The Tarot is just such a tool of divination that has been around for millennia. It is a system of 78 cards - 22 Major Arcana, 16 Court cards and 40 pips, that makes use of universal symbols and archetypes to help us explain where we are, how we got there - and the choices and opportunities that are currently around us.
The Tarot is not written in stone ... it is an active energy that describes the conscious and subconscious forces at work around us. It is a powerful tool for personal transformation and introspection. As every novices Taroists knows, the origins of Tarot are hotly debated. We do know that the Tarot was visible in Italy in the thirteenth century as a card game.
We also know that wealthy patrons were in the habit of commissioning Tarot decks to depict their family (a good example being the Visconti-Sforza, one of the earliest and most complete decks). In the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries occult scholars began to add depth of meaning to the already mysterious archetypal images in the cards by attempting to correlate the Tarot with alchemy, the Kabala, Hermetic philosophy and the Egyptian mysteries.
Their scholarly work continues to influence us to this day. Tarot today is reflective of many different cultural influences. We see decks reflecting such diverse backgrounds as Celtic, Faerie and Goddess lore, mythology, Herbal decks, Dragon decks ... if you have a personal interest it more than likely has a deck representing it! Tarot works in many ways. It can be used for spiritual guidance, as a tool for better understanding and insight in making decisions, as a tool for building good relationships (familial, personal and business), as a guide in business, as a creative tool ... the list is endless.
Treated with respect, the Tarot will give you clear, concise guidance, point out your options, as well as what the result of taking a certain option will bring into your life. By bring a question to the Tarot you gain some insight around what you need to know. You may find the “road ahead” smooth sailing or very bumpy but know that the Tarot can help you through it!
You can choose to read for yourselves, or to have someone else read for you. It is best for the reader and the querent (the person receiving the reading) to take a moment to calm and center themselves when shuffling the cards and beginning the reading. The environment is important as well. A quiet, private space with an air of peace, harmony and balance helps establish the sacred place to bring in the “energy” necessary for the Tarot to focus on the answers to the question(s) on your mind.
The cards are shuffled while you hold a question or area that you want to delve into in your mind. The cards are then laid out in a specific pattern, called a spread. Each position within the spread has a meaning, and each individual card has a meaning. The "story" that the Tarot gives the reader in answer to your question develops from these meanings, as well as from the way that the individual cards interact with each other. The Tarot reading will look at where the person is now, the forces that got them there, and at what will be in their path, should they choose to take no action.
The Tarot will also point out opportunities, twists in the path that are available and may be followed. How well the reading answers the question has a great deal to do with how the question is posed in the first place. It is up to the reader to listen to the question that the querent presents, and help them to fine tune it to give it direction and purpose so the Tarot can respond.
Tarot takes the experiences that are common to all humankind and presents them in an understandable form through the symbols in the cards. It relates them to our current lives, and helps us to use them to unblock energies that we are holding within us. The Tarot helps us to understand ourselves, to love ourselves and in time to heal ourselves. It helps us to bring balance and hopefully harmony into our lives. It makes the connection between our conscious and subconscious selves, between our spiritual and our material worlds and provides us with intuitive introspection.
We hope that you embark on this journey to your inner world to enhance your personal and spiritual development by focusing on aspects of life you deem important.