Seeking the Truth with Major Arcana 18, the Moon

Major Arcana 18, the Moon, has amongst its keywords, ‘confusion’. This is apt since this card can be extremely confusing when it appears in a reading.

Recently a friend reached out to me with this question about the Moon.

I am studying the Moon today and the keywords I have are very confusing: intuition, illusion, deception, darkness, reflection, fear, subconscious, dreams, difficulty, imagination, journey, spirituality, mystery, and psychic awareness. How do I decipher this card among all these unrelated descriptions?

I think it is fair to say that the Moon is one of the deepest and most confusing cards of the tarot. Our collective relationship with this card has changed over time. Go-to interpretations seem to vary depending on each reader’s cultural background.

I blame misogyny and fear of witchcraft for some of the negativity historically associated with this card. The moon in the sky has always been associated with feminine spiritual power. What was and is feared and persecuted by some as witchcraft is practiced and celebrated by others. This easily explains the dichotomy between deception and spirituality.

The moon in the sky ‘steals’ its light from the sun. The full moon has long been associated with insanity. The words ‘lunacy’ and ‘lunatic’ have ‘luna’ as their root word.

This makes sense, too. I often say that there is a thin line between psychic and psychotic.

There is a deeper and more provocative consideration with the Moon as well. We can see the twenty-one numbered cards of the Major Arcana as three groups of seven, and the final seven as the journey toward spiritual enlightenment.

The Devil is the gatekeeper. To begin this journey, we must see ourselves as we truly are. The Tower is the first step toward releasing false foundations. The Star allows us to heal. Then we approach the Moon.

The Moon represents spiritual truth. As we walk through the moonlight, we know that things do not appear as they do in the sunlight. Walking at night is fraught with danger. The path to spiritual truth is likewise fraught. There are cults, fundamentalism, and scams. There is egotism, and spiritual bypassing. There is greed and lust for power and control. There are many ways to be trapped as we pursue the spiritual truth and knowledge that leads to enlightenment.

The Moon shows us the path, and the Moon shows us that there are dangers along the path.

As part of this search for spiritual truth, the Moon speaks of intuition. How often intuition can be subverted in favor of fear and desire!

In a reading, the Moon may speak of this deep, dark, and important journey. Yet, as with all tarot cards, the Moon may speak of more mundane things as well. The Moon may appear to tell us of simpler hidden dangers, such as a false friend, or an infestation of termites.

The Moon may encourage our psychic development. The Moon may tell us to pay attention to our dreams. The Moon may encourage us to practice magick and witchcraft. The Moon may warn us about someone’s ill intentions toward us.

The Moon may simply make note of the confusing mysteries of life. Sometimes when the Moon appears regarding a particular department of life it is an invitation to dig deeper into that department to reveal something that has been hidden. The Moon might indicate that we are confused about something, or that something will turn out differently than we imagine.

The obvious question is this. When we see the Moon in a reading, how do we know whether to encourage psychic development, call an exterminator, or deeply explore hidden aspects of our romantic relationship?

As with all tarot interpretation, context is the key. We need to look at the spread position meaning, or the question that was asked. We need to consider the surrounding cards, and our intuitive reaction to the card. The person for whom the card is drawn also provides context. For a devout Catholic, the Moon may offer a suggestion to light a candle in church and pray for a loved one. When drawn for a practice Pagan, this card may be a directive to dance naked in the moonlight. When drawn for a person who is seeking consultation regarding a career situation, the Moon may indicate confusion about career goals and direction, or a coworker or boss who is stealing credit or sabotaging projects.

It is possible, too, that the Moon will have more than one message for us. We can interpret the same card multiple times in a reading.

Tarot study is different than tarot interpretation. Tarot study teaches us, in theory, to interpret the cards. Tarot study also gives us access to the spiritual lessons inherent in the cards. Our spiritual understand of each card can be expansive. That understanding can become part of the spiritual code by which we live every day. The interpretation of a card in a reading will likely not involve all aspects of those deeper spiritual lessons.

While the possibilities for interpretation of Major Arcana 18 are vast, there is a simple thing we can remember about this card. Whenever the Moon appears, we might consider that things may not be as they seem.

