Ida Botha (idabotha82) wrote in the_spellbook, @ 2008-01-20 20:52:00 |
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Tarot for Beginners - Part 1
Tarot for Beginners - Part 1
Now kids, I've been doing Tarot for 10 years and thought I might type some stuff up to make it easy for anyone who want to learn about it, and since I'm part of this Asylum, I want to share it with you guys. Hope you like.
Taken from: Collins Gem's book of PREDICTING. A practical guide to the methods of fortune-telling. Includes Palmistry, Tarot, Numerology, Tasseography, and Occidental and Oriental Astrology. It explains the basic techniques of each predicting method.
Any feedback or criticism would be appreciated, especially since I make so many typing mistakes. The post is open for debate and discussion between yourselves. It took me a whole weekend of boredom to type this out! Leslie and Charlie, this is especially for you guys. lol. Hope everyone enjoys the information. Blessed Be!! :o)
*-TAROT-*
The exotically decorated cards of the Tarot have always carried with them an overlay of slightly sinister mystery. For centuries, practitioners of the occult and students of the esoteric arts has been insisting that the Tarot is a special kind of repository for a vast amount of ancient secret lore, all compressed into codes and symbols that only the fully initiated and the very learned can begin to unravel.
Origin
Part of this mysterious reputation comes from the fact that no one can be sure when or where the Tarot first came to existence. The puzzle of it's origin has led some occultists to claim that it goes all the way back to the sorcery-steeped priests of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Babylon or Ancient Tibet - or even, some have said - Ancient and Lost Atlantis. But other people have been in no doubt about the Tarot's inspiration, if not it's Origin, when they have labeled it "the devil's picturebook".
Devild and mysteries aside, what is certain about the Tarot is that it's made it's first recorded appearance in medieval France, in about 1390. and it is possible that the cards evolved as part of the secret folklore of the Romany Peoples (Gypsies) and came to Europe with them during their westward migrations centuries ago.
Nor did it stop evolving, even after it's use spread beyong the Romanies. The ordinary deck of cards that we use today for bridge and poker grew out of the Tarot, and many modern ovvultists have redesigned the Tarot cards, ommiting some and changing the basic nature of others, to create more up to date and more personalised sets. But the traditional Tarot of Europe, which became more or less fixed and standardised by the 18th century, remains the most impressively decorative, and the most richly furnished with shadowy symbolism.
It is not difficult to acquire Tarot cards. If the place where you live does not have a shop that specialises in such esoteric merchandise, you can probably get them by mail order through an advertisement in one of the more popular occult or fortune telling magazines. It is considerable more difficult, however, to acquire the ability to use the Tarot. Each card has, of course, it's own essential "meaning" , it's basic area of symbolic reference explained on the following pages. But knowing those basics is like knowing how to move the pieces on a chess board, you can participate, but there is much more to know before you can become accomplished.
Tarot and intuition.
Many different styles of Tarot cards are available. Choose a deck that you can respond to intuitively. Each one of the Tarot cards brings with it a long, dark train of symbolism, of subtle hints and echoes, references and connections, which resonate into the intuition of the skilled fortune teller. So you are advised, by the experts, to take the Tarot seriously - to go on with your reading beyond the basics and to become familiar with those resonances. You are also advised to handle your own Tarot cards as much as you can, to study the cards, think about them, attune them to your own intuitive awareness. And you are advised to treat them with respect. The tarot, it is said, will not be mocked. If you approach it light-heartedly, using it to answer frivolous questions and the like, the tradition says that you may receive answers you would rather not have had.
But if all this sounds a little ominous, it should be added that in medieval times people used Tarot cards to play quite ordinary, and presumable frivolous, card games - often for money. And history does not record that they suffered any ill effects.
Tarot cards - An overview
In any case, whether you intend to devote your life to mastering the Tarot, or merely wish to add it to your collection of techniques for occasional fortune telling, you must start at the same place - with an overall look at the cards themselves.
There are 78 Tarot cards, of which 56 divide into the sequential cards of the 4 suits. The suits are Cups, Swords, Pentacles and Wands, which respectively are the ancestors of our modern hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs. (The ancestry is even more obvious in modern European card decks, hearts in spain are "copas" - cups. Spades in France are "Piques" - Pikes, and so on.) Obviously there must be 14 cards in each suit, the intruder is an extra court card, which was not attained in the modern deck.
