Interaction with
Experimentation and Play
Most people use tarot cards in a very limited way. This chapter offers a variety of different ways to use them, ways that will loosen up your relationship with the cards and broaden your tarot horizons. By experimenting and playing with tarot cards, you will see previously unseen possibilities of what the cards can be in your life.
Tarot Experiments
People tend to use the tarot for two things: meditation and readings. Make that three things, since readings can be divided into predictive readings (“What will happen?”) or therapeutic readings that function as a counseling session, with the cards as a medium of communication and insight. But there are plenty of other things to be done with a deck of cards!
There’s no way I could offer every possible tarot experiment here; part of the point is for you to engage creatively with your own cards. What I can do, though, is give you some ideas of things I’ve done, things I’ve found effective, and allow them to inspire you.
Laying Cards on Things
Say you want to choose a baby name and just can’t decide between two or three names. Or maybe it’s not as serious as a baby name—maybe it’s a pet name!
1. Write each name on a piece of paper or a sticky note.
2. If you want a “none of the above” option, also include a blank piece of paper.
3. Place the pieces of paper on a table before you.
4. Shuffle the deck while looking at the choices.
5. Lay one card on each choice.
6. Now read the cards. Maybe two of your three choices are reversed and one is upright: that makes it easy. If they’re all upright, read the card meanings to make your decision. If they’re all reversed, lay another card on each choice.
This example shows you how dropping a card onto something other than a layout can produce helpful results.
Cards can be dropped onto pictures, lists, maps, real estate listings, and so on. Your imagination is the only limitation here. You can lay pairs of cards and read the pair if that’s more comfortable than a single-card reading. Whenever you’re seeking a simple answer this way, pay close attention to reversals, but also pay attention to the angles and directions that we learned about in chapter 5. In the baby name example, is one card looking at one of the other card’s names?
Following Cards
There are a number of ways to use tarot to help find lost objects, including this one:
1. Stand in the center of your room or in the center of your house.
2. Place a card in each of the four directions. You don’t need a compass; in front of you, behind you, to your left, and to your right will do.
3. Look for indications as to which card to follow. If only one card is upright, go in that direction. If they’re all reversed, lay out four more cards. Also look to see if any cards are pointing in a direction not their own. Decide where you’re being led and go there. Bring your deck with you.
4. If you are now in another room and still can’t find the object, lay out four more cards and continue to follow them.
This might be a job for a pendulum, for simplicity’s sake, but tarot will work, too, and the experiment will give you an idea of the depths of exploration available with your deck.
Using Specific Cards for Guidance
Here’s another way to find a lost object:
1. Again, stand in the center of your house or a room.
2. Start to lay out cards in a simple cross (illustration 50).
3. Stop when you reach an ace. If the first card is an ace, you’re done. If you have to keep going around and around through forty cards, so be it.
4. Once you reach an ace, walk in the direction in which the ace is pointing. So that means if the ace is reversed, go backward in your house, as if the ace is an arrow you are following. For example, if card 3 is an ace, go forward, toward the top of the layout; if it’s reversed, go backward, toward the bottom.
This exercise assumes that the object is lost in your house, but you can also use a similar technique to find something (or someone) lost in a geographic region (a neighborhood, a town, a state). In this case, you can sit at a table and lay the cards out, then use a compass or map to determine where the ace is pointing.
Finding an ace is a common method of using the tarot to tell you something you need to know. Another is to seek a major arcana, or perhaps a specific suit or number. Finding a lost object is just one use for such a technique. You could also, for example, deal out cards on your baby name choices until a major turns up.
One thing these two lost-object exercises do is help you break free of always reading your cards while seated in one particular spot—on a table, under candlelight, or whatever. Cards on the floor as you follow their trail? Why not!
Lay cards wherever you desire. If you have a broken object (TV, car, dishwasher), you could lay three cards on it. Two or three upright cards means the object can be fixed, while two or three reversed means it must be replaced.
The idea here is to let the cards lay anywhere and everywhere they’re needed.
Using Indicators on Cards
You can choose what color to paint the living room by cutting the deck and looking at the dominant color of the card.
I cut and got the Ace of Swords (illustration 51), so I guess the living room should be white.
This may seem like the most trivial use of tarot cards imaginable, but I’ve presented it for two reasons: first, because the tarot connects to your intuition. In chapter 1, we talked about using the word “intuitive” to mean “psychic.” In fact, they are two different things. You can have both abilities. While “psychic” tends to refer to things that you cannot know by conventional means (the future, the inside of someone else’s heart), “intuitive” refers to things that are locked inside yourself.
