March 22, 2007
STEPHANIE OBERLANDER/SPECIAL TO THE
VIRGINIAN-PILOT Kay Sturgis, left, helps
me interpret the cards shown in the last
stage of our lesson: my shot at giving her a
reading. We were using the Osho “Zen” deck,
which like the Motherpeace uses
illustrations that ended up being easier for
me to interpret than the deck I had bought.
GO!
Take
along your intuition
and
learn to read tarot cards.
The plan: Take a
short lesson and learn the
basics of reading tarot
cards.
How did it go? Cool.
From a teacher who focuses
on enlightenment and growth,
I got a good grounding.
BY ERICA SMITH
THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
FOR YEARS after my
first tarot readings, I
wondered what the designs on
those 70-some cards meant.
The Fool. The Tower. The heart pierced by three swords.
I wondered, but for someone who’s interested in a
thousand things at a time,
curiosity can’t always
translate to action.
But then I got a chance to learn more, with Virginia
Beach psychic Kay Sturgis.
In addition to teaching
eight-hour group courses,
she gives two hour private
classes, for the
fundamentals.
At her home on a rainy afternoon, we settled in.
Sturgis, lively and talkative, discussed her view of
the purpose of the tarot.
It is, she said, about telling a story and using
intuition to connect what
the cards show – action,
colors, body language – and
learning how the archetypes
portrayed apply to life.
Each card and position has a
meaning, she noted, but as
complex as tarot seems, “the
less rules the better,
really.”
Nor does she see tarot as magical: “How we learn tarot,
how we approach it, is all
arbitrary,” and different
readers interpret the cards
differently.
She uses tarot not for questions such as “Is my
boyfriend sleeping around on
me?” but rather for “a path
of enlightenment, a path to
reflect or mirror the value
of the choices that we are
making in our lives.”
To her it’s
also a tool to alleviate
severe stress because it
helps us “learn the lessons
we’re presented with.”
Next up: a quick reading for me, to get reacquainted
with how tarot works. She
used her favorite deck, the
Motherpeace, which she says
is meant to “open the heart”
and uses a “feminine”
perspective.
Sturgis had me shuffle and cut the cards, then pose a
question using a framework
that emphasizes learning:
“What is the meaning of this
experience in my life?”
I thought a minute, then came up with a question.
She laid out the cards in a modified Celtic cross and
began to interpret. She was
on target – in identifying
concerns, influences, goals,
preferences.
Then she took us through another run-through, using a
hypothetical client, and a
guide to tarot decks
generally, using a different
set – the Osho “Zen” deck.
Sturgis reviewed some of the set’s 22 “Major Arcana”
cards, which portray
“archetypes of the soul.”
(My old friend the Fool
appeared; in part, she said,
it signifies not a dolt but
“new beginnings” – and how
we approach them.)
She talked about the four suits, representing the
spiritual, mental, physical
and emotional planes, and
the need to examine the
detail of each card closely.
Next: my turn to read for her.
Me? So soon?
Sturgis smiled.
“You want to put yourself in the place of a 7-year-old
child,” she said; don’t over
think. She offered some
guiding points: What does
the layout look like? Tell a
story with the cards, using
intuition to connect the
pictures.
Then, “See how easy this is?”
Her question: “What would be helpful for me to know
right now?”
She laid out the cards for me – there’s the Fool again
– and I gave it a shot,
always getting
encouragement, sometimes
needing prompting, sometimes
earning praise for
perceptiveness (“You’ve got
a knack for this!”).
A knack? I felt a bit skeptical – knowing Sturgis’
three decades’ experience
versus my own – but
encouraged. I was starting
to get it, with tools now to
learn more.
A Fool, yes, getting started.
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