Celebrate Happy New Year with us!Celebrate Happy New Year with us!To most people Tarot is a blend of the mystic and mystique whereby a person can read about the future of another. However, this is simply a myth and far from the truth. Tarot cards never talk about your future.
They, on the other hand, offer you a guideline about the probable outcomes you may receive based on the choices you make. They only allow you to explore the choices you have so that you can make informed decisions.
Also, none of these are unchangeable which means they can be altered at any given time by choice.
Tarot cards decks consist of 78 cards each with a picture like any other regular deck of cards. Like any other deck of cards the tarot cards also have four suits.
However, for a regular set of cards we call the suits by the names of hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs; while in case of tarot cards, these suits are given the names of wands, swords, cups and circles or pentacles.
The four suits in turn are divided into the major and minor arcana cards. The major arcane cards talk about the significant changes or lifetime events – like marriage, birth of a child, change in job, and similar other things. The minor arcana cards, on the other hand, talk about the small things that affect the daily ups and downs of our lives.
For a tarot reading, the cards are laid in different forms. The way the cards are laid depends on the answers that the person is seeking and also on the preference and method of the reader.
Tarot cards got linked to divinity or prediction a long time after it was originally introduced in the late 14th century or the beginning of the 15th century. These cards were conjured up to play different types of games, and held no special significance apart from being just a tool to play certain games. This was till the 18th and the 19th centuries.
It is during the year 1781 that Antoine Court de, a Swiss clergyman, published a speculative study about religious symbolism and its interpretation in the then world.
It is here that Tarot was assigned special significance, and subsequently tarot cards got related to occultism and magic, and the practice continues even today.
It should be kept in mind while practicing tarot reading that these readings do not provide you an insight to your future. They, actually, help you to understand
the feelings and ideas of your own subconscious mind in a better and more pronounced manner.
There are various kinds of tarot decks available. Among them, some have been designed in keeping with famous works of art, movies, books, legend, or even mythology and folklores. A reader has the freedom to choose a deck that appeals to her/his senses – a deck that feels right for her/him – as we had elucidated before, tarot reading is mostly about your own gut feelings, intuition or sixth sense whatever name we may give it. As a beginner, however, if you start out to study about Tarot decks, you shall find that most instruction books use the Rider Waite deck to illustrate the principles of Tarot, mostly because it is a method that can is fairly easy to comprehend. The Rider Waite deck was introduced in 1909 by Pamela Colman Smith, under the supervision of Arthur Edward Waite, and has since been considered to set the standards in this regard. Later on, as you advance, you can always keep making new additions to your collection.
A Tarot deck is made up of 78 cards – the first 22 are known as the Major Arcana, while the remaining 56 cards are known as Minor Arcana, which are in turn divided into four subgroups or suits – wands, swords, cups and circles or pentacles (also sometimes known as coins). The Major Arcana cards focus on significance attached to the material world, while the Minor Arcana cards deal with your thoughts and ideas. Swords are believed to indicate a conflict in the mind, Cups represent emotions and passions, Wands stand for your ambition,
job and the likes, while the Circles deal with the material aspects of life like possessions and financial security.
Like any other form of Divination, tarot cards only reflect upon the intuitive powers of the reader and depend largely of the psychic abilities of the reader. Tarot reading can be of two kinds: either you can ask a specific question or it can be a generalized reading leading you to have a proper insight to the different spheres of your life. When asking a specific question, remember to be positive, provide the right amount of details without disclosing the answer in any way. When the question is formed right, the reader is better equipped to provide you the right guidance. Each reader has her/his own method of spreads or layouts for tarot reading. Some of the popular ones are The Celtic Cross Method, Tree of Life Layout, The Romany Spread, The Zodiac method and the Pentagram Spread.
Tarot when used in a proper way may help you make a happier life in which wiser choices are made. But you shall have to appreciate that Tarot, like any other form of divination and occult practices, has its limitations too. Tarot cannot predict the future for you – it can only show you what the result may be depending upon the choices you make. As such, it cannot give you specific answers, but can help you to look for answers deep within your soul. A Tarot never deals with unchangeable outcomes, it is all about choices and you always have the option to change your course. In a nutshell, tarot helps you to figure
out the different choices you have in life and pick up the one that will have the least number of obstacles in your way leading to a happy and prosperous life.
To conclude, we should remember, that Tarot reading involves a high level of intuitive power. Anyone can interpret the readings of the cards if they can get the hang of it. There are thousands of book and other guidelines to help you with the basics. But in the end, it is all in your mind.