Yesod (Foundation)
How to Read the Cards
Reading tarot is a lifelong pleasure and practice evolving and growing right alongside you. We each bring all of our beautiful life experiences and unique sensitivities to tarot. We are natural-born storytellers. Read the cards with a quiet, focused mind and a vulnerable heart. Maintain a curiosity allowing your imagination to run wild with the cards.
There really is no difference between a beginner and advanced reader, although the latter will have more experience, knowledge, and familiarity of the cards. Experience and knowledge of tarot can be as much a hindrance as it is helpful. Think of all that we sacrifice as we grow from innocent children into experienced adults. Doesn’t the adult often seek their inner child? Don’t we struggle to maintain our childlike focus, pleasure, and the ability to live in the present like we did when we were six? Bring your tarot deck to a child. Have them pick a card, and ask them to tell you a story about what they see on the card. I guarantee you will be stunned, if not thrilled, by the tale and insight they will weave for you. (This is also an excellent technique to use if you are reading tarot for party guests and a child approaches your table.)
It may feel overwhelming when you first begin reading tarot. Allow yourself to feel whatever emotion rises to the surface. Let it pass. Then get to the business of reading the cards. Tarot is the story of you. Tarot is the greatest novel you will ever read. Tarot is the infinite story reflecting every facet of your being. Tarot changes moment by moment, just as you do. The cards want you to project yourself all over them. When you are done projecting yourself onto the cards, turn to the scholarly tarot books whispering the history and usage of the cards. Use everything you can to gain knowledge and comfort with the deck.
There’s no right or wrong way to use and learn the cards. Sign up for classes, read source material, and practice the cards on your friends like crazy. Trust me, everyone loves to have their cards read, even when you are first starting out. Why? Because everyone’s favorite subject is themselves. Your friends and family will be lining up for practice readings from you. Volunteer to read cards at events and local fundraisers for practice. Take your cards into nature and pull for messages from trees and flowers. Play games by finding cards matching up best with the people in your life. Select a deck and write the meanings of the cards yourself as if you were authoring a book on tarot. Whatever and however you choose to work with the deck, the most important part is to have fun and keep exploring. This will keep you coming back to the cards again and again.
Arthur Waite gives excellent advice on the art of card reading in The Pictorial Key:
Notes on the Practice of Divination
1. Before beginning the operation, formulate your question definitely, and repeat it aloud.
2. Make your mind as blank as possible while shuffling the cards.
3. Put out of the mind personal bias and preconceived ideas as far as possible, or your judgment will be tinctured thereby.
4. On this account it is more easy to divine correctly for a stranger than for yourself or a friend.
Card-a-Day Practice
A card-a-day practice is a simple, single five-minute activity. It will teach you almost everything you want to know about the cards. Many consider it to be one of the most pleasurable tarot activities. Cartomancers often continue a card-a-day practice over the course of a lifetime. Anyone can pull a daily card; no knowledge of tarot is required. It can be performed at any time of day but morning is preferable. Some pull it with morning coffee or tea, others pull the card before or after a yoga practice, some pull a card before a morning walk or commute. Pull in any way your heart desires.
To perform a card-a-day reading, clear your mind and shuffle your cards. You are free to ask a question such as “What should I pay attention to today?” or keep your mind clear and simply wait to see what appears. Keeping the mind clear is a fun way to pull your daily card because it leaves your consciousness open to impressions. You can shuffle the deck any way you like.
Flip your card and scan the card completely, without making any value judgments. Note the first element, shape, or symbol that makes an impression on you. Create meaning out of this. For example, say you flip the Seven of Cups and your attention is drawn to the silhouette of the man. You may decide that today will feel like a dark day where you are absorbing the things around you without reacting to them, simply watching.
Once you have selected your card, you may keep it out and available to you, placing it in a frame on your desk or pulling the image as the screensaver of your phone. You may put the card to the side and forget about it. It is up to you. A single important action remains to complete the card-a-day practice: revisit the card at the end of your day.
