The video below with Jason Silva is about patterns. The patterns that make up the natural world and the ones we’ve been creating with our technology.
It’s called To Understand Is To Perceive Patterns. And it makes no mention of Tarot or anything related to it. But it got me thinking about what it means to understand a Tarot reading.
It’s all about patterns. The patterns as we find them in the cards, their colours, directions, shapes, suits, numbers.
Are there a lot of Queens in your spread, a lot of blue, or red, or green? How many of the images seem to face in one direction? How many Major cards are there relative to the whole?
Whether you’re looking at a spread, or an individual card, it’s when you see the commonalities and anomalies within the images that you can begin to tell the story.
Just as in life, an individual incident might be very interesting, but it’s not a main theme in a person’s experience until it happens a number of times.
In Tarot, there might be one stand out card that is well worth paying attention to. But it’s how that card, or images in it, relate to the cards around it that tell the bigger story.
Individual symbols are important, and necessary to fully decipher the language of your cards. But understanding Tarot is really like understanding everything else. It’s all about perceiving the patterns.
There are a lot of different ways to read Tarot cards. All of them involve using the intuitive faculties, but some are more obviously ‘psychic’ than others.
Nancy Antenucci and Melanie Howard have written a wonderful book focusing on this aspect of Tarot. Rather than being concerned with traditional meanings of the cards, they examine how to read them using your psychic senses.
Even if you don’t think you’re psychic, Antenucci and Howard will help get you on the road to believing.
There are exercises galore, spread interpretations, and what they call the Six Principles to Divination, including grounding, intent, form, synchronicity, closure, and integration.
Whether you’re interested in reading just for yourself, or for others, the book helps build confidence in your own inner voice.
I did a lot of the exercises, and really enjoyed myself. I might even be more psychic than I thought.
And I guess that’s the point, we all are. This book helps you see it for yourself.
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Take a look at the video below to hear Nancy Antenucci talk about Tarot cards, psychic readings, and the difference between cats and dogs.
I pulled the 2 of wands when I asked for a card to describe the Canadian federal election.
The card shows a man between two poles. He’s gazing over land and water, holding one pole in his left hand, and a globe in his right.
It looks like he’s trying to make a decision, each pole a distinct option, though very similar in style.
Could the decision be between the Left and the Right, with a whole world between the two philosophies?
This federal election is a choice between opposites. The future of the Canadian world is at hand.
The 2 of Wands is labeled ‘dominion’ in the Thoth deck. Interestingly enough, that’s an important word for Canada.
The constitution of 1867 proclaimed the Canadian federation to be ‘one Dominion under the name of Canada.’ And the phrase ‘Dominion of Canada’ was common until the 1970s.
3 of Swords
When I asked about leadership, I got the 3 of Swords.
Hmmmm, this is kind of tough. There seems to be serious disappointment with the three major choices Canadians are being offered.
Canada has five parties really, but two of the five aren’t likely to provide our next prime minister.
The other three all have a chance, but from the looks of this card, there’s no happy choice.
The leaders in this election seem en par as far the race goes, but they might all be concerned that they’ll be faced with another minority government. Something that none of them want, but all might expect.
Lack of communication and embedded, historic animosities have led to a situation where it’s difficult for any of them to get along.
The leadership situation is causing sorrow for all.
#20 Judgment
The card I got when I asked about ‘citizenry’ was #20, Judgment.
This is an interesting card to describe citizenry – people rising from the grave to the rousing call of an angel.
The figures are gray and naked. Their arms are upraised, welcoming or praising the angel above.
I don’t like to say it, but it looks like this group needs some new life breathed into them. The Canadian citizenry might need some uplifting.
Citizens are people, families trying to crawl out of a hole. They’re looking for and welcoming of a strong leader.
It’s almost like they’re looking for some sort of miracle to lead them onto the next stage.
6 of Wands
But maybe there’s reason for hope. I pulled the 6 of wands when I asked about ‘democracy.’
Looks like someone’s a winner, and everyone around him is cheering.
I’m reminded that the major 6, the Lovers card, often describes networking, opposites coming together, or choices that need to be made.
With the 6 of Wands, it’s the victory of this process. Everyone involved has made a decision and there’s general jubilation all around.
Democracy is the spirit of a people united.
I hope this is how I feel by the end of the election.
If you’re Canadian get out there and vote May 2nd. It really matters.
In the last segment of Tarot Views the News, we looked at some themes surrounding the situation in Egypt.
This time round, we’ll bring it back to North America and explore a few concepts highlighted by the ongoing protests in the state of Wisconsin.
This is not a predictive reading, but rather a look at the following terms from a Tarot perspective:
What is a Labor Union?
What is Compromise?
What is Leadership?
What is Social Justice?
When I asked, ‘what is a Labor Union?” the card I got was the 2 of Swords.
2 of Swords
This card reflects two distinct viewpoints, the resolution of which comes through intelligent, serious communication.
Emotional issues are to be kept at bay, while carefully considering all sides of a situation.
At it’s best, a Labor Union is a balance of sorts, an attempt to make the parties in a labor for wage transaction equal and fair.
Labor unions are meant to discourage power imbalances.
2 of Cups
I pulled the 2 of Cups for ‘what is Compromise?
