How do you read tarot cards?
How do you read tarot cards?
(source: psychics.co.uk)
At first glance the tarot seems hard to understand. Unfortunately few Tarot books explain it simply. They overload the novice with too much information: astrology, psychology, symbolism, numerology, Quabala etc. But the cards were first designed when most of the population were illiterate. Much of the knowledge was passed down by Romany oral traditions. (Did you know that recently Michael Caine acknowledged his Gypsy blood- joining Charlie Chaplin and Bob Hoskins as Gypsy film stars?)
In essence the tarot cards meanings are only triggers to your own intuition. Some of the best readers I’ve met don’t understand the history and complex mystical traditions and symbolism of tarot cards. They intuitively grasp the hidden meanings of the Tarot cards – and this is what the ancient inventors intended.
And this is how I’ll teach you to work: with Traditional Tarot Card Meanings but also Intuitive Tarot Card Meanings. You can read about the detailed meanings of Tarot Cards at your leisure once you know these basics.
All oracles are based upon interpreting random events. The fall of coins or runes, the patterns in sand or smoke stains on a mirror- all have a random element. The random events take on a special meaning when we ask them to be our oracle. Carl Jung, the father of analytical psychology, called this synchronicity. His theory, in short, proposed that psychological events ran in parallel to material ones. Hence the powerful unconscious psyche attracted unusual coincidences. Oracles are a focal point for these forces.
First you’ve got to decide which Tarot Cards you want to work with. I would strongly suggest the Rider Tarot pack designed by A E Waite. Their advantage is that they retain much of the traditional symbolism and all of the cards have a picture to guide you. The Tarot Cards teach you by themselves.
Before you start practicing get to know the Tarot Cards. Look at each one and decide what it is trying to tell you. How would you interpret the card in a reading? What does it say about the emotional, spiritual or material conditions of a person? Devote a good deal of time to this before you look up the standard meanings of the cards. It will help you link your own intuitive response to the cards. When you’ve decided on your interpretation compare it with the list printed later. You’ll probably find that your interpretation comes pretty close to the established meanings.
There are 78 Tarot Cards divided into two main groups: 22 Major Arcana numbered 0 to 21 and 56 Minor Arcana divided into 4 suits. (Arcana means secret) The Major Arcana take dominance over the Minor Arcana in a reading. Some novices prefer to begin using only the Major Arcana cards, get to know these, and then introduce the rest of the pack later.
The Tarot Cards can be shuffled so that they are upright or reversed and the Tarot Cards meaning then changes. My feeling is that the Tarot Cards contain an equal balance of positive and negative imagery anyway and that reversing Tarot Cards adds little to the overall reading. I rarely use reversed cards and for a beginner it over complicates the meanings.