Talkin’ Tarot With Mike Hernandez

Talkin’ Tarot With is a monthly feature designed to introduce my readers to different tarot readers from our wonderfully diverse community!  Each month, I’ll be asking various tarot readers 3 questions about their tarot philosophy and style, plus pointing you to their websites and blogs so that you can learn more about them!  I like to hand pick tarot readers that I feel are talented and interesting.

I am very conscious of the vibrations that surround people.  Although I am not always able to see auras, I feel them.  And at last year’s Readers Studio, one person stood out from the crowd with a strong and positive vibe.  There was something about Mike Hernandez that caught my eye and my attention.  He had a constant smile on his face and he just oozed “goodness”.  I was fortunate to be able to sit next to him at a morning roundtable discussion and chat with him briefly – and knew right off the bat that this vibe was genuine.  Mike was kind, intelligent and warm.  To me, these qualities make a very good tarot reader.

Since that time, I have watched Mike blossom in the tarot community with his blog and his appearances on Blog Talk Radio shows such as Beyond Worlds.  His talent shines through and so does his compassionate nature.  I named him “The Tarot Reader To Watch” in my “Best of Tarot 2010” post – and as more people get to know him, they’ll see he is definitely one to keep an eye on.

Mike Hernandez comes from a family of psychically-gifted individuals. His specialty is the Tarot, and his adept readings enable him to provide you with knowledge, Spiritual guidance, and peace of mind that can help you with a variety of issues and concerns, such as decisions, choices and options, relationships, travel, work, your inner self, and your current path.

Mike is the conduit between Spirit, the Universe and you – the message he gives you will certainly contain information that Spirit and the Universe want you to know, and it will empower you to see and think more clearly about the issues at hand. Via the Tarot, Mike intuitively receives the message, interprets and processes it dispassionately and without personal prejudice or bias, and then conveys it to you as clearly, accurately, and compassionately as possible.  Mike is currently working on a tarot book on topics relevant to readers currently moving from a basic to intermediate level of expertise.  He is also continuing work on a series of Tarot classes that he currently presents around the greater Bellevue/Seattle metro area.  Mike has also been published in Tarosophist magazine and continues to write about – what else – tarot!

Visit www.JustEnoughTarot.com to learn more about Mike and his readings, and check out his calendar to see his schedule of upcoming appearances. You can also find him on Facebook.

Check out his answers to my questions below:

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1.  What is your philosophy about tarot reading?

I have a very simple philosophy regarding the Tarot. I believe that the Tarot is a great and wonderful tool that enables you to gain the following from the Great Spirit and the Universe:

·         Knowledge. The Tarot can provide the knowledge you need to make spiritually informed decisions on issues that impact your life. Rather than give you step-by-step directions on what you should do for a given issue, it instead provides you with information about energies, people, situations, and personal qualities (physical, mental, intellectual and energetic) that may be causing or affecting the issue at hand. You can then analyze how your current state of being fits within the context of this information and then determine what you believe you need to do to resolve the issue as appropriate.

·         Guidance. The Tarot can provide you with the guidance you need to walk and work through your life’s path more effectively and smoothly. It can indicate what lessons you’re going through just now and what you may still need to learn. It can help you learn how to let go of that which you no longer need, how to gain that which will be beneficial to you, and how to move towards that which will help you live a more fulfilling life.

·         Wisdom. The Tarot can provide you with wisdom that will enable you to become a better person. It can help you get in touch with your true inner self, help you appreciate and incorporate the wisdom of the ages, inspire you to set high standards, and help you develop a solid connection with the Universe.

I have these precepts in my mind whenever I do a reading. My philosophy also includes having the strength and integrity to do what is in the best interests and the greatest good for my clients, always using the Tarot as a tool to help them realize their highest purpose.

2.  How do you feel a client might get the most out of a reading with you?

A client can get the most out of a reading with me by being completely willing to be read and being absolutely open-minded to whatever message the Tarot might have to offer. I typically request that the person for whom I’m reading tell me very little or nothing at all about why he or she is there to see me. As long as that person is open to being read and has an open mind, I can always get a good, clear, accurate reading on what the Universe wants him or her to know at that point in time. It’s been pretty fantastic so far. It never ceases to amaze me just how accurate the Tarot can be what it can and does reveal during a given reading.

I always remind clients that the message from the reading is strictly for them, not for me; I have absolutely no vested interest in the outcome. As such, a client can agree with the reading, disagree with the reading, think that I’m the world’s greatest Tarot reader or think that I’ve completely missed the boat and don’t know what I’m talking about. In any case, I don’t take anything personally because, again, the message is for them, not me. They have the free will to act or not act upon the information they’ve received from the reading.

3.  What is your best piece of advice for an aspiring tarot reader?

Learn to read and tell the story the cards reveal. When you do a reading, state exactly what first comes to your mind at that point in time, no matter how funny, weird or unusual it may be to you, and try your best to weave it into a complete, cohesive story. It doesn’t matter at all if the keyword, phrase or description that comes to mind for a given card does not fit any of those you’ve learned from books, classes, mentors, or anyone else. In the end, it’s what your intuition says it is that really matters, coupled with how the card struck you in context with the other cards around it.

Context is very important. As you know, every traditional spread has a position meaning for each card. For example, in a “Past, Present, Future” spread, Card 1 is the “Past”, Card 2 is the “Present” and Card 3 is the “Future”. At some point, you’ll have to learn how to disregard a positional meaning and just interpret the card intuitively. Why? Because there will be times when the way a card strikes you just won’t fit within the meaning of the position it is in within the spread. (At that point trying to make it fit would be like trying to make a round peg fit into a square hole.) The best thing to do then would be to determine how the meaning you have for that card fits within the context of the meanings of the other cards in the spread.

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Big thanks to Mike for taking time to answer my questions!  Mike will be a guest on my Blog Talk Radio Show on April 17th – be sure to tune in and learn more about him!  You can also check out Mike’s website and blog for more info.  And Mike also does business consulting for those in the metaphysical world.  Learn more about those services here.

Blessings!

Theresa