Author: Rebecca

I recently went to New Orleans, and like most people on the planet who visit New Orleans I got a psychic reading. The woman who read for me is a bone reader named Karen. The bones are in a bag and she asks the questioner to reach into the bag and toss the bones onto a chart, which she then interprets. 

The reading was wonderful, confirming a lot of things I had been wondering about. However, there were a few things that were off mark. One thing that was way off-mark. But the reading was still incredible, with most things being very accurate. 

The things that were accurate were startlingly accurate. Some of her insights about my life were simply wow. For example, she was able to describe, and draw (she’s also an artist) an ornate frame in my living room, which displays a very important family photo. And she said something very personal about the photo, which impacted me greatly and helped me to connect with the photo in a deeper way. 

On the other hand, she did suggest I might be moving (which is leaning towards true), but she mentioned Florida as a possibility. And I can tell you right now, there’s no way in hell I’m moving to Florida. 

So, how could she, as a Psychic, make such startling insights but also say things that were way off the mark?

Here’s why. 

We Psychics are human. We are not the all-seeing divine. 

Let me share my process with you.

When I do intuitive work, I am opening a channel to receive information. While there is a methodology for reading the cards, a lot of the information comes from outside of myself. Other psychics might not work that way, but I do.

I think of it like tree limbs. Above my head the crown chakra opens up like radio antennae, tapping into the super-conscious, where information is stored. 

But, I am still tied to the trunk and the roots of the tree.; The trunk of the tree is the mind, which is governed by logic. Logic is what makes sense of intuition, or the information coming through the super-conscious. The trunk of the tree is the physical reality where you and the questioner interact. The mind processes the etheric into understandable information.

And as you can imagine, the human mind is much more prone to error. 

That is why Karen was able to pick up on a possible move, but her human mind, the logic side, interrupted the channel of energy coming in. Which is completely and naturally normal. No one in a body can stay in the super-conscious forever. Because you would be God, Goddess, Spirit, or whatever divine being you might call it. 

So you might be asking: Why trust a Psychic then?

Before I answer that, I will say this: A psychic reading should confirm what you feel, know, and want — not predict your decisions or give absolute outcomes. Your decisions are yours.

So, the trust between you and Psychic needs to be a mutual understanding that the reason you are here is for confirmation of your life path. And if they are a good Psychic, they will help confirm that with you.

That is why Karen was a good Psychic. She got to the heart of my dreams and my experiences, and connected with me in a way that helped me process these. Just because she thought I might end up in Florida does not mean she was in any way less powerful or insightful. 

So, these are my words to you: Give the Psychic a break. And this applies to Psychics who, for the most part, are doing a pretty good job at tapping into the heart of you. 

During 2018 – 2019, I participated in a tarot book club that read Robert Place’s The Tarot; History, Symbolism and Divination. I found this book to be one of the most extensive books on the history of tarot.

Place’s argument in this book is that the “Tarot Trumps contain the archetypal myth of the hero and can serve as one’s guide in initiation.” I fully agree.

While there is a ton to digest in his book, (and I could write a full lot about initiation and the myth of the hero. Better yet just read 78-degrees of wisdom or Joseph Campbell) the thing that I am focusing on right here is Place’s exploration of I Tronfi, or Triumphs. That is why this post is called the “Tarot’s Journey to Triumph.”

In this blog post, Triumphs refers to the allegorical writing of the poet Petrarch, the Triumph parades in Rome, and also the “Trumps” (Triumph cards) in the Major Arcana cards within the tarot. All are connected.

Petrarch’s writing , and the Triumph parades in Rome were influential in the creation of the first Tarot.

Let’s go back in time.

As we hop in our time-machine, I’ve got to give cred where cred is due. The research in this post is based on Place’s work. So go out and buy his amazing book The Tarot; History, Symbolism, and Divination or one of his equally amazing tarot decks (yes, he’s an artist too!).

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The First Tarot Deck

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Renaissance

It would be impossible to jump into this Triumph wagon without looking at time and place. The time is early 15th century, Renaissance time. The place is Italy.

The Renaissance (14th – 17th C) was a time that broke a crack through the Dark or Middle Ages and began in Italy, thanks to the wealthy Medici family. Christianity was still the accepted religion in the Renaissance, but what broke the Dark Ages open was the return to classical ideas in art and literature. The Medici family spent a lot of money supporting artists who incorporated classical ideas in their art.

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Classical Ideas

Classical (Pre-Christian) ideas took a more cosmic approach to life. Astrology, the planets, nature, the cosmos, and alchemy were all accepted subjects and philosophies to ascribe to.

The creation of the Tarot in the 15th century illustrates pagan, classical ideas.

Cards like the Sun, Moon, and Star are a few cards that illustrate these ideas. These cards are used in modern tarot decks today, like the Rider-Waite Smith deck.

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Christian Ideas, The Virtues

Christianity has it’s place in the tarot and the Renaissance, too. Three of the Four Christian virtues, Fortitude (Strength), Temperance, and Justice are clearly illustrated in the Tarot cards. So, there’s room for everyone here (actually there are other religious practices referred to in the cards, but for simplicity sake I am not going to cover all of them).

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The Roman Triumph Parade

Now we get into some fascinating stuff. Geeks only read on. Next we look at the Roman Triumph parade and in turn, it’s connection to tarot.

The Roman Triumph parade is of old origin, and is even depicted in early Etruscan art. It was a processional celebration after successful wars and conquests. These were public parades that brought everyone out into the streets to celebrate.

We can also see the Roman Triumph procession depicted quite literally in the Chariot card.

In the triumph parade, the captives of war walked first, followed in turn and “trumped” by solders, leading to generals of higher rank, and lastly the commanding officer or king. So, the parade was a display of victory and power.

As author Robert Place states, the parades did more than celebrate the triumph over death. They expressed the desire for immortality. This was certainly the case as fame or recognition of a ruler’s victory would outlive them.

The basic triumphant parade was taken a step forward by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1194 – 1250). Adding to the basic war parade, and inspired by classical literature, he reenacted the role of hero and created a procession that was more performative in nature, highlighting the nature of conquest and perseverance.

In time, the format of parade began to mix with Carnival, which included singing and dancing, much like the carnival of Mardi Gras that we know now. So, the hero’s journey spans time and place.

The Hero’s Journey

The triumph parade was not only an important event, but an expression of the hero’s journey.

If you are not familiar with the hero’s journey, think of something in your life you worked to accomplish. As you worked towards this goal, you likely faced economic, social, or personal obstacles. Doubt or judgment from the world around may have crept in.

But you hung in there. You didn’t give up. You came up with creative solutions. You sought out people who could help you. As you worked towards your vision, you were made to deal with many challenges, all of which you overcame. Finally, after much exhaustion and hard work, you rose above insurmountable odds towards the finish line. Yay you. You completed the hero’s journey!

But back to the Roman parades. Initially they were a promenade to celebrate the heroes in their conquest.

Over time, though, the Roman parades became more complex. They began to express the various experiences in life one must triumph over: Love, Justice, Strength, Fertility.

One can only imagine lovers and cupids in costume, as well as other characters dressed up to illustrate the hero’s journey. Again, like Mardi Grad and many parades we experience now.

One need not imagine the Roman Triumph too hard, because we have art, literature, and the tarot to show us how the history of the hero’s journey.

Take a look at Brueghel’s engraving, Triumph of Time, 1574, which clearly illustrates details of the tarot trump cards, such as Death, the Hermit (time), and Justice.

Like the procession, tarot’s major arcana cards illustrate the hero’s journey, shown above.

Petrarch

Writer of I Trionfi or “Triumphs”
14th Century

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) was a very important writer during the Renaissance, and may even arguably be one of the initial sparks to ignite this era. I’m not going to get into everything he did (overload), but I am getting into his work I Trionfi or Triumphs.

Triumphs is a series of poems that explore concepts similar to the Roman Triumph parade. Petrarch’s work sheds even more light on the images in the tarot, too.

Petrarch’s I Trionfi is a series of poems, each section connecting a vice with an honorable virtue. In each sequence, a greater evil (or vice) is overcome.

These are the challenges of the hero’s journey, some of which are shown in the tarot. Petrarch organizes them into the following sequences. I have chosen simply to highlight the sequence of his Triumph poems (we could have a whole other post about his poems!).

Petrarch’s Triumphs in Tarot

Love is triumphed through Chastity (Prudence)

Death is triumphed through Fame

Time is triumphed through Eternity

Trump cards

It should be noted that Trionfi is also a card game (see also Tarrochi), where certain cards “Trump” others. So, they have higher values. The trump cards “Triumph” over the pip (or numbered) cards. So, like the Roman Triumph, the trump cards increase in value as you follow the sequence.

Tarot Trumps

The tarot trumps refer to the major arcana cards, the cards in the tarot numbered 0-21. These cards begin with the Fool and end with the World card (note: the rest of the deck are considered “pip” cards which are numbered. Except for the Court Cards).

The Fool’s Journey

The tarot trumps, as we’ve been discussing, are an illustration of the hero’s journey. In tarot talk it is often referred to as the “Fool’s Journey,” which begins with card 0, the Fool, and ends with the World card, numbered 21 (the major arcana cards).

As you begin your journey in life (or in any venture, really), you begin without experience, or with only a sense of possibility. This is the Fool.

As you triumph through challenges, you eventually arrive to the World, signifying completion of your journey.

The series of 22 major arcana cards represent the totality of one’s life experience, and the microcosms therein. The Fool is the beginning of life and the World is the completion and the end of life (and perhaps reincarnation?).

Additionally, the major arcana and the Fool’s journey can be seen in our life experiences (the microcosm). For example, major arcana card 6, the Lovers, shows our journey in love. So, if you were doing a tarot reading about love, you could pull out the Lovers card as your guiding significator card. Next you shuffle the major arcana cards, asking, “where am I right now in the Lovers journey?” Then you draw one card.

This card will tell you, where in the hero’s (aka the Fool’s) journey you are within the experience of love.

So, the major arcana cards help us examine any number of life experiences and where we stand in the process from start to finish. They also show us the many things we experience during a lifetime.

Conclusion

The tarot is a deck of cards that bring illumination into one’s path, purpose, and personal journey. Many mystical teachings explore the triumph of the spirit over the trials of life, and even beyond into death. 
 
Created during the Renaissance, the tarot embodied the blending of classical ideals, mysticism, and Christianity. During this period, “triumph” parades in Rome celebrated the victory of life over death. Similar to Mardi Gras, these parades were reflective of the human spirit’s ability to triumph over the universal experiences we share. 
 
