KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

December 12 through December 18, 2022

Things flow pretty smoothly this week as we finalize plans for the holidays and map out a plan for completing anything that needs to be finished up before the end of the year. The Leo Moon will shine brightly on Monday and Tuesday, allowing us to immerse ourselves in heartfelt conversations and activities. Tending to those unfinished obligations is best done under Wednesday and Thursday's Virgo Moon, as it grounds and directs us in the most efficient ways to complete tasks before next week's holidays hit full swing. A Gemini Moon takes us through the rest of the week, as we focus on communication, correspondence, and clearing a path to immerse ourselves into the holidays ahead!

How to Ask Yes-Or-No Tarot Questions, by Jack Chanek

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

It's something people say all the time: Don't ask a yes-or-no question in a tarot reading. Just about any introductory tarot book you pick up, or any reader you ask for advice, will deliver this counsel sooner or later. There seems to be a broad consensus that tarot is just not good for yes-or-no questions, that it can't (or won't) answer them, and we should never bother to ask them. But most people don't talk about why that's the case.

Tarot is a narrative medium. Whatever question you ask, you get an answer in the form of pictures, symbols, and abstract themes. A tarot reading tells a story with its own characters, conflicts, and even a progression from the past through the future. This means that in order to get the most out of tarot, you want to ask questions that can properly be answered with this kind of story.

In divination, it's tempting to ask small, narratively closed questions—things like, "Will I get the job?" or, "Is he going to call?" After all, we come to divination because we want answers about our lives; more often than not, we'd prefer a straightforward yes or no over something more complicated. However, these questions don't give tarot room to do what it does best. They don't lend themselves to the narrative expression that characterizes tarot as a divinatory medium. Asking tarot a yes-or-no question is like asking Michelangelo to draw a stick figure; sure, he can do it, but he'd much rather be painting the Sistine Chapel.

The best questions for tarot are the ones that give your reading room to breathe. These are, generally speaking, open-ended questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how. Questions like these can't be answered in a single word. They require elaboration and context. To know, "Is X going to happen?" you really only need a yes or a no. To know, "Why is X happening?" on the other hand, you need a much fuller picture. You need to know who the people involved in the situation are, what drives them, and what effect their actions have on you. You need to think about what's happened in the past, the relationship between the past and the present, and the way that current events will continue to shape the future. In short, you need to tell a story.

This is the kind of question with which tarot excels. Tarot is adapted to answer open-ended questions that encourage you to take a step back and consider the whole of your situation. Even if you sometimes just want an answer to a smaller question like, "Will I get the job?" you'll find that your tarot readings provide narrative context anyway. If you ask, "Will I get the job?" and you pull the Six of Swords and the Eight of Wands, that tells you not only that you'll get hired, but that you'll hear back very soon and the whole hiring process will move very quickly. If you ask, "Will he call?" and you pull the Three of Swords and the Queen of Cups, that tells you not only that he won't call, but that he's more interested in someone else. Tarot always tells a story.

Does this mean you must never ask a yes-or-no question in a tarot reading? No, not necessarily. You can ask tarot anything you want to know. However, if you ask a small question without room for storytelling, you may find that interpreting your cards gets a lot harder. Imagine asking, "Will it rain on my vacation?" and drawing the Three of Pentacles. Is that a yes or a no? The answer is ambiguous. The themes associated with this card are teamwork, creativity, and mastery, but it's not obvious how any of those things relate to a question about the weather. You could plausibly look to the specific imagery in your card to see if the weather is depicted as fair or foul, but it feels like thematically, the card is trying to express something that just can't come through.

Now think about the card, not as answering, "Will it rain?" but as answering, "How will the weather affect my vacation?" Here, the themes of the card leap out: You'll find yourself around other people. The weather won't isolate you or keep you stuck at home; rather, it will push you toward other people and encourage you to find a dynamic social setting. Chances are good, then, that the sun will be shining and you'll be able to get out and about.

In a way, the card still answered the closed yes-or-no question, but it did so by telling a story. That is to say, the best way to answer the smaller question was to take a step back and answer a bigger question first. This is how tarot shines. Even if we only want a yes-or-no answer, we often get that answer by asking a narrative question and using tarot to tell a complete story. We get better, more satisfying answers by letting tarot do what it does best. The way to get the most out of your tarot deck is to let it tell you a story in every reading, rather than trying to confine it to a strict yes or no. If the yes or no is what you really want, you'll find that the story leads you there eventually, and does so in a more satisfying way than if you try to take a shortcut and avoid the story altogether.

