What makes the difference between a card reading and a card interpretation?

Here's a technique that can be incorporated into any introspective cartomancy reading style, whether tarot or other oracle cards.

One problem I see with card interpretations both amateur and pro, for self and for others, is that often, all that is delivered is vaguely general warm and fuzzy advice based on keywords.

The reason this seems to happen is that we latch on to the keywords of a card and don't take the reading any further.

For example, imagine a general reading one-card pull. The card received has a primary keyword of 'patience'.

In a self-reading, upon receiving such a card a person might say, "I guess I need to be more patient".

That's great advice for anyone, but is it a great tarot reading? Not at all, exactly because it is great advice for everyone.  A tarot reading must be specific and individual to be truly meaningful.

The next step, that all-too-many tarotists miss, is to turn the interpretation into a hard-hitting reading.

One way to do that is to allow that key word to lead to the next logical question. This process of finding and forming questions is in itself intuitive. The answers can come from within, from logic, or from further divination.

To continue with our example, the question might be, "What is going on in my life that is particularly trying my patience?"

The answer might come from surround cards, the answer might be obvious, or might require some introspection or divination.

Further questions might include, "Why is this tying my patience?" "At what point should I be more proactive?" "What am I to learn from this"?

Very often this process will require more divination than that original one-card pull; I always say that if a reading is worth a single card, it's worth as many as you need.

That an idea, theme or concept like patience, success, communication, goals or relationships appears in a reading is standard. Yet the reading stops being a recitation of keywords and general bland advice and becomes a true process of personal exploration when we interpret not only the card; we interpret why we received the card.

The message is always important, but it is the reason for the message, the timeliness of the message, and the context of the message that makes a reading most valuable.

Plan Your Trip with Tarot

It is common to seek answers from Tarot concerning when to travel, but do you use Tarot to plan your trip? Tarot cards can determine your travel location and itinerary! Here are instructions on how to conduct your own Travel Reading with Tarot:

Step 1: Draw Your Guide Card

First, draw your Guide Card. This card determines what part of the world you will explore and what your travel mission is. Draw one Major Arcana Card and place it in front of you to meditate on throughout your reading.

Cards meaning international travel are: The Fool, The Magician, Wheel of Fortune, The Hanged Man, Death, The Tower, The Moon, The Sun, The World, and The Chariot. Cards meaning domestic travel are: The Heigh Priestess, The Empress, Strength, Justice, Temperance, The Devil, The Star, Judgement, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, and The Hermit.

Step 2: Draw Your 2 Location Cards

Next, shuffle your deck then draw until you come onto a Minor Arcana card. Draw two cards and place them under your Guide Card. Use Italy (home of early tarot decks) as your center point for international travel and your own location as the starting point for domestic travel.

●      Swords represent a North location

●      Cups are South

●      Wands are East

●      Coins are West

For example, if you draw 3 of Coins and 10 of Swords, that is a Northwest location. You could consider destinations in France, Norway, or even Canada. If you are traveling domesticaly from New York, you might visit Washington or Oregon!

Step 3: Draw 4 Itinerary Cards

Now, plan your trip itinerary! Draw four Minor Arcana cards and arrange them in a row underneath your Location Cards. The suit of each card dicates what type of plan to arrange.

●      Card 1 represents food

●      Card 2 is lodging

●      Card 3 is daytime activities

●      Card 4 is nightlife

Each card’s suit dictates your plans:

Swords are intellectual which means schedule a trip to a state-of-the-art restaurant, book your stay close to a stimulating city, visit historical landmarks, and at night seek out plays or lectures. You are adding to your repertoire of cultural knowledge. Push yourself to explore the intellectual terrain and do research to uncover your location’s history!

Cups are emotional so eat at down-home, hyper-local locations, book your stay with a host you feel connected to, go on outings where you can make friends like a local tour, hike, or picnic in the park. At night, try for a small music event at a cafe. The focus should be on your inner-state rather than on trying to get to every landmark or check things off an itinerary.

Wands are spiritual in nature, so if you draw a wand, eat unfamiliar or exotic food, book a mysterious and enchanting room for yourself, and visit spiritual buildings or powerful natural landmarks like a garden or lake where you can meditate on your Guide Card. At night, go for a new experience that is representative of where you are: where do locals go?

