SynTAROTis

Reading tip: A card can have more than one message for you

Sometimes you will find that a card can have several unrelated meanings that are appropriate in the spread that you are reading. If more than one interpretation fits, note them all, even if they do not necessarily dovetail.

In a Celtic Cross spread, in the "recent past" position, for example, my first thought on seeing the Fool reversed was that I'm no longer a beginner. I decided to look at a few "book meanings," and decided that Arthur Edward Waite's take on the Fool reversed was also appropriate: that recently I had been plagued by apathy and have been negligent in my work. Stephen Walter Sterling's Tarot Awareness added that I had had to regain my enthusiasm, and from Mary K Greer's Tarot for Your Self I picked "lazy and irresponsible." All of these statements were true, and valuable for the problem I was exploring, even though my first thought on seeing the card ("no longer a beginner") seemed unrelated to the other interpretations.

**The image of the Fool is from the Modern Medieval Tarot.

The structure of a Tarot deck

A Tarot deck consists of 78 cards, divided into two groups, usually called major arcana (or trumps) and minor arcana. The 22 cards in the major arcana set are numbered from 1 to 21, with one unnumbered card (The Fool). The major arcana cards are usually given more weight in a Tarot reading, and are seen as embodying universal themes. In contrast, the minor arcana cards represent more everyday concerns. Like ordinary playing cards, these cards are divided into four suits. Each suit has a series of cards numbered from Ace to 10, and four court cards (whereas ordinary playing cards have only three).

The four suits have changed over time. Today, many decks use the convention established by Arthur Edward Waite, who designed the Rider-Waite pack (together with artist Pamela Colman Smith). Waite changed the name of Coins to Pentacles. The Rider-Waite deck adopted the following convention:

    Wands (associated with the element Fire)
    Cups (associated with Water)
    Swords (associated with Air)
    Pentacles (associated with Earth)

Wands are also called Batons, Sceptres, Rods, Clubs, Staffs and Staves, and can be associated with Air in some decks. Cups are sometimes Vessels, Rivers, Cauldrons, Chalices and Hearts. Most decks associated Cups with Water. Swords can be Birds, Blades, Daggers, Knives or Spades, and some decks associate this suit with Fire. Pentacles are often Coins, but can also be Stones, Discs, and Diamonds. Most decks associate this suit with Earth.

The suit names are sometimes changed to fit with a particular theme, while the element associations depend largely on the system used, or simply on the personal associations of the designer. Gardnerian Wicca, for example, associates Wands with Fire, while other traditions associate Wands with Air.

Court card names can be rather confusing. Just like people, court cards have a reputation for being a little difficult, and not only when it comes to what they are called! The Rider-Waite  deck uses King, Queen, Knight and Page. Crowley’s Thoth Tarot deck follows the Golden Dawn convention of Knight, Queen, Prince and Princess. Confusing? Some decks have opted to rename the court cards to Father, Mother, Son, Daughter (Quest Tarot, Elemental Tarot); Lord, Lady, Knight, Maiden (Tarot of Jane Austen); Master, Mistress, Warrior, Slave (Ibis Tarot); Speaker, Gift, Knower, Place (Shining Tribe Tarot); or even Controlling, Feeling, Doing, Learning (Bright Idea Deck).

The order and names of the 22 Major Arcana cards have also changed considerably over the centuries, and you will find decks that call Trump XIII (Death) Transformation, or Trump XIV (Temperance) Art, for example. Older decks might have The Pope ass Trump V, and Jupiter and Juno as Trumps IV and II respectively. Waite swopped the then-conventional use of VIII as Justice and XI as Strength. Aleister Crowley, who designed the Thoth Tarot (with artist Lady Frieda Harris), kept the original order. Since these two decks are considered “standards”, many other modern decks follow either of the two conventions. The Rider-Waite pack uses the following:

Unnumbered or 0—The Fool

I—The Magician

II—The High Priestess

III—The Empress

IV—The Emperor

V—The Hierophant

VI—The Lovers

VII—The Chariot

VIII—Strength

IX—The Hermit

X—Wheel of Fortune

XI—Justice

XII—The Hanged Man

XIII—Death

XIV—Temperance

XV—The Devil

XVI—The Tower

XVII—The Star

XVIII—The Moon

XIX—The Sun

XX—Judgment

XXI—The World

A tool of the devil?

