The Tarot is one of many metaphysical tools that allow us to look into our lives and find out some extra information we hadn't really understood or hadn't known before. Working with the Tarot brings light to a confirmation of things you've always known (your own inner wisdom), or adds a new perspective to a perplexing question or problem. Tarot gives you a context for understanding not only what your choices are, but also how you feel about them.
The Power to make the Tarot more than just a deck of cards lies within you! With a lot of practice you can learn to use your own magic to help make your dreams and wishes come true. The Tarot is an instrument of insight into your own Free Will. You are the one who possesses the magic.
The Tarot reveals what's really happening below the surface of events around us. The Tarot is a visual medium with rich colors, symbols, numbers, and archetypes of each character(s) on the cards.
There are 78 cards in a Tarot deck, and they all represent every element of life, every emotion we will experience, every lesson that needs to be learned, and every condition possible to know. The story the Tarot tells every time you receive a reading allows you to know more, and gives you the decision making edge that extra knowledge can provide.
The 78 cards of the Tarot are divided into 22 Major Arcana cards that lead us through the archetypal passages in life's journey, and the 56 Minor Arcana cards illustrate the various things that happen to us from day to day (I explain this a little more in the Major Arcana & Minor Arcana sections).
The Tarot helps you to open your intuitive senses. Its pictures stimulate your gut feelings. The Tarot cards can absorb the thoughts, ideas, and curiosity of the person who shuffles the deck. By shuffling and concentrating on the question at hand, it's your energy that's being reflected through the deck of the Tarot. Your subconscious wisdom is shuffled into the cards. When the cards are thrown into different patterns, or spreads, the relationships between the cards reveal your personal wisdom as you infused it into the deck.
The first difference you'll notice is that the Major Arcana seems to represent mythological motifs, while the Minor Arcana show everyday events. That's exactly the case: the Major Arcana covers the "big stuff", while the Minor Arcana are the everyday cards.
People who have studied the Tarot for many years, or even those just starting out, are referred to as the Tarot Reader. Reading the tarot is much more than merely memorizing what each card or symbols mean. In addition to understanding Tarot cards, Tarot readers have strong backgrounds in disciplines ranging from psychology, mythology, astrology and even numerology. A Tarot reader can recognize that a reading opens up life's possibilities rather than narrows them down to an inevitable course of action. The best Tarot readers understand that no card has any one meaning, but rather is a metaphor for a variety of interpretations.
The person asking the reader a question is called the Querent. Querent's may ask specific question: "When will I meet my should mate?" or they may ask about the world: "What's going to happen in the year 2003?" Specific spreads can address different types of questions, such as how to set a goal, make a decision, or find a solution to a problem. Readings can span a time frame or reveal messages.
Many Tarot practitioners do a daily reading where there's no question at all. Often, they don't even interpret the cards when they select them, but merely make a note of what they are. Then, at the end of the day, they come back to them and note the connections between the cards selected and the day's events.
The reader's skill of interpreting the Tarot involves the ability to remain objective, to accurately describe the message of the cards, and with the Querent's help, to put that message in the right perspective.
The cards are a great tool, but they're not so great at giving orders or pronouncing ultimatums. The message of the cards, properly understood, gently guides you to arrive at the correct decision that already waits in your heart. The Tarot works when you look closely enough to get the real message, to both receive and understand what it is they are trying to tell you.
Just remember that your life path is a series of possibilities, branching off in one direction or another with each decision you make. A Tarot reading may suggest what could happen if you continue along a certain path, but it is up to you to take the responsibility of choosing your own direction. Nothing in this world seals your fate, but you!
There are many different types of deck out there that you can use. But my suggestion to anyone just beginning out in your Tarot journeys is to buy decks that are easy for you to understand. The Universal Waite deck is probably one of the best decks to use for a beginner, or those decks that closely resemble the Waite deck such as Robin Wood for example.
There are literally thousands of different types of deck out there and you may find it overwhelming and hard to choose the deck that is right for you. A good start would be to go to a bookstore or someplace close to you that sells Tarot decks and books on the Tarot. Ask if you can take the cards out of their packages to feel them, look at the colors and pictures on the decks and see if you get a feel for them.
I personally use the Robin Wood deck, which is very similar to the Waite deck with a few exceptions to the pictures themselves. This deck was my first ever Tarot deck and I found them to be very colorful, attractive to the eye, and most of all easy to interpret. But what deck feels "right" for you, will ultimately be up to you.
There are many different types of reading material out there on the Tarot. And again I suggest that you browse through the book to make sure that you are comfortable and understand what it is the author is trying to tell you.
Some of my personal favorites that have helped me to learn the Tarot were:
1) "Tarot Plain and Simple" by Anthony Louis. In fact I use a lot of his interpretations of the cards on this site. His book was one of the first Tarot books I read and I found him very easy to understand.
2) The Complete Idiot's Guide To Tarot & Fortune Telling written by Arlene Tognetti and Lisa Lenard. Yes just like every other "Idiot Guide" out there they have one for Tarot readers too. These two ladies start from the beginning of the Tarot to how it is used today. They use the Tarot's metaphors to help explain the Tarot to you in an easy way to understand.
3) Tarot in Ten Minutes by R.T. Kaser is a wonderful book on different spread combinations using different cards to get your answers. It helps you to understand and read the Tarot in a different perspective.
4) Tarot for Beginners by Joan Bunning is a complete step-by-step guide to learning the Tarot. Joan created a course at the Barnes & Noble website to help you learn more about the Tarot, Kiara Duquette, an experienced Tarot reader, is the course instructer. I have taken the course recently and I must say whether you are a beginner or an old pro with the Tarot, this course is definitely worth taking. Joan also has a website where she has placed the contents of her book, lessons and exercises to help you learn and understand what the Tarot is all about.
It is hard to tell you which books or decks is best for you to read or use, because only you know the answer to that question. Under my links section I have placed many different links that will take you to websites I have found to be useful, as well as places where you will be able to purchase books or decks.
I wish you many happy readings, and may the Tarot help guide you along your life path and open you up to a greater experience only imagined by using the Tarot!
Many Happy Readings!
geminis
