Intro to Tarot

What is The Tarot?

Tarot is a particular tool used for divination, mediumship, spell-work, meditation, and more. 

The absolute origin of card divination is unknown, partial decks have been found in many regions of the the world and it is believed divination similar to tarot has been used for many centuries. 

Majority of tarot decks we see today follow a similar structure as the 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith deck. 

Much of the imagery found in the Waite-Smith deck draws from Christian and Hebrew mysticism.

Arthur Waite commissioned fellow member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Pamela Coleman Smith, to illustrate his tarot deck which was published by Rider Company in 1909. It seems that Waite was much more concerned with the designs of the Major Arcana and had more influence there where as Smith had more artistic freedom with the Minor. 

One of the things that really set Smiths art apart from previous decks was that she painted a full scene for each Minor Arcana card. At the time majority of decks were more similar to todays playing cards. 

Some myths and common questions about The Tarot

Does someone else have to buy and gift you your deck? 

No, I do not believe this to be true. From my understanding this is a old concept that may have been shared to help keep the practice secret and underground, as well as keep the practitioners of the craft safe. 

Are the cards evil or a telephone to the devil?

The overly simple answer is no. The tarot, and all other forms of divination, is simply a tool. Depending on who is wielding them will determine how the tool is being used and who or what you are communicating with. 

Can the cards tell the future?

Yes and no. You can ask the cards for outcomes and a view into the future, but keep in mind our choices are constantly changing our path. The cards may show you a possible outcome of a situation, but then you or someone else makes a major change which effects the true end result.

What is the difference between Tarot and Oracle cards?

The main difference between these two styles of divination cards is their structure. Most tarot decks have a variation of the 78 cards like in the Waite-Smith deck, 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana which is split into 4 suits. Whereas Oracle cards can be any number of cards, often without a hard structure, rather more of a theme throughout the deck. Each Oracle deck is unique and often you need to read the card meanings from the guide book vs. memorizing the meaning like in tarot. Obviously intuitive interpretations can have a more profound meaning at times. 

Deck Structure 

Major Arcana - The Fool’s Journey 

0 The Fool - nativity, beginning, unknown

1 The Magician - tools of manifestation 

2 The High Priestess - inner knowledge, secrets of the universe 

3 The Empress - fertility, growth, abundance

4 The Emperor - stability, structure, power

5 The Hierophant - tradition, rules

6 The Lovers - choice, commitment 

7 The Chariot - will power, movement

8 Strength - courage, inner strength 

9 The Hermit - isolation, turning inward, detachment 

10 The Wheel of Fortune - fate, luck

11 Justice - fairness, cause and effect

12 The Hanged Man - surrender, limbo, look from another angle 

13 Death - change, endings, rebirth 

14 Temperance - peace, balance

15 The Devil - bondage, temptation 

16 The Tower - disruption, the unexpected 

17 The Star - aspiration, hope, truth

18 The Moon - intuition, illusion

19 The Sun - joy, creativity 

20 Judgement - liberation, transformation 

21 The World - completion 

Minor Arcana - Ace to King

Aces - Seed

Twos - Energy

Threes - Structure

Fours - Growing

Fives - Sorting

Sixes - Balancing

Sevens - Results

Eights - Changing

Nines - Ending

Tens - Fixing

Pages - Unformed

Knights - Directed

Queens - Experienced

Kings - Established

Minor Arcana - Suits

Wands (Fire) - ambition, passion, will

Pentacles (Earth) - resources, money, material world

Swords (Air) - thoughts, the intellect, communication

Cups (Water) - emotions, spiritual abilities, relationships

These base descriptions and system is taken from “Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot”.  Pairing these simple descriptions is a great way to interpret the cards then looking at the symbolism will help you elaborate on the deeper meaning. 

An example of this system would be 7 of Wands + 5 of Swords + 6 of Cups would equal “Results of Ambition + Sorting of Thoughts + Balancing of Emotions” The meaning here could be since there is a lot of competition you need to approach the situation with clear and thought out ideas and keep your emotions in check. 

Symbolism

Throughout the decks you will see repeated imagery and symbolism to key you into the meaning of the card. Paying attention to these will help you gain a deeper understanding of each card and the conversation it is trying to provide. These specific symbols are taken from the Waite-Smith deck, but can apply to many other decks. If the Waite-Smith deck is not your preferred deck, I strongly encourage you to delve into the imagery cues your deck provides. 

Armor - protection, guarded, defense 

Birds - messages and thoughts from higher-self or divinity 

Blindfolds - the need to look within

Bridge - overcoming things, connection

Butterfly - transformation and change

Castles - future rewards

Children - inner child, youth, legacy 

Cliffs - the unknown 

Clouds - thoughts 

Gardens - abundance 

Horses - movement 

Key - hidden or secret 

Lakes - reflection, emotion, unknown depth of psyche 

Lantern - divine guidance 

Lemniscate (infinity symbol) - the constant flow of energy 

Lily - purity, divinity, honor

Moon - emotion, intuition

Mountains - challenges, needing to overcome things to attain our goals

Pillars - balance

Rainbow - hope 

Rivers - flowing life force 

Rose - red - love, harmony, beauty; white - innocence, purity, virtue

Shield - protection and defense 

Ships - movement, travel, thoughts 

Skulls - change and transformation 

Snake - hidden knowledge, transformation 

Snow - isolation 

Star - hope, destiny, astrology 

Sunflower - solar energy, power, strength 

Throne - power, stability 

Waves - movement of emotions 

How to cleanse a deck

• Smoke - using herb bundles and incense
• Sound - sound bowls, tingshas, chanting, bells 
• Your energy - hold the cards in your hands and envision a white light engulfing the deck, hold this until you feel a shift in the energy.
• Reorder your cards - put your deck back in its original order.
• Knocking on the cards - many people physically knock 3 times (or as many times as you feel) on their deck to 1. ask the deck to be present and 2. to push their energy through the deck.

