what is tarot?

8/14/2019 What is Tarot?

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1What Is Tarot?In This Chapter

Your future in a pack of cards?

The reader and the Querent

How Tarot works

Are you a Fool?

Admit ityoure curious. Who isnt? Everyone wants to know about the

future!

Hindsight might give you 20/20 vision for understanding whats happened

in the past, but what (or who) helps you figure out whats coming up inthe future? When you think of fortune-tellers, do you picture WhoopiGoldberg in the movie Ghost, channeling spirits with a crystal ball? Howabout the Wizard of Oz (the mighty Oz sees all, knows all!), dispensingmagical powers to eager applicants whove proven themselves worthy?Is it evenpossible to predict or tell someone what his or her future will

be? Remember a little thing called Free Will? We do. (We know some

skeptics are among us.)So right now youre curious about the Tarot. What, exactly, doTarot cards

have to say about the futuremost particularly, aboutyours? Lets take acloser look at the cards.

Chapter


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Part 1: All About Tarot

Just a Pack of Cards?Weve seen you lingering in the New Age section of your local bookstore, eyeing the

Tarot decks. Maybe youve heard about the Tarot from friends or co-workers whove

gotten readings. Their enthusiasm has you wondering. Flipping through the deck, themedieval-looking drawings on the cards seem so exotic. What could these mysticaltalismans possibly mean for you? Is it all just a bunch of hooey in a fancy-lookingdeck of cards?If nothing else,you think to yourself, its some fun for a Saturday after-noon.Yet you have that nagging question of how that situation at work is going toturn out. What would the cards have to say?

From time to time, we all look for guidance. It couldbe on a grand scale, something that will affect thevery course of our lives, such as deciding whom to

marry or where to live. Or it could be something ofsmaller consequence but important in the moment.We look to a lot of sources to help us make our deci-sions. Heres a list of some of the sources most of usdont think twice about consulting every day:

We look to the five-day weather forecast to get a handle on whether well needto carry an umbrella, break out the sun block, or put the snow tires on the SUV.

How about listening to the radio for the daily traffic reports? Its essential toknow the most efficient and beneficial route for getting to the office on time.

Hey, admit it. Do you check your daily horoscope?

Status meetings at work or guidance counseling at school help give us a good

perspective on what weve already accomplished, what needs to be done today,and how to tackle future challenges.

Medical doctors and other health-care professionals tell us how to develop good

life habits to keep our bodies healthy, while psychologists and therapists offergood counsel to help improve our mental well-being and promote healthy rela-tionships with others.

Many of us turn to our faith in a higher power to draw inspiration and guidancethrough prayer and the study of sacred texts.

We have so many choices to make every day! Were just like the guy in the 7 of Cupscard: bewildered with choices. Which choice is the best one? Who can help us makeour choices? And how will things turn out?

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The Tarotis an ancientmethod of fortune-telling that usesthe 78 cards of the Tarot deckto create a story of youpast,present, and future.

Card Catalog


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Chapter 1: What Is Tarot?

Tarot is one of many metaphysical tools that enable us to look into our lives and findsome extra information we hadnt really understood or known about before. Working

with the Tarot brings to light a confirmation of things youve always known (yourown inner wisdom) or it adds a new perspective to a perplexing question or problem.

Tarot gives the guy in the 7 of Cups a context for understanding not only what hischoices are, but how he feels about them.

Are you like the guy in the7 of Cupsfaced with toomany choices and not enougperspective to decide which the right choice to make?

Meet Your Magician!

To help you understand how to use the Tarot, just consider us your Magician.Throughout this book, well be your teacher and guide, unlocking the creative poweof the cards and showing you how to interpret their many meanings.

Study the Magician card shown in the following figure. The Magician invokes theCup, Wand, Sword, and Pentacle on the table as the instruments of his creativity.What a wonderful garden blossoms from the fruits of his efforts!

Well let you in right now on the great secret of the Tarot: The power to make theTarot more than just a deck of cards lies within you! Thats right. With practice, youcan learn to become your own Magician, your own wizard, your own oracle. As Glind

the Good Witch told Dorothy at the end of the Yellow Brick Road, shed always possessed within herself the power to make her own wishes and dreams come true. Andso do you. The Tarot is an instrument of insight into your own Free Will. You are thone who possesses the magic. Lets find out more.


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A Tarot PrimerThe Tarot reveals whats really happeningbelow the surface of events around us. TheTarot is a visual medium; those of you who love pictures, art, music, designany-

thing picture-relatedcan appreciate all the rich colors, symbols, numbers, andarchetypes present in the Tarot cards. It doesnt take a degree in math or science to

work with this wonderful medium of enlightenment and personal awareness. Its easy!The 78 Tarot cards represent every element of life, every emotion we will experience,every lesson that needs to be learned, and every condition possible to know. Thestory the Tarot tells every time you receive a readingallows you to know more andgives you the decision-making edge extra knowledge can provide.