This card is typically interpreted romantically, but in this context I think it’s pointing to the sacrifices we’re willing to make when we’re coming from a place of mutual respect.
Compromise is the understanding that other people matter too.
The caduceus above the two figures seems especially significant to our question.
It’s an ancient symbol of commerce and negotiation. Compromise is evenhanded exchange and reciprocity between two parties.
#20 Judgement
The card I pulled for ‘what is Leadership?’ was #20, Judgment.
Families rise from grey coffins, heeding the call of the Archangel Gabriel.
Leadership is clear vision and a call to action. Like the flaming angel in the card, a leader inspires and uplifts.
Leadership sees past the confines of what is now, and takes us beyond, to a better place.
#3 The Empress
And finally, when I asked, ‘what is Social Justice?’ I got #3, the Empress.
Social Justice is love, like that of a mother for her children. It is nurturing, creative, and compassionate.
The Empress is concerned with what is real, that which is experienced by our five senses.
She wants these experiences to be shared by all of her children. And if they suffer, she does too.
Social Justice is bountiful and abundant. There is enough for everyone.
It is love and respect for all creatures of the world.
There’s an interesting progression in these cards. If we look at the 20 as being 2 + 0, equaling 2, we have three 2s followed by a 3.
Could that mean that Labour Union/Compromise/Leadership progresses into Social Justice?
On tonight’s show, Mike will be giving us a Tarot tutorial. We’ll be looking at:
• Non-positional readings aka Dynamic Readings
• Telling a story through Tarot, and
• Considering context in a spread, ex. when good cards land in bad spots
There’s going to be lots of learning so bring your notebook and get the class handout here. It’ll to be good.
Beyond Worlds w/Mike Hernandez (live or in archive)
Sunday, January 23, 2011
7:00 pm EST (4:00 pm PST)
call in number: (646) 200-0765
Before reading Tarot, many people like to perform some sort of ritual to put them into the spirit or mood of the cards and prepare them for the reading.
I’ve read countless descriptions of what one should do before, during and after a session. But really, I think it’s all rather arbitrary.
Though there’s something to be said for the power of ritual, and showing respect to a process might increase the resonance of a reading, when it comes right down to it, there’s no right or wrong way to do any of the following:
• store your cards
• cleanse your cards
• shuffle your cards
• cut your cards
• present your cards to your client
• sit during a reading
• surround (or not) your space with candles, crystals, incense, talisman or the like
It’s possible that particular rituals feel right, or seem useful. For instance, storing cards in silk and cedar, or shuffling seven times before beginning each reading.
Or maybe you like to face south, or wear red, or burn a blue candle dedicated to Isis and anointed in frankincense. It really doesn’t matter, except that it’s meaningful to you.
If doing these things, or anything else, helps you tune into the cards, the spirits, the client, or yourself, do them. But no one set of rituals is useful to everyone, or is required by the Tarot gods.
If the message of a particular card is going to get through, it will, regardless of what’s done to set the mood.
And the same holds true in reverse. If you’re not ‘getting’ the cards, no amount of polished crystals or auspicious feng shui positioning is going to help.
As much as I like to set things up a certain way when I can, it’s not always possible. And the truth is, my readings seem to be just as useful when done outside my ritualistic control as within it.
Like reading a book, it might feel best in our favourite chair with a mug of cocoa, but when the story’s good, we’ll be just as absorbed in reading it on the subway as we are at home.
Focusing on the client, intending to help, and learning the cards are the only essentials. Beyond that, you could be in a ditch or tanning by the pool, the Tarot doesn’t care. It’s always ready to tell its story.
Yesterday, Germany’s highest court ruled in favour of a Tarot reader whose dissatisfied customer refused to pay his bill.
The customer, a man in his mid-40s, had already paid the reader 35,000 euros (about $45,000) for reading services and life-coaching. Somewhere along the line, he decided he didn’t trust her anymore and refused to pay the outstanding balance of 6,700 euros.
Lower courts threw out the case last year, claiming that since magic didn’t exist, the Tarot reader couldn’t have a contract with her client. On appeal however, the High Court disagreed.
Fortune-telling, provable or not, could be subject to a binding contract. The judges determined that two parties are free to enter an agreement about something that is ‘irrational’. What’s not allowed is exploitation and fraud.
If the customer knew from the start that there was no rational evidence that Tarot cards worked, he was obligated to pay his bill.
So the case is returning to the lower courts to decide whether or not there was a contract. The customer is expected to argue that there was not.
Upset that his girlfriend had just left him and feeling that there was no meaning in his life, he’s likely to argue that he was ‘gullible’, and that any contract he and the reader had was void.
The High Court warned though, that such an argument will be tough to make. As they correctly point out, most people who go to fortune-tellers are distressed about their life. How is he different?
According to the court, the contract would only be determined void if the customer was unusually inexperienced, psychologically weak or credulous.
From my personal perspective as a Tarot reader, I see this as a damp victory.
It’s great that the reader’s right to enter into a binding contract with her client was recognized. It’s not so great that Tarot reading was deemed ‘irrational’.
Before reading Tarot, many people like to perform some sort of ritual to put them into the spirit or mood of the cards and prepare them for the reading.