Check out the card again during the evening or at bedtime. Did what you intuited seem to happen? Did it play out? Did something surprising happen in relation to the card? This is also a great time to look up the card in books, find some different meanings, and do a bit of research, comparing it all to the experience you had. You may want to journal your findings or record them in some way.
Don’t be surprised if intuitive pops happen one day and a psychic flash comes another day. I recall in the early days of my card-a-day practice, the Knight of Swords appeared. I knew in a flash that the knight reflected an old friend whom I hadn’t heard from in a while. I knew looking at the card he would call that day, though we had nothing scheduled. Indeed, he called me later in the afternoon. I was beside myself with excitement for seeing it in the card.
That was the only time the Knight of Swords reflected that particular friend. This brings me to a really important point. There is no right or wrong meaning for a tarot card. In fact, the cards hold infinite meanings. How can this be? Because they were created by the human mind, used by the human mind, and are infinite like the human mind. Does each card hold a traditional meaning? Absolutely. And a serious reader should learn what these meanings are, especially the major arcana cards, which are grounded in archetypes. These are essential for you to examine and explore. But the important work comes from applying your own personal experience to each of the cards. Plus, you don’t know how psychic or intuitive you have the potential to become—or maybe you do. Stay open to all experiences.
The structure of tarot will teach you about the elements that make up your body and soul and the universe around you. Their repeating numerical patterns teach you to live in sync with life’s cycles from sunrise to sunset, from season to season, and from one year to the next. The closer you listen and pay attention to tarot’s structure, the more you’ll learn about yourself and your life. Tarot teaches us that nothing is permanent. Life is a state of constant flux and change because the Fool keeps moving from card to card. Every morning is a new chance to pull a card. This newness resides in every second of our lives. This lesson is a true gift.
Working with tarot inadvertently fosters a meditative mindset. Whether you have attempted meditation or never tried it, the act of clearing the mind and pulling cards is the first step in a powerful tool to be used in any number of ways. Trust me when I tell you you’ll see a difference in your life after pulling a card a day for about six months, especially if you are doing so in conjunction with a specific question, such as “What can I focus on to find contentment” or “What can I do to find the ideal career?” Answers will come to you, but the answers are not from the cards. They come from you. Tarot is an incredible tool to use to learn about yourself.
Meditation into the cards is an excellent way to learn about the tarot. To meditate and explore a tarot card, calm the mind and body and focus on the image, committing it to memory as best you can. Once you firmly have the card in your mind’s eye, close your eyes and see the card in your imagination. Move into the card. This can happen in any way you like: you may walk, fly, or hop into the card; it is your experience. Feel free to talk to the characters or creatures on the cards and investigate the environment. What advice does the Queen of Pentacles offer you? What does her voice sound like? Listen to any sounds or music playing. Do you hear the river’s water in the Six of Swords? Does the Wheel of Fortune make noise as it spins? Are you haunted by the howling of the Moon’s animals? Note anything you feel on your body. Does the Fool card’s alpine wind chill your skin? Is the Ace of Wands hot to touch? Note any particular smell that greets you. Does the Empress card smell like a rich summer wheat field? Are the Magician’s roses and lilies fragrant? You can ask these questions and make these investigations by simply looking at the actual card, but to bring in image inside of you will result in a richer and lasting experience.
Tarot’s Structure
The easiest way to begin reading the cards is to understand the tarot’s basic structure and what the structure means when certain cards appear in a reading. As stated in the first chapter, it turns out that tarot’s structure is a triad with three important variables: the major arcana, the minor arcana, and the court cards. It is important to distinguish the difference between these three sections and what they imply when they appear in a reading.
The major arcana is the twenty-two cards carrying major archetypes. An archetype is a recurring symbol or typical example of something that is cross-culturally recognizable. The Empress as a mother figure or the Lovers are easy-to-grasp examples. These archetypes mean something in each of our lives and either represent situations, people, or qualities within ourselves. When a major arcana card shows up, it reflects a major life moment. Only twenty-two of the seventy-eight cards are majors. The rest of the deck aligns with a regular pack of playing cards.
A minor arcana card reflects our daily lives. These are the ins and outs and ups and downs of regular day-to-day life. Typically they hold lesser weight than the trump cards, which is another name for the majors. Minor arcana cards run from ace to the number ten and often show where we are in the current life or emotional cycle.
