1) The Tarot is evil.

Wrong. The Tarot is powerful, yes. It speaks directly to your unconscious, and the imagery is archetypal and certainly sometimes disturbing – but essentially the Tarot is a mirror: it reflects what is inside you. Thus anyone who considers it evil is merely projecting evil from themselves onto the cards.

Like any powerful tool, you can abuse the Tarot – by becoming addicted to it or obsessively repeating the same question (in which case you may well find that it can get really tetchy). If, however, you treat it with respect, study and use the cards for self-awareness, you will soon discover that the Tarot represents a profound and transformational spiritual journey.

2) You have to be psychic to read the Tarot.

Wrong. All you have to be is intelligent and able to understand pictures (an integral gift for all humanity: we dream in pictures, so – while our schools work hard to make us forget how to do it – you probably will find it easier than you think).

3) You should always be given a Tarot deck: you should never buy one for yourself.

Unless you’ve told the person exactly what tarot to buy, a tarot gift pack is usually one that sits unused in a drawer. The best way to find a deck you can actually use is to go to a good esoteric shop which has samples, and look at every card. The pack that speaks to you, that you love, is the one you need to buy.

4) The Tarot tells you the future

The cards are capable and do foretell the future. However, changes occur every second, and we can also change our lives by how we think. So it is best to consider the cards as suggesting possibilities, of indications of what you need to be aware of, and sometimes, old patterns of thought we need to alter.

5) The Tarot came from Ancient Egypt

No-one knows where the Tarot originated. It is unlikely to have been Ancient Egypt (though it’s a nice story); it’s more likely to have been Italy as the titles on the early decks were in Italian. The Major Arcana might have been designed as part of the Mystery Plays, and no-one knows where the Minors - which are like ordinary playing cards - came from. The latter are first mentioned in 1377, the Majors in 1415. The two sets were first amalgamated in the 1500s. The first decks we know of were beautifully illuminated – the Visconti Tarot is a good example.

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I The Magician

A sudden conscious awareness of your personal path in life; new initiatives, creative ideas. The directed application of will to manifest an idea or a dream. The ability to tread a difficult path with confidence. Awareness of personal values so that ethical choices can be made. The interrelationship of many different dimensions, and how these can be made to work for rather than against you. Skill with words, self-confidence, creative action of all kinds.

Reversed: The mis-use of talents, such as persuasive skills. A tendency to ride roughshod over others. Power for its own sake. Greed. Will-power mis-directed; the flow of energy blocked. This can lead to psychic terrors, particularly fear of madness, and soul-loss.

The Fool

Preparing to leap into the unknown; taking risks. Unexpected and inexplicable occurrences. A new path of destiny. Possibly a warning to take care; pitfalls lie ahead. Time to make major decisions. Paradox, apparent contradictions. Someone who embodies the Fool.

Reversed: An attitude that may be faulty in some important considerations. A whole world in the mind that seems right, but does not accord with anyone else’s view of reality (particularly if the Moon is nearby in the spread.) A faulty decision needs to be rethought. Reckless, thoughtless actions.

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In our consideration of Tarot Card Meanings, the journey of the Major Arcana is the path of spiritual self-awareness, each card symbolising not only the choices we meet along the way, but also - deeper and wilder - the archetypes that underpin each stage, which can be seen as degrees of initiation. The earliest mystery religions would have had similar initiatory stages; for example, the twenty-two steps in the rites from the Egyptian Book of the Dead contain fascinating parallels.

The path to self-realisation is not easy and can be fraught with danger. At each step we have to confront, and transcend, our fears. At times we may think we are functioning on a high level of awareness, and discover later that our ego has been deceiving us. Or we may become so involved with our inner life that we lose touch with reality altogether.

The Major Arcana provides us with staging posts, which illustrate some of the possibilities and perils along the way:

0 The Fool. The path begins with the new-born babe, eyes wide in wonderment from the memory of the time before this. We understand little of what we see, but still have access to an innate wisdom.

I The Magician is the child, learning to manipulate the world and its elements. Along the way, we will lose the natural, unconscious sense of connection with the Infinite, but for a while we take that connection and its phenomenal power for granted.

II The High Priestess can be seen as the young adult, conscious of the veil between the worlds, and still able to move between the two at will. At this time we become conscious of a complementary part of ourselves, the animus or anima2; and the need to find our soul partner.

III The Empress represents the fully-functioning sexual adult, her fruitfulness and orgiastic pleasure in nature reflecting our wish for love and connection. It refers to parenthood, the wonder of our own children; and our relationship with our mothers.

IV The Emperor. We live in a patriarchal society, and part of the journey is to be in relationship to that society, with all its faults and problems. We may work within it, or rebel against it, but either way we all have first-hand knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the masculine and all its works. The Emperor reflects our place within society and our attitude to authority, as well as the relationship with our fathers.

