tarot

If you have ever wanted to find some easy to follow tarot cards instructions then you have come to the right place. Many people want to learn more about the tarot and using tarot cards, but finding tarot cards instructions that are geared for beginners can be tricky, especially if you are unsure of what, exactly, tarot cards are for.

First here is some basic tarot card information: tarot cards are not going to predict the future. They aren't going to give you answers from the cosmos. What tarot cards do is speak to your intuition. Tarot cards are not going to tell you anything that some part of you doesn't already know. The card can shed insight into a current situation or help you figure out answers to problems yourself. Keep that in mind as you read the following tarot card instructions.

1. Choose your tarot card deck carefully. This is not a normal deck of playing cards or a pack of trading cards that you are picking up. Each tarot card deck has its own energy and it is important to take your time in figuring out which deck you feel the most comfortable with. Look at the illustrations on the cards and pay attention to your senses. You will eventually find a deck that you feel a connection to and that is the deck you should purchase.

2. Even if you haven't started to learn what each of the cards means, take some time to become familiar with each of the cards in your tarot card decks. Really look at the illustrations and start figuring out how each one of the cards fits into the different categories of cards.

3. Begin studying what each of the cards means. Putting meaning to each card is easier if you can easily call to mind the card when you are reading about it. Sure it is easy enough to do a tarot card spread and then look up the meaning of each card, but a tarot reading is far more fulfilling if you already know what the cards mean.

4. The easiest tarot card spread is the three card spread. This card spread gives you insight into the past, the present and the future that surround the question you are concentrating on. We've already said that tarot cards cannot predict the future, but they can give you some insight into your feelings about the future. Once you've mastered the three card reading, you are ready to move on to other card spreads.

These are just a few simple tarot cards instructions. Obviously there are more complicated card spreads and there are techniques to learning about the individual cards and what they mean. If you are just starting out, though, hopefully these tarot cards instructions will provide you with enough background information to start you on your journey to being a practiced reader of the tarot cards. Before you know it, you will be advanced enough to do readings for other people.

Copyright (c) 2008 Steven Magill

The dream world full of symbols and imagery has long been a place of mysterious revelations. Many people use Tarot cards to decipher the meanings of their dreams. It is a very basic technique that can enlighten us and provide insight into this mystical realm of our psyche.

Dreams form the foundation of our conscious minds. Dreams depict the subconscious symbolic and pre-symbolic imagery that defines who we are as human beings. Dreams, in essence, are formed from the very essence of who we are. That is to say the subconscious defines our personalities like the silhouette of a peach defines a peach.

Keeping a dream journal can be an invaluable step in understanding your dreams. Although we dream every time we go to bed we often times forget what we dream about. Writing these dreams down while they are fresh in our minds keeps the imagery from slipping back into our subconscious minds and is essential in order to convert your dream images into Tarot images.

Some suggest using a hardbound notebook or journal to keep your dreams stored in. Others feel using a loose-leaf binder with pockets is a better medium to keep your dreams stored in. Many go as far to keep a personal digital tape recorder to record their dreams on so that if they recall a dream during the day they can easily record them onto the voice recorder. Whatever method you choose is entirely up to you and your personal preference.

When writing your journal try separating your dreams in to parts or sections. These sections should outline the imagery found in your dreams. Be sure to note any unusual environmental factors as well as these may hold keys to the overall meaning of your dream.

The Tarot cards come complete with a predefined corollary to decipher their encrypted meanings but dreams do not. So, in order to decipher your dreams using Tarot cards you must first separate your dream into parts. These parts consisting of dream imagery can then be transposed into Tarot imagery that can be deciphered.

The Final step in interpreting your dreams using Tarot cards is to correlate our separated dream images to corresponding Tarot cards. So, after identifying all the dream imagery and isolating them into parts select the corresponding Tarot cards whose imagery seems to correlate with the overall images in your dream. Then you can form an interpretation form these cards as to what your dream really means to you.

Dreams hold a vast untapped potential to help us decipher what is really going on in our subconscious mind. Utilizing divinatory aids to uncover the true meaning of dreams provides a means to trigger memories and decipher imagery stored in our sleeping state. Utilizing these methods can benefit us by enabling us to see into the realm of subconscious thought we are not privy to in our waking state.

Harnessing the power of our dreams to empower us in our lives can be a rewarding experience. It is fortunate that Tarot cards provide a mystic key to these deepest of inner thoughts. As it is frustrating to have the answers to your deepest questions at your fingertips but have no means to derive relevant meaning from them.

Most of what I'm going to lecture from come from Cynthia Giles' book: The Tarot, History, Mystery and Lore and some other resources.