Yoga Studio Example
A simple way to understand the difference among the major and minor arcana cards is to imagine yourself in a yoga studio. There you are on a purple mat in a zen studio, ready for class. The poses you perform as you move through the yoga sequence—mountain pose, down dog, and cobra—those poses are all like the major arcana. They are the ultimate form of yogic movement and reflect the archetypes of Mountain, Dog, and Snake. The instructor usually comes around and makes adjustments as students practice. These adjustments align with the minor arcana. The minor arcana are the small, daily things we do that may not mean much individually but when added up produce big results. And just like an adjustment, a minor arcana moment has a way of opening us up in a new way that has big impact down the line.
High School Example
A second easy way to understand the differences between majors and minors is to think of high school. The major cards are those really big events you look back and remember, like prom or graduation or what the first day of high school felt like. The minors are random days where stuff happened but they didn’t really stick out in your memory. Still, collectively, those days made up your entire high school experience.
Court Cards
If majors are big events and minors are daily activities, then the court cards are the people who populate your big event and daily happenings. These are the students, teachers, and parents filling your school. Court cards are the instructors and fellow yogis filling up your favorite exercise studio. Since court cards can reflect other people and they also reflect aspects of your own personality, it is up to you, the reader, to figure out who and what the court cards represent. Identifying who court cards are talking about in a spread comes with practice. At first you might feel like you are guessing, but trust your instincts, and soon you’ll be able to pinpoint exactly who they are.
Cheat Sheet for Your Court Cards
Pages: Youthful, innocent, playful energy
Knights: Teen male energy
Queens: Mature female energy
Kings: Mature male energy
Hidden Gifts of Tarot
Tons, piles, oceans of hidden gifts are tucked away inside the tarot, especially when tarot becomes a lifelong practice. Like any practice you devote time to, it becomes deeper and more meaningful over time. The wonderful thing about tarot is that is doesn’t take long to shuffle and pull a single card every day. It can begin with a simple daily five-minute practice.
Tarot takes issues, problems, and scenarios out of your mind and spreads the issues across the table. We can feel overwhelmed by the things we mull over in our head. Once we formulate a question and begin to pull cards, we can look at our issues from a bird’s-eye view. This distance can bring a great deal of clarity to our issues and concerns.
Tarot will teach you about the difference between intuition and psychic ability, two distinctly separate things. Intuition is an innate knowing, like a voice inside you or a sense of where you should go or what decision to make. Intuition will guide you through all your tarot readings and acts like the subtle voice in your head telling you what symbol to focus on or what the card is trying to tell you. Psychic facilities are a different form of knowing and will happen when outside information enters the inside of the body. Psychic facilities occur in different ways for different people.
It is worth the time and energy it takes to understand how your body is psychically, intuitively, and sensorially built. Each one of us feels the world around us in different ways. Psychic and intuitive facilities are akin to our sexual and sensual nature. Each of us responds differently to stimuli. Learning how we operate intuitively means that we are getting to know who we really are. The exciting part comes when we identify an opening in our intuitive psychic body that we wish to explore and develop. Artists do this in studio art classes where they paint or draw a still life or model. Focusing on their subject, they develop their artist sense of “seeing” deeper. A musician does this through music rehearsal as they move deeper and deeper, forging a relationship between music and their chosen instrument. You can do this with your very own body, using tarot as a catalyst. The path of exploring yourself and your abilities never ends; the deeper and wider you go, the more it expands because you are an extraordinary universe in and of yourself. And you, like the universe, are infinite—as above, so below.
Determine and explore for yourself how you operate. Even if what you are experiencing makes no sense, it is important to explore it. Don’t rush to put labels on what you experience, but move through them. Record your experiences in a journal or confide in a like-minded friend or colleague. Often, supernatural or psychic experiences are well expressed through poetry, as often the act of articulating the experience dumbs the experience down. Language can be a gift and a curse. Play with words to express and record your experiences.
