One of my favorite sayings (and something I repeat quite often) from my mentor Pixie Lighthorse is that we need to name it to tame it, then we need to feel it to heal it. Recently, a friend said that we also have to live it to give it.
Live it to give it hit me right in my truthiness center. YES! This is the nucleus in the atom of my teaching and my work. We have to live it to give it—meaning we can only pass on our experience and truth. This is the principle ethic of recovery—only one addict or alcoholic can help another, because it is inauthentic to share recovery and preach the wisdom of that if you haven’t hit bottom and rebuild your life.
In spiritual circles, this is the same. You have to live the spiritual life, to walk it, to integrate it. You can spot a poser a mile away. Someone regurgitating something they read in a book. Or someone who doesn't practice what they preach. One of the reasons I never hide recovery and my nearly 14 years living a sober, spiritual life after hitting my own bottom is because you need to know that recovery is possible. I am not an unmentionable. I am not living on Skid Row. I recovered. I sought healing.
I found out a truth about myself that meant I had to change, and so I did. Not just from alcoholism, but from desolation, loneliness, isolation, trauma, inner child tantrums, avoidance, unhealthy attachments, stuckness, self-loathing and all the other wounds we carry from the suffering of being human. We can be curious and open and wild and forgiving and honoring not despite our wounds, but because of it.
So, yes, we have to live it to give it.
As you probably already know, I have lived with the Tarot for over, gulp, thirty years of my life. First as a dabbler, then as a student, then a reader and now a teacher. I have been where you are. Maybe you are curious, or maybe you have a deck and you pull cards, and then look at a book, interpret each card, but cannot make sense of how it relates to what you want to know.
On January 1st, 2025, I start my signature move in my business—the Complete Tarot. It is a combination of a recorded class and a live class. I think that works best for most people, because watching classes can be on your time, the time you need to watch, absorb, do your thing. Pause the recording, take notes. Then we meet live and I demonstrate the readings I am teaching, answer questions, laugh. By the end of the nine weeks, most people will have some mad Tarot reading skills.
So, do you want to study with me?
I am now enrolling for the Complete Tarot
I thought I might answer some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) I get about Tarot.
How did you learn Tarot?
I learned by doing lots of readings on myself and others, reading books, talking to other Tarot readers, looking at the cards, asking questions, and getting Tarot readings. Taking a Tarot class could be an incredibly enriching experience for me, but I didn’t know that was an option (and maybe in 1989 when I got my first deck it wasn’t). I would have loved a Tarot mentor, someone to do readings with, and to help me interpret Tarot, but I learned through my research monkey, introverted book person way. One of the key elements for deepening and understanding Tarot was keeping a Tarot journal.
I have so many journals. So. Very. Many. I journaled nearly every reading I did for myself. I wrote the question or focus of my reading, then the different cards that I pulled in what position. I also wrote any intuitive feelings or thoughts that came to me during the interpretations. I made connections between one reading and another, for example, when a card I'd been getting in the future position came into the present. I could therefore see how these aspects grow and morph. I often pull oracle cards with my Tarot readings, and so I noted them and what messages came through from those sources.
The second journal I kept focused on individual cards. So I would meditate with a card, note any symbols or images on the card that seemed significant. Sometimes I would sleep with a card and then write about the dream I had in the morning. When I looked at books, I often resonated with an interpretation more than another. One thing I find interesting is to look in the background of cards, they can tell you so much about the card's meaning. What is the background color? What symbols do you see? All of this lends to a mood. I just wrote about what I thought all of it meant individually, then together. I cross-referenced them with some books to see if someone else picked up one something I didn't see. I do find it fascinating and amazing how alike my interpretations were with some books. (This picture is me many moons ago when I still had boobs reading a new deck and cross-checking the book.)
This is why I ask my students to journal, because all the Tarot wisdom lie within you dormant and ready to begin reaching for the light. The archetypes of Tarot are universal and ancient. They only need you to activate them by study.
How can I learn Tarot?
You can study with a teacher, or you can study on your own. All of the great Tarot teachers pretty much became obsessed, like me, taught themselves and became students of the Tarot. If you have that gene, awesome, Primo. But if not, you can take my class where all my obsessive research is synthesized into these teachings. The workbook is primarily keywords, but the class is a deep dive and I talk much more in-depth about the cards, their history, etc.
So, wait, I thought as a Tarot Reader, you were not supposed to do readings on yourself?
Doing readings on yourself is the key to learning Tarot. Basically, learning Tarot is learning the symbolic language in which Spirit speaks to you. You already know about you--what you have been through, what you are facing now, what is most important to you in this phase of your life. So, if you know what issues surround your life, you will be able to match that with the card that applies. So, for example, when I pull the Queen of Pentacles, which is the Earth Mama card of the Minor Arcana, I can see how she would represent that aspect of my personality. My identity for the first five years of my parenting has been as a stay-at-home mother. In this way, this would give me hints about the cards around me. For example, if I pulled the Queen of Pentacles in the Past, I could see how I am moving out of this aspect of how I once saw myself, but how it still informs my present situation. Now, if I moved into the Present as the Emperor, the paternal figure of the Major Arcana, I can say that I am finally moving into a place where I know who I am, what I want, what I need to do to follow my soul path, and how to also lead benevolently and compassionately in the next phase of my life. This is because being a mother has helped me prioritize my life and figure out what I truly want in my career.
