On the many Facebook groups and forums you’ll regularly see people recommending the study of each individual card, using a mix of artwork interpretation and other references, over many, many months. With 78 cards this is a considerable challenge; if others learnt the hard way then you should too! Right?
Wrong! Let us show you not only the easy way – but the best way to learn the underlying associations.
When learning how to read tarot, it is important to have the right mindset. You should be focused and relaxed, and building a good tarot atmosphere during your reading can help you achieve the mindset necessary to get the most out of your reading. This means choosing to include things like candles, incense, and dim lights in your atmosphere if you find it helpful. All of these things can serve as a reminder to your brain and subconscious that you are getting ready to do something important.
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One of the most glorious things about tarot, is the huge number of beautiful decks available and the wonderful artists that create them. If you’re not careful, you could spend an awful lot of money collecting all the ones you love best!
However, when you’ve just decided to learn tarot and your browsing for your first deck, the choice can seem truly overwhelming. It’s not unusual for people get analysis paralysis and put off buying a deck because they just don’t know which to choose. For some people, this means they never buy one at all.
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This is a difficult topic to cover as the terminology used can be unfamiliar and discouraging to newcomers. However, here I try to present this in an accessible form. If like me you struggle with the terminology, ignore the unfamiliar names and instead view the tree, numbers, associations and card positions. This will enable anyone to start drawing on the Hermetic Qabalah to deepen their understanding of Tarot.
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Podcasts are incredibly popular nowadays. The ability to be heard has never been so accessible; anyone can become podcast star with little more than a mobile phone and an internet connection.
As a podcaster this accessibility is very welcome. However, as a listener it can be difficult to know where to begin and a challenge to find the gems amongst the sea of mediocrity.
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Here, we’ll consider a hotly debated word in the tarot community: Intuition.
An online definition of Intuition states:
“the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning.”
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A question commonly asked online:-
“My tarot cards are no longer working. I’ve been told I need to cleanse them – how do I do this?”
Answers typically range from smudging, to bathing in moonlight, covering in salt, covering in crystals, tapping (typically 3 times), ‘resetting’ (placing the cards back in original order) and even burying in the garden for several days.
So there you are, you have your shiny new tarot deck. You understand what the numbers and suits mean and you’re ready to start putting the world to rights but wait, what should you ask? How should you ask it? Are there rules?
When Arthur Waite and Pamela Coleman-Smith designed the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) deck, between them they managed to include symbology from pretty much every esoteric system available. Therefore it should come as no surprise that astrology and the planets play a large part in the design of the RWS deck.
If you’ve been reading the other posts on this page, you should know by now that the minor arcana cards represent the astrological elements of air (Swords), Earth (Pentacles), fire (Wands) and water (Cups). The major arcana also has specific cards for each astrological sign and therefore, that signs ruling planet as well.
I considered constructing a spread with chosen cards to demonstrate how a reading may work in practice. However, I then had a question of my own and the resultant cards seem so perfect I thought it a great opportunity to not only perform a simple reading but relate the cards to the querent/question.
Ready? First some personal background…
Reading reversals (when cards are drawn from the deck inverted) can be traced back as far as the earliest days of Tarot’s use as a divinatory system. The earliest reference to reversals I can find is from Antoine Court de Gebelin in 1781. Antoine’s writings formed the basis of Eliphas Levi’s system, later adopted with modification by the Golden Dawn which ultimately led to Waite’s re-interpretation with Pamela Coleman-Smith (the RWS deck).
The 22 Major Arcana represent archetypes, these are clear statements, patterns and ideas that represent the human life / story. We start our journey as the fool (innocent, adventurous, perhaps naive) and progress through the major arcana until reaching our destination; enlightenment (The World).
In a previous article we listed the basic number associations of the minor arcana.
To keep things simple we used the traditional RWS associations as reference. It’s important to note that this is not the only system in use and it can be useful to cross reference the RWS and Tarot De Marseilles in order to gain further insight. Additionally, the associated card from the major arcana is also worthy of study in reference to the minors.
