Understanding The Tarot 

At first glance the Tarot seems hard to understand. Unfortunately, few books or other sources explain it simply and this is where the problem lies. In my opinion they tend to overload the mind with too much information, astrology, symbolism and numerology etc. In reality the cards only trigger your own intuition.  

 Let The Tarot Teach You   

First you have to choose which cards you want to work with, I recommend the Rider Waite if you are not sure because they are simpler in that their advantage is that they retain much of the traditional symbolism and all of the cards have a picture that guides you. The cards tend to teach you by themselves.

Before you start practising get to know your cards. Look at each one and figure out what it is trying to tell you. How would you interpret the card in a reading? What does it say about the emotional, spiritual or material conditions of that person. Devote a good deal of time to this before you look up the standard meanings of the cards, this will help you link your own intuitive response to the cards and you may be surprised to find that your intuitive meaning comes close to the established meanings.

 
 The Basis of the Tarot 

There are 78 cards divided into two main groups...

22 Major Arcana numbered 0-21 and 56 Minor Arcana divided into 4 suits (Arcana means secret). The Major Arcana take dominance over the Minor Arcana in a reading. The cards can be shuffled so that they are upright or reversed and the cards meaning then changes. My feeling is that the cards contain an equal balance of positive and negative imagery and that reversing the cards adds very little to the overall reading.  
 

The Major Arcana

The Major Arcana consists of 22 individual cards, each holding its own different meaning.  

The Minor Arcana  


The Minor Arcana is divided into 4 suits...

Wands: Covers intellectual activities and career.

Cups: Represents emotion, love and pleasure and sensitivity.

Swords: Involves struggles, difficulties and illness. Coins: Deals with the material world, finances and property.

There are 4 court cards to each suit...

The King, Queen, Knight and Page. These can represent real people or aspects of the personality of the person consulting the cards. Pages and Knights can represent children or young people of either sex. The Aces indicate the beginning of a new activity and the cards from two to ten represent aspects of the querants life past, present and future.

The forward link below will guide you to a more detailed description of the meanings of the cards.

CLICK THIS TXT FOR MORE DETAILED VIEW

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