When we study the Moon, we learn vital lessons about our path to spiritual understanding. We learn to avoid cheap and easy answers that pose as simple spiritual truths. We learn that we must dig to expose the depths of dark murkiness pierced by glimpses of light that spiritual growth truly is.

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.``

Traveling with the Tarot Knights

I’ve been having fun writing about numbers and ranks in tarot recently. This week feels like time to explore the Knights!

The Court cards can be confusing because of their versatility; each one can mean so many things. This is especially true of the Pages and the Knights.

Traditionally, Pages are feminine, and Knights are masculine. This has never proved true for me in my readings, so I prefer a deck where the Pages and Knights are fairly androgenous-looking. Intuitively I may see a Page or Knight with a gender in a specific reading. In another reading, the same card may appear as a different gender to me. Of course, on these sorts of reding techniques and interpretations, your mileage may vary.

There are some tarotists who assign to the tarot Knights a sense of courtly honor, like Arthurian Knights of the Round Table. That has never resonated with me but might be something to consider.

Like the Pages, Knights can be young people, or can give you a directive, or make a prediction.

Keywords to associate with the rank of Knight include travel, pursuit, goals, motion. So, a Knight might be a young person who is goal oriented. A Knight might be a person of any age who is single-mindedly pursuing a goal. A Knight might encourage you to pursue a goal.

The sort of goal, of course, is determined by the suit. The Knight of Swords might be pursuing truth, writing, knowledge, communication, or technology. The Knight of Wands might be pursuing fun, creativity, humor, athleticism or spirituality. The Knight of Cups might be pursuing love and romance. The Knight of Pentacles might be pursuing work and money.

Knights can also predict or encourage travel. The type of travel is denoted by the suit. The Knight of Swords might be a trip to learn something or discover something. The Knight of Wands might be a trip for fun, or to a concert or sporting event. The Knight of Cups might be a romantic vacation. The Knight of Pentacles would be travel for business.

One of the ways the pandemic has appeared in the cards of clients is a lot of reversed Knights, indicating cancelled trips, and no ability to travel at the moment.

Two of the Knights can have a special job of indicating timing, that is, how fast something will happen, or how quickly you should move to make something happen. The Knight of Swords is about swiftness, while the Knight of Pentacles indicates a slow pace.

When Pages and Knights appear together, they may talk about a sibling group, with the Knights likely to be the older siblings.

Very often, the Knights appear to tell us to get off our butts and get moving. They can be a gentle or not-so-gentle nudge from the Universe to move forward toward our goals. They are also a constant reminder that life is a journey. Given their particular messages, they can evoke some of the same emotions and information as the Fool and the Chariot.

Reading the Tarot Pages

You are being Paged! That is something I sometimes say when I see a few Pages in a tarot spread. Sometimes a predominance of Pages can tell us that the Universe is communicating directly with us. It is ‘paging’ us, if you will, to get our attention and give us our marching orders.

Other times, Pages can give different sorts of messages. While the tarot Court, in general, can be tricky to interpret, the tarot Pages seem to be the most elusive and difficult to nail down.

In recent years I have heard many tarot students compare the Pages to the Aces, suggesting that the Pages can represent something new, or something beginning. While the Pages certainly do carry the energy of youth, and therefore newness, I feel there are so many richer and more specific possibilities for interpreting the four Pages of tarot.

Regardless of suit, all four Pages have a few things in common. The Pages can represent children. The Pages can represent pets. The Pages can represent people of any age who are engaged in learning something new, reinventing themselves, or finding their voice.

In a reading about business, the Pages can speak about your web page and social media presence.

Keywords for the rank of Page include learning, study, school, youth and communication.

The Pages can predict that you will receive a message. The Pages can remind you of the importance of communication. The Pages can tell you to go to school.

The suit of each Page gives the interpretation more specificity. If the Page is indeed a person, the suit will give us a hint about their personality. If the Page is telling us to communicate, or suggesting that we will receive communication, the suit will tell us what the communication is about. If the Page is telling us to study something or learn something, the suit will tell us what the subject matter should be.

