With scenes such as Death and The Devil, it is hardly surprising that tarot cards sometimes scare people. The cards can actually mean that you should not bottle up your own frustrations or that you should end a relationship.
What are tarot cards?
A tarot deck consists of 78 illustrated, allegorical cards, 22 large cards, 40 number cards and 16 court cards.
The cards can be used for future predictions, meditation, visualization and sometimes as a focus for rituals aimed at attracting or repelling the inherent qualities of the card in question.
More than any other form of fortune telling, the tarot has been wrongly considered a form of dark or black magic. But tarot cards are essentially nothing more than a set of symbols for interpreting unconscious needs and desires and anticipating future paths.
The problem lies not in the cards themselves, but in the way they are used. For this reason, it is best to only consult psychics who have been personally recommended. It is even better to read the tarot cards yourself for yourself and your friends and, if you do consult a professional fortune teller, to explain any obstacles as challenges to be overcome rather than as irrevocably bad news.
Which game should you choose?
Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing wrong with choosing your own tarot deck. It is worthwhile to take a detailed look at the different games that are on the market in a well-stocked bookstore or esoteric or new age store. Unless you have a strong preference, it is often easier to work with a deck of cards in which the Minor Arcana is illustrated, as it is the experience of many that the symbols for all the number cards and the detailed court cards stimulate their intuition, especially if they are unfamiliar with the tarot.
Many tarot decks are based on the Rider-Waite deck, which is probably the most straightforward and stimulating.
The interpretation of the cards.
Some tarot readers designate cards as either positive or challenging depending on whether the card is dealt upright or inverted (upside down). I am of the opinion that this is by no means a real paranormal choice, as the card could have been accidentally put back into the deck incorrectly or the deck could have been shuffled by someone who, like me, is not very handy.
Each card can have a meaning of creative, inhibitory or negative outcomes depending on future actions. Usually one aspect of meaning predominates. You can see that aspect by looking at all the cards, but especially by following your intuitive feeling. That is something that cannot be taught, but can only be learned through experience and by trusting your first impressions, even if they seem to run counter to conventional meanings.
The cards with a female figure apply equally to women and men, as they refer to an aspect of their anima, their softer ‘feminine’ side. The same applies in reverse for male cards.
Below we briefly discuss the accepted meanings for all cards of the Major Arcana. Take them as nothing more than a guideline, not as a law of the Medes and Persians, as that will only restrict the free-flowing of your own intuition.
Reading the cards
- Take a deck of tarot cards, either a full deck of 78 cards, unless just the 22 Major Arcana.
- Think of a specific question yourself, or ask the person you are reading for to focus on a general issue. If the questioner ‘tells’ you his question, that is not cheating. All that matters is that you – together – use the tarot as a tool to acquire as much relevant information as possible about an important issue.
- Shuffle the cards and place the deck face down in front of you on the table. Divide the deck into three piles and deal from the top of the pile that feels intuitively right or choose cards at random from the entire deck. Place the cards face down so that you do not see which cards you have dealt until you have drawn the required number of cards. Now turn them over one at a time and read each card before reversing the order. You can also first view the leggings as a whole and then read the individual cards. I personally find the latter method easier, because I can then interpret the individual cards from a general overview. However, remember that there are no right or wrong methods and following someone else’s rules can block your own intuition.
- If you read the cards for someone else, let him or her shuffle, place and turn the cards over.
Rows of 3, 6 or 9 cards
It may be too complex for a novice tarot card reader to immediately assign meanings to positions of a laying pattern. Instead, you can simply shuffle the deck and lay out 3, 6 or 9 cards face down. This is a good way to practice while you are still learning the cards as it allows you to build a picture.
- Lay out the first row of 3 cards from left to right
- If you want to read 6 or 9 cards, place the second row of 3 cards above the first and above the third row, again from left to right.
- As with any reading, no matter how simple or complex, it can be helpful to first consider the entire pattern laid out and absorb the impressions.
- See if you can spot patterns of cards that seem related, such as The Empress and The Emperor or The Hanged Man and Death. You may discover two groups of related cards. These types of patterns become clearer if you also include the cards of the Minor Arcana and eventually you will automatically intuitively notice connections between cards.
- Your first overall impression may not seem to match the meanings of the individual cards. Trusting this initial, intuitive insight is nevertheless the key to successfully reading the tart, or for that matter all forms of oracles. The cards are building blocks and the total picture, as we know from gestalt psychology, can be much more than the sum of its parts.
