The next step is to move on to the middle row of cards – the Present row.
You should have gained enough feedback from your first five or seven cards to give you some idea of how to read these. I tend to follow the cards’ literal meanings, as well as other things I might decide to say. The only thing you must do is relate at least one or two cards to their most important concern.
In the Present row, I like to mention a person or two, if the cards give you anything you can use. If it’s a lady looking for love, then you can talk about a person that they know, the one that they may not have taken seriously enough, who has been thinking of them. I sometimes have asked them to give me a couple of names of the leading contenders. I’ve written each name on a paper, or had the client choose cards to represent these known possible men in their lives. Then I had the client use the pendulum over each, looking for positive responses. This takes some of the
responsibility for these choices away from you, and places it more on the client or the pendulum.
You can bring up an enemy/rival lady or man, and I’ll cover this in some detail when I cover the creation of ‘opposites’.
Another person I use for some people is a mentor, a person that they are probably in contact with now, usually somewhat older and/or more experienced in some area of interest to the client. I suggest that this person, by reason of their own life patterns, is very expert on some phase of this subject. I suggest that if they listen to their mentor’s advice, they might learn some very valuable ideas and points of view that they could use to their advantage.
I may say that this mentor can give them excellent advice, and point out some possible errors now being made by the client, if approached for some advice. This advice could save weeks of hard work, or something like that, for the client. It may be someone that they have previously thought of as bright but too smug, or too
unapproachable, or too uncaring. The client, I say, will be delightfully surprised at how helpful and responsive this person turns out to be.
I am counting on some person near the client, who will, with some new scrutiny, now be seen as more knowledgeable – more helpful possibly – than before.
Some helpful suggestion, made by someone they know, could make the client
remember my words. The client may take the extra step of asking someone for advice that they may not have felt comfortable approaching before. If they do, I am playing the odds that this person – like most humans – will be flattered by the request and really help my client.
You can talk about any of the four standard issues, emphasizing those that got the most response when discussed in the Past row. If you use the standard card meanings, as well, you can give a longer reading.
You can also add a couple “out-of-the-blue” lines (from your soon-to-be discussed psychometrical object).
Keep in mind that young, awkward, twenty-year-old girls may have come to you for the spooky entertainment as much as for any single question, and may not have any heavy problem that they can think of at the moment. They probably haven’t ever had a competent professional read their cards before. When there are questions, they’re usually about insecurities, about living their own lives, parental relationships, finding security, and love. They need common sense and reassurance.
I tell them things like,
“When you come to an important decision between some immediate reward and some long-term goal – always lean toward the long-term goal. You will find that soon you will be ‘in that long term,’ and so this approach is right, almost every single time.”
The general theme of the present depends on the client, of course, but in general, there are tensions. The client is working too hard, and getting too little reward in the form of salary or recognition or appreciation. Attention should be paid to getting a bit more free time to relax, to change their surroundings and get away;
more time to balance the stress of the other parts of their life. (This fits most of us, doesn’t it?) I may mention some minor car problem – or some appliance breaking down at home in this row.
Other possibilities are …
• Strained relationships
• Too much worry
• A recent impulsive purchase
• The recent hitch in their finances
• An unexpected cancellation
• An argument with someone
• A recent strong nostalgic mood
• A sleepless night
. . . or other real life incidents that I hope hit now or very soon will hit because I drew their attention to noticing it.
The present is where I stress that their decisions now are what will change their life. I usually emphasize the present as being the beginning of a very
special/important/critical time of changes.
“Developments are going to begin to happen more quickly now. Choices and
decisions that you make now are going to have a far stronger effect in the
future than if you’d made them a year ago.”
I am trying to get them to view the present as a time to get on with working on their hopes and dreams. I stress that now is an important time.
I stress making the changes now that will lead to this better future. I stress working to make their dreams become real, to try, to do, to not give up! (Unless it’s some venture they’ve been involved in which is apparent to an outsider to be doomed and/or harmful.) I stress giving up their negativity, not making the goal so very much more important than the path to it.