Tarot

A bite-sized episode about the history of Tarot and what it means.

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Transcript

Hey everyone! Welcome to my very first episode of Weird, Witchy, and Beyond. Today, I want to talk to you about the magic of Tarot. To be clear, this won’t be a comprehensive guide to what each card represents and how to read them. My goal here is to give you a brief overview of the history, discuss a modern viewpoint, and simply open a dialogue about it in general.

Every morning when I wake up, I brew a cup of coffee, sit down at my altar, light a candle and some incense, and pull a 3-card tarot spread. Sometimes if I’m struggling to focus, I will turn on some music to help get me centered. I begin to shuffle my cards and I stop when it feels right. Sometimes I have the urge to spread them out on the floor in front of me, swirling them around in circles, leaving myself with absolutely no idea what cards may be upright or reversed in the deck. Even though I have been doing this for a while, I still find myself afraid that I am going to pick something on purpose because that’s what I want, like I’ve taken a peek or stacked the deck. After all, this isn’t about what I want, it’s about what I am meant to pull. When I am finished shuffling, I spread the cards in a horizontal line across my altar and place my hands firmly on top. I keep them there as I close my eyes and imagine two bright lights. One is in my head and one is in my heart. I picture the light in my head traveling down, combining with the one in my heart. I picture it splitting into two and feeling the warmth of the light traveling down each of my arms, to my hands, and into the cards. I give all of my energy to the cards. I keep my eyes closed and I ask, “What is the overall energy of my day?” I slide my fingers across the cards, stop when it feels right, and flip the card however it happens with no thought as to whether it will be horizontally or vertically beforehand. Next, I ask “What can I expect from my day?” Flip. And finally, “What should I avoid today?” Flip. I interpret the meaning of what I have pulled, write it in my journal, meditate for a few minutes, blow out the candle, and start my day.

The birth of tarot cards as we think of them today came from Italy around the 1430s, although some believe that the basic premise started much earlier as far back as some ancient civilizations. In Italy, they were originally used as a game deck, mostly played by rich families as a way to flaunt their wealth. This usage began to change in roughly the 1780s when a French occultist released a definitive guide on how to “read” Tarot cards. Thus began the birth of using tarot for divination and fortune-telling, gaining evermore popularity, especially in the early 1900s in America, presumably due to the Spiritualism movement. 

A standard Tarot deck consists of 78 cards, 22 of them belonging to the major arcana and 56 belonging to the minor arcana. The 22 major arcana are meant to represent things such as significant life lessons and spiritual themes. The 56 minor are separated into 4 different suits (wands, cups, pentacles, and swords). Each suit contains 10 numbered cards and 4 “face” cards. While the major arcana are meant to represent the big picture, the minor arcana are meant to represent everyday life and all the personal challenges, opportunities, and experiences that we have daily. The suits all have their own meanings as well, tied to each of the 4 elements. Wands are meant to represent fire, cups for water, pentacles for earth, and swords for air. There are many resources in book stores and online if you would like to learn more about what each card means and how to do a reading. It takes a long time and a lot of practice, but do not let that discourage you!

Using Tarot cards has been extremely demonized and looked down upon for many years, particularly by the Catholic church. The Catholic church believes that any kind of gaining of “hidden knowledge” or divination is a rejection of God’s care over creation and that it can open people up to the demonic. They also believe that it shows a persons desire for power. This isn’t even a belief held by only the most religious of people. My mother grew up religious, but in her adult years does not attend church although she firmly believes in God. She also never forced us as children to go to church or to believe in what she and her family did. She did, however, warn us as kids to not use things such as Ouija boards, as she believed it would open us up to potentially evil entities. All this being said to emphasize that my own mother will not let me do a tarot reading for her because it scares her. Sure, there have been tarot readers that have come out and said they have had experiences connecting to something “other-wordly” and have then begun feeling a presence after their practice. Some of have even gotten rid of their cards and stopped doing readings completely. This has never been my experience though.

I may be in the minority here saying this, but as someone who has a degree in science and is a very logical person, as well as being what I would consider very spiritual, I do not believe that there is anything magical about tarot cards. I am a firm believer that you can put your energy into the cards and I believe that you flip the ones you are meant to flip, but they do not tell you any hidden knowledge. There is nothing magical about the cards. It’s all about you and how you interpret them. The cards give you information, but you are the one that applies it to your life and what you need in that moment. Tarot is much less about magic and the future than it is about you and your connection to the world you are living in at the exact moment that you are interpretting the cards and applying it to your life. Having an open mind and accepting the signs that the universe gives you is not magic, it is not demonic, it is simply living in the moment.