Card meanings
The meanings of the cards can be interpreted in different ways. Below I explain the Minor Arcana cards.
The Fool
The Fool is the first and sometimes last card. He (or she) is about to jump off a cliff or embark on a journey, accompanied by his dog, sumbolic to the instincts.
Positive interpretation: untapped potential; a step into the unknown that will be fruitful; enthusiasm about a new venture; seizing an unexpected opportunity, which may involve change (either literally or in the sense of adopting a new perspective).
Challenging aspects: indecisiveness; irresponsibility; an inability to continue on the chosen path; credulity.
The Magician or Magician
The Magician, or Magician, is the card of creative energies. He is the archetypal innovator/deceiver, who holds the key to enlightenment.
Positive interpretation: creativity; originality; finding a solution through inspiration rather than logic; versatility.
Challenging aspects: deviousness; unreliability; the use of manipulation to persuade others against their will; unpredictability.
The High Priestess or Popeess
The High Priestess represents the spiritual, mysterious aspects of the feminine principle.
Positive interpretation: spirituality; distancing oneself from mundane concerns; independence from the approval of others; having faith in intuition.Challenging aspects: being centered in oneself; indifference to the emotional needs of others; become obsessed with details.
The High Priest or Pope
The High Priest represents traditions of all kinds and spiritual wisdom.
Positive interpretation: seeking wisdom from a wise source, whether it be a person or a book; clinging to traditional values on an uncertain path; learning through application.
Challenging aspects: an inability to go against conventional behavior; rejection of renewals; are dominated by redundant fears, rejections and prohibitions.
The Empress
The Queen of Choice is the card of motherhood and maternal care.
Positive interpretation: motherhood; nurturing the vulnerable; fertility (both with businesses and in human reproduction); giving creatively and feeling empathy for other people’s problems and weaknesses.
Challenging aspects: martyrdom at the altar of others’ wishes; possessiveness; loss of individual identity ; preoccupation with the lives of others.
The emperor
The Emperor is the card of fatherhood, determination and early power. He is the ultimate authority figure, before whom all bow, the father god and consort of the Empress Mother.
Positive interpretation: energy focused on accomplishing goals; assertiveness; self confidence.
Challenging aspects: an overpowering critical attitude towards the weaknesses of others; lust for power and disregard for other people’s wishes; aggressiveness and impatience.
The Lovers
This is the card of love and emotions, relationships and the family.
Positive interpretation: happiness in love or through relationships, emotional or love choices that bring satisfaction; a new love or friendship, accompanied by the need for trust or commitments.
Challenging aspects: problems in love or relationships that should not be ignored; isolation; unwelcome choices in love or with family.
The Chariot
Is the card of change, challenge and also triumph.
Positive interpretation: making a positive and often sudden change; overcoming obstacles on the road to success by integrating opposing factors; take the action required to achieve a goal .
Challenging aspects: impulsive decisions; restlessness that leads to change for change’s sake; swinging back and forth between extremes.
Justice
Is the card of principles and speaking the truth.
Positive interpretation : tackling the bureaucracy measures facts and accurate details; the need to take action against injustice; upholding vital principles.
Challenging aspects: accepting injustice in exchange for a peaceful life; injustice towards others ; putting principles before people.
The Hermit or Hermit
The Hermit, the old wise man, is the card the inner voice and the withdrawal from the outer to the inner world.
Positive interpretation: listening to the inner voice; withdrawing from the demands of the world in order to renew oneself creatively; seek seclusion and let the answer come to you.
Challenging aspects: ignoring the wisdom and advice others give you; run away from difficult or unpleasant situations ; unable to communicate with others.
The Wheel of Fortune
Represents the input of the unexpected, both for good and bad, into a person’s life and his or her response to good and bad.
Positive interpretation: an unexpected opportunity or challenge that, if accepted, promises results; someone who may provide a new outlet for our talents; a great, strong-willed effort to advance our cause.
Challenging aspects: allowing others to inappropriately influence our destiny ; a feeling of helplessness and the inability to control events; waiting for the miraculous solution.
power
In some games this card has switched positions with Justice. Strength is symbolic of the strength and courage to overcome adversity or the perseverance and patience to ‘sing it out’ a relationship until it bears fruit or ends naturally.
Positive interpretation: the courage to overcome opposition; patience and perseverance in difficult circumstances ; hidden powers.
