Mike Hernandez

How I Got Started...

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I come from a family of psychically-gifted individuals, some of whom at various times have done Tarot readings, performed energy healings, and spoken with departed souls. These gifts seem to run particularly strong in the women on one side of my family, but I happen to be one of the few males who inherited the gifts. My main gift, specialty and area of most interest is the Tarot. I'm extremely fascinated by it and seem to have a great connection to it.

 

I was called by Spirit to do work with the Tarot, and Spirit did so in a very clear and unambiguous way. I can remember it as if it happened last week.

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Before my calling, I thought all this Tarot, Numerology and Astrology stuff was just a bunch of woo-hoo communist crap. Never gave it much thought, even though I do come from a family of psychically-gifted individuals, some of whom at various times have done Tarot readings, performed energy healings, and spoken with departed souls. Well, that belief was about to be turned around 180 degrees.

 

I was working at Microsoft back in September of 2007, and I woke up one morning with someone very clearly saying into my ear: “You have to learn the Tarot.” The voice was clear and unmistakable. It ran through my head at least five times. I looked at my wife, but she was fast asleep, and we don’t have any kids. I thought it might have to do with a dream or something, so I just wrote it off as a silly urge.

 

The next morning, I woke up with the voice in my ear, only stronger. “You have to learn the Tarot! You have to learn the Tarot!” The voice was so strong that I felt it in my bones, in the very core of my being. I just forgot about it and went to work. The next morning, I woke up with the voice in my ear again, almost yelling. “YOU HAVE TO LEARN THE TAROT!”, All of a sudden, I had a distinct purpose in my personal life. The message was quite clear, unambiguous, and extremely explicit. “I HAVE TO LEARN THE TAROT! NOW!”

 

For the next week, I couldn’t get the message out of my mind. The oddest feeling was that I knew that I had to learn the Tarot but I couldn’t figure out why. (At some point I just figured the reason would make itself known later.) It wasn’t until I dug up an old Tarot book and an original-style Rider-Waite deck that I had bought on a whim for some reason, that the feeling began to subside. But it still wouldn’t go away.

 

Kay Ridgeway is an accomplished Tarot reader and psychic healer, and she was my first Tarot teacher. I met her at Soul Food Books, where she did Tarot readings twice a week. I had her do a reading for me and I struck up a conversation about my wanting to learn the Tarot. Sure enough, she had a Tarot class that was going to begin soon, and I signed up immediately. She and I hit it off pretty well, and I figured that I’d be able to learn quite a bit from her. Kay’s eight-week Tarot course was the real beginning of my journey into the Tarot.

 

After about four weeks, Kay had us doing readings for each other. But one day, my reading partner did not show up for class – Kay informed me that she would be my reading partner. I, of course, got nervous. When the reading part of the class came around, Kay took a chair next to me and said, “Go ahead and start the reading.” I cleared my nerves, had her shuffle the deck and I laid them out in my spread. She then folded her hands in front of her and said nothing as I began to tell her what I saw in the cards. Every now and then I’d ask if she had any questions, and she just nodded “No”. I would also ask, "Does this make sense?" and she'd nod "Yes". I continued until I had nothing further to say. She hadn’t said a word up to that point, and I was nervous again.

 

Then she leaned forward, looked me straight in the eyes, and said,

 

         “You are SO MEANT to do this!”

 

She smiled, got up, and left. That was it. So, I sat there just trying to take in what had just happened. It was surreal.

 

Soon after I completed the class, my mind just seemed to open up and it felt like a great fog had lifted from around my brain. The Tarot started making far more sense to me than ever before, and it seemed immensely comfortable and familiar. “I’ve done this before, somehow,” I thought.

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So began my new journey, a journey that would open new doors and provide me with heretofore unimaginable opportunities, gifts, and blessings. It is one that has profoundly changed my life – it has altered the way I think, feel, and experience life; it has changed the way I view and interact with others; and it has most clearly redefined my whole view of spirituality and how I approach it. In essence, it made me feel as if I was a whole new person. I’ve changed in a way that, for lack of a better way to say it, has taken me to “the next level” of my existence.

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I particularly love the symbolism in the Tarot - I never seem to tire of studying it. It’s amazing how the Tarot incorporates things such as astrology, numerology, colors, sigils, and icons from various philosophical and spiritual belief systems. I’ve been fascinated by symbolism since I was a very little boy, so my love for it makes perfect sense and really doesn't surprise me at all. As you can imagine, I have a number of Tarot decks that I use for my readings. They encompass a wide variety of symbolism and represent various artistic approaches and perspectives.  

 

Books have always been an important part of my life, so the fact that I have an extensive Tarot library is no surprise to anyone who's known me for very long. I love to read and to study. I have books on almost every area of interest that cover topics such as card meanings, spreads, reversals, court cards, the major arcana, tips & tricks, and getting into professional readings. I also have books that cover how the Tarot relates to topics such as Astrology, Numerology, the Hero's Journey, the Kabbalah, the Cube of Space, Jungian Psychology, Jungian Archetypes, and psychology in general. (So many books, so little time.)

 

I really enjoy helping people and providing them with guidance and assistance via the Tarot. The messages I convey always contain information from Spirit and the Universe that can empower them to see and think more clearly about the issue(s) at hand. It's such a great feeling when, for example, I see a client's face light up because something now makes more sense, or when there's a sigh of relief and a happy smile because a great or heavy weight has been taken off of a client's shoulders. As I often tell my clients,

 

"I just LOVE what I do!"