The tarot connects us with our own heroic journey; to reign victorious in our own life experiences and to find illumination through every turn, twist, and step in the procession that leads us closer to triumph.

A Tarot Reading for Triumph

Now that we’ve talked about the tarot and the triumph parade, let’s incorporate our knowledge with a reading. For this reading, separate out major arcana cards 0-21 in your tarot deck. You will use those cards for the reading. Shuffle the cards, cut the deck, and restack the cards back together. Draw the two cards on top. The cards represent:

Card 1: What must my spirit triumph through, presently?
Card 2: Where does this lead me?

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Here’s an example reading:

Card 1: What must I triumph over?
The card drawn to answer this: The Hanged Man.

Card 2: Where does this lead me?
After I triumph and learn the lesson of the Hanged Man, where will I stand?

The card drawn to answer this is the Tower.

This is a post for tarot newbies. You have a tarot deck in hand, and want to know what’s in this beautiful deck.

There are two, overarching groupings of cards. One is called the Major Arcana, and one is called the Minor Arcana.

The Major Arcana

The Major Arcana, the “Major Secrets” consist of trump cards (face cards). They are considered the most important cards in the deck. Numbered 0-21. they are called the “Fool’s Journey,” as the Fool represents the newborn spirit, a fresh soul whose world is an oyster to be explored.

By the time the Fool reaches the end of their journey, the have reached the World (card 21), and possess great wisdom. So, these cards represent one’s spiritual journey.

Elementally, the Major Arcana cards correspond to Spirit. Spirit is the energy of the soul, learning and evolving.

The Minor Arcana

The rest of the cards fall into four suits, which are called the Minor Arcana (the lesser secrets). These cards are considered “pips” or numbered cards.

This grouping of cards below shows each of the four suits within the Major Arcana (although the court cards are missing. There are four court cards in each suit called the Page, Knight, Queen and King. Although, if you are working with a deck other than the Rider Waite-Smith, the court cards may have different names).

The Minor Arcana suits, as the lesser secrets, reveal day-to-day events as the Spirit (the Major Arcana cards) evolves. The Minor Arcana suits and their elemental energies are as follows.

Wands / Fire

Wands are the element fire. Fire is symbolic of passion, creativity, and drive.

Cups / Water

Cups are the element water. Water is symbolic of emotion, relationships, feelings, spirituality, intuition, and healing.

Swords / Air

Swords are the element air. Air is symbolic of justice, truth, communication, wisdom, research, and at times, detachment and conflict.

Pentacles / Earth

Pentacles are the element earth. Earth is symbolic of money, resources, career, all things physical (the body, the earth), and stability.

We can see the seasons of the year visually in the four Minor Arcana Suits: Cups (Water), Wands (Fire), Pentacles (Earth) and Swords (Air). Traditionally, these suits and elements are connected to the seasons and cardinal directions as follows:

Earth – Suit of Pentacles – North Node – Winter
Air – Suit of Swords – East Node – Spring
Water – Suit of Cups – South Node – Summer
Fire – Suit of Wands – West Node – Fall

So, in this way the energy of the Tarot works with the four cardinal directions. As someone who has celebrated sabbats and called in the four cardinal directions, I find this approach my favorite because it connects the tarot to magickal work. And systems are things I can build my own thing from.

Other people create their own associations with the Tarot suits and the seasons. Many people see the brown hues of the pentacle cards as Fall, the icy colors of swords as Winter, the buds of wands and growth as Spring, or the watery cups as Summer time fun.

But why even do this?

Well, you can use the seasons for predictive timing. An abundance of pentacle cards might tell me that Winter will be the time when the event in question happens.

Other readers use the Astrological System created by the Golden Dawn. Based on the signs of the zodiac and their connection to each card, technically you could work with this system for a more complex sense of timing throughout the year. Here is a great thread about this (see BrightCrazyStar): http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=2650245#post2650245

And here is what she says (in case you don’t want to travel) – which is based off of the Golden Dawn System of Tarot:

Spring
2,3,4, Wands (Aries)
5,6,7 Pents (Taurus)
8,9,10 Swords (Gemini)

Summer
2,3,4 Cups (Cancer)
5,6,7 Wands (Leo)
8,9,10 Pents (Virgo)

Fall
2,3,4 Swords (Libra)
5,6,7 Cups (Scorpio)
8,9,10 Wands (Sagittarius)

Winter
2,3,4 Pents (Capricorn)
5,6,7 Swords (Aquarius)
8,9,10 Cups (Pisces)

The reasons for this are each has a attribute that is to a decan of the signs of the zodiac. The genera formula, which you can verify above is this”

2,3,4 of a suit is cardinal of the zodiacal element
5,6,7 of a suit is fixed of the zodiacal element
8,9,10 of a suit is mutable of the zodiacal element

Do you even want to predict stuff?

Of course, this all depends on whether or not you even use prediction in readings! I personally believe that we have some control over what happens in life, so I limit predictive readings and proceed with caution. I might make a prediction if I am getting very specific insights from the cards.

In order to do this, I like to use a combination of Tarot suits and numbers. As I associate Swords with Spring, if someone asks me, “When will I get a new job,” of course our first discussion is about how you makin’ this happen — but if the cards show an Ace of Pentacles (new job!) surrounded by Swords (Spring season), I would say that it’s likely to happen soon!

I also look to repeated numbers on the cards. A repeating 2 could indicate the event happening 2 months from now. In all cases, I trust my judgement and intuition to interpret what I see.

But what about the Major Arcana cards?
What does this say about timing?

I talked about seasons withe the Minor Arcana, but what about the Major Arcana, you ask? What can these cards tell me about timing?

As these are considered the cards of SPIRIT –  I would say that there are either: Major life lessons and experiences that you need to have – or – situations that you have no control of — and that will not allow us to see the timing of when something will happen.

So – as you can see, there are lots of ways to think about how the Tarot correlates to the seasons and use them in your readings!

A question I’ve been hearing is about incorporating tarot in a more intentional way. My clients want to use tarot more in their day-to-day life. They’ve started learning the cards, drawing one or two cards a day, and reading books about tarot. They like it. The art is dang rad. But really, just really WHAT do they do with this thing?

The tarot is a versatile creature. It can give you spiritual and personal guidance. It can tell you about things you might not otherwise know. Like other people’s feelings, future events, and the secret skeleton in your lovers’ closet. 

BUTTT If you are caught up worrying about your friends’, exs’, or lovers’ skeleton – or – the possibility of being rich and famous in the future and how exactly will that happen – then are you missing the point. 

The point is the place where you stand in the present. Cause surely, overly fixating on unknowns are a sign that you are runnin’ from something. 

So, yes, tarot can do all these predictive, spying things (kinda – free will my friends), but tarot really functions best when it’s your friend – not a detective. And you can use the two together, but how about you make friends with the tarot before asking for spy favors?

Tarot is a truth seer. As Benebell Wen stated at the Readers conference in 2018, the Tarot is “a gateway and trigger to open up the unconscious.” In our unconscious are the UN’s. The UN’s are what we are UN-familiar with. They are the aspects of ourselves and our lives that are influencing us – big time – but that we don’t see. 

If you can welcome in the tarot as a tool to see your UN’s, then you can build a relationship with trust, and that is the foundation of all good relationships. You can also get to know yourself better. Great! So lets get started on this blog topic already! 

So, getting to know the language of tarot in a deeper, integrated with life way. There are many ways to do that. So how, just how, do I build my daily tarot practice? 

TIME

Doing anything meaningful in life takes time. Seems obvious, but we all forget to do this. Set aside the time you can to work with the tarot. It might be five minutes in the morning and thirty at night. Figure out what works best for you. The tarot can only give to you if you give the time to it. 

You wouldn’t expect your best friend to send you encouraging texts every day, always initiate plans, and bring you special treats weekly? So don’t expect that tarot to make all the effort, either : )

YOU NEED A MAGICAL BOOK

No, this is not a magical book with spells from the store. It’s a this-is-my-tarot bible sort of book you make. In it, you record all of your amazing insider tips and secret conversations with your BF, tarot. 

My magical tarot book is part of my book of shadows, which is in a mini-binder. Sorry, yep – it’s a binder. How dull! Forget the leather and lace and fancy branded symbols. For me it’s functional. 

With a binder, you can move pages and sections around, add on, throw away, you get the idea. It changes with you. 

I would recommend dividing your magical tarot book (or binder) into the following sections, at minimum:

• Tarot card meanings (allotting 1 page for all 78 cards!)
• Tarot spreads 
• Reading methods (for writing in new tricks or ideas for reading)
• Tarot Reading Journal

Of course you can alter the above. If you want to get super organized, you can do what I did; alphabetize.

Oh yeah – and people love Evernote. And Notability. You can use these program and get all kinds of crazy organized with these apps. But call me old fashioned, just like I like a tarot card in my hand, I also like the pencil that creates a physical, tactile response to what it is I’m thinking about. Most spells in witchcraft call for handwritten energy – why wouldn’t you want to bring that magical hand to your tarot practice? Obv Your Choice!

PULL TAROT CARDS, DAILY – or as often as you can. And, record and date them in the Tarot Readings part of your magical book! 

Now that you’ve got your magical book started, you can add to it! And the best way to do this is through a daily reading. 

Some people are into the pull a card per day kinda vibe. If you are going to pull a card a day to learn, I would do so actively. That means, I might choose a card that I think summarizes what I’m presently feeling. I do this by looking at the imagery. Then I journal about this. 

If you want to do a reading for what the day will bring, I’d recommend doing at least a basic three-card spread. You can also pull three cards at night for “Gee what happened today?” The reason I suggest three versus one card for events is that a lot happens in a day, and building a narrative from cards is like writing. You need a few sentences (and images) to tell a story. 

And oh yeah, maybe when you pull the three cards for the day, you describe (then write) the description of what the card conveys to you? Put those sentences together and you have your story and message! Hot dang!

Also here is a spread I love – which I learned from the Tarosophy certificate class I took online. It’s a daily spread that shows you what happens in various aspects of your life, in one day. 

Bottom Row:

Card 1: Morning

Card 2: Afternoon

Card 3: Evening

In an arc, above the bottom row:

Card 4: Friends, Family, Colleagues 

Card 5: Finances, Rewards, Work

Card 6: Lesson of the day

Card 7: How to get the best day

Card 8: What to avoid

REVIEW THINGS

Go back and review your notes for tarot cards. Add to them and change them. Another thing I like to do is review my readings. Generally, I will do this weekly (or monthly if I have been slacking). 