The origins of the Tarot have been attributed a wide range of wacky sources paleolithic cave paintings, gypsy folk lore, Moroccan mystics and even gifts from space aliens to Egyptian priests!. Most of these stories are, of course, speculation of the wildest, most ridiculous kind, and only serve to muddy the waters when it comes to understanding the Tarot. If you re going to use the cards, it s important to understand where they come from so that you know their rich history, their potential and their value and not put faith in silly urban legends.

Tarot on parade

The first mention of the cards was in Italy in the 14th century, called Tarocco and used for games and already, authorities were lecturing against its use. The first known deck was made for the Vicsconzi-Sforza family of Milan, designed by the artist Bembo. According to Tarot expert Gertrude Moakley, the various characters illustrated in the major arcana represented the triomfi, or parade, that accompanied Italian celebrations.

Historians believe that there may have been other cards that existed to represent other characters but have disappeared over time. Few decks of Tarot cards exist for those early days, but there s enough similarity in artwork to make it clear that the deck was in common use in that time. Some historians believe that the Tarot was originally only used as a gaming deck to play a game called tarocchi until occultists began using them for divination.

Taking Europe by storm

The next big milestone in Tarot s history came in the late 1700's when Court de Gebelen, a member of a secret society of occultists, came across the a game of tarocchi and became obsessed with the cards. He believed them to be imbued with important symbolism which he attributed to ancient Egyptian lore. De Geblen wrote a nine-volume treatise titled "Le Monde Primitif" in which he discussed the meanings of the Tarot. That he attributed the Tarot s symbolism to the Egyptian s was based less on any real fact than on the fascination that Europeans had with Egypt at that time, believing it to be the center of all of man s early wisdom. Use of the cards for divination spread during that time, with a book by a man named Etteilla in 1783, in which he offered his interpretations of the cards. In fact, professional mystics began using the Tarot throughout Europe, although there was no consensus of what the cards actually meant.

The mystical background of the Tarot

Card readings have long been associated with Gypsies, although they certainly weren t responsible for their creation. For hundreds of years, Gypsies made their way across the world, living by their wits and earning a living by any skills that they could market. Gypsies were exotic, feared and looked down on, but there was an aura of romance about them that caught the imagination of Europeans in the 1800's. A book was published towards the end of the century called The Tarot of the Bohemians, attributing the Tarot to the Gypsies (who Europeans commonly believed came from Egypt). Interestingly, Gypsies used regular playing cards for divination not the Tarot.

In the 19th century, the famed mystic Eliphas Levi Zahed (whose real name was Alphonse Louis Constant) connected the Taror with Hebrew mysticism the Kabbalah. He saw the Tarot as a key to life, a tool that man can use to develop himself as a human being, as a way to grow so that he might find heaven. His work outlined 22 connections to the tarot major arcana, making it a tool to be used on the path to enlightenment.

The modern Tarot deck was most influenced by the cards used in the late 1800's by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The order was founded in England by three men who, according to lore, found an old secret manuscript written in code, deciphered it as the by-laws of a secret German society, and received permission to start their own group in England. Years later, the woman who gave them permission died, and the German members disavowed the British branch, saying they never got permission after all.

The modern Tarot is born

Despite its contentious beginnings, the Golden Dawn became a very influential group, with two members in particular doing a great deal to spread the popularity of occultism Aleister Crowley and Arthur Edward Waite. Crowley, a protégé of the Golden Dawn founders in England, created a Tarot called the Book of Thoth. Waite created the Tarot deck that s most familiar to modern users. Working with an American artist named Pamela Coleman Smith, Waite used a storytelling theme, utilizing characters from myth, legend and religion, allocating a group of symbols to each card that gives them unique meaning. His Tarot formed the foundation on which most decks that followed were based.

The next milestone in the Tarot s history came in the 1920's, when a Golden Dawn member named Paul Foster Case started a group in Los Angeles called Builders of the Adytum (BOTA). The BOTA deck is in black and white, created so that the owner could color the drawings themselves (it was a tradition in the Golden Dawn that each member had to make their own deck as part of their training). The group offers Tarot training to this day, although their interpretations of the cards are disputed by many divination experts.

Today, there are countless versions of the Crowley/Waite Tarot available, some with magnificent artwork, others less impressive. Whatever your choice of deck, using the Tarot as a divination tool is a personal experience, one that s origins reach far back in history. Hopefully, knowing the background of this ancient art will enhance your connection to the cards, and to your own readings.

Whether we admit or not, most of us have quaint notions of what tarot cards are.

On the surface, they are merely a deck of illustrated cards used in predictions, while the tarot.php>tarot card reader is an eccentric person dressed in robes seated behind the fortune-telling booth in the town fair. This image of tarot cards is, of course, clichéd, and yet we'd rather feel comfortable with its familiarity than dig deeper. We resort to the more convenient explanation rather than actually investigate the sometimes unpleasant yet gratifying truth of tarot cards.

