Shining a Light on the Shadow

By Anneli Salo (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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Welcome to the May 2015 Tarot Blog Hop. It’s May First, May Day, International Worker’s Day, Beltaine, or Beltane. Traditionally, this is a time to celebrate spring and anticipate the arrival of new life.

Our wrangler, Morgan Drake Eckstein, has given us an interesting task. He wants us to talk about the “distasteful cards” in tarot. He asks us this.

“So how do we deal with these cards when they show up? What do we tell our clients? What rituals (actions) can we take to better cope with these energies?”

I get really tired of people (even tarotists) maligning tarot because they feel it is “dark” or “negative” or “scary.” I was appalled when Doreen Virtue marketed her Angel Tarot as the “first tarot deck” to be “safe,” suggesting that, because of its imagery and words, traditional tarot is somehow unsafe.

I know that some people are very sensitive to imagery and words, and that some classic tarot images and words are harsh. I am very comfortable with decks that present these concepts in gentler ways, as long as they preserve the energy of the card. Whether we call Major Arcana 13 “Death” doesn’t matter, but that we understand the profound nature of its archetype and energy does.

I lead tarot workshops in which I ask people to look through the cards and pull out the images they find distasteful. What is interesting is that not everyone picks the same cards.

Once folks have their distasteful cards in front of them, we are ready to do some serious soul-searching to figure out the ways these dark images reflect our fears, our hurts, our dysfunctions, our trauma and our own poor behavior.

In one such group, a student had chosen the Two of Cups as his very most distasteful card. He did not know the meaning of the card, and was working with the standard Waite image. He found the lion head scarier than the Ten of Swords!

This exercise opened the door to the healing work he needed to be able to give and receive love.

This particular example proves a few things to me. First, scary tarot cards are tools that help shine light into the dark places. Second, people will sometimes react to the energy of a card more than to its image.

In general, people fear distasteful cards because they believe those cards predict unfortunate events. Sometimes they do.

When I see a distasteful card predict a future event, I am grateful for the opportunity it presents. I will continue the process of divination to try to get a clear picture of what might be coming. They I try to discern if this event can be avoided. If it can’t be avoided, I work to determine if it can be mitigated. If it can’t be mitigated, I try to figure out the best way to prepare for it.

I also try to remember to look beyond it, to the calm that always comes after the storm, or to the benefit that comes from the sacrifice.

This one-two-three punch of Avoid, Mitigate, Prepare is how I handle distasteful cards in my own readings, and in client readings. These dark cards are gifts that help light the way through the approaching darkness.

That the dark cards present the opportunity to take the long view and remember that life is a journey with necessary and unavoidable ups and downs is part of the spiritual value of tarot.

Sometimes distasteful cards appear to describe a current situation, or one from the past. When it’s a current situation, the cards are very effective in making a connection with a client. The client appreciates that we can feel their pain. We all sometimes need to have our pain acknowledged.

Even in self-reading, this acknowledgement of pain can be helpful, and can be a barometer to help us recognize that a situation has come to a breaking point and action is required.

Sometimes the dark cards show us the past in order to provide an opportunity to heal from it.

Sometimes they appear to bring light to our internal shadow. Sometimes we need the dark cards to shock us into action.

No matter how they are pictured or titled, we will all find some tarot cards distasteful at certain times. I think it is bad form to develop a negative relationship with any particular cards. We all have favorite cards, but I try to avoid having cards I truly dislike. The cards are my tools, and it’s helpful to have a good working relationship with all my tools.

The cards we find distasteful can sometimes be the most helpful tools in the box.

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The Numbers of Tarot: An Exercise

Recently, a few people have asked me how the numbers of tarot work.

Each tarot reader approaches card interpretation with their own system, and their own set of key words and symbolic meanings for the cards. Sometimes, new students are frustrated in their efforts to learn tarot until they find the right approach.

For many tarotists, regardless of deck or tradition preferences, the number associated with each tarot card is extremely significant.

Although many of us agree that the number of the card is a clue to its interpretation, few of us agree on what those numbers might mean. Even more complex is the jump from traditional forms of numerology to tarot numeric interpretation. While schools of thought agree on key words for early numbers such as 1 and 2, by the time we get to 5, 6 and 7 our understanding of the divinatory values of the numbers vary widely.

The efficacy of any divinatory tool is not threatened by divergent opinions about individual interpretations. Rather, each of us must make a journey of discovery as we come to understand which key words and interpretations make sense for our vocabulary.