Very often, Pages in a tarot reading will give more than one message. That means that a particular Page might be about your child, but also might talk about a class you are taking. It might also encourage you to have a specific conversation you have been avoiding.

Since the Pages are so much about communication, it only makes sense that each one of them should communicate a great deal of information!

Venn Diagrams for Tarot Understanding

Most of us remember Venn diagrams from math class. Venn diagrams graphically depict commonalities and differences between a group of individual things.

Venn diagrams have been making a humorous resurgence in internet memes. My favorite is a Venn diagram about bank robbers, preachers and DJs. In a Venn diagram, the commonalities shared by all the individual things are in the center. What do bank robbers, preachers and DJs have in common? They all say, “Put your hands up!”

In a Venn diagram of three or more things there may be commonalities between only two of the things. In this meme, for example, both bank robbers and DJs say, “Get on the floor!” Both preachers and DJs say, “Are you with me?” Both bank robbers and preachers say, “Give me your money!”

What does all this have to do with tarot?

One of the things that is most confusing for tarot students is finding the subtle differences between similar cards. Advanced tarot students grow in their understanding and ability by considering the differences and similarities between cards, and groups of cards.

Tarot cards naturally have certain similarities based on elemental association, and number and rank. For example, all Queens will have something in common. All twos will have something in common. All cards associated with the element of Air will have something in common. When we understand these commonalities, we have an easier time understanding the cards.

Yet, it is important to understand the differences in individual cards. And, sometimes we find similarities between cards that don’t have elements, rank, or number in common.

A good exercise is to look through your deck and pull out cards that you feel have similar interpretations. Then, figure out what these cards and in common, and what is unique to each card.

A good way to do this exercise is with a Venn diagram. For example, some people have a hard time understanding the differences between the Three of Cups and the Four of Wands. Here is how I break out keywords for these two cards in a Venn diagram.

Sometimes cards of the same number have so much in common they become hard to distinguish one from another. Here is a Venn diagram of the Ten of Cups and the Ten of Pentacles.

You can see how helpful it is to parse out the differences and similarities.

Of course, we all have our personal set of tarot keywords, based on the traditions of the decks we use, and our own understanding and experiences with the cards. That’s why this is such a fun and informative process. Newer tarotists can make Venn diagrams based on their research, an on their impressions of the cards. Experienced tarotists can dive more deeply into the cards by using Venn diagrams to catalog the keywords they have developed over time.

Sometimes larger aspects of tarot can also be confusing. For example, there is a lot of crossover between the two masculine elements, Air and Fire. Here is a Venn diagram showing how I see their differences and similarities.

It would be interesting to do a Venn diagram of three circles with the three cards of authority, which are the Empress, Emperor and Hierophant. Then, a Venn diagram of the three clergy, which are the High Priestess, the Hermit and the Hierophant would be fascinating. There is so much we can learn when we compare and contrast cards with each other, and in small groups.

When we understand the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between similar cards we are able to give a more specific and nuanced tarot reading. When we are able to understand the commonalities between cards, we can find strong themes and important points when those cards appear together in a tarot spread. Venn diagrams can be a wonderful tool to help us understand our cards more clearly and become more proficient at giving great readings.

When the Card Doesn't Seem to Answer the Question

Here is a universal struggle for tarot students.

We all know the joy of asking a question, pulling a card in answer, and having that card fit the question poignantly and precisely. But what happens when the card or cards pulled don’t seem to make sense in light of the question? This problem can also occur in a spread, when a particular card does not seem to fit with the position in which it falls.

The first thing to remember is that every card appears for a reason. In professional tarot, sometimes we need to find the answers right away. With experience, this becomes easier. Nicely, in a student’s divinatory practice, or in one’s own readings, it is okay to take time to find your answer. It is sometimes necessary to research, write, meditate, ask others, and puzzle it out over time.

Whatever the nature of your practice and experience, there are numerous methods to help you find the harder answers of tarot. One thing to consider is that, often, the more difficult the answer is to figure out, the more opportunity there is to learn and grow, both in your understanding of the card(s) in question, and in the situation about which you are divining.