Perhaps, the most famous among the tarot.php>tarot cards is the Death Card, a card quite unfairly invested with too much negative meanings and energies behind it, so much so that we usually think of tarot cards as tools of the occult, vehicles of evil even. While we can't deny the fact that indeed tarot can be used for such purposes, tarot.php>tarot cards can also be perfectly well-intentioned and can be actually used for good causes.

As a matter of fact, the earliest use of tarot cards in fifteenth century Italy was as a game, much like a deck of regular playing cards but with the addition of trump cards. It wasn't until late 17th or 18th century that tarot cards began to take on a more serious role in divination.

Over the years, the pictures in the tarot cards, their rich symbolisms, procedures, purposes, and meanings evolved in such a way that the characters portrayed in them have come to mirror all our follies, fears, strengths, and hopes. By stringing them together into a tale, we are able to retell and uncover the past as we would have liked it unfold, as well as get a sense of a manageable future we can feel safe with.

A radical and inevitable shift indeed for tarot cards from a simple game to life-changing therapy.

Carl Jung, a world renowned psychologist has always considered tarot as an alternative psychotherapy. By utilising the rich imagery encapsulated in every tarot card, we are able to voice out our concerns, look into our past, and prepare for the future. In some cases, children who don't yet know how to speak can use the images and characters in the tarot deck to piece together their thoughts and tell their story. Tarot cards then offer an alternative language system through which we can bring our Unconscious up to the light.

Jung explains that tarot cards represent different archetypes of human personality and situations. The Death Card then is not just simplistically a dreary card foretelling iretractable death to the querent (person who asks questions in a tarot card reading). Rather, the death card can be seen as the death, an end of something inside us: a vice, long standing pain, bad habits, sorrow, signaling rebirth.
We do not just blindly pick out cards from the tarot deck. Every moment of our lives we are armed with choices, choices that spell out and define our fate. It's not just what you keep out from your life that matters; it's also what you allow to make a difference. Even if they're just a deck of tarot cards.

After decades of being regarded as part of dubious occult practices, Tarot is now becoming more mainstream and available for everyone to experience and learn. Decks and books are widely available from most bookstores, New Age shops and on the internet. Numerous websites offer information on Tarot and message boards, where like-minded people can meet and exchange ideas. It has never been easier to learn the Tarot.

If you are interested in learning the Tarot, you can rest assured that you do not need to be ‘psychic’ or possess a ‘special gift’ to be able to read the cards. All you need is the enthusiasm and perseverance to keep practicing. Your skills and knowledge will be reflected in the efforts you put into your studies.

Before you start, however, consider why you want to learn the Tarot. Most people at first are interested in the fortune-telling aspect of Tarot, as the ability to predict the future offers excitement and perhaps even a feeling of power over those, who ask you for a reading. You need to be aware though that the Tarot cannot make any predictions, as the future is not pre-determined. However, it is possible to establish future possibilities or a trend by analyzing a situation’s past and present.

Most of all, the Tarot offers a tremendous potential to better understand yourself. By examining problems or issues with the cards, a more informed decision can be made on how to proceed. Learning the Tarot to get to know yourself is a rewarding and enlightening experience.

The beginner soon realizes that learning the cards can be a daunting task. Memorizing the many different meanings of 78 cards doesn’t seem to be an easy undertaking. But there are ways of learning the Tarot more easily and efficiently. Most Tarot students nowadays learn to read the cards with the help of books or mentors; the latter will save time and money. Check out your local area for courses or look on the internet for contacts; The Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI) has a list of professional readers, who also offer tuition not only in their local areas but also online.

My top tips for learning the Tarot more efficiently:

• Choose a beginner’s deck, such as the Rider-Waite or Sharman-Caselli deck. Don’t be tempted by the Star Wars or Flower Fairy Tarot deck; you need cards that offer plenty of archetypal symbolism and meaning, so you can develop your intuition.

• Don’t try and memorize card meanings from books. Instead, try looking at each card and figure out the meaning for yourself. The cards need to speak to you. Relate each card to an experience or phase in your life; this will help you to remember its meanings more easily.

• If you need to buy a beginner’s book, choose one that provides plenty of exercises to help you learn the Tarot more intuitively. A good example is Mary K. Greer’s 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card.

• Find yourself a friend to learn Tarot with or a mentor. Sometimes it is hard to get motivated on your own. A mentor will also help you to focus by guiding you with individual exercises and reading material, so you can achieve your goal more quickly.

• Be realistic on how much time you can devote to your studies; Tarot cannot be learned from one day to the next, although it offers insight and guidance the moment you start. Your accuracy will improve in time.

• Have fun! This is very important. Don’t put yourself under pressure. If you cannot invest much time, use the cards for meditation purposes or just reflect on them informally. Pick a daily or a weekly card and see how its image reflects the events occurring during the day or week.

