The Wandering Hermit
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Frequently Asked Questions (with links to answers below)
On Tarot:
On Astrology:
Why is real astrology different from my
horoscope in the paper every day?
On Psychic Readings:
On Pagans:
Aren't Pagans people who worship the devil and
do nasty things like sacrifice babies?
On Tarot:
The
tarot deck is a deck of 78 cards that is often used to look into the
future. Tarot can also be used to look into the past or into one's
self. Tarot can be used for meditation or to increase one's self
awareness or sense of self.
Aren't tarot cards demonic or satanic?
No.
Categorically, undeniably, definately not.
What I find
ironic or odd is that the only people who ever make this claim
are people without a knowledge of tarot. That would be like living in
Russia or China and saying America is decadent and immoral. Someone who
did that would be making a statement without any first hand or true
knowledge of the subject. If I were raised in a religion that taught to
kill unbelievers and that other religions are false, then I would
consider Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus, Buddists, and members of
all other religions unspiritual and evil. I would be judging all those
groups without knowing anything about them. Making a statement about
tarot being demonic is just as ignorant and prejudiced.
Do tarot cards
really tell the future?
(see also How can the stars and planets control my
destiny?)
That question is about as complex as, "So what really happens in quantam physics?" Yes and no. Tarot cards, when used properly, can tell us what forces are acting on us and what to expect in the future. They cannot give us the time and date we will meet the love of our life or tell us how many children we will have and what their birthdates will be. I explain tarot by comparing time to a river. If I jump off a rock and into a river, as I do quite often down at the Pony Pasture, the river currents will carry me on a set path. If, before I jump, I cast sticks into the water, I can watch the sticks. The motion of the sticks will tell me which way the current is flowing and how strong it is. Once I am in the current, I can let it take me down the river and through time. I can also swim to the side and leave the current and make a new future or, if I am stubborn I can even try to swim against the current. It is hard, but I may break out of it. Tarot cards are like the sticks we can throw into the river. They tell us what currents are acting on us and which way we will be pulled. We can always use free will to fight it. For example, all summer I had cards telling me I would find a good job soon. Then I was offered one. I had the free will to turn it down. In that case, I let the current carry me. I like getting paychecks.
Anyone can learn to read tarot cards. We are all psychic -- it is part of our connection to God. Reading tarot or doing psychic readings is as natural as prayer or meditation or anything else that helps us connect to God. As humans we've just let ourselves get so far away from remembering we are divine beings that we forget those important connections.
Is it hard to learn or to read tarot?
Some people make it hard. It depends on the person. One way to learn tarot is to learn intuitively -- in other words, buy a deck you like, and start exploring it. Listen to your inner voice and sense for what each card means. It's interesting to see how many people learn that way and still discover meanings for the cards that are similiar to "accepted" meanings. You could also buy one or more books, or attend classes (classes seem to help many people) or even use our free tutorial, Learning the Tarot.
How can someone believe in tarot
when science has proven it wrong?
(see also How can someone believe in astrology when
science has proven it wrong?)
Science has not proven nor disproven anything about tarot, astrology, or psychics. The interesting thing about science and topics like this is that the scientific method is suddenly suspended. Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud's student, was a strong believe in tarot and had written about tarot and about synchronicity. I have yet to see a "scientist" who claims tarot is disproven show that he/she has an actual understanding of what tarot and tarot cards mean. It's the reverse of Galileo. The Church refused to investigate or listen to his claims and pronounced them wrong without understanding him because to accept what he said would mean admitting that, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in your philosophies." In other words, to actually accept another point of view would have forced a paradigm shift in one's understanding of the universe, and many people do not want to do that. This includes people of faith and scientists.
On Astrology:
Why is real astrology different from my horoscope in the paper every day?
There are 10 principal objects that move through the heavens -- astrologers call them the ten planets (even though one is the Sun and one is the Moon -- we know they are not planets, it's just a collective name for them). One's "horoscope" depends most heavily on the Sun, Moon, and the Rising Sign (see Star-ting Astrology for more information on what the Rising Sign is). Then there are the other planets to consider. Added to that is the fact that a planet is in both a sign and a house! The daily horoscope in the paper only considers the Sun sign, which is not even 10% of the overall picture! (If this leads you to think that the horoscopes in the paper, even though done by famous astrologers, may be inaccurate and even irresponsible, many astrologers would not disagree with you.)
How can the stars and planets control
my destiny?
(see also Do tarot cards really tell
the future?)
They don't. See the referenced question in the tarot section. An astrology chart is like a navigation chart of a river or body of water. It tells you about the currents and conditions, but once you know what is influencing your course, it is up to you to take charge of your own destiny.
How can someone believe in astrology
when science has proven it wrong?
(see also How can someone believe in tarot when
science has proven it wrong?)
I know many astrologers that know a great deal about astronomy, but hardly any astronomers know the first thing about astrology. When it comes to proving or disproving astrology, suddenly astronomers and other scientists throw the scientific method out the window. Every time I've heard an astronomer start to state their reason for not believing in astrology, (and I mean EVERY time!), I've heard them start with at least 2 incorrect statements about what astrology is. I've seen astronomers prove that what they think is astrology is bunk, but I've never seen an astronomer disprove what astrology really is .