The 56 cards of the 4 suits are known as the Minor Arcana (from "arcane" - Secret) and they have their special meanings and symbolisms, and their own uses in fortune telling. But the main concern of the fortune teller is with the remaining 22 cards, the Major Arcana, sometimes known as the greater trumps. And with them we enter a positive Labyrinth of rich, dark and resonant symbolism.
the Major Arcana
The 22 greater trumps form the secret heart of the Tarot. The most decorated of the 78 cards, the most densely packed with occult significance, they will serve on their own, without the other cards, for enough varietys of fortune telling practice to keep you busy for years. Especially when, as the specialists would warn, you could spend those years merely finding your way through the labyrinth of mystic symbolism, before ever beginning to deal them out for a reading.
But, because not everyone has the time or inclination to become a fully fledged occultist, this information is offered as a simplified preliminary map theough the main routes of that Labyrinth, so that - without too much effort - you cn begin promptly to make some use of the Major Arcana.
Traditionally, the 22 cards are numbered and named (or at least 21 are numbered, as will be seen). Because scholarly experts like to disagree with one another, there has always been some argument about their proper order, and their true names. But we can cut through the argument by democratically following the majority view over the centuries. In the same way the meanings of the 22 cards are given here, in capsule form, are attempts at synthesising the most widely accepted areas of symbolic reference attached to each card.
Meanings
Aside from their individual meanings, the cards are said to fall into some neat groupings that can offer useful guidelines to the fortune rteller. Most important, all 22 of them can be seen to represent stages in the individual's progress through life. From the Fool (i.e. the innocent newborn) through to the "completion" symbol of the World, with the Wheel of Fortune at midpoint. The first 11, the first half of life, tend to be outward looking, oriented towards the world of positive action and development. The second 11 bring the individual to a more inward-looking time, meditative and quiet, focused on inner development,
Tarot cards are of course not double headed, and so will sometimes be laid upside down during a reading. Most experts believed thast being reversed in this way alters their meaning. Some modern fortune tellers however, have chosen to discount this extra complication, but to miss a substantial part of that way seems a trifle high-handed. So the following capsule definitions of the Major Arcana include abbreviated notes on the reversed meanings - which are often just the direct oppisite of the cards essential implications, but can sometimes carry more subtle overtones.
The cards of the Major Arcana and their Meanings
0. The fool
Unnumbered, and has been placed at number 22. The most complex and most human of the cards - "Holy Innocent", wise,man and trickster, with all of humanity's contradictions (male/female, good/evil, angel/devil etc.) Symbol of potentiality, new beginnings, fresh challenges. Often used as the significator, to represent the person who is the subject of a reading.
REVERSED MEANING: Beware of foolish lack of forethought.
1. The Magician
Only a step away from the Fool (as Jester) and so relating more to a stage magician, an entertainer, than to a master of high magical lore. A fortunate card, suggesting progress in outward, worldly understandingand progress also towards success. It's appearance suggests decisions to be made, with confidence.
REVERSED MEANING: Warns against hesitation, or against an unwillingness to confront the real world.
2. The High Priestess
Injects an element of intuition, special knowledge, creativity, the non rational, natural side of wisdom and understanding (inclluding the psychic sort). Indicates a femnale influence, and the prospect of light being shed on a secret or problem.
REVERSED MEANING: Warns against over-emotionalism,, irrationality, insufficient use of rational thought.
3. The Empress
Expresses the fertility principle, the bountiful, caring, loving, enriching symbol of the Earth Mother. Another fortunate card indicating a solid stability and also a natural growth and creativity (perhaps a new baby, material prosperity or just general well-being)
REVERSED MEANING: Domestic trouble and insecurity - perhaps sexual difficulties and career setbacks.
4. The Emperor
Male symbol who is the father figure to the Empress's Mother. Indicates worldly success, authority and power, the triumph of rationality, outward energy and strength of will. A fortunate card for men, for women it can mean a dominating male influlence, or achievement of ambition through forcefulness and controlled aggresion.
REVERSED MEANING: Warns against weaknesses, submission.
5. High Priest
Spiritual rather than worldly power and authority - and the male counterpart of the High Priestess, offering rational knowledge, wisdom creative intelligence, inspiring perceptions. Indicates the gaining of insight and understanding, not necesarrily religious, always profound yet sensible. Can refer to the influence of an important teacher or adviser.
REVERSED MEANING: Beware of lies, misleading advice.
6. Lovers
Has to do with love relationships, obviously, and contains all the conflicts - choices to be made between the attractions of the flesh and of the spirit. A card that suggests a rewarding relationship or a good marriage, and extends to indicate generally positive decisions.
REVERSED MEANING: A wrong choice will be made, perhaps involving sexual infidelity. Also warns of sexual difficulty.