Sir Michael Dummett
Image from Wikipedia

Tarot has an evil reputation. Some people even call it a tool of the Devil. Most of this reputation stems from the Tarot being associated with fortune telling and “divination” (the art of discovering hidden knowledge by supernatural means).

Apart from gypsies and other psychics predicting the future, Tarot cards have also been associated with “magicians”, with various esoteric societies, and with occult systems such as the Kabbalah, astrology, and numerology.

According to Tarot historian Michael Dummett, the truth is that Tarot cards were originally devised for playing a card game similar to Bridge, and that the occult associations were added roughly 350 years after the first recorded Tarot decks appeared.

However, as Tarot historian Dr Robert O'Neill points out, the milieu within which the Tarot was created was steeped in magic and esotericism, and early Tarot symbols seem consistent with other contemporary esoteric systems. It is possible that these systems may have influenced the design of these cards. Jim Revak, author of the Tarot-related website Villa Revak, comments: “Although it should be remembered that all of the symbolism of the tarot has close analogs in the conventional Christian culture of the time, many scholars today believe that these philosophies [Hermeticism, astrology, Neoplatonism, Pythagorean philosophy and heterodox Christianity], which are foundations of occultism, were important in the design of the tarot.”

Revak also notes that although records from a trial in Venice in 1589 suggest that some may have associated Tarot with witchcraft at this date—about 150 years after the appearance of the Tarot—there are no other references linking Tarot cards with magic or divination until the 18th century.

Tarot usage today includes divination, but this is by no means the only application for Tarot cards. As SynTAROTis and many other Tarot websites show, Tarot cards are used for self-exploration, psychotherapy, decision-making, brainstorming, problem solving and more. My view is that Tarot cards are simply too useful as an instrument for these applications to be thrown out merely because they are also being used for purposes that religious people may find uncomfortable or even evil.

How does the Tarot work? A skeptic’s view

Image by Elena Rego via Flickr

Having looked at what most Tarotists believe about the Tarot, I will now inflict my own views on you :-) In the process I will also try to explain why the cards work so well for creative thinking.

Please note that, as a skeptic, I do not deny that any of the possibilities I mentioned in my previous post could be true. I am merely skeptic, not a complete atheist!

This is what I believe happens during a Tarot reading─one that you are doing for yourself, or where you have a great deal of input to give:

“Tarot is a great tool for digging around the cobwebbed parts of your subconscious. It can reveal your own assiness to yourself as well as remind you of dreams you've tucked in long forgotten drawers.”
Quote from 78 Notes to Self: A Tarot Journal

You have an issue, a concern, a problem, a situation or simply a desire to explore. You choose (or design) a spread that seems applicable, and if you have a choice, you select a deck to use. You shuffle the cards, turning some of them upside down while shuffling if you want to use reversals. You carefully lay them out in the pattern or layout that you have chosen.

What you now see in front of you is an arbitrary selection of cards, arranged in the pattern you have chosen. The “hidden” information that you will try to uncover from this spread concerns yourself only: your thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and values. These might be thoughts you have suppressed or denied, or have simply been ignoring because you have not had time to reflect on them. While you are studying the pattern of cards before you, their images will serve the purpose of focusing your thoughts and prodding your memory.

What do people believe about the Tarot?

Image by chrisjohnbeckett via Flickr

You will find a great deal of variation in personal beliefs around the Tarot and how it works, but the following sets of belief broadly covers the ground:

• Tarot cards have some intrinsic supernatural or magical power which can be invoked to discover what is hidden, whether this is the future, your lover's heart or the depths of your own soul.


