A colleague recently interviewed me for her boot camp students, who are working on developing their intuition. She wanted the focus of the interview with me to be on how dreams have played such a huge role in my work with the Tarot and how that work has evolved into the coaching and consulting business it is now.

During the interview, I realized that a lot of my coaching and consulting clients, while working with me, will often ask the same question: “How did you get into this line of work?”

So, if you’re visiting for the first time, or maybe you’ve spent some time reading posts and watching videos here before, and are wondering the same thing, I want to share the story I did in the interview.

Sharing the Dream: Ripped from My Dream Journal

During a period in my life where I was having a lot of precognitive dreams (dreams that foretell future events), I had this dream, which I share exactly as I recorded it in my dream journal:

Date of Dream: July 7, 1998

Dream Title: The Cards

I am telling my own fortune, seeing the future through the cards. The cards I am using are playing cards. I cannot make out entirely what the cards are saying. I continue with the process of laying out the cards, turning them over on top of one another, and studying them.

My Interpretation of the Dream

I found this dream interesting, right from the start, as I’d never used playing cards in this manner in waking life. Doing some research, I found out that playing cards are a descendant of Tarot cards. I discovered the Joker, from the playing card deck, is equated to be the Fool from the Tarot.

Going back to the dream, I looked at the actions taking place. The first phrase to catch my attention was “telling my own fortune.” This is the role I was playing in the dream: I was a fortune-teller. I then associated, that, in waking life, we make our own fortunes, based on our beliefs, attitudes, and the choices we make.

The next phrase that caught my attention was “seeing the future through the cards.” The phrase “seeing the future” has an implication of being what is known as a precognitive, a person who can see future events. This had already been demonstrated with the precognitive dreams I had had up to this point in time.

Connecting “through the cards” to this association, I took it to mean this would be a way to aid in working with this ability in waking life, as all my previous precognitions had come to me while in an unconscious state (sleeping).

The next phrase, “I cannot make out entirely what the cards are saying,” suggests some difficulty with this process. Immediately following is “I continue with the process,” which is encouragement; it is saying that while the process (reading the cards) may be difficult, I need to continue on, not to be daunted.

The last phrase to catch my attention was “studying them.” I took this to mean that reading the cards would be something I would be studying in waking life.

How I Took Action on the Dream

I mentioned the dream had a profound impact on my life. What happened after the dream was that I began reading about the Tarot. I went to the public library, which was close to my home, and checked out the only book on Tarot that was there. I didn’t purchase my first Tarot deck until seven months later. I began studying and reading the Tarot for myself the next few years, as the dream indicated. It wasn’t until a synchronistic event took place in my life that I began to read for others.

When I go back to this dream, it made sense in another way. That first deck, as it turned out, was a challenge for me to work with, as were the playing cards in the dream. I pressed on though, as the dream had advised. Some time later, I purchased a second deck. When I got this deck, reading became so much easier for me. What a difference a deck makes!

And that was how I was led to the Tarot. Since that dream, Tarot has shown up in many of my dreams over the years. Some dreams have featured meanings of the cards for me to use. Some dreams have shown me ways to read the cards with clients. And some dreams have shown me how to use the Tarot in my own personal work and study of the cards.

How the Dream is Active in My Life Now

The beauty about the dream is that, even after all these years, it continues to play out. Over the course of this week, I have been having a very strong urge to consult playing cards—just like in the dream. It has been almost overwhelming. I had the thought: What if I was meant to actually read playing cards? Ideas are coming to me in meditation—and you may have guessed it—in dreams too. And, it just so “happens” that I found a beautiful deck of playing cards amongst the dozens of Tarot decks I have in my collection. So, now, I’m studying and working with playing cards, which is called cartomancy. In time, I’m sure I will be posting more about this work, most likely in my “Coaching by the Cards” column.

I wanted to share this dream with you, not only to tell my story, but to also show you how dreams can play out in your life—not just in the moment, but in the years after its initial appearance.

Let my story inspire you to live the life of your dreams…but first, you have to acknowledge them, strive to understand them, and apply them to your life.

Your partner in following your dreams,

 

 

For more about my work with dreams, please visit my Dream Decoder Coaching page. For more about my work with the Tarot, please visit my Tarot Consultations page.