Three Ways to Learn a Tarot Card

Very often when we study tarot, we are focused on how we will interpret a card, or a group of cards, in a reading. We want to learn how to answer a question with a card. That is, in fact, the essence of tarot reading.

Yet, interpretive tarot is only a portion of how we can encounter tarot, contemplate tarot, and understand tarot. The more ways we have to work with a card, the easier tarot interpretation becomes.

When we study tarot in a broader, more contemplative way, we learn from tarot, as well as learning about tarot. In time, it begins to feel that tarot is teaching us. Tarot can teach us about life, and about ourselves. Tarot can also teach us new ways to work with, and interpret, the cards in divination.

It is never too late in our tarot journey to learn something new about a card. The more possibilities we add to our tarot vocabulary, the more our intuition will have to call upon when we see a card in action.

The more ways we learn to use tarot, the more helpful tarot will be in our lives.

Interpretation in Divination

Interpretation in divination is what most people think of when they think of tarot study. We may memorize classic interpretations and keywords. We may study astrological and Kabalistic associations.

In my practice as a reader and a teacher I have discovered that finding the stories within the numerical order of the cards can be an effective way to understand and remember the classic card meanings. Remembering the elemental and numerological associations for each card is a helpful way to enhance a divinatory practice.

It is perfectly acceptable and advisable for a student to perform even large and complex readings by consulting the book, or several books, to reference the classic interpretations and the artist’s intentions. Part of the skill of a tarot reading is in extrapolating the classic meaning into the actual life situation. One does not need to have the cards memorized in order to do this.

Spiritual Lessons

Tarot is a book of spiritual wisdom in picture form. Each card, and each section of cards, can teach us a spiritual lesson. These are lessons that we learn in our study of the cards, and that stick with us throughout our lives. Sometimes in a reading a card will remind us of its spiritual lesson, and that lesson will become part of the reading. Yet, the spiritual lesson we take from a card may not be involved at all in a particular divination.

For example, from the Wheel of Fortune we might learn to accept the ups and downs of life which are beyond our control. Yet, in a particular reading, the Wheel of Fortune might reference a trip to a casino, or reuniting with an ex lover.

It is a good practice to think of the lessons of each card and carry those lessons in your heart. It is also helpful to think about the lessons of the cards in sections. For example, what lessons do we learn from the suit of Swords, or from the Aces, or from the Sevens? Tarot divides into natural sections, and each section carries its own lessons.

Cognitive Contemplation

There are many great tarot exercises which involve choosing a tarot card, not at random, but cognitively. Whether working from the full deck or a small section thereof, to choose a card based on your knowledge, the image, or the way it makes you feel, helps you learn about the cards and about yourself.

For example, if you choose five cards at random and look at them all, you might challenge yourself to decide which one of these cards expresses something you are feeling at the moment. That process of contemplating all the cards, choosing one, and think about how that card applies to you is immensely powerful.

You might do the same sort of exercise choosing from just the Majors, or from just a particular suit.

This sort of exercise leads into the practice of tarot magick, where we choose a card, or a few cards, to bring a particular energy into our lives. We might also choose a card which expresses an energy we want to banish from our lives.

Many who do not know much about tarot, and some who do, often focus only on the process of divination when studying and practicing tarot.  The less we limit the cards, the more we learn about their power to teach us, to inform us, and to change the energy around us. Then, we are able to truly harness and use all the power of tarot in our lives.

Three Ways Tarot Helps Us

We so often think of tarot as a tool of simple fortune-telling. We want to ask questions like “Will I get the job?” or “Will he call me?”

 Sometimes when we use the cards to peer into the future, we find the process helpful. Other time, fortune-telling with tarot can be confounding and disappointing.

When we try to use the cards to predict who will win a sports match, or an election, we are often confused by the answers we get. I really do believe that the cards always speak truth. Yet, the future is not always predictable because the future is not always set. The actions of people can change the trajectory.

Very often future predictions about events in our immediate sphere of influence can help to inspire us, or caution us, or prepare us. Predictions about sports outcomes, and even political outcomes, should be relegated to entertainment. These sorts of predictions should not be the proof of the value or efficacy of cartomancy.

