AUTHOR’S NOTE: First a confession: I’m probably not the best person to recommend taking time off from the tarot since today’s essay completes a 75-day streak of daily posts on this blog, and I previously had an unbroken 450-day run to my credit. Compulsive and occasionally addictive behavior dogs my family, and my personal vice is writing about the tarot and other forms of divination. But in the online community I sometimes encounter the lament that the complainant’s readings have gone stale and no longer seem as credible as they once were. While it’s entirely possible that the bar has been set too high on their expectations for reliability, the presence of burn-out is also a reasonable assumption.

The worst offender in this scenario is arguably the daily draw. It has value as a learning tool, but after that it can turn into a pointless grind that will wear down even the most dedicated enthusiast (especially when many of the forecasts fail to “come true” as stated because they pile up on one another). I took a break from it years (make that decades) ago and never went back.

The same can apply to nearly any kind of self-reading. Having done it almost exclusively for twenty years during my period of “metaphysical hibernation” in the woods of New Hampshire (this was well before internet access was widely available in the backwaters of New England), I can vouch for the fact that it eventually becomes a matter of diminishing returns. I spent the last half of those years exploring other modes of divination like horary astrology and geomancy while creating a few original techniques (most notably “astro-lithomancy”) and continuing my lifelong study of esoteric subjects.

At this point in time I perform divination for myself only when testing recently-developed tarot spreads or contemplating a significant life-event such as a long trip, an expensive purchase or some other major commitment. Apart from relative abstinence that accomplishes the same thing as “absence,” one of the best “banishing rituals” for dull readings comes from doing them for other people. Not all of us can transform ourselves into successful professional diviners, but we should all try to hone our skills by seeking “willing victims” on whom to practice. When working in a face-to-face environment, having to think on our feet is a surefire way get the creative juices flowing and renew our love for the craft.

Above all, we should avoid falling prey to the “definition of insanity:” doing the same thing over-and-over again and expecting a different result. There is a tendency to conduct repeated readings on the same topic, hoping for a more agreeable answer, and this is one of the fastest ways to lose faith in the effectiveness of divination. The obvious remedy is to take a more thoughtful view of our initial insights by recognizing that an impersonal Universe has no reason to cater to our wishes so our only option is to take any hints of wisdom we obtain “under advisement” and try to make the best of what could be a less-than-optimal outlook. We may still not achieve satisfaction from this approach, but we should at least feel better about it.

If we choose to continue “beating a dead horse,” we can anticipate being disappointed more often than not. On the other hand, receiving abundant reminders of our unchanging status can provide meaningful reinforcement for acceptance of a situation that we have been reluctant to put behind us. I obtained essentially the same answer (sequential variations on a theme displaying a comparable ratio of optimism to pessimism) from multiple readings on a subject of interest over the last year, which served to clarify and crystalize my thinking. This ultimately left me with lingering hope but no assurance, which is as it should be in a matter that has multiple stakeholders and no clear success path.