If you would like to utilize the numbers in tarot more thoroughly, or if you wonder if numbers might be a gateway of understanding into tarot for you, here is an exercise to try.

First, separate out your forty Minor Arcana pips, and sort them by number. This way, you can look at all four Aces, and all four Twos, and so on.

Think about what each set of four same-numbered cards have in common. How are those qualities related to the number? How do the card images depict the energy of that number? How does the element of each suit influence the energy of that number, and how does that combination of element and number create the unique card meaning for each card?

Then, write a list of key words for your tarot numbers 1-10. One thing that is different between tarot numerology and traditional numerology is that, in tarot, we must honor the idea that 10 is a unique energy, different than 1, but also similar. I think of 10 as the “higher vibration” of the 1 energy.

Now it’s time to see how your ideas about the numbers work in the Major Arcana. You can separate your Major Arcana cards into the number groups as well. The only card that will not have a place in a number group is the Fool.

The first nine numbered Major Arcana cards, therefore, can correlate with your Minor Arcana cards One through Nine. Think about the ways the Magician is like an Ace, for instance. What does the High Priestess have in common with the four Twos?

Once you have worked through all nine numbers, look at the Wheel Fortune and the four Tens. What do these cards tell you about each other?

You can sort Major Arcana cards Eleven through Twenty-One by adding the two digits of each number together to get a one-digit number.  You’ll discover some interesting connections between same-numbered Major Arcana cards. For instance, consider the similarities between card Two, the High Priestess, and card Eleven, Justice. Card Six, the Lovers, shares the Adam and Eve characters with the same-numbered Devil, card Fifteen, in the Waite-Smith deck.

Finally, you can look for correlations between Major Arcana cards and Minor Arcana cards, based on their number in common.

You may or may not find that your key words for the numbers are a consistent fit throughout the Major Arcana. As with all tarot study, sometimes the value of the exercise is in the ability to compare and contrast, and to more narrowly define your own understanding of the cards, and of the components that give the cards their meaning.

Having a good understanding of the tarot numbers is particularly helpful when more than one card of the same number appear in a spread. You can use your key words for that number to give additional information in the reading.

Having key words memorized for the tarot numbers will help you give quick, rudimentary interpretations for the Minor Arcana cards, even when you are working with an unfamiliar deck.

How much weight you give numbers in your tarot interpretations will depend on your personal reading style. Taking time to contemplate the numbers of tarot will help you develop your tarot reading style.

Asking for Answers

I spent this past weekend presenting at an outdoor camping festival for younger people. Both workshops I presented had a divinatory component.

The first was a celebration of spring, where each participant would perform a divination, a release and a manifestation. The divination provided the focus for the season.

Normally, when divination is required, tarot is my go-to tool. For this ceremony, however, I created a divination tool. In meditation, I chose a series of words. I printed each word on paper and placed the words inside plastic Easter eggs.

In the ceremony, I asked each person to check in for guidance about the coming season. What should their focus be?

When ready, each person came to the altar, chose an egg and read the word contained inside.

After the ceremony, I discovered that a young man who had come to the festival as a “last hurrah” before planning a baby had received the word “Family” in his egg. He shared with me his profound joy at receiving this vote of confidence from the Universe.

A young woman who was struggling to become the person she knows she is rather than the person her family wants her to be received the word “Identity.”

The focus of the festival was not specifically spiritual, nor divinatory. Not every person there had ever performed a divination, or participated in magickal ceremony.

None of that seemed to matter, as people embraced their words with open hearts and open minds.

The simplicity of the group oracle, and the profoundly specific ways the words spoke to each individual, impressed me.

Whether we work with a complex system like tarot, the simple flip of a coin, or something in between, divination can speak to the individual in very specific terms. We just have to take time to check in and ask for the answers we need.

Divination and Demographics

One of the blessings and curses of being a prolific tarot reader is that we can see patterns in human behavior.

Sometimes this can be very helpful. When a person comes for a reading with a problem that, to them, seems unique and incomprehensible, it can be a great relief to both of us when it becomes clear that I have seen this before and I know what it is.

Each person is unique, but our human experiences are common. That’s why archetypes, stereotypes and demographics exist.

Sometimes my psychic intuition appears as a memory of a past experience (either mine or someone I know). If, during a reading, I have a sudden flash of memory, it is very likely that what I am remembering is the very same thing my client is currently experiencing.