• Tarot does not have any intrinsic power in itself, but some power or supernatural force ensures that you receive exactly the right cards in the right positions to help you decipher the answer. This "power" can be represented by spirit guides, guardian angels, your inner guide, higher self, Spirit (also called Source, the source of everything in the universe), or even the universe itself.


• The cards have no intrinsic power, but you use them to guide and focus your own intuition and/or psychic sense to arrive at an answer or solution. Some believe that you are aided in this by forces or beings such as those mentioned in the previous point. The power is within you, in other words.


• Tarot cards have no intrinsic power, but synchronicity assures that, when you need it, the cards will be able to offer you a “snapshot” of your life. The “meaningful coincidence” occurs when that specific moment in your life and the cards you choose reflect each other.


• Whether the cards can actually predict the future or not is a contentious point. Most often even those who believe the cards can be used for future-telling will point out that the future is malleable, that every day we act in a way that will have an influence on our future. Practitioners sometimes change the “outcome” card to “probable outcome”, i.e. the outcome most likely if current conditions prevail.


• What almost all Tarot practitioners have in common, is the assumption that the cards can be used for “divination”, which can be defined as uncovering hidden information, whether this is about the future, a situation, a relationship or what your spirit guides want you to know.

The "bias card"

An interesting technique which I find very useful when reading for myself, is to use what Theresa Michelsen calls a "bias card" in your spread. This card shows you any possible bias that the querent (or you, if you are reading for yourself), may be introducing into the reading. The bias card can be an additional card that you draw before or after you have laid out the spread.

[T]hink of the card as a pair of glasses you are looking through that colors everything you see. For example, if the bias card is the Two of Cups, you may be missing the fact that some of the cards in the reading actually have to do with work and not your recent engagement. (Theresa Michelsen, Designing your own Tarot spreads)

Tarot spreads: Why some spreads may seem too focused on predicting the future

This quote is from Theresa Michelsen's Designing your own Tarot spreads:

Discomfort with doing predictive readings relates to the question of whether we have at least some control over our future. Some people believe that we can affect almost anything about our future, that we create our own reality. This is a relatively modern idea, and is one reason that older spreads often tend to look overly definite to readers today. In earlier times, the idea that one's destiny or fate was preordained was much more prevalent, and still prevails in some religions and cultures. Many people felt truly powerless against the church, nobility, powerful landowners, disease, nature, and other forces that seemed to determine the course of their lives, apparently at a whim.

Today the concepts of empowerment and using the tarot as a tool for spiritual enlightenment and direction have gained credence. In addition, Jungian psychological concepts have made their way into tarot work and moved many readers to use the tarot as a tool for self-awareness and personal development. These approaches have given rise to a different reading style---one in which the client is not given all the answers and the reader is not an all-knowing authority. Instead, the reader uses the tarot to help provide a deeper understanding of the situation; the client's motivations, goals, and feelings; the alternatives open to the client; and possible plans of action to obtain a desired result.

Making meaning: The wand as a symbol

Wands can be associated with magic and miracles, as well as magicians, witchcraft and druids. They are also associated with the Greek god Hermes (Mercury to the Romans), as they recall the staff of Hermes (the caduceus). Hermes was known as god of roads and commerce, messenger of the gods, bringer of dreams and visions, prophet, psychopomp (someone who guides souls to the underworld), and comfortable in the upper and lower worlds, as well as on Earth. Wands are usually portrayed as living wood sprouting a few leaves, which in turn links them to the World Tree, Yggdrasil; with the Buddha's Bodhi Tree of Enlightenment; with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; and with the cross on which Jesus was crucified. Related forms of this phallic symbol include batons, scepters, staves, rods, and arrows.

