Tarot

'Tarot'  is one of the most popular forms of divination in the western world.  It has experienced a significant growth in popularity, with many different packs of cards portraying different images now being available.....

The packs of cards all have things in common, not least of all that they are beautiful to hold and to examine in detail.....  Perhaps it is this innate 'magic' which assists them in being such a chillingly accurate oracle when interpreted correctly by an experienced 'reader'.

This article attempts to introduce the subject of Tarot to provide an insight into how easy and effective it can be to use, and highlights common misinterpretations which often cause anxiety to new users.

 What is 'Tarot'?

  Tarot is a 'tool' for divination which is believed to have originated in late 14th century or early 15th century Italy, derived from a card game called 'Tarocchi', although there are believed to be connections to ancient Egyptian sources.  The 'Major Arcana' is purported to be related to an ancient Egyptian book containing secret and magical wisdom, known as the 'Book of Thoth'.   Thoth was the Egyptian god of writing, medicine, magic, and secret wisdom, so also may provide the root of the name 'Tarot'.

A 'Tarot' pack is a pack of (usually) 78 cards, consisting of 22 cards of the 'Major Arcana' and 56 cards of the 'Minor Arcana'.

A connection may also exist between the Tarot and the Kabbalah. The Kabbalah (also spelled 'Qabalah') is an ancient Judaic esoteric system which describes the relationship between God and Man in the 'Tree of Life', where the ten points on the Tree are connected by 22 pathways.  Is the number '22' appearing in the 'Major Arcana' and in the 'Tree of Life' a coincidence?  Try Tarot for yourself, and see if you can answer this question...!

The 'Major Arcana' represents the archetypes of people, spiritual states, virtues and circumstances which are key to interpretation.

The 'Minor Arcana' consists of four suits, each of 14 cards, and is believed to be the origin of the modern pack of playing cards, less one card in each suit, of course!

The 'Minor Arcana' represents the people, conditions and situations in your every day life.

 Choosing a Tarot Pack

The choice of pack is a matter of personal preference.   Choose one whose symbolism 'speaks' to you.  Some packs are very beautiful, but some people find their symbolism is unhelpful when it comes to reading and interpreting from them.

The most common packs are the Rider-Waite, Tarot de Marseilles, and SwissIJJ packs, although some 'modern' packs are beginning to be very popular.

The Rider-Waite pack is probably the 'standard' pack in the UK, and most reference books on Tarot relate to it, so here is some information about the Rider-Waite pack:

This pack was designed by A.E. Waite and was first published in 1910 by Rider & Co, hence the name 'Rider-Waite'.  A.E. Waite was a leading member in the British occultist society: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the pack benefits from some of the Order's secret teachings.  The artist was Pamela Colman-Smith, who operated under A.E. Waite's direction.  The Rider-Waite pack was also the first pack to have pictorial cards for the Minor Arcana.

   Major Arcana

Like most aspects of Tarot, the cards of the Major Arcana portray a 'duality' of positive and negative, and some cards may reveal unwelcome truths as well as messages which sound too good to be true.  Here is the first caution: do not assume that the unwelcome truths are terribly bad, and look on them as providing opportunities for turning the negative into the positive.  More on this later, under Tarot Readings, but first we have to understand the basic meaning of the cards in isolation!

The following descriptions are quite superficial, but will be enough to get anyone started on their first reading, without being too misleading in their simplicity.  The astrological equivalent of the cards are shown in parentheses.  

The cards of the Major Arcana are shown in the order of the Rider-Waite pack, although cards 8 and 11 may be swapped in your pack.  The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn made these changes in the order of cards to align more closely with the Kabbalah.

   Minor Arcana

The Minor Arcana consists of four suits, with 14 cards in each: number cards from 1 to 10, plus the King, Queen, Knight, and Page.

The four suits are Cups, Wands, Pentacles and Swords.   These suits are sometimes named differently: Wands are also known as Batons or Clubs, and Pentacles are also known as Coins or Discs.  These four suits also relate to the four 'elements' of Water, Fire, Earth, and Air, in that order.

Cups are associated with Water, and are linked to spirituality, passion, and the emotions.

Wands, or Batons/Clubs are associated with Fire, are linked to energy, hard work, ambition, and progress.

Pentacles, or Coins/Discs are associated with Earth, are linked to money and practical matters, and to the 'material' world.

Swords are associated with Air, are linked to the mind, force, and activity, but are 'double-edged'.

Cards with a male or female bias (eg. King or Queen) may relate only to that 'part' of the person for whom the reading is being done.  So if a reading is being done for a man, a Queen card relates to the 'female' part of his personality.

