Introduction To The Tarot

The Tarot is an interesting and fun tool used to build up your psychic and intuitive skills. The Tarot has been around for hundreds of years, maybe thousands in different forms. The images on the cards are beautiful,  detailed, and descriptive. There  are many different tarot decks you can buy with different themes from a traditional European deck to a Native American or African theme. They even have multi-cultural decks that are very popular. Unlike astrology which is a precise mathematical science the Tarot is more fluid and geared towards developing your personal mystic talents.

The Tarot deck consists of 78 cards divided into 2 main sections which are the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The word Arcana means secrets or mysteries. The Major Arcana has 22 cards, 0 to 21 and the Minor Arcana has 56 cards. The Minor Arcana is then divided into four sections which are the Wands, the Cups, the Swords, and the Pentacles. Each one of these sections have 14 cards. The Minor Arcana is similar to a standard deck of cards with the exception that a regular deck of cards has three face cards per suite whereas the Minor Arcana has four face cards which are called court cards. The Page is the extra court card.

The Major Arcana which is 0 to 21 are the main theme cards in a reading. These cards carry the most weight when doing a reading. Each card shows a different character or theme like the Emperor or the Tower and each card has a meaning.

The Minor Arcana has four suites The Wands, The Cups, The Swords, and The Pentacles. The Wands is comparable to the element fire in the zodiac (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius). The Cups are comparable to the element water in the zodiac (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces). The Swords are comparable to the element air in the zodiac (Libra, Aquarius, Gemini). And the Pentacles are comparable to the element earth in the zodiac (Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo). Each card in Minor Arcana has a meaning.

In a reading the cards are dealt in what is called a spread. The spread is an arrangement of the cards in a pattern where each position in the spread has a different meaning. There are many different spreads and each one has its own meaning. A spread can consist of one card all the way to the whole deck. But most spreads are between three to fifteen cards. One of the most popular spreads is the Celtic cross spread which has ten cards. There are other spreads like the dream explorer spread, the birthday spread, the astrological spread, plus many more.

In a Tarot reading you ask yourself a question or a seeker asks the reader a question. After that the cards are shuffled cut and laid out in a spread and interpreted by the Tarot reader. The reader doesn’t answer yes or no questions because a reader can’t make decisions for you. Questions about your love life, friends and family, career or financial matters are typical. Other questions may be about conflicts, health issues, or about your pets.

Working with the Tarot is fun and interesting whether you are the reader or the seeker. More lessons going into depth will be coming soon. Supreme Moonbeam peace!