Keywords that can therefore be associated with Wands are: power (especially occult power), transformative power, energy (wands are used to channel energy in witchcraft), will and intent, healing (think of Moses' staff that cured the Israelites from snake bites while they were in the wilderness--Numbers 21: 5-9), control and direction (think of a conductor's baton), authority (the scepter), wisdom (because the elderly use a staff for support), journeys, movement, change, adventure (the wand as a walking staff), punishment (the wand as a rod), conflict and competition (the wand used as weapon). As a phallic symbol, the wand also evokes traditional masculine qualities such as drive, ambition, aggression, action, rashness, fertility and life, with the focus directed outward. The shape of a wand also evokes the "I" or ego, awareness of self and individuation. The associations with living wood adds growth, renewal, creativity, potential and beginnings (think also of a cutting used to grow a plant); and on a more spiritual level, enlightenment, awareness, intuition (not to be confused with instinct associated with Water), inspiration and superconsciousness. The link with Hermes adds restlessness (god of roads and travellers) and communication or messages (including messages from a higher consciousness or the Divine), and an innovative mind (as capable of inspirational thoughts as of mischief and great cunning).

To summarise, Wands are associated with creativity and life force; are powerful, energetic, even aggressive, yet associated with spirituality and healing. They are active, optimistic and future-oriented, yet tend to be rash and restless. The cards next to a Wand card will indicate whether this almost unruly energy is applied for constructive or destructive purposes. In a reading, Wands will represent commerce and career (not the actual work itself), as well as spirituality and healing.

The image is the Seven of Wands from the Victorian Romantic Tarot.

Making meaning: Take the wands from the fire

If you want to generate meaning for a card by using a combination of suit, element and number--and without memorising the LWB--it might be a good idea to separate the associations that have sprung up around the suit element and suit itself.

Wands are often associated with the element Fire, but by no means always. In some systems, Swords are associated with fire, while Wands are associated with Air. But what do you do when you have studied one system, and are confronted with a deck that uses another? For example, the suit of Wands, where Wands=Fire, has become associated with transformative power. A wand  can be used in magic or witchcraft, and fire is a transformative element: put the two together, and you get "transformative power". But would this still be true if the suit of Wands are associated with Air, instead, as in the Celtic Dragon Tarot and the Fantastical Creatures Tarot?

The next few posts will discuss the suit symbols separated from the elements.

Procrastination: An exercise with Tarot cards

Tarot for Self Discovery (Special Topics in Tarot) by Nina Lee Braden contains around 50 exercises you can do with Tarot cards in order to explore various aspects of yourself. Some of the exercises are light-hearted and fun, and some more in-depth and serious.

My choice was an exercise on procrastination; specifically, I have been hoarding information about something without doing anything with it. I'm good at gathering information, from anywhere and everywhere. This is what I do, it is both my profession and my hobby. I'm a little obsessive about it too, and I tend to hoard the results. (At this point, my psychologist is probably smiling broadly---hasn't she told me to stop reading and start doing? :-)

And that is the point: information does not become knowledge by itself; knowledge does not become expertise or wisdom without focus, attention and a great deal of action and experience.

So, my first task was to choose a card (face-up) to represent whatever I'm procrastinating on. Three-quarters of the deck ended up in my "possibles" pile (I also tend to be over-enthusiastic!). In the end I chose Trump V, The Hierophant (from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck) as representing wisdom, particularly in the spiritual domain.

Interesting: just the action of going through the cards and considering each in turn helped me focus on exactly how I would define the problem. Just this, in itself, was a valuable exercise.

Next, I had to consider my feelings about this card in general. Mixed. The Hierophant is about conventions, institutions, the external face of religion, the rules of society. While I can see the point of tradition and rules, I don't often get too excited about them, seeing them as binding, restrictive, boring, indicative of ignorance and fanaticism. Which made me think: do I resist working with information, exploring something in-depth, because I'm afraid of being restricted, losing out on something else that is exciting, getting bored with the practice of something as opposed to finding out new things? Am I so worried to be seen as ignorant, that I keep gathering without taking the time for reflection? Ouch.