On Psychic Readings:
What can I expect from a psychic reading?
If you get a reading through The Wandering Hermit, you can expect a reader who will listen to you. and work with you. We are not here to scare you or tell you how to run your life. Many times a reader may start a reading without asking you anything or before you can tell them anything. This is often to give you a background about the energy surrounding the situation. It can also help the client to realize the reader is tuning in to the situation and to the client. Our readers are here to help you make choices and decisions. We will work with you to help you find the answers. Our job is not to tell you that on the 12th of May you will meet a tall, dark, handsome man with blue eyes, but to let you know if there is a relationship coming up and what it will be like. We can also tell you if there are issues or problems that need to be resolved before this relationship can happen. A psychic is here to provide a map or navigation chart for you, but it is not the job of the psychic to tell you which route to take. That is your decision after you have looked at the map.
Can a psychic really predict the future?
(see also Do tarot cards really tell
the future?)
(see also How can the stars and planets control my
destiny?)
A psychic can tell you what is coming up and what choices you have. A psychic's job is not to tell you what will happen, but what is going on and what will be influencing you. The future is not set, and we always have a choice. A psychic can tell you what the choices are and what the effect of different choices will be. Sometimes people think if a psychic said it, then it MUST be what will happen. No. If a psychic said it, then it is on a path, but there are still choices.
What if I don't like a reading?
It depends on why you don't like it. Sometimes clients don't like readings because they don't like what they are told. From my point of view (me being Denvid Wright), I saw a client complain when I told her there was a problem with her romantic relationship. It wasn't that she didn't like the reading, but that she did not like what I told her. A psychic reader's job is not to tell the client what they want to hear, but to tell them the truth. Anything else would be dishonest.
If you get a reading through The Wandering Hermit and you are not satisfied, we will do all we can to work with you. That could include setting up another reading with another psychic reader for free or even a refund. If, however, the problem is that a client simply does not like what they were told, we can do nothing about that. The truth is the truth, and not liking it will not change it. If the problem is in how something was told (for example, if a reader is rude or disrespectful), that problem will be taken care of. (We have, however, kept to a limited number of psychics for several reasons, and one is "quality control" -- anyone doing readings for The Wandering Hermit is known to us and has done readings for us.
What kinds of readings are there?
There are MANY types of psychic readings. Some readers use tarot cards, some do astrology charts, there is also psychometry (picking up sensations from objects), palmistry, channelled readings (see "Crossing Over" on the Sci-Fi channel), which means they receive the information from spirit. There are also many other "tools" readers use, such as pendulums, runes, or astro-dice. (But, please, avoid the Ouija board -- it's a long story, but I have yet to meet a reader who did not feel the Ouija board was negative.)
I thought psychic abilities were a gift from God, so why do you charge money for readings?
The ability to write is a gift from God. By following the reasoning the question implies, Steven King should be broke. Any singer or artist or anyone with any talent would, then, not make any money on it. True, psychic abilities are a gift from God. So are all talents and skills we cultivate. It is true those gifts are to help others, but they are also for us to help ourselves. Some readers do readings for a living and are quite good at it. If they worked at a regular job full time to make a living, then did readings on the side, for free, they would not be able to put time and effort in to perfecting their craft and would not be giving the best readings they could.
There is another reason for charging for readings is the concept of fair exchange. When I (Denvid) did readings at a local bookstore for free, I noticed people would have a "That's nice" attitude, then ignore what I said. Months later they could come up and tell me, "I wish I had listened to you." People do not value what they get for free. An exchange of energy benefits both the reader and the client.
On Pagans:
Aren't Pagans people who worship the devil and do nasty things like sacrifice babies?
You've been listening to the stories people who aren't Pagans are saying, right? If you grew up in the U.S.S.R. (when it was still around), and listend to what they said, what would you believe about Americans? Would that be an accurate picture? Many times groups like to pain their own world as the best and all other beliefs or views or cultures as less-than-equal (or, in some cases, bad). If you read about the first 400 years of Christianity, you can see how many Christian customs come from Pagan customs. Christmas comes from Yule, and is celebrated about the same time. Candlemass was on the same time as Imbolg, Easter was about the time of Beltane (but with a name similar to Ostara), Halloween, the night when evil spirits are out, is the night before Samhain (pronounced Saw-wane). As you may have guessed, Yule, Imbolg, Ostara, Beltane, and Samhain are all importand Pagan festivals. Taking over holy days (or festivals) was one part of replacing a religion. The other part was in saying it was not a true religion or in saying it led to Bad Things.
"There are many rooms in my Father's House." It's absurd for someone who has only seen one or two rooms to say the other rooms in a mansion on an estate are dank and squalid without actually checking them out, but that's what sometimes happens.
Pagans are people who believe God and believe that God is love and that love is the highest motivation one can have. Pagans tie their worship in with the cycles of nature -- the cycles we naturally follow in life (such as the moon or seasons). Pagans believe in healing -- healing our selves, healing others, and healing the earth. Pagans don't believe in a devil in the way some people do. Pagans believe it is up to us to be responsible for our own behavior and not blame someone or something for tempting us.