May 25, 2023

What Apologies Say About You and Why They Are Important

Apologies Matter More Than You May Realize

When you apologize to somebody for some wrong or for some upsetting thing you perpetrated against them, you send the message that they are worthwhile and that their feelings are valid and worthy of consideration. But when you do not apologize, or you straight up tell somebody that they are not worthy of an apology, you are sending them the message that their feelings mean nothing, and therefore they as human beings have little or no value to you.

If you treat somebody this way who does not have a strong sense of their self, you may damage their self esteem and make them doubt their selves even further. This may cause them to never fully achieve their full potential. This is a narcissistic thing to do- to tell somebody they are not worthy of an apology, If somebody says this to you or treats you as though this is what they think of you, take inventory of your own self-worth and do not let the opinion of this person taint what you know about yourself- that you are a decent person with an abundance of positive qualities. This attitude from them is a sign of their own insecurities and pain. — Jim Larsen

Enjoy these tarot card books by Jim Larsen

Pieces of You Tarot

What’s Tarot Got To Do With It?

Double Oh Fool Guide to Tarot Mastery

Enoy the Knowings From The Silence: Simple Wisdom For an Enlightened Life Books

Knowings From The Silence: Simple Wisdom For an Enlightened Life, vol. 1
Knowings From The Silence: Simple Wisdom For an Enlightened Life, vol. 2
Knowings From The Silence: Simple Wisdom For an Enlightened Life, vol. 3
Knowings From The Silence: Simple Wisdom For an Enlightened Life, vol. 4

May 21, 2023

Excuses Separate the Successful from the Unsuccessful

Excuses are for the inadequate

Don’t make excuses about why you are not living as successfully as you wish you were. Successful people don’t do that. We visualize what we want to achieve, what we want to be. Then we work towards making that a reality. But what happens is, challenges come our way. We have setbacks. Things hinder us. We get blocked. An unsuccessful person will throw their hands in the air in defeat and say, “It can’t be done.” A successful person, however, will acclimate these setbacks into their overall view and plan and find a suitable alternative and adjustment. They will use them as opportunities to use their creativity to find ways around these obstacles. Success, in a lot of ways, is defined by one’s ability to find solutions to the problems that get in the way of the achievement of our goals without resorting to assigning an excuse to why it cannot be done.

Accept the possibility of failure

One thing that people do is, they use excuses as shields against feelings of inadequacy. People have an idea of what they want to achieve but do not feel as though they have what it takes to do it. They assume they will fail, so rather than set themselves up for a failure, they find the easiest out they can find and they make an excuse. Successful people don’t get that way by looking for these easy outs for a risky venture. They become successful by accepting the possibility of failure and by working hard to prevent it. If they looked for excuses, they would not allow for the possibility of success. Imagine and visualize what it means to you to be successful, then find ways around the obstacles and blocks that stand in your way of it. –Jim Larsen

May 21, 2023

How Do You Cope With Unwanted Jealousy?

Sometimes your light is too bright for them

Sometimes the jealousies of others can cause you to live smaller than you deserve to live. When you are simply doing the things you do, being the person you are meant to be, and shining your light to the world as it is meant to shine, they become jealous because they do not fully appreciate their own positive qualities and cannot get past this comparison that they have with you.

They put you down to feel better about their selves

This triggers them and they lash out at you, trying as they can to keep you down and to dim your light, so they feel better about themselves by comparison. This creates an unhealthy competition that you did not initiate, ask for, or have any desire to participate in. This creates an inharmonious atmosphere, perhaps one of down-right hostility. Because of this, perhaps you have to live less than you otherwise would, shrink down and become smaller in order to maintain peace. You don’t want to trigger this other person, so you do not shine your light quite as brightly as you otherwise would.

You are not meant to live in a box

This isn’t fair to you. It isn’t fair to anybody who may benefit from what you offer to the world through your light and your brilliance, either. So the thing to do is to remind yourself that you are on this earth to radiate your brilliance. You are on the earth to be a large being. Being made small to live in a box to placate this other person does absolutely nobody any good. All that does is placate the ego of that person who feels threatened by you. You will not be doing anybody any favors that way.

