The Festival of Stupidity

Dedicated to the celebration of the fools in our lives.

Don't Ask Or I'll Tell

Here's one for thought:

People come to you for advice; once they know you can read Tarot or Runes or I-Ching or tea leaves, they'll ask you to do that for them as well as voice your non-psychic opinion. Let them know that you have premonitions, and they'll ask about those, too. And while you don't mind, and are actually happy to be able to help, what do you do with the problem ones?

You know the ones I'm talking about: the ones who ask for the truth, but then bitch about it. The ones who complain, whether to your face or to others (perhaps thinking that your telepathy, if not your common sense, doesn't extend so far), that your premonitions/readings/etc., are mean, that you hate their neighbor, their dog, their boss, their spouse, their--whatever, you get the idea. Yet, they come back, don't they? And they always say they want to know...

The bad part about it is that these are usually good friends, people about whom you care deeply. People whose lives you want to be happy and wonderful...but, unfortunately, if they ask for the truth of your visions, and you tell it to them, they suddenly think you're rooting for some villain to destroy their lives. It's not like you lie down at night and chant, "Oh, please let me have a horrible dream of Juanna's husband" or "Please let me see how awful John's wife really is." In fact, you probably aren't seeking out those visions or dreams at all, and if you're doing any sort of reading, you start the reading praying for clarity--and hoping to hell that it will show something good.

But, what if it doesn't? What about those folks whose futures you keep seeing, twisted and bent and broken into miserable things? What about the ones you never have any good news for, or won't have any good news for, so long as they continue in the direction they've long been headed? Is there a polite way or a gentle way to tell them about the destruction and doom ahead of them, unless they change course?

And why do people hate you for what you see? Why do they get angry if you have a premonition or see in a reading that something unpleasant is going to happen? And they usually don't get angry once, but twice: first, when you tell them, and the second time when it happens. Like you seeing Bob's wife with the nanny in a vision makes it come to pass!
It can get extremely annoying, can't it, when people act like that? You're damned if you do, damned if you don't, as the saying goes. I've just recently realized, through talking with some other folks, how big an issue this really is.

Do you ever get to a point where you say "NO! No more! I'm not telling you anything else!"

How do you handle people that do this? What do you say to them?
 

You know, my favorite auntie used to, before I met Shadow, insist on taking me to a Tarot reader every year for my birthday. I can remember the first time that woman read something really unpleasant in my cards; it was so shocking, so seemingly out of character for the person she saw in my life, that I called to my aunt to join us. When my aunt came into the room, I asked Georgina to repeat what she'd just told me, and she did, and my aunt said, "No, no, no, I just can't believe that, I can't see that happening." And Georgina was really, really polite and understanding, but she said, "Well, honey, I can see it, and I can tell you that, unless these folks step onto a different Path, this is where they're headed." I was surprised and concerned, but I wasn't upset at the Tarot reader herself; I was actually grateful to her for the warning.

And, several years later, when what she had foreseen happened, I still wasn't mad at her. I wasn't mad at my aunt for introducing me to her. I was upset at myself for not having done more to change Paths sooner, but I was NOT mad at the Seer. So I have a lot of trouble understanding when people ask me or someone else for a reading or for the truth of our visions and then sit around and try to convince us we're wrong.

Seers foresee events, some by minutes, some by years or decades--occasionally, by lifetimes. All we're seeing, whatever the means of seeing it, is the future and, in most cases, it's only a possible future, one possibility of several or many. Only rarely, at least in my experience, do I see an absolute future, one that cannot be changed. We're not creating those futures; we're only viewing them. The person or persons we're reading for are the architects of what we see. Not the Seers. We're like tvs or computer monitors in that respect; our function is to relay the images and sounds, not build the programmes.

So, yes, I have trouble with people who get angry with the Seers. I understand it's difficult to have news that's unpleasant or troubling. I understand the initial feelings of surprise, the natural reflex of denial. I don't understand trying to convince me, or any other Seer, that we've not seen what we've seen. I don't try to convince other people that they don't experience what they experience, duh. I also don't understand people who insist that they want the truth of readings or visions, when it's clear that they aren't going to put your warnings to any good use.

One of my good friends was in tears the other day, which is what prompted my creation of The Festival of Stupidity (more on that later). Someone she really trusted, and had been close to for quite some time, had asked her for a reading. Well, my friend gave her the truth of not one, but several readings. I don't know all of the details, because those readings are confidential between Seer and Seeker, but apparently the first reading was so disturbing to my friend, the Seer, that she did a half-dozen more through every Tarot deck and bag of Runes she owns, but kept coming up with the same reading. So when she finally told the Seeker what she'd seen, I guess that person went into denial mode and then what really upset my friend was that this person started complaining to several of their mutual friends. See above comment about "you hate my dog/my neighbor/my boss/my spouse" etc.

I think we really need to think hard about the things we ask of our friends and acquaintances in this respect. It's never an easy thing to be a Seer, whether you have dreams or visions, touch someone and know their life, or read Tarot cards or Runes or tea leaves or I-Ching. It's not easy to see disaster, heartache, and hurt in the future of anyone, especially not someone you care about deeply. So maybe, just maybe, when our friends come to us with visions or dreams, maybe when we go to them and ask them to read an issue because we are too close to see it clearly, maybe we should put aside that instinct to be angry or that reflex denial and THINK. Just for a minute, THINK. Those who love us, want what's best for us. If we asked them to read for us, they're only following through on our request. If they came to us with a dream or vision, it's because they love us and care about us enough--and trust us enough--to believe that they can share what they've seen with us. Maybe we ought to blame ourselves for forcing them to read such painful events or upsetting futures.

I've been discussing this subject with some good friends, fellow Seers all, over the past several days. At one point in the history of each friendship, we've been at each other's throats because of premonitions, readings, visions, dreams. As we talked about those incidents, we realized how we finally got past them and kept our friendships strong: because we put aside our pride and accepted that the warnings were given out of love, not out of a desire to destroy happiness or joy. As we sat around in our conference, one of the Seers piped up and said, "I didn't want to admit that I couldn't see something that was so obvious to you. I didn't want to admit I could have made the wrong choice." Another said, "I remember saying 'you just don't know him like I do, he's not like that' but that a few months later, I was forced to admit that he was exactly like that and I just hadn't been willing to admit that possibility existed in him, so I couldn't see it."

It's not like I've never been on the receiving end of a crappy premonition, either. I've worked hard to suppress that knee-jerk denial reflex, because I know that there are times I'm too close to a situation to see it clearly, so why wouldn't a friend who loves me, who cares about me, have a better, more impartial view? I've come to realize that maybe we also each see different aspects of a given future, too. As our little conference went on the other night, we all agreed that each friendship had been built on trust and truth, and that, from the start, we had sworn one another to honesty regarding readings and premonitions. You see, once we had sense enough to recall that our friends were only keeping their ends of the bargain, it was a lot easier to get past that "I know better than you" attitude and accept their advice with the respect and caution it deserved.

So maybe we need to be a little more understanding when our friends try to help us or try to warn us. They ache when we ache, because they love us. They cry when we cry, because our hurts hurt them. They risk their peace of mind to try to save us from ourselves. Maybe we should thank them.

So--on that note--to those of you who have ever come to me with a dream, a vision, a Tarot reading that's held a warning, THANK YOU. If I didn't seem grateful at the time, know that I was. I am just as grateful for the warnings as I am for the happy visions.

Brightest Blessings,

Melissa


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