V The Hierophant. The spiritually attuned masculine is an archetype to which we easily relate, no doubt because of the concept of a masculine god. We often wish for a wise adviser, an impartial guide who can help us in our confusion, without realising the wisdom accessible within us.

VI The Lovers. This is the time of choice, where we are asked to choose between our prospective partner and our parents - or, more generally, a choice between growth and stasis, the gateway into conscious adulthood. Every time we encounter life’s challenges we face a choice: do we engage with it - or turn away? Sometimes, turning away is the wisest course. The Lovers is therefore also about developing discernment.

VII The Chariot represents the forging of our will upon the world. It is about the ego and the persona - the masks we don in order to function successfully. We have learnt to repress what we consider to be our less socially acceptable aspects. These will appear in dark moments as depression, shame, irrational anger and fear.

VIII The first stirrings of inner wisdom are encountered in Justice, with her objective gaze and discerning mind. Through her clear vision, we see ourselves acting out unconscious drives, and our innate sense of justice now realises the implications of our decisions and actions on others. We see the profound personal implications of truth and untruth, integrity and expediency and understand how this impacts on ourselves and others. It is time to decide what to retain in our lives - and what to cut out.

IX With The Hermit we have made a fateful decision: we must turn away from the world, to the unknown depths within us. The material things of the world no longer answer our needs, and the soul’s call can no longer be denied. However, there is no route map for this journey; we can only follow the faint flicker of intuition, into the dark.

X The Wheel. At this stage we may feel a profound change in alignment caused by our decision to look inwards. Instead of resisting, or riding roughshod over our needs and dimly-sensed dreams, we now sense the flow of existence. We see ourselves drawn into the current, moving slowly in to the centre.

XI Strength. A real test of our new resolve is how we deal with our first encounter with the Shadow. This is what Freud called the id, the instinctive urges, child-like passions and desires of the unconscious . In Strength we learn to communicate, to negotiate, persuading our Id to work with us rather than against us. We choose integrity and maturity rather than instant gratification.

XII The Hanged Man. The self-awareness gained through Strength and its disciplined expression of self-love stands us in good stead when we realise that, in following the inner path, we need to reverse all previous certainties. Now all we can do is to hang in mid-air, waiting for illumination and wisdom. If we can stay with this encounter with the Infinite, we will emerge with a hard-won wisdom.

XIII Death. This is death of the old self, and a shamanic initiation into a new world. We stand on the threshold of a profound rebirth, though the way is guarded by the fearsome figure of Death of the old self. The alchemic fires flay off our masks and armour, stripping the soul to its core.

XIV After surviving that dread dismemberment, angelic Temperance appears to show us how to survive - by gently, lovingly, tempering (mixing) the different aspects within us. If previously we jumped into action without thinking, we now learn to act after considered thought; if we over-intellectualise, we now modify that with feeling or intuition. The sensory urges can also be balanced with feeling and awareness.

XV The Devil. After our first encounter with the Shadow in Strength, we might consider ourselves capable of anything. But in The Devil we come face to face with the collective shadow, as well as our own unrecognised darkness, mirrored in the people around us. If we take the easy way out through justification and denial, we find ourselves imprisoned in the unconscious patterns of the past. To face these patterns, take back the projections and own our worst aspects, requires extreme courage and honesty.

XVI Often it takes the intervention of The Tower to help us see our lives clearly, and to break free. The divine lightning bolt blasts through our defences and preconceptions, destroying outdated ideas, searing us to the core. Nothing can remain the same after that profound light.

XVII The Star. When we are able to see again, we realise that one faint light remains: the inner light of the soul. We have walked through the darkest night and survived. The star, rising over the sea, shows us how we can be: washed clean, delicate, an integral part of creation.

XVIII The Moon. Still the tests are not over. In The Moon we encounter the beautiful, deceptive light of the collective psyche. We either withstand its seductive power - or lose ourselves in its perilous attraction.

XIX With The Sun, we at last feel the warmth, and see the brilliance of the divine light. The twin aspects of the Self - masculine and feminine, conscious and unconscious, body and spirit - innocent as children, can grow to adulthood free and joyful, protected from the full force of the sun within the enchanted garden of the soul.

XX In Judgement, the Sun twins have grown to adulthood, and their union has birthed a new soul, the divine Child. Now all three figures rise out of the dark, containing earth and move upwards into the ineffable light of the Divine Source.

XXI In The World, all opposites are finally united and transformed in an alchemic marriage: unconscious, conscious, higher consciousness; future, present, past. This is the treasure of great price, the place of integration, of love, acceptance and pure, transcendent self-knowledge.

O The cycle of existence is completed by the second appearance of The Fool, as cosmic consciousness and the return to innocence.

Ania and Cilla

A pagan gathering is a good place to run a workshop; the participants usually understand what the tarot is and what it can do. We – Ania and Cilla -had a really good attendance – around 30 people crammed into a medieval tent – so Ania began by asking how many people had tarot decks. The majority of people did and most had some idea of Tarot Card meanings. The numbers dipped slightly when Ania asked how many had used them to read for themselves, and dropped (substantially) again to the question of how many had used them with others. Lack of confidence is always an issue with the Tarot; and there’s also the issue of learning at least 78 meanings – more, if you use reversals.