Clairvoyance is described as seeing an image or picture in the head. This includes premonitions. Clairaudience is the ability to hear messages but without actually using your ears. This may come in the form of your own inner voice or the voice of others. It may also come as a deeper form of hearing and intuiting sounds on other levels of reality. Clairalience is the ability to smell scent outside the natural world, such as detecting the scent of a relative or friend who has passed to the other side. Clairgustance relates to smelling a supernatural scent; however, it is the ability to taste a flavor, giving us information without actually eating or tasting anything. Claircognizance is the ability to know something without knowing why you know it. Of all psychic abilities, this one is linked closely with intuition, and it may be hard to separate the two.
Empathy and clairsentience are two of the most experienced psychic phenomena. They include the ability to feel what other people are feeling simply by being near them. Discovering you carry empathic abilities can be confusing because empaths often mistake other people’s feelings and emotions for their own. To be alive is to participate in the act of giving and receiving energy. Feelings and emotions are part and parcel to energy give-and-take. Tarotists, especially when they read for others, directly confront how they give and receive the energy.
In addition to noting the difference between psychic and intuitive abilities, it is worth noting the difference between intuition and associative memory. Intuition and associative memory are often confused. Intuition is a deep and innate knowing while associative memory is mental conditioning. An associative memory example can be understood by thinking of a stop sign while driving. The associative memory links the visual of a stop sign to the braking of your car. Once learned, this behavior happens automatically. This is not intuitive knowing; it is associative learning. Associative memory is a helpful mental tool allowing us to perform a variety of tasks without having to stop and think about them. However, the associative memory also operates in our value judgments and independent projections. At the worst end of the associative memory spectrum, this is where racism and hatred or dangerous and reactive behavior is learned. On the lighter end of the spectrum, it can be where the individual decides what a situation, person, or thing is based on prior experience rather than taking the time to explore the situation, person, or thing in the moment. The tarotist should be aware of the difference between associative memory and intuition because intuition springs from deep within personal authenticity. The intuition should not be lumped in with value judgments. Learning to identify and separate these behaviors is a fascinating process and leads to a richer experience of life and its possibilities. Thank you, tarot!
How to Form Good Tarot Questions
Humans possess the spectacular ability to imagine and dream. Once a vision, fantasy, or idea is experienced, thought, and felt, the next step always comes in question form: How do I make that happen? When it comes to forming an excellent question for tarot or for anything you want, there is a little-known secret. The power lies in the question, not the answer.
How can this be? It seems like the power lies in getting what you want, and everyone obviously wants what they want. However, it is basic human nature to move to the next question as soon as the immediate question is answered. The brain is given a question; its automatic reaction is to find the answer and move to the next question like a game of leap frog. Our needs may be satisfied but the brain is already looking to solve the next hurdle or puzzle. This is what keeps our lives evolving. Smart and thoughtful questions move us faster in the direction we’d like to go. This is why creating a thoughtful question is of paramount importance and fills life with extraordinary possibility and richness.
Avoid any question beginning with “why” or “when.” Asking a question like “When will I fall in love?” is one of the worst sorts of questions because it causes your brain to cave in. It leaves no room for the brain to explore and discover a satisfying answer that will set you on the path for receiving or obtaining what you want.
Thoughtful questions acknowledge the personal power you possess over your future actions. They put your brain in the driver’s seat. Powerful questions often begin with the words “what” or “how.” They set you up for an answer you can take action on. They actually trick your brain into productivity. Instead of asking “When will I fall in love?” ask “How can I cultivate an amazing romantic relationship?” The answer you glean from a tarot card will tell you how you can cultivate it.
Thoughtful Question Construction
1. Acknowledge the role you play in your future.
2. State your desired outcome in the question.
3. Construct the question.
4. Ask the question every day until your desire, idea, or passion is satiated.
Example
Holly is a casting director who is generally happy in her life, love, and career. However, she feels creatively stymied. While she enjoys her job, loves the talented actors who walk through her door, and enjoys her success, she has risen as far as she can go in her profession. She feels something is lacking. She knows there is something else that will make her happy and deeply satisfy her in a creative way. Perhaps it is a new job or maybe a hobby. She considers moving to a new city. She honestly doesn’t know what it is that is missing, but she is aware something is lacking. Holly’s life is filled to the brim with a super busy schedule. She has little time to explore creative options. She decides to create a thoughtful question for her tarot cards. She makes it a point to ask her question every day over her morning tea. She knows once she creates a thoughtful question and spends a few minutes daily with her question that her deck will eventually reveal her path.
