This world holds the entire complexity of each human being. There are rules concerning biology, physics, and all the other categories of science. As people, our bodies, minds, and hearts, provide for another complexity.
These deep components of life weave together creating the world we know. On the one hand, this broad world offers great adventures and wonderful experiences. On the other hand, life can be hard and leave us with lots of questions.
For this reason, the quality of our lives can be put in jeopardy, unless we embrace the power we have in life. The responsibility we have for our human experience supports us, so we can push the boundaries of our current society and learn to thrive. One way we accomplish this goal is by seeking guidance and advice.
Whether we utilize others or learn the tool ourselves, tarot offers us a way to empower our lives. Unveiling answers to unseen choices, dilemmas, and even answers about who we are.
Tarot acts as a divination tool, shedding light on the questions each human being has had about life. From discovering ourselves, understanding others, love, money, and the future, our questions can be posed to these cards. Where we then can have answers and secrets revealed.
How to Be a Tarot Reader:
Tarot consists of 78 cards and when shuffled and laid out, the pictures that we see tell a story concerning our question. Whether you choose to learn this tool or see a tarot reader, here’s how it works…
Each tarot reader started with their first deck. While the format remains the same from deck to deck, since the 14th century, there have been many variations and interpretations. Leading to a plethora of decks with their own art and comprehension of tarot and the human experience. Even if you choose not to pick up a deck, the art alone can capture and hold your attention.
These provoking images stir emotions and thoughts deep within us, unlocking hidden depth and understanding. For this reason, each tarot reader comes to use one or two decks for their readings. Based upon their personal style.
That being said, most tarot readers start with the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. The first deck to not only depict an image for the Major Arcana, but the Minor Arcana as well. This deck has become a platform for most other decks.
Due to this reason, the Rider-Waite-Smith, not only acts as a great introduction into the realm of tarot, but with all the literature and resources, a great learning base.
Learning the Deck:
Each deck consists of various components that weave together to depict a representation of life and the experiences we encounter. For this reason, tarot can seem overwhelming and incomprehensible when you first pick up a deck.
The Deck Consists Of:
- The Major Arcana- 22 cards numbered 0-22, which depict The Fool’s Journey. The major events in a lifetime/cycle/journey to enlightenment.
- The Minor Arcana- these four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, & Pentacles) represent the smaller moments in a life. The specifics of a situation and person.
Within these two main categories, each card has many meanings, an astrological connection, as well as a connection to numerology and the Qabalah. In addition to these components of the tarot deck, with the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, the colors and images have specific meanings as well.
As you can see, this deck can start to overwhelm a beginner quickly. That being said, it’s important to understand why there is such a complexity to the cards.
Tarot was created to hide all the wisdom discovered about life, from those who wished to persecute this community. The tarot was even burned and forced underground for two hundred years before finding a place in the world again.
This deck pulls in the wisdom of astrology, numerology, the Qabalah, life, and an understanding of the human experience. In order to accurately reflect the complexity of a human life, the cards themselves hold great depth and meaning.
For these reasons, choosing to pursue this tool will forever be a process of learning and practice. When I first started reading tarot cards I would need to look up each individual card and its meaning.
Which is why I started with the Rider-Waite-Smith. Not only is the deck clear in its imagery, but the book, A Complete Guide To The Tarot, by Eden Gray provides for a wonderful reference guide. The meanings are a great starting point, and there is space to write in new and deeper meanings as your understanding grows.
As time passed, I started to remember the meanings of all 78 cards. Then as I continued to work with the cards new meanings presented themselves. My research grew deeper, patterns began to emerge, and as my understanding of life transformed so did my readings.
Using the Cards:
Following the purchase of your first deck, a tarot reader does two things. She or he starts to study each individual card, learning the Major Arcana, Minor Arcana, and then the Court Cards (part of the four suits). You also start doing readings. Since each card interacts with one another, the best learning happens when you lay the cards out and start to work with them.