The purpose of reviewing my readings is to learn even more about tarot, and my life. So what this entails is looking back at your recent readings. I have a highlighter in two colors, which I use to highlight:

1. Repeating words, phrases, ideas, or symbols from recent readings
2. Repeating cards

Then I might make another entry in my Tarot Readings Journal to summarize what I think all these repeated cards, phrases or symbols mean. I might also add to my card meanings any new findings. 

Oh and if you want to get super geeky – you can also start a symbols dictionary section in our magical book and start researching and noting the repeated symbols you see coming up in the cards. 

The Tarot as a spiritual tool

We’ve talked about the nuts and bolds of creating a dedicated tarot practice, but how can the tarot actually impact your life?

Drawing tarot cards is a way to understand your feelings, actions, and perspective in a deeper way. By looking at an external image, the internal picture and one’s path forward becomes a bit more clear. 

It’s important to start with the intention of tarot as self-awareness. The juicy predictive stuff will come in time. 

Let’s look at ways to deepen your spiritual connection to the cards. Earlier I mentioned that you could pull a card to match a present mood or life theme. I do this when I am going through major changes, or when there is an energy I want to cultivate in my life. This is intentional; I look at my cards and purposefully select the card I need. 

I place the card in a visible spot (I have an altar) and I make a note to look at it daily. I try and identify one new thing I see in the card every day. I then add these ideas to the page for that tarot card. Or, I do further journaling about the card and how I see its energy manifesting in my life. 

You can also use the tarot to manifest something you want to happen. Pick several cards (using the visual images on the cards) that show how you want a situation to play out. Write about what happens, and continue to meditate on the cards and the outcome until it happens.

Another thing you can do is to create a ritual based on a tarot card. You can talk to it. You can use it as a creative muse. You can meditate on the image, or enter the landscape. You can draw it and learn more about the composition and the shapes and therefore, more about the magic it holds. And you can read for other people, or predict, or spy… Once you are on point and standing with your BF in the present – all this and more is possible. 

There are a number of scholars on Tarot that have already written on the subject of Tarot history, and have done so quite extensively. Instead of recreating the same info, this post is an attempt to summarize the history of Tarot with visual references.

For further research, please check out: Tarot Wisdom by Rachel Pollack, Mary Greer (her books and her blog is amazing!), and Paul Huson. Most of my below info is from Tarot Wisdom by Rachel Pollack, but all three authors write on this subject and should be used for your own research.

Bonifacio Bembo. c 1450
The first known Tarot deck was created by Bonifacio Bembo, in Northern Italy. Bianca Visconti Sforza favored Bembo as a painter, and the deck was created as a sort of keepsake to show the marriage of the notable Visconti and Sforza families. The cards often depict members of those families.The Visconti Tarot is available and in use today (visit yer local occult store!), but it should be noted that that the images are replica paintings of the originals. It is a beautiful deck.

This deck and others like it were created and used for the upper classes for the purpose of playing a card game similar to bridge.

The Renaissance, 1300-1600

Bembo’s Tarot deck was painted during the Renaissance. This is significant, as it helps us to better understand the cards’ imagery. The Renaissance was a blending of antiquity (Pagan ideas) and the Church (Christianity). We can see the blending of these ideas between the above three cards.

On the left is the card known as Temperance. Temperance is a very Christian idea and illustrates the holiness of tempering behavior, as values of chastity, purity, and humility were encouraged during this time. However, cards like the Moon and the Star, following Temperance, suggest pre-Christian, Pagan beliefs (Tarot Wisdom, Pollack).

Pagan practices would have centered on worshiping nature (the Moon, the Stars!). We see that the Tarot is a blending of religious concepts, which is important in understanding the Tarot as an archetypal language and why we use it today.

The Gutenberg Press, 1440-1450
The invention of the Gutenberg press allowed for Tarot decks to be mass-produced and distributed across Europe through the middle of the 15th century and widening by 1500. Printing the cards also meant that standardized versions of the Tarot appeared.

Trionfi & Tarrochi
Card games using the Tarot develop (called Trionfi & Tarrochi, and other names) and continue from 1400’s – 1700’s.

The Tarot is associated with divination (at least this is the first known record of Tarot as used for anything besides card games).

Antoine Court de Gébelin, 1781

Antoine identifies the Tarot as a source of esoteric wisdom and credited the cards to the teaching of Ancient Egypt and the god Thoth (also known as Hermes).

However there was no evidence to back this up. In his writing, Antoine developed ideas on what the cards meant. He was also a Freemason, and it has been suggested that the Freemasons might have been connecting and/or developing connections with the Tarot and the occult for some time (Pollack, and Greer).

He also asserted, in Le Monde Primitif that the Tarot was connected to the Hebrew alphabet, as this has 22 letters, as the Tarot as 22 Major Arcana cards.

Éliphas Lévi, 1810 – 1875.
Lévi was a French occultist and ceremonial magician. He furthered the idea that the Tarot was connected to the Kabbalah. According to the Kabbalah, the Sefer Yetsirah (Book of Formation), the world was created with 10 numbers and 22 letters, which mirrors the Tarot:

Minor Arcana/Suit cards are numbered 1-10 (+ four Court Cards)

Major Arcana cards are numbered 0-22

Lévi published Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, 1856 with an image of Baphomet.

Baphomet was a god worshiped by the Knights Templar. This image is one of the most famous occult images today. This is what Lévi says about the image:

“The goat on the frontispiece carries the sign of the pentagram on the forehead, with one point at the top, a symbol of light, his two hands forming the sign of occultism, the one pointing up to the white moon of Chesed, the other pointing down to the black one of Geburah. This sign expresses the perfect harmony of mercy with justice. His one arm is female, the other male like the ones of the androgyne of Khunrath, the attributes of which we had to unite with those of our goat because he is one and the same symbol. The flame of intelligence shining between his horns is the magic light of the universal balance, the image of the soul elevated above matter, as the flame, whilst being tied to matter, shines above it.

The beast’s head expresses the horror of the sinner, whose materially acting, solely responsible part has to bear the punishment exclusively; because the soul is insensitive according to its nature and can only suffer when it materializes. The rod standing instead of genitals symbolizes eternal life, the body covered with scales the water, the semi-circle above it the atmosphere, the feathers following above the volatile. Humanity is represented by the two breasts and the androgyne arms of this sphinx of the occult sciences.”

The Rise of Spiritualism 1820
Lévi influenced the rise of Spiritualism, a religion devoted to communing with the dead and connecting to the world beyond death, for the attaining of information relating to one’s present life. All of this seems to continue to show a connection and interest to esoteric wisdom, which continues to influence Tarot, and the rise of Magick, the occult, Witchcraft, and interest in Pagan and Pre-Christian concepts in the centuries to come.

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is formed, 1888
The Golden dawn combined Kabbalah, astrology, Neo-Platonism, esoteric Christianity, Freemasonry, and much more. Members of the Golden Dawn created complex systems within the Tarot, and modern Tarot is based on this system.

From this are many important figures, from Arthur Edward Waite, Aleister Crowley, and Pamela Colman Smith.

1910 The first Tarot deck with images on all 78 cards appears from the Golden Dawn Movement, the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot, however this deck was not widely distributed until the 60’s.

Carl Gustav Jung, 1875 – 1961
Jung has a huge impact on psychology, and explores the importance of symbols, archetypes, dreams and the collective unconscious to the human experience. He knows of the Tarot (but never studies it in depth) and acknowledges that the Tarot contains powerful, archetypal imagery that can be used for divination or the process of “individuation.” This is important as it correlates on a timeline with the Golden Dawn movement, as well as the modern approach to Tarot which sees the Tarot as a gateway to the unconscious.

1960 – Present
The 60’s onward included a rise of Pagan (hello hippies!) interests, freedom of expression, etc. From this onward, the Tarot continued to grow in interest. It should be noted again that the RWS smith deck was published for wider use now (1966), making a full image Tarot-deck with meanings (created by A.E Waite) accessible to the public.

In the early 80’s Rachel Pollack published a book about the Tarot and its archetypal wisdom; she is considered the Mother of Modern Tarot, bridging the ideas between the Golden Dawn, Jung, and further exploring mythologies and archetypes within the cards.

Most Tarot decks used nowadays are based on the Rider-Waite-Smith or Thoth Tarot (which also emerged from the Golden Dawn).

This article is about how I came to date Tarot and Witchcraft. I can’t say it was love at first site, but it did became pretty serious quickly. To tell you about this romance, we need to meet the single artist-girl in her habitat, pre-Tarotmance.

Her habitat is of course, the artist’s studio. The last piece of art that I made before I started dating Tarot was an animation called the Sphinx, completed in 2009. This piece is a stop-motion animation about the Sphinx, gendered female, escaping from the watchful eye of the possessive and evil Great Pyramid. After eons of being the protector and guardian of the Pyramid, she is tired of being unappreciated and protecting someone else while she remains imprisoned.

 

 

 

As she works up the courage to leave, one of the first acts of defiance is the simple motion of moving her legs. After not moving for centuries, the ability to move and the recognition of her body as a source of strength is quite a revelation. As she further activates her body, she runs through the desert with new joy and hope. In her cat-like gallop, she rides through her own personal revelations.

Once alone and finally free, the Sphinx begins to explore her body for the first time. In doing so, she begins to masterbate which leads to a giant orgasm. Yes, I just went there, and no, I have NO regrets.

From her orgasm and vagina, great things emerge! Everything from ice cream sundaes, to monkeys and aliens are birthed from her liquid ecstasy. And so, the Sphinx’s orgasm becomes a creation story. From her womb and physical body, the world and all things we know are created.

If the cosmos were indeed created by someone, my bet is that they were made by a woman, not a man. Or perhaps, a gender fluid Spirit!

The reason I am telling you about this story is because it has great meaning for me, and it illustrates where I came from before I embraced the path of Tarot. I saw myself as a storyteller, as someone walking with old myths and ideas but strolling around with them in new shoes.

It shouldn’t be a huge surprise then that my next discovery as an artist and person led me to Tarot and to Witchcraft. After all, a girl who illustrates orgasming Sphinxes isn’t one to get involved in just anything ordinary. Or boring. Or oppressive.

Witchcraft embraces a feminine and feminist perspective. Like the Sphinx, in Witchcraft, the Goddess is the creator of the world, the divine being and the force behind life. She is called the Great Mother, the giver of life and the taker of it, too. Like the Sphinx, the Goddess is the empty space (hi, vagine!) that life springs forth from.

You know all the halloween stuff with cauldron’s? This comes from the old, pre-Christian Pagan world, where the Witch was connected to the hearth. Food, healing potions, and life itself was born from her magic and the stirring of her cauldron. The cauldron is sacred in Witchcraft, but it’s not just the place where potions are mixed. Its circular emptiness is the space where creation happens. The cauldron is symbolic of the body itself, the dark vagina and womb, and the cosmos from which life emerges from.