A very brief interpretation of each card in the Minor Arcana is given in the following table.

Table of Interpretation for the Minor Arcana

   Tarot Readings

Before setting off to do a reading, there are some other key points to understand.

As said before,  most aspects of Tarot cards portray a 'duality' of positive and negative, and some cards may reveal unwelcome truths as well as messages which sound too good to be true.  Here is the first caution: do not assume that the unwelcome truths are terribly bad, and look on them as providing opportunities for turning the negative into the positive. 

Be careful of assuming a card is ALWAYS positive or ALWAYS negative.  Sometimes you will find when you look at a card, only one aspect of its duality will be apparent to you.  Note what is happening, because now you have become a perceptive reader!

The most frequent misinterpretation, though, is of the 'Death' card.   This card is actually one of the most positive cards in the pack, and in the context of a reading usually indicates that something has to end in order to make way for something new and much better.  You can imagine how much fear instead of optimism the Death card can produce to the inexperienced reader.....

The advice to the beginner is to ask some simple questions about each card that appears: do you feel this card basically negative or positive?
how and to what degree does this change the balance of the reading?
do you feel this card provides opportunities which are not apparent from the basic card or individually from the other cards in the reading?

Another example often encountered in readings surrounding relationships is an indication that the relationship will end.  Usually, the reading is not as black and white as that!  It is more usual that some aspect of the relationship has to end in order to make way for progress in the entire relationship.  Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately!) a Tarot reading will not tell someone to 'stop leaving the cap off the toothpaste' in order to restore a failing relationship!!  The indication instead may be not to be selfish concerning partnership matters!

The only advice anyone can give to someone doing a Tarot reading is 'note what you see, listen to what you hear, and believe what you feel'.

   Your First Reading...

I am sure some of you have been reading the Tarot cards for divination for some time, but we all started somewhere.....

The Tarot bears the idea of the journey of the innocent Fool to his destiny.  In the broad, this symbolises the querent passing through their life.  As in life where we sometimes create 'new beginnings' (getting married or divorced, changing jobs, moving house, etc) so the Fool can be seen to embark on new journeys too.  Each reading should be considered in this context.

It is suggested that for your first reading, you start with a simple 'spread'.  A 'spread' is the collection of cards and their spatial relationship which constitute a reading. 

You (the reader) are acting on behalf of the person asking the question (the querent), so have to guide them through the procedure of shuffling and selecting the cards.

Note now that it is not just the individual card that is important, but also 'where' the card appears in relationship to all the other cards in the spread.  This is where the Tarot has its greatest strength, but also its greatest complexity.  If you chose just on card, then it is simple in its interpretation, but if you drew two, it is important which you drew first.  If you draw three, then the the possible combinations are beginning to be significant, and the order is critical to the interpretation.

In statistical terms, the chance of selecting one particular card from a pack of 78 is 78:1 (seventy-eight to one), of drawing two is (78x77):1, or 6006:1, and of drawing three is (78x77x76):1, or 456456:1 (nearly half a million to one).   By the time you reach the 10 cards used in the Celtic Cross spread, the odds of choosing a particular combination of the ten cards is 4.56618x10¹⁸:1, or more than four and a half million million million to one!

Given this amazing statistical calculation, it is important that you follow a consistent process for handling the cards.  There is a lot written about the significance of this, which is summarised here.

The cards are often kept wrapped in black silk, to preserve their 'power' which you impart to them every time you handle them.   This is not essential, but you will find it easier if you work with your cards on a flat, clean surface.

The silk cloth is unwrapped in the centre of a table (or flat surface), with the reader sitting to the north (facing south), and the querent sitting to the south (facing north), and the cards are placed in the centre of the cloth. The historical reason for this orientation is due to the 'powers' believed to flow from North to South.

The cards should be shuffled by the querent, then 'cut' into three piles using their left hand (nearest to the heart), before indicating one of three piles to the reader.  The cards as indicated are taken and turned to face the reader, before being dealt into the required spread.

Another equally-acceptable way to select the cards is for the querent to shuffle the cards and then fan them on the table before using their left hand to select the required number of cards for the desired spread, passing each in turn to the reader.

In this process, some cards may have become 'reversed'.   This means 'their head is where their feet should be, not that they have been accidentally revealed.  Reversed cards usually mean 'reversed' interpretation: interpret the negative aspects of a reversed card as positive and the positive aspects as negative.

