True Spirituality with Ange Ange de Lumiere

In this tarot series, we first looked at whether the tarot is evil or dangerous, then we looked at how to get the best tarot reading with a professional and we are now going to dive into what you need to know to do a reading for yourself, starting with choosing your first deck. Look at it as a tarot for beginners crash course.

Tarot decks always have 78 cards. If you buy a deck that has less cards, it's an oracle deck, which I will cover in a different episode. These cards are split in two groups: The major arcana and the minor arcana. There are 22 major arcana that usually follow the same pattern, starting with the fool (card 0) and ending with the World (Card 21). Major arcanas usually have their number and name on them, particularly in the Rider-Waite deck, which is the gold standard for learning.

How to choose your deck? I would recommend you choose it intuitively. Yet, at the same time, I recommend the Rider-Waite for learning. So maybe have two decks. My favourite deck is the Light Seer's Deck because it is more inclusive because the Rider-Waite is white washed and heteronormative.

Once you receive your deck, you need to both cleanse it and dedicate it. I describe in the episode how to cleanse your deck with the sun. There are of course many different methods that are available on the internet. A lot of them involve crystals or smudging sticks. I prefer to keep things simple but if you want to use your crystals or incense, knock yourself out.

Dedication: why is that important? It will set the tone for the kind of guidance you receive. Some people like to have their arse kicked, others prefer gentle guidance. I like my guidance to be uplifting, useful and inspiring. Take a little time to reflect on what you want.

There are two ways to read the tarot: if you read cards literally, you don't need to be clairvoyant to do so. This means that everybody can read the cards for themselves, psychic or not. I think it's a good thing.

In the episode I teach you one way to use your deck to get yes/no answers with just one card. I would rather you listen to the episode to hear all my instructions as there many parts to it but if you are in a rush, you pull one card. It is upright, it's a yes. If it is reversed, it's a no.

At the end of the day, the power of tarot cards lie in their symbology, mostly what things mean to you. Because of this, I encourage you to sign up for my Treasure Hunt where you will learn how to find and interpret signs. Plus if you are an entrepreneur, particularly in the online service industry, I will share how to start thinking about a powerful three or five day challenge you could run. Here is the link to sign up.

Last, here are the top five mistakes people do when they read the tarot so you can try to avoid them:

Doing a reading when you feel low or vulnerable Using your deck in a space that is not safe Asking the same question until you get the answer that you want Asking the wrong question Think the answer you get is set in stone
I can teach you the tarot one to one if you want for £199 a month (at the time of the recording of this episode). If you would like to find out more, book a discovery call with me with this link. Making sure you learn with the right mentor is incredibly important so let's chat.

Before we get into the meat of today's episode, I have a special announcement: The Treasure Hunt is back. Sign up with this link to receive the link to the group where I run it. If you read these show notes or listen to the episode after June 2024, don't worry, you can still sign up for the next round. I run my treasure hunt several times a year. 
Last week, we established that tarot is not evil. This week, I want to help you make the most of a reading with a tarot reader. This advice applies to all kind of intuitive or psychic readers, though, not just tarot readers. 
There are four steps to getting the best tarot reading for you:
Step 1: Choose your reader carefully
If you are going to a reader, you are likely to be in a vulnerable state, make sure you are going to someone who is ethical, has values that match yours, and preferably who is recommended. The later is not always possible, nor is it a guarantee that this reader is right for you. Use discernment. In the episode, I also list the red flags that should make you very cautious about a reader. 
Step 2: Prepare for the reading
Do some journaling, or at least reflect on where you are in life and what you want out of that reading. Ask yourself, how you want to feel by the end of the reading. And have a goal. Prepare some questions and reflect on the quality of the questions you have written down. Try to choose open questions such as how, why, when or what, rather than yes or no questions. 
Step 3: The reading itself
The advice for the actual reading is to make sure you are in a good headspace. If you can, don't fit your reading in a busy day so that you have time before and after to ground yourself and process what you have been told. Ask ahead of time to receive guidance from the deepest of love, the highest of intention and the highest of good. It's important. Also, don't freak out if you get the death card. Let your reader tell you what they think it means, even if you read the tarot yourself. 
Step 4: After the reading (preferably right after)
Take some time to unpack, decide what feels right for you and what doesn't, using your intuition and plan so you can act on the reading. But also, remember that there is nothing wrong with getting a second opinion AND it's always YOUR decision. It's your life. Don't put your life in the hands of a stranger, no matter how much you trust or admire them. Most readings will confirm something you already know. 
If you would like a reading with me, my business rates are £300 per hour at the time of this episode. To book click here. If you want a personal reading, I have a special rate that is three times cheaper, but only people who are signed up to my general list can book for personal readings. 

