Introducing Tarot

Anyone can learn to work with tarot and can benefit greatly from its insights; all you need is an open mind and a willingness to trust the impressions you sense during a reading. Tarot is a system of archetypes, a picture-book of the human condition, reflecting our states of mind and stages of life. Over the past six hundred years, people have consulted the cards for religious instruction, spiritual insight, self-knowledge, and divining the future. The ancient symbols we see on the cards are designed to stimulate our intuition, connecting us with our higher selves or our divine or spiritual aspect.

Tarot practice has many personal benefits, including: Increased self-awareness, difference in perspective, enhanced creativity, clarity, better intuition and psychic ability.

HOW TO BEGIN

Tarot cards, like people, draw in energy. It's important not to let others touch your cards casually; they hold your energies and intentions, and are personal to you. Here are ways to attune to your new deck, cleanse the cards before a reading session, and protect them when you are not using them.

The process of connecting with your cards is called attuning. The more connected you feel to your cards, the more accurate, insightful, and inspiring your readings can be. Before you begin reading a new deck of tarot cards, attune to them for exactly seven days by sleeping with your cards under your pillow. Look at the cards daily and touch them so your energy becomes imprinted upon them. Some readers attune to their cards through visualization. And then, try this:

1. Hold your cards in your right hand.

2. Close your eyes, and visualize light pouring down through your body, and into the cards.

3. Imagine your cards filling with pure light. If you work with spirit guides or angels, ask them to come close and to help and protect you during the reading.

4. Open your eyes when you are ready.

Cleansing your deck before use - When you take out your cards, clear away any old energy as follows:

Hold the cards in one hand and fan them out. Gently blow on the card edges. You can do this in one breath. Put the cards back in a neat pile, still holding them in one hand, and then knock firmly once on the top of the deck. It is ready to use. Another thing to do, is you could sage them (and you/the person you’re doing the reading for).

TAROT REVERSAL CARDS

A reversed card's meaning is generally more negative than the positive/upright meaning. However, many tarot professionals ignore reversals in a reading and just turn the cards the right way up if they come out reversed; they use their intuition to interpret the card in a positive or negative light. Do whatever feels right for you.

SHUFFLING THE DECK

After you've cleansed the deck, shuffle the cards for a few moments, allow your feelings and questions to surface. To choose the cards for a reading, you can either use the fan method or cut the deck. The fan method is best when you want just a few cards for a reading, while cutting the deck suits more elaborate layouts that need lots of cards.

Reading for yourself: Spread all the cards face down in a fan shape. Choose the cards one by one with just your left hand (known as the hand of fate), from anywhere in the fan, and place them in front of you, still facedown, following the spread layout you have chosen.

Cutting the deck for yourself: Cut the deck twice with your left hand so you have three piles facedown on the table. Choose one pile to become the top of the deck and gather up the other two piles underneath it. Lay out the cards according to the spread you have chosen by dealing the cards from the top of the deck and placing them face-down in front of you.

Reading for another person: Have the person shuffle the deck. Take the deck from the recipient and fan out the cards for him or her. Ask the recipient to choose the cards from the fan with his or her left hand and pass them to you so you can lay them out, keeping the cards facedown.

Cutting the deck for another person: Ask the recipient to shuffle the cards. Have the recipient split the deck into three piles using his or her left hand and then choose one pile. Gather up the remaining two piles for the person and place their chosen pile on top. Then you lay out the cards.

When turning over the cards, always flip them sideways-from left to right- not from top to bottom or vice versa, or you may be turning the card upside down. Doing so can give it a different meaning.

CARD INTERPRETATIONS, GETTING INTUITIVE

Consider the cards before you look up their meaning. Think about what aspect of a card you are drawn to first. This is your internal guidance directing you to the most relevant meaning of the card for your reading. This also means that the cards can offer a varying significance each time you look at them. Similarly, when you read for other people, you will find that you don't give a card the same interpretation for every person who gets that card in a reading-you are personalizing the reading according to your intuition.

Each card is full of symbols, but you will find that you notice one or two features that really stand out in each picture. These are what I call your intuition hooks. Once you hone in on these, go deeper and connect with how they make you feel. Don't worry about the written card meanings just yet. Say whatever comes to your mind straight away-before you begin to think about what the symbols mean-and imagine yourself telling a story.

To develop the reading, try looking at the quick-reference meanings and then go back to the card images. Staying with the image as long as you can stimulates your intuition, which is essential to a reading, whereas reading the words engages your logical left brain, questioning if you've got it right. There's no right or wrong - just your interpretation.

Sometimes you’ll begin a reading and can’t make sense of what the cards are telling you. If this happens, here’s what to do:

Shuffle and lay out the cards again - If the same or similar cards come up this time, go with the reading. Relax and tune in to the card images; don't worry about reading the traditional interpretations. Say what comes into your head straight away, and the words will flow.

Did the Ten of Wands come up? - This often means there's too much going on just now and it's not the right time to read your cards. Wait a day or two and try again.

If you’re reading for someone else - Feeling blocked can indicate the recipient's state of mind. If this happens, acknowledge the recipient's feelings and begin the reading again, asking him or her to let go of expectations.

Don’t forget to protect your cards when not using them, and don’t let others touch them without intent of using them. Your cards hold your energy imprint. Cards may pick up extraneous or negative energy from people and spaces, which can affect your readings. So when you are not using your cards, protect them from the environment, both physically and energetically. Keep them wrapped in a cloth of a dark color, such as deep purple cotton or silk, and in a tarot bag or a box.