— Okay, now I am putting the cart before the horse and running wildly down this path of Witchcraft. But how did you get to all this Witch stuff? What was the defining moment for you?

Tarot Led me to Witchcraft
Well, Tarot actually led me to Witchcraft (Mom, I knew Tarot was evil! No, seriously tho. It’s NOT evil, that’s just TV talking crazy). After creating the Sphinx, I thought further about storytelling and archetypes. I also started to reflect back on several Tarot readings in my twenties from Nancy, and how transformative those experiences were as storytelling experiences.

I began to wonder what would happen if I explored the Tarot through my own personal lens; If, like the Sphinx, I put old symbols into new shoes and walked around a bit. Besides my curiosity, I also have to admit I was going through a rough patch in life. I was in a place of questioning my path and purpose in life (I’ll save you the tear-filled details). So part of me felt that creating a Tarot deck might be healing for me. And it actually was.

The Hermit in the Tarot is about walking a path in solitude, and being guided by one’s own inner light. The Hermit’s path is likely to go slowly, and stray far away from the normal paved road on the highway of life.

As I worked on my drawing of the Hermit, I began to think about my own path. How I had chosen to be an artist against my family’s wishes. How I often had to do everything on my own (like create my own animation studio at home!). Like the Hermit, I also needed a ton of alone time. And like the Hermit, I kept on pressing on despite feeling like the world at large didn’t always get me. So, in creating the Hermit painting I was able to explore a symbol deeply and find meaning and a visual way to understand my own life. This was becoming a healing and personal experience for me.

I also got to paint a feminine version of the Hermit, and that was pretty cool. Most decks show an old man on a mountain. But my Hermit begins in water and emerges on land. They are an old being (we all started as simple cells in the sea, my friends) with pink lips and a wise soul.

The Tools of the Witch in the Tarot Deck
The Tarot suits (Cups, Pentacles, Swords, and Wands) are all symbolized by a tool of Witchcraft, or used by the Magician (think alchemy, not stage antics). Each tool or suit also connects to an element. Elements are used in magickal work, by the Witch as well:

• Cups is water and is connected to feeling and emotion.
• Pentacles is earth and is connected to resources.
• Swords is air and is connected to matters of mind.
• Wands are fire and are connected to passion and creativity.As I learned about the symbolism of the Tarot suits, I was curious about learning more about this Witchcraft stuff. Just how did one use the elements in magick? What was a Witch, really?

 

 

I became book and knowledge hungry. I read as much as I could on the subject of Witchcraft, Paganism, and pre-Christian concepts by visiting ye old new age shop and scooping up book after book. And it completely fascinated me. Learning that Witches use to burn poppets of children to celebrate the life cycle? Yes, I was into that weirdness. Learning that Witches worship the Moon (which I also LOVE)? Yep. Definitely me. Learning that Witches worship the Goddess and the divine feminine?!? Why hello, you and me and the Sphinx are speaking the same language now, yep indeedy!

Learning that doing a spell wasn’t just praying for something to happen, but demanding it become (and making it) reality? The self-starter in me said HELL YEAH to that one.

So, my inner world and my connection to this spiritual study began. I started learning about meditation, dreams, astral projection, and totems – all areas embraced by the practicing Witch. I read about the Witches Wheel of the Year, and living in accordance with Nature’s rhythms (the basic tenets of Witchcraft). And some pretty profound personal stuff happened, but that’s my sacred experience that I am saving for the great novel that one day may be.

Finishing and Using my Tarot Deck
The creating of this Tarot deck took about a year (whilst I was also learning and studying more about Witchcraft). Once I finished the deck in 2010, I began using it for myself. But then I thought about the possibility of reading for others. What would that be like?

At the time I was also performing with my band, named Laughing Eye Weeping Eye. It was the perfect chance to try out this whole reading Tarot thang for someone else! Before one of our shows at the Empty Bottle in Chicago, I set out my Tarot sign and set up Witch shop.

And people wanted readings. They were LINING UP. I was amazed at how much there was an interest and a need for this. And when I read for others, I was shocked at how accurate the readings were, and the feedback I received from people was great. To say that I loved Tarot reading at this show (and the ones to follow) was an understatement.

And for me: Getting to look at an image and talk about it? Love. It was art in motion. Having the reading be accurate about someone’s life, AND seeing that it was a transformative experience for someone else? Love. Tarot was art, myth, storytelling, and service to others, all in one. It was most of the things I was interested in combined into one, personal and mystical star of a package.

And while I am giving you a summary of the AHA moment, the reality is that I spent years doing readings, touring, and learning more about Witchcraft before I dove into making it my full-time life, which happened in 2013. The deck and my work, which began publicly at Laughing Eye Weeping Eye shows, became my first deck and my magickal and professional moniker.

 

And where has the time gone? Into so many things, all magickal.

Fast forward to 2018 and a day in September when I write this. And what you have is a woman still completely and utterly entrenched in this world. I continue to deepen my connection to this work, but I do so with my creative practice.

In fact, my creative practice is essential to my work as a Witch. Paintings and writing are often about my work with specific deities, animal totems, or concepts related to mysticism.  In turn, these creative projects  become Tarot or oracle decks, and books. As I sort through my spiritual experiences with paint on paper, I have the chance to transcend physical reality and learn more about my existence, and, my Craft. And in turn, I share these ideas with others.

When I went to the Readers Studio in April of 2018, Tarot Master Mary Greer said something that I can’t get out of my head: Tarot is a great companion to a Fine Arts practice. Yes, I thought to myself – it is. Because, well I’m an Artist, and geez – did you literally say those words to me directly? Because my heart leapt out of my chest then those words left your mouth.

I have been an Artist since I can remember. In the office of my Grandmother’s house, the young Artist is given some watercolors, paint brushes, paper, and straws. After dropping wet blobs of paint onto office paper, 8 year old me took the straws and blew through them like the west winds. Paint blobs spread out from my wind tunnel into intricate and “refined” splatters. You could not pull me away from the page. I was obsessed with seeing how far I could take these splatters. They had arms reaching to embrace each other. They were clouds, dripping with rain. They were tears falling down cheeks. This was no ordinary time or place I was experiencing. I was someplace else. I was in awe of my power to shape what was before me. I was transfixed, I was high (might have been a tad bit winded!).

I knew I wanted to be an artist, right then and there – and always.

The act of creating something that didn’t exist before was magical. It’s like a ritual. In quietness you commune with forces outside of yourself, and they speak back to you in a language outside of human consciousness. In creating something that didn’t exist before, you see your power to alter reality. A white page is yours. No matter what’s going on outside of you, the white page embraces, responds, and gives you a language when words fail. As the young artist seeing splatters as clouds, tears, and rain, art gave me a way to connect to the mysteries of life. I could speak with the skies and with tears rolling down cheeks.

Being an Artist is central to my practice as a Tarot Reader. As a creator of symbols, I have learned to look deeply beyond a shape to see its meaning. As a creator who makes their own tarot decks, communing directly with archetypes has deepened my understanding of the cards. Symbols and metaphor speak to us in a language outside of normal time and space. In using this language, tarot allows us to see our lives in a different way.

In the Fall of 2016, I started taking Japanese Butoh classes. Butoh is a modern form of dance that means to “dance with darkness.” The dance of Butoh is one that allows the body to move to innate imageries. Often times the Butoh classes I take revolve around us responding to a series of prompts from the instructor. One recent class focused on us embodying the Greek God Eros. We were prompted to move as if we had been struck by thousands of arrows by the Greek God Eros, God of love. Can you imagine? I was writhing in pain, and pleasure. Love, but suffering also, coursed though my veins. Next, our orator told us that sweet honey poured from our open wounds. I moved in very slow circular motions, sticky. I arched my head, smelling the sweet nectar. It was a strange and transformative reality to embrace.

I am addicted to the altered state, as an artist and Tarot reader. When reality is altered, it somehow becomes more clear.

After all these years, the girl blowing paint splatters continues to live on in the same spirit. I seek out creative experiences that allow me to embody the unknown. Through painting animal totems, I get to meet the wild and learn from their ways. In movement and Butoh dance, I become the Lovers card, Eros’ center.

The tarot holds the power of these Gods and the primal energy of us, in a large and mysterious cosmos. The Lovers card is the place where the arrow rests.

Embracing a creative practice can help you embody Tarot archetypes in new ways, whether through movement, visual art, writing, or music. All forms of creativity involve releasing your grasp on reality for a deeper look. The deeper look then transforms reality into hope and possibility. A landscape with infinite pathways appears before us.

So, I ask you: What is your inner genius, and your way to connect to the tarot outside of normal reality?

A poetic journey through the tarot court cards

We try to stand still but life forces our progress, step and stride and stumbling. We move along, backwards, sideways and forward and then we stand still. For a moment.

These words are a rhythm seeking to circle the Court Cards, to lasso them in as they break from one into the other. The child becomes the teen. The Queen becomes the King. They are stubbornly fixed and yet edgeless.

We begin with the Page, the fresh-eyed fawn. Or, the shoot of grass in spring. Breaking from formlessness, the Page unfurls like a question gazing into the sun. The Page could be called innocent, but they are not unbroken. They long for a story to be told. Then they rip it apart in order to create their own.

Practitioners and magic workers name the Page many things. The young, the student, the journeyer unlearned working toward master. The spirit of transition, the seeker of new, the impressionable and immature, the free and the pure. The longing to build, the curious, the vain, the unfettered mind, the force of ideas quickly strung together.

The Page is anything possible and barely dreamed of.

And they unfold.

As any path begun, forks and knives begin to appear and the Page is twisted and bent into shape. Gaining momentum and courage, the Page asserts their position and continues.

As the Page gathers power and their legs straighten, they settle into pace. They begin to assert their confidence, seeing signs of adeptness. It is then that they become a charming steed, the horse bucking with pure energy. In growing determination the Page swivels into a dynamic Knight.

The Knight is the rebellious teen. They are the defiance of the world, or the world’s limits reigning them in, turning them around. The Page thought their plans would be easy. But now, they are forced to carry out orders. This was not their plan. This was not their rule.

The Knight can obey or rebel. In a reading, the other cards around the Knight reveals whether they meet or spurn their sovereign.

The Knight is Trent Reznor, Joan of Arc, Nat Turner, Marcel Duchamp, and the hopeless romantic. They are the spirit of defiance that keeps the world in check, making strides with pain, fury, appetite, and unrest.