Overall, learning Tarot offers possibilities way beyond fortune-telling. According to Gerd Ziegler, it is the Mirror of the Soul. It reveals your true personality and offers opportunities for self-realization and discovery. May your Tarot journey be filled with pleasant and enlightening surprises!

As a tarot card reader, part of your job is to read the card of a person in a manner that inspires trust and satisfaction in your client. You must read the combination of cards of your client in a fashion that is true to the cards but realistic and positive at the same time.

With that in mind, there is no card that inspires more dread and misunderstanding in clients than Death. For people that are unfamiliar with Death, they will naturally assume the worst when they draw this card. After all, the grim, skeletal figure of this card naturally conjures up thoughts of death, suffering and our own mortality.

Many clients will assume that either they, or someone they know is about to meet their maker, if they draw this ominous card!

In fact, the card Death has absolutely nothing to do with actual death. But it is your job to allay in your client their natural fears, and point out the true meaning of the card. Actually, interpreting the card Death and explaining its true relevance to a client, is something that I regard as a rite of passage for all new tarot card readers.

It tests your ability to calmly connect with your client, meaningfully unpack the true meaning of the cards and inspire in them trust and understanding. If you cannot do this with success, then you might need to practice more before you take you divining skills to the world!

1) What does Death stand for?

As I said, the first thing you need to explain to your client is that drawing the card death should not be taken literally. It does not stand for physical death at all, despite its frightening natural implications. It is, however, a very powerful card with serious connotations.

The best way to introduce the death tarot card is to ask your client - What does death stand for?

The first thing your client is likely to say is actual physical death, dying and absence. After they have made the obvious literal connections, ask them to offer non-literal meanings. No doubt they will start to think more creatively by giving more abstract meanings, like 'the end of something', 'the finishing of a journey', 'ending one chapter of your life, and embarking on another'.

Indeed these secondary understanding of the card Death are more accurate. After all, Death is merely a symbolic card that represents the end of one thing, and the beginning of something new and unknown.

So, in a sense, Death certainly does imply that something in the life of your client is dying or coming to an end, but with that death there will come rebirth and new life.

2) Interpreting Death for your client

The card Death is a very important card because it foreshadows that your client is about to experience a significant change in their life. It is a card the signals the end of one stage in the life of your client, and the beginning of an entirely new phase.

This process of ending and beginning should not be a frightening thing at all, but rather an opportunity for your client to overhaul their life.

Like when we experience a death in real life, your client should expect to feel a mixture of emotions when they end this era. Like when we say goodbye to a loved one, your client may not want to let go of the phase that is ending. They may feel unprepared, sad and want to cling to a particular situation despite the fact that it is naturally dying.

Explain to you client that when the experience the end of this era, they may feel all the emotions that accompany grief, like disbelief, anger and finally acceptance. This is all normal, and is part of the process.

Encourage your client to reflect on their past, understanding that each phase in our life has a mortality of its own. As with our physical existences, we cannot always control our destiny. Drawing the card Death means you client should be ready for major change, but it is your job as their reader to encourage them to embrace change philosophically, as we accept physical death philosophically.

3) Last points

Explaining the card Death to a client is a challenge but it is an important step in becoming a competent, inspiring reader. As a general point to people who want to start reading cards, there is no greater piece of advice than to first teach yourself how to be an effective communicator.

The death tarot card shows us that no matter how intuitive we are, no reader is worth their salt if they cannot communicate effectively. After all, your clients are relying on you and expect a faithful but positive explanation of their cards. You need to allay their fears when they draw Death, reminding them it is only symbolic not literal.

When you're feeling sluggish, unmotivated, and generally crummy, it's time to hit the tarot deck. Most people don't think of the tarot as a tool to boost motivation, but it can be, and a powerful one.

Here are some questions to ask the tarot to get your motivational juices flowing:

* What are the most challenging obstacles facing me right now?

Does this question seem obvious? Some of the most draining challenges you're dealing with are ones you aren't even conscious of on a daily basis. Identify them, remove them, and your energy will have less weighing it down.

* If I work hard and accomplish my goals, what will be the outcome?

More than likely you will conjure up cards with images of golden coins, glittery rainbows, and dancing, merry people. Draw a small sketch of your cards and put it somewhere obvious so that you will see it often; this will keep your mind on the rewards of all your effort.

* Who do I know that can help me with my goals?

Tarot often reveals things about people close to us we never knew; use it to find out who you know that has been in the same boat as you and can give you advice and assistance.

Some more tips on using the tarot to increase motivation:

* Pinpoint the goal you're most focused on right now.

Now, pick out the card from your tarot deck that best illustrates this goal or the benefits of achieving this goal. Take a mental picture of the card and focus on it when you find your motivation waning.

* Map out your plan.

