The tarot is only one of many decks you can use. Though generally associated with psychic readings, the cards can also be used for communicating with spirit. Doing a tarot-card séance involves laying out chosen cards in a particular traditional pattern and then studying the symbols on those cards, based on their positions, and recognizing their significance with regard to the departed loved one.
First of all, you need one card to represent spirit . . . the particular spirit you want to connect with. I’ll term this the Spirit Card. You can find this by looking through all of the cards. Have a picture in your mind of him or her, and then fairly quickly run through the deck looking for a card that would seem to be a good one to represent this spirit. It may be that the figure depicted in the artwork on the card reminds you of him or her, or it may just be a strong sensation or feeling that whatever is shown on the card is a connection. You have seventy-eight cards to choose from, so you should be able to find one that “feels right.” If you just can’t decide, then you can use one of the court cards. Use a king or queen for an older person, a knight for a younger man, and a page for a younger woman. Use either a sword or wand suit for someone who was dark-haired and a pentacle or cups suit for someone who was fair-haired. Take that card and set it aside.
However, an alternate and more precise (and, to my mind, much better) method is to not use a card at all but to substitute a photograph of the deceased. Place this where the Spirit Card would normally be.
Shuffle the rest of the cards and then cut them with your left hand, to the left. Spread all the cards, face down, across the table and pull out ten cards placing them, still face down, in a pile. These are the ones you will use for the séance. There are various layouts that can be used, but for the sake of explaining the process I’ll stick with one of the most popular layouts: the Celtic Cross. The layout for the Celtic Cross is as follows:
S is the spirit’s photograph (or the Spirit Card you chose first) and is laid down in the center, face up. It is then covered by the first of the ten cards chosen, which is laid on it face down (all the remaining cards are laid face down). The second card chosen is laid across those two. The third card is placed above these and the fourth below them. The fifth is placed to the left and the sixth to the right. The remaining (7 through 10) are laid down in a vertical line to the right of these in ascending order.
The meanings of these various positions are as follows: 1—that which covers spirit; 2—that which crosses spirit; 3—what is above; 4—what is below; 5—what is behind (in the past); 6—what lies ahead; 7—spirit himself/herself; 8—spirit’s “house”; 9—hopes and fears; 10—final outcome.
That which covers spirit: (1) is the impression that spirit created (I’ll talk more about the individual card interpretations in a moment). For example, you might have seen your Uncle Charles as an easygoing, lovable guy, but the card that covers him shows him as a powerful king. However, when he was alive you only knew him in the family environment. Questioning family members and business acquaintances confirms that, as a businessman, Charles was indeed very purposeful and powerful.
What crosses him: (2) shows the forces or people who worked against him and, again, with a little research you will probably find that what is indicated by the card was, in fact, what he had to struggle and contend with.
It is spirit that is directing these cards. Spirit directed you to pick out these particular ten cards, because they are the ones that will give you the true, detailed picture of your loved one. The purpose of Spiritualism is to prove the continuity of life after the transition we term death. This is exactly what is happening here. By controlling the selection of the cards, spirit is providing the information that proves the contact with this particular spirit.
What is above: (3) relates to what he or she really aspired to. Although a business tycoon in everyday life, it might be that Uncle Charles really aspired to a life where he could “stop and smell the roses”; perhaps he had a secret longing to write poetry!
What is below: (4) is that which he felt deep down inside. In fact, this may well also reflect what he aspired to, or perhaps it will show that he had a tremendous inferiority complex. There are several cross-checks with this layout, several cards that confirm others. For example, if you are using a card as the Spirit Card, rather than a photograph, then you chose that card. You may then find that much of what you had seen when you chose that card is also reflected in cards 1, 3, and 7, provided by spirit. Similarly, what is shown as crossing him (2) may well be reflected in hopes and fears (9). His “house” (8) relates to his close friends and/or family, so this may well correlate with several of the other cards.
What is behind: (5) deals with spirit’s early life.
What is ahead: (6) relates to any legacy that spirit may leave, anything for which he or she will be especially remembered.
Spirit himself/herself: (7) is a closer look at the overall picture of the deceased, particularly examining his or her beliefs, thoughts, and actions.
His/her “house”: (8), as mentioned, refers to those who were especially close to spirit when alive—the really close friends, whether blood relatives or not.
Hope and fears: (9) is self-explanatory, dealing with the hopes and fears that were prevalent in spirit’s life.
