#17 Tarot Cards

Despite her strong aversion to tarot cards, they just wouldn’t leave Kelly alone. From a near-stranger in a parking lot thrusting cards into her hands, to being told by a ‘pushy’ psychic that she’d become a tarot card reader, will Kelly finally drop the resistance and surrender to her destiny?

Do you trust your intuition - or do you tend to second guess yourself or seek opinions and advice outside of yourself?

When in your life have you followed your heart over your head - and what happened when you did?

Download this free PDF of journal prompts to help you explore how tuned in to your intuition you are and whether you're paying attention to your own breadcrumb trail.

Come and join Project WE here! This is Kelly's online membership club for women with a growth mindset who want to work on their lives together.

Get the free Project Me Life Wheel® to help you stay out of auto-pilot living.

Read the Transcript for this Episode below:

Episode 17 of the Project Me podcast.

Hi, I'm Kelly Pietrangeli, the creator of  myprojectme. com. This podcast is designed to be an entertaining, lighthearted, inspirational, personal growth journey.  Each episode goes in a mostly chronological order as I piece together the books, modalities, people, and experiences. that have fallen onto my life path exactly when I needed them.

And how often I resisted the very things I needed the most or didn't see the gifts contained in the challenges until later.  By sharing my stories, I hope to inspire you to reflect on your life path. What are the seeming coincidences that have led you to where you are today?  What are the hidden gifts within your challenges?

And what magic is out there waiting for you as you let go of resistance and follow your own breadcrumb trail?  At the end of each short episode, there's an opportunity for you to reflect on how my story relates to your own life. You'll also find a PDF of journal prompts in the show notes or in the podcast section at myprojectme.

com.

Hi guys, welcome back or welcome. If you're brand new to the podcast, I got so much wonderful feedback from the last episode about meditation and I'm over the moon to hear that it's inspired some on off meditators to bring it into your daily lives. Yes. And that it's helped some non meditators to understand the point of meditation and to let go of your stories about having a monkey mind or not having enough time or not being a morning person.

If I can do it. You can too. And thanks to, for all the great five star reviews of my new morning meditation in the Insight Timer app.  And I love the messages I got about episode 15  and my experience of seeing Tony Robbins live. Camilla wrote to say that she and her husband met at Unleash the Power Within back in 1994.

They were both on the assistance team. Camilla was the side anchor for the fire walk and he was the hoser down. I love it. Well, I'll admit that for today's episode, I was almost afraid to even put tarot cards into the title because I know that it wasn't so long ago. I wouldn't have even listened to a podcast about tarot cards.

I've always kind of had an aversion to them, yet, as this episode reveals, they just wouldn't leave me alone. So I invite you to keep an open mind and heart as I share another story on my journey into the wonderful world of Wooloo. Here we go. Episode 17. In 2016,  my family were reluctantly packing up to leave Madrid and return to London after six and a half incredible years there.

It had been exactly the family adventure we'd all needed. Immersing ourselves in a new culture, embracing a much slower lifestyle, learning a new language, while the boys had become fluent, and me, well, I could make myself mostly understood in shops and restaurants, but I never made it beyond that, despite countless hours of studying and lessons.

I likened my Spanish to a game of tennis. I'd say something and it might not be the perfect shot, but if I got it over the net and they understood, they'd return the ball and a back and forth conversation could take place. I could tell if I'd hit the net by their blank stare, and then I'd try a different shot.

My Spanish was not the beautiful game I wished it was, but I was definitely getting the ball over the net a lot more often. I was happy in Madrid. We all were. And when my husband's job took him back to London, we were all sad to be leaving.  The boys were now nearly 17 and 14, no longer the little tykes they were when we'd first moved there.

They'd had a wonderful experience at the American School of Madrid, where there wasn't this culture of exams and teaching only so students could pass exams. It was a rich and diverse learning experience that allowed them to discover their talents and passions in a non pressurized environment, and yet feel driven and motivated to do their best for themselves.