Then, do a daily tarot spread to check your progress. Record your progress in a notebook or on your computer.

Tarot – myths and misconceptions

A Tarot deck is a pack of 78 picture cards – yes, that simple. However, the pictures on these cards are worth more than a thousand words – they paint a picture of life. A Tarot deck can also be thought of as a Book of Life but every time you read this book, the pages are rearranged and it tells a different story.
Over the years, some strange myths have grown up around Tarot and Tarot reading. However weird and outdated these ideas may seem today, there is often some truth in their origins.

• One of the first Tarot myths encountered is that it is bad luck to buy your own deck. - it should be bought for you by someone else. You could wait for ever for this to happen and then it may be one you don’t like. Choose and buy your own first deck, examine the images carefully and make sure you can relate to them i.e. don’t buy a dragon deck if you are frightened of dragons.

• You have to be psychic to be able to read the Tarot. Many who read the Tarot are psychic and this will lead to a different type of reading but not necessarily a better one. Anyone can learn to read the tarot although, as with anything, some will have more of an aptitude for it than others.

• The Tarot cards must be wrapped in black silk to protect them from “negative forces?” That is entirely up to you although personally I feel that dust and children’s fingers may be a greater danger. By all means take the necessary precautions to keep the cards clean and in good condition. They are, after all, your tools.

• Never let anyone else touch your cards. This is another personal choice. In a face to face reading situation it can be beneficial to let the querent (questioner) shuffle the cards in order to impart some of their energies into the deck.

• You should not read your own cards. Some say this is unlucky, I say it can be difficult to read ones own cards objectively. By this I mean it is easy to see what you want to see in your own cards.

• The “Death” card means that someone around you is going to die. Theoretically, this is possible as we are all going to die but it is highly unlikely that this card on its own will prophesise someone’s death.

• What the Tarot cards say is always right. Nothing is set in stone – more like written in sand. We all have our free will and the Tarot gives us guidance along with choices that we can make in our lives. It is up to us to choose our paths. If we see something in a reading that we do not like then we have the choice to do something about changing that thing.

• Tarot is evil. Also described as the “Devil’s Picture Book”. It is human nature to be afraid of something that is not fully understood or what is viewed as threatening. True, some of the images may be a bit scary in some decks but so are some great works of art – they aren’t thought of as evil.

At the end of the day, they are your cards for you to do what you wish with them. If performing a ritual before a reading makes you feel better – then do it. Just use your common sense. As long as it harms no one else – do what you wish.

TAROT – a brief introduction

The Tarot has many myths, mysteries and misconceptions associated with it and it is often regarded with suspicion. It is one of the most enigmatic systems of divination and prediction and has fascinated all who have come into contact with it for hundreds of years. No one really knows for certain how or when the Tarot began as its origins remain shrouded in mystery although the general opinion is that it originated in the 15th Century in Northern Italy. Since then, Tarot cards have been used for gaming, fortune-telling, meditation, psychological insight, ritual, creative inspiration and healing.

These days, the Tarot Reader is much less likely to use the Tarot as a 'fortune telling' device and more likely to use it for advice, guidance, empowerment and enlightenment both for others and her/himself. I believe that the future is not set in stone or predestined as our free will and the decisions and choices we make can change the direction in which we are travelling. The Tarot can help us to make these decisions and choices by showing us options that we may not have considered before. Sometimes we can be so involved in a situation that we cannot see the way forward.

The Tarot does not take away our free will or ability to make choices for our self and does not predict a fixed, unchanging future. It is best to consider a Tarot reading as advice and guidance.

A standard Tarot deck consists of 78 cards depicting scenes, symbols and images which can seem mysterious, curious, fascinating, disturbing or even amusing. There are 22 cards in the Major Arcana (Arcana means secrets) and 56 cards in the Minor Arcana. Each card of the Major Arcana symbolises an aspect of human experience or one of the life lessons that we need to learn. The cards of the Minor Arcana represent the day to day events and happenings, the dramas of our everyday lives and are divided into four suits. These suits can be compared to a standard pack of playing cards. The suit of Wands relates to Clubs, the suit of Pentacles relates to Diamonds, the Swords to Spades and the Cups to Hearts.

There are literally hundreds of different styles and themes of Tarot decks to suit all tastes and needs. Many of the early packs are French in design for example the Tarot de Marseilles and this deck is still very popular today. Some are more suitable for beginners than others for example the Rider-Waite (or similar) but it is important to choose a deck that suits you, one that you like looking at, one that you feel you can relate to and which stimulates your imagination. Take a good look around before you buy. Look on the internet; some books have lots of pictures of different cards and some shops have display packs to look at. If you like dragons - get a deck which features dragons, if you are into Medieval art - get one that features this type of artwork, if fairies or angels are what you are into - then get one of these decks. Although the pictorial images of the cards of different decks vary considerably, the basic essence of what each card is saying is the same. It is unlikely that you will be unable to find a deck that appeals to you or that you feel comfortable with.