There is a lot of things that religious people find evil and tarot is definitely one of them. The question I want to explore is: are they right? This is the first of a series of episodes on the tarot as I would like to share the wisdom I have acquired about the tarot in the eighteen years that I have been studying and practising as a professional tarot reader.

I started the episode by sharing some definitions of evil and of tarot. I want you to know that as far as I am concerned, people who use the word evil make me edgy. The word makes me edgy. It is linked to immorality and wickedness, but even those two concepts are fluid and mean completely different things to different people. Plus over time, the concept of those things have changed. A hundred years ago, it was considered immoral to be in a same sex relationship. By whose standards? Homosexuality was a crime in Europe. The same people who condemned the LGBT community as perverse had been torturing and killing people for thousands of years in the name of God. Just a little double standard here.

In that time, did the tarot kill or torture anyone? Of course not. This being said, I see the tarot as a tool, not unlike knives. It can harm people, either the reader or the querent, if not used properly, so it should always be used with caution.

In the episode, I also explore the origins of tarot and mention a booked called The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, specifically chapter five of that book. It puts the whole original of tarot in an entirely different context and actually explains why the Catholic Church, which, at the time of the Inquisition, was trying to establish its authority over the Church of Amor and was ready to do anything to take over the ultimate power. That is why it condemned the tarot as heretic. I am sure you will find what I share in the episode fascinating.

I then go on to share the seven biggest myths around the tarot, which I will list here briefly:

You can only be given a deck of tarot, and should not buy your own You have to be psychic to read the tarot You must never read for yourself Tarot is evil If you charge of your readings, you get bad karma Tarot tells you about your future You should not have more than one reading per year
I expand on each of these myths, so that you understand what is false and what is true, because there are a lot of false information circulating about the tarot. I trained both with a local psychic medium who was a professional tarot reader and the Tarot School of New York. I even taught classes for people who wanted to learn the tarot, in person for a year. I now offer one to one online tuitions within my Get it Done package, for £199 a month (price valid at the time of the recording of this episode and subject to change). It's both a series of training videos plus me mentoring you as you learn and answering all of your questions. To secure your package, use this link.

Nimisha's story of how she came to be a mindfulness teacher is memorable. About ten years ago, she was not able to perform her job as a surgeon, due to not being able to enter the operating theatre. She felt physically sick when she approached it. Her boss forced her to take some time off and had her go through a battery of tests to find out what was going on. They found nothing wrong with her body.
But she often had friends and family comment on how high strung she was. She thought it was a good thing as it allowed her to be at the top of her game as a surgeon, until it wasn't. Friends suggested yoga, but she refused. She wasn't prepared to change her personality to make other people comfortable. She liked who she was. She needed that edge to be a good surgeon.
At the end of the two week vacation she took to get better, she finally gave in to her husband's suggestion to try meditation because she wasn't getting any better. She took medication for her upset tummy, but it wasn't working. She had cut off tea and coffee, which was huge for her as she would drink an average seven to eight cups a day, so trying meditation felt easy. Besides, at that point, she was ready to try anything because she loved her work and wanted to get back to it.
It is at that point that she came across a book called 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works - A True Story, by Dan Harris. And she thought, why not. Who doesn't want to be happier. She also liked that the promise of the book was not grandiose. The author was also a high strung person, which appealed to Nimisha, even though he was an American white male and she was an Indian brown woman. She could relate to the war reporter in him in ways she could never relate to people wearing white robes with serene smiles. What happened next was miraculous. She was able to go back to the operating theatre and resume her former life.
At that point in her life, she called her practice meditation. She had an app and would religiously get on with her meditation daily. But as she slipped back into her life, she became complacent and her practice slipped. Her family noticed right away as she was cranky on days she did not meditate. Even her mother, who was raised a Roman Catholic and who is afraid of the idea of meditation, noticed.
And then there was to be a part two to her journey when she became a mother and started to struggle with issues of anger. Sadly, the meditation did not seem to help because she hadn't accepted yet that all emotions are welcome. She was resisting the anger. She just wanted the joy of being a mum. That is when she shifted from meditation to mindfulness and radical acceptance.
Non judgment became a big part of her new practice.
To find out more about her, head over to her website. Find her on Instagram. To download her free mindfulness journal, click here.