It was getting closer to our big moving date and as I was heading to my car in the school parking lot a mother came up to me and said she wanted to give me a little gift.  I was taken aback because I really didn't know her. I knew her name was Tricia. But her kids were much younger than mine, and we'd barely ever exchanged words beyond a friendly hello.

She handed me a paper carrier bag, and I reached inside and found two packs of tarot cards. I quickly handed the bag back to her. Oh, thank you, but you really shouldn't have. She handed it back to me and said, I really want you to have them.  I handed it back to her and said, but I wouldn't even know what to do with them.

She handed them back to me and said, keep them and maybe someday you will. This was like a game of hot potato and it was getting ridiculous. She told me they were hers but she had a new set now and really wanted me to have these. I was like, I can't possibly accept these. I had such a strong aversion to these damn tarot cards but now it was getting quite embarrassing.

I mean, someone was trying to give me a gift and I was being super ungracious about it. So, I finally thanked her and accepted.  When I got to my car, I kind of threw the hot potato into the bag. I wasn't even remotely curious to take a look at these damn tarot cards, and I was perplexed about this person I didn't really know wanting to gift me her own cards.

Not even one pack, but two? It was all super weird.  I asked a friend later, Do you know Trisha from school? Blonde. I think she might have kids in the same grade as yours. And she was like, Yes! Trisha White. She's like a clairvoyant. She's predicted things in my life with spooky accuracy. Don't you know about her?

She's helped so many people from school. I was like, Really? I had no idea. I would have never thought that about her. She just looks so Normal.  I guess I had a stereotype about what I thought someone into tarot cards should look like. A headscarf and hooped earrings. I don't know. But Trisha looked like an ordinary baseball American mom.

Hmm. What do you know?  A couple of weeks later, I ran my Project Me summer strategy workshop out of my home for a dozen mothers, helping them to thrive, not to survive the summer school holidays. And guess who booked in. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Trisha White.  After the workshop, I invited the women to have a sneak peek of my massive moving sale starting the next morning.

Trisha had to leave, but asked if she could pop back in to have a look in the morning. I said, sure.  Well, she turned up early the next morning before anyone else. So we got to be alone together as she went through my massive book call.  She picked up a book aimed at tween boys about getting to know their bodies and said she wanted to try to find the equivalent book for her daughter, who was trying to understand her developing body.

I don't know how or why I felt compared to Cher with her, the story of my first gynecological exam at age 13 when I knew nothing about my body and how traumatic it was and my ongoing fear of pelvic exams ever since.  She picked up on this and asked if I wanted her to work on this for me.  I didn't quite understand what she meant, like, a session with her?

She said yes, and I said, sure, assuming we'd set up a time.  That evening, I was out to dinner with my family, when I was suddenly overcome with indescribable tiredness. I mean, it swept over me and engulfed me. I couldn't even finish eating the most delicious meal, and I just needed to go home and crawl into bed.

I slept for like 12 hours that night, and when I woke up, I was still exhausted.  That day I'd promised my friend Leonore I'd give her moral support as she moved into her apartment. She was going through a tough separation,  but I was so tired I couldn't move. I apologized and asked if she'd come to me instead.

I knew if I mentioned I had tequila, she'd come to me, so I played that card, and soon we were chilling out poolside. I said, I don't know what's wrong with me, why I'm this wiped out. And just at that moment, I got a text message on my phone from Trisha White.  Trisha wrote that she'd worked on me yesterday evening.

Huh? Worked on me? I asked Leonora if she knew Tricia and she was like, of course, oh my god She's helped me so much with this end of my marriage and giving me the courage. I needed to move out That's why you're feeling so tired. I get that way too when she works on me.  I was so confused So she'd worked on me on her own.

It wasn't like a session where we talked This was why I'd been so wiped out during dinner and ever since? Wow!  So I told Leonore that she was working on me about my trauma over my first gynecological exam. There was no way of knowing if anything had shifted in my fear of the gynecologist until I had my next smear test.

But I went on to seek guidance from Tricia White on other matters. For example, she described in detail the school my boys would attend in London when that was weighing heavily on my mind. She described the very unique building down to a T and I knew which school she was describing. It gave me such comfort when I really needed it.