But they are also the hooded armsmen that fight to keep worlds held back.

The Knight is called the conflicting force, the defiant sport, the charming one, the arrogant bastard, the risk, the push, the twist, the strength, the sword. The Knight is the challenge we all must fight against. The Knight is the defiance we must embrace.

Duality is indwelling.

The battle of becoming is like the wind or the sea carving rock and shaping land. After its heavy hand, the polished stone shines with ease. There is calm after the storm. The dawn glows an orangish pink as the sun rises to greet.

It is now that we meet the time of the Queen.

The Queen is achieved, rested, and poised. Queen is proud but is so without external validation. Queen is cohesion of thought and feeling. The Queen has credence, she needs no belief.

Queen is Moon, reflecting light in darkness. Queen is solemn, magical, and serene. The Queen is a river bringing water through dirt, root, and stream. The Queen cuts through jagged rocks to bring balance with force – if need be.

The Queen is the center of the hive, the cooperation and the speaking of trees swaying and strong. The Queen is called mother, matriarch, creator, and the energy of receptivity. Queen is called the hope, the order, the life, the center, the magnet, the glue that holds chaos together. What room is there for a King?

Perhaps not enough, so the King must rise up in order to be seen.

The King is the force of initiation, high on the lead. The King will keep the peace or end ties if need be. The King decides the direction. Others must follow their creed.

The King is knowledge, the book, the vision, the plan, the stance, the position. The King is the mature adult, the boss, the father, the judge, the founder, the spark, the courage, the leader.

Rising up like a tower, the King reaches toward the sky. They are steel and structure and forceful. The King is scorched with ambition. They are the mountain, the sun, the leaves, and the winter, ending to make way for the new.

The King is the culmination of human aspiration. King are antlers grown through time and seasons. Eventually though, spires fall and ring wears off. The cycle begins again.

Through the Courts our eyes wane from new to expectant. The gaze begins soft and in time is distinct. The Courts are stages, ages, perception, and mindset. They are self, and other, becoming old and young, around and around and away again.

 

I was contacted by Shelley Rue of Sparrow Tarot, and asked to the answer the following question for an article, which I am reposting here.

“What source, if any, do you attribute as the force behind the specific cards that are turned over in a reading/the answers that emerge from the cards? Ie, what or who “causes” those particular cards to emerge, and how do you explain the cards’ unique ability to answer each question accurately?”

I believe in the force! One exists and we can tap into it at anytime when we read the cards or need general guidance. I bring a spiritual component to the tarot (and to my life), but not everyone does; you don’t need to be spiritual to read the cards. But you do have to believe in yourself, because you are what makes the cards come alive beyond rote memorization.
What makes a reading hit home beyond the card meanings, in my opinion are two things: Your energy, and your knowledge of the patterns within the cards. In terms of energy, I am going to explore this in a spiritual dimension, but let’s first talk about the patterns.

The world is made of cycles and patterns. Straight and simple. In our lives, we live in patterns. Patterns of behaviors, cycles of highs and lows, and moments that seem to repeat. How convenient is it then, that the tarot employs complex systems of pattern? Within the deck, there are typically four suits with fourteen cards each, and a fifth suit with twenty-two cards. So, there are sets of cards and numbers that form a basic pattern. Additionally, there are visual symbols such as figures, colors, and symbols that repeat throughout the deck.

Because I pay special attention to patterns, I normally like to read the tarot in groupings of two to five cards. This helps me identify sequences, numbers, or repeated images. Patterns in the cards may be simple or complex. I also think that my background as an artist helps me to read images and patterns. For example, I may notice a blue sky repeated in all of the cards, but anxious figures or scenes within the landscapes. This contrast is telling me that “blue skies abound,” but that the Querent is more worried than they need to be. I may also notice that many of the cards are from one suit in particular. So, an abundance of pentacle cards may suggest that even though the Querent is asking about love, they may be struggling at work. And because they are struggling at work, this will also be impacting their happiness, confidence, and therefore their ability to meet someone. Or, if I see the number nine repeated (numerically, nine can indicate an ending) but reversed, and followed by an Ace (beginnings), this suggests the Querent is avoiding ending something and starting down a much needed new path. As you can see (hopefully!), there are an endless amount of patterns in the cards and each time I do a reading I try to clear my brain so that I am truly open to seeing the patterns. I think that anyone can learn this skill through time and practice, and it definitely helps make a reading accurate.

For me, there is also something more than just knowing the cards and seeing the patterns. Earlier, I mentioned this as “my energy” and that I would explore this in a spiritual context. When I read intuitively, I call this connecting to “Spirit.” For me, Spirit is an all-knowing energy, outside and inside of us. I also think of this as a collective energy where information and ideas are accessible to all. It is this energy that helps me know something that I would not otherwise know. This clairvoyant information may come to me as a phrase or word I hear, or an image in my mind’s eye. When I read tarot for someone, I connect to Spirit. Connecting to Spirit helps me bring an added component to the readings so that I am open to information from the universe at large.

In terms of what “causes” certain cards to emerge, I personally believe it’s the force (again I call it Spirit). But we can break this down even further if we think of the fact that everything has energy. The people I read for have different energies and life experiences and they bring these to the reading. The Querent is involved in the reading and they are bringing their energy to the cards. They do this physically. I have them shuffle the cards, cut the deck, or pull cards from a pile. So, the Querents are the ones arranging the cards into the correct order and creating the pattern that I then read.

If the person is not present I ask for Spirit to guide the reading and select the cards that align with the energy and needs of the person I am reading for. Sometimes it also helps to have the Querent visualize the cards being shuffled as if I am arranging them like puzzle pieces that describe their life’s picture. So even if they are not touching the cards physically, energetically they are still involved. Visualization and concentration (channeling energy into the deck) helps assure that the cards align in the best, and most accurate way.

While I don’t think you need a spiritual component to read the cards, for me I have found it to be helpful. The fact that most people believe something unexplainable happens only shows that there is something magical. I am often astounded and amazed by this work. It is this sense of awe that keeps me addicted to the tarot!

Numerology is the belief that numbers are not just math, but that they have divine meanings. Back before we separated the study of science from religion (not saying this is a bad thing), the study of the world also meant looking for the patterns around us. Take for example Pythagoras (6th C. BCE), who believed numbers were the expressive architecture of the divine.

Numerology follows the belief that because we can understand the world through the scientific means of algorithm, geometry, and pattern, we can also use numbers to understand ourselves. The numbers that compose your year, month, and date of birth relate a blueprint of sorts, about the nature of who you are and what your “function” is.

If you want to read about how to calculate your life path number, there are a million sites out there to show you how, so I am not going to repeat what is already out there. What I am here to write about today is the connection that numbers have to Tarot, and what I have come across as a reader.

While the actual meaning of a Tarot card and its interpretation in a spread is my first method for reading, numerology is a secondary tool that adds additional meaning.

The numbers in the Tarot are as follows:
– The Major Arcana cards are numbered 1-21
– Minor Arcana cards (suits of: Wands, Swords, Cups, and Pentacles) are numbered 1-10 each, with 4 Court Cards following the number 10 in every suit.

Some schools of thought place both the Fool (0) and World (21) card somewhat outside of the Major Arcana. Doing this allows for 6 groups of 10 cards in the Major and Minor Arcana: The Major Arcana cards 1-10, Major Arcana cards 10-20, and 4 sets of Minor Arcana cards 1-10 in each suit (Wands, Swords, Cups, and Pentacles).  In numerology, 1-9 are considered the root numbers and the number 10 is an ending and beginning (10 equals 1, as 1+0 = 1). So, it would seem that the Tarot is connected to a basic tenant of numerology, that root numbers 1-9 form the underlying pattern within the deck. This could be a random connection, but the members of the Golden Dawn didn’t think so. In their published doctrines, these magicians and occultists  teach that each Tarot card has numerical, astrological, and Qabalastic associations (Check out: The Golden Dawn: A Complete Course in Practical and Ceremonial Magic).

I’ve given you some food for though, but let’s talk experience. Here’s what I have noticed about numbers in a Tarot reading:

– If a number is repeated throughout a Tarot reading, it is usually significant.
– The significance of the repeating number may stress the importance of its numerical meaning.
– The significance of the repeating number may show a length of time.
– The length of time is usually: When something will happen (days or months) for the querent, the length of time something lasted (like a relationship), or how long ago a significant event happened.
– Sequential numbers can show when something starts and ends: For example, seeing 4 – 6 repeated in a reading can indicate that something will begin to come to fruition in 4 months and be complete within 6.
– Sequential numbers can also indicate the nature of a situation. Lower numbers like 1,2 and 3 in sequence suggest something is unfolding, while 7, 8, and 9 can indicate a situation is closing.

The part that I can’t teach is how to know in what way the repeating numbers and sequences are significant in a reading. This is something you will develop intuitively as a reader. What I will say is that you can usually find clues in the cards that surround the numbers.

FUTURE PREDICTION WITH NUMBERS
To decipher the timing of an event, some people also use the general suit they are seeing and combine it with the repeating number. This is a commonly used system:

• Wands – Days or Summer
• Swords – Weeks or Spring
• Cups – Months or Autumn
• Pentacles – Years or Winter

NUMERICAL MEANING
Additionally, the numerical significance may relate to the problem or issue at hand. For example, the number 4 is connected to stability. Seeing this number repeated throughout a reading may indicate the need to save money or seek security.

Here are my numerological associations with the Tarot cards (which reflect traditional numerological associations):

Odd numbers: Leadership/Breaking away (Masculine)
Even numbers: Harmony/Balance (Feminine)

NUMBER MEANINGS:

ACES
New beginnings, ideas, or possibilities.

ACES Reversed
New beginning not materializing.
Can indicate either avoidance of starting over, or that now may not be the right time to start over. May also indicate opportunities or ideas that have fallen through and are no longer available.

TWOS
Balance, weighing, potential. May indicate two people if there are an abundance of twos and 2 court court cards in the reading.

TWOS Reversed
Impatience, or potential thwarted.

THREES
Completion, creation, social activity, power. May indicate group workings, birth, and success.

THREES Reversed
Distrustful partners, deceit, lack of completion/coordination, singularity (versus group work/trust) may be needed.

FOURS
Stability, grounding, balance, proportion, success. Four is two 2’s – there’s more weight to what was set into motion.

FOURS Reversed
Stability uprooted, lack of balance or grounding. Either inability to create stability or to break free from it.

FIVES
Conflict, decisions, challenges, and being between decisions or worlds.

FIVES Reversed
Conflict is closing, the challenges are wrapping up and a decision is made. Could also indicate denial of challenges.

