Can Any Tarot Card be Good or Bad?

If you read an older tarot book, like the Eden Gray book I started with, you will see that tarotists of a certain era considered certain cards ‘good’, and others, ‘bad’. There are still many tarotists who approach the cards this way.

It is easy to think about which would be which. The Ten of Pentacles, of course, is ‘good’. The Ten of Swords is ‘bad’. The Sun is ‘good’, the Tower is ‘bad’.

Certainly, any tarotist can admit that there are cards we would rather see appear in a reading, and cards that may concern us when they appear.

Yet, after many years of professional tarot reading, I have come to a number of conclusions. Perhaps some of these conclusions may be helpful to others on their tarot journey.

How We Define Good and Bad

In life in general, my conclusion is that there is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’. What is good for the lion is devastatingly bad for the gazelle. As the lyrics of one of my favorite Grateful Dead songs go, “One man gathers what another man spills”.

I also do not think we can label people good or bad. No human is inherently good, or inherently bad. Human personalities and circumstances are way too complicated for that.

So, if good and bad cannot be a metric for people, situations, or tarot cards, what is the metric that replaces that concept? For me, it is what you like and desire, and what you do not like and do not desire. That, of course, changes from person to person, and from situation to situation.

I think our definition of good and bad comes from the monotheistic philosophy of the eternal struggle between good and evil. To me, there is nothing in the natural world that would confirm that concept as spiritual reality. I think it is more likely that this concept was designed by humans to control behavior.

However, duality does exist, and is a present concept in tarot. When we take value judgments away from the duality of light and dark, and find purpose for both, we find a deeper understanding of how duality works.

Does this sort of thinking remove from us the burden of morality? Far from it. Rather, it holds us responsible to find and justify our own moral compass, and to hold ourselves accountable for our behavior within those confines.

What Do We Do with Disturbing Tarot Images?

Not all tarot decks include disturbing images, though many do. I believe those images can be helpful to our process. When we see an image that we find disturbing, it may in fact relate to something in our lives that we find disturbing. The ability to explore this may bring us peace, healing, and understanding.

Sometimes disturbing cards appear to predict, or forewarn, unpleasant things for the future. This is probably the single most frightening aspect of tarot for many people. Sometimes the cards predict misfortune.

Yet, there can be comfort in this as well.

When a disturbing card appears, it may prepare us for a hurt or disappointment. We may not know exactly how to interpret it, or what it is referring to. Yet, when the difficult thing happens, that tarot predicted it can be a comfort. Knowing a hard thing was somehow ‘written’ in advance relieves us of the anxious feeling that we could have prevented the misfortune from happening.

What About Classic Card Interpretations that are Clearly Good or Bad?

Any proficient tarot reader knows that any card can have a wide range of meanings, depending on the context of the question, and the surrounding cards. While it is true that some cards (usually those with happier images) have more auspicious classic keywords and interpretations than others, it is good to leave room for other possible interpretations.

For example, the Sun is arguably the happiest card the deck. Yet, in certain circumstances, the Sun can refer to a narcissistic personality.

The Seven of Swords is the card of the thief, typically indicating dishonesty. Yet, it can also be the card of creative solutions.

The Three of Swords is a card of sorrow. Yet, it can also indicate an opportunity to heal.

The Five of Pentacles is a card of poverty. Yet, it can also speak to finding new opportunities.

The Ten of Pentacles is a card of wealth. Yet, it can also indicate generational and ancestral trauma.

The Ten of Swords is a devastating card. Yet, it can also advise acupuncture as a method of healing.

The Star can be about hope and healing. Yet, The Star can also refer to a person who is acting like a diva.

The Four of Cups can be about apathy, boredom, or limited choices. Yet, it can also affirm the wisdom of waiting for something better to come along.

Death is a difficult card because of its title. Yet, it often appears for pregnancy or for job promotion.

Is This Method of Tarot Reading Just Sugar-Coating Reality?

If you use this kind of critical thinking in tarot reading, you are opening yourself to more opportunity for truth-finding. Sometimes that truth is going to be what you wanted to hear, sometimes it will not be.

In the Petit Lenormand system of cartomancy, cards are designated as positive, negative, and neutral. There is no such clear-cut system in tarot interpretation. I think it is good for modern tarotists to remember this. When we are open to the idea that any card can indicate something that is helpful and fortunate, or something that is hurtful or unfortunate, we have a fuller vocabulary with which to perform a more informative and helpful reading.