Small layouts provide each beginner a chance to start practicing the art of tarot reading. From there, time and dedication, crafts a tarot reader. For this reason, I call tarot reading an art.
There are components that go into making a great tarot reader. These factors determine not only the accuracy of your reading but how deep and specific you can get.
Factors that Influence a Reading:
- Card Meaning- Of the 78 cards, each one hold its own layer of meanings. While there is a main understanding to each card, through time layers emerge, providing a plethora of interpretations and subtleties.
- Deck Chosen- Each deck reflects the creator’s comprehension of life and the tool, tarot. As a result, each deck might alter the cards. Even changing some of the names to better represent the world that they know.
- Place in a Spread- Within each spread or layout you choose, guides you as you set the cards out. Determining the focus of each card. A place meant to represent the Querant (person seeking answers) will influence the card being read. The same card will have a completely different interpretation if it lays in the place representing the situation.
- Perception Of Life- Each tarot deck, as well as each reader, brings with them, their understanding of life. The personal philosophy built upon our understanding of a human experience, shapes our perceptions. As a result, how you interpret a spread, changes based on what you believe and know to be true.
- Open mindedness to patterns and reality vs desired truth- Each spread will bring with it the truth about the situation or person in question. My tarot teacher liked to say that the tarot was never wrong, only the tarot reader. Through time I have come to understand what she meant. With each reading a tarot reader must keep an open mind and heart to the truth that lays bared. What you wished the outcome to be or wish to avoid, will only taint your understanding of the truth that lays before you.
- Intuition- How you feel about a card or situation impacts the level of truth and depth you are able to reach in your readings. Your intuition guides you as you choose what meaning of the card to use. It also helps to connect you with the unseen energies influencing your reading. While learning the meanings and connection between each card is important, it pales in comparison to how you feel. The images found on each card tells a story, a great tarot reader allows the image to guide their intuition. From this, they can achieve a higher level of accuracy and depth.
- Practice & Patterns- The final component that influences a reading has to do with the amount of time, dedication, knowledge, and investment a tarot reader has put into the art of tarot. Overtime patterns emerge, a deeper meaning is unveiled, and the decoding of the cards slips into your subconscious. Then muscle memory can take over, and rather than looking up each individual card, a tarot reader can spend their time sharing the story that the cards weave together.
Laying Out the Spread:
Each spread or layout, was at one time, created. The art that goes into the deck is matched by the consideration and diversity found among the spreads available to each tarot reader. While a tarot reader might dabble with many spreads, they will come to learn and memorize a few spreads that they will consistently use for readings.
These spreads provide a place and meaning for each card. Dictating what each card means in reference to the reading (for example, person/situation or past/present/future). From this guidance a reader can direct a question using specific layouts. Honing in on the pertinent information, related to the situation at hand.
The Ritual of a Reading:
Each tarot reader not only chooses their favorite deck and spread, but they learn through time what feels most natural in doing a reading. The ritual of a reading differs from reader to reader, whether they are professional or not.
Each reading consists of:
- A Querant (the one seeking answers).
- A reader (sometimes same as the Querent).
- A question.
- A deck.
- & a spread.
The question is then shuffled into the deck. Imbuing the deck with the energies pertaining to the situation and allowing external esoteric forces (like Spirit or our spirit guides) to influence the deck. Shuffling can be done by reader or Querant.
Next is the cutting of the cards. Again, this can be done by Querant or reader depending on the reader’s style. A common general rule is that one cuts away from their body when the question pertains to other people and their perspectives. While cutting towards themselves when the reading is being done by the Querant.
From that point on, the reading begins. The cards are laid out and the interpretation of the story being told begins.
A tarot reader can be any person who seeks self-empowerment. While I still see readers and healers, the ability to read tarot myself, even for others, helps me to guide and shape my life. In this way I push the boundaries of what I know and enter into a thriving world.