“But Theresa, why do I need to know the meanings of the cards if I'm going to bypass that stuff and just trust my gut?” I know, it seems counterintuitive (pun intended). There is a reason why we are starting out with the bones.
Over the years, I've heard many well-meaning tarot teachers tell people to “throw away the little white book” and “read what you see!” To me, that's like throwing someone into the ocean before they can swim. Sure, some people quickly figure out how to float, but this approach isn't always wise. (True story: I fell through an inner tube in the middle of a lake and sank like a stone . . . and almost drowned. I never learned how to swim, and that incident guaranteed I would be too timid to try again.)
A better option is to begin with a solid foundation. For one, building the groundwork will give you confidence. But there's another reason: those traditional interpretations serve as a jumping-off point, a place to begin developing your own meanings. It's also mighty helpful to have those meanings memorized because you will have times when your intuition seems to be stuck on idle. When that happens, you can lean on those interpretations. Often, they will spur your instincts, and soon, your sixth sense will roar back to life.
Plus, you need to grasp what tarot is all about because reading without knowing the background and primary info is like driving a car without understanding what it runs on or where the steering wheel is located. Imagine someone asking you how many cards are in the deck, and you don't have an answer to that fundamental question. Nope! Not gonna happen on my watch!
You might want to know where tarot comes from. There are loads of myths around the origin of the cards! Some people believe they come from the Egyptians or the Romani. Other folks say that it's all some grand mystery. Nope to all of that.
In reality, the earliest tarot decks were discovered in Italy during the 1400s. They were hand-painted and depicted European nobility.
Playing cards predated tarot, and it's believed that tarot was initially created as a game too. (Fun fact: they are still played as a game in many parts of the world today.) Tarot was called carte da trionfi (cards of the triumphs), and then sometime about a hundred years later, they became known as tarocchi.
With the spread of mass printing presses in the 1500s, more people were able to get access. But it wasn't until the late 1700s that they became known for divination when a man named Jean Baptiste Alliete, also known as Eteilla (his last name spelled backward—it took me years to figure this out!), published one of the first books on tarot as a tool for divination. This put a whole new spin on the cards and increased their popularity. There is some scant evidence that tarot might have been used for divinatory purposes before then, but Eteilla's work put the esoteric and divination front and center.
Most of the earlier tarot decks were based on the Marseilles art. In the early 1900s, the mystic Arthur Edward Waite commissioned the artist Pamela Colman Smith to create the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, which is still the most popular deck to this day. The brilliance of this deck lies in the illustrated Minors, or pips, which made tarot as a divination tool way more accessible. Many modern tarot decks are based on the Rider-Waite-Smith's imagery. It's iconic. (This is also why I recommend it as the best starter deck for beginners. Once you can read with the RWS, you can read any deck!)
Here's another fun tarot history note: In Tarot for Yourself, Mary K. Greer writes: “The cards were used in a 16th-century poetry game called tarocchi appropriate that hints at character analysis. Someone dealt or assigned trump cards to each person (usually noble ladies), and then the poet improvised a sonnet matching the card and the characteristics of each person.” Cool!
If you wish to learn more about Tarot's history, check out these books:
A Wicked Pack of Cards by Ronald Decker, Theirry DePaulis, and Michael Dummett
The Encyclopedia of Tarot, Vol. I & II by Stuart Kaplan
The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination by Robert Place
Llewellyn's Complete Book of The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot by Sasha Graham
There are many myths and misconceptions about tarot. Let me bust a few of them right here, right now.
You must be gifted your first tarot deck. WRONG! If I had waited for that to happen, I might have never gotten my mitts on one! I grew up in a rural area, and it was only on one of those rare outings to the mall that I came face-to-face with a tarot deck! The other problem with this myth is that your taste may not be the same as someone else's. I've been gifted plenty of decks that I don't find attractive. Don't wait for someone else. Pick a pack you like; only you will know what that may be.
Tarot is evil. NOPE. Tarot is simply seventy-eight paper cards. Cards are not harmful. As with any tool, your intention is what dictates how they will be used. For example, a hammer can be used to hammer a nail and hang up a beautiful painting. But it can also be used to bludgeon someone.