Challenging aspects: fear of encountering opposition with plans; being too patient in a hopeless situation; not listening to the arguments of others.
The Hanged Man
Is the card of sacrifice or voluntary loss in order to gain greater benefit.
Positive interpretation: a plan or obligation that brings benefits in the long term, but requires great effort or involves losses in the short term; giving up unrealistic plans or outdated ways of life; selfless acts.
Challenging aspects: the inability to let go of an unsatisfactory or unrewarding situation; sacrificing personal achievement for an ignoble cause; concentration on short-term gain and neglect of the long-term vision.
Death
This is the card of natural change and progress and as such its positive meanings far outweigh any negative ones.
Positive interpretation: natural points of change; an ending that, if accepted, will lead to a new beginning; indications that postponed decisions or changes can now be made or accomplished. Challenging aspects: a
certain change may have been delayed for far too long ; reluctance to move forward; unfounded pessimism about the future.
Temperance
This is the card of harmony, healing and moderation.
Positive interpretation: the need to let events take their course; finding a compromise ; healing by or from others.
Challenging aspects: concentration on other people’s harmony at the expense of one’s own harmony and peace; running away from making unpopular decisions; being too naive about other people’s motives and intentions.
The devil
This card has nothing to do with black magic or evil, but reflects the dark side of the human personality and the trap of recognizing negative thoughts and emotions.
Positive interpretation: using negative feelings to bring about change and right injustices; the acceptance that negative feelings about someone or a situation are justified; the recognition of a negative influence or situation.
Challenging aspects: suppressing justified anger and resentment, causing them to turn into depression or self-loathing; allowing ourselves to be influenced by the negativity of others; continuing in destructive patterns or relationships while blaming others for them.
The tower
Is a symbol of liberation from constraints and stagnation; the new beginning promised by Death, with which this card regularly appears in readings.
Positive interpretation: liberation from limitations; an expansion of possibilities; the apparent collapse of plans that lacked solid foundations; the chance to build a more secure future.
Challenging aspects: the loss of a temporary refuge from reality; the fear of having to give up familiar but restrictive routines ; backlash and disruption, which are inevitable.
The star
Is the card of hope, of inspiration, of enlightenment that heralds a happy future.
Positive interpretation: signs of hope after a difficult period; pursuing dreams that can come true with effort and belief in ourselves; sudden inspiration, which opens the way to future happiness.
Challenging aspects: being hopeful based on unrealistic expectations regarding the perfection of people or situations; being attracted to superficial glitter and gold or excitement; so long and many dreams and wishes that real opportunities are missed.
The moon
Is a symbol of mystery, magic and the life cycle, with its ebb and flow, with my constant promises of renewal and new beginnings.
Positive interpretation: trust in dreams, visions and paranormal insights; using the imagination instead of logic; by going with the natural ebb and flow of energies, knowing when it is the right time to act and when it is better to wait.
Challenging aspects: living purely in a world of dreams; following the easy way; be unnecessarily secretive.
The sun
Is the card of pure energy, optimism, joy and success in world terms; the alter ego of the Moon.
Positive interpretation: the perfect time to seize an opportunity; unfulfilled potential; the energy and ability to succeed with any action or plan. Challenging aspects: competitiveness in a destructive sense; obsession with details; exhaustion due to burnout.
The Judgment or The Angel
Is the symbol of reconciliation and spiritual renewal. The card symbolizes the Day of Judgment, not in the medieval sense of doling out rewards and punishments, but of self-judgment.
Positive interpretation: the ability to evaluate the success of a particular endeavor or life in general, not in terms of success in the world, but of personal fulfillment and satisfaction ; the ability to forgive and forget, both our own mistakes and those of others; learning from experiences, good or bad, to avoid mistakes in the future.
Challenging aspects: not learning from the past; living our lives according to the demands and expectations of others; dwelling on past mistakes and injustices; judging too hastily about a situation or person.
The world
Is the card of expanding horizons and infinite possibilities. This is also a card of movement, whether it is an actual journey or an openness to new ideas and areas.
Positive interpretation: new horizons and the beginning of an exciting phase, mentally or physically; the need to move on or do something new; a sense of completeness and a sense of self-worth.
Challenging aspects: ignoring what is of value close to home; hectic activities in order to be busy at every moment, leaving no time for quiet contemplation ; the refusal to expand borders.
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