Coins are material, so if you draw a Coin card that means this aspect of your trip is about pampering and indulgence! Eat comfort food, stay somewhere lush and clean, visit spas or relax at beaches during the day, or pay for an exciting adventure like a trek, ropes course, or bike tour! At night, eat fancy dinners or turn in early to watch movies and order room service.

Conclusion

As you plan your trip, use your Guide Card to zero in on your plans, work out the kinks of your itinerary, and inspire your itinerary choices. Who knows, you could end up fly-fishing in Timbuktu… Bon voyage, dear Traveler!

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Group Behavior: A Tool for Learning and Teaching Tarot

I am happy to be teaching a rare, live and in-person tarot class series at Dream Angels coming up in May. It’s an advanced class, and I will be assisted by my good friend and colleague, Mary Ellen Collins.

For the first class of four, which will be held on May 11, our topic will be the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana.

When I used to teach beginner classes I would always cover the Majors in the first class, and the Minors in the second. Even now, working with one-on-one tarot mentoring, I like to start with the Majors.

I once had a respected teacher who advocated starting with the Minors instead. He reasoned that he could cover forty cards (four suits Ace through Ten) and give the students a handle on more than half the deck in the first class.

I understand that strategy, but I am not interested in teaching anyone to “learn tarot fast”. There are plenty of popular teachers who claim to do exactly that. I’ve worked with some of their students, however, and find evidence that it is possible to study tarot fast and shallow, or slow and deep, but not both.

So, what will Mary Ellen and I do with the Major Arcana, two hours and a room full of students who already have a basic concept of the cards?

First, we’ll discuss the differences between the Major and Minor cards. I bristle against the common wisdom that suggests that Major and Minor cards behave differently on the tarot table.

I’ve heard teachers and students alike suggest that Major cards always speak of spiritual things, while Minor cards speak only of the mundane.

I’ve heard people say that Major cards always refer to the things you can’t change, and Minor cards refer to the things over which we can have influence.

One of the things I strive to teach is that the cards speak to each of us in the way we can hear them. I don’t doubt that some people, at some times, may experience the Majors and Minors in the ways described above. However, I find any general rule that limits the voices of the cards didactic and unhelpful. Let’s not make our tarot journey more arduous by intentionally closing our minds to any way the cards could possibly speak, or any subject they might tackle.

How, then, can we teach the concept of “Greater Secrets” versus “Lesser Secrets”, or Majors versus Minors?

For me, the concept of greater and lesser secrets becomes relevant when we talk about the lessons and archetypes of tarot, rather than its interpretations.

One mistake I think many tarotists make is to see tarot only as a tool of divination, or a fortune-telling device.

Ironically, when we neglect to study tarot as a book of spiritual lessons, archetypes, meditation and magick, we limit our ability to interpret the cards in the process of divining wisdom.

When I teach the Major Arcana, I ask that my students consider the life lessons, or “path lessons” that we learn from each card.

Just like memorizing Bible verses in Sunday School, there is value in simply studying a card to embrace its lesson.

I think the twenty-two greater secrets are in fact the lessons of each of those cards, rather than their divinatory meanings.

The Minor Arcana cards teach lessons as well.  The is, however, something unique, greater and “major” about the archetypal journey of the Fool, and the lessons, characters and experiences he encounters in the twenty-one numbered Major cards. The story these cards tell very clearly gives us an allegory for life on planet Earth that is just as pertinent now as it was when the cards were first designed five hundred years ago, or when Eden Gray first coined the term “The Fool’s Journey” almost fifty years ago.

Most tarot students have a basic idea of the journey of the Fool. In this class, I will teach that they must understand themselves each as the Fool, and the twenty-one numbered cards as the lessons they have learned, are learning, and need to learn in life.

If you’ve read my book “Tarot Tour Guide” (new edition will be available this autumn), then you know that I see the Fool’s Journey through the twenty-one numbered cards as divided into three sections. I see the first section of seven cards, Magician through Chariot, as the lessons of the material world. That is, things we must learn to live well on the planet.

I see the second section, Chariot through Temperance, as the lessons of emotional balance. That is, what we must learn to find inner peace and emotional wellbeing.

I see the final section, Devil through World, as the lessons that lead us to our spiritual enlightenment.

When the individual cards appear in a spread, those lessons may or may not be pertinent in that particular reading. Major Arcana cards have key words and interpretations that do not necessarily reflect their lessons in every context.

In the process of divination, any card might deliver any message, spiritual, mundane or both. But the twenty-two Major cards are “Greater Secrets” because, in twenty-two short lessons, they teach us everything we need to know about life.