One great technique that I learned from Mary K. Greer is to simply say the name of the card aloud. Very often that seems to jostle a memory or an intuition and allow the reading to unfold. Following that, a good tactic is to list off everything you know about the card. If you are new to tarot, read a number of references. By listing all the possibilities, you will often find one that fits. Very often this results in a ‘d’oh moment’ as everything becomes clear.

Sometimes traditional keywords in nontraditional uses will answer the question. Fr example, if the question is about what sort of exercise would be helpful and the Wheel of Fortune appears, it might be time to take a Spin class, because a keyword for the Wheel of Fortune is ‘cycle’.

Another technique is to look at the card image and see if there is anything in the picture as a whole, or within the picture, that strikes you as an answer to the question. This can work even if the answer you arrive at has no bearing on the card’s traditional interpretations.

Many times, newer readers expect all financial questions to be answered with Pentacles, all romantic questions to be answers with Cups, and so forth. Of course, this doesn’t happen in actual practice. It’s important to understand that any card can be interpreted in any context.

The trick is always to allow the time, energy, research, and intuition to find the answer.

Five Tips to Help You Learn or Teach Tarot

Whether you are learning tarot on your own, helping someone one-on-one, or teaching a class, there are several things you can do to help make things click.

The problem with teaching or learning tarot is that tarot is complex. Many times, folks feel intimidated by the sheer number of cards, decks, images, keywords and possibilities. Even worse is the anxiety about saying the right thing. That’s an anxiety that we all seem to have in one way or the other. Sometimes when applied to something profound like tarot that anxiety is increased.

The trick to learning or teaching tarot is to remove the anxiety and invite playful imagination. Students must make a connection between themselves and the cards. That connection doesn’t have to feel spiritual, and it doesn’t have to be about liking the artwork. The important connection, the thing that makes things click and produces aha moments, is when students see themselves in the cards, and see the way the cards can apply to their own lives. Here are five ways to make that happen for yourself or for others.

Break the Deck into Bite-Sized Chunks

The Major and Minor Arcana are each too big to handle as a whole at first. Break the Majors into smaller groups, perhaps the Fool as its own story, and then the twenty-one numbered cards into three groups of seven.

Break the Minors into suits Ace through Ten. You can handle the Court in groups of four by suit and by rank.

Discuss, learn and do exercises with each group to avoid having to learn or hear about too many cards in a row in a way that becomes mind-numbing. This also teaches the structure of tarot in a very organic way.

Tell Stories and Do Exercises

Use these small groups of cards to demonstrate how we tell stories with the tarot, and how the cards are connected to each other. Create divination exercises using only these small groups. For example, from the suit of Swords One through Ten find one card at random to describe how you are processing information at present.

You can also choose a card from each group cognitively to answer questions about your life. For example, from the first group of seven Major Arcana cards, which one most expresses the lesson you are working on in your day-to-day life?

Make the Psychic Connection

Don’t let the meditative, intuitive and psychic aspect of tarot be an afterthought. Begin your studies with meditation, chakra clearing, grounding, opening the third eye, creating psychic shielding and making a conscious connection to Spirit. Everything flows more easily from this place. Your study should happen in sacred space, just as your readings will.

Make Connections Between Cards and Life

When a card is pulled at random, ask how that card represents something that is happening currently. This ability to extrapolate between the image and real life is essential to tarot reading. Start developing this skill from the very beginning.

Find Yourself in the Cards

Look through the cards to find images that you identify with. In which of these cards do you see yourself? Why? If you can see yourself in a card, you are on your way to seeing others in the cards. Seeing people and situations in the cards is the primary skill we need to develop in order to read tarot for ourselves and others.

Create Your Own Tarot Spreads

Create Your Own Tarot Spreads

A tarot spread is a diagram of card positions that allows you to do a helpful and understandable tarot reading. Typically, each position asks a question. The card that falls into that position must be read in the context of the position.

It is possible to do a good tarot reading without a positioned spread. It is also possible to include numerous spreads and techniques in a tarot reading session. Not every question calls for an entire spread. Yet, a good tarot reader needs to know when a tarot spread would be helpful, and how to most effectively work with a spread.