The advice to avoid yes-or-no questions in a tarot reading is solid, but it doesn't mean that we can never ask those questions or that tarot will break if we try to use it for something specific and concrete. Instead, it means that even if we're looking for a yes-or-no answer, we'd do well to keep ourselves open to other information, and to look for the ways the cards supplement a simple "yes" with information about who, what, where, when, why, and how. What we really mean when we say, "Don't ask yes-or-no questions" is, "Don't only ask yes-or-no questions." Don't look for the yes or no to the exclusion of everything else your reading might be telling you. That extra information tells a valuable story, and you'll understand your situation better for having listened to it.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2022. All rights reserved.

I am trying to understand when a situation is karmic versus when it's God's plan. When I was little, I intuitively knew I wouldn't have kids; I believed I was barren. It turned out that I didn't have kids, although I've been wanting and trying to conceive for the last couple of years. I've done a lot of spiritual work and past life regressions and I believe my infertility is karmic, but I'm not clear as to whether that means God has another plan for me in this lifetime so I should just leave it alone, or if I need to keep trying to conceive in order to clear my past karma. My date of birth is September 28, 1968. My boyfriend's is October 15, 1966. Thank you! Joan

Susyn:

Many believe that past life karma or current life sins are preventing them from attaining their dreams. This concept covers everything from having children to finding one's soul mate. In truth, an intense drive to make something happen can be the very thing that is preventing it. Some people I counsel are interested in finding out the karmic reason why something is not working when in fact, they need only make a few simple changes to rectify the situation.

Assuming there is no physical reason you can't conceive, you may simply be trying too hard! Time after time I have seen people struggle to conceive, give up and adopt a child, and then find themselves pregnant soon after. My sister tried for years to become pregnant to no avail. When she found herself in the middle of a major move, she put the idea of a baby out of her head, and before she had even unpacked the boxes in her new home, she discovered she was with child.

If both you and your boyfriend are physically able to conceive, the answer may be to quit trying so hard. Also, you may want to consider natural supplements that encourage fertilization; for instance, taking vitamin E is a great way to create a more friendly environment for conception. A homeopath or natural doctor of medicine in your area may have additional ways to promote pregnancy. Remember that the mind is very powerful. If you have carried the idea that you are barren since childhood, it is time to reverse that idea by replacing it with positive beliefs and affirmations. This is the quickest way to open up a channel so Spirit can rectify the situation.

You have done well to take the spirital aspects of this situation into consideration, and to investigate and attempt to clear past life karma. If there is some spiritual reason you've been struggling with this, then when you do conceive, you will know that the lessons you were learning have been completed. If you do not conceive, you can trust that there is a good reason for that. My sense is that following the above suggestions will clear any blocked channels and bless you with the child you are hoping for. Divine timing is an amazing thing: there are no limits to what Spirit can do for you if you are open to letting things unfold in their own way and time.

Our paths can take some pretty interesting turns. Life is full of surprises, so often, we don't know whether to attribute certain situations to karma, fate or chance. One thing does seem to be clear, however: when we stop fighting a certain situation and accept it, it begins to change.

*****

Oceania:

Though the details change from person to person, we've all asked the same question! When something we desire is out of reach, we all wonder if should we continue to go for it or give it up. Is the frustration we feel due to karma or because we're resisting God's plan? Is overcoming an obstacle within the scope of our power, or should we surrender because it's bigger than us and out of our hands?

This very issue is addressed by tarot cards IX and X: the Hermit and the Wheel of Fortune. The Wheel represents God's plan, though there are other words we might use for this concept: fate, destiny, a power greater than ourselves, the natural unfolding of the universe, the Tao, the flow, quantum physics or rules of randomness. The Hermit card represents Karma, though we can use other words for that, too: free will, personal choice, integrity, making amends, creation, manifestation or the law of attraction. The Serenity Prayer, which I'm sure you're familiar with, addresses the issue of God's plan vs. karma when it asks for the wisdom to know the difference.

I recommend wise balance between tarot's IX and X energies. Being too willful leads to energetic pushing and shoving, and is likely to land you in a codependency meeting. Too much surrendering to fate will land you on the couch watching television and waiting for someone to show up at your door with your life in a package. It's the dance between these two energies that leads to the manifestation of our dreams or a better version of them.

I advise my clients to do all they can to manifest a desire: visualize it, affirm it, suit up and show up, do the footwork and act as if it's already happening...and then let go of their attachment to the outcome! In your case, that would mean seeing yourself pregnant, thinking I'm pregnant, following the suggestions of a fertility specialist, living a healthy lifestyle to prepare your body to carry a child, reading books about babies, choosing names and decorating a nursery...and then letting it go! We are co-creators with the universe because we are PART of the universe, not separate from it.

Any intellectual debate such as karma vs. God's plan can be a way of avoiding feelings, so I also recommend you stop thinking for a while and focus solely on your emotions and any related physical sensations. As you think about having a child, allow yourself to feel happy, excited and hopeful! When you fear it may not happen, allow yourself to cry, mourn and feel sad. In so doing, you will discover truths that can't be found with the intellect.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.