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Tarot, Predicting Events
Apr. 25th, 2023 03:25 pmI gave a two-hour lesson on Tarot this weekend. It mainly concerned the mechanics of reading, and was not focused on meanings. The more experienced I get, the firmer I become in the belief that card reading is mostly an inborn thing. If you were born on earth and get some basic instruction on how the cards must be interpreted in the framework of cosmology, you can read cards. The language of the universe is not particularly difficult to learn, but you must learn it if you want it to communicate to you. The universe will not learn your language and quirks, it should perhaps go without saying. Moreover, a Tarot deck, and even a regular card deck, is something like a Book of Life and Time. So it should be allowed to express that as cleanly as possible. A Marseille deck is good. As is a regular playing card deck. A Rider Waite deck is not good because the images on the Minor Arcana are often at odds with the Universal language. Anyway, so much for meanings.
One thing I advise people to do when reading for others is to try to tell the Querent some minor thing that has just happened to the Querent. Immediately give an event -- something you could not possibly know except for the cards -- in order to instill confidence in the Querent of your abilities. This is usually easy for me because my favorite spread is an unstructured 21-card Gypsy Spread -- 3 rows of 7 cards each. Something usually pops up at the beginning of the spread that you can mention.
The Empress, 5 of Pentacles, 9 of Swords, 3 of Cups
Above, for instance, I was reading for a woman in her 40s. She had a friend tag along because the friend was visiting her from out-of-state. I laid out 21 cards (a Marseille deck, which is not the deck picture above), and saw these four together at the beginning of the spread. I said: "I see that you are planning to renovate your kitchen. Do it. It will go smoothly without any problems or delays." She gasped and turned to her friend