7. The Chariot
Symbol of movement, indicating travel and more generally, progress and achievement. (some of this also contained within the "lucky number" of the card). Signifies an important stage that has been reached in the outward advance through worldly life, with obstacles overcome and success gained through personal dynamism.
REVERSED MEANING: Beware of too much dynamism leading to ruthlesness.
8. Justive
A useful balance to the preceding success card, the Chariot. A reminder of the need for balance and sound judgement, awareness that a complete person needs more than material triumphs - that heart and spirit must also be served. The card also means that the person is to be judged - which can be positive unless the subject is found wanting.
REVERSED MEANING: Injustice, harsh or unfair judgement by others.
9. The Hermit.
Like Justice, a card that shows the Tarot moving away from outward advance toward less worldly and less material considerations. Suggests a need for reevaluation, inner-growth and development, perhaps for council about the future.
REVERSED MEANING: warns against imprudence, a refusal to stop and think things out or take wise advice.
10. The Wheel of Fortune
Another clear sign of a new stage or beginning. Change must come, or life will stagnate, and luck will play a part in decisions to be made. A fortunate card, implying that destiny will work itself out positively. Alludes to the mystic idea of Karma, individual inner growth toward wholeness and harmony.
REVERSED MEANING: Ill luck, decline adversity, changes for the worse.
11. Strength
Indicates the need to face new developments with courage, fortitude and moral fibre. Implies setbacks and difficulties, yet the card is fortunate, for it suggests that inner resources will overcome these adversities. (Some experts prefer to transpose the positions of this card and Justice, but this order is valid)
REVERSED MEANING: Obstacles will not be overcome, due to lack of moral or spiritual strangth.
12. The Hanged man
When this card is right side up, the figure is upside down. Implies risk or sacrifice, perhaps a decision to abandon worldly values, and to plunge into the depths of the self, to seek the inner reality needed to become whole. From that sacrifice comes enlightment and renewal.
REVERSED MEANING: Beware a rigid refusal to accept that there is more to life than the practical, rational world.
13. Death
Not at all ominous, despite the name, number and image. It takes the preceding card a step further, for true inner development, a kind of death of the worldly self is required, so that an inner spiritual psychic rebirth can be achieved. Also implies that every setback and failure can bring new understanding, and therefor new hope.
REVERSED MEANING: Foreshadows destruction without renewal.
14. Temperance
Another of the Tarot's virtuous abstraction, emphasising the need for moderation, and reminding us that a truly complete life exhibits a harmony between the material and spiritual sides of things. In short, don't go too far "inward". A fortunate card for all enterprises demanding the balancing of many complex factors.
REVERSED MEANING: Difficulty and setbacks caused by lack of harmony.
15. The Devil
A distinctly ominous card, reflecting what can happen if we let some of our inward qualities - such as sex impulses, selfishness, the urge to wield power - get out of control or out of balance. Yet, controlled, the strengths of those drives can be positive, an energy source for more admirable development.
REVERSED MEANING: warns against giving way to impulses, the dark side of our nature.
16. The Tower
Another unfortunate card, a clear picture of ruin and destruction, of hopes and ambition being shattered. But there is a positive side, out of destruction can come rebuilding, out of suffering can come understanding - once the lessons are learned and the painfully acquired perceptions have been assimilated.
REVERSED MEANING: Ruin and calamity needlessly brought upon oneself.
17. The Star
A fortunate card, also indicating the hope of renewal after calamity. It promisis new and rich horizons, perhaps in previously unforseen directions - once one has been tempered and enlarged by having come through the bad times. A card of enlightment and enhanced awareness.
REVERSED MEANING: Warns against spiritual blindness that prevents seeing or taking advantage of new horizons.
18. The Moon
All the irrational, supernatural associations of the moon can make this an unfortunate card for the rational person, because it indicates a time when only intuition, the non-rational side, can overcome obstacles. Yet the non-rational must be used with care, for it can lead toward a dangerous fantasy world.
REVERSED MEANING: Warns against fearing the non-rational and settling for a life of sterility.
19. The Sun
Beyond the moonlit passage of darkness, a burst of sunlin success and happiness. The goal is visible, illumination in every sense, adversity overcome, wholeness and harmony achieved (another circular mandala). The card signifies the triumphant reward for coming through hardships.
REVERSED MEANING: Failure, the collapse of hopes, or at best a superficial, dubious success.
20. Judgement
Not to be confused with Justice, this card concerns a day of judgement - when you pause to weight up what you have done, and what you have become, in your passage through life. A fortunate card, indicating that you have achieved worldly goals, have attained inner development, and are now entering a time of serenity and happiness, a time of new beginnings.