I have to admit to being a bit conflicted about writing this post. On the one hand, the idea was immensely exciting and I was really looking forward to writing this piece. On the other hand, I knew that I would only be able to scratch the surface of what is a very deep and convoluted rabbit hole. The more I read, the less I know, the less I know, the more there is to research and the bigger and windier the road becomes. Therefore, this is designed as an introduction to what I have learned so far. There are undoubtedly many people who know much more about this that I do and I’m sure as time goes on, there will be other posts from this blogging collective around the subject and the key concepts behind the creation of the tarot.
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It’s funny how different people come to tarot. For some people it’s been something their family has always done, others are simply drawn to it, but for people like me who grew up in very ‘no nonsense’ households where anything esoteric was poo-pooed, it is something odd and mysterious that requires a ‘happening’ to be brought into your life.
Tarot was something I was aware of but never paid much attention to. After all, it was just a load of nonsense and woo wasn’t it? Just a bunch of generalisations that could be applied to any situation, a bit like cold reading. Until I learned that my good friend, Steve, reads the cards.
Tarot, like all Western Magical Traditions has 4 core elements; Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Below we’ll not only outline the element/suite associations but also provide clues on how to commit them to memory.
Now you know what the elements represent, let’s take a look at the number associations (1-10) then combine this with what we’ve already learnt to perform our first readings/interpretations. See, we said this would be easy!
We now have an understanding of the elements plus the numerological associations. How do we combine these to determine the meaning of a card?
. Here is a pithy meaning for the Eight of Swords:Mind your own business . Note: Each of these pithy Tarot meanings is just one facet of its card. Find more of them on my Card Meanings page. Also, get my Pithy Tarot Book and LIKE my Pithy Tarot Facebook page! The image on this post is a card from my
Did you miss my online workshops? No problem! You can get recorded versions of them!
Here is a Tarot technique that I call “Your Own Fool’s Journey.” With it, you can use the Major Arcana cards to explore and analyze the story of your life — past, present, and future.
Here is a visualization technique with which you can go on an imaginary vacation using your Tarot cards. Use this when you need a vacation but you don't have the time or finances to go on a real one.
I just discovered this previously unknown photo of PCS by her friend, the well-known photographer, Alice Boughton. The source is The Literary Digest, July 4, 1908. Enjoy.
Do you know what the expression “entre chien et loup” or “between a dog and a wolf” means? It is a French description for twilight – either dusk or dawn – when the half light turns everything monochromatic and you can’t tell the difference between the wild and the tame. I’ve always loved this as
Recently, music producer for BigHit, PDogg, was asked what his favorite BTS song is and he answered “The Truth Untold,” sung by the four vocalists (live performance below). It seems there is a long, fascinating history behind it. I’ll try to make this short. (Check out these sites for details: The BTS Effect and the
Among the Tarot cards determined by adding the numbers in your birth date, I find most intriguing the Constellation of the Emperor, which consists of the Major Arcana cards whose numbers add up to four: the Emperor (4), Death (13 = 1+3=4), and the Fool (the un-numbered 22nd card of the Majors; 2+2=4). Many people
In this book, the author explores monasticism as it pertains to modern pagan spirituality. As someone that likes structure in my own pagan practice, the idea of monasticism has always been intriguing to me. For those that don’t know, monasticism is also known as monkhood. This way of life is a devotion to the Gods, usually giving up some form of worldly possession or way of life in order to live in service to the Gods the individual is devoted to.
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Oh no! It looks like you landed on a post just for members! If you are a member, try signing in to your account. If you are not a member yet, why not join me? You can find more information about my membership program by clicking here!
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St. Augustine of Hippo noted that “numbers are the Universal language offered by the deity to humans as confirmation of the truth.”Mathematics is considered the language of G_d(s) and, therefore, the language of creation. According to the Jewish mystical tradition…Read more Let there be light (Yehi ohr) ›
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