Many people were left wondering whether karma had worked its magic yesterday after a pair of tarot card reading con artists were jailed in Chicago for defrauding their clients.

Eric Tan, 34, and Tracy Tan, 37, were charged with planning to defraud their customers by persuading them that they were cursed. Once their customers believed that they were cursed, the crooked con artists convinced them that the only solution was expensive counselling sessions at a potential cost of thousands of dollars. As a police press release explains, “Tracy Tan would convince the customers that they had a curse on them, and that she was the only one who could fix their problems. During this 'counselling,' she would charge her victims thousands of dollars for her services and products, which provided them with a false sense of hope.”

The Tans had their business, Psychic Tarot Card Reading, searched by police after complaints from unhappy clients. During the search on the unlisted business, which was located near Naperville, police seized a substantial amount of cash and jewellery.

Following the findings, arrests were made and as a result, Tracy Tan was charged with eight felony counts, which include theft, forgery and possession of fraudulent identification. Meanwhile, Eric Tan was just charged with possession of fraudulent identification. The pair were held by the county court on a bail of $750,000 each, and they are both scheduled to appear back in court next month.

This case emphasises the importance of using reliable psychics and tarot card readers. Whether you choose to have a telephone reading, an email forecast or even a face-to-face tarot card reading, it is essential that you can trust the reader.

About Tarot Card Readings

Tarot Cards are a deck of 78 brightly illustrated cards that can be used to make predictions about the future. The cards are divided into two sections, the minor arcana and major arcana. Like regular playing cards, the major arcana boasts four suits of 10 cards that are numbered from ace to 10, as well as four court cards; the page, knight, queen and king. The minor arcana features the more famous tarot cards such as The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance and The Devil.

Prior to a reading, Tarot cards tend to be shuffled by the reader or subject, before being placed face down in a pattern or ‘spread’ onto a flat surface. Every card’s position in the spread has a particular number, and the cards are then turned over in that order. The card’s position in the spread shows which aspect of the subject’s life the card is referring to.

Sources:

Associated Press
Chicago Tribune

Tarot cards are used in many European countries in card games but Westerners are more familiar with their usage in divination. A Tarot reader can look to the cards for insight into what is currently happening and what might happen in the future. Every card in the deck has its own symbolic meaning. There are traditional and themed decks available, so the symbolisms (and cards) can vary somewhat depending on what kind of card is being used. The most popular Tarot card deck used in the Western world is the Rider-Waite deck.

The Rider-Waite Tarot deck consists of seventy eight cards with a different image on the face of each one. Twenty two of the cards are the Major Arcana that are numbered from 0 to 21. In a Tarot reading, the Major Arcana cards relate to matters of great importance or significance. The images on these cards are very symbolic to that point that some of the images have entered the public consciousness. The image of The Fool standing on the edge of his summit and the dangling The Hanged Man are familiar images to many who have never had a Tarot reading.

The remaining fifty six cards in the Tarot deck are called the Minor Arcana. In a reading, these cards deal more with the day to day occurrences than the Major Arcana. There are four suits of Minor Arcana cards: Wands (fire), Coins (earth), Cups (water) and Swords (air). Each suit contains fourteen cards that start with Ace (example: Ace of Wands), then continue numerically the way a normal card deck would from two to ten. After the ten there are the Page, Knight, Queen and King. Other than the elements, the suits each also represent a faculty or theme. Wands deals with creativity or energy, Coins with the physical body or possessions, Cups with love or emotions and Swords with will or reason.

The way the cards are laid out (also called a "spread") has an impact on what the reader will be able to deduce about the problem or question at hand. The most common is the Celtic Cross, a pattern that involves ten cards total- five arranged in a cross, four forming a vertical line to the right of the cross and the last laying horizontally over the center card of the cross. The bottom center card represents what is at the core of the problem/question. The Tarot card on top of the center represents what is acting as an obstacle to satisfaction of the problem/question.

The horse shoe pattern has seven cards in a V shape. Reading from left to right, the Tarot cards represent past, present, influences, obstacles, expectations, best course of action and likely outcomes. A three card spread can provide a quick reading where the first Tarot card is the past, the next the present and the last the future. An Astrological pattern features twelve cards in a circle with an additional card in the center. In a Tetractys reading, ten cards are placed in a pyramid with four rows with each row representing an element.

More and more people these days are using tarot card readings to help predict their futures and guide their decision-making.

It is estimated that Indeed, most people that routinely read or have their tarot cards read to them will tell you that tarot cards are an extremely powerful source of information and, when interpreted correctly, can allow people to accurately predict the future and therefore make extremely good choices before life-changing events take place.