SIXES
Balance, harmony, nurturing, love, grace. The power of 3 combined into two 3’s – but 6 is an even number, suggests balance over the dynamism of the number 3.

SIXES Reversed
Lack of balance, disharmony. The need to stop over-giving or nurturing. Or, the fear of opening up.

SEVENS
Possibility, ideas, creativity, evaluation, futuristic thinking.

SEVENS Reversed
Too many options, lack of focus. Conversely, avoidance of imagination or consideration of the possibilities available to you.

EIGHTS
Work, success, material wealth. Eight is the culmination of the number 2, and suggests completion. 8’s can be grinding, the infinity symbol that never ends. Energy must be channeled appropriately.

EIGHTS Reversed
Lack of material success, or avoidance of the necessary work. Also, focused on work and/or materiality to a fault. Instability, repeating cycles that need to end.

NINES
Completion, ending, enlightenment.

NINES Reversed
Lack of closure, or the need to redefine goals.

TENS
1+0 = ONE. So, the completion of something and the chance to start over again. Endings and new beginnings.

TENS Reversed
Something will not come to completion.

 

Ready to start reading Tarot for someone else, or wanting further direction on just how a Tarot reading works from start to finish? Here is an outline you can follow.

1. SEAT YOURSELVES IN A WAY THAT IS CONDUCIVE TO READING. I personally prefer to read for people side-by-side, so that we see the reading in the same orientation. When someone sits across from you the cards are oriented differently towards each person, making it harder to see the reading together.

2. DISCUSS WHAT THE TAROT IS. Bypass this step if you are reading for yourself!

When you read for other people, talking about what the Tarot is and what it can and can’t do ensures that people know what to expect during the reading. There’s more about this in #3.

3. SET THE INTENTION FOR THE READING. The client shares what they hope to know as a result of their reading, and you tell them what spread/process you are using, and/or how you hope to help them through the Tarot.

• What intentions are you okay with? When you start reading for people (even if it’s just friends), you will want to have an understanding of what you will and will not read about. For example, I avoid the intention to predict the clients’ future. You may find it helpful to write out what you want to use the Tarot for. Avoiding reading on a subject you are unsure of. You can also help the client rephrase the question if needed. For example, you might say, “I can’t predict when you will meet someone and get married, but I can look at advice cards to help you improve your love life.”

4. SHUFFLE. The reader shuffles the cards while focusing on the question at hand. You can also have the client shuffle the cards. I personally prefer to shuffle because I’ve seen people man-handle my cards over the years and I feel physical pain when this happens.

5. CUT THE DECK. The client cuts the deck into three piles and then restacks the cards back into one pile.

• Fan spread. You can also opt for the fan spread, which means that after shuffling you place the cards face down in a fan shape (there’s no cutting involved). The client then pulls three cards straight out from the fan and places the cards face down.

 

 

 

6. PLACE THE CARDS INTO A SPREAD. If the client cut the cards (you did not use the fan method), pull from the top of the stack of cards, placing one card at a time face down into your Tarot Spread. Cards should be placed numerically in order to correspond with the spread you are using.

7. FLIP THE CARDS OVER. Turn the cards over horizontally, backside to frontside, right to left. Do not flip the cards with a vertical flip – this changes the orientation of the cards against their original position.

8. INHALE THE READING. Take a moment to look at the cards and take note of patterns. You are looking for card reversals (if the card is upside down), suits that seem prominent, colors, and whatever else strikes your eye. The patterns you see may lend clues about the situation at hand. Dark colors can indicate dark times. Bright colors can indicate happy times. Sounds basic? It can be. You may also take a moment to jot down some notes before you start talking.

• A note about card reversals
  Card reversals may correspond to the question asked (for example, in a yes or no question, a reversed card is no and shows why “no”). Otherwise, there are many reasons cards may be reversed. They may be showing:
  1. What’s working against the client
  2. What needs attention
  3. What’s in the past
  4. What the client is avoiding
  5. What the client needs to stop doing
  6. Energy that’s blocked and needs adjusting

9. DISCUSS THE OVERARCHING THEME. What do you see? Discuss what strikes you most about the cards as a group.

10. DISCUSS EACH CARD INDIVIDUALLY, ONE AT A TIME.

• Describe out loud what is depicted visually on each card.
• Tell the client what the card means (you should have 2-3 key phrases memorized for each card). If you are still learning and don’t have meanings memorized, share what you know and what you think the meaning is.
• Explain what your interpretation of the meaning of the card is as it relates to their question.
• Ask the client what their interpretation of the card is.

Discuss how the individual cards are connected.

 

11. THE MESSAGE. Summarize what you feel the Tarot reading is saying overall – What advice is given?

12. THE LEARNING. Ask the client what they have learned as a result of the reading and how they plan to use the information.

13. DOCUMENT THE READING (optional).

Learning Tarot

There are a million ways to learn Tarot, and some great suggestions on the resources link with books, sites, and videos you may enjoy. As far as practical tips, here are some ideas:

–       Start a Tarot journal. If you prefer to work digitally, evernote and notability are apps I like.

–       Pick 2-3 keywords per card; memorize them. You will change/add to these meanings in the years to come.

–       Learn the Major Arcana cards first and begin reading from them. While this is not required, it can be helpful to tackle a smaller portion of the deck.

–       Ask the Tarot for guidance for the day, and pull one card. Study it. Carry its message with you. Write about your experience with the card at the end of the day. Soon begin pulling 3 cards per day, so you can begin to connect the cards together and create a narrative.

–       Someone else suggested this once – and I like this as there’s less pressure on you and the tarot to predict your day. Pull cards at the end of the day, asking “What happened today?” Take note of the correlations you see in the cards with the days events.

–       Work on visualization techniques; talk about what you see happening in the image of a card when you pull it. Tie your visualization into abstract meanings (metaphor) as well as literal meanings (what’s actually depicted on the card and how that may represent something literal). Do this before you double check what the card actually means.

–       Learn the elemental properties and the corresponding suits: SPIRIT, AIR, FIRE, EARTH, and WATER.

–       Spend time with the Major Arcana cards. Identify myths, stories, and people (real or fictional) you see in the cards. Invent the story of each card, and THEN look at the real meaning. Write about what you see. Remember that Tarot card meanings are generally universal, but that what’s more important is that you make a personal connection to your cards.

–       Work on one suit (Minor Arcana suit) per week or month. Is there a story as you progress through the card numbers? What does the suit represent or communicate?

–       Make your own Tarot deck! By making your own Tarot deck, you must think about the ways in which you connect to the meaning of the card. You create an instant bond.

Spreads

Start with three card spreads. You can create your own, but here are some Ideas:

–       What was / What’s becoming / What may be

–       Mind / Body / Soul

–       3 things I need to know about ________

–       3 cards for advice in my life right now

 

I bring to you my love of water. What I share is part research, part poetry, and part soul, fluidly stewed together for you to feed on. How these words shape you, flood you, and fill you, I cannot control. However my hope is that you gain an understanding of how the element water effects us and can be used for spiritual and symbolic purposes, whether through the Tarot (in the suit of cups) or in other ways as you see fit. This is a hearty, heartfelt but well researched read. Get ready to dive deep into a few watery areas and see how they flow together. Oh, and to get you in the mood, you may want to press play on the song “Water,” by the Incredible String Band.

Water as Life
To know water, we have to go back in time and first know our evolution. It took us humanoids 6 million years to evolve from our apelike ancestors. But science tells us, even earlier than that,  we grew out of single cells, and micro creatures swimming and spinning about in the water. As a metaphysicist, I will focus on the spiritual aspect of what this means, and we’ll start with good ‘ol Manly Hall. He explores the symbolism of us emerging from water in his book, The Secret Teachings of All Ages:

“The ancients realized that the primary forms of life first came out of water, and modern science concurs in this view. H.G. Wells, in his Outline of History describing primitive life on the earth, states: “But though the ocean and intertidal water already swarmed with life, the land above the high-tide line was still, as far as we can guess, a stony wilderness without a trace of life.” In the next chapter he adds, “Wherever the shore-line ran there was life, and that life went in and by and with water as its home, its medium, and its fundamental necessity (131).”

Like our birthplace, the womb, we developed in a watery abyss. Water was our home, and as written above, our “medium.” This word suggests that water has great power between life and death; if not the very least as an evolutionary tie, its greater symbolism rests in its connection to our birthplace and the wellspring of life. Formed over eons, we were shaped in the water but eventually sought to explore the land, as tadpoles, frogs, lizards, and leaping creatures, eventually evolving into four-legged mammalian walkers. We crawled from the water out onto that stony wilderness. but we did not abandon our past.  We return to it every day. We drink water, we bathe in it, and we ARE water, 60% so.

As a Medium, I have also experienced water as a gatekeeper between life and death. This first became apparent to me when I had a visitation dream from a family member a few years ago. She visited me from the shoreline of a beach and spoke to me telepathically. I shared this vision with my Dad, and he commented that in his experience, dreams with water are sent from God. While we have differing religious views, his comment stuck with me.

East to West
The sun rises in the east (air) and sets in the west (water). I associate water with the direction west, as shown in this chart. The rising sun in the is east is symbolic of life beginning, while the setting sun symbolic of death. The sun rises, the sun sets. The day begins, the day ends. Every day, there is a new day of creation, a new cycle. Water guides us through to the underworld, back to ourselves at the end of our day, and in death.

Water & The Story of Creation
We have some how always known about our connection to water as our earliest birthplace, even before science discovered this. Let’s look at how one of the oldest religions, Judaism, views the element water and the beginning of life, as written in their sacred text, the Sepher Yetzirah, or Book of Formation. I will be referencing this book as its transcribed by Manly Hall on pages 360-362 of his book The Secret Teachings of the Ages (as an FYI, this is a great book for those interested in comparative religion, mythology, and the esoteric).

The Book of Formation tells us that the supreme creator first ordered the world into number, letters, and then sounds. These building blocks of life are called the 32 mysterious paths of wisdom. The Holy Qabalah (below), is a map of these building blocks. Also, if you are interested, the Qabalah connects with the Tarot.  A great book to read about the Qabalah for magickal purposes, as well as its connection to Tarot is The Chicken Qabalah, by Lon Milo Duquette.

Qabalah and the Sephirot
Out of the 32 paths, 10 of them are circles or points called the Sephirot. The Sephirot are emanations. The Book of Formation tells us that these emanations were like lightening as they came down from the supreme creator. It all happened so fast, but in that instant, those points also became a cosmic blueprint of realms, with Spirit (supreme creator) residing in 1, and us humans at the bottom, in realm 10 on earth, or Kingdom.