Here is a very simple example. Somewhere within, you really do know exactly what color you want to paint the living room. Layered over that is a surface of indecision. It may be that the color you prefer doesn’t seem like a good idea for some reason (it doesn’t match the carpet?), or it may be that someone once told you that color was ugly, and that message is stuck somewhere in your subconscious, reverberating and causing doubt. Perhaps the simple act of making this decision is difficult because you have issues with self-trust, or because when you were seven years old a teacher told you that you had no color sense at all and that’s what’s reverberating within, or because you’ve watched too many decorating shows and now it all seems like a very big and overwhelming deal. Whatever the reason, your indecision is like a curtain obscuring the clear window of what you really know and really want. Intuition is the ability to pull that curtain aside and just know, and tarot can help you access that intuitive knowledge.
Most of the time, pulling the curtain aside on painting the living room is the least of your concerns, but if you already have a relationship with the tarot, and it’s really bothering you, why not use the tools at your disposal? More importantly, it’s a good, straightforward example of the way you can use the cards to unlock an answer that you already know, or to access information that eludes you.
But I said there were two reasons I chose to include the paint-color example here. The other one is this: I didn’t actually read the card. It didn’t matter that I drew an ace or a sword; we weren’t talking about the aggressive and forceful beginning of painting my living room. I simply drew a white card and keyed off of that.
This paint-color exercise is an easy-to-understand example of using other indicators on cards besides their designated meanings.
Finding a Missing Person
Somewhere around 1990, my then-husband met someone who was interested in starting a business with him. Isaac (my husband) had the know-how, and his acquaintance had the investment capital and was eager to get going.
And then, just as this man was about to sign the papers, his wife disappeared, locking him out of their shared bank accounts. He was in a total panic. (I have to say, my husband and I were not panicked. It wasn’t our money. It was all pie in the sky at that point.) My husband told the man (I think his name was Peter, although I could be wrong—but we’ll stick with that) that I was a psychic and perhaps could help.
I did a Celtic Cross layout for Peter. His marriage was definitely over; his wife had left him. (If I remember correctly, she’d fallen in love with someone else.) The cards showed anger and dissolution. It was a thorough reading, and it accurately revealed to Peter a bunch of information that he’d suspected and feared, but wasn’t sure of and had been unable to find out.
Then he asked if I knew where she was.
The question momentarily stymied me—it’s not the sort of thing that tarot is designed to answer. Having just read his cards for about forty-five minutes, I was feeling pretty tuned in, so I just looked at the cards for any geographical clues. It was safe to assume that the top of the layout was north, the right was east, and so on, and I began to look at it as if it were a map.
I was using the Waite-Smith deck. I don’t remember every card, but I believe there was a Six and a Five of Swords (illustration 52). I said that she was near boats, and that water was to her west (note the water in the Five of Swords to the figure’s left). He asked about mountains, their location relative to the water, and so on. Based on the information I provided, he successfully found her in Cape Cod (the water to the west proved to him she was on the Cape, and not the mainland).
Unfortunately, Peter’s business deal was successfully quashed by his (soon-to-be-ex) wife’s actions, but I had learned a powerful lesson about the cards.
To put it plainly, everything you see on a tarot card can be used.
Each of the cards that I used for geographical information had also been used (but meaning something else entirely) in the reading. The Six of Swords was a journey away from sorrow, as it generally is. But then I set aside those meanings, and read only the location imagery.
So far we’ve noted two things that appear on tarot cards separate from their specific meanings: color and location information. But there’s far more than that, again, limited only by necessity and your imagination.
Tarot Affirmations
Lots of people include affirmations as part of their personal spiritual practice or as a psychological exercise. Tarot can be a part of that.
If you are using a tarot deck for affirmations, you might want a specific deck set aside for that purpose, apart from any deck you use for readings.
Choose a tarot card that represents something to which you aspire, and place it on your mirror or by your meditation space.
Remember that affirmations should always be positive and in the present tense. An affirmation is a statement of what you are.
For example, here’s an affirmation using Temperance:
I am Temperance. I am balanced in all I do.
Generally, affirmations are repeated ten or twenty times. Do this while focusing your gaze on the Temperance card.
You might feel that Temperance has been achieved for now, or that the need for it is not as great. In that case, switch to another card.
You can also use a two-card combination, but affirmations should be simple, so don’t use more than that.
A Tarot Wedding
When I got married in 2013, we decided to have a tarot-themed wedding. In addition to decorative tarot elements (including the invitations, cake topper, and centerpieces), my spouse and I created tarot-based wedding favors. It was an exercise in thinking outside the tarot box.
I created single-card interpretations for every guest. I took a deck, shuffled it, and laid out cards one by one. Sitting with the card, I wrote an interpretation (which is to say, I didn’t go by the book—I gave a real single-card reading). Each interpretation was about 100 to 200 words in length.
In writing the interpretations, I had to be mindful that I didn’t know which guest would receive which card. It might be someone who had never seen tarot before, or it might be someone who was a professional reader. It might even be a child (I decided everyone who was old enough to read should receive a reading).