There are many tools of divination, and many card decks that are used for cartomancy. Tarot is, and has always been, my preferred tool. That is partially because tarot offers help even beyond divination and fortune-telling.

I see at least three ways that tarot can be helpful to us in life. The first is simply in the contemplation of each card. The study of tarot carries the same benefit as the study of any spiritual text. Each card can offer life wisdom that we can take to our heart and use at any time, much like the Bible verses I memorized as a child in Sunday school.

Divination is generally what we think about when we think about working with tarot, and it is one of the ways that tarot helps us. When we divine with tarot, we have the ability to move past predictive fortune-telling and into areas of person growth, self-understanding and strategic planning. The depth of information we can receive in tarot divination is only limited by the questions we ask, the techniques we use, and the understanding we develop. The deeper we dive into tarot as a whole, the more transformative our divination experiences can be.

The third way tarot helps us is in magic and manifestation. Over the years I have come to see the use of tarot to create our future as even more important than the use of tarot to try to see the future. Each card carries an energy. With these cards we can consciously embrace the energies we want in our lives, and consciously remove those we don’t.

These three utilizations of tarot, contemplation, divination, and manifestation, are all more effective when we take time and energy to study, learn, and deeply embrace and understand the cards. When we do this we allow tarot to be a wonderful gift, and a wonderful guide, in the journey of life.``

Two-Card Tarot Spells

Two-Card Tarot Spells

I love to think about, write about, teach, and practice tarot magick. Over the past many years, I have become more and more convinced that we can use the cards for manifestation as easily as we can for divination. Very often, we can do both at the same time.

I write about tarot magick on my 78 Magickal Tools blog.

Sometimes the exercise of thinking about which cards to use for a particular need also helps us understand specific cards and card combinations in new ways.

The magickal tarot exercise I want to share with you here is simple, yet profound.

Think of a particular need that you have, or that someone you know has. What two cards would serve that need, when combined together?

Here are three examples.

To break a repetitive pattern in life, the Wheel of Fortune and the Ace of Swords.

To be accepted to a school or education program, The Hierophant and the Page of Swords.

To have a fair outcome in a court of law, Justice and Judgement.

You can use a pair of cards to manifest something, create change, or influence an outcome in a number of ways. You can meditate with the cards. You can do a ceremony with the cards in a central place on your altar. You can make a jar candle with images of the cards on the jar. In all cases, you must visualize your desired outcome in the present tense as a certainty, rather than as a wish.

If you happen to see a pair of cards that you have already used for a magickal purpose appear in a reading, consider that the cards may be speaking of the same or similar situation.

What two-card tarot spells can you think of?

Share them in the comments if you like!

Overcoming Shyness and Other Obstacles as a Tarot Reader

Overcoming Shyness and Other Obstacles as a Tarot Reader

I received a question from a budding professional tarot reader who is struggling with shyness. She noticed that I had spoken about my own struggles early in my career, and how I overcame them with tarot. She wanted to know how I had done that, and my advice for her. This is something I think a lot of tarotists contend with. The traits that make us mystical often also make us a bit introverted.

I think one of the best ways to create personal change with tarot is to work with Court Card Significators.

The first thing you need to do is find what I call your Native Court Card Significator Do this based on your age, gender identity and sun sign astrology. For example, I am a cisgender adult woman born under the sun sign of Scorpio. Therefore, I am the Queen of Cups, because Scorpio is a water sign.

Now, look at your Court Card Significator and decide the ways in which this card’s attributes help you to be a good tarot reader, and the ways in which they might create obstacles.

If the obstacles outweigh the positive aspects, choose another card, either a Court card or not, to be your Tarot Reader Significator.

Claim this as the card of your tarot reader persona. Meditate with it, sleep with it, print it out and carry it with you. Eventually, this card will start showing up in your self-readings to let you know you are on the right track.

You can also do some great one-card divination exercises to help you access your best skills as a tarot reader. Ask questions like, what should my focus be right now? Or, which card best describes the energy I need to embrace in my tarot practice right now.

By using these techniques, you will harness the power of tarot magick and tarot divination to help you become the best reader you can be.

Watch the video for more information. If you have a question about tarot, please email me.