Choosing the Best Tarot Technique for the Worst Questions

I love teaching tarot classes. During a recent Zoom class, a question came up at the end of the class. It was the sort of question on which I could base an entire class, or at least a blog post. So, here goes.

The scenario is one with which we are all familiar. A tarot client has a specific yes or no question which will be immediately proven right or wrong. Rather than waiting for the pregnancy test, the job offer, the Xray, or whatever will provide the definitive answer, they want to hear right now from tarot what the answer will be.

The reader performs a comprehensive tarot spread like a Celtic Cross. Within the spread, and perhaps, most convincingly, in and near the ‘future’ or ‘outcome’ position, there are cards which we typically traditionally associate with the nature of the question. We see the Empress for a question about pregnancy. We see the Three of Pentacles for a question about a job. Based on the appearance of those cards in those positions, we give our answer. When the client gets the news from the official source, it turns out that what we thought we saw in the cards, and what we told the client, was wrong.

When this question was posed at the end of class, my thought was that Spirit does not always see things in the same linear way we do. For Spirit, the difference between being pregnant now, or in a month, or being hired now, or in two months, may be very negligible.

Perhaps Spirit is like a loving but stern parent who will direct us to the best source of answers for the question we have. Perhaps Spirit wants us to be patient.

In class we discussed ways to handle this kind of question, and ways to provide the answer in a broader scope. That was all we had time to do in class. There is so much more to unpack here.

The first consideration is about those kinds of questions. Why would a person want tarot to answer something when a mundane tool, or a little patience, would provide the best and most accurate answer?

Sometimes there is a good reason. Life can have a lot of moving parts. We need to sign the lease now if we are going to get the great apartment, but only need the apartment if we get the job. In a situation like that, tarot is the best tool to create a great strategy for managing those moving parts.

In the situation where there is no logical reason to use a mystical tool when a mundane tool is the better option, there is usually something more at play. The seeker wants to infuse a touch of the divine, of the spiritual and the mystical, into their situation. They may not have the vocabulary to ask a deep question about their circumstance, so they ask the most direct question on their mind. It is up to us, as readers, to break that question down and provide them with the mystical experience they seek, whether we can ferret out the exact answer they think they want, or not.

As we discussed in class, we find our flow in a tarot reading by implementing our energetic and spiritual resources, our knowledge of the cards, and proper technique.

As I thought about this question, I came to this clear realization.

When we are in a situation where we need to examine a definitive yes or no, a broad comprehensive spread like the Celtic Cross is not the best technique.

Over the years, I have developed a technique that I call “weighing the cards”. This technique is invaluable for answering specific yes/no questions.

My own experience has been that using yes/no spreads or activating certain cards to indicate a yes or no answer hasn’t been effective for me. The weighing the cards technique has worked wonders. Each reader is different. We all must find the technique that works for us. The important part is to know many techniques, so we can apply the best technique for the situation at hand.

Here is how weighing the cards works. Suppose the question is, “Will I get this job?”

I will pull one card for “You get this job”. I pull a second card for “You do not get this job”. I weigh the two cards against each other in the context of the question. Sometimes they both point to the affirmative or the negative. Sometimes there is a clear feel toward the no card, or the yes card.

 If they both seem neutral, or I cannot get a good feel, I will repeat the process, pulling cards, one in each pile, until a clear story emerges.

It is important to remember that, even in a situation where we might believe there is a clear yes or no answer, there might be other factors. You might be pregnant, but quickly miscarry. You might not be pregnant now but become pregnant quickly. You might get a job offer that is not what you expected and choose not to take it. You might get the job offer, but then get another offer which you take instead.

Sometimes I will use the weighing method and add a third card, or third pile of cards, which is, “something else happens”. This can help me see those complicated unexpected things.

Sometimes it is important to break a single question into many. “Am I pregnant?” might break into, “Will there be a baby soon?” “How will pregnancy go?” “What will be the challenges of motherhood?” “How will the father adjust?” “What will the baby be like?”

“Am I pregnant?” is best answered by a pregnancy test. The deeper questions that surround the concept of a new child can only be answered by divination. When we can pivot the question to the place where our tool shines, we can get better results.

When we need to attempt those yes or no questions, the using the right technique will give us the best chance for success. You may find, as I do, that the “weighing the cards” method is the right technique for you.

In divination with tarot or any tool, the more techniques we know, the more skillfully and accurately we can find our answers.