How to connect to a new deck

• Cleanse the deck first.
• Look through all the cards and sit with the imagery.
• Carry it with you as much as possible, whatever length of time feels right with your intuition, but I like to for a full lunar cycle at least.
• Sleep with it on your nightstand (a lot of people say under your pillow but I personally wouldn’t be able to do that).
• Meditate with your deck and introduce yourself 
• I use different decks to speak to specific entities, this may work for you as well. I use a pendulum to confirm who I’m speaking with. You can also pull cards to find out, allow the cards to lead you to who the voice is. You can do this by pulling from just the Major Arcana and looking at the archetypes and pulling clarification cards if needed. 

How to charge a deck 

• Place it in the moon light. Since the moon is connected to our intuition this is a great planetary energy to infuse your cards with. The full moon is an especially great since it is the most powerful phase of the moon. 
• Leave it in your sacred space like your altar.
• Keep energizing and intuition boosting crystals with your deck (clear quartz, labradorite, moonstone are just a few).
• Meditate and chant with your deck.
• Your energy. Similarly to how we used our energy to clear our deck do the same motion but with the intention of charging and energizing your deck. 

How to shuffle the cards

How you shuffle your cards will be based mainly off preference and intuition. The ways I shuffle vary and I will sometimes shuffle differently just based off what feels right in the moment. I feel that the most important part when it comes to shuffling is keeping your mind connected to the question. 

The main techniques that I use to shuffle would be the ‘riffle and bridge’ style and ‘overhand’ style. 

Some people like to cut the deck before they pull, others choose not to do that. 

Often if a card or group of cards ‘jump out’ while shuffling these are the cards that the reader will interpret. 

Another method of pulling the cards is after you are done shuffling you fan the cards out on the table and hover your hand (or the querent’s hand) and allow your intuition guide you to the cards you should pull.  

Or simply shuffle the cards in your preferred method until it ‘feels’ right and then pull your cards. 

What type of questions should you ask the cards?

Our path is always changing with every decision we make, keep this in mind when asking questions about the future. I find it more advantageous to ask about the present vs the future. 

Although you can ask them, avoiding ‘yes or no’ questions is ideal, it is much better to ask open ended questions. Think of the tarot as having a conversation. Here are a few general questions I like: 

What is the energy of today?

What do I need to know right now?

What do I need to let go of/release?

What can I learn from my current situation?

What action do I need to take today to further myself towards my goals?

What should I avoid today? 

Keep the questions focused on yourself, everyone has free will and our paths are always shifting. You may ask a question about someone else but they go a different direction and the answer is no longer relevant. Not to mention if they have strong spiritual guards up, you may not get an accurate reading and just further confuse yourself and the situation. 

Below you will find some examples of more specific questions.

Love questions 

What do I need to know about my love life right now?

In what way does love blind me? 

What part of me do I wish would be matched by someone else?

In what situations do I find it difficult to receive love?

Money questions 

How does my current job nourish me? 

What thoughts about money have I internalized?

What do my clients/boss want to see from me?

Shadow work questions

How do I embrace my natural gifts?

Where am I holding myself back? 

What part of the fools journey do I need to revisit?

Spreads or free flow reading 

Spreads are a sort of map for your reading. There are countless spreads you can use or you can make your own. A spread is a placeholder for what each card will denote in the reading. Attached is a few spreads you may want to try. 

Another style of reading is free flow reading. Just like the name indicates there isn’t a structure really to this style of reading. You may just pull a set of cards and read them like a conversation with Spirit. This tends to be the way that I most often pull cards, but can be confusing if you aren’t intentional about your pulls. 

How to read reversed cards

To read cards as reversed or not to read cards as reversed… that is the question… and the answer to this question will vary from reader to reader. I personally do not read reversed cards. I feel that each card is drenched in so much detail reversals are not necessary for a clear reading. 

If you do choose to interpret cards as being reversed some of the most common methods would be that a reversed or upside-down card has the opposite meaning, or can mean that the lesson is not fully developed, or there is a block in that energy. 

This is something that you will need to follow your own intuition on and decide for yourself. There is not one correct answer here. 

If you choose to not interpret cards as reversed, simply turn all the cards to face the correct orientation when drawing or shuffle so all the cards stay the same direction. 

Bibliography 

Bartlett, Sarah. The Tarot Bible. New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2006.

Dietz, S. Theresa. The Complete Language of Flowers. New York, NY: Wellfleet Press, 2020.

Dugan, Ellen. Witches Tarot Companion. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, 2012.

Hideko, Lexi. Tarot: Question Everything. Independently Published, 2022.

Katz, Marcus and Goodwin, Tali. Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, 2015.

Pollack, Rachel. 78 Degrees of Wisdom. San Fransisco, CA: Weiser Books, 2007.