Talkin' Tarot with Wes Berg

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.

A few years back, I was teaching a tarot workshop in Minneapolis. One of the participants was obviously adept at reading the cards – and probably could have been leading the class. That person was Wes Berg, a soft-spoken, kindly man. Since that time, I’ve gotten to know Wes a bit better and I’ve actively encouraged him to go pro. I can spot tarot talent – and I am also good at sensing when someone has a big heart.

Wes has begun to take his work out into the world on a larger scale with awesome Card of the Day posts on YouTube and Instagram. His work is practical, intelligent, and focused on inspiring people to live their best lives. Watch these videos and you can see his passion for tarot – and his compassion – shining through. The world is always in need of good tarot talent and I think Wes is bringing some fabulous new energy to the industry.

People who have worked with him are raving about him. If you want to see what the fuss is about, check out his videos or book a reading. He may be in the early stages of his business but it won’t be long before that buzz makes Wes a popular, busy reader. Get in his world now before he blows up big time.

Bio:

Wes Berg has been reading tarot cards since 1992. What began with an interest in tarot and meditation quickly evolved into a spiritual and metaphysical journey that also included energy healing and conduit work. These practices accompanied him as he adventured his way through the world, spending time in Minneapolis, San Francisco and Paris, finally settling in St. Paul, MN in 2001. Over the next several years, he finished a BA in English, met and married the love of his life, went back to school to complete a degree in nursing and start a career as an RN. In 2016, he began reading professionally by word of mouth referral. He recently created an online presence to offer his skills as a reader to the world at large. He is known for readings that are insightful and informative, and engaging clients with guidance from tarot and his psychic connections. When Wes isn’t reading tarot or reading about tarot, he enjoys spending time with his sweetie and traveling as often as possible.

You can find her at all these mighty fine social media hubs:

Instagram: Wes Berg Tarot
YouTube: Wes Berg Tarot
Website: Wes Berg Tarot
FaceBook: Wes Berg Tarot

Check out Wes’s answers to my questions below:

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Q: What is your philosophy about tarot reading?

Wes: I like helping people, and I found reading tarot is a way that I can do that. I like how readings can be a great way to mirror back to us where we are at mentally, emotionally or spiritually, and how it can offer us clarity and insight into a situation or problem that we bring to the cards. It’s why I continue to read for myself and others.

To read tarot you have to have some fundamental understanding of what the cards mean. There are many ways to find this meaning. However you acquire your definition of the cards, your goal should be to evolve these meanings until they become uniquely your own. The tarot according to you. This is done by connecting your personal experiences with the tarot, giving greater dimension to each card along with a greater depth of potential meaning. This process should be constant and ever evolving.

All the work put into knowing your tarot is what gets applied to a reading. If your tarot knowledge is a ship you build, then readings are your journeys on that ship. Readings give your knowledge purpose. For me, this purpose is about making things clear and easier to understand.

There is a mystical element to tarot. Whether you believe in angels, guides, energy, intuition, the collective unconscious, the cards and nothing but cards, or none of these things, how tarot works is always in some degree unknown. To me, that unknown is where I find the inspiration to use the cards to explore this delicious connection to the world and myself. I love that. When I read tarot, I get to tap into that connection. I get to engage in the mystical, and while I don’t expect clients to feel the same way I do about the cards, I’d like to think that how I approach reading gives them a chance to engage in the mystical as well.

Q: How do you feel a client might get the most out of a reading with you?

Wes: So basically I am a psychic that reads tarot. Which means I bring to the table (literally) my years of card reading skill and experience, and my ability to connect with all sorts of great energies that can be a part of a client’s reading. One of the ways I prepare for reading is to dial into the energies of some of my ancestors, angels, and others I call members of my council. I set the intention of the reading to offer the greatest possible good to the client, in whatever form is best for them to experience.

I show up to an appointment ready to read the cards and work with the energies that show up to the reading. How successful the reading will be depends a lot on how open the client is to this experience.
Clients who show up open and ready to engage themselves with their reading will get the most out of it. If you show up really guarded or closed off and don’t want to participate in the reading, you probably won’t get a lot out of it.

It’s always helpful to show up to a reading with thought out questions or specific subjects you wish to get a reading on. If you’re feeling stuck mentally or emotionally with a problem or situation, sometimes forming a question about it can be difficult. If you can’t articulate a question, it’s OK. In these situations, I recommend setting an intention of what you want to get from your reading. This can be just as helpful in preparing for a reading as having created good questions.

Q: What is your best piece of advice for an aspiring Tarot reader?

Wes: There’s a lot of good advice out there for new readers. Here’s what comes to mind for me to share:

Practice, always practice when you can. Practice promotes fluency, and with fluency comes the confidence to read the cards as you see them, as you understand them. As that confidence grows, you rely less on other people’s definition of the cards and more on your own connection with them. This confidence also frees up energy that you can apply towards an actual reading. You move from seeing the cards as being little monoliths of meaning to more like the elements of a narrative that you apply to a reading.

The more you practice readings for yourself and others, the more your life experiences begin to inform your understanding of the cards. You find yourself thinking tarot thoughts, seeing people and experiences as a scene or a process from a card in the deck. It’s like building a tarot specific vocabulary; the more words you acquire, the more choices you have to communicate what you see in a reading. All of this strengthens your ability to give readings, and to connect more effectively what the cards are saying for the client or yourself.

There a lot of different ways you can read the cards. The spectrum of types of tarot card readers is an interesting one. On one end, you have psychics who use tarot cards as touchpoints in their transmissions, and embrace a deliberate fluidity about a card’s presence and meaning. On the other end, you have readers who focus their skills on solely reading the cards, emphasizing precision and function of the card’s presence, putting little to no stock in “intuition”. Most readers fall somewhere in between these two poles, utilizing a combination of intuition and knowledge of the cards to create readings that are significant and meaningful. Part of the journey of learning tarot is learning where you are on this spectrum. All points on this spectrum are valid, and all types of readers have the ability to make accurate and relevant readings for people. As long as you approach tarot and readings with integrity, however you end up reading is the right way for you.

One of the more challenging things I had to figure out when I started reading for other people is that I don’t have to understand exactly what it is I’m reading for a client. As long as it makes sense to the client, it doesn’t have to make 100% complete sense to me. Being able to talk about things without that kind of certainty takes trust in yourself and your skill as a reader. The more you read for others, the more you build that trust. As long as the client has gotten some insight or clarity, you have fulfilled your role as the reader.

I’ll end with this: keep learning. The tarot world is big, and there are many great people out there contributing to the community. I read books and blogs, and make an effort to contribute by following other readers and authors. I encourage every aspiring and practiced tarot reader to do the same. I am constantly finding new approaches and insight into tarot, always discovering another facet on the gem. So keep learning. You can’t go wrong!

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High fives to Wes for sharing his wisdom today. Get to know him and book your reading right here.

Blessings!

Theresa