I wrote the interpretations in a document that was later printed with a fancy font on parchment paper. (The document also included an explanation.) As I wrote, I was careful to keep the cards in order. I wrote only a few every night, for many weeks, and as I did so, the guest list was finalized and RSVPs came in, so I could get a more accurate count. In total, I ended up with 128 individual readings.
My spouse took the cards and the printout of readings and carefully placed each card and its reading in a blank envelope. She then shuffled the envelopes, with all the care and focus with which you shuffle cards before a reading.
Next we printed labels with the guests’ names and table numbers (the envelopes served a dual purpose as place cards). Then we labeled every envelope.
Throughout the wedding, and afterward, guests told me how perfect their readings were; how it was the right message at the right moment. A few people asked me how I knew, and I had to explain that I didn’t; that they had received a random card.
There were leftover favors, but we also received gifts from invited guests who couldn’t attend. Those people received favors with their thank-you notes.
These wedding favors were my favorite experiment that I’ve ever performed with the tarot. Yes, they were readings, which is a conventional use for the cards. But everything about how the readings were done and how people received them was unconventional, and a creation unique to my wedding. Part of the joy of that day will always be the delight that the readings brought to our guests.
Exercise: Another List
1. Go back to the “Charging for Readings” exercise at the end of chapter 7. Split your list in two, so that “charge” and “don’t charge” are on two separate sheets of paper.
2. Center yourself with a few deep, cleansing breaths.
3. Lay a pair of cards on each list.
4. Did this method illuminate the decision you made previously?
Exercise: What Else?
Come up with a list of other places you can place tarot cards. Keep the list in your journal, and add to it whenever an idea strikes you.
Some of the ideas might turn out to be awkward or unworkable. That’s fine. Just keep an open mind.
Now make another list, this time of things you can see in cards besides the ones we discussed (location and color). This, too, should become part of your journal.
Tarot Games
When you learn tarot, you may sometimes feel rigid, like you have to follow all the rules you’ve been taught. Games are a great way to loosen up your interaction with the tarot, to get past the rigidity and rules. They allow you to have fun at the same time as you are improving your skills and broadening the kinds of interactions you can have with the cards. If you have a study group of other tarot students, games are a great way to interact within the group, breaking up serious study time with fun exercises.
Games can also forge connections between you and like-minded friends who may be open to the tarot but are not readers. Who knows? Sometimes these games might even create new readers! The following are tarot games I’ve enjoyed. All but the first are of my own invention.
Tarot Telephone
This is a solo game that my teacher, Susan, used to play all the time, although in truth, she didn’t describe it as a game, just a habit. Keep in mind that Susan taught me tarot in the 1980s, when all telephones were land lines and they all had cords. The game works best if your phone is always in the same place.
How to Play
One Player
Keep a tarot deck by your phone. Whenever the phone rings, cut the deck to reveal a single card. Quickly predict the nature of the phone call, then answer the phone.
Tip: Keep a diary of your predictions and the outcomes.
Why It’s a Good Game
You’ll improve as a reader when you’re forced to be quick and deft. It also helps your skill when you have immediate feedback as to your accuracy. Additionally, it’s helpful that these quick, instant readings are about nothing serious at all, so you can relax and just let it happen. After all, who cares if you don’t get “insurance salesman” right?
Tarot Bluff
This is a game that can be played with a group of friends. It’s actually a great game for people with little to no experience reading the tarot, although it’s fun for serious students as well. The game is based on Blind Man’s Bluff Poker.
You can play with two people, but I think it’s better with three or more. That way, each player hears multiple versions of his or her card.
How to Play
Three or More Players
Shuffle the deck and give everyone a card. Each person takes his own card, without looking at it, and holds it up to his forehead, face out. You’ll now have a group of people seated in a circle, with tarot cards held up to their foreheads. Everyone can see every card except his or her own.
One person goes first. One at a time, all the other players briefly interpret the card held by the first player. The “blind” player then guesses what his own card is. Everyone gets a turn.
You can score for accurate guesses or just play for fun.
Why It’s a Good Game
Everyone enjoys this game, which I’ve played many times. People learn a lot about how to read. I’ve played with mixed groups, some of whom know the tarot and some do not. Everyone can read in this playful and supportive environment, though, and even people who’ve never seen a deck of tarot cards before can interpret based on the picture they see and the feeling it evokes in them. The level playing field thus opens the psyche.
When I’ve played with people who didn’t know how to read cards, they came up with interesting interpretations that the “blind” person (if experienced) was able to understand and use as a basis for guessing their own card. Because they didn’t know the tarot, they weren’t able to guess their own card based on listening to the descriptions that others gave them, but they had fun anyway. Being the “blind” person is a way to receive the wisdom of short readings in a playful way, and the inexperienced people enjoyed it as much as the advanced readers.