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Well be your Magician:a teacher and guide to theTarot.

Oracles are sacred objects or altars used by many cultures throughout historyfor the reception of divine guiding messages and holy truths. The site of the oracle isconsidered a holy place, and often only priests or shamans can visit it. Shamans orhigh priestesses were believed to have had divine connections. Therefore, they becamethe speakers of the messages. Many ancient sites, such as the ruins at Monte Albanin Oaxaca, Mexico, contain structures archaeologists believe were used by priest-

astronomers to interpret divine meanings for everyday events.

Card Catalog


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Youre in the Cards

The Tarot opens your intuitive sense. Its pictures stimulate your gut feelings. Do youalready have a Tarot deck? Start shuffling. The Tarot cards absorb the thoughts,

ideas, and curiosity of the person who shuffles the deck. By shuffling and concentrat-ing on the question at hand, its your energy thats being reflected through the deck o

the Tarot. Your subconscious wisdom is shuffled into the cards. When the cards arethrown into different patterns, orspreads, therelationships between the cards reveal your per-sonal wisdom as you infused it into the deck.

The 78 cards of the Tarot deck are divided into22Major Arcana cards, which lead us through thearchetypal passages in lifes journey, and 56Minor

Arcana cards, which illustrate the various thingsthat happen to each of us from day to day. Well

look at the Major Arcana in Part 3 and the MinorArcana in Part 4, but you can sneak a peek atthem now.

Tarot spreads are diffeent methods of laying out thecards during a Tarot reading.Tarot readings occur when the

cards are laid out to reveal aparticular story.

Card Catalog

The Sun, a Major Arcanacard, and the 10 of Cups, aMinor Arcana card, repre-sent two ways we move intothe light of contentment, joy

and strength in awareness.The Sun depicts a mythologcal motif, while the 10 ofCups shows one way we deawith everyday challenges anopportunities.

The first difference youll notice is that the Major Arcana seem to represent mytho-logical motifs, while the Minor Arcana show more everyday events. Thats exactly thcase: The Major Arcana cover the big stuff, while the Minor Arcana are the everydaycards. The Minor Arcana are further divided into four suits:


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Wands

Cups

Swords

Pentacles

These correspond to clubs, hearts, spades, and dia-monds in a regular deck of cards. Each of the 4 suitshas 14 cards: 10 numbered cards (the Ace through 10)and 4 royal cards (a Page, Knight, Queen, and King).

The four suits of the Tarot deckWands, Cups,Swords, and Pentaclescorrelate to the four ele-ments of the astrological signs of the zodiac, and for

good reason: Theyre the four energies of life. Youllfind out more about the fascinating relationshipbetween the Tarot and astrology when we look at

each card in detail in Parts 3 and 4.

Life Energies: The Tarot Suits and Their Astrological ElementsCorresponding

Suit Element Meaning Astrological Signs

Wands Fire Action, initiate Aries, Leo, SagittariusCups Water Emotion, intuition Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces

Swords Air Communication, mental Gemini, Libra, Aquariusactivities

Pentacles Earth Possessions, the physical Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn

You can think about the Tarot in a number of ways: as a tool for connecting with theuniversal unconscious, as a way to get in touch with your sixth sense of whats true, oras an unfolding story revealed in pictures. Any way you look at it, interpreting the

Tarot is fun!

The Reader and the Querent

People like Arlene, the expert co-author of this book, who have studied the Tarot formany years, are called Tarot readers. As with any method of fortune-telling, reading

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The Tarot deck contains22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor

Arcana cards. The Major Arcanacards depict an archetypal jour-ney through life, while the MinorArcana cards show everydayevents.

Card Catalog


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the Tarot is much more than merely memorizing what each card or symbol means.In addition to understanding Tarot cards, Tarot readers have strong backgrounds in

disciplines ranging from psychology to mythology and recognize that a reading openlifes possibilities rather than narrows them to an inevitable course of action.

Just as certain people are natural painters while others cant draw a stick figure, some

people are naturally good at reading the Tarot. The best Tarot readers understandthat no card has any one meaning, but rather is a metaphorfor a variety of interpreta-tions.

The person asking the reader a question iscalled the Querent. Querents might ask spe-cific questions: When will I meet my soulmate? or Will I win the lottery? They mightask about the world: Whats going to happen in

the year 2005? or Will any film ever topLordof the Rings? Specific Tarot spreads can addressdifferent types of questions, such as how toset a goal, make a decision, or find a solutionto a problem. Readings can span a time frame(Whats going to happen in my life this year?)or reveal a message (Whats my purpose or mis-sion in life?). Youll learn all about different

Tarot spreads you can do in Part 5.

