FORESIGHT- IF YOU HAD IT, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?

Foresight. If you had it what would you do with it?

There's a lot of people that subscribe to our newsletter that, through one method or another, claim to be able to see into the future, to have the "gift" of foresight, and for all I know this is completely true. I can only vouch for a few which I know first hand. Yet that wasn't always the case...

In 2012 I took some time away from the art table and started to put a few chapters together of a book about the spiritual gifts that people claim to have. Unfortunately I was never able to complete the book. Life got in the way. I met Christine and made plans to bring her to live with me in Ireland and so my book got set to the side.

Anyway, I'd taken some time away from doing art and my brother and I would attend psychic fairs, we attended Reiki sessions with an elderly lady who lived near the woods. We even met Sharon Neill, the UK's only blind psychic medium after reading her book Second Sight. We met her in her home, but also Irish psychic fairs.

We attended Derek Acorah events and even someone called the Native American Princess, who did the local circuits. Silly me, I thought she would, at the very least, be an American. Rather she put on some bronzer and had a thick Irish accent. I even attended the Tarot Association of the British Isles Tarot meet up in 2011 (my first and only Tarot event)

Yet I came away from much of these events disillusioned. So disillusioned in fact that I wondered if I should ever produce Tarot deck imagery again.

I didn't like the idea of people charging upwards of 50 or 60 dollars per 20 minute

reading and not knowing how to even read the cards; maybe even doing more damage than good. I saw elderly women walking away from readings distraught, sometimes even in tears and thought "Should I be contributing to this with my art?" Then again, for all I knew the reader was delivering the truth. Tears didn't necessarily mean a "bad" reading in the sense that it's not accurate. Yet going on my own experience with some of these readers, they could not read me at all. Some psychics even felt brave enough to name names of my family members etc, but I never understood this braveness when they must've known there was a high chance it would be inaccurate. (Since they always were). I wanted to believe, but I needed to be convinced...

I then met Christine and she told me the story of how there was someone she knew and was quite close to who had secretly planned to commit suicide one night, but who decided to visit a reader by the name of Mrs White in Rhode Island. When Mrs White read in the cards that she had planned to commit suicide and told her not to do it, the person was shocked. Mrs White was able to go into detail about her life, naming the names of the people in her life and so on.

Twenty years later she's happily married and enjoying life.

(Above is Mrs White's residence in Rumford, Rhode Island) Since then I've heard a few optimistic stories like this and I came to the conclusion that illustrating decks of cards can have a noble purpose.

I've had readings from a small number of people in my life. A woman called Doire who lives a few miles away foresaw a relationship with Christine a few weeks after I met Christine online (I had not met her in person at that point) She was actually able to give a name.

I've had readings from Chanel (co-creator of Simply Deep and King's Journey) who, with using the King's Journey deck, was able to foresee that I would meet a friend who I hadn't met in over 10-15 years and we'd have drinks together. I remember telling her at the time that this was impossible. I'd lost communication with everyone from my school days. She told me that the time frame would be "in the next two weeks". Sure enough I was at a bar, and a guy tapped me on the shoulder and said "Jimmy, long time no see". It was my friend James Fleming who i'd not seen in 15 years. I'm not sure how he recognised me as I had much longer hair, facial hair, and had aged 15 years.

Christine herself has given very accurate predictions but doesn't conduct readings for money (though I wish she would as it would help with the groceries). I am grateful however that she puts all of her Tarot knowledge into the decks we create. She's predicted a lot of things that shortly afterwards, came true in my life. ​ 

​Sometimes this is seeing a new client in my freelance business, and where the person comes from etc, new business opportunities.

Where once I was a bit of a skeptic, I've become a believer. So it makes me wonder. With foresight, what would you do differently? What would you change?

What fascinates me most of all however, is those readers who decide to give a brutally honest reading rather than one that you think your client wants to hear. How honest should a reader be?

I think this is a question that every reader has to answer individually for themselves, on behalf of their clients. Do you do what Mrs White did and tell the client the horrible news that the client is already aware of? Do you deliver the bad news that they are NOT aware of?

A troublesome question I often see in Tarot forums is whether to deliver the bad news that the person their client is in love with is "just not right for them" or the relationship is destined to fail. I can only imagine that there is a little apprehension about delivering bad news to a client. After all, one's wish is to always make their client happy. It's the first thing we learn when we come to conducting most any kind of business. In an ideal world a client would WANT to hear the truth, even if it is not the outcome they would wish to hear.

Looking at this objectively I think many clients seek a reading, not necessarily for an unbiased opinion, but to seek affirmation about a situation. They want to hear their desires and wishes repeated back to them. Romantic relationships, especially, can be sensitive topics and when one is caught up in the feelings of love, they do not want to hear negativity.