As with any alternative spiritual practice, there are sadly are plenty of skeptics that criticize or belittle mystical practices like Tarot reading.

Ordinarily these people are simply afraid of the power of the spiritual arts, and find non-conventional forms of knowledge confronting or disturbing.

If you are serious about learning Tarot card divination, or are simply curious about what you might gain from having your cards read yourself, you should not let skeptics dissuade you.

The truth is that many forms of knowledge derive from unexplainable sources that resist conventional strictures like science and medicine. The secrets of the magical arts will only be revealed to those who come them with open minds and hearts.

Indeed tarot card reading is a complicated and deeply spiritual art form that draws on the inherent wisdom of the cards, as well as your own intuitive divination powers.

Any person can learn to read tarot cards, but only a handful of individuals will truly master the process because there are only few amongst us that will be able to combine the ancient and magical authority of the cards with their own insightful capabilities.

For example, when I first had my tarot cards read when I was only eighteen years old, I was lucky enough to see a very experienced reader. She told me then that she saw that I had deeply intuitive powers and that I would eventually begin to use these powers myself. Her prediction was correct, and some years later I began learning tarot card reading myself. I have been doing so for the past twelve years and now have a small but thriving business in my own community.

Like all skills, before you can start reading tarot cards with any level of accuracy and confidence, you need to learn the origins and implications of each card. This requires you to learn about every individual card, then the interrelationships between one card and all the other cards in the deck.

In this article, I want to discuss the very important card of The Fool.

1) The History of the Fool

In order to grasp the meaning of The Fool in tarot, you first need to obtain an understanding of the Fool in history. In medieval times, the Fool played a very unique role in the royal medieval court.

His sole job was to amuse the King and the court, and he was not bound by the same rules of social propriety or order that bound his peers. In fact, the Fool was actually expected to break with social convention in order to provide comic relief and amusement to the monarch.

He was allowed to be outspoken, and was known to ridicule and tease other people who would otherwise be above reproach.

The Fool was also sometimes a very trusted consort of the King. Unlike the other advisors of other monarch, the Fool could be quite open in his opinions and views. His candid observations and analysis made him an invaluable ally to the monarch. The Fool was, in short, a welcome breath of fresh air in a society bound by strict rules.

2) What does the Fool mean?

Understanding the special social place of the Fool helps us to crack open the role of the Fool in the tarot deck. Like his actual historical counterpart, the card of The Fool forewarns of something unexpected. It is a card that represents spontaneity, unpredictability, the inconsistency of human life and the need to adopt an innocent, trusting belief in your own destiny.

When a client draws The Fool this is an indication that their future will not travel with the consistency and predictability they would like. You should warn them that despite their best laid plans, they must be prepared for surprises.

They must expect the unexpected. Be aware that the mere fact that your client draws the Fool does not mean that they should stop making plans for the future altogether. Rather it is a quiet reminder that they should ride the uncertainties of life with faith and humor, trusting that new unanticipated forks in the road and the overall ebbs and flows of life are leading to the place where they should naturally be.

In tarot, the Fool also suggests that your client should adopt an approach to life that is innocent and trusting. Like the Fool in medieval times, it is a childlike, carefree and trusting card that implies that life can be inherently good and uncomplicated. When a person draws the Fool it suggests they should trust that their life will unfold for them naturally, irrespective of unforeseen upsets and changes.

Thus advise your client to simply live their life with the innocence and ingenuousness of the Fool. By surrendering to changes with innocence, they will nourish their own joy and fulfillment.

Who has not had a situation occur that they wished they could change? Every once in awhile, something in life hits you, and you cannot help but think - I wish I could go back in time and change what just happened.

Unfortunately, time machines only exist in fictional movies and books. But what if you could change the future? What if you could make sure that something coming that would change your life for the worse did not happen?

That is one of the main reasons people seek fortune tellers. Most are trying to discover what the future is, especially the bad future, and how they can cheat it.

1) Knowing changes things

If you have never had a tarot reading, you may not understand how it works. Even if you have had a good tarot reading, you may still not understand exactly what a tarot reading is for.

A tarot reading is not like looking into a crystal ball. It is not the myth of the old gypsy woman sitting in front of you, with a scarf wrapped around her head and a crystal ball on the table, telling you exactly what will happen every second of every day of your life.

Tarot is, instead, a way to see into yourself, and a way to get a glimpse past the veil that is the difference between the present and the future. It is like a child who walks back stage and pulls the curtain aside for only a moment, just getting a glimpse of what is on stage.

This is why some people have a very hard time getting a tarot reading done. Most people head to a tarot reader, believing that they are going to come out with a map of their future, and leave, instead, with the knowledge that the reader has just looked deeply into their soul.

2) To know where you have been

A wise man once said - Only after knowing where you have been, can you tell where you are going.