The Hierophant also happens to be my "year card" (more about this later), representing lessons I need to learn this year. I have not been entirely enthusiastic about this thought. Teaching me to be more conventional, to obey the rules, to "fit in"? Surely I've been there, for most of my life. Now that I have managed to break free, to be myself, why on earth should I accept this ... this, representative of a patriarchal religion ... as my teacher? Studying the card, I started thinking about this man, often seen as a teacher or mentor---wise, focused and calm---as embodying something of my own goals and dreams. To have that calm self-confidence and self-awareness; the deepen my spirituality; to become wise and to help others find their own wisdom; to be confident in my knowing. I realise that I don't have to repeat lessons already learned, but that there is much to learn still from the this card. Focusing on something, restricting myself to what I have, may after all have more benefits than I had realised.

Next task: shuffle the deck and choose three cards---face down---to represent thoughts, emotions, and actions. I turn over the first card:

What on earth is the Fool doing in my thoughts? I said this out loud, and my husband started laughing. I do tend to walk around with dreams and visions, my head in the clouds, not noticing the abyss at my feet. The Fool carries his "bag of tricks" slung over his shoulder. Some say he has just completed his education (from some guru in the mountains behind him), and is setting out with everything he has been taught, but with no experience at all. How appropriate! The Fool also represents beginnings, and I think "my thoughts are telling me I'm just a beginner". Again, quite appropriate, and definitely "food for thought".

Emotions:

Nine of Cups. That looks like a happy guy, content, rich, even a bit smug. How does this picture fit in with my emotions around my project? I think: "So, while my thoughts are insisting that I'm just a beginner, my emotions suggest that I feel pretty good about what I know, that there is an abundance, and that I can 'afford' to be proud of what I have achieved." Hmm. I also see a suggestion, however, of the effects of over-indulgence. The man is rather plump, and that complacent smile will disappear very quickly if all those cups were to fall on him. So, now I'm thinking of being overwhelmed, which immediately feels right: I have been feeling overwhelmed by everything I have been gathering. Maybe it's time to sit back and just enjoyed the fruits of my labour.

Actions:

Trump XIX, The Sun. I think about light, and enlightenment. Taking action---as opposed to procrastination---can lead to wisdom. Good thought! What else? The sun suggests warmth, life, joy, energy. How is that for encouragement? Get on your horse and ride!

For the skeptics: I am not suggesting that some "higher power" placed these cards in these specific positions in order to tell me something. Maybe that does happen, who knows? But the process of finding a correlation between the images on a card and its position in a spread does shake loose, from a myriad of possibilities, one or more that "fit" the question or issue. Moreover, the associations you make will often reveal issues that have been rattling around just below the level of awareness, or emphasize whatever has been uppermost in your mind. As an example, let's look at the last card I drew, for a suggestion of what would be the best way to resolve the issue:

Four of Pentacles. Now this made me laugh. The card shows a man clutching a pentacle, with two more beneath his feet, and one on his head. I have been writing about feeling restricted, so instead of immediately seeing the card's traditional associations (greed, possessiveness, the need for security), I see someone who has restricted himself---who cannot move, for then he will have to let go of the pentacle in his arms, the one on his head will fall off, and the pentacles under his feet will skid away. And of course, he is holding onto his possessions out of fear, greed, or possessiveness, which all indicate that he is a prisoner of himself. All he needs to do is to let go!

I also look at the difference between the people on the other cards, and this one. This man is hunched over, fearful, clutching at his possessions. In contrast, the Fool is striding fearlessly (if foolishly); the Hierophant sits up straight, looking confident and commanding; while the child on the horse has flung out his arms in exuberance. Action vs constraint. Wisdom vs greed. Joy vs fear.

From this last card, I make a short list of things that I can safely "let go" of for now; I note one thing that I can do, immediately; and I resolve to put the the five cards on my desktop where I can see them every day, as a reminder.

In 45 minutes, I have generated more insights, ideas and actions to take about my own procrastination than I had managed to do in ... well ... a long time!