Tarot Evolves with Our Changing World

Although I am not a tarot animist, I will be the first to say that tarot has some magical properties. This post is about one of my favorites of those properties.

There are many different ways in which tarot can evolve to meet and describe new cultural situations and circumstances.

Here are three examples of what I mean. The last is a very recent one which many of us have discovered. Perhaps, though, we have not contemplated the magic therein as much as we could.

In my tarot practice, the Chariot, Major Arcana Seven, is very often a reference to a person’s car. Of course, when tarot divination was first beginning, no one had cars. Now, they are a very important part of society. They provide our ability to work, shop, and do the things we need to do. They are a status symbol, and very often a source of stress.

It is important that when we use divination to look at someone’s life, we have within the language of our divination tool the ability to look at all the important factors.

The car has definitely become an archetype in American culture. The archetype of the Chariot was easily able to expand to fit into that cultural need.

When I was living in Connecticut and the casinos were being built, the Wheel of Fortune, Major Arcana Ten, started to appear for clients much more often than it previously had. The Wheel of Fortune was suddenly signaling employment at the casino. Later, it began to show up for gambling addiction.

The casinos changed our local culture, and tarot found a way to reflect and communicate that change.

I recently acquired Modern Witch Tarot. The Five of Wands in this deck struck me as being an amazingly clear commentary for 2020 and beyond. Yet, the deck was published in 2019.

At first glance of the Modern Witch Five of Wands we see a very typical image; five people fighting each other with big sticks. What is interesting is that two of them are wearing masks which cover the nose and mouth.

The Modern Witch Five of Wands clearly describes the contentious social discourse regarding mask-wearing during the pandemic. Yet, the timeline tells us that there is no way this card could have been consciously designed to do so.

In the accompanying book, the fighters in this image are described as a “girl gang”. When we look at the image, we can see they have Asian features. Their stances suggest they are practice bojutsu, a martial art using Japanese staff technique.

We know that in some Asian cultures the covering of the nose and mouth to prevent the spread of disease is common, and, beyond that, is considered a simple common courtesy.

The designer of Modern Witch Tarot, Lisa Sterle, could not have possibly known that mask-wearing, mask-hating, and mask-making would be front-and-center activities worldwide in the years that followed her deck’s publication.

Had the masks appeared in a different card it might not be so noteworthy. The Five of Wands traditionally is about conflict. There has been a remarkable amount of loud and contentious conflict around mask-wearing in many places around the world.

That Sterle was inspired to illustrate this card in this way a year before the pandemic is the best example of how tarot expands and evolves to represent current culture and circumstance that I have ever seen.

There are many ways that tarot is magical. Sometimes it feels hard to show clear evidence of that, since so many of our tarot experiences are deeply personal and private.

I believe the clear relevance of the Modern Witch Five of Wands to our current culture and circumstances is evidence of tarot’s power to evolve to fit a changing world.

Are There Specific Tarot Cards That Indicate Orientation?

One topic that sometimes comes up in our many conversations about how we interpret tarot is how sexual orientation shows up in the cards. I’ve written and spoken about this a few times, maybe most notably in my Answers to Your Questions About Tarot series.

Recently I taught a class on YouTube about the Suit of Cups. It was interesting that a few of the Cups cards garnered comments and questions around the possibility of signifying homosexuality.

I have always resisted the idea that there might be specific cards that speak about gay people or gay issues. Any of the seventy-eight cards might speak of gay people, just as any of the seventy-eight cards might speak of straight people.

Since the suit of Cups, related to Water, is all about feelings, relationships, romance, and emotion, it makes sense that any discussion of this suit would encompass relationships. Yet, never have I been in a tarot class where someone says that a particular card will always be interpreted as a heterosexual person. I am not sure why we would consider that there would or could be such a card to indicate a member of the LBGTQI community.

Is traditional tarot heteronormative? It certainly could be considered that way, since many cards show heterosexual couples, and because the societies of which tarot was borne were themselves heteronormative. There are now many tarot decks that depict same-sex couples as a remedy to this. Yet, we could easily use a deck with same-sex depictions to read for heterosexual people, just as we can use a deck with opposite-sex couples to read for gay people.

When I first became a professional tarot reader my colleagues and I had a strong unfortunate incentive to be able to see in a reading when someone was gay. Back then, the expected life trajectory of a gay person was different than that of a straight person. If the Ten of Cups came up for someone’s unmarried son, suggesting that the son would one day be married with children could send a client into peals of sarcastic laughter. “My son is gay, so that will never happen. You aren’t a very good psychic, are you?”  