One person said her main problem was how each card was affected by the others around it. This was something that worried me when I was learning. But somehow, after a while, you do begin to see how they work. Using spreads – as we usually do – each card has its specific meaning modified by the position. For example, if you found the Eight of Swords in the position of ‘central issue’, and the Four of Pentacles (Discs) in the Environment position, you would probably say that the client is stuck with old ways of thinking or ideas of duty, and they need to cut the cords that bind them to those outdated views. The Four of Pentacles shows us that this is mainly about money, but also where they fit into their environment – perhaps they are holding on like grim death to ideas of money and security. The client has probably gone around and around this problem mentally (swords) but the combination of material security (discs) and their old issues have kept them stuck. As a foundation card, you then might find the Six of Cups (nostalgia, looking back) and know that they’ve previously had emotional issues about moving forward, and this has of course contributed to the issue. But if they approached the problem from a different point of view, they might realise they have actually moved on. And so you go on.

Tarot reading, as Ania pointed out, is really a combination of life skills, being able to read imagery, and intuitive knowledge. You really don’t have to be psychic, just aware. I’ve met a number of psychic people who can’t read tarot particularly well because the messages in their heads get in the way. On the other hand, you find words, images, or intuitive ‘knowing’ do start ‘coming in’ as soon as you begin to trust your own abilities. That seems to be the way with intuition – the more you trust it, the better it works.

Once Ania had given us a bit of background information on the tarot, she handed out some cards for people to practise with. These were from the Rider Waite deck, probably the best known tarot cards of all; nearly every deck produced now refers back in some way to the Rider Waite. However, as I told participants as I began my part of the workshop, buying a deck because it’s popular may not be the best way. I encourage people to choose their cards themselves, using a combination of feeling and intuition. There will be one deck that calls to you, and that will be the one you need to work with. (By the way many people have heard that you shouldn’t buy tarot for yourself. This is superstition and quite counter-productive, in my view. At least if you buy them, you have an emotional, intuitive and material investment in them!)

I had brought along some A4 images from The Intuitive Tarot, the pack I painted a long time ago, now published; I use this deck to the exclusion of all others because I know it so intimately. I was pleased to find a participant there who had been on one of my previous workshops; she said I’d helped her understand tarot, where all of her previous attempts had failed. She had also found that The Intuitive Tarot was the one pack that spoke to her. It was lovely to hear that, and good to see the feedback from the A4 images … sometimes it helps to see the tarot writ large, as it were.

I ended the workshop by giving on-the-spot one-card readings from the deck for anyone who asked – it is amazing to see this in practice. As always, it is a mystery how the cards work, but when you see how accurate even one card can be, you remember that the tarot itself is a mystery – and all the better for it.

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As an introduction to Tarot Card Meanings, let me start with what we know about the origins of the Tarot as a means of divination.

The origins of the cards themselves are shrouded in mystery, though they were first described in 1377. It is possible that at first they were merely used as a game (Tarocchi); however, we know they were first used for divination purposes in the 16^th Century.

A Tarot deck consists of 78 cards, which are divided into the Major Arcana (or Trumps), and the Minor Arcana. The twenty-two Major Arcana are seen as archetypal or allegorical images representing the journey through life. The Minors (the remaining fifty-six cards) are similar to today’s playing cards, with four suits of 14 cards (the numbered or pip cards 1-10, and the face cards: page, knight, queen and king). Each suit represents a different aspect of humanity and are usually seen as Cups (the emotions), Pentacles or Discs (material issues), Swords (the mind), and the Wands (intuition and creativity). Each suit is usually linked to the four elements – water, earth, air and fire.

The full tarot pack is used to provide readings intended to help a person achieve a better understanding of issues that may be affecting them, such as relationships, problems to be overcome, opportunities etc. Each card has a range of meanings, which, taken together, can allow the skilled interpreter to help their client (usually referred to as the Querent or inquirer) to focus on the issues affecting them and thus find a way through problems or take advantage of opportunities.

The cards in the Major Arcana carry more weight than the Minor Arcana. Therefore, in a reading, the meaning and position of Major Arcana are interpreted very carefully as they are considered to be important unseen influences, indicating major changes in the inquirer’s life. In contrast, the Minor Arcana usually refers to day-to-day events, or people surrounding the inquirer.

A skilled Tarot reader also interprets the meaning of the cards according to the position they occupy in a spread (different ways in which the cards are laid out). However, where the inquirer is open to the tarot card meanings, as represented by the pictures and symbolism, their own intuition can provide a major boost to the power of the cards. Indeed, many practitioners of the art of Tarot believe that its greatest benefit is in the conduit it provides to the subconscious mind, thus allowing the process of “physician heal thyself”.

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