Deep Tarot Musings on the Justice Card

One of the things I love about each of the seventy-eight tarot cards is that, in a reading, they can speak to a wide range of things, from the most mundane to the most deeply spiritual.

When we study tarot, we are not only working to learn the cards so we can address them when they appear in a reading. We are also learning the lessons of each card that we may take those lessons to our hearts, to call upon for wisdom in our daily lives.

When we embrace tarot, tarot guides us in every moment, not just in our moments of divination.

Yet, it can be in moments of divination, whether for self or others, that deeper insights about a card can be cemented within our thinking. We study cards and are able to parrot keywords and interpretations. Yet, what we learn from the cards in a reading is very often how we become good tarot readers and keepers of true tarot wisdom. This process never ends, no matter how many years we have worked with the cards.

I had such a moment yesterday, with Major Arcana 11, Justice.

In a very deep and poignant reading involving love, death and family, I asked a specific question of the cards about how to process a grievous loss that led to a joyous new relationship.

Typically, when I ask such a question, I will pull one card. If that card answers the question sufficiently, I formulate my answer from that card and move on to the next topic or question.

If that single card does not sufficiently answer my question, I pull more cards until I find, within the group of cards I pulled, a story, answer, or an understanding of why the question can’t be answered, or which question I should be answering.

When such a deep question can be answered in a single card, the message seems powerful, profound, and enlightening. That’s what happened yesterday.

I asked a question about how my querents could find spiritual understanding and healthy processing around the fact that something sacred and delightful grew out of an unthinkable tragedy. The single card that appeared was Justice.

In mundane readings, Justice can often address issues of fairness and legalities.  I saw this card over and over again one evening when reading at a Bar Association gala. Each of my clients that night was either an attorney or an attorney’s spouse.

When we think of typical keywords for Justice, we think of words like balance, law, fairness, and karma.

It would have been simple to say to my client that the joy was there to balance the sorrow. That would have been an acceptable interpretation of the card in context of the question. Yet, such an answer would not express the depth of either the question or the card which appeared in answer.

I was immediately struck by the word ‘karma’, a typical keyword for Justice. Karma is a word, and a concept, which I think is often misused and misunderstood by Westerners. We use it as a synonym for revenge. We use it to excuse ourselves from compassion. We use it to fool ourselves into thinking that universal law guarantees visible and tangible reward for good deeds, and punishment for wrongdoings.

When I pulled Justice to answer this difficult question within the deep and sacred space of a heartfelt reading, my querents received the answer they needed; one that will bring them peace and allow them forward motion.

I received something, too.

I received a deeper understanding of what karma really is, and how the tarot card Justice might speak to it.

Tarot is like this.

Sometimes we readers learn from the cards, and learn about the cards, during readings.

What I learned about Justice, and what I learned about karma, in that moment, is this.

When we think of things like Karma and balance, we often think about the balance between two things. Sometimes we think of a circle, as in, what goes around comes around.

But Justice, and karma, is so much more than that.

It is not a circle, and it is not a scale of duality.

Justice, and karma, is the fabric of which our lives are woven. Each thread is important to hold the whole together. Each thread is an individual, and also a part of something bigger.

The two events that my clients were having a hard time processing in a linear story made plenty of sense when we were able to see those two events as threads within the fabric of their lives.

That is a deeper understanding of karma, and of the Justice card in tarot.

Three Tarot Cards to tell you the Future is Wide Open

I love the Tom Petty song “Into the Great Wide Open.” Sometimes I see cards come up in tarot readings in ways that remind me of this song. Sometimes, for some people, the future is truly wide open.

So often, people seek tarot readings because they want a glimpse of their future.  Often, the best tarot readings tell us that the Universe is ready to help us manifest the future we desire.

There are a few cards that indicate this state of being to me. Often they come up together in the same spread. When I see these cards I know it is very important to be clear about goals, intention and actions, because you are ready to manifest your future. What you do today will determine what your tomorrow looks like.

The three cards that specifically speak to me of actively manifesting your future are the Two of Wands, the Seven of Cups and the World. It is amazing to me how often I see these three cards together.

The Two of Wands is about dreaming dreams, setting goals and making plans. In this card we have the opportunity to decide what we want our world to look like.

The Seven of Cups reminds us that we have options and choices. With this card we need to choose what we want to manifest in life.

The World is the card of attainment. It comes up to say that we have the ability to create the world we want.

Inherent in tarot is the opportunity not just to gain knowledge and perspective, but also the opportunity to build the future we desire. When you see these three cards, be ready to set your goals and create the life you want!