A reminder that love is love and love makes a family was usually enough to win back the reading. Yet, the 2015 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges opened the path for anyone’s kids to one day be married and be parents. This made a real difference in the language we could comfortably use at the tarot table. It also made it less important to try to use the cards, or intuition, to understand the sexuality of a client or their family members.

Tarot readers often end up helping people explore their identity or orientation and helping family members find a way to accept or support that exploration. However, none of those sorts of tasks require a specific card to reveal the things that people must always figure out for themselves.

One card that came up in conversation during my Cups class was the Knight of Cups. Several students authoritatively stated that this card could represent a gay man. Of course, it can. And so can any other card in the deck. The Knight of Cups can be a man who is in touch with his feelings. But, suggesting that a male in touch with his feelings is likely to be gay buys into a misandrist culture of toxic masculinity that is best left without oxygen.

There are any number of opportunities to discuss sexuality, gender, identity and relationships at the tarot table. If we understand the nuances of all the cards, and are intuitive in our approach, we can do a good job for any client in any situation. And, we can do this without trying to force an individual card to inform us of a person’s orientation.

And, to whichever ill-informed tarot teacher is spreading the rumor that there are specific cards that indicate sexual orientation, last century called. You know what they said? Even they want you to update your practices to reflect reality rather than you own outdated views. Tarot helps us evolve.

4 Simple Ways to Master the Tarot Suits

The key to learning Tarot fast is to keep your study simple and focused. If you’re just starting out, focus on one Tarot suit at a time and follow these 4 simple activities until you feel confident with the Suit. Then move to the next Suit and in no time you will have mastered all four Suits and will be well on your way to reading Tarot with confidence!

1. Familiarise Yourself with the Cards

First, select the Suit that you will be working with (i.e. Cups, Pentacles, Swords or Wands).

Take out all of the cards from the selected Suit from your Tarot deck and lay them in front of you.

Study each card, looking at the imagery and taking note of your initial thoughts and feelings.

Now, test yourself. Go through each card and make sure that you can name each one.

2. Prepare a Tarot Suit Summary

Drawing upon your existing knowledge of the cards or your research from your favourite Tarot books, do the following:

• Record the element associated with the selected Suit.
• Write down the keywords or key phrases you would associate with the Suit.
• List what you would see as the positive aspects and the negative or shadow aspects.
• List what types of day-to-day activities and events you would associate with the Suit (e.g. Pentacles – going to work, working on a project, managing budgets, etc.).
• Identify what personality types and characteristics are associated with the Suit.
• Collect images or pictures from magazines, photos or the internet that you would associate with the Suit and create a collage with those images.

3. Create a Keyword Chart

Start with the Ace and begin to study it. What thoughts, emotions, or energy do you get from the card? What words or phrases come to mind? What is this card trying to tell you?

Write down every thought, idea, word, phrase or sentence that comes to mind.

Look up the card meaning in The Ultimate Guide to Tarot Card Meanings or your other Tarot books. Search for common words or themes and write down the keywords that stand out to you.

Review your list and select 3-4 keywords or phrases that collectively represent the card. Enter these keywords into your keyword chart.

Rinse and repeat with the every card in the selected Suit and in no time you’ll have your very own Tarot keyword chart.

4. Give Advice According to the Suit

Imagine you are giving a friend some advice about creating a budget / finding love / making a career move. What would you tell him or her from the perspective of the selected Suit?

For example, going on a holiday...

• Cups – Go with your closest friends, people who you really love spending time with.
• Pentacles – Make sure you save up enough money so you can enjoy the trip.
• Swords – Do your research before you go. You’ll need to choose which places to visit.
• Wands – Be spontaneous when you can.

Love These Tarot Tips?

You’ll find even more in my newest Tarot eBook, “Tarot Foundations: 31 Days to Read Tarot with Confidence”. Follow my 31 day program and you’ll be reading the Tarot like a professional in no time. Build a personal connection with the cards and take your Tarot readings to the next level. Find out more at http://www.biddytarot.com/tarot-guides/tarot-foundations/.

About Brigit

Brigit is a professional Tarot reader with over 15 years experience. She is an author, blogger and mentor. Her website, Biddy Tarot, is incredibly popular amongst Tarot enthusiasts with Tarot card meanings, Tarot guides and eBooks, and regular blog posts to help you learn Tarot.

She is also mum to 2 beautiful girls and lives with her family in Melbourne, Australia.