Using reversed cards makes it VERY important how all the cards are passed between querent and reader.  The orientation of the card in the hands of the reader should be the same as it was in the hands of the querent. So if the querent saw a card was 'reversed' in their hand, by the time the reader lays the card in the spread, it should also be reversed to the reader's eye.  Remember that reader and querent sit opposite, so this means that all cards are rotated from the hand of the querent to the hand of the dealer!

Remember also that cards are revealed by turning over sideways, NOT from top to bottom!

Assuming you have become familiar with the cards and the method of shuffling and dealing, we will make life easy, and look at a spread of only three cards!

   Three Card Spread

This spread is the easiest spread for a beginner, and it helps to build confidence at the beginning.

Most people wish to try Tarot readings on themselves first, and this spread is very suitable for self-readings.

Card 1 (The Significator) represents the querent's current situation or question.  Card 2 indicates the positive influences and outcome, and Card 3 represents the negative aspects.

The cards should be shuffled, as described above, dealt in the order shown, and revealed in that order, expanding the interpretation as each card is revealed.

You may be surprised at the revelations which come to you from just these three cards!

   Five Card Spread

An expanded version of the 3-card spread is the 5-card spread, consisting of the same three cards in a vertical direction, but now flanked by two more cards.

The cards should be shuffled, as described above, dealt in the order shown in the following diagram, and revealed in that order, expanding the interpretation as each card is revealed.

Cards 1, 2 and 3 should be interpreted as for the 3-card spread.

The extra two cards indicate 'past' (card 4) and 'future' (card 5): what gave rise to the situation, and what will be the result.  Remember that Card 1 (The Significator) deals with the 'present', or the state of the querent right now.

   An Advanced Spread...
The Celtic-Cross Spread

This is the most widely used spread, and the one encountered most frequently in texts and learning aids.  As a result, considerably more detail is presented here for this spread than for the others.  The order of dealing the cards varies depending on which text is used as reference, but the one shown below is perhaps most consistent. Sometimes this spread is shown with 11 instead of 10 cards.   Remember, it is the cards which tell the tale, so it is matters less which spread  or which dealing order you use, as long as you are clear in your own mind before you start.

The spread is shown below. 

Card 1 (The Significator) represents the matter of concern to the querent,or their state of being. 

Card 2 (The Crossing Card) represents that which opposes the querent or presents an obstacle. 

Card 3 (The Crown) represents issues which are important, or the best that can be achieved, at the present.

Card 4 (The Foundation) represents the basis of the question being asked. 

Card 5 (The Recent Past) represents something passed or passing out of the life of the querent. 

Card 6 (The Future) represents that which lies ahead, and extends Card 5. The interpretation of this card should not be taken literally.

Card 7 represents emotions and feelings; the current state of the querent. 

Card 8 represents external influences on the querent. 

Card 9 represents hopes and wishes for the desired outcome to the present situation, or possible fears. 

Card 10 denotes the final outcome or resolution.  The interpretation of this card should not be taken literally, but should be taken in the context of the entire reading.

Note that some books show the positions of Card 5 and Card 6 switched.  The meanings of the cards are the same, and the cards are dealt in the same order, just they are placed in this spread in alternate locations!  This is another example of 'personal preference': use whatever you prefer and find easier to remember or understand.

For a reading, normally cards 1 to 6 are dealt face up, and 7 to 10 are face down.  The reader progresses with an interpretation of the first six cards, and then exposes cards 7 to 10 in turn, interpreting each in the context of the entire spread of exposed cards.  This 'ritual' is not essential, however it makes it easier for the reader to focus on the querent's situation before progressing to the outcome.

   Other Uses of Tarot

Tarot can be used as an aid in meditation, healing, or decision making.

For meditation, simply choose a card and focus your attention on it.

For healing, choose the card which best represents the individual who needs healing, and hold it in your thoughts while you focus on the Temperance card.

For decisions, focus on The Lovers card, and decide whether to follow your head of your heart.

   Conclusions

Tarot is a tried and tested method of divination which, with practice, produces amazingly accurate results.  An increasing number of people are becoming aware of their abilities to use this method, and are spending the time required in familiarisation and practice required in order to produce valuable results.

You will get results immediately, but do not expect perfect results at the start: any skill requires an initial level of learning, and then sufficient practice, and Tarot is no different.  The learning required is in understanding the basic meaning of the cards, and the practice is in interpreting them collectively in the context of a complete reading.

Starting with a simple reading method which produces worthwhile and meaningful results will capture your interest: choose a pack of Tarot cards which you feel are helpful to you.  You wont look back!

Copyright©1998 Tig550908

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