There is no better time to seek a little inner guidance than now. Beth Leas, who has been dedicated to transformative healing practices for decades, will present an interactive virtual experience with tarot cards on August 5 through the Vineyard Haven library. The cards can be a powerful tool you can use to develop your intuition, deepen your meditation practice, and increase your self-awareness. I spoke with Leas for a sneak preview.
I’m curious. How do you use tarot cards for inner transformation?
I approach the tarot probably in a different way than most people think, which is as fortunetelling and looking into the future. I use the tarot more for a tool for transformation. There’s a Carl Jung quote, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.” To me, that’s the power of the tarot. The images in the cards speak to your subconscious in a way that allows things to bubble up to the surface. Then you can change your perspective in the way you see things. The power in that is you can draw a trajectory from your past to where you are now and see where you’re headed in the future. But we have free will, and the choices we make in the present, even small choices, can change that trajectory in a really powerful way.
Can you share about how you believe the cards speak to our subconscious?
I think we live at the surface of our life a lot. So our fears and our motives aren’t necessarily on the surface, but way underneath. When you bring those things up to be looked at, those things we keep hidden and submerged in our lives, you can operate from a different place.
How does that literally happen with the cards?
There are thousands and thousands of different tarot decks, with different images and symbolism on them. But the way I use them is to have people pull a card from the deck and look at it and ask, What does that image say to you? How does it speak to you? It’s like going to an art museum and looking at art on the wall. How do you feel about that? You and I can both be looking at that same card and have a completely different perspective on it. Another quote I really like is, “It’s not what you look at but what you see.” What I see as a really fabulous card and feel really positive about, you might feel, I’m so afraid of that. It’s two sides of the same coin. What’s important is what you see in it, because it evokes something for you. Then we talk about what that could be.
What will we be doing at the event?
I will invite people who have tarot cards to bring them to the Zoom call. I will also have lots of different decks, and I can pull cards for people. You can come with a question or come as a blank slate. We’ll talk about what you see in the cards. People can speak in metaphor, so they don’t have to reveal anything they don’t want to. It will be very interactive.
What would you like readers to know?
There are no bad cards. It’s like in life, things aren’t good or bad. They just are. It’s all about how you look at things, perspective. I want people to come curious. They can be skeptical. It’s going to be a fun interactive, powerful evening.
Email amcdonough@clamsnet.org to register for Beth Leas’ “Intuitive Tarot: 78 Keys to Transformation” on Wednesday, August 5, at 6 pm on Zoom. To learn more about Leas, visit bethleas.com.