The Book of Formation also tells us that different elements were born in each emanation. The first emanation is Spirit in and of itself. The second is Air – the breath of life. The third emanation of the Sephirot deals with water. In this third emanation, primordial water was extracted from the air, and the in the Book of Formation it is written that at this time the creator “formed therein twenty-two sounds – and established them out of mud and loam.”

Let’s pause for a minute. Did you hear that? There were 22 sounds created from mud and loam (loam is clay). So, in this religious text, we are brought back to where we began our first steps. On the shoreline, slipping from the water and mixing with mud, we took our first walk-about, leaving our simpler celled-start behind. Looking at the Sephirot above, I have to say that while I’m no scientist, to me it looks like one big cell or molecule. In the third emanation or growth, we came onto the shoreline as watery lizards, mixing with mud and loam as we first traversed the land.

But, once on shore we didn’t stop there. As we evolved, we developed language, the “twenty-two sounds,” the alphabet (22 sounds, the Hebrew Alphabet in this case).

So you see, to me it seems we have always inherently understood our beginning in water. This is why water is central to many mythologies and religious practices. Later we will explore how water is used for magickal and ceremonial purposes, but first let’s look at water as a building block that fluidly ties together a variety of beliefs.

Water in Mythology

Odin
To begin, I am going to explore the myth of Odin (Hanged Man, card #12 in the Tarot), because it bears a striking resemblance to the idea of language emerging from water, much as we did. Hall recounts the tale of Odin on page 91 of The Secret Teachings of All Ages. Odin, seeking enlightenment, decided to hang himself from the World Tree (think of this as the tree of life) for 9 nights. Look at the Tarot card, and glance back up at the Qabalah. See a similar shape?

Anyhoo, whilst Odin was hangin’ round for 9 days, he decided to really show everyone his humility so he stabbed himself in the side with a spear. Mostly, he wanted to impress the Norns (Fates), who lived at the bottom of the World Tree so that they would share their power with them. These 3 powerful sisters controlled the fate of all humans, but also, they possessed something else; language. And with language they shaped humanity. Their language was the Runes.

The 3 Norns lived at the bottom of the World Tree where there was a well called the Well of Urd. The Norns’ realm was in water! And as Odin hung, he stared longingly into their watery home for 9 nights. Finally, the Norns showed favor unto Odin (maybe he just started to annoy them), and as he stared into their watery well whilst hanging, the Norns revealed the Runic language! Here we see the idea of water acting again as a source of creation, and again, a birthplace for knowledge (language).

Venus/Aphrodite
Venus is basically the same goddess as Aphrodite. Venus is Roman, and Aphrodite was her earlier Greek name. She is the goddess of love, beauty and fertility. But, guess how she was born? In water. While this is no surprise, the tale of how she formed is pretty weird.

In Greek mythology, Uranus was god of the sky and the husband to Gaia, Mother Earth. They were the beginning of life, fathering and mothering the first generations of titans, the great gods and Greek Pantheon. One of their children was Cronus – Father time (Chronos is another god associated with time- they are perhaps one in the same). And guess how Father time, Mr. Cronus was depicted? With a scythe. Well, you know how these tales work. There’s lots of blood, murder, and incest. Basically, Cronus overpowered his father, Uranus. Cronus castrated his father, and those man parts fell into the sea. With his scythe, Cronus became an agent of death, forcing his father Uranus to return to where life began; the sea. Into the water, Uranus’ manhood fell. But the manparts didn’t die there. Nope, they foamed and they writhed in the water, emerging as the beautiful, heavenly Aphrodite. She rose to the surface on a seashell and was quickly robed and welcomed ashore.

And so, in this story, our cells split from male to female in the foaming water. In the sea, we reproduced, and came ashore to seek something more, at least as the story goes.

Inanna, Persephone, and Ishtar, Astarte
Inanna, Persephone, Ishtar, and Astarte are all goddesses from different cultures with similar stories. They are stolen, forced, or led from earth into the underworld and de-flowered, it seems, by a male in the underworld. Or, if not de-flowered, they gain insight into the deeper workings of cycles and therefore the cosmos. As these ladies become enthroned and entrenched in the underworld, crops die and humanity suffers. Often, the underworld is depicted as being traveled to and from via water.

These goddesses are then stuck in the underworld for half the year (winter). The earth and humanity suffers during this time, and so do the goddesses. In the myth of Ishtar, she is revived from near death by having water poured over her body, then returning to earth. We can compare this to the return of water and warmth in the spring, when the land is made fertile for growth and food! In the Tarot, I associated card #17, the Star, with this mythos.

The Magickal uses of Water

We have explored some religious and mythical correlations with water, let’s now venture to look at how water trickles down into practice. I am mostly interested in exploring the use of water for divination. Much like we formed slowly over eons in fluid, I see water as a symbolic mirror that reflects what is forming below the surface. Water can be used as a reflection to see our lives. The Moon, in Tarot and in many practices, is seen as the divine feminine and a symbol of the intuitive realm. The Moon can see itself when reflected in water on a clear night. The Moon is our desire to see what’s hidden below the surface, and the water, the Moon’s reflection, is the essence we must see into.

We hear stories of gazing into wells to gain insight. In popular culture, a similar motif appears as sorcerers gaze into water, where divine wisdom and the future is foretold. Sometimes this begins with a woman pouring water from a jug into a fountain (think Galadriel in Lord of the Rings), and the ability to see the truth begins.

Additionally, we use Tarot for divination. Tarot first emerged C. 1430 in Italy, and in this deck, we have the suit of cups (see this deck below, the Visconti, and the Ace of Cups). Cups hold water, and wouldn’t you know, water and the suit of cups within the Tarot symbolizes our intuitive sense. Water leads us back to ourselves, and is also the realm of feeling. In psychic work, the use of feeling to see or sense is called clairsentience.

We’ve touched on water in popular culture and its correlation with divination, but let’s now reference historical accounts of divination that involve water. We can assume that these concepts are Pagan and predate Christianity. While most written material from antiquity has been destroyed, we can look at surviving practices that have been referenced through sources appearing in the last few hundred years.

For this, we look to Charles Leland. Leland was a writer born in 1824 in Philadelphia. He eventually called London his home, but in 1869 he set out to travel through Europe. Leading him was his interest in folklore, and through his studies, he began to connect with people who were practicing ancient Pagan traditions, as they had been doing for generations. Leland became interested in recording and preserving these traditions, amazed at how some of these beliefs seemed centuries old. In his book Etruscan Roman Remains, Leland writes about his studies in the opening:

“Here is in Northern Italy a mountain district known as La Romagna Toscana…These Romagnoli are manifestly a very ancient race, and appear to have preserved traditions and observances little changed from an incredibly early time…They were probably there before the Etruscans…and it is very likely that they left in remote districts those traces to culture to which this book refers to (2).”

The Etruscan civilization can be traced to 800 BCE to 4th C, CE. So, while Leland’s writing is from the late 19th C, we have to trust that his encounters with some of these folks show the survival of very old traditions.

In Leland’s Etruscan Roman Remains, through his interviews he finds two divination systems that use water. The first involves pouring metal into water, and the second, oil into water. Of metal, Leland notes that this is a very old practice across many cultures. It makes sense to me, perhaps because with metal we were able to forge weapons, and perhaps, in fighting, divination could foresee just how effective these weapons would be.

Divination by Lead and Water
The process of how to use divination with lead is recorded on page 308, and it’s written in the style that Leland was writing down aural accounts, making it a bit tough to read. So instead of quoting it, I will summarize the recipe and concept:

Mix together:
3 seeds of Rose
3 leaves of Nettle
2 leaves of Rue
3 seeds of Cumin

Steps:
1. At midnight, bind two tallow candles together with red ribbon and light them.
2. Take a plate, and put lead on it.
3. Put the plate into the fire.
4. When the lead melts, add the herb mixture.
5. When they are mixed together, pour them into a bowl of water.

Reading and using your lead/water:
1. If they form a river, it is a bad sign.  You can use this mixture to curse an enemy. Pour it into or around their house.
2. If they form a baptismal font (this is a basin used for baptizing), the omens are good.

{ I imagine, that the reference here is that the lead divides in a way similar to water baptizing a head. So then, if the lead divides (unlike the river, in outcome one), the answer is yes! You can then take the cooled lead, and out it into a red bag. You can put this it into the house of someone you wish to bring good luck! }

So, there you have it. Divination by lead and water.

Divination by Oil and Water
Let’s look at the oil and water method recorded by Leland. He has a really cool account of entering the home of the fortune-teller, where he witnesses her methods:

“There are in the streets of Florence, not far from the Signoria, houses which were, possibly, old in the time of Dante…who knows the age of anything in this land where relics of even prehistoric culture abound…Into one of these houses I entered– into total darkness– felt my way upstairs to an invisible door– knocked, and entered a large room only divided by one another by an arch. There was but a half-light from a single window, and the whole formed a very Rembrandt-like picture. At the table sat the fortune-teller, and before her was a glass of water into which, with strange gestures while uttering incantations, she was dropping oil from a bottle (311).”

Philosopher in Meditation, Rembrandt, 1632.

Leland then gets to speak to the Fortune-Teller, and she explains how to go about the process. You will notice here, the mixing of Paganism with Christianity and I will  write out my interpretations of the directions:

1. Fill a small flask or vial with oil. While holding the flask, make the symbol of the cross three times across the face, saying:
“In the name of heaven,
Of the stars and moon,
I pass away this trouble
For better luck and soon!”

2. Take the vial in your right hand and make three crosses over the glass of water, exactly from side-to-side. With your left hand, make the corna.

{ Hand gesture for horns, used by Italians as well as other cultures; Hindus call it Karana Mudra. This motion can be used to create a curse, or to protect from evil or a curse cast to you. I imagine that in this case, you are removing or protecting yourself from evil }.
While doing this, the Strega (Italian witch) repeats:

“Befania, Befania, Befania!
Thou who didst cause this trouble,
Bear it away from me.”

{ On a very interesting side-note, Befana is an Italian figure. She is an old woman who rides a broomstick, entering the house through the chimney at night of January 5th– Epiphany Eve– delivering gifts to good children, and coal to bad children. Sound familiar? On another side-note, perhaps when Leland wrote this, he wrote Befania versus Befana, in line with the orator/fortune-teller’s pronunciation? }

3. Then pour in/let fall 3 drops of oil from the water into the vial. If they combine at once, it is a good sign, or a YES to the question asked. If the drops fall apart, it is a bad sign or a NO.