Many Tarot practitioners do a daily reading where no question is asked at all. Often,they dont even interpret the cards when they select them, but merely make a note o

what they are. Then, at the end of the day, they come back to them and note the connections between the cards selected and the days events.

The reader and the Querent dont necessarily have to be in the same place. Readingstoday take place online or with the absent Querent thinking about the question as threader deals the cards.

What if the Querent wants to know about a family member, a spouse or life partner,or another person? The Tarot will answer the question through the energy of the

Querent him- or herself. Whatever information is revealed through the Tarot willhave to do with the Querents own relationship to the person the Querent wants toknow about. Remember, its the Querentsenergy that infuses the cards for a reading,and theirs is the energy that will come through.

A Tarot reader makesinterpretations of cards for aQuerent, a person who asks a

question of the Tarot. Querentcomes from the Latin wordquaero, meaning to inquire orseek, or to embark on a quest.Readers consider Tarot cardsmetaphors, rich images that holdmeanings that can be transferredor carried over to the Querentsparticular situation or question.

Card Catalog


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Tarot Q&AWe know youve still got a lot of questions, so well get a jump-start on answeringthe five questions we get asked the most:

Does Tarot really work?

How does Tarot work?

Can you read your own cards?

Does Tarot seal your fate?

When can you start reading the cards?

Well answer these questions in the following five sections. Keep in mind, though,

first and foremost, that Tarot is not a magic trick. Well say it again: The magic inTarot comes fromyou!

Does Tarot Really Work?

Okay, if the cards indicate wealth and financial reward, should you run out and buythat new Armani suit or dress? Maybe, maybe not. The readers skill of interpretingthe Tarot involves the ability to remain objective, to accurately describe the messageof the cards, and, with the Querents help, to put that message in the right perspective.

The cards are a great tool, but theyre not so great at giving orders or pronouncingultimatums. The message of the cards, properly understood, gently (or not so gently,depending on the situation) guides you to arrive at the correct decision that alreadywaits in your heart. That doesnt mean the Tarot does this by providing an easy excuseto let you get your own way and buy that convertible!

Now, wait a second. If the cards are showing what you already know in your heartto be true, why bother? The answer is that the cards are in touch with a universalintelligenceour human collective unconscioussomething we westerners are not

always good at tapping into. Like the dream world that opens your mind as you sleep(Sigmund Freud called dreams the royal road to the unconscious), the Tarot cardsawaken that place deep within you that is in touch with your human nature.

Tarot works when you look closely enough to get the real message, to both receiveand understand it for what it really is. This means coming to the reading with an openand unprejudiced mind. Dont assume anythingeither as reader or Querentand beready for anything. The true message of the Tarot might surprise you!

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How Does Tarot Work?

Wed like to call on a really smart guy, psychoanalysis pioneer Carl Gustav Jung(18751961), to answer this question for us. Jung was fascinated by the patterns of lif

and the way seemingly unconnected events were in fact connected. He noted thatevery day of human experience is filled with what could only be called meaningful

coincidences, orsynchronicity.

Jungs study of synchronistic events led him to examine ancient occult practices from

astrology to theI Ching, and the Tarot was no exception. He found that the mysterierevealed by these practices were in fact notmysteries at all, but events common to each ofus on our paths of life.

Jung called our common situations (and com-

mon recurrent characters) archetypesandbelieved that ancient fortune-telling methodsrevealed these archetypes to us symbolically. Henoted that although modern science is based onthe principle of causality, occult methods look

to a picture of the moment. Jung concludedthe pictures on Tarot cards are descended fromthe archetypes of transformation.

We agree with Jung that Tarot cards are a way for us to connect to the archetypal

wisdom of the human collective unconscious. The Tarot deck in its entirety is aportrait of the human condition, its potential, and its possibilities. Shuffle the deckand deal the cards: Your Tarot reading is a reflection of those possibilities inherentinyourlife and present situation.

Synchronicity is the principle of meaningful coincidence,studied in depth by psychoanaly-sis pioneer Carl Jung. Jung alsopostulated that human experiencecould be categorized into com-mon archetypes: typical patterns,situations, images, or metaphorsthat recur among all humankind.

Card Catalog

What have dreams got to do with the Tarot? A whole lot, it turns out. Themetaphors in our dreams and in Tarot cards have a lot in common. Jung assertedthat all humans share common archetypes, but that most of us can get in touchwith them only through our unconscious. Dreams are one way of tapping into our

unconscious thoughts, feelings, and awarenessand the Tarot is another.