Only by knowing what type of a person you are, can you recognize what type of decisions you would make when a situation occurs. This is often the hardest for people getting a tarot reading to hear.

We usually put blinders on when it comes to recognizing the type of person we are. I know that when I hear something about myself, something that I did not want to hear, I tend to deny it.

This is the reason that some people come away from tarot readings upset and in denial.

It is true, though, that before we can change the future, we need to know what type of a person we are. If you are an impulsive person, with a bit of a free spirit in you, you will make a completely different decision about a situation than you would if you were an obsessive person who loved things orderly and neat.

One of the things that you need to know is that, according to the tarot, things are not set in stone. Things can change as long as you keep your eyes, and your heart, open.

3) The Wheel Of Fortune

In order to understand the wheel of fortune, you have to think about the carnival. It never fails: in almost every carnival, there is a man or woman with a large wheel that is marked with prizes or money denominations. The carnie will say - Round and round she goes, where she stops, nobody knows.

Eventually the wheel slows and the spinner lands on something. This is what The Wheel of Fortune is all about. It is meant to show that no matter wherever the person is in life, they can change their situation with a little knowledge and a little effort.

If you are reading the cards, it can signify a change of fortune for the person, or it could represent an opportunity that will soon become available. This opportunity may be difficult to see, or may be available for only a short time, so the seeker needs to understand that they have to jump on the opportunity when it arises, or risk losing the chance for forever.

If The Wheel of Fortune pops up in response to a specific question, the card means that the person should take a few steps back and look into themselves, and at the bigger picture.

The Wheel of Fortune is definitely one of the better cards to get during a tarot reading, but remember, it should not take seeing The Wheel of Fortune in order for you to change your life. Little changes can happen every day.

The origins of the Tarot deck and its associated interpretive meanings may never be known with empirical certainty. However, one school of thought subscribed to by Kabbalistic occultists is that the Tarot deck stems from Jewish mysticism.

Some occultists even go as far as to say it was an abstract code developed by Kabbalah masters to embody their thoughts and ideas, in an allegorical format. But before we delve into the nuances of the relationship between tarot cards and Jewish mysticism we must first answer a fundamental question. What exactly is the Kabballah?

Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah have roots that date back to the third to sixth century A.D. during this period a book called the "Book of Creation" was written, in anonymity, and contained meditations based on the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This book is believed to be the foundation of modern day Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah. However, it would be many centuries before this seedling of ideas would grow into the tree of life we know today as the Kabbalah.

In fact it would not be until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A.D. that the ideas and concepts, in this book, would be expanded and built upon significantly.

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A.D. the writing and publication of the Zohar or "Book of Splendor" contributed greatly to the ideas and concepts of the modern Kabbalah. One of the major underlying principles of the Kabbalah was that the universe consisted of four worlds. These four worlds were created in order the highest world belonging to God and the lowest world belonging to man.

In addition these four worlds consisted of emanations called sephiroth. The four worlds were each separated into identical sets of ten sephiroth. The only difference being the energy associated with them. This energy is defined by the world that the sephiroth resides in.

Visual aids were constructed from the sephiroth. The focus of meditation was now on these geometric structures the most popular being the tree of life. It consisted of ten sephiroth connected by twenty-two pathways corresponding to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

With this in mind a correlation between the tarot deck and the tree of life may be formed. The first correlation is between the four worlds of the Kabbalah and the four suits of the tarot deck. The next correlation that may be formed is between the ten sephiroth and the minor arcana numbered ace through ten. The final relationship that may be formed is between the twenty-two cards of the major arcana, twenty-two pathways, at twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

The major debate among occultist is the placement of the cards on the twenty-two pathways. A common practice would be to start with the first card of the Major Arcana and proceed arithmetically to the world card number twenty-two. However, there is a wrench in the works. The fool card's number zero of the major arcana defies placement on the pathways as it would skew the other twenty-two cards to non-corresponding numerical pathways.

So, there in lies the rump of the problem. The placement of the fool card on the pathways has been the subject of much debate. Almost as if the fool cards true nature has disrupted the correlation of the tarot cards and the pathways. However, Court de Gebelin wrote an essay in the late 1700's defining a correlation between the cards and the Hebrew alphabet. In addition another author published in "The Primitive World" Comte de Mellet proposed the linking structure between the tarot cards and the twenty-two pathways marked by the Hebrew alphabet.

Whether you subscribe to the Kabbalistic school of thought regarding the tarot cards or not it is very interesting to note the many similarities between the Jewish mysticism and the tarot deck. It is hard to deny that such a correlation exists but never the less one must keep an open mind without irrefutable historical evidence.

Although, we may never know the exact origins, nature, or purpose of these mystical cards one thing is certain we will continue to enjoy these aesthetically pleasing mystical cards for ages to come.