But I think the core of what is meant by this question is this: when you sit in front of yourself for a reading, can you be objective? I wrestle with the answer to this question all the time. I wrestle with it when I do readings for good friends and family, and when I do readings for myself. Personally, I find it terribly difficult to be objective about my own life, easier to be objective with friends and family, easiest to be objective with strangers. There are times I am really hard on myself, and other times where I cannot see my role in a situation no matter HOW much soul-searching I do. And neither of those is objective.
So, yes, I do readings for myself, but I am careful to temper it with other advice and opinions from people I trust to be honest with me.
I heard that I need to be gifted my first deck of Tarot. I keep dropping hints, but no one will buy one for me. Is that true?
I have no idea when this notion of being gifted a deck of Tarot came into being, but it's hogwash. I think you SHOULD buy your own deck and make sure it is deck you connect with.
What kind of layouts do you teach in your class?
Well, I teach a number of very basic layouts in my class. I start with a one card draw. Obviously pulling one card is a very focused Tarot reading, and in this way, I can say I use it all the time. But we build very quickly into the Three-Card draw, which is a very versatile layout and great for quick answers. I teach a number of different ways to approach the Three Card. Then we add the Four-Card layout and I offer two varieties of this layout. A Four=Card Obstacles layout and a Four-Care Goals layout, so it starts giving some depth to the Three-Card. From the Four-Card, we build to the Mystic Seven layout. This is the cross in the Celtic Cross, and then an outcome card. This layout is perfect for twenty-minute readings. We then work with the Celtic Cross.
When I do a full reading for someone, I do what is called the Ancient Celtic Cross. The Celtic Cross layout was developed by Arthur Waite who wrote in his book about the Celtic Cross: “I offer in the first place a short process which has been used privately for many years past in England, Scotland and Ireland. I do not think that it has been published — certainly not in connexion with Tarot cards; I believe that it will serve all purposes.” Arthur E. Waite published the basic Tarot deck that I teach and use and is the base of most of the Tarot decks published in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His seminal book, published in 1910, A Pictorial Key to the Tarot, was the first book about Tarot and it accompanied the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. From all the information I can gather, we thank Waite for this (and Pamela Coleman Smith for the art and archetypes we associate with the Tarot.)
But as a bonus, you get a pdf copy of my layouts book to work with after our class is done.
What do you love about Tarot?
Tarot has deep symbolism, meaning and spirituality. Every piece of the Tarot card has meaning—the color, the elements, the facial expressions, the mood, the pieces of each picture. Tarot combines art, archetypes, history, religious studies, faith, myth, storytelling, psychology and the mystery of existence. It taps into a kind of universal consciousness, esoteric arcane knowledge that alchemizes in the individual consciousness.
Tarot tells a story—the story of your energy. Many people think I have some kind of crazy psychic abilities. I just tell the story of the cards. Storytelling through pictures is as ancient as the Earth. Our society, our political system, our religions, our psychology is entirely rooted in myth & narrative. Tapping into this through the cards helps us tap into something ancient and important.
I love that Tarot helps me get out of my own way. I can sit in meditation, ask the cards, find some insight about my life that just doesn’t consciously occur to me. The wisdom of Tarot, the synchronicity, the “HOLY CRAP” moment, the patterns and connections we make. I love the combination of visual and spiritual, emotional and mental. As my friend Pamela said every class when she took my Complete Tarot class, “You cannot make this shit up.” And you really cannot.
If you are still with me, and you are like, “Yes, Angie, I want to live Tarot too,” then I am here to pass on the medicine of Tarot through my nine-week class called the Complete Tarot
Do you want to join me?
Click here and learn more, register and get in there.
Some basic info:
- The Complete Tarot runs nine weeks, but you have lifetime access and can finish on your own time.
- There are so many bonuses they are difficult to list them all, but suffice to say, I am extra, and so is this class.
- Yes, it is based on my workbook, or rather the workbook is based on this class
- Everything is recorded if you cannot attend live.
- It is $500 for nine classes, a shit-ton of extra lessons and one-on-one time with me.
- Yes, there is a certification available, but you don’t need a certification to read Tarot. I am just offering that for the Earth signs in my audience who might need a certificate to prove they are ready. (I joke, but with some truthiness as a Capricorn sun with a Taurus moon.)
- Yes, I can answer any questions you may have! Just hit reply to this email or drop me a line at angie@themoonandstone.com
Registration closes on December 31st, so register today to be start your 2025 off on the right foot!
Much love,
PS: I have a few payment plan options for those who are struggling with a full payment. Just check out the webpage for all the deets.
PPS: ALSO, If you already took the class and want to take it again, you can take it for a discounted price. I have students who took the class more than one just for a deeper understanding. LEGACY pricing is only for former students.
PPPS Did you know that if you have a spouse or someone you live with that likes my classes, you get both take it with one registration? I charge a wee fee if you both want to be certified, but it just makes sense to not get all hung up on paying double.
PPPS Did you also know you can give this as a gift to someone you love? Check the gift button at checkout and it will walk you through the entire process!