When I was house hunting, she saw the house with a green door and a black gate, which is the house we moved into. I never asked her more about the tarot cards though. They were in a box somewhere that I never unpacked when I moved to London, and I still had zero interest in them. Fast forward to 2017.  I was doing a transformational breathwork session.

I'm saving that incredible story for another episode, but during that session, a message kind of came through to me that one of my grandparents had something they wanted me to know. My grandparents are no longer alive, so I asked my friends, Susie and Anna, Do either one of you know of a good clairvoyant who can connect with deceased relatives?

Anna was like, Yeah, go to Psychic Sisters in Selfridges. I was like, Huh? Selfridges has a clairvoyant?  Selfridges is my favorite department store in London. So I booked in with one of the Psychic Sisters, Jane Wallace, knowing nothing about her.  I arrive for my session and Jane starts shuffling these tarot cards and turning them over super quickly and speaking super fast and asking me questions and I'll admit my defenses went up.

I wasn't about to give anything away only for her to latch onto it and then do some good guesswork.  I was super guarded and skeptical and so Even when she said, I have your mother's mother here, Beth, Elizabeth, I was like, yeah, good guess. Who doesn't have a grandma called Elizabeth? And besides, my grandma went by Betty, not Beth.

She said my grandma was telling me I'm playing small. And I was like,  my grandma Betty lived her whole life on the Nebraska and the Minnesota farms and never even went on an airplane in her entire life. I've traveled all over the world, but she says I'm playing small. It felt ridiculous.  She said, you're coaching people inside of a really small box.

You're capable of helping others on a much deeper level. And I was like, she's clearly Googled me to know I'm a coach.  She said, you are going to go corporate. And then I cut her off right there. No way. I work for myself. I would never do that. And she said, no, it's more like helping women in corporate careers.

None of that resonated and I just wouldn't hear her.  Then she talked about my two boys. And again, I'm like, hmm, this charlatan does her homework to know that I have two sons. I kind of tuned out from there. I remember she did say some really lovely things about how stunningly beautiful my aura was, which was flattering, I'll admit.

I got up to leave. She stood up too, and she looked me deep in the eyes and said, I see you sitting on my side of the table within three years.  And I said, what, reading tarot cards? And she said, yes. Ludicrous, I thought, as I went to pay the 120 pounds for this speedy, confusing, ridiculous half hour session.

As I shared the experience with my friend Susie afterwards, I was able to process it more.  When I said to Susie, come on, who doesn't have a grandma named Elizabeth? I mean, it's a name from that era, good guess.  Susie pointed out that she doesn't have a grandma named Elizabeth and it was a very good guess given it could be one of at least a dozen common names from that era.

When I told her about this, I'm coaching women inside of a really small box, I had to laugh as I called my tiny home office, the box.  And at that time I was only coaching women on their productivity and time management and I wasn't finding that very fulfilling. I bought Jane Wallace's book on the way out of Selfridges that day and discovered that far from being a charlatan, she was actually world renowned and highly respected in her field.

I was amazed to read how she'd come to open Psychic Sisters in Selfridges. She'd been shopping there with a friend, and they'd stopped into the busy downstairs cafe for lunch. After they ate, her friend asked if she could do a quick tarot reading. So Jane got out her tarot cards and was doing a layout, when a man passed by.

The man asked what she was doing, and she said, Doing a tarot reading. And he scoffed and said, I don't believe in all that, and he walked away. She got up and stopped him.  She whispered something into his ear. She doesn't reveal what she said to him, but his eyes widened. Whatever she'd said was something she couldn't have possibly known.

It turns out, he was the general manager of Selfridges. He immediately offered her the space for Psychic Sisters. Most people have to bid for precious concession space and a long process. Crazy, right? So I started thinking more about her saying I'd be in her position, reading tarot cards.  I dug out the tarot decks Trisha White had gifted me.