The Death card means you're going to die. Unfortunately, this one seems to be perpetuated by popular culture. Often, you'll see a movie in which someone gets a tarot reading, and when that character pulls the Death card, the fortune-teller gasps and predicts doom and gloom. This is a stereotype, nothing more. The Death card indicates transformation. Predicting death is very complicated. The Death card on its own often has nothing to do with death.
You need to be psychic to read tarot. While you don't need to be psychic, a good connection with your intuition will strengthen your tarot reading skills. But get this: reading tarot will also power up your sixth sense. In short: they work together like peanut butter and jelly. Without calories.
You cannot read for yourself. SO wrong. This is the way most readers learn. Also: who knows you better than you?
Tarot can “see all.” Tarot may be able to see a lot—and your intuition may too—but it's not infallible. Misinterpretation happens all the time. We're humans, after all. We don't always get it right, nor do we see every possible thing that might be creeping around the corner.
Keep in mind that you also have control over your future! Life doesn't just happen to you, and tarot isn't a passive act. Nothing is ever written in stone. If you don't like something that you see in the cards or the way something feels, you can change course at any time. As I always say: the cards tell a story, but you write the ending.
Can the cards predict the future? Yes, to an extent. They work sorta like this analogy: You're driving along at a good speed. Say you're going about fifteen miles over the speed limit. Suddenly, a car approaches you from the other direction. The driver blinks their lights. Most of us know what this means: either you forgot to turn on your headlights, or a police officer is ahead.
You check your headlights, and they are on. This means that the blinking lights must be a warning that a speed trap is waiting for you. You've been warned! Now you have a choice: You can continue zipping away like James Dean, and you can probably guess where this will end—getting pulled over and handed a ticket (or worse). You don't need to be psychic to see that outcome! But you also can choose to slow down. Take your foot off the gas. Maybe then, you might prevent that ticket from even happening in the first place.
Tarot for prediction works pretty much like that. It shows the possibilities as well as the problems. From there, it is up to you to use your common sense and free will to make smart choices.
Here's an example of the predictive process and how it can change depending on your decisions. I had a client named Leah who happened to be a drug dealer. She wasn't a dumb gal, but she just “fell into the life,” as she would say, and didn't want to leave it because the money was too good. Leah would get a reading every so often to make sure she was in the clear and her “career” would continue to fund her lifestyle.
One day, she got a reading that didn't look favorable. The Justice card was in her environment, and the Five of Swords was in her future. “You're going to get caught. I think your neighbors are suspicious of you. Get a job—now—or you're going to be in deep trouble.” She scoffed at the notion and left.
A few months later, the phone rang. I went to answer it and saw that the call was coming from the local jail. Usually, I would never pick up one of those calls, but for some reason, I felt compelled to do it this time. It was Leah. “Remember when you told me that my neighbor was suspicious? Well, it turns out my neighbor was a cop, and he busted me for dealing. Could you give me a quick reading?”
“When you get out and get your act together, I'll do it then,” I said and hung up the phone. This whole situation could have been avoided if she had paid attention to the warnings and made better decisions. I'm happy to say that since that time, Leah has paid her dues and gotten her life on track. She's now a proud mama and holding down a great job. In a way, her jail time was the thing she needed to change course. So perhaps it was meant to be? I'd like to think so. But I'd also like to believe that this painful lesson could have been prevented too.
This story illustrates one of the beautiful things about tarot and intuition: Life is a series of choices. Our life doesn't just “happen to us.” Our decisions dictate what sort of future unfolds. By paying attention to our choices, feelings, and the various signs around us, we can work with the Universe to create happy, healthy lives. Tarot and intuition are tools that anyone can use at any time for their benefit. Both help us to remain awake at the wheel, firmly in the driver's seat, moving toward a better destination.
Now that we've covered all that, let's look at the cards! The next section will give you interpretations for each card as well as exercises that I call “Tarotcises” and ways to embody the cards to find new, intuitive meanings.
Ready? Get your deck and let's go through it, card by card!