Playing this game also teaches you how to listen. Listening closely to what people tell you about the card you hold up is necessary if you’re to guess accurately. Your listening skills will make you a better reader.
Zener Tarot
Zener cards are the ESP cards with circles, squares, squiggly lines, and so on. Zener cards were developed in the 1930s, based on the idea that the only way to truly test ESP is to be emotionally neutral—to offer symbols that in no way incite emotion. It was thought to be more scientific to eliminate emotion from parapsychology experiments.
But in the eighty or so years since Zener cards were designed, studies of psychic abilities (although few and far between) have suggested that strong emotion plays a role in triggering ESP. Since tarot cards have emotional content, they may be a better gauge of psychic ability.
This game replicates Zener psychic-skills testing, except using tarot cards. The one-player version tests clairvoyance (the ability to discern the future or the hidden present), and the two-player version tests telepathy (the ability to read what someone else is thinking). Both of these skills are useful in tarot reading.
How to Play
One-Player Version: Clairvoyance
Shuffle the deck and place one card face down before you. Take a few deep breaths and clear your mind. Visualize the card before you. Instead of trying to guess the card, write down your impressions. You may have the suit, the number, colors, other things visible on the card (mountains, fish, trees, people), a shape or direction, or perhaps a meaning. When you’re ready, flip over the card and compare the results.
You might find you do better if you do several cards in a row before going back and flipping them over (be sure to retain the order).
Two-Player Version: Telepathy
Both players take deep, cleansing breaths to clear their minds. Make enough eye contact to establish a connection between the two of you. One player shuffles, draws a card, and looks at it, concentrating on its imagery. The other player writes down impressions, as in the clairvoyance version. When ready, the sender and receiver can review the receiver’s notes together and compare them to the card. The sender can also talk about what he or she was thinking, and together, both players can determine if that influenced the receiver.
Again, you might try doing several cards in a row before reviewing the notes and then switching roles.
Why It’s a Good Game
Everyone is fascinated by how “real” psychic abilities actually are, and here is a game that lets you explore that question.
While doing so, you’re also creating strong emotional connections between images in your head and images on the card. You’re learning your internal symbol system—what a picture in your head translates to in the real world.
Many people have these internal symbol systems without realizing it. These might be images; for example, when there are a lot of clouds in the sky on a tarot card, you visualize birds, even when there are no birds on the card. Or they might be physical or emotional impressions—I often feel water in my body when visualizing water/cups, even to the point of becoming aware of the saliva in my mouth or the tears in my eyes.
In addition, not everyone gets pictures. You might get sounds, words, bodily sensations, aromas, or simply thoughts, and all of these are valid forms of receiving psychic information. Playing psychic games allows you to become familiar with your personal psychic language.
Keyword Tarot
This is a cross between a Zener reading and a tarot reading, with some guessing game thrown in. The game is structured to be played with two people. If three or more people play, take turns being the pair doing the reading, going around a circle rather than back and forth.
How to Play
Two or More Players
If two people are playing, they will switch roles. If three or more play, choose two people to start.
Player 1 writes a single keyword on a piece of paper and folds the paper so the word is not visible. Keywords can be anything. Here are some samples: home, loss, poverty, wealth, job, travel, confusion, sex, anger, competition, play, friendship, alcoholism, exhaustion, busy, humor, baby, marriage, contentment.
Both players now take deep, cleansing breaths to clear their minds. Make enough eye contact to establish a connection between the two of you. Player 2 shuffles while player 1 concentrates on the keyword.
Player 2 draws a card and lays it on top of the paper containing player 1’s keyword. This single card is intended to be an “answer” or “reading” for player 1’s keyword.
Player 1 continues to concentrate on his or her keyword.
Now player 2 reads the card that he or she has placed upon player 1’s keyword. (Although in other situations I recommend reading out loud to loosen up and empower the psyche, for purposes of a guessing game you should do it silently—otherwise player 1 may inadvertently indicate “hot” and “cold” with her facial expressions during the reading.)
Player 2 now writes down two or three keywords that arise as a result of the card. That is, player 2 considers the reading of the card and writes down two or three keywords that she feels best describe the card in this moment, in this reading.
Both players then reveal the keywords and see if there’s a match.
If you want to keep score, give one point to player 2 if any of her keywords match player 1’s keyword.
Then switch roles. If you’re going around a circle, go to the next pair. Next time it comes back to these two players, they switch roles.
Why It’s a Good Game
As with the previous games, Keyword Tarot gives you rapid feedback on your accuracy and forces you to get sharp with single-card readings. In addition, Keyword Tarot helps you improve your concentration skills and also helps you with communicating the meaning of tarot cards and your own interpretation of a reading. By forcing player 2 to use only two or three keywords, the game helps you develop simple explanations for what you see.