The most prominent teacher of the Law of Attraction is Esther Hicks, who channels a collective of souls called Abraham. When I first came across her book, Ask and It Is Given, I could not go past chapter one. It went against so many of the beliefs I had been taught by my parents that I could not digest its content. It actually took me years to go past chapter one. I would try, fail and put the book down. Then try again, fail again, and put the book down again. And then one day, years after my first attempt (and possibly as long as ten years after that first attempt), I was ready. I read the whole book.
One of the reasons I could not go past chapter one is that it starts, straight off the bat, with the following words "We are called Abraham and we are speaking to you from the non physical dimension". I had been to several psychics for readings at that point, and some had passed on messages from my grand mother and grand father, but somehow this was one step further on the bizarre experience and I could not seem to go past past.
The principles I was raised with were: Work hard, stay disciplined and be patient. It went further than that. As a child, I was discouraged from asking what I wanted by a mother who almost as soon as I asked for something made sure I understood that it was the best way not to get it. So I learnt never to ask for what I wanted. Throw in a couple of birthdays where I didn't get what I wanted and my belief that I should not bother to ask for what I want, and just be grateful for what I have was cemented. I was definitely never exposed to the idea that I create my own reality. Ever.
Here are my nine steps to manifesting:
Be clear on what you want
Identify the fears you have around what you want
Clear the fears you have identified in step 2
Have a plan to get what you want and take action
Revise the plan on a regular basis
Be realistic
Surround yourself with supportive people
Acknowledge the smallest successes along the way
Never compare yourself to anyone else
This sounds simple in theory but it is a lot more difficult to implement so head over to the podcast to actually listen to the episode as I share example and tips for each of these steps. In the podcast, I also unpack a little bit how we all start at different points so it's important to acknowledge that and to extend a helping hand to people who don't have as much privilege as we do. I also mention my True Prosperity course on Thinkific. If you want to find out more about it, click here.

Messianism is the belief in the advent of a Messiah who acts as a savior of a group of people. It is at the core of Christianity, the Messiah being Jesus Christ.
You may say that this idea does not apply to you because you are not religious but if the dominant culture of the country you were born in rests on Messianism, then it is likely that it forms part of your core beliefs, albeit unconscious. It's likely to have seeped into books, films and songs and having shaped your thinking, even if you are not aware of it. 
In the episode I share an example of how my mother, even though she is an atheist, believed that I would go to hell because she has internalized one of those beliefs. 
Why is Messianism problematic? First, because it usually claims that only the people who adhere to that religion will be saved by their Messiah, which is problematic in itself. But also because it relies on the principle that humans need to be saved and personally I think it strips them of personal responsibility. It also carries the idea that there is something intrinsically wrong with us, and I find that toxic. Don’t get me wrong, living in the illusion that we are perfect is equally as toxic. What’s wrong with just being human and radically accepting ourselves as we are? 
Messianism is present in most traditional religions. We have already talked about Christianity, but it can also be found in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and even Taoism. 
Look around and you can also see, if you live in the Western world that our culture has a cult for superheroes, and yet these superheroes often carry a message of toxic masculinity, a justification for violence and a binary vision of the world where there are the good and the bad people. Or good or bad things happening, and of course the person who defines good or bad is usually from the dominant culture. 
Modern psychologists have recognized the unhealthy pattern at play, so much so that they have coined a complex around it: the Messiah complex. In a milder form, it presents as the White Knight Complex, but not less toxic. The reason I feel we need to be very careful around these ideas is that they pave the way for both authoritarianism and domestic abuse. 
To join the discussion in my group, click here https://www.facebook.com/groups/461328731985193