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The Power of Using Oracles, by Jeannie Reed

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Between 1912 and 1922, the great German Romantic poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, wrote a series of ten poems dedicated to the one he loved. The Duino Elegies is a romantic, evocative, heartfelt, and deeply inspiring collection. The poems are emotionally powerful and beautifully written.

And, for six months in the late 1990s, this book of poems was my oracle.

While I have been a tarot master for thirty-five years, I long ago decided I wanted to know as much as possible about the whole world of the arcane, the unknown. Thus began my quest to become familiar with, if not understand, the major oracles in use today. So, I have studied the ancient science of astrology for forty years. I have been working with the ancient Norse runes for thirty years. I have more than a passing acquaintance with numerology at this point. And I have, so far, devoted over thirty years of study to the ancient Chinese oracle, the I Ching. I did all this because I realized early on that the seeds of the future were planted far back, in the long-ago past, and I wanted to learn how to connect the dots.

I began this life, as a professional psychic, from a strange place, I think. I viewed the world of oracles as a skeptic. Like the Biblical Thomas, if I couldn't appreciate something with one of my senses, it just didn't exist for me. All around me, in the 1960s, people were dabbling in tarot and astrology. I thought they were ridiculous and misguided. Science was what I knew. Proof. Evidence. And then one fateful day in 1968 in North Hatfield, Massachusetts, I was walking on the root structure of an ancient maple when it was struck by lightning—and my life changed forever. For the first time, I was able to open my mind to the possibilities of things I cannot see, feel, hear, taste, or touch. For the first time I was able to know things I hadn't experienced or been taught. For the first time, I began to see that an oracle, in the right hands and with the right attitude and knowledge, is a miraculous thing we can use to know what we do not know.

It's been a while since that lightning strike, and over the years I've discovered that almost anything can be used as an oracle. When in the late 1980s I opened the Rilke Elegies, asked straightforward questions, and put my finger on a page "randomly," every single time, for months, the answers were accurate. What I was reading there was reflecting the reality of what was, or what was to be. Did Rilke intend for his poems to be used like this? No. But the fact is that I did use them like this. And it worked.

Likewise, the Bible. At the risk of sounding like a heathen, I was going through a rough time at one point, and I asked my questions and opened the Bible and put my finger down "randomly," and, sure enough, what I read there conformed exactly to the situations. In this, though, the words and tone were far more inspirational than what one can get from a book of poems. Was the Bible intended to be an oracle? The jury is still out on that one. But from my experiences, I would have to say that, in the right hands and coming from a place of acceptance, it can be exactly that.

This idea of acceptance leads me to talk here about the danger of such efforts. First, working with oracles of any kind is not a game. If you ask the same question over and over, desperate for a different answer than the one you're getting, you're in danger of obsession. And that's a bad place to be psychologically. I know. I was there. For a short time in the 1960s, I was attempting to use the I Ching (a magnificent piece of philosophy and probably the most accurate oracle in the world) to tell me what I wanted and needed to hear about a guy I cared about. I almost made myself nuts because, of course, the oracle was giving me the truth. And, as in the Tom Cruise movie, I just couldn't handle it. Thank God I realized, suddenly, after days of this, that I was making myself crazy. I closed the I Ching and didn't open it again for twenty years.

Let me give you an example of what this oracle can do. The I Ching is a book, a compilation of songs and philosophy, written thousands of years ago in China. I was using it at one point to try and solve what to me is still the mystery of the John Kennedy assassination. One of my questions was, "Why was Kennedy killed in Texas?" The reply? "Kindred spirits in the Southwest."

Astonishing.

Early on, though, among all the oracles, I found tarot. Or should I say, tarot found me. All of a sudden, card readers were everywhere on Manhattan Neighborhood Network TV. One woman I know came into the pub where I was hanging out and showed me a tarot pack she'd just bought, and then another showed me her new cards the same week. I was intrigued. And scared. But not scared enough to run the other way.

So I decided to approach tarot the way a college student approaches calculus, or history or psychology. I started to study. I read every good book about tarot that I could get my hands on. I started doing readings for people, without charging, and I did this for four years. For the first year I usually had a book open in front of me.

(You just can't learn in a day to work with tarot, no matter what they tell you. It took me maybe a year to master all the basic card meanings, upright and reversed.)