That seventy-eight tarot cards can speak to a vast array of experiences, and still express the common archetypes that are the building blocks of our humanity, reflects this paradox of psychic reading.  Although we readers learn a great deal about human behavior, we can’t assume that humans will always behave true to their patterns, or to our assumptions of them.  Sometimes, people will surprise us.

It’s easy for tarot readers to fall into a demographic trap. It’s easy to believe, for instance, that, if he cheated before, he will cheat again. It’s tempting, in a reading, to spout that sort of experienced-based wisdom without actually consulting the cards, or checking with intuition on the matter.

The reason we are tempted to bypass the divination and go straight to the advice is that, nine times out of ten, the divination will reveal the obvious wisdom, which we believe we already know.

If he was attentive and romantic at first, but then disappeared without warning or explanation, he probably really is commitment-phobic and in love with romance. However, before I rush to reassure my client of what is almost certainly true, I do the divination to make sure it wasn’t something she said that chased him away.

As a younger reader, I was often tempted to share the wisdom I had gleaned from reading for many people and observing their patterns and behaviors. Mostly, that wisdom was correct and helpful.

Today, rather than sharing those nuggets of wisdom, I use that wisdom to help me craft questions for the divination that will reveal whether or not the situation fits the pattern.

I may know that a particular behavior in a particular type of person usually indicates a particular problem. Rather than simply announcing my belief that this problem exists, I use my experience to construct the right questions for the divination. If the divination confirms the problem, I can move forward in the divination process to help my client understand the situation and find solutions.

Sometimes, the divination will surprise me. Maybe he really is sorry he cheated, and really won’t do it again. Maybe the young person with the lovely singing voice really is destined for fame and fortune.

If my clients wanted conventional wisdom, they could get it from their BFF for the price of a drink. They could read a self-help book about dating or business.

That kind of wisdom can be helpful. Tarot readers need to have some conventional common sense in their toolboxes.

However, a tarot reading isn’t a self-help book. A tarot reading provides a unique set of information, specific to a particular person, place and time. A tarot reading is custom-crafted for the individual.

It’s important that we professional readers not get stuck in the rut of dispensing conventional wisdom without doing the divination and addressing the unique aspects of the situation.

As much as human behavior is often predictable, our human unpredictability is what makes divination so necessary and helpful.

As tarot readers, we do our best work when are able to learn from the experiences of our clients without using those behavioral patterns in lieu of actual divinatory work.

Sometimes it feels silly to ask questions of the cards when we think we already know the answer. I’ve learned not to worry about that. It feels even sillier when we make assumptions about people based on demographics rather than performing the divination our clients request.

Twenty-First Century Tarot

Joe Mabel GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

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 Welcome to the Spring Fling Tarot Blog Hop 2015, wrangled by Ania M. She’s given us a theme that is near and dear to my heart. Here’s our assignment.

The standard Tarot deck is over 500 years old and the cards are very much a product of that time, particularly the Major Arcana and Courts. So I am asking you to consider which cards you think need to be updated, removed or added to reflect our modern society?

Are there any glaring omissions? What is redundant? Which card has you scratching your head wondering where it fits in today? Or do you think that archetypes are so universal that there is still a relevant place for all, be they Hermits, Pages, Knights or Emperors?

You can focus on a single card or overhaul the lot if you wish. You can be academic and serious or utterly frivolous, rename the cards in modern context or create a completely new one or several, the choice is yours.

Some of my fellow tarot bloggers know that I ponder this topic often. I’m interested in the way tarot reflects culture, both artistically and mystically.

Classic tarot reflects the values of its time and place of origin in its images, and its interpretations. Tarot is, by birthright, sexist, classist and racist. We find evidence of this sad fact in the very structure of the hierarchal court, and in more subtle and disturbing ways throughout the deck.

 I’ve always felt that the more negative interpretations for the Moon and the Queen of Swords were born of the misogyny of the medieval era. Who wanted a smart woman who spoke the truth, like the Queen of Swords? It would be simpler to see her as a bitch, rather than as the wise woman the Queen of Air should be.

The moon has always been the symbol of feminine spirituality and women’s mysteries. No wonder the tarot Moon traditionally carries a warning of treachery and evil magick afoot.