Force them out of their comfort zone

The thing to do is keep in mind this person is not in charge of what you do to be the best person you that you are on this earth to be. You have to accept the fact that they will attack, belittle, and try to keep you in your place- but remember- this place they are trying to keep you in is arbitrary and has meaning only to them. It exists only within the realms of their comfort zone. Don’t let that slow you down or diminish you. Force them out of their comfort zone by simply being you.

Let them adjust to you

Be mindful not to attack or belittle them. If you have criticism for them, be sure to phrase it such that it cannot be interpreted as an insult or attack, for they will probably look for anything at all to support their notions of you, no matter what. Do not let the pettiness or jealousies from others keep you from being who and what you are on this planet to be. You be you and let others adjust to that. You owe it to the world to do so. –Jim Larsen

Enjoy these tarot card books by Jim Larsen

Pieces of You Tarot

What’s Tarot Got To Do With It?

Double Oh Fool Guide to Tarot Mastery

Enoy the Knowings From The Silence: Simple Wisdom For an Enlightened Life Books

May 19, 2023

To Be Unsuccessful, Make Excuses

Don’t let circumstanced dictate your success

Excuses separates unsuccessful people from successful people. Unsuccessful people make them. Successful people do not.

Excuses separate the strong from the weak. Don’t let circumstances dictate your success or failure. If you can’t change your circumstances, live with them. Acclimate yourself to them if they are sudden or unexpected. Never make excuses why you can’t be the best you know that you are capable of being. If it can’t be changed, either work it in or work around it. If your toe is amputated, be the best you can be without that toe. If your arm was amputated, be the best you can be as an arm amputee. If your spouse walks out on you and leaves you alone, be the best you can be as somebody whose spouse walked out on them.

An unsuccessful person will throw their hands in the air in defeat and say, “It can’t be done.” A successful person, however, will acclimate these setbacks into their overall view and plan and find a suitable alternative and adjustment. They will use them as opportunities to use their creativity to find ways around these obstacles. Success, in a lot of ways, is defined by one’s ability to find solutions to the problems that get in the way of the achievement of our goals without resorting to assigning an excuse to why it cannot be done.

When the going gets tough and obstacles are in your path, don’t view them as the end of the road. View them instead as opportunities to e innovative and creative as you find a way around them to the success you are striving for. — Jim Larsen

November 5, 2021

What is Personal Enlightenment?

What is “Personal Enlightenment?”

Extracted from What’s Tarot Got To Do With It? The Fool’s Path To Enlightenment by Jim Larsen

The path to Enlightenment is personal. This is not “Enlightenment” as a
grand idea that only special people can achieve, but rather the accumulation
of efforts of each individual person in shedding the extra weight and
baggage they have picked up over the course of their lifetime and being
made light. It is about accepting, integrating, and understanding the darkness
and shadows that we each have as part of our being. It is about the
path to personal understanding and acceptance.

“Personal Enlightenment” means the achievement of what you set out to
learn and accomplish this lifetime. It means to get out of your own way
and allow understanding to enter. Whatever the lessons are, whatever emotions
and feelings you incarnated to master, whatever personal status you
are here to obtain, it means you have been successful in it. Your spirit is
that much stronger. You are that much more powerful. You have awakened.
You heard the calls to action, and you acted on them. You did not settle
for complacency, but rather chose to follow your gut and the voices of the
divine even when none of it made any logical sense.

Now your energy can be devoted to further growth and spiritual advancement.
You do not need to go back and repeat the lessons of this lifetime
again. Sure, they will come up again; both in this lifetime and future
incarnations, but you will handle them with much greater ease. Strength
it also means you are an inspiration upon the earth. People will sense in
you a certain power. You will shine forth a radiance of confidence and
knowingness that others will want to emulate. Help these people along the
path of their own life. Share your wisdom and your knowledge. It can only
help them to hear their own divine guidance and to follow the trail of synchronicities
their own divine team is laying out for them.

Remember, the lesson one person may have set out to learn may have long
since been mastered by another. Someone who has mastered one lesson
may look at somebody who is working on that lesson for their self and ask
“What is wrong with that person?” Not appreciating the effort they are
putting into getting through this to be a better person.

What they should realize is that they themselves are learning lessons all
their own. Perhaps these lessons are not as obvious problems such as drug
addiction or alcoholism, but they are indeed here for something. Perhaps
the lesson they are working on is to learn compassion or understanding for
others.

