About

How I Started With the Cards

I was at a week long women’s retreat in Taos NM.   Everyone around me was excited that Shareen was there and had brought her Tarot Deck.  That meant she was doing readings again. Several of us asked her to teach a class on the cards, so she did. 

I showed up excited, sat in the front and participated at every opportunity, sharing the meanings I saw in the cards. Wouldn’t you know that each and every time that I ventured a meaning for the cards, she said it was wrong.  This went on for hours.

The next day we had the second class. I decided to go, but not to say anything. I sat behind Shareen as she called on the people who had shown promise the day before. One after another she invited them to read the cards for a volunteer client. And one after another they froze and had nothing to say.  And one after another, Shareen did the reading from over their shoulders.

Then, after 5 readings, for whatever reason, she turned around and said to me “Leslie, would you like to give it a try?“ I said “yes”. I sat down, shuffled the cards, and laid them out in front of my client. I was not familiar with the cards. So, as I gazed over this layout, I experienced what I had witnessed in the others.  I froze, I had no idea what to say. I had watched five other people stop here, I knew what would happen, Shareen would do the reading & I would learn nothing. 

The day before, everything I had said was wrong, so I had nothing to lose.  
‍

I decided to try a different tactic. I looked over the cards, and I told myself that I had just awoken from a dream, and now these images were all that was left of my dream. I was simply going to tell this woman in front of me about the dream as if it was happening to her. I began talking, I told her that she was an artist outgrowing her teacher. I explained that this dynamic felt to her, like a betrayal.

Much to my surprise, she said, “yes! My violin“. You could’ve knocked me over with a feather.

Shareen, who had done five readings before this, said to everyone in the room “I’m tired, I’m going to go lay down, if anyone else wants a reading Leslie will give them.” She left the room. Throughout the rest of the retreat, each time someone wanted a reading from Shareen she would send them to me.  Since I had no cards of my own, I would find Shareen and borrow her cards. After the third reading on the second day of readings she looked at me as she handed me her cards and said,” these are now yours.”

And so I began. Since I knew nothing, when I got back to town, I bought every book on Tarot I could find. They all conflicted with each other, I didn’t know what to believe so I gave them all away. Every morning I would spread my cards around me in a semicircle.  I would pick one, and connect with it until I could recognize its energy if it walked into the room. Then as I went about my day, I noticed where I was and what was happening whenever that energy showed up. 

This is how I began to associate meanings with the cards. Everything else came after that. 

That's how I know that just like me, you can learn to read the cards without looking anything up in a book. They say that you should teach what you want to know. So, within 3 months I was teaching the cards. My unique approach came out of the framework I adopted for my own understanding as well as what worked best in those early classes which were held in cave dwellings in the desert. We drew our issues on the sandy ground, tossed meaningful objects over them, read them, and added the cards to see how that reading was expressed by the Cards. 

As people requested more structure, The tree of life was added as the only book you will ever need.  It is like the Yin Yang symbol or the Medicine Wheel, a blueprint for creation and life.  Only, this one has all the cards on it. Not ready to sit in a cave and draw in the sand?  No worries. Everything you need, to read your deck with confidence, is here for you to experience, from the comfort of your home.