There are a lot of different Tarot card decks you can choose to read from. Some people slerp around when it comes to Tarot and use lots of different decks whereas I’m strictly monogamous. I only use the Rider Waite which is the most popular of the lot in the English speaking world. (In Latin countries it’s the Tarot de Marseille.)
The deck was drawn by a woman Continue reading
I had my first Tarot troll yesterday. Somebody left a message on my Facebook page ‘The Tarot Teaclub’ saying I should Continue reading
So. Tarot cards are numbered and those numbers have meanings. It’s another tool to help you understand each card’s message. Generally speaking, as the number gets higher the experience becomes more intense or evolved.
The Tarot of Numbers goes something like this… Continue reading
You might have heard of the Celtic Cross. It is the most common type of Tarot card reading. Most common. Most famous. Most comprehensive. And my personal favourite. It looks something like this:
I know, I know. This blog’s title is a shameless ploy to hop on someone else’s gravy train, isn’t it? Well why not I say! It’s true. And I’m not talking about Tarot as a whole, no siree, it’s bigger than that. Every single card has about 50 different shades, 50 different versions of what it means. So my blog title may be shameless but it’s also appropriate.
How’s that work you ask? Continue reading
Not all of the Tarot cards speak to me. Some I got straight away, others I have built a relationship with over time and some I might never understand no matter how hard I try. Kinda like people really.
The same goes for Tarot card readings. Some I look at and straight up I get the message whilst on other occasions I can’t make head nor tail of the darn thing. I find it helps to sit on it. To keep the cards in front of me and reflect on the meaning of the images. But sometimes it’s like trying to read a foreign language and that’s all there is to it.
The Six Of Cups has been one of those cards that hasn’t sung for me. Which is a pity cause I get it often enough. Can’t tell you the number of times it has come up in a reading and I’ve been like, ‘Oh! I’m going to meet up with someone from my past’ but then I don’t. And I’ve been left wondering what the card was really trying to say.
However after forcing myself to write a blog about it yesterday I feel clearer. Like we might have connected a bit more. I’ve always interpreted this card as referring to the past but now I see that it can refer to living in a golden glow in general. And I do get carried away in love affairs. And I can look on the rosy side of life sometimes unrealistically so. (Have I mentioned my so-far thwarted ambition to be a novelist?) I am very glass half-full, maybe over-full at times. Fantasy is my friend.
How about you? Is your relationship with Tarot a work-in-progress like mine? Or do you get each and every card no problemo (and good luck to you I say)?
No one knows who invented Tarot cards or why. That’s part of what makes them so much fun. The mystery. They made their first official appearance in 14th century Italy around Bologna way. Interestingly, there is a Taro River not too far from there. It seems likely however that the cards were in use all over Europe for quite a while before that.
The popular belief is that Tarot came out of Continue reading
You know, you can overdose on Tarot. Do so many readings that they all become meaningless. It’s a bit addictive. Like having a hotline to The Source Of All Things that you can’t stop pumping for information.
I am particularly susceptible to this danger after a relationship break-up and always know I have crossed the line when The Devil card keeps popping up. The Devil is for losers. For those who want someone (i.e. Tarot) to fix their problems rather than doing it themselves. For those who don’t want to face reality. (Despite this, I’m quite fond of The Devil card, grateful even, but I’ll leave the explanation as to why for another post.)
In my experience the best way to use Tarot is to do readings only when you feel a real need. You’ll know when. And if you are doing readings everyday, which is good practice when you start out, just don’t expect them to be deeply significant ones.
Have you ever looked a Tarot Gift Horse in the mouth like me?
I’ve been thinking about what I said in another post about all Tarot cards having a positive and negative expression and wondering if that is really true. The cards can certainly be expressed in different ways but do they all have a good and a bad side? I thought we might explore this question a little using the Two of Swords which we looked at yesterday.
I subtitled this card: ‘I don’t want to think about it.’ As I explained, it comes up when you’re not ready to mentally explore some area of your life which is a bit of a can of worms. When you can’t handle thinking about it. I would say that this is a negative expression of this card because in this situation you are being dysfunctional.
And the positive? Maybe it’s when the card is trying to tell you that you don’t need to deal with something right now. When it’s giving you permission to withdraw from a situation because there is too much information for you to process. The problem in this case isn’t with you, it’s with some outside source. In this case you are the functional one.
Maybe rather than talking about positive and negative it would be better to talk about functional and non-functional expressions of each card.
What do you think?
This is the book I have turned to again and again over the last 20 years to help me understand the messages written in the cards. It is easy to read and easy to understand. For those who can’t read the small print on the photo the book is called Continue reading
The Tarot Teaclub 