She said one day I'd know what to do with them.  But as I shuffled through them on my bed, I felt no connection to them whatsoever.  The illustrations were kind of spooky, like the death card, and I just continued to find them creepy and not for me. I put them away again.  Then, a short while later, I saw that a mother from the new school in London was offering a tarot card course, learning how to read tarot cards, and I was like, oh man, this one isn't going away easily, is it?

I saw that it was every Tuesday evening, which clashed with my kundalini yoga class. I reached out to her super reluctantly. I'd need to genuinely want to learn tarot if I was to miss four weeks in a row of my beloved kundalini classes. I put myself down as a non committal maybe.  And later, when she got back to me and said there wasn't enough interest and she wouldn't be running the course, I was so relieved.

It seemed crazy to force myself to learn tarot just because I felt I should, because of these damn clairvoyants. Wasn't that just me being manipulated into doing what they'd predicted I would? Nope, I would not fall for that.  In 2019, my friend Denise from Madrid flew over to the UK to go with me on a transformational breathing retreat.

It was run by Rebecca Dennis, who I'd been having some amazing sessions with. Again, I'm saving transformational breath work for its own episode.  Denise and I shared a room at this retreat, and after she'd unpacked, she got out some kind of tarot cards and she was shuffling them and spreading them out onto her bed.

And I was like, huh, Denise, you're into tarot cards? I never knew that. And she said, Yeah, I've had these cards since I was young, and I've never studied them or anything, but I get such incredible guidance from them. I love them.  I looked closer, and they weren't creepy looking at all. They had beautiful illustrations.

They were called Osho Zen Tarot Cards, and she invited me to take the deck and have a look at them, and then draw a card for myself. I remember I chose the card Ice Olation.  And the accompanying booklet said it was all about crying and tears and the importance of defrosting a frozen heart to free the past hurt and allowing ourselves to heal.

And it really didn't resonate with me at all.  But what's interesting to reflect on now is that in my breathwork session that day, I cried harder than I have ever cried in my life.  And I released so much unresolved pain, again, not to be a tease, but that really is a whole nother story.  When I got back from the retreat, I looked online at the Osho Zentaro cards and I found them on Amazon UK, but there were so many bad reviews for how poorly the print reproduction was.

Apparently the colors were dull and the images fuzzy. I knew Denise would have bought her vibrantly beautiful cards in America many years ago, and besides, they were her special cards, and I felt respectful in not copying something so precious to her, so I put it out of my mind.  Well, I thought I put it out of my mind, but it must have been lodged in my subconscious, because several months later, I had a dream.

That Denise gifted me the Osho Zentaro cards. I woke up and I wrote it in my dedicated dream journal. More on that too in an upcoming episode as I'm super into dreams. Then I sent Denise a little WhatsApp voice memo to tell her about the dream.  She messaged me straight back with a picture of her to do list from the previous day.

On it was written,  remind mom to bring Kelly's Osho cards.  It turns out, Denise had ordered the cards in America for her mom to bring over on her visit. She'd reminded her the day before, and I dreamed of it that same night.  Now, I don't believe in random coincidences and I know that these are indeed the cards that I was always meant to be using.

The other tarot cards had an appealed, Because they weren't my cards.  So I've been playing with these beautiful cards Denise gifted me for the past couple of years and I love them.  It's taken me a while to trust them. As in, truly build a trusting relationship with them. To really understand that they are my connection to my intuition.

My higher self. That they are a means of communicating with my inner wisdom. Bypassing my logical over analytical mind. And getting to the truth,  I learned how to do a seven card flying bird layout. I can take any issue and gain new perspective on it.  These cards give me guidance without being a superstitious crutch, which is what turned me off about tarot cards before.

I don't feel like my fate is being predetermined. I don't like the idea that I'd make an important decision based off of a random card draw. But I don't feel that way at all with these cards.  I did a reading for my son when he was turning 20, and it felt perfect for what he needed to know about himself.

And then I did one for my younger son when he was having a relationship difficulty at the age of 17 and still trying to figure out who he was.  He's normally very skeptical about the woo woo, but as we went through each card, it opened up really valuable conversations and I think he learned a lot about himself and his situation.

I then did my first non family member reading for my friend Leonore for her birthday, and she was amazed at the insight she gained.  But I still wasn't interested in being a tarot card reader. I'd need to study it and take it seriously. I figured all these predictions about me and the tarot cards was just this.

Me dabbling in them for insights. Cool.  Then one day, I'm at my local neighborhood salon, Beauty Royale, and the lovely Ethiopian owner, Hannah, she came up in a previous episode and she'll come up again many more times. Hannah told me her bike had been stolen from right outside the salon and now she'd need to walk all the way to and from work every day.

Okay. I said, Hannah, hey, I've got a bike for you. I hardly ride it, and if I need it, you're only around the corner. So Hannah comes by later to collect the bike, and for whatever reason, my Zen Tarot cards are sitting out on the dining table, which is kind of weird because they're normally hidden under my bed.

And she says, Oh, Kelly, do me a reading, please. And I was like, uh, well, I don't really know what I'm doing. It's only for fun. And in true Hannah style, she doesn't take no for an answer. So I find myself doing the flying bird layout for Hannah on a decisions she needs to make. And by the final card, she is suddenly out of decision paralysis and 100 percent confident about what to do.

And it was the opposite of the decision she was leaning towards. And she still thanks me today for saving her so much money, had she decided the other way. And I'm like, huh, okay, well that's really cool. And then I do another reading for my son, and a couple more for Leonore. And every time it's amazing, but in truth, the cards don't come out that often.

So here's when things suddenly really kicked off.  Just a few weeks ago, Leonore and I got together on Zoom so I could do a Zen Tarot reading for each of us for 2021. The intention being, what would be really good to know right now at the start of this fresh new year?  I did her reading first, and it was profound.

A journey unfolded with each card, the feminine left hand side of the flying bird layout revealing deep inner truths, and the And the masculine right hand cards showing the fear based response to the intuition and guiding her into inspired actions. Tears were shed, beautiful insights came into clear view, and she felt so empowered.

It was super emotional for us both.  I did my layout next, and again, the journey unfolded card by card. It was all so affirming and absolutely perfect. I drew the Knight of Water, the Trust card, and Trust was already what I'd chosen as my Word of the Year the week before.  I also got the Knight of Rainbows, slowing down, which feels so good.

Like I was being given a permission slip to take it easier.  And my final card was fittingly, the page of rainbows, adventure.  It's again about trusting as I step into the rainbow of light, without planning, just moving into the unknown with a deep sense of wonder and trust. And 2021 truly is my year of new adventures.

I am embracing this fully. Not overthinking anything and simply allowing it to unfold, which feels so light and right.  And so, here's what happened next.  I posted about my reading, then I showed a photo of my card layout in my private group for the women in my hire program. And Sophie asked if she could book in for a reading.

And surprisingly, I let go of resistance. I stopped telling the limiting story that I'm not experienced enough to possibly charge for this. She wanted to pay. I trusted, and I said yes.  And Sophie had an incredible session, I mean, it was remarkable.  And she gifted a session to her friend Helen, and Helen loved hers too.

And before I knew it, I had seven more bookings without even trying, and they've all been incredible.  They've all written me lovely messages. Here's just one.  Dearest Kelly, I can't thank you enough for my reading. It truly was profound. It's brought up so many feelings and emotions for me. Thank you.

Everything the cards came up with is what I think I have known somewhere in my heart to be true all along.  My journey is about reconnecting with that inner me and trusting it and shedding all the self doubt that I've picked up over the years that is inevitably complicated things.  The cards have put into a clear nutshell everything I need to know and they've given me the guidance and courage I need.

So a deep thank you, Kelly.  And so,  that's the story of what happened when I finally gave up my fight against tarot cards.  Nearly five years after Trisha White had to force them into my hands after that game of hot potato. And three or four years after Jane Wallis said I'd be sitting on her side of the table reading cards for others.

Ah, my own surrender experiment, huh? Only it's what happens when a stubborn girl doesn't say yes and continues to turn the other way.  That session with Jane Wallace absolutely put an itch in me to figure out what I was really meant to be doing. Her words, that I was coaching women inside of a really small box, kept playing on me.

Or should I say, my grandmother's words.  Increasingly, I have felt called to help women connect to higher levels of conscious living. But I didn't know how to segue from helping busy mothers to get organized and live a well balanced life into this kind of work.  In 2020, I finally started doing it.  I ran five rounds of my High Vibe Journey program and then my Next Level Hire program.

Doing that brought me the women who are ready for these tarot sessions. They don't arrive with that skeptical, prove to me you're not a charlatan energy because they trust me. That was the energy I had before. I mean, these women arrive with open minds and hearts so that their higher selves come through and speak through the cards.

We've grown up thinking that there's always someone who knows better than us who can tell us what to do. We seek advice from everyone else because we don't trust ourselves. We don't use our own beautiful intuition.  When I do my tarot sessions with these women, I'm not about being mystical or mysterious.

We begin with a meditation to leave the head and drop into the heart, into their intuition, their inner knowing.  I don't flick the cards down quickly and then tell them what they mean. We go slow. We talk. I'm there to be the conduit for their own higher self to come through.  I help them to reach within and to understand what the cards mean to them.

I give them permission to see it.  Each card builds on the next into a journey of insights that reach a final place of new realization.  It's not fortune telling or clairvoyance. It's tapping into their own inner knowing. It's such a beautiful experience for them and for me. Because when the truth is revealed, you feel it so profoundly, so deeply.

In conclusion, what I've learned from all of this story, from a mother at school thrusting tarot cards into my hands to what I'm doing today, It's that I'm always being guided towards my sacred purpose. I just need to let go of resistance, get out of my head and tune into my heart,  pay attention to all of life's coincidences, and the messengers who are always trying to deliver me guidance.

Stop being so busy or preoccupied that I miss the breadcrumb trail leading me along the correct path.  Life happens for us when we surrender, loosen our tight grip on the oars, and allow life to flow downstream.  Our intuition knows the answers. We just need to learn its language and how it speaks to us so we can hear it,  and then trust what we hear.

Dear listener,  relax your forehead.  Take a long, slow, deep breath in,  and let it out with a sigh.  I'm going to ask you some questions, and you don't need to write these down, as I'll put these and more into a PDF of journal prompts for you.  How intuitive do you feel?  Do you tend to weigh things up with your rational brain?

Or do you follow your gut or your heart, even when it doesn't always make logical sense?

Do you trust your intuition?  Or do you tend to second guess yourself, or seek opinions and advice outside of yourself?

When in your life have you followed your heart over your head? And what happened when you did?

Are there any ongoing signs or messages that keep showing up in your life, perhaps trying to lead you somewhere, even if you don't yet understand it?  Explore any resistances you feel. What might happen if you let go of those and followed the breadcrumb trail?

Thanks for listening to the Project Me podcast. I never thought I'd say these words, but if you'd like to find out about having an online tarot session with me, drop me an email. Hello at myprojectme. com.  I'm also taking names for the next round of my High Vibe Journey program. A part of this journey is tapping into your own wisdom and learning to trust your intuition.

You'll also learn how it feels to flow downstream in life using the law of least effort. It's a super practical four week journey that fits in around your daily life and becomes a part of how you live your life. It'll bring you more ease and joy than you can quite imagine right now.  Again, drop me an email hello at myprojectme.

com to get onto the interested list and be the first to know when registration for the next round opens. I have a top tip for you too. Members of Project WE get an incredible discount off of the High Vibe Journey. It's well worth the low cost of membership to get the discounts. Go to myprojectme. com and you'll find Project WE in the Courses and Workshops tab.

I will love to get to know you and support you within Project WE. Well, this Friday I am interviewing my very first guest for the podcast and talk about throwing myself off the deep end. There's a whole amazing story about how I manifested this special guest, so I'll save that for next time. Be sure to subscribe to the Project ME podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google podcast, or wherever you listen so you don't miss it.

Until next time, open your mind, open your heart, and stay curious. We all need some space in our lives for the magical and unknown.