The Fortune Teller by James Wanless, PhD.

A salient and telling feature of life today is that we want it ALL. We want to eat chocolate AND be fit. We want to have fun AND do good AND make money. We want to be happy AND healthy AND holy AND wealthy. In our holistic age, we want the whole enchilada, along with our grits AND greens.

This insight sprang from an article in the USA Today newspaper about our indulgent American ways. My imagination was sparked! I remember that the Reebok shoes company was created when its founder was inspired by the word "aerobic" that he had read in a newspaper. The idea of aerobic shoes caught his fancy and he turned it into his fortune. Inspiration is everything. It takes us to the heights!

As I read the article, I realized that I had been too, too serious about my tarot Readings. That's ok, but I had forgotten the seriousness of playfulness. To do serious Counseling and Coaching Readings AND to do Fun Readings... that felt right.

Though, I am diamond adamant and serious that the future happens in ways we cannot predict. Remember, "The best way to make the gods and goddesses laugh is to tell them your plans."

Aha! Zap! Why not entertain the idea of being a genuine "fortune teller?" And why not in a playful, even theatrical way to forecast the future? My inner voice said, "Having fun is the most judicious, serious way of getting the truest glimpse of the future." Wow!

Yes, but what's so limited about serious predictions? Because we "seriously" try to predict the future, we have way too much ego-investment in being accurate; we are too tight, not open enough and loose to all possibilities. We are seriously trapped by our habitual way of thinking and by our social role that is bound by old and limited self-beliefs and self-identity; and throw in our desire to perform well and be a "good" Reader as another kind of limitation.

We need to get out of our own way and disassociate from our self. We are just too identified with our social persona and the social structures in which we live. This is why we often go to outside seers and readers. They are detached, not caught up in our own stuff, and thus a clearer channel. And yet, they (we) often take themselves and their work so seriously that I'd bet that their vision and insight is also compromised.

"I can think of no better way to start a creative project (how about your life?) than with play," said Einstein. Entertain the possibilities. Entertain means to bring in. Invite the future with the "Enter" sign.

Ideas that we play with are embedded more deeply into our consciousness than we think. Fun is a powerful influence, for we are in a "heightened state of awareness." And our scariest thoughts and most unfortunate experiences are also deeply entrenched within us. Uncommon, extra-ordinary consciousness always has the ability to create our lives, for better or worse. (That's why is it so, so important in Reading your own or another's cards to be positive!)

Play is always meant to be positive. When we entertain and are entertained, we want it to be a positive encounter. Otherwise, why do it? We don't go to a movie, or a ballgame, or watch a play, go dine with friends, or take a hike unless we expect it to be a fun, fulfilling experience..

Here are my suggestions for how to be the "fun-loving" Fortune Teller:

• Create a fanciful, fantastical, fantasy, "funtastic" atmosphere. An entertaining place is special, as is a theatre, a park, or a party.

• Free your Identity Get out of our ordinary self, customary clothes, habitual way of thinking, even your usual voice. Establish a new and different identity. Give yourself a mythic name. Play the role as a Seer, a Magician, a Karnak, a Cassandra, a Nostradamus, a Priestess, a Fortuna – a "Fortune Teller."

• Game the Future That's why the oracle of tarot is so perfect for playing with the future. It's a card game. It's about playing the hand we are dealt and yet we can change our hand. And we don't have to be attached to the result, it's just a game. Playing games are not really about winning or losing, but playing!

• Imagine The mystery of selecting tarot cards face down liberates us from our usual way of seeing our life. Mystery gets us "out of the box." Inviting the unknown is the surest way of opening up to new possibilities.

Cards are catalysts to new ideas and visions. They unbind our imagination. Our mind is set free by "random" pictorial, imaginal symbols. Know that imagination is based upon the image and is the source of magic.... all originated from the word, "mag," which means power – the power of the mind to conceive and create.

The metaphoric quality of tarot symbols take us to a "meta" consciousness. To a higher domain of seeing and knowing. Beyond the fence of orthodoxy and convention, we meet the free spirits of unlimited, unfettered possibility.

• Make it Theatrical. Wear costumes. Make up your face. Invoke the Gods and Goddesses and especially, Fortuna. Have magical props and stuff – wands, hats, jewelry. Play with unusual scents, sounds and sights. It's showtime. And you don't not need to look like a traditional gypsy fortune teller or Merlin wizard. Find your own magic identity.

Games of Tarot Fortune Telling that you can play:

Future-Stories

TELL A STORY Stories are the most ancient and universal way of framing our imagination. Pick a card, preferably from the so-called Major cards in the tarot. Identify the symbols in the card and use them as the basis for telling a future-story.

HERO'S JOURNEY STORY Utilize the elements of the archetypal and mythic "hero's journey" format for telling a story. Pick cards for you as the hero, the quest that you are to embark upon, the demons and sacrifices you must make, your allies, your crisis, and your outcome. Put the cards together to tell a future-story.

DESTINY: FROM FOOL TO FORTUNE Pick cards (always facedown) for you as the Fool voyaging on the journey to your destiny, Fortune. Select a card for each part of the path as represented by the cards between the zero Fool and the number ten Fortune. Make up a future-story of this archetypal journey.

Other Games:

WHEEL OF FORTUNE Pick cards that compose a circle that includes the future for money, work, home, health and love.

When "reading" the cards, let them invoke pictures and visions and voices. Become a channel, a medium in which you might speak in a different voice or even language about what you receive. Be the goddess angel of the future, Fortuna, as you read the cards.

Feel free enough to be specific with your information, like particular times, events, people, places. Cards that are represented by people, like the traditional Court cards or Family cards in Voyager Tarot, are really people, so let them come alive in your forecast. Most cards have numbers and astrological time frames, so use them for questions of timing. Cards often suggest where something may take place.

THE ANSWER WO/MAN: THE ORACLE Let questions arise. Pick cards for answering the questions. Free your mind. Dare to be silly, out there, off the wall. Do not censor answers regardless of how ridiculous. Our judgments about what is "reasonable" is what keeps us back. "It is only the fool who enters the kingdom of heaven." Be the "crazy wisdom guru," a serious spiritual tradition found in many cultures.

Perhaps, even, pick a card for representing the question. Let the question be the answer.

GROUP GAMES Play any of the above tarot games with a group of people as a competitive game. The best set of cards represent the winner. People can even bet on the game. You can have teams and partners.

How to score the game? Without going into too much detail, establish points for each card. Perhaps a negative card is a minus or a zero. Perhaps Aces have the highest value. It's a fascinating exercise to score the cards because it indicates your own values.

ENLIGHTEN UP! Keep it light. "Angels fly because they take themselves lightly." Remember, this is only fun. Do not take it seriously or you have sabotaged the purpose and the power of play.

But what about negative cards? What to do when they come up? Life is a drama and we are characters in a cosmic play, and all life drama has obstacles, crises, pitfalls, misadventures, bad guys, demons – the usual suspects. It's what makes good stuff "good." We cannot know the light without the dark, the radiance without the shadow. Enjoy the drama... it's fun, it's play, the play of life.