled to read in Tarot for Life that you advocate the impact of the question and how it can reveal how honestly one is willing to look at oneself. What was your journey to this point of view about questions?
Many years ago, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) was my introduction to the power of well-crafted questions as catalysts for evoking people’s deeply held beliefs and wants, as well as for challenging their assumptions. NLP taught me the importance of listening for the presupposition in a question. For example, a question such as “How can I get my husband to end the affair he’s having with his secretary?” tells us the querent believes that she has the power to end the affair, and that it is in her or her husband’s best interest to do so. But if the client has come to the reading to get insights on the matter from her unconscious wisdom, which is how I approach the cards, then her question is misdirected. Instead, I would probably reframe the question as, “What does the marriage need at this time?” It’s a less ego-driven approach to the issue. Other questions I’ve heard that needed refocusing are “Is this job good for me?” (does “good” mean financially sufficient? Intellectually challenging? conveniently located? Low stress?) I’m convinced that some of the greatest value we can give our clients is helping them identify the right questions. An off-reading can be the result of a an off-question.
Because prediction isn’t the focus of my work, I discourage clients from asking questions starting with will or when, as in “When will I meet a romantic partner?” Instead, I might reframe their question, such as, “What will help me attract a romantic partner?” I find that a question like that is more empowering, in that it asserts the client’s role as a creative force in his or her life, rather than as someone waiting for something to happen in an external, passive way.
* What’s the most trance-cracking, life-changing question that you’ve ever
explored through the tarot?
Speaking of questions, James, I love that one!
When people are stuck, I’ve been led to ask provocative questions, such as, “What benefit do you get from keeping things as they are?” or “If you didn’t have that wound, who would you be?” Questions like those can lead to self-revelation, with or without the Tarot.
A question I use in many client readings is a simple, powerful two-card spread I created called “Go/Grow.” The first question/card is simply “What wants to go?” which speaks to something our Higher Self would like us to shed. The second question/card is “What wants to grow?” which indicates a quality or relationship that serves our spiritual evolution. I once did this spread for myself and got my beloved Magician in the “Go” position; “Grow” was the Ace of Cups. Contemplating this, I understood it as a message to let go of the notion that I alone am in charge, and to allow more room for the spiritual, indicated by the Ace. The idea, I felt, was not to reject the Magician outright, but to challenge my belief that I was a “solo act” in the creation of the good in my life. The watery Cups invited me to put a higher priority on my spiritual life, and offered a sense of trust and ease in contrast to the overreliance on my Magician will. The message of that reading was an “aha” then and remains an important learning for me.
* Author and medicine woman Deena Metzger once told a group of us that the time of the luxury of personal neuroses is over. I feel that sentiment
echoed on page 3 of Tarot for Life where you state, “‘Know thyself’ is not
a private indulgence; it is a global imperative.” What personal or
microcosmic transformation have you seen ripple out into the larger whole,
and what role did the tarot play in that?
I have no evidence that the Tarot is helping to make the world a better place, but I do know that some readings offer insights that, if integrated and acted upon, can be transformational. And if we’re doing the work required to transform, others around us will also be changed. In my classes I give the example of a sharp-tongued father who, disturbed at seeing a Tarot card reflect back his own hostility, commits in that moment to cultivate patience and compassion for himself and his children. To the extent that he succeeds, his children start to feel less fear and resentment and enjoy a new sense of safety and self worth. They may come to feel less shamed by their mistakes, and more accepting of their friends’ flaws, too – and those friends, in turn, flourish in that acceptance. The less discordant energy clogging our pipes, the more our potential to be channels for love, vitality, and beauty. And so it ripples out.
I also believe that when we do the deep inner work of understanding the psychic programs we’re running — our motives, beliefs, emotional triggers, shadow – we are less likely to create drama and mischief for ourselves and others. But the Tarot is just a deck of cards unless we’re committed to using the insights we glean from it to consciously raise our vibration. When we do that, it’s a win-win for ourselves and for everybody with whom we come into contact.
* In your section on the Major Arcana, you write that the ultmate joining
of the Magician and the High Priestess is the central theme of the tarot,
that in each Trump we see how these forces combine in different ways to
offer us new opportunities for growth. Fascinating! How has this union
played out in the lives of your clients and in your own life?
I see the Magician as the yang principle of the conscious mind and external activity, and the High Priestess as the yin principle of psychic receptivity and containment. These are the two energies that Temperance is blending, although they’re represented in every Trump: The Hermit integrates the “feminine” interiority of the High Priestess and the “masculine” analytical powers of the Magician; Justice incorporates the “masculine” sword of divine laws with the “feminine” heart of divine compassion. As for your question on how this union has played out in the lives of my clients’ lives and mine, I don’t have an answer big enough! We’re all composites of yin and yang, light and dark, masculine and feminine, and these qualities get expressed in as many different ways as there are human beings. It’s when we try to deny or devalue either polarity that we fall into the suffering and illusion of The Devil.
* Towards the end of Tarot for Life, we’re told that the message of the
cards is simply, “Notice.” Notice what?
Notice whatever piece of the energetic puzzle the card is asking us to understand. But in a larger sense, “notice” means to notice everything! Our behavior. Our thinking. Our judgments and assumptions. The particular lens through which we’re looking at life. Our effect on others. How we’re managing our energy right now, how we manage it when we’re with our boss or with our spouse or our clients. The Tarot offers us a tool to notice what we’re usually too busy to notice, and to see these things symbolically or energetically, and therefore more calmly and accurately.
* What new Paul Quinn projects are currently in the works?
Most immediately, I’m doing a talk at the Theosophical Society in Wheaton, Illinois on Saturday September 12th, and Tarot Talk blog radio with Raven and Georgiana on September 20th. I’m working on a second book, though I’m going to follow the example of The High Priestess and not talk about it, at least not at this early stage of development! Though I don’t post as often as I’d like, I write a blog at www.thespiritedlife.com which features articles on life learnings, intuition, and spiritual growth, with some Tarot content as well. I recently wrote a blog about a reading I gave via the mail for an inmate in a Federal penitentiary.
