02 0666 CH01 4/23/03 9:30 AM Page 3 Chapter1 What Is Tarot? In This Chapter ◆ Your future in a pack of cards? ◆ The reader and the Querent ◆ How Tarot works ◆ Are you a Fool? Admit it—you’re curious. Who isn’t? Everyone wants to know about the future! Hindsight might give you 20/20 vision for understanding what’s happened in the past, but what (or who) helps you figure out what’s coming up in the future? When you think of fortune-tellers, do you picture Whoopi Goldberg in the movie Ghost, channeling spirits with a crystal ball? How about the Wizard of Oz (the mighty Oz sees all, knows all!), dispensing magical powers to eager applicants who’ve proven themselves worthy? Is it even possible to “predict” or “tell” someone what his or her future will be? Remember a little thing called Free Will? We do. (We know some skeptics are among us.) So right now you’re curious about the Tarot. What, exactly, do Ta r ot cards have to say about the future—most particularly, about yours? Let’s take a closer look at the cards. 02 0666 CH01 4/23/03 9:30 AM Page 4 4 Part 1: All About Tarot Just a Pack of Cards? We’ve seen you lingering in the New Age section of your local bookstore, eyeing the Ta rot decks. Maybe you’ve heard about the Tarot from friends or co-workers who’ve gotten readings. Their enthusiasm has you wondering. Flipping through the deck, the medieval-looking drawings on the cards seem so exotic. What could these mystical talismans possibly mean for you? Is it all just a bunch of hooey in a fancy-looking deck of cards? If nothing else, you think to yourself, it’s some fun for a Saturday after- noon. Yet you have that nagging question of how that situation at work is going to turn out. What would the cards have to say? From time to time, we all look for guidance. It could Card Catalog be on a grand scale, something that will affect the very course of our lives, such as deciding whom to The Tarot is an ancient method of fortune-telling that uses marry or where to live. Or it could be something of the 78 cards of the Tarot deck smaller consequence but important in the moment. to create a story of you—past, We look to a lot of sources to help us make our deci- present, and future. sions. Here’s a list of some of the sources most of us don’t think twice about consulting every day: ◆ We look to the five-day weather forecast to get a handle on whether we’ll need to carry an umbrella, break out the sun block, or put the snow tires on the SUV. ◆ How about listening to the radio for the daily traffic reports? It’s essential to know the most efficient and beneficial route for getting to the office on time. ◆ Hey, admit it. Do you check your daily horoscope? ◆ Status meetings at work or guidance counseling at school help give us a good perspective on what we’ve already accomplished, what needs to be done today, and how to tackle future challenges. ◆ Medical doctors and other health-care professionals tell us how to develop good life habits to keep our bodies healthy, while psychologists and therapists offer good counsel to help improve our mental well-being and promote healthy rela- tionships with others. ◆ Many of us turn to our faith in a higher power to draw inspiration and guidance through prayer and the study of sacred texts. We have so many choices to make every day! We’re just like the guy in the 7 of Cups card: bewildered with choices. Which choice is the best one? Who can help us make our choices? And how will things turn out? 02 0666 CH01 4/23/03 9:30 AM Page 5 Chapter 1: What Is Tarot? 5 Ta rot is one of many metaphysical tools that enable us to look into our lives and find some extra information we hadn’t really understood or known about before. Working with the Tarot brings to light a confirmation of things you’ve always known (your own inner wisdom) or it adds a new perspective to a perplexing question or problem. Ta rot gives the guy in the 7 of Cups a context for understanding not only what his choices are, but how he feels about them. Are you like the guy in the 7 of Cups—faced with too many choices and not enough perspective to decide which is the right choice to make? Meet Your Magician! To help you understand how to use the Tarot, just consider us your Magician. Throughout this book, we’ll be your teacher and guide, unlocking the creative power of the cards and showing you how to interpret their many meanings. Study the Magician card shown in the following figure. The Magician invokes the Cup, Wand, Sword, and Pentacle on the table as the instruments of his creativity. What a wonderful garden blossoms from the fruits of his efforts! We’ll let you in right now on the great secret of the Tarot: The power to make the Ta rot more than just a deck of cards lies within you! That’s right. With practice, you can learn to become your own Magician, your own wizard, your own oracle. As Glinda the Good Witch told Dorothy at the end of the Yellow Brick Road, she’d always pos- sessed within herself the power to make her own wishes and dreams come true. And so do you. The Tarot is an instrument of insight into your own Free Will. You are the one who possesses the magic. Let’s find out more. 02 0666 CH01 4/23/03 9:30 AM Page 6 6 Part 1: All About Tarot We’ll be your Magician: a teacher and guide to the Ta r ot. Card Catalog Oracles are sacred objects or altars used by many cultures throughout history for the reception of divine guiding messages and holy truths. The site of the oracle is considered a holy place, and often only priests or shamans can visit it. Shamans or high priestesses were believed to have had divine connections. Therefore, they became the “speakers” of the messages. Many ancient sites, such as the ruins at Monte Alban in Oaxaca, Mexico, contain structures archaeologists believe were used by priest- astronomers to interpret divine meanings for everyday events. A Tarot Primer The Tarot reveals what’s really happening below the surface of events around us. The Ta rot is a visual medium; those of you who love pictures, art, music, design—any- thing picture-related—can appreciate all the rich colors, symbols, numbers, and archetypes present in the Tarot cards. It doesn’t take a degree in math or science to work with this wonderful medium of enlightenment and personal awareness. It’s easy! The 78 Tarot cards 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 extra knowledge can provide. 02 0666 CH01 4/23/03 9:30 AM Page 7 Chapter 1: What Is Tarot? 7 You’re in the Cards The Tarot opens your intuitive sense. Its pictures stimulate your gut feelings. Do you already have a Tarot deck? Start shuffling. The Tarot cards absorb the thoughts, ideas, and curiosity of the person who shuffles the deck. By shuffling and concentrat- ing 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 per- sonal wisdom as you infused it into the deck. Card Catalog The 78 cards of the Tarot deck are divided into Tarot spreads are differ- 22 Major Arcana cards, which lead us through the ent methods of laying out the archetypal passages in life’s journey, and 56 Minor cards during a Tarot reading. Arcana cards, which illustrate the various things Tarot readings occur when the cards are laid out to reveal a that happen to each of us from day to day. We’ll particular story. look at the Major Arcana in Part 3 and the Minor Arcana in Part 4, but you can sneak a peek at them now. The Sun, a Major Arcana card, and the 10 of Cups, a Minor Arcana card, repre- sent two ways we move into the light of contentment, joy, and strength in awareness. The Sun depicts a mythologi- cal motif, while the 10 of Cups shows one way we deal with everyday challenges and opportunities. The first difference you’ll notice is that the Major Arcana seem to represent mytho- logical motifs, while the Minor Arcana show more everyday events. That’s exactly the case: The Major Arcana cover the big stuff, while the Minor Arcana are the everyday cards. The Minor Arcana are further divided into four suits: 02 0666 CH01 4/23/03 9:30 AM Page 8 8 Part 1: All About Tarot ◆ Wands ◆ Cups ◆ Swords ◆ Pentacles These correspond to clubs, hearts, spades, and dia- monds in a regular deck of cards.