I affectionately started calling my tarot cards ‘Tara’, and my lenormand cards ‘Lenny’, after a period of guiding a client-turned-friend through several months of reading for herself.
Being a skilled artist and writer, she is intuitive, articulate, a fantastic communicator and in-tune with her intuition. And, wanted to fine tune that intuition down to a well-oiled instrument of complete self-trust with a goal to having it singing the soprano in time for her overseas trip.
During our reflective conversations, I frequently found repeating ‘tarot and lenormand’ as being a bit of a tongue-twister and after the fortieth time of saying it that hour, I shortened them to ‘Tara and Lenny’ in a moment of lighthearted renaming.
In that moment, something changed.
By creating an alias for the cards, they generated a third party presence that felt like a couple of friends, or ‘agony aunts’ coming over for tea to discuss a problem over cake.
This created a difference. For beginners who see the cards as something to be wary of, adopting names for your deck(s) can be helpful in utilising the logical side of the brain in creating ‘another voice’, or getting ‘some advice from someone you respect’. You could even view them as seeing a therapist if this helps to remove any remnants of stigma.
Only, you’re talking to your higher self. Who is of course your best friend and who only wants the best for you. You’re simply in the process of learning to trust your own voice first.
You could choose to view any naming ceremony as making friends with yourself. Something that so many people that come to me are not, and which reading for yourself generates.
And so Tara and Lenny have stuck. I feel that with the challenges and situations we’re going to be looking at, giving the cards their own sense of identity, or naming your higher self with a title you can fondly call upon, seems to be a lighter way of navigating what can be challenging experiences of growth. And these wonderful cards serve as tools that will be with you come ‘hell or high water’.