The exercise demonstrated in the video below is kind of interesting.
In it a woman holds a Tarot card she’s randomly chosen from the deck. Without looking at it, she concentrates on what she feels or senses around the card and jots down some words that come to mind.
She also draws out images she’s ‘getting’ from the card without actually seeing it.
It’s not a fast paced clip and the results aren’t earth shattering, but when it comes right down to it they are kind of remarkable.
I don’t know the people who made this film, so I can’t verify whether what’s going on in it is real or not. But I’ve done similar exercises myself and have achieved very similar results.
There are a lot of different ways to incorporate timing into your Tarot readings. Some are more complicated than others, but all of them can work.
You can designate cards in a spread to represent time periods, like last week, this week, and next week.
You can assign seasons to the suits, perhaps winter for the Swords, spring for the Cups, summer for the Wands, and Pentacles for autumn.
If you use the Golden Dawn system, you might follow their astrological assignments to determine when something happened or will happen in the future.
To learn more about that system, take a look at Douglas Gibbs’ excellent tutorial on the subject at Tarot Eon.
Timing might also be determined by the numbers on the cards themselves. Maybe the Major cards could represent months, while the Minors represent weeks.
In that case the Hermit could signify 9 months down the road or in the past, while the 7 of Pentacles would suggest 7 weeks.
Combined with the seasonal suit system, the 7 of Pentacles would then be pointing to the 7th week of winter.
Another way to determine timing in Tarot is to use the spread demonstrated by Lunar Wisdom in the video below.
It’s basically a yes/no spread that she uses to look over periods of one week at a time. I really like it.
As might be guessed from the title, it’s about the unconscious, and how much of what we experience in our conscious lives appears to arise out of or be directed by this mysterious and uncharted part of ourselves.
It’s really interesting stuff, and I highly recommend the book. Reading it made me want to ask my own unconscious what it thinks of itself. To do so of course, I turned to the Tarot.
The card I pulled when I asked ‘what is the nature of our unconscious?’ was the King of Cups.
In it, a king sits on a slab of concrete in the middle of an ocean. A fish pops out of the water to his right, while a boat sails past on his left.
What a perfect card for my question.
This is the emotional King, the one who communicates through feelings more easily than with logic. He intuitively senses how to navigate his way, and works very well with symbols and nuance.
And you could say that within this question, the King himself might represent consciousness. He’s the part of us that experiences sensation. He acts and emotes.
The ocean on the other hand, is like the unconscious. It’s deep, and dark, and for the most part unknown. Anything might pop up from under the waves or float by.
If we look at it this way, it’s also interesting to notice that the King takes up so much of the picture, when in fact he’s so little compared to the sea below and around him.
It’s similar to how we experience our consciousness relative to our unconscious. Our conscious mind seems to think it’s the one directing the action, or at least is the most important element in the picture.
Really though, it’s likely just a tiny speck on a giant ocean.
Since this is The Tarot Room, I thought we might seek out an obscure place in Tarot, and wondered if we could find something unfamiliar in the landscape of the very familiar RWS deck.
The card I randomly drew for this journey was the 6 of Swords, a very appropriate card.
It shows three people travelling by boat, perhaps on their way to an obscure place of their own.
Though the trio in the boat seems to be moving past them, I can’t help but notice the two islands in the background of the card.
I’ve never really considered these islands before. What a perfect obscure destination for today.
Since I can’t crawl into the image, I did the next best thing and pulled a card asking … what’s on the two islands pictured in the 6 of Swords?
The card I got was the 10 of Swords – pretty scary, we might not want to go there. The card shows a guy laying face down with ten swords in his back. There’s water behind him and dark clouds above.
Hmmm … not exactly what I expected. It looks like there’s been a murder of some sort on the island, or at least within the context of Tarot, the death of an idea. Swords represent ideas, thoughts, and ways of thinking.
The 10 of Swords specifically points to the end of a particular paradigm, or view of the world. When it appears, there’s no holding onto how you used to see things. The choice is only to move forward, with a new direction, and sense of purpose.
Not unlike the sense of direction and purpose exhibited by the three people in the boat. They know not to waste their time on distractions and won’t maroon themselves on the island.
Like the card they represent, they’re thinking is clear, balanced, and focused. They move steadily towards their goal while staying evenly afloat. Emotions and thoughts are in a comfortable union.
So it turns out that our obscure place might be obscure for a reason, and I for one don’t plan on going back. It taught me a little more about the 6 of Swords though, and for that alone, our Obscura voyage was worth the trip.
In honour of Earth Day tomorrow, and more specifically, Mother Earth herself, I thought I’d draw one card to ask what we can personally do to make the planet a little greener this year.
The card I got was the 10 of Wands. It pictures someone carrying a heavy load of sticks. The person is slightly stooped and seems to have quite a distance to go before they’ll get to their destination.
Typically I tell someone who pulls this card to consider decreasing some of their responsibilities, delegating tasks, and/or asking for some help.
The load has grown too heavy and if they continue as they’ve been going, they’re headed for a collapse of sorts.
Looking at this card from the perspective of my question though, it strikes me that we’re being asked to lessen our load on the planet. And in particular, our energy load, as the suit of wands is closely associated to energy in all its forms.
Moving forward as we have been is too much for the earth and collapse is likely if we don’t make change.
Furthermore, I think the card might be indicating that we’ve got some serious work ahead, and that there’s a distance to go before we can claim victory.
I see optimism here though, even in the midst of what the Thoth deck calls ‘oppression’. All the tens in Tarot suggest the end of a cycle, and we’re likely facing one as a society right now.
How can we start making change today? What old ways of doing things can we leave behind in the past, and where can we look to find inspiration for the future?
I should probably pull some more cards on those questions too …
Tomorrow is April Fool’s Day, and in honour of positive foolishness everywhere, I’ve put together a Tarot spread aimed at releasing your own inner Fool.
Try it out …
A Fool’s Spread
1. Why do I need to play and to be a Fool sometimes?
2. What hinders my sense of play and shuts down my Fool?
3. What helps support my Fool and helps me to play?
4. Where can I find more fun and positive foolishness in my life?
5. Right now – how can I most positively act the Fool?
Happy April Fool’s Day Everyone!! Be free, adventurous, and have some fun!!
In the video below, Scott Grossberg, creator of the Deck of Shadows, demonstrates a reading technique he calls the Hands of Truth.
He describes the method as being similar to using a pendulum in that ideo motor responses from the body direct the reading.
In Grossberg’s technique, a reader randomly chooses two cards from the deck and turns them up. He or she then passes them to the querent who holds each card face up in each hand.
The reader then tells the querent that one of their hands is going to rise, while the other will get lower. There’s no rush for this to happen, but typically it does.
The reader then takes the card from the lower hand and reads it as being an energy the querent is leaving. The card from the raised hand represents where they are likely headed.
It’s an interesting twist on a two-card reading, and really allows for the querent to be involved.
I think I’ll try it out with someone soon.
Scott was a guest on Beyond Worlds back at the end of 2010. He spoke about his Deck of Shadows and a lot of other interesting and magical things. You can listen to the show here …
