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Sometimes I run into a situation with a client where the answer simply isn't making itself known. When that happens, I turn to the clarification card technique.

This isn't something I developed. I learned it a long time ago from a beautiful witch in Toledo. Lady Lhianna taught me that sometimes

There are just some combinations you should never do. Like inviting Aunt Tessie's ex-best friend and new husband who just happens to be Uncle Jack formerly of Jack and Tessie. Or pajamas with hiking boots. Or like bringing the wrong Tarot decks to a public event. Yep, I think there are some things that would be flat-out wrong to bring. Consider the social pitfalls of housewives and zombies and brides for instance.

I like to have choices. With close to 300 decks, I have a lot of choices when gathering things up to work an event. Recently I was packing up to work a bridal shower. I had to figure out which decks to take.

Not to date myself, but I remember when we didn't have answering machines. Now I let almost everything go to voice mail. Before though, I had to stop and decide if I wanted to answer the phone. I can see some of you scratching your heads...what on earth does an answering machine or lack thereof have to do with Tarot? Well, sometimes I do that with my Tarot readings too. I just let my inner answering machine take over.

There are cards in the tarot that, for me, have instant meanings. Those are the ones that are so embedded in my brain that they seem automatic. But that may not be the best answer for my querent. They may require a bit more than a rote Tarot reading. So sometimes I like to turn my brain upside down so I can't do the auto-answer. I yank myself out of that Tarot rut I can sometimes get into when I'm doing endless readings.

It's not fair to my client. They don't know I had three people before them asking similar questions. They aren't to blame for my reaction. But I cannot drop into automatic mode. I have to prevent my inner answering machine from picking up.

Here are just two ways to kick yourself out of the "that always means" rote reading technique. I'd love to hear your own if you have some as well.

1. Odd Fellows

By using a deck I'm not familiar with, I have to back up and take another look. I've been loving two self-published decks lately that really force me to let go of the automatic and search out the intuitive answer.

From the Wild Unknown Tarot, this Six of Swords is not your typical dude rowing a boat. Nor is the image of Scathach as the Six of Air from the Dark Goddess one I can immediately see the "moving from troubled times to calmer places" meaning I have tattooed into my brain.

I have to stop. I have to become more present in my Tarot reading.

When I put the two with the Rider Smith Waite (Radiant) Six of Swords, I see color similarities immediately. In a way, my desire to let go of the old meanings for the new is represented by the meaning of this card.

2. Same Old, Same Old

It used to be able to be said that the system known as Tarot is completely unrelated to paganism. Many of the symbols are Christian and there is a tie to the Catholic Church. I could argue that Tarot is an essentially secretive, coded system designed for an esoteric following. And that may have been true up until the early 1900's when knowledge began to shake loose from the tight-lipped orders of that time. With the advent of A.E. Waite's The Pictorial Key To Tarot, things began to shift.

Now it can be said that Tarot is a useful tool for pagans as well as other paths. Where before only Christ was on the cross for the Hanged Man and the High Priestess represented Sophia, wife of God, now we have more flexibility.