Finally, I felt I knew enough and was being accurate enough to start charging people for my service. But it would be fifteen more years before I would consider myself a master. Today I read using a system I designed myself, for card meanings, card combinations, and card placement. I guess you'd say I'm fearless now, now that I understand the power of tarot. And in what I do, I'm proud to say I'm a pioneer.

Symbols = Ideas
Tarot is a world of symbols. Color, line, form, philosophy, archetypes, all merge to strike subliminal chords in us. Maybe some of you recall the old advertising gimmick: splice 1/24 second of a popcorn image into a movie and suddenly, everybody in the theater wants popcorn and nobody knows why. Such is the power of the subliminal suggestion. Well, tarot does the same thing in a profound way. Using cards I can diagnose illness, warn people about stock market crashes, encourage people to take the wonderful career and life leaps they want to make but are afraid of making. I can caution people about poor relationship choices, inspire sound money management....The images I'm looking at combine at the subliminal (subconscious) level in me to become conscious thoughts. In this case, the "I want popcorn" from the film example becomes, "You have a predisposition to diabetes."

Strangely, I have to say here that the single most important thing about getting the right oracular answer is asking the exact right question. A young woman comes to me and wants to know about a guy she's dating, and I am looking at her job falling apart, the fact that she has no money, the fact that she may be homeless tomorrow. Well, I'm seeing these things because at that moment they are far more important than her relationship. Likewise, there's no way to pull an end run around a good reader. No matter what you ask and how you try to avoid asking the question, a good reader will still see the answer. And so I have discovered that the absolutely best question you can ask, at least at first, about any situation is: "What is the best thing I can know about _________?"

Be prepared to simply accept what you're told if it makes sense to you, knowing what else you know about the issue.

So, What Makes A Good Reader?
The sad fact is that there are many people out there who don't have a clue what they're doing, who have no real knowledge of tarot and other oracles, but who are nevertheless using them to take money from people. Most of these folks are well-meaning. Some are simply criminals.

What do you do, then, if you're looking for a psychic?

Here's what I tell people: If you have good reason to trust somebody, consult that person. Maybe the reader has written a really persuasive book. Maybe you've seen or heard the reader work on TV or radio and listened to positive feedback. Maybe one of your friends, somebody whose judgment you trust, recommends a reader. In these three instances, by all means you might take a chance on that reader.

But always listen with at least a tiny bit of skepticism. And never ever ask questions until the reader has been talking a while. Because in every question information is embedded, and the reader is the one who's supposed to be giving information, not vice versa!

I also encourage my clients to use the information I give them in conjunction with everything else they know, so they can make solid decisions. I don't give advice. Who am I to advise anybody about anything? I tell people what I see. Period.

And what exactly is it that I'm seeing? I'm seeing information that is coming from them. We all know everything, you see. It's just that we can't always access it. It's like, the Internet is out there with all the information in the world, but without a keyboard we can't connect to it. Tarot is my keyboard. The universal unconscious is my Internet.

Physics
This brings me to something fascinating. I started working with oracles, and tarot specifically, having been scientific in my approach to life. And I thought tarot was about as non-scientific as you can get. Colorful pictures on pieces of cardboard? Be serious! Until I realized that string theory, and quarks, and the whole world of modern physics actually almost proves that I can know what I know just by pulling it out of the air, by looking at those pictures.

And so now I have come full-circle. There are many out there who have also reached this starting point. (Here I can recommend the book, The Dancing Wu Li Masters.) Physics is leading to God, as Einstein promised it would long ago. The universe is, after all, quite too perfect to have happened by accident.

Developing A Gift
I teach tarot, and I've discovered that if you have psychic ability it can be developed. It can be developed, for example, by working with something like tarot for hours every day. It seems that if we live long enough in a world of symbols, something in the brain changes. We start to get information, but we don't know exactly where it's coming from. Every once in a rare while, for example, a dead person will show up in one of my readings. So far it's always been to give really solid advice to the person sitting across from me, or for consolation, or simply to reassure that a client is not alone. I don't see this individual; I see no spirit in the room. I "see" the individual in the cards. I have also "seen" a 747 in the King of Swords (where it isn't) and learned that the client's brother is a commercial pilot. I have "seen" a jigsaw puzzle piece in the throat of the Page of Pentacles (where it is not) and learned that the client has a son who swallowed that piece when he was five. I have "seen" a little white dog with black eyes in the Queen of Pentacles (where it is not) and learned that this was in fact the client's dog.

When I started out, all of this was impossible and remote. I could never even imagine this stuff could exist, never mind imagine being able to do it. But tarot takes us at our own pace, and at this point I have come to realize there are simply no limits.

