Answering Career Questions

Aside from questions centering on love and relationships, the primary concern of many clients these days is their careers. I've found that a lot of people out there don't like their current jobs, and want to try something new, but don't know which way to turn. An equally large number have no idea at all what they want to do with their lives, and come to the Tarot seeking direction and guidance. It turns out that the Tarot is quite capable of providing these people with the advice they need. This article will explore, in depth, how to answer such career questions with the Tarot.

It should be clear, of course, that a Tarot reader cannot simply tell clients exactly what company to work for and where they can mail their resume. However, a reading can be used to determine what kind of a career would best suit the client's personality, tastes and previous experience. There is not a specific spread used to do this kind of analysis, but it instead relies on the properties of whatever cards are drawn by the reader. A good-sized spread for this kind of reading has between five and eight cards, though using more or fewer cards is possible if the reader so wishes.

The elemental make-up of the reading is out first clue as to what kind of job would be best for the client. Normally, only one of the four elements (fire, water, air, earth) will dominate, though occasionally there will be a combination of elements. The predominance of one or two of the elements lets you assign a general category of careers. Here are the rules I use, based on my meanings for each suit:

A lot of Fire cards in a reading suggests jobs involving creativity, such as artistic or design-oriented careers; or jobs that carry a fair bit of risk, especially self-employment and entrepreneurship.
Water cards usually mean that a career involves working a lot with people. Examples include salesmen, social workers, psychologists, medical personnel, and members of the clergy.
An abundance of Air cards denotes more intellectual jobs, requiring a considerable amount of specialized training. Some examples would be law, education, government and computer science.
Finally, many Earth cards in a reading show that a person might find a job working with money, in a banking or investing job; or tangible goods or services, which goes from retail sales to real estate.

Sometimes two elements will be equally prominent in a reading, and in this circumstance you can combine your keywords for the individual elements in order to quantify the combination. An equal number of Fire and Earth cards might indicate a self-owned retail business. Air and Water cards, found together, might indicate doctors or teachers. Play around with the other combinations (there are four others that I have not covered) and see what kinds of careers they describe.

This is fine for getting a general idea of what kind of career a client should consider, but often they will want something more specific. Fortunately this can sometimes be done too. Many cards, by their very nature, explicitly point to one career in particular. For example:

Emperor - government, politics
Hierophant - teacher, clergyman
Chariot - truck driver, military
Justice - law, law enforcement
Ten of Wands - construction, physical labor
Two of Pentacles - accountant
Knight of Swords - military

A good fraction of the cards have such career suggestions that can be added to the general picture above in order to narrow it down. The Emperor or Empress in a reading that contains a lot of Swords cards would almost certainly suggest a job in government. An Empress in a reading full of Cups, on the other hand, might suggest a more motherly figure, perhaps a day-care worker or teacher.

I encourage you to play around with these techniques, incorporating your own personal card meanings to make the system truly yours. Look at each card and think about what types of careers it might symbolize. (This is especially useful with the court cards.) When you feel ready to do readings of this nature for real clients, you can often ask the cient what fields they are considering, and use the cards you draw to select from their list of choices. The process is not difficult and it often gives clients exactly the kind of direction they seek.