April 3, 2017

The Fool of Tarot and your Inner Child

The Fool As Your Inner Child

Consider the fool card as a representation of your inner child. Now ask yourself, what can hurt this being? What can wound one’s inner child? There is no one simple answer to this. A few things that may do this are a dashing of hope, a placement of limitation, a sense of separation and abandonment. Remember, we are perfect. We are born knowing what the world should be. We are intimately aware of oneness. It is though, the harsh realities of life on earth, of having the indignities of the ego thrust upon us that we lose sight of these things.

These things, however, are not fully gone. They are simply covered over by blankets that hide the truth, the light. Over time, this light is hidden, but on a deeper level not completely forgotten. This light still shines; however muted it may be by all these layers.

Over time, we begin to question the life of the ego that we are embroiled in. We begin to examine these blankets and question their validity. One by one, we begin to remove these layers, peeling them away, one and then the next and the next until we uncover that light of truth of who we are.

When we are born, we are still very aware of our team of divine helpers and the fact that we have a mission and a purpose on the earth. Because we know it, we assume that those in our life know it too. It confuses us that they do not act as though they know it. They seem to act in ways that are counterproductive to achieving their purpose. They ignore the help and guidance offered by the divine helpers. This is confusing. These people are our caregivers. Because we rely on them so heavily, they must know the truth, know what’s best.

Their thoughts and ideas become our own. We are now enculturated. We are now a part of our society. Slowly our awareness of the divine truth of ourselves gives way to the projections of society. Now we are what society needs us to be and what it expects of us. Now the burden of rediscovering our truth is on us, should we take on the task. But is it a burden?

The peeling away of these blankets to get back to that core light can be both thrilling and exciting, can it not be? The process of discovering, the process of stumbling upon answers and then figuring out the question that fits it can instigate a journey like no other. This can be thrilling! What do we learn of ourselves and of society if we do not go through this process of discovery? This is what it means to incarnate and be present on the earth. In this way, we achieve balance. We achieve balance between our divine self and our earthly self. What we learn on the earth becomes our soul. This soul, and its knowledge and wisdom contribute to the knowingness of all beings of the universe. This is The Silence. This creates a universal strength. In the reality of oneness, the wisdom of one is the wisdom and strength of all.

When the fool card comes up for you in a reading, consider this. Where are you on the path of personal discovery? Do you understand yourself? Do you have a sense of why you are here? If not, what don’t you understand? Consider you talents, your desires, your ambitions. These are your guide markers. These tell you what direction to head. By following your desires and pursuing your talents, you achieve your purpose. These things keep your inner child alive, well, happy, content, and blissful. A happy inner child is a productive inner child, for he/she is intimately aware of your life’s purpose and will keep you pointed in its direction. Honor your inner child. He/she deserves it.

Enjoy These Tarot Card Books By Jim Larsen

What’s Tarot Got To Do With It?

Mastering Tarot

April 2, 2017

A True Hermit is Nobody’s Demographic

The Hermit Tarot Card: True Authenticity

In consideration of tarot, a true hermit is nobody’s demographic. This is a person who is completely comfortable living outside of the media’s influence. Think about it. When you are not told what to like, what to think, what to eat, what to drink, how you should look, what you should wear, what you should listen to, what you should watch, then who do you become? When you are not consumed with the thought forms of mass media and the marketing strategies of business men, who are you? Who is the authentic person beneath it all? Can you define your spirit? Can you identify your spark? Just how much of whom you are is determined by the marketers?

It can be disappointing being in a society that is obsessed with conformity, when you yourself are focused on authenticity. Society says do this. Society says get married. Have children. Make sure you go to a bar and get drunk frequently. Watch football on TV. Watch basketball. Care about who wins the World Series. Feel a sense of emotional investment in who wins the Super Bowl or wins an Oscar. Have you had a McRib lately? The powers that be at McDonalds would really like you to, and will hound you until you do.

You’re a “normal” member of society, right? You bought the newest IPad, yes? You have followed the media’s conditioning and know you absolutely cannot live without one, haven’t you?

These are the thing you are “supposed” to do. Society wants you to buy its beer and get drunk. Numb your mind. Don’t ask questions. Accept unconditionally everything that is thrown your way. Have a Coke and a smile. Don’t try too hard to have a real conversation. It’s easier and more satisfying to rely on small talk. Simply repeat buzzwords. “What are you doing this weekend?” Does it really matter? Do you really care? Empty puffs of air. Senseless excretion of energy.

