Reading the Tarot

[swetha]

Reading the Tarot
The deck is arranged into Major and Minor Arcana.

The Major Arcana are often seen as the 'Fool's Journey'-- that is, the journey of growth that people make again and again in their lives.

The Major Arcana are:
Fool - neophyte
Magician - guide
Priestess - subconcious
Emperor - male principle
Empress - female principle
Pope - hierarchy/establishment
Lovers - love or partnership
Chariot - balance of impulses
Justice - justice
Hermit - solitary learning
Wheel of Fortune - cyclical change
Strength - control over lower self
Hanged Man - willing sacrifice
Death - endings
Temperance - emotional balance
Devil - sensual world/enslavement
Tower - clearing away of old for new
Star - hope, innocence, new beginnings
Moon - illusions, dreams
Sun - companionship, gaiety
Judgement - judgement/summing up
World - unity/wholeness

The minor arcana are divided into four suits.
These suits correspond to the four elements:
Wands - Fire,
Swords - Air,
Pentacles - Earth,
Cups - Water,
which means that Wands = Creativity/Willpower, Swords = Intellect, Pentacles = Physical Plane, Cups = Emotions. Though each specific card has traditional specific meanings, which you can remember by interpreting the images on the cards, you can also use the numbers of the cards to help interpret them:

Aces: beginnings, full strength of the archetype
Twos: balances, plans.
Threes: setting things in motion-- the end of the beginning
Fours: recouping, roots, beginning of the middle
Fives: the test
Sixes: over the hump, growth
Sevens: final effort, expansion
Eights: manifestation
Nines: culmination
Tens: the end of the matter, time to begin again.
The face cards or court cards may represent a person or a stage of growth:
Pages, Princesses, Apprentices: The neophyte. First stirrings of this influe nce.
Knights, Princes, Journeymen: the active principle, the do-er.
Queens or Masters: the nuturing, taking-care aspect
Kings or Adepts: rulers, leadership aspect.
Shuffling: you can shuffle and draw cards many ways, either with traditional poker-style shuffling, or by mixing your cards up in a large pile and circling them around, etc. You can draw cards using the traditional shuffle-till-it-feels right, cut three times, restack and deal from the top method, or pick cards out individually from the deck spread face-down, or cut the deck and pick cards of the cuts. Shuffling and/or cutting should be done while meditating on the question or situation. In any case, pick your cards rand omly and lay them out.

Orientation: decide when you begin using a deck whether you will use the 'reversed' readings. Some people and decks use them, some don't. (If you don't use reversal, you just turn everything right side up.) Reversed cards can be read as a lack of something, a need for something, or the opposite of something-- sort of like a hole. It's harder to learn and remember standardized reversed readings but it can be rewarding.

Readings are based on three factors:

The cards drawn
The order or layout
The pattern formed
.
Each card or set of cards in a layout has a meaning based on its position, and you should know what each position means before drawing and laying out the cards. Easy 'spreads' (lay outs) include the one-card spread (for simple questions and meditation) and the three card spread (past present future or mind heart body, etc.). More complicated is the traditional Celtic Cross, a ten-card spread, best used for specific questions or situations. Other spreads include the Cross & Triangle and the Elements Spread. All books on Tarot include a number of spreads.

Lay out your cards face-down. Then turn them face-up and consider each of them based on their location and what they mean. Then look at the pattern they form. It should be like a story, progressing forward or providing a description. Look for internal patterns, especially repetitions of numbers or suits. Are there a lot of major arcana, or one suit? Think about the recurring patterns. Tell the story of the layout to yourself or the questioner, then fit it to the question (the questioner should do this if you are reading for someone else-- it's best if you don't know the question until after the reading).

When you are finished reading, collect the deck and reshuffle to 'clear' the deck. Then put it away. (Note: many decks don't perform well when used too m any times in quick succession, or too many times on the same question close together. If reading for others, this is often not a problem, though.)