The final outcome: (10) is known insofar as it was death, yet that may not be the final outcome, for there are those who are forgotten almost as soon as they die while there are those who are talked about—praised or vilified!—for many years afterward.
Now that we’ve established the meanings of the positions of the cards, let’s look at the cards themselves. How do you read them?
I’d recommend using such a tarot deck as the Rider-Waite, since in that deck all of the cards have full scenes for each card. Some decks show only “the numbers.” In other words, the Seven of Swords (for example) simply shows seven swords; the Three of Pentacles shows three pentacles; the Eight of Cups shows eight cups; and so on. But decks such as the Rider-Waite have full scenes that incorporate the seven swords, three pentacles, or eight cups. Some of these scenes are quite elaborate while others are fairly simple, but they all give you more than the basic number of swords, cups, or whatever.
Turn over the card as you come to it, in order; don’t turn over all of them at the start. As you turn the card face up, you will be struck by one particular item on that card, as your eyes are directed by spirit. One thing above all others will seem important to you, and it won’t necessarily have anything to do with the immediate symbology, suit, or value of the card. Let’s take the Major Arcana’s “Death” card as an example. Books on the tarot will tell you that this card symbolizes transformation and unexpected change. It can also be destruction followed by renewal—death and rebirth. There are also meanings suggested for when the card is found upside down . . . ignore all of these. In using the tarot for spirit communication, what you see is what you get! Look at the card the right way up, no matter how it first comes to you.
On this “Death” card (incidentally, you can ignore these titles on the Major Arcana cards . . . “Death” has nothing to do with an actual, literal death), there is a somewhat complex scene of a skeletal figure in armor astride a white horse. He carries a banner with a large rose on it. Before him stands a priest, with two young figures kneeling beside him. An apparently dead king, his crown beside him, lies almost under the horse’s hooves. In the background there are two towers with a sun either rising or setting between them. Closer is a lake with a boat similar to a Viking vessel. There are many other smaller details. When you turn over this card, your eyes will fasten on one particular item. This is what is significant so far as spirit is concerned; this is the message or part of the message that spirit is bringing to you.
For example, let’s say that your eyes are instantly drawn to the boat on the lake. You immediately (or with a little research!) realize that the spirit you are contacting—let’s stick with Uncle Charles for an example—was a great lover of sailing. Perhaps he had a boat and would sail on the local lake, as often as he could get away. As you study the card, you may then recognize other items that are significant, but the boat is the main one. It is spirit saying, “Here is part of my proof of survival. Here is an identifier.” Now look at that “identifier” in the context of the position in the layout.
Let’s say that it was actually position 9 that produced this Death card. The meaning of 9 is “hopes and fears.” You can then relate the boat to Uncle Charles’s hopes and fears in order to get an even stronger recognition point. Perhaps Uncle Charles had always loved sailing but at the same time had a fear of falling overboard and drowning! In fact, perhaps Uncle Charles had never actually owned a boat but had only dreamed of owning one because of this fear. This, then—the boat as focal point together with the meaning of the card’s position—gives a very strong endorsement of the fact that you are indeed in touch with the spirit of Uncle Charles. The rest of the cards in the complete layout will work the same way, so that, at the end, you will have a complete picture of your departed Uncle Charles.
It is the object of Spiritualists to prove the continuation of life after what is termed death. Working with the tarot can do exactly that, and more. For not only will you get confirmation of spirit, but in the same way—through examining and interpreting the cards—you can receive vital messages from spirit.
And you can receive messages without going to the trouble of doing a full layout. At any time, you can take the cards, shuffle them, and then cut them to look at just one card. Using that same “what strikes you first” method, you can get a message from spirit. You might even make two or three cuts in order to have what amounts to a conversation with spirit. Sometimes this works to bring you an answer to something you have asked spirit in a meditation.
With any regular séance with a medium, there are frequently facts revealed that are not immediately obvious. Many times you have to check with other relatives, or dig through old photographs and letters, to see that the evidence presented is valid. So it may be with what you get from the tarot cards. In this example, initially you may have no idea what the connection is between Uncle Charles and sailing; it may take quite a bit of research to find that the focus on the sailing boat was an important one. This is why it’s important to keep careful records of everything that you get. Write down everything you see in the cards, even—or especially—when it doesn’t immediately click. You might have turned over that Death card, in the hopes and fears position, and been drawn to the boat on the surface of the lake, and it might have meant absolutely nothing to you. But by writing it down and then later checking it out, you’ll find that it does make a remarkable impression on you when you discover that it is a valid and important point in verifying the continued existence of Uncle Charles.