While we often talk about the elemental associations of the suits of the Minor Arcana, we often don’t think about the elemental associations of each Major Arcana card. Adding that elemental and astrological perspective is another way to give us a deeper understanding of the Majors.

 When we understand the Fool as Uranian Air and the Magician as Mecurian Air, we see the subtle similarities and difference between those two cards which both speak of beginning and initiation.

When we understand the Lovers and the Star as Air, we find new options for ways we might interpret these cards in readings. When we understand the Chariot as water, we find a level of compassion in the Hero that we might not have seen before. When we see the Hierophant as Earth we see the paradox of his limitations more clearly. When we see the Emperor as Fire, we understand his ability to wage war.

I’ve discussed two ways of grouping the Majors together to increase our understanding of them; by element, and chronologically broken into three sets of seven. There are an infinite number of ways to group Major Arcana cards with each other, and we learn new things each time we do.

You may try grouping your Majors by symbols, color, attire or similarities and differences. You’ll notice that you find new depth in cards as you assign them to different groups.

When you create a group of cards, consider what the cards have in common, and how they differ. How the unifying energy of the group expressed in each individual card? What determines the differences between the cards?

For example, when I group the Hermit with the Hierophant and the Magician, I see education. Perhaps the Magician is the bachelor’s degree; the Hierophant is the master’s degree, and the Hermit is the doctoral degree.

When I take the Hermit and group it with the High Priestess and the Moon, I see our eternal quest for spiritual wisdom and psychic knowledge.

When I group the Hermit with the High Priestess and the Hierophant, I see the clergy of the tarot.

When we consider small groupings of tarot cards, we find many aspects of each card’s personality. Then, if we ever see that particular group of cards appear together in a single spread, we may receive additional insight by interpreting the group, as well as interpreting the individual cards.

I think that Major Arcana cards reveal information about themselves when we put them in small groups, just as people do. You learn a lot about a person when you know the people they associate with, the clubs they belong to, and the places they frequent. When we are with different groups of people, or in different environments, we may act in different ways specific to the goal of the group. The same is true for tarot cards!

Once we have tarot cards arranged in small groups, the logical exercise is to pull one card at random from each group to create a tarot reading that gives information about the department of life to which the group is related.

When I teach tarot, I have neither intention nor ability to teach another person to read the way I read. Tarot is an intensely personal thing. The cards speak to each of us in unique ways. My job as a teacher is simply to create the environment in which students can begin to understand how the cards speak to them.

For the first class in this series at Dream Angels, one of my primary teaching tools will be grouping the Major Arcana to see what we can learn about the individual cards.

If you would like to attend the class at Dream Angels, please call Angela at (561) 745-9355. If you would like to study privately with me, or are interested in other tarot learning opportunities with me, please call or text me at 561-655-1160, or send me an email.

Tarot: When the Answer is a Question

We usually think about using tarot cards to answers questions, right?

Sometimes, the most useful thing a card can do is ask a question.

This often confuses newer readers, who are surprised by the idea that the answer provided by the tarot reading isn’t an answer at all; it’s a question!

Of course, it is always possible to pull a few cards to answer the question posed by the cards. However, sometimes a great reading offers the client thought homework for their own contemplation.

“The thing you need to contemplate, or meditate on, is this” can be a helpful directive for focus. Empowering clients to look within for their answers may seem counterintuitive to building a good tarot business. The truth is, helping our clients to know their questions and seek their answers is exactly what great tarot readers do.

If you are not used to finding the questions within the cards, try going through your deck and looking at each card. Ask yourself what question that card might be asking.

Of course, in divination, very specific and unique interpretations can come up for any of the cards. Being open to the idea that a question can be a legitimate interpretation gives you another dimension with which to work.

Two cards that very often show up to ask questions in my professional readings are the Four of Cups and the Five of Wands.

The question the Four of Cups asks is this.

Is it better to take the least undesirable option now, or is it better to wait for a more desirable option?

Sometimes further fortune-telling divination can help answer this question. You might want to know the likelihood of new options appearing, for instance, or what would happen if an option were immediately chosen. You might even need to look at the individual options to discover which is the lesser evil.

The Five of Wands poses an inherent question for me. What are those people doing? Are they fighting, are they building, or are they playing?