Then it is written that to “…thoroughly explore all the chances, this ceremony is renewed three times. And every time through the water and oil into the street or to the court.” And this is hilarious: “Should a man be the first to pass, all will yet go well. If a woman, the omens are still unfavourable.”

It seems that  you can repeat the spell up to three times, each time repeating the motions and incantations. The text also mentions making your hand into the sign of the castagna. I’m not sure what that is, except the text mentions placing your thumb between forefingers and middle fingers. It seems like another version of shaping your hand into a warding-off-the-evil-eye pose. Maybe it looks like this >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>  ?

It’s also noted that you can rest this hand on the edge of the glass. The orator also reveals that in doing this spell up to three times, if still unsuccessful (meaning the answer is no or the results are unfavorable), that you can do the following:

1. Drop a teaspoon of salt into the glass and repeat the Befania incantation.
2. If the oil turns a whitish color, Befania relents and all will go well.
3. If the oil doesn’t turn white, your lost option is to drop a hot coal into the glass, and ask Fire to cleanse the energy by saying:

“Thou who burnest so immensely,
Thou who warmest all mankind,
I pray thee to burn
This evil spell,
And the one who smote me with it!”

4. The coal and water must then be thrown into a running stream behind you without looking back.

Whew! Well, I’m not sure I’m going to be cooking up this kinda demanding recipe anytime soon, but you get the picture! Water has been used as a part of divination for a very long time. You may want to explore or try some of these methods out, altering them to fit your own practice and beliefs.

In Closing
Water is a part of our bodies, our beginning, and our end.  Symbolically, water represents a passage between worlds, and a glance deeper into our own world. Divination is the process by which that is hidden reveals itself; water shows us what is forming. In the case of the visitation dreams I’ve had, water has been a forceful present that’s alerted me I have traveled between realms, or traveled to the land of the dead (the setting sun).

Water can also heal. Sometimes, when I close my eyes to re-center, I see a black pool of water, and I imagine everything dissolving away into the deep. Occasionally an image appears that warns me or alerts me to something I need to see. Water is my own private divination pool.

Water is one of the four elements revered across various traditions, and can be used symbolically. All magick, even the Tarot, is a form of a sympathetic process. By this I mean that magick is a process of mimicry. Through using the elements, we change the alchemy within ourselves and around us, thereby achieving the desired results we’d like to see in reality. Sometimes this begins with seeing into what’s below the surface, which water can help us do.

BTW, this is my song about water (river), and it’s coming out via Moon Glyph records in the Fall of 2015:

Thanks for reading and flowing down this river with me!

This is something I have been thinking a lot about lately. What does it even mean to be psychic? Our cultural perception with the word psychic often conjures up images of crystal balls and a woman who owns a gypsy shop with a neon sign. Enter and she’ll tell you your future, which is full of gloom and doom. Right?  Sometimes, you may have even seen (in the movie, show, or whatever you saw) the death card suddenly appear, and man, you know it’s all over. Or something.

So, it’s not hard to see why the word psychic has a bad wrap.

I do believe that there are psychics; in fact I know some of them. And they do not have a shop with a neon sign, nor are they able to tell your future in full detail (though I’m sure there are neon-sign shop psychics that are good-I just don’t know them!). They can read colors, images, and symbols of things in your field of energy. Psychics may often receive abstract images they don’t understand, but the client (or person on the receiving end) sure does. And oftentimes psychics will not focus on the future when they read someone’s energy. The future can change. A good psychic will read your present and your more recent past, focusing less on the future. Doesn’t it make sense to focus on knowing what you need to know now, so that you can change the future?

While having these kinds of abilities when you read Tarot is certainly helpful, I do not believe you have to have them in order to read the Tarot effectively. I feel that the Tarot is itself a psychic language. Learning the cards, seeing the symbols, and paying attention to the patterns in the reading (elemental dignitaries, card reversals, etc) all contribute to the power of this psychic language and your ability to use it confidently. As the card reader, your job is to know your deck inside and out, and to be able to talk about the card meanings and the bigger themes involved when individual cards are grouped together.

When you begin a reading, it’s important to spend a minute looking at the cards together as a group before talking about them individually. Are you noticing a lot of cards that suggest avoidance? Or deception? Are you noticing an abundance of cups, and cards that focus on family? Cluing into the prevalent ideas before starting a reading is, I find, extremely helpful to understanding the most important factors influencing the querent. Also, for this reason, I have stopped laying out cards in a spread and flipping them over one at a time. If you do this, you won’t see the pattern until the end and you may miss the bigger picture. Certainly, you may find it helpful to have the client pull one card at a time for specific questions – BUT I do believe if you are starting with any kind of layout or Tarot spread, you will benefit more from looking at the cards altogether. There’s my ten cents!

While you don’t have to be psychic to read the Tarot, you will find that the more you read, the more that you will also trust your intuition (a word I much prefer to psychic). Over the past few years, I have noticed my intuition increasing a lot, I believe as a result of reading Tarot. I also find that daily meditation is essential to having a clear and intuitive mind, and deeper connection to the collective unconscious – which is where much of this information is stored.

If you want to increase your intuitive abilities, here are my suggestions, and I will explain why they help:

Meditation:  I said it once, and I’ll say it again. Meditation can significantly increase your intuitive abilities. When you meditate, you enter a dreamlike state. You are not asleep, but not awake either. When you quiet down the rational mind, the intuitive mind can breathe. Have you ever had a dream that’s come true? Or have a dream about someone you know but haven’t seen in a long time, but suddenly they get in touch with you? Meditating trains your mind to do what it does when it’s sleeping – let go of controlled thinking.

Practice: Try using your intuition on someone you know. Close your eyes and focus on a friend. This is also fun to try when a good friend is dating someone new! See what you sense about your friend (or they people in your life) and share any impressions. On a more surface level, you can try simply focusing on knowing what your friend is up to for the day. Don’t get discouraged if there are some details askew when you ask them if your vision is correct! Just keep practicing.

Journaling: Many people think that writing down your thoughts is a thing of the past, but I disagree. Writing (dreams, especially), helps you give more power to your intuitive mind. Record your dreams. After you meditate, write down what you feel/sense/see. You will begin to see patterns. You will begin to see things you dream about come into your meditations, and vice-versa. Do you have a weird feeling about something? Or someone? Write it down. You may find the reason why you had this feeling in a few weeks. Once you start doing this, you will amaze yourself. But like anything, you have to take the time to do it.

I hope that some of this helps you further develop your intuition. But again, I don’t think you have to be intuitive or psychic to read Tarot cards!

 

Some readers choose to ignore card reversals, but I find them quite helpful in a reading because they can help you determine areas that need further exploration. They can also show potential problems and energy blocks. The thing to understand about card reversals, and even upright cards, is that the meaning changes based on what cards surround it, and what question is asked. Generally, a reversed card shows that the energy of that particular card is “blocked” in some way.

Let’s say you pull “The Empress” card reversed in a reading. This can indicate that someone is not open to their sensual side. But does that mean they should be? Here are some things to consider when working with reversals in a reading:

Patterns

As a tarot card reader, you should always be looking for patterns in your spread. I look for what elements are prominent, numbers, colors, and anything else that strikes me. Reversals are another type of pattern. Look at the cards that are reversed versus the cards that are upright. Is there a separate theme running through the reversed cards?

Card placement

Is the reversed card in the past, present, or future? Is it in the place of recommended action? A reversed card in the past can indicate that part of the querent’s life has reached a close, but it can also indicate unresolved difficulties carrying over into the present. Let’s pretend your querent pulled the Seven of Cups (Illusion, Dreaming) for the past, and Ace of Pentacles (Stability) reversed in the present. To me that would indicate that they have had difficulty achieving what they want because they were distracted, pursuing illusions and not grounded at all in their approach. But if the Ace of Pentacles was reversed in the placement of the past, and Seven of Cups was upright in a placement of recommended action, and the Chariot (Victory) was in the future, that might mean that this person needs to get in touch with their imaginative side a bit, and dream about the possibilities before charging forth to victory! So, you see, in a way it’s all very subjective, but in a way it’s not. What you are doing is looking for how the reversed (and upright cards) relate to the sequential layout of the cards.

Question Asked

Understanding how the reversal relates to the question asked is very important. When you ask a question, particularly yes or no, the reversed cards indicate why “no” – and what those challenges are, and why “yes” – what is working in your favor. That does not mean that all cards reversed is absolutely NO to a question (I believe we have free will, people), but rather show what factors you are working against.

Let’s pretend that you are reading for someone and they ask you “What do I need to do to make sure that I am not hurt so badly again the next time I fall in love?” And asking this, they pull the Empress (sensuality, abundance) reversed and the six of cups (innocence and giving) reversed. We would read that as WHOA, you are giving too much, perhaps opening up to others physically and mentally too soon, let’s pull back a little. BUT here’s what it gets extra tricky. Is this someone who is very closed off and is not in touch with their sensual side at all? The interpretation could be quite the opposite. In this case, it would be helpful to have the querent pull a card to represent their past, so that you have some context for the Empress and Six of Cups cards.

Intuition

What is your immediate reaction to the reversal? Your intuition is a great tool for reading the cards. You will develop your intuition over time as a reader, but there are many ways to improve this through practice. Consistent meditation helps, and there are lots of resources out there if you want to explore how to improve you intuition further.

 

 

The best way to learn Tarot is by using a variety of resources. While daily practice and study is important, you will also find it helpful to read books, watch videos, visit tarot blogs, and take classes. Here are some resources:

Books
I adore this book: Rachel Pollack Tarot Wisdom; Spiritual Teachings and Deeper Meanings
Any book by Mary Greer, I like Tarot Reversals and Understanding the Tarot Court. The Tarot Reversals is a great source book, as it gives both upright and reversed card meanings.
Any book by Anthony Louis (Tarot Plain and Simple is a great book)
Elisabeth Haich  Wisdom of the Tarot (this book focuses on the Major Arcana).
Arthur Edward Waite  The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
Joseph Konraad  The Numerology Key to the Tarot
Eden Gray, A Complete Guide to the Tarot
Paul Huson’s books

Sites and People
Tarot Elements
Learn Tarot
Biddy Tarot
Mary Greer’s Blog
Theresa Reed, The Tarot Lady

Youtube Videos
Tarot Readings by Kate
Gregory Scott
John Ballantrae

Associations
Tarosophy

You will notice during your studies that while the traditional meanings of Tarot cards are similar, many people have their own spin on card meanings. Also, people’s approach to reading tarot can vary widely. What’s important is that you filter through the information out there, and synthesize it into a blend that works best for you. No one will read Tarot just like you, and that’s a good thing!