Holly understands she plays a direct role in her future. She deliberates over how to state her desired outcome by listing what she wants on a sheet of paper. Holly is aware of three specific things she desires: (1) she seeks creative fulfillment; (2) she desires a lifestyle affording plenty of time for her to enjoy her passions; and (3) Holly wants to give back to others through her work and make a real difference in people’s lives.
Holly constructs her question: “How can I fulfill myself creatively while having more than enough money for an enjoyable lifestyle and, in the process, give back to others?” She is off and running, and she receives her answer faster than she ever imagines.
It is human nature to repeat patterns. Nature’s patterns repeat, habits repeat, lessons repeat, and our questions repeat. A tarot practice teaches us the value of repetition as we greet cards again and again. Tarot’s structure repeats as the Fool makes his run from the Magician to the World only to cycle through and begin again. He runs from the ace to the ten and back again for another loop. He never slows, never stops. He repeats and repeats ad infinitum.
If you want something new, if you want to change something, if you want to create a new possibility, repeat your questions until they are answered. Ask your questions every day at the same time because repetition is helpful. Ask your questions over coffee, in the shower, when you turn on your car. Ask your tarot deck every day. Ask these questions as if your life depends on it because, honestly, it does.
How you form your questions is the most important part of the practice. Why? Because the question is what organizes the mind. A good question tricks your mind into finding the best answer. Once a question is unrolled, it is the nature of the supercomputer brain inside our heads to figure out the answer.
Reversals
Reversals are the name for cards appearing upside down. Readers should develop the habit of flipping cards from the top of their deck as if flipping the pages of a book: from left to right. It doesn’t matter how the reader shuffles. If and when they decide to read reversals, the reader will know for sure if the card is reversed.
Reversals may be used in any number of ways:
Ignored: The reader should ignore a reversal when they are first learning to read the cards. The reader is never required to read a reversed card as a reversal. In fact, many readers ignore reversed cards altogether. This is especially advisable when a reader is first learning the cards, especially if they find reversals confusing.
Opposite Meaning: Traditional divination says to read a card’s opposite meaning if it appears reversed. Waite’s own divinatory reversals hold close to this idea. Oppositional meaning tends to become inadvertently moralistic. If the reader considers any card “good,” they may be tempted to read its reversal as “bad.” Life is simply not that cut-and-dried. Naming an experience good or bad before it is explored will shut down possibility, especially in a reading. Better to read reversals with subtle nuance or not at all.
Blocked Energy: Often a reversal can mean the essence of the card is blocked. In this case, decide on a course of action that will set the energy free.
Cards Requiring Extra Attention: Reversals, especially in spreads containing a large number of cards, can become part of the pattern of the spread. They can scream out to the reader, “Hey, look at me!”
How to Become the Best Possible Reader
Practice, practice, practice!
Pamela Colman Smith’s Stage Cards
The Rider-Waite-Smith deck contains a beguiling mystery. Pamela created fifteen cards in the deck holding unique attributes. These thirteen cards stand out from the remaining sixty-five cards she designed because each card is drawn as if the characters are standing upon a stage. These are called “stage cards.” The characters stand on smooth flooring, indicative of a stage. A flat, scrim-like backdrop appears with a painted scene. Each stage card bears a double horizontal line marking the spot where scrim meets stage.
Stage cards include:
Pamela had a professional background and deep love for the theater. Her tarot cards clearly are inspired by the characters and sets of her prized miniature theater. Pamela’s theater and costume design experience fostered a deck that could be as universally used and loved as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Each reader can place herself in the context of each card. Pamela’s illustrations provide ample space for universality and personal projection.
It’s not curious or surprising that Pamela crafted stage cards. The looming question is why only fifteen? Did Pamela begin with designing these cards and then switch midway? Why four pentacles, three wands, three cups, and three swords? Why a single court card? The numbers do not match. Numerologically they do not add up to any spectacular result.