When I am conduct a reading where the client can see the cards (so, like, not a phone reading) I will often ask the client to look at the (Waite Smith) Five of Wands. Without any other introduction, I will simply ask the client, “What are the people in this picture doing?”

So far, clients have always chosen either building, playing or fighting, even though I do not give those possible choices. Whichever a client sees is the energy they are currently dealing with, or the energy they are advised to bring to the situation the reading is discussing.

Should they be playful, collaborative, or prepared for a fight? That’s the question the Five of Wands asks. Often, the answer is provided organically by the way the card impacts the client in the moment.

In the process of divination, tarot cards give us valuable answers. They also ask us important questions. Sometimes those questions beg more divination. Other times, those questions provide the springboard for the exploration that leads to growth.

If you are a pro reader, or want to be, check out my book, Fortune Stellar!

Advice for Tarot Readers: When the Final Outcome is Clearly Not the End

Every tarot reader has their own reading style. Some of us use a lot of cards in a reading, other try to dig a lot of information from a very few cards. Some of us use a specific spread, others simply lay out cards and read them, or design a custom spread for the individual reading.

This post is specific to tarot spreads, either traditional or custom-made, which have a last position designated as “final outcome”, “future resolution” or “future events”.

If you use a spread like this I am sure you have noticed that sometimes the card that falls into that final position is poignantly on-point, offering a vision of a hopeful future with wishes fulfilled. It’s a logical end to the story portrayed in the reading.

Sometimes the card that falls into the outcome position can be interpreted as advice – what you have to do to have the desired outcome, versus a specific future prediction.

Sometimes the card that falls into the final outcome position is clearly undesirable. It may suggest an outcome that is less favorable than desired. It may suggest coming to a place of being stuck, with no outcome other than a continuation of what already is.

Speaking as a professional reader, I have to say that this is a lousy way to end a reading.

If you read in a card-by-card linear fashion, that final outcome card may be the way you close the reading. If the card that appears there isn’t a great note on which to end, what can you do?

I believe in ending a reading on as positive a note as possible. I don’t think this is sugar-coating, fluffy or Polly-Anna. I think it’s spiritually appropriate.

There’s a pertinent quote attributed to John Lennon. “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”

I believe that my job as a tarot reader includes giving people a message that is uplifting and hopeful, even in dark times. That doesn’t mean I advocate giving false hope, but it does mean that, just like John Lennon, I want to glimpse forward to the time and place when things will really be okay. Or, at the very least, I want to show the gift that is present in the shadow, and the opportunity that comes along with challenge.

There are a number of ways to continue a tarot reading past an uninspiring final outcome card.

Here are my three favorites.

1. End on a Major.

 If the final outcome card is not a Major Arcana, continue drawing cards and laying them in a path from the final outcome card, until you get a Major Arcana. Interpret the Major Arcana card as the final outcome, and the cards that came before as the path to get there, and advice along the way.

2. Let the Spread Give Questions, Not Answers.

If you perform a comprehensive spread such as the Celtic Cross, you can find many questions within that spread. Interpret the spread to give whatever information you see, but also find within those cards questions, and areas where you want to dig more deeply. Which cards make you say “I want to know more about that?”

Then, pick up all the cards, shuffle them, and use the cards to answer those questions, one at a time, in a dialogue, or in a series of small spreads.

This way, the reading is over when the questions are all answers, not when the final predictive card is read.

3. Clarify the Final Card.

If the final outcome card is a dud, you can ask specific questions about it and pull cards to clarify it. Simply place one or a few clarifying cards next to the outcome.

As you pull the clarifying card, you can ask a question like “How can we change this?” or “How can we mitigate this?” or “Where is the gift in this?”

Let those clarifying cards answer those specific question in regard to the outcome, or simply blend their meanings together to give a broader view of the outcome than you had before.

Many modern tarot readers shy away from predictions, recognizing that the future is never set and that free will matters.  Nonetheless, many of our tarot spreads include these pesky “future” positions which are clearly predictive.

Even an intentionally non-predictive spread sometimes foretells the future when a card appears that describes nothing from the past or present, but clearly makes sense in retrospect, after the event or condition it predicted comes to pass.

Whether or not we strive to predict the future, the cards will often reflect our upcoming events, opportunities, solutions and resolutions, and sometimes will give helpful advice for getting there.

If our focus is to help our client stay positive and proactive, we can use these interpretive positions to offer possibilities and perspective, rather than a doom-and-gloom prognosis over which the client can have no control.