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.
Copyright 2001 James Rioux