It is conceivable that as Pamela began illustrating the minor arcana, she began to sketch each card as appearing on her miniature stage. Indeed, three of the stage cards are numbered two. She may have switched her style and wished to construct fluid cards in entire environments without the impediment of staging. The eloquent Six of Swords with boatman, river, and passengers or quiet Eight of Cups would have suffered terribly had she been forced to adhere to perimeters of staging.
While we may never know why thirteen stage cards exist, we can use them to inform our readings. We can use their appearance for an additional twist and questions when they appear in a reading.
How to Interpret a Stage Card
Examine what the word stage means. A stage is a period of time we move through, like the stage of childhood. A stage is a horse-drawn carriage, a stage coach, and therefore a vehicle of movement similar to the Chariot card. Universally, a stage is a platform for entertainment, be it a play, musical, dance, concert, opera, award ceremony, political speech, or presentation. Using the latter definition, we can imbue the stage card’s appearance with meaning and extra questions when it appears in a reading.
There are three ways to participate in a stage performance:
1. Audience member (observer)
2. Performer
3. Creative (creator/composer/playwright of the piece)
When a stage card appears in a reading, identify if you are:
1. The observer of the situation? (audience member)
2. Playing along in someone else’s game/story? (performer)
3. The creator of the situation? (composer, writer, creative)
Once you determine what role you play in the situation at hand, ask yourself the following questions according to the role you chose:
1. If you are the observer:
2. If you are playing along in someone else’s drama:
3. If you are the source of the situation/drama:
Feel free to examine what would happen if you were to switch roles.
FAQs
I’m afraid to get the card wrong. What should I do?
Nothing shuts down a tarot reading like fear of “getting it wrong.” Tarot is a tool. Tools are meant to be used. Feel your fear (if it pops up) and let it pass. Flip and read your cards with an open, curious mind. You’ll be surprised at all the wisdom you glean!
What gives tarot its power?
You do. Tarot’s power begins and ends with the person using it. The cards are useless alone. People who fear the cards or believe the cards hold mysterious power also funnel collective energy into tarot because ideas and attention contain power.
Do I need special powers to read tarot?
No.
Do I need to be psychic to read tarot?
Nope. However, tarot offers the practitioner an excellent way to hone their sensual, psychic, and sensorial skills. You see, everyone is born with different sensitivities. Each of us unique. Tarot opens up the space of exploration. Tarot tests us. What do we know? Why do we know it? Where is the information coming from? Just as yoga or dance teaches us what is physically possible, tarot opens the creative imagination to inner landscapes.
Does someone have to give me my first deck as a gift?
Nope. That’s an old wives’ tale that no longer serves its purpose.
Is tarot evil?
Is a gun evil or is it the person who uses it? Tarot consists of seventy-eight paper cards printed with colorful images—nothing evil there.
Does the Death card mean physical death?
No. Tarot is meant to be read metaphorically.
Do I have to do what the tarot says?
You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. Tarot will never tell you to do anything. Tarot reflects possibilities, suggestions, and ideas you may not have thought of. It offers confirmation, clarity, and creative reaction to any situation encountered in life. Because tarot does not operate on a literal level, it will never tell you to do something.
How do I know what a card means?
Every tarot card holds a bottomless meaning of interpretation. Here’s how you can cycle through it, in order of importance:
1. Your instinctual, intuitive reaction to a symbol.
2. A historical, spiritual, or scholarly definition.
3. You are a natural-born storyteller; we all are. Let the cards tell you a story, and discover where you identify with it.
What spread I should use if I am a beginner?
A single card is always effective, concise, and to the point. Pulling a single card will avoid confusion. The three-card spread can indicate past/present/future or hindsight/insight/foresight.
How should I shuffle?
You can shuffle any way you like. There is no right or wrong way to shuffle as long as your cards are good and mixed. You can shuffle Vegas-style or simply mix them around on a table like card soup.
Do I need to be psychic?
Not at all. However, do not be surprised if you discover hidden talents while reading the cards.