Save your words until they add up to something substantial. Keep it sincere. Just say “Hello.” Say it with sincerity from the heart that indicates you truly appreciate seeing the person you are saying it to. Aim for sincerity of words over quantity. This is important. Keep it in mind. Small talk is the clip art of conversation. Are you content to follow the programming set forth by those long forgotten? Small talk is nothing more than a program to be followed. It has limited value, if any at all. Break free of this innocuous time waster.

Strive for authenticity. Be a true hermit. Meditate. Go within. Who are you really when you are not following the programs that society creates? What are you really craving? Is it a McRib? Or is it tilapia? If you’re craving tilapia, pay no heed to the last McDonalds commercial you saw, and find yourself a fish restaurant. It really is that simple. Authenticity has become a lost art in the age of media influence. Be part of the renaissance that brings it back to the mainstream.

Turn off your TV. Turn off your radio. Ignore those popup ads on the internet. Don’t be told what to do, what to think, or what you can’t live without. You already know the real answers to these questions. The answers you find within are way more meaningful than what a marketer will provide for you. This is what it means to be a true hermit.

When the hermit card comes up for you in a reading, consider your authenticity. Are you marching to the beat of your own drummer, or are you simply a lemming following somebody else’s interests, allowing them to profit from your indecision? Be authentic. Be real. Be true to yourself. Embrace the hermit quality you possess and be your own demographic.

Enjoy These Tarot Card Books By Jim Larsen

What’s Tarot Got to do with It?

Master Tarot

April 2, 2017

Why become a tarot card reader?

There is much benefit to learning how to read tarot cards.

Perhaps you have thought about how interesting it would be to learn how to read the images on tarot cards, but thought, “No. It’s not for me. You have to have special talents and abilities to do that.” The truth is, anybody wanting to learn to read tarot cards can learn to read tarot cards. What does it take? It takes nothing but the desire to do so.

Why become a tarot card reader? What benefit will this bring to you? Have you ever asked yourself this? The answers are simple and to the point. By understanding the meanings of tarot cards, you understand what it means to be fully human. Consider tarot to be less about dogmatic practices of reading and more about understanding the human spirit through interpreting it through the archetypes. The archetypes represent a blueprint of the spirit.

With each card being a part of the overall picture, blueprint of the human soul, then the card you draw exemplifies how a certain situation or time will affect you. Each archetype is a piece of the puzzle. The picture? What does it show? The human spirit, the human soul. With each archetype being an aspect of who we are and what we experience, individually and collectively on the planet. Therefore, mastering the lesson of each and every individual archetype is to master what it means to be human. Mastering the archetypes, each and every one of them is to master humanity, because now you have a label and an understanding of each feeling, each aspect of what it means to be human. This is incredibly empowering. This is incredibly healing. This is also an opening to intuition and empathy. Each card has a story to tell us about our self. Pick a card. What is the story this card can tell you?

For example, consider the meaning of 5 of cups. It generally represents disappointment and sadness. Now, with or without the card, when you feel this way, you can say to yourself, “Ah! I’m having a five of cups experience. That’s all it is. It will pass.” By defining it, you can remind yourself that everybody on the planet goes through this. Everybody. By defining it, too, you can resolve it. What is the resolution, for you, for disappointment?

Consider also the 8 of cups. This generally represents walking away from a situation. It’s simply time to call it quits and be done with it. This is human. It is part of life. By allowing this card to remind you that this is a part of life, it can make it easier to face it when you know you must.

Consider each card this way. Appreciate the lesson it has for the shared human experience. By doing so, you will understand the circumstances of your own life on a much greater level, as well as developing empathy for others in what the circumstances are of their life. This empathy is what will make you a great tarot card reader. This is what people will thank you for.

In understanding the blueprint of the human spirit through tarot cards, one of the great gifts you will get is compassion for others. You understand that to you, their questions may not have relevance to you and your life, but to them, the questions are of significance and important. You as the reader know the direction they would like the reading to take, to affirm a belief about themselves or a hope they have.