REVERSED MEANING: Remorse.
21. The World
The final stage, the ultimate circular mandala symbolising completion, triumph, fulfillment. And because the major arcana can be seen as a circle, a closed cyclical system, you can see it moving on to the fool again, beginning a new cycle but perhaps on a higher plane, with greater goals.
REVERSED MEANING: Ultimate failure rather than ultimate fulfillment.
The Minor Arcana
As the name minor arcana indicates, the remaining 56 Tarot cards have far less range and richness of meaning for fortune telling. So you might feel inclined to leave this section aside for a while, until you feel more at h9ome with the mysteries and meanings of the 22 great cards that have just been described.
But a time may come when you may want to expand your fortune-telling horizons and aspire to the use of the whole Tarot. So the following provide capsule introductions to the spheres of influence where the minor arcana has revelance.
Once again, if the card is dealt upside down, its meaning is reversed - but even in a more explicitly opposing or extreme manner than with the major arcana. So these fairly obvious reversed meanings have not been included here.
In a reading using the lesser cards, you can choose a significator - a card that represents the person who is the subject of the reading - from among the court cards. It should usually correspond with the subject in sex, complexion and (where possible) personality.
Choosing the Significator
For a reading for a fair haired young woman, use the queen of cups.
For a fair mature woman (especially if well to do), use the queen of pentacles.
For a dark and perhaps dangerous woman, use the queen of wands.
For a dark and sad woman, use the queen of swords.
For a fair young man, or any young man in love, use the knight of cups.
For a wealthy young man, use the knight of pentacles.
For a dark young man, use the knight of wands.
For a dangerous young man, use the knave of wands.
For a fair-haired mature man, use the kind of cups.
For a wealthy mature man, use the king of pentacles.
For a mature man in a position of power, use the king of swords.
For a dark and/or dangerous man, use the kind of wands.
TAROT SUITS
Spheres of infuence.
Each Tarot has it's own symbolic sphere of inflluence and revelance.
Cups relate to emotional matters, love, sex, marriage, fertility and creativity.
Pentacles have to do with wealth, finance, commerce, prosperity and economic security.
Swords concern activity and progress, opposition and conflict, the need to impose order and chaos.
Wands relate to the mind, the world of ideas and deep thought, intellectual strength and purposefulness.
Suit of cups
Ace: fertility, love, abundance.
two: love, friendship, harmonious connections.
three: happiness and joy from love
four:emotional joy (but beware of excess).
five: joy turned sour. loss.
six: happy memories, the past reawakened.
seven: ambition, hope (with forethought).
eight: disappointment, search for new paths.
nine: peace, contentment, fulfillment.
ten: peace again, happiness, achievement.
knave of cups: a thoughtful, helpful youth.
knight of cups: a bright cheery youth, a lover.
queen of cups: a fair, loving, creative woman.
king of cups: an intelligent, successful, worldly man.
Suit of swords:
Ace: success, attainment of goals.
two: good fortune out of adversity.
three: benefits from paths being cleared.
four: serenity, calm, respite from struggle.
five: further struggle, possible defeat.
six: difficulties surmounted, travel, good news.
seven: difficulties - be brave and careful.
eight: difficulties - be patient.
nine: disaster and failure - be steadfast.
ten: disaster, the darkest hour before dawn.
knave of swords: a clever, even guileful young man.
knight of swords: a soldier, dark, strong youth.
queen of swords: a dark, clever woman, a widow.
king of swords: a dark, authoritive young man.
Suit of pentacles
Ace: material prosperity.
two: disruptions in material matters.
three: achievement in business.
four: wealth, pinnacles of success.
five: ruin, financial collapse.
six: financial aid, stability.
seven: material progress, but be wary.
eight: rewards for care and effort.
nine: riches, achievement.
ten: wealth, an inheritance.
knave of pentacles: a careful, sensible youth.
knight of pentacles: a good, honourable young man.
queen of pentacles: a sensible, generous, wealthy woman.
king of pentacles: a careful, practical, successful man.
suit of wands:
Ace: inspiration and new beginnings.
two: good fortune, well deserved.
three: gains from brave initiatives.
four: success and popularity.
five: setbacks and obstacles - be determined.
six: achievement, encouraging news.
seven: troubles, but promising prospects.
eight: forward progress - be confident.
nine: opposition - be unyielding.
ten: obstacles and struggles.
knave of wands: a dark, lively youth, an employee.
knight of wands: a dark, energetic man, a journey.
queen of wands: a practical dominant woman.
king of wands: a powerful, determined man.