In the past fifty years, tarot artists and authors have made many attempts to make tarot more politically correct for our present times. The early feminist decks, like Motherpeace and Daughters of the Moon, paved the way for more gentle decks that depict people of all races sharing power, like World Spirit Tarot and Gaian Tarot.

Many modern tarot authors have offered newer interpretations of the cards in ways that help us see the wisdom of tarot through a more modern, inclusive lens.

Other modern tarot decks, like Chrysalis Tarot, have tried to transform some of the cards whose energies feel particular problematic, such as the Hierophant. Still other decks have tried to transform tarot itself, creating new tarot-like decks that use the structure of the tarot to express concepts like sacred geometry, as in Tarot of Transformation. Some deck creators erroneously suggest that they are actually returning tarot to its “original form” by adding to its structure.

I have two problems with some of the modern decks that change tarot substantially from its earlier form. First, while tarot images and interpretations may change, I believe the tarot archetypes are firm. A Hierophant is a Hierophant, whether you want to call him a High Priest or a Shaman doesn’t really matter, he still needs to carry the specific complex nature of the Hierophant as originally defined by his inspiration, the Roman Catholic Pope. Many of these types of modern decks morph tarot archetypes into something else, sometimes even saying they are creating “new archetypes.” That sounds like an oxymoron to me.

My second problem is operational. As lovely of the images of some of these modern tarot-oracle hybrids are, they aren’t fixed solidly enough in their archetypes for me to get a good reading out of them without learning a whole new system. I don’t mind learning a new system if it has real value. However, to me, many of these decks feel like watered-down tarot sprinkled excessively with unicorn dust.

Whether we look at tarot as a series of images, archetypes or interpretations, it’s important to understand that while tarot is truly a product of its time and place in history, tarot evolves to reflect the current culture of the times in many important ways. That this miracle happens is evidence to me of tarot’s special mystical abilities.

Tarot evolves with each new deck and book. The Nine of Pentacles shows an interesting example of how this happens.

Many of us learned key words for the Nine of Pentacles such as "security" and "inheritance". Some of the new research regarding the Waite-Smith Tarot may shed new information about our historical understanding of this card. However, I learned that the woman in the Nine of Pentacles is of nobility. She is under her father’s protection, and therefore at leisure to be alone and unmolested.

Modern interpretations of this card don’t often discuss the antiquated concept of a woman’s security based on her father’s money and social standing. Often, we now see the Nine of Pentacles described as “confidence”, “being security in oneself” or the state of being “comfortably alone”. While the earlier Nine of Pentacles was secure because of her father’s protection, the woman in the modern Nine of Pentacles doesn’t need a man to provide her security; she is secure in herself.

No one person decided to make this change. What happened, as I see it, is this. As the culture changed, the way we see the card changed with it. The archetype of the Nine of Pentacles remains intact as the “woman securely alone.” Her backstory changes to accommodate the new paradigms of social norms in our culture. Modern tarot authors reflected the changes they saw in their own interpretations.

Another great example of the way individual cards retain their archetypes and yet morph over time is the Chariot.  While automobiles did not control the society of Italy 500 years ago as they do now, the vehicle card, the Chariot, has always had a primary role on the Fool’s Journey. How convenient for us in the automotive age, who need this card to help us keep track of all the many joys and traumas that our cars cause us!

I’ve also seen tarot morph in local culture. I was a reader in Putnam, Connecticut, as the huge casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, were being built. Once they opened, the Wheel of Fortune began appearing in readings more than it ever had before. Now we had a casino, we had casino employees and gambling addicts. The Wheel of Fortune would appear to indicate both those conditions, where there had been no need for it before.

Rana George speaks of this phenomenon in her book, “The Essential Lenormand.” She poignantly shares that the Coffin card does not so often predict actual physical death now that she reads and resides in the United States, as it did when she resided in war-torn Lebanon.

My perspective on five hundred years of tarot is this. Tarot will always reflect its current culture in its art and interpretation. Although this happens, the archetypes of tarot remain largely unchanged. To me, the archetypes are timeless and perfect.

Our relationships to the archetypes change over time. Our understanding of the archetypes changes over time. The archetypes themselves don’t change, and never need to. The archetypes are universal and sacred. The tarot archetypes naturally adapt to the culture and circumstances of the reader to give us the divinatory symbols and language we need in any century.

Who knows? Maybe centuries from now the Chariot will typically appear to discuss our frequent interplanetary travel.

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