But what if the reading goes the other directions? When it supports their hopes, it is easy to tell them the news. But when it does not, you must tell them your intuitions as best you can without crushing them. They have faith and trust in you. They are with you for answers. They are not with you to be let down or hurt. So, you the reader develop the skill of relaying the messages with sincerity, honesty, and with the skill for turning what they may consider negative into something positive and affirming. This is a gift that reading tarot gives you that you should strive to take to other aspects of your life.

There are a number of benefits to becoming a tarot card reader. Understanding the human spirit as a puzzle with each card being but one piece of this puzzle is a great one. It helps you to understand yourself as well as understanding what humans really are.

Enjoy These Tarot Card Books By Jim Larsen

The Double Oh Fool Guide to Tarot Mastery

What’s Tarot Got to do With It?

The Pieces of You Tarot

April 2, 2017

World Card of Tarot: Ready for the Next Journey

You have come a long ways on your journey. Now keep going.

The world card in tarot denotes accumulation. When considered sequentially, pay attention to the fact that it is the final card. If life is a journey, if the purpose of life is to learn and to grow, if we look at life as a series of destinations and plateaus to be reached, then when the world card comes up in a reading it is meaningful to consider it as achievement. It denotes that you have arrived. Your goals have been achieved. Pat yourself on the back and reflect on the journey. Go over the ups and downs and the highs and the lows. What brought you to this point in life? Sometimes it was easy and sometimes it was difficult. Sometimes the lessons were obvious, other times not. Be that as it may be though, they are what brought you to where you are so it was all good.

We search. We know we are meant for something. Sometimes though, we ask, “What exactly would that be? What exactly am I meant for?” And so we seek an answer to this very profound yet basic question. We try things. We examine things. We figure out what exactly feels right to us and then we compare. We decide what is truly meaningful and important to us. If we are wise, we realize the answer and we latch onto it. We nurture it. We make it grow. This feels right to us. This is our purpose. This is a big reason why we are here. Pay attention to this. What in your life truly feels right and perfect? The world card invites you to examine and appreciate this.

There is satisfaction in achieving a goal. These goals are not arbitrary. They do, in so many ways, define who we are. These goals are our passions. They exist in our heart. They are attached to our soul. We dedicate ourselves to it. We strive and we work for it. And then… at last… we achieve it. It is an accumulation of effort and simple dedication. Now, we can enjoy the results of these efforts. Now we have shifted our own personal paradigm. Now, we are not defined as somebody “trying” but as somebody who has “achieved.” This achievement gives us a new sense of solid ground to stand on. We now have a firm foundation. From this new plateau, where will we go next? Based on our successes, what is next?

With the world card, we are ready for the next journey. It is time to take the success, wisdom, and knowledge we have amassed and go in a new direction with it. Considered sequentially, it is time to begin again at zero. It is time to be a fool again. We are stronger, wiser and more powerful. Our leaps of faith are more calculated and thought through. What direction does our heart tell us to go now? It is time to listen and follow. When the world comes up in a reading, consider this.

Enjoy These Tarot Card Books By Jim Larsen

Walk the Fool’s Path to Enlightenment

Master Tarot

November 26, 2016

Tarot Judgment Card: Are you Ready to Move On?

Judgment Tarot Card: Journeys Beyond the Tower

Judgment card- Are you ready to move on? Are you ready to take that next step? You have traveled far on your path, on your journey. Have you really learned and integrated all the lessons that have been presented to you? Are you past the same patterns that you keep repeating that keep you stuck in the same place? Have you truly amassed the wisdom necessary to take you to the next step of your life? Have you successfully journeyed beyond the tower? If yes, you may proceed. If not, you must go back and repeat some of the learning opportunities. The sooner you learn and integrate these lessons, the sooner you can move on. There are literally hundreds, probably thousands of things on this “to be learned” list. Nobody gets through them all in a single lifetime. Nobody. Conscious awareness that this exists helps to get through it. Can you know everything on this list? No. You figure out some by examining the patterns of your life- what it is you seem to get stuck on and say “Here we go again. Why does this always happen to me?” These are clues. To consciously try to get beyond these things gets you past these things gets you past the Tower Point. Once lessons are learned and integrated, you can move onto new and other aspects of your perfection. Getting past Judgment to the World means that at least this much of yourself has been perfected. These lessons have been learned.

Enjoy These Tarot Card Books By Jim Larsen

Walk the Fool’s Path…
Master Tarot…