Each tarot spread has a theme. The spread may be comprehensive in that it addresses many or all departments of life. Or, a spread may be created to address a specific concern.

How the cards are laid out graphically can matter to the efficacy of a tarot spread. Sometimes the cards are meant to form a shape that relates to the theme of the spread. Whatever the graphic shape, we tend to notice how cards that are near each other interact with each other. We often create spreads that are like trees, where a single card addresses a larger issues and multiple cards branch from that to answer questions about that issue.

There are many traditional spreads, many books of tarot spreads, and many spreads created by professionals and shared on social media. With so many available spreads, why would you want to create your own?

There are many possible reasons to create your own spreads. First and foremost, since working with tarot spreads is such an important skill, the act of creating spreads helps us become better at reading spreads.

The act of making spreads is in itself creative, and therefore, fun. It’s also fun to share the spreads we create with others.

No matter how many spreads exist in the world, there is always room for more. There are an infinite number of questions we can answer with tarot.

As we work to create new spreads, we sometimes stumble onto new ways of working with the cards, and new techniques that improve our tarot practice.

Tarot spreads can have as few as two cards, or as many as seventy-eight.

When you create your own spread, it will likely fall into one of three categories.

You might create a comprehensive spread. This would be a larger spread, perhaps ranging between six and fifteen cards. You would want each position to reflect an aspect of life. The goal of this spread would be to get as complete a picture as possible of what is going on in a person’s life. Traditional comprehensive spreads include the Celtic Cross and the Astrology Wheel.

Another type of spread is a themed spread, or a situational spread. A themed spread might be created for a specific holiday, or a specific time of astrological transition, such as a full moon or a mercury retrograde. The graphic shape made by the cards might reflect this theme.

A situational spread could be created to use to answer a specific type of question, such as how to handle a relationship problem, or how to make a career transition.

These sorts of spreads can be shared with others and can be performed when need arises or when the time is appropriate.

It’s also possible to create a spread for a single use. These spreads are often the most powerful. I will occasionally use this method when a client presents with a unique and multi-faceted problem.

A single-use spread is likely to include many cards. You may also add positions as you are performing the spread, based on what the cards reveal.

A single-use spread allows you to break a complex issue into its components, and consider all aspects of the situation in order to find guidance, understanding and direction.

You can create a spread with a pen and a piece of paper, or you can create a spread using any sort of word processing or graphic software.

Sometimes, in a tarot reading, you might create a two- or three-card spread in the moment to answer a specific question. For example, if you are deciding whether or not to do something, you might pull one card to show what happens if you do it, and another card to show what happens if you don’t.

The more you allow yourself to explore tarot spreads and tarot reading techniques, the better you will become as a tarot reader.

A Tarot Perspective Shift That Can Change Your Life

A Tarot Perspective Shift That Can Change Your Life

Here’s a way to perceive tarot cards that can change and deepen your experience when reading for yourself or others. This practice can also help you navigate the ups and downs of life with ease and grace.

I first began studying tarot with an Eden Gray book some thirty-five years ago. Gray clearly spoke of some cards as being bad and negative, and other cards as good and positive.

As I have learned a small bit about the practice of cartomancy with Lenormand cards, I’ve learned that each Lenormand card is designated as positive, negative or neutral. Understanding those designations is important to the study and practice of Lenormand. In my opinion, this should not be so with tarot.

I know that many tarotists, both beginning and experienced, see some tarot cards as good and other tarot cards as bad.

Here’s the shift in perspective that I have started advocating.

Consider what might happen if you were to believe that no tarot card is inherently good or bad.

When you think about this, you have to first realize that the study of tarot is not just about learning how to interpret the cards in a reading. Tarot functions as a book of spiritual wisdom as well as a divinatory device. When we study tarot, we need to learn both the divinatory aspects and the spiritual lessons which exist beyond the function of divination.

Each card teaches us something about life and about ourselves. These lessons stay with us and help us though life. When we understand these lessons, our ability to interpret the cards is increased, even when those deeper lessons aren’t especially pertinent to a specific reading.

When we understand the lesson of each card, we understand that life lessons themselves are neither positive nor negative.

