I'm a tarot reader, you see. I use the imagery of tarot cards to help people—and myself—access the information and wisdom that we already have at a subconscious level.
There are many different ways to read cards, and knowing as many as possible helps me decide which particular approach is best for any particular occasion. I also study new spreads (patterns that the cards are laid out in), new methods of shuffling and dealing, new approaches to explaining what I see, new symbolic interpretations. I especially enjoy exploring new decks. My favorite right now is the Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore and Aly Fell—it's very sci-fi geeky, with clockworks and dirigibles, a Victorian esthetic combined with a gearhead love of nuts and bolts. I also have ghost decks and Renaissance art decks and decks based on the Welsh Mabinogion lore. Decks with woodcuts and decks with watercolors and decks with images like stained glass.
Regardless of what some may say, there is no carved-in-stone "right" way to read tarot. I enjoy a narrative approach, where I let the cards' various interpretations connect into a storyline, just like I do when I'm writing mysteries. And like crafting the plotline for a novel, I find that this narrative approach is best served if I leave room for intuition to blossom.
To paraphrase Freud, sometimes a sword is just a sword. And sometimes a sword is a representation of the dual-edged nature of the human intellect. Being open to the many symbolic possibilities of the images on the cards makes a reading not just personal, but universal.
I believe the tarot works on many levels: psychological, spiritual, intellectual and practical. It works equally well for "spiritual" people as it does for atheists and agnostics. The key is the willingness to engage your own conscious and subconscious in a way that lets information and wisdom bubble up where you can reach it. Some call this intuition. Some call it divination. I understand it as both.
Does it matter what the person I'm reading for calls this power? Only as much as it helps me frame my responses. The tarot itself is neutral on this issue. If you treat it and the process with respect, you'll get a treasure trove of information in return.
(PS: If you're interested in reading more about tarot, including my weekly Writerly Tarot posts, you can visit my Tarot by Tina blog. There you can sign up for my weekly Writerly Tarot, read a tarot-themed mystery short story, or explore previous posts on the art and science of tarot).
Thanks for the information. I'd heard of Tarot Cards but I knew very little about them.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter-in-law reads Tarot as well. Jan and I have favored runes in the past. These methods and those like I Ching are a way of letting the subconscious inform us in ways to understand ourselves better – if we let it.
ReplyDeleteLots of good information, but it's only a springboard that has piqued my curiosity. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteBy all means, do explore on your own. There are beautiful decks for every taste and fancy -- cats and herbs and art and mythology. I have worked with runes and the I-ching before, and with non-traditional oracle decks. But I keep coming back to the grand old Rider-Waite-Smith with its devils and angels and lovers.
ReplyDeleteTina, what a great post. The Tarot are old friends of mine, but I haven't read in quite some time. This days, I prefer being read to reading. How did you develop the interest and the skill? I've often thought a good reader of Tarot is a great reader of character.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kate! I'd always been fascinated by them, though my exposure was mostly through pop culture (now that I know a little something about them, I see how much pop culture got totally wrong!). So I bought a deck, the Morgan Greer, and started pulling a card a day, reading about it, watching its energy develop through the day. And while I can't claim to be a great reader of character, I am a pretty good reader of cards...and they have yet to lie to me.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post, Tina. If you haven't read the Book of Speculation, by Erika Swyler, I think you should. As one blurb said, it's mystery, family and Magic, and deals with Tarot cards. I've never had a reading or had a deck of Tarot cards.
ReplyDeleteI looked that book right up! It has mermaids too!
ReplyDeleteThis is the second or third time I've heard about The Book of Speculation! It's a sign, right? I've got to read it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a little girl, my sisters and I had a Gypsy Witch set of tarot cards - fascinating, but of course we had no idea what we were doing with it. I'd love to get a reading sometime.
Fascinating. I'm thinking about the James Bond movie "Live and Let Die" and the role of tarot cards in it, and how interesting and effective they are in a novel or story.
ReplyDeleteI have not seen the Gypsy Witch cards, but I do know that certain disreputable "fortunetellers" used a very bad-tempered deck that always foretells doom...that you can then pay them for a spell to avoid.
ReplyDeleteI think that the cards are very effective in a story, especially if the thematic elements are used in tandem with the work's themes. I use them in my novels even though my protagonists are both skeptics. Writers who don't know tarot well seem fascinated with the Death card, but most tarot readers know that Death is one of the more gentle cards in the deck, usually referring to a transformation of some kind. Now if the Tower shows up, better batten down the hatches, and quick!