And this is a beautiful thing.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2019. All rights reserved.

Whenever I get into a trance state, I see visions. When my boyfriend is around, sometimes I see images of women that are sexual in nature. Does this mean something bad or is he just being a guy? Are my visions telling me something like a prediction, or is this more of a telepathic feed? Also, how do I know these images are coming from him? Thanks!

- Alexa

Susyn:

You know these visions are coming from him because they only occur when he is around. Even if they are coming from him, however, they may not have anything to do with what is happening in reality. More than likely, the images of women you pick up from your boyfriend are simply a part of his biological makeup. You can't assume from these general visions that he is involved with other women. However, if your visions begin to feature a specific woman or a scene in which your boyfriend and a specific women are involved, you may want to pay closer attention.

When people first learn the art of going into a trance, the visions they experience tend to be random. When I first learned to read a crystal ball, the ball flashed from image to image. It was similar to watching TV when someone else has the remote and is constantly changing channels. The images meant nothing to me. As I continued to practice, however, more meaningful visions appeared.

It sounds like so far, you have merely been allowing any and all visions to come to you. This is also common when one starts channeling. When we open ourselves up to new realms, all sorts of spirits or images may come to us. Setting up boundaries by directing your trance or channeling sessions is very important. You can do this by requesting that only certain things be revealed to you. I recommend you fine-tune your experience by directing these visions. For instance, as you go into a trance, you can ask that you see into the life of your boyfriend, family members or the future.

You must be careful not to take these visions to heart unless you have some tangible proof to back them up. However, if you begin to have visions of certain events that then come to pass, you'll know your visions have moved to the next level. When this happens, you can start to rely on the validity of your visions more.

Once you have had a vision, you will want to do some background work to validate it. For example, if a loved one is sick and the doctors can't figure out what is wrong, you may ask for a vision regarding the source of the problem. Based on what comes to you, you may offer some suggestions to your loved one regarding what the doctors investigate next. After they have explored your suggestions, you can check back in with your loved one to determine if your vision (or your interpretation of your vision) was accurate or not.

Another example would be to visualize something you have misplaced. See if a vision can reveal where it is. If your vision is accurate, you will find it in the place you were mentally shown.

I recommend recording your visions in a journal. This will help you keep track of which ones come to pass and help you determine if a particular vision is something you need to take seriously or not.

*****

Mata:

When our interests are in jeopardy, our intuition will try to warn us. This is why we go on psychic alert when others are lying to us and when we are in danger of some kind: When our need is dire, instead of whispering, our intuition will begin to shout.

What you are experiencing is a primal instinct similar to a mother's intuition. As your relationship is very important to you, your psychic instincts are trying to help you ensure its survival. Whenever anything occurs that could threaten something you treasure, your instincts will poke at you to get you to pay attention.

It can be hard to hear our intuition when we are caught up in external events, so when we get meditate or go into a trance as you say, we may immediately start to receive messages from our intuition or telepathically pick up on what's happening with the people around us.

To answer your question, it sounds to me like this is just your boyfriend being a guy, as you put it. I'm basing this on the fact that these visions only occur when he is around, and you not mentioning any other reason to worry about his fidelity. It is a natural male instinct to want to mate with as many females as possible, which causes many men to fantasize about other women. Just because this drive is there doesn't mean he is acting on it; we all have base impulses we squelch on a regular basis.

If these visions only happen when you are out in public or around attractive women, I would assume that you are simply picking up on fleeting fantasies. However, if this is happening when you are at home alone with your boyfriend (and he is not in the other room looking at pictures of naked women on the internet while you are meditating), then it may be a warning of some kind. If you were being warned, however, you would receive these visions whether your boyfriend was nearby or not.

Since we can't control what others choose to do, it's foolish to make yourself crazy over these visions. That being said, you might as well make good use of your ability to read your man's mind by dropping subtle hints that you know what he is thinking. This will keep him on his toes and may even scare him into cleaning up his thoughts! For example, if you sense him checking another woman out, you might say, She's lovely, isn't she? If you catch him fantasizing, you might say, How often do you fantasize about other women, my love? (This is the fun and entertaining side of being psychic!)

Of course, being too psychically open can create all sorts of confusion and make your life harder than it has to be. If these visions are upsetting you, you could ask your guides to only make you aware of what you really need to know. Then if you have a vision, you'll know it's something you need to take seriously.

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.