Yet, in most decks, some card illustrations are attractive and appealing, while others are dark or even violent. Regardless, we need to reserve judgment on whether the message is positive or negative, or wanted or unwanted, until we do the reading.

In a reading, whether we find the information we receive positive or negative should depend entirely on the context of the reading. We may get answers we don’t prefer, yet, we needn’t see the individual cards, or the readings, as good or bad.

There is a school of spiritual thought that suggests there is no good or bad anywhere in the world. There is only what you like and what you don’t like. We see examples of this in nature. What is good for the lion is very, very bad for the gazelle. Tarot cards are like that. While we will always prefer to see some cards over others, each card has its place and its value.

So often I hear tarotists say that they don’t like a certain card, or a certain suit. Some people seem to fear certain cards.

If, in your tarot studies, you develop a dislike or fear about a particular card or suit of cards, this is an opportunity to learn something about yourself, or about the cards.

It may be that your dislike or distrust is based on an incomplete understanding of the card. It may be that your reaction to the card is happening because that card, or that suit of cards, is exposing something in you that needs to be healed.

Whenever we have a negative reaction to a card, in study or in a reading, we need to take this as an opportunity to learn something more about ourselves, and about the cards.

We all have favorite cards, and images that resonate well with us. Yet, in a reading, a favorite card might appear to give a message that, in the moment, is less than favorable.

Whatever personal relationships we might have with individual cards, in a reading, we need to let the cards speak, free from our relationship with them, and free from a standard idea of a card being positive or negative.

That said, it is true that in self-reading we can have very powerful relationships with the cards we recognize as “personal cards”. Personal cards might be our birth cards, our astrology cards, or cards we have had significant experiences with in the past. Their appearance in a reading will bring extra information, but, even then, should not be seen as necessarily good or bad.

As examples of how cards can change in meaning, the Sun is usually a very joyful card. Yet, it can also indicate a person who is narcissistic. The Three of Swords communicates heartache, yet it also offers an opportunity for healing.

Of the four suits in tarot, the suit of Swords gets the worst rap. That’s because four of its members are usually very dark images. In readings, those images can very often speak of sadness, anxiety, depression and other upset. Yet, when we remember that Swords are associated with the element of Air, we understand that those painful swords are generally words, thoughts, beliefs, mistrust and dishonesty that are laying us low.

It’s also true that having our heartache revealed in a reading can be extremely helpful and healing. Generally, if you can’t see it, you can’t heal it.

As a professional reader, I take those difficult cards as an opportunity to acknowledge my client’s suffering, and to hold space for their healing, as well as their sorrow.

It’s important to remember, too, that the Suit of Swords contains more positive messages than it does indicators of struggle. The Ace of Swords indicates truth and right action. The Two of Swords is the card of peace. The Four of Swords offers healing, meditation and retreat, while the Six of Swords helps us move toward smoother waters.

When we read for ourselves or for others, we need to color the reading with neither over-optimism nor fear. We need to approach the cards with an attitude of compassionate detachment. We will have an easier time discerning the most precise information if we do not confuse our relationships with the cards with our intuition about what is going on in the reading. We have to let each card speak as it will in each reading, regardless of our feelings toward a card in general.

If we refrain from judging cards as good or bad, we can approach the cards without fear, from that enlightened place of spiritual neutral and compassionate detachment.

When we read for ourselves and others we can get out of our own way and find information that is useful. We can use the cards to shift perspective, open opportunities and bring healing for ourselves and others.

The practice of seeing all cards as neutral allows the cards to speak more easily and more freely. When we are free of the judgment of good and bad, we can engage intuition more easily. It is at that point that we are able to have a truly enlightening psychic experience with tarot.

An added benefit is this. Tarot cards reflect all of life. Not all of life is pretty. Yet, to be alive is to experience all of life, and to embrace it all. When we can embrace and appreciate each of the seventy-eight tarot cards, we are more prepared for the unavoidable misfortunes of life. When we understand the lessons of all seventy-eight tarot cards, we more easily understand the difficult lessons of life. Tarot, as a reflection of life, prepares us for everything we might encounter in life. When we encounter each tarot card without resistance or judgment we become able to encounter each live experience the same way.