In the Cards


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Can You Read Your Own Cards?

Most Tarot readers read their own cards every day. Yes, theyre pros, but how doyou think they got to be pros? A serious student of the Tarot devotes a lot of time

to reading her or his own cardsand coming to understand intuitively what thosecards are saying.

Likewise, the best way for you to begin to study the Tarot is to pick a deck that appealsto you (more on Tarot decks is covered in Chapter 22) and then live with those cardsfor a while. Spread them out. Pick them up and look at them. Lose yourself in thepictures. Work through the exercises in Part 2 that are designed to help you become

familiar with the Tarot and to explore your own emotions and reactions to the deck.

Dont read ahead to the meanings of the cards we give in Parts 3 and 4. Thosemeanings are only launching points for your study of the Tarot, and you shouldnt

let yourself be limited by themnot now at the beginning of your journey, and notlater on either, when you know the cards well. Ultimately, Tarot cards are a tool tounlock your imagination, and how you read the cardsalone or with someone elseis up to you.

Does Tarot Seal Your Fate?

No. Nothing seals your fate. Your life path is a series of possibilities, branching offin one direction or another with each decision you make. A Tarot reading might sug-gest to you what could happen if you continue along a certain path, but its up to youto take the responsibility of choosing your own direction, if you dare.

Much of the fear and superstition associated with the Tarotand with all the occultsciencesis that they somehow do foretell the future and seal your fate. Nothingaboutthe Tarot is inexorable or inevitable. What you do with what the cards show is up to you!The Tarot reveals possibilities and probabilities, not certainties. In fact, the only thingthats certain about life is that nothings certain. Fate is what you make it.

When Can You Start Reading the Cards?

When can you begin giving readings? Today!

One of Arlenes most memorable first readings was about a former boyfriend. The

question: Why did the relationship end? (Arlene felt unhappy about the ending,of course.)

The cards came up to tell her that everything about the relationship provided lessons

for Arlene to get her ready for the next relationship. Whoa,Arlene said to herself.

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Then, one year later, sure enough, a more compatible relationship came. Practicemakes perfectnot only with the Tarot cards, but with relationships, too!

Do YouReally Want to Know the Future?Sometimes what were looking for might be not so much a glimpse of the future, buta glimpse of our true selves. The better we know ourselves, the more likely we are tohave the confidence and self-esteem to work through our life decisions fully and withthe care essential to produce splendid outcomes.

The Tarot can be a wonderful tool to help you get in touch with yourself. Instead ofwaiting passively for life to happen toyoureacting to events and emotions withoutfully understanding or appreciating whats going on around youyou can use theTarot to enhance your experience and active participation in the events and emotion

of your life.

How proactive are you? Lets imagine your apartment lease is up in six months.Youre not happy where you are but cant decide where to move. You

Wallow in indecision for months and end up extending your lease to put off themove for another year.

Muse about moving to a city or town youve always loved, like Las Vegas,Nevada, or St. Michaels, Maryland. Youve been talking about it for years, actually. But you wait until the last minute to take it seriously and lose the opportu-

nity to plan a move to that dream location. Embark on a diligent search for a new apartment without addressing your feel-

ings about where youd really want to live or why youd want to live there. Justmoving anywhere is progress enough. And forget about buyinga house thatstoo much to contemplate, much less do!

Pack up your belongings and move back in with your parents or another familymember. Its really just temporary.

Are you secretly looking for an oracle to divine your true path and tell youwhat to do? Avoid that temptation and listen to your own inner voice. When you takeresponsibility for your decisions into your own hands, heart, and mind, Tarot canbecome a wonderful tool for personal exploration and growth. But its not a substitutefor your Free Will. Dont be a slave to the cards!

Fools Rush In


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The Tarot is only one tool you can use to make your life decisions resonate closer toyour hearts true desire. Its not about surrendering to fate or being handed a one-wayticket to the future. Its about making choices that are honest and that feel right foryou. Its about getting in touch with your own life energy and using that energy to

live up to your fullest potential as a human being.

What road should you take? What future lies in store for you? How will you growand learn? Come on the journey through the Tarot with us, and youll find yourself a

Fool for the world!

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The Fool embarks on thejourney of life.

The Least You Need to Know

Tarot cards are a tool for understanding ourselves and connecting to a great uni-versal wisdom: the human collective unconscious.

A Tarot deck consists of 78 cards. The 22 Major Arcana cards describe the pas-

sages of lifes journey. The 56 Minor Arcana cards describe everyday issues andevents.

The Minor Arcana cards are divided into four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and

Pentacles. The Tarot reveals the possibilities and presents a forum for self-exploration but

does not predict or tell your future. You choose your own fate.

what is tarot?

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