What is Qabbalah?

There are three different types of Qabalah (Kabalah, Cabalah) with several different spellings of each. The Kabalah (K) is the very strict Hebrew philosophical Kabalah. It frowns upon things like astrology, numerology, tarot and other western mystical elements. It is strictly a philosophy and path of understanding.

The Qabalah (Q) derives it’s basic structure from the Hebrew philosophy, but grafts onto that the western mystical aspects. While it also has a deep philosophical underpinning, it’s knowledge is applied in doing readings and performing other esoteric practices. Occultist such as Crowley, Waite, Mathers and Regardie who belong to mystical orders such as the Golden Dawn engaged in the study and practical application of Qabalah. This is the one that we also embrace.

The Cabalah (C) was a Christian variation of Kabalah that fell out of favor during the age of enlightenment. It is rarely practiced today.

What are the benefits of combining Tarot with Qabalah?

Tarot is Qabalah, that is the deck is a pictorial representations of  the teachings. But the images and words on a tarot deck are meant to be a metaphor, not to be taken literally. If you don’t have a good basic understanding of the philosophy of Qabalah, then the images can be very misleading. Often a card does not mean at all what you think it means (such as Death or the Tower.)

Approaching Tarot from a Qabalistic point of view also tends to give a much deeper understanding and appreciation of the interpretation. Without understanding the philosophical underpinnings of the deck, many readers only interpret the cards at their most superficial level.

A Tarot reader who is rooted in the philosophy of Qabalah will be more objective and tend to see things in more of a “big picture” way. The cards become energies, of which none is entirely “good” or “bad” in nature. It’s just a need to understand the energies and how to work with them properly that can make them effective in moving our lives forward in a positive way.

Will you tell me bad news?

Well, yes and no.

Denial is never a good long-term strategy. To get to a good place in life, it’s a product of good decisions. And it’s every difficult to make good choices if you are afraid of the truth. We just don’t think we can help you by lying to you.

Having said that, we always say there is no such thing as a bad reading, just bad readers.

A reading should always be helpful and constructive while being honest. Our goal is to either deliver you “good news” or offer you “good advice”, but in all cases it should be a constructive, positive and empowering experience.

Do readings always come true?

We do believe the Tarot and our system works, or we wouldn’t do it. Our practice of Tarot for more than two decades has shown us things that just defy statistical probability (and on a routine basis.) So we definitely believe in the predictive power of the Tarot. (We even have a couple of theories about how we think it works.) But it’s not set in stone.

Life is complicated and dynamic. As with any prediction, things can deviate. And when any reader makes any prediction, they are talking about “probabilities”, not certainties. When we predict something, what we are really saying is that of all the things that could happen, this is the thing that we believe is the most likely to happen at the time when it is most likely to occur.

But this is not to say Tarot is useless. If I’m going to put time, energies and resources into something I want to know it has a good chance of succeeding. I also want any information that will allow me to be more efficient in working with the situation, possibly increasing the chances of success.

The weatherman makes predictions on your television every day. He’ll say there is an 80% chance of rain. Some days, the 20% is true and it doesn’t rain for whatever reason. Doesn’t mean weather forecasting is a waste of time, or that you wouldn’t be wise to take your umbrella.

How much should a reading cost?

Someone who we respect once said; about the same as a good haircut.
We don’t feel the need to overcharge for our work. And we fell what some readers charge is truly outrageous. But we’ve also put a lot of time and energy into studying the Tarot. And doing readings can be exhausting, particularly at our age. So we do feel the need to charge a very fair price for our services, but not too extravagant. (In fact, many of our clients tell us we are undervaluing our services – but we charge a price we feel comfortable with.

Last thoughts?

If a reader tells you that you have a curse and they can fix it, RUN…

If you are thinking about getting a reading and would like to talk to us further, please contact us. We are happy to talk to people about what we do.