I don’t use the Tarot to make predictions. I find that the best use of the cards is for obtaining advice from a place of inner wisdom that I call the Higher Self. Most often I use the cards to get advice on practical questions that come up in everyday life, and it is often surprising to see how the images on the cards adapt themselves to the situation. Here is one recent example, but first I need to supply some background.  

For the past sixty years I have followed a pescatarian diet. A pescatarian is someone who adds fish and seafood to a vegetarian diet. During these years I also consistently exercised with weights. About ten years ago I was told that I have high blood pressure, so I switched to a vegan diet; a diet totally based on pant foods not food derived from animals; and this helped to lower my blood pressure. Occasionally I still eat fish when traveling or on holidays, but I no longer use eggs, butter, or cheese.   

As I mentioned, I have been working-out with weights since I was a teenager. Six years ago, I entered a powerlifting competition, and because I was in my seventies, with little competition in my age category, a won a metal for the deadlift. Then Covid happened, and to avoid contagion, I stopped going to the gym. I have continued working out at home but only with light weights. Recently, I rejoined the gym to workout with my friend Bill, who is a personal trainer, and he wants me to enter a competition again. This is requiring longer workouts with heaver weights. My strength has not declined much, but I don’t have the same endurance. After a long workout I felt exhausted later that day and on the next day.

This is a picture of me practicing the deadlift in the gym six years ago:

My wife, Rose Ann, suggested that for my recovery I might need animal protein on the days that I workout. So, I did a Tarot reading to ask my Higher Self if it was a good idea to eat more fish. I did a three-card layout with my Alchemical Tarot. The three cards are meant to be read as one message. They seem to be directing me to read them from left to right. Here is a picture of the reading:  

On my left I see the Queen of Staffs. She offers me a choice between the bronze torch or staff in her right hand and the raw wooden torch in her left hand. This symbolizes a choice between what is refined and what is unrefined. Rose Ann quickly pointed out that my vegan diet is a refinement of my pescatarian diet. Therefore, moving toward the unrefined torch on my right would mean going back to the pescatarian diet.    

Continuing to my right, I see the Moon card, depicting Dianna forcefully walking in the same direction. This is what I wrote about this card in my book, “The Moon represents the night before the dawn, a time of patience, rest, and reflection. The card may simply represent a need for sleep or recuperation, but she is also in a state or expectation, waiting for her lover, the Sun, to join her at dawn.” Recuperation is certainly what I need, but is she just saying that I need more sleep? However, the Queen suggested that she represents the pescatarian diet, and then I remembered that Diana is also the Goddess of the hunt; a role that is more obvious in my new Reimagined Alchemical Tarot Moon card where she is walking with her hunting hounds and holding her bow and arrow. She is certainly looking for animal protein.

Diana is walking toward the third card, the Ace of Staffs, Aces represent a new beginning, and Staffs are associated with the element fire and energy, New energy is exactly what I need, It seems that my Higher Self agrees with Rose Ann.   

Here is the same layout with my new Alchemical Tarot Reimagined:

Robert M. Place