Tarot

Tarot is a system of divination and self-understanding that has been around for centuries, perhaps millennia. It is based on the same card system that the standard fifty-two playing card deck was derived from, but its purpose is anything but a game.

Instead, tarot is used to divine what underlying motivations people have, what paths they are likely to take in life, and the hidden strengths and weaknesses that lie within them.

The tarot deck is a 78-card set, divided into the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana consists of twenty-two cards that trace the Fools Journey, the travel of a single soul through life and enlightenment to transcendence and a oneness with the world at the end of the series. These cards are seen as more significant in a single reading, and when a disproportionately high number crop up it is probable that the querent should take note.

The Minor Arcana holds the other fifty-six cards in four suits, just like the standard playing card deck. Suits, in the Rider-Waite deck (the standard), are wands, cups, swords, and pentacles, corresponding with the elements fire, water, air, and earth, respectively. Within the suits, the cards are numbered from one to ten, and go further with a page, knight, queen, and king. The numbered cards represent situations, while the face cards typically represent a person.

There are hundreds of different tarot decks you can choose, from the standard Rider-Waite to the Deck of the Witches or the Egyptian Gods Deck. In these decks, you’ll find that there is some variation, but in general the same rules apply. Though the suits may have different symbols, they still correspond with elements, and the reading will be much the same.

In a reading, these cards are laid out in various patterns. In the Celtic Cross, a card is laid in the center, a second crossing it, one below, one to the left, one above, one to the right; then a column of four cards are laid out to the right. The positions of these cards and whether they fall upright or upside down are all significant to the reading. There are many other readings, from the three-card divination to single-card meditation to the annual zodiac reading.

The readings themselves should not be taken to indicate the future. Rather, they indicate trends that exist in you right now, and these trends within you may shape your future whether you want them to or not. Never take a tarot reading as gospel. Rather, take the reading as information and advice that you can use to shape your life. Nothing in tarot is fixed. It is mutable, transformable, and should be used to lead you to self-enlightenment, not as a guide to follow slavishly.

The symbolism in the cards is also enlightening. Many people do single card meditations each day, in which they draw one card and meditate with it for a fixed amount of time. This teaches you to examine the true underlying meaning of the card, and what it means to you.

You may have heard also about tarot cards being attuned to you; this means that you can work with the cards so that they work better for you than ordinary cards. The best way to do this is to meditate daily on the card meanings. Keep your cards wrapped in silk when you store them, to protect them from outside influences. And stay in practice.