Discover the world of Tarot through the eyes of Meredyth Masterson of Sea Tarot, a seasoned practitioner whose journey from high school curiosity to a profound career change highlights the power of this ancient art. In her exclusive MysticMag interview, Meredyth shares her personal Tarot evolution, the connection she fosters with clients, and why she stays away from predictions and fortune-telling.
How did you get into Tarot and what sparked your interest in it?
I started Tarot when I was in high school. At that time, I probably had a crush on a boy or something similar, so I used it for that. After that, I put the Tarot away for a while, and then I used it again when I was in theatre school as a tool for creativity. While working on a play the director handed us all a deck of cards. We each took one and used it as a writing prompt. That’s when I realized that the Tarot was more than just a tool for predictions.
Later, when I was in my mid-30s, I was going through a big shift in my life. I made a new year’s resolution to memorize all 78 cards and I started to turn to the deck as a form of healing. I had no idea it would turn into a career change.
Can you walk me through one of your readings?
Sure, I primarily use the tarot to support my clients. That can be during times of confusion, or simply for general inquiries. I don’t do any ‘fortune-telling’ of future predicting. In the future, you will be in the present, so that’s where we can make an impact.
Whether I’m reading remotely or in-person, we always begin with closing our eyes and doing some breathwork. This is to is called a drop-in, and the point of the drop-in is to turn down the volume on our busy minds and turn up the volume on our intuition. Intuition is not something I have a monopoly on, it is something that we all have.
I’ll then draw the cards. I listen to my intuition/connection to the divine to tell me what the placement of the cards means. It’s like a conversation between my client’s highest self and my intuition, the cards are the language.
I don’t ask my clients to tell me what’s going on in their life and I don’t make space for specific questions before I draw the cards. I’m human, I have thoughts, judgments, and opinions, none of which has any place in this work. By giving my initial impression of what I see in the cards, it allows me to get out of my own way, and so I’m not trying to tell somebody what I think might want to hear. Then I’ll turn it over to them and it becomes a discussion about what resonated and about the specific details of what’s happening in their life.
How do you maintain a relationship of mutual trust with your clients?
I don’t do anything that is future predicting and I don’t do anything that has to deal with fear. At the end of the day, you gain trust by being trustworthy. I make it clear that no one needs to shoehorn anything I say to fit their reality. If something I say doesn’t resonate, super! They still gain greater clarity on what’s not right for them.
Ultimately the truth is that the universe is never going to drop you. It’s never going to punk you. Whenever we have a question about what’s going to happen in the future, inevitably there’s a baseline of fear – “I might get dropped, I might get punked”. That’s normal, that’s most of us most of the time. By acknowledging the truth that we are supported, it’s easy for clients to trust themselves, and I’m happy to be a part of that realization.
How much are Group Events different from 1v1 readings?
The way I describe the difference between the group events versus the one-on-ones is: when we want to get closer to God, sometimes we drink purified water and sometimes we drink sanctified wine. Group readings are the wine versions of a reading.
There’s no difference in terms of our connectivity to the Divine. A session at a group event will be shorter, they last for approximately 10 minutes, depending on the size of the group. Individual readings are usually about an hour.
I will pull three cards in a group reading, while in an individual reading, I don’t have any specific number of cards that I will pull. Sometimes it will only be 3 in an hour, and sometimes it will be 10. I still do the drop-in in both, though it’s a bit shorter in a group setting.
Is there anything else that you’d like to add?
I want to say that everybody does this work differently. There’s no one right way to do it. I do think that it’s important for people who are looking to get a reading to get away from any kind of fortune-telling. I think that fortune-telling and future predicting do prey upon our fears, and it’s not the truth. It’s not like I just look on the bright side in some pollyanna way, divine really does have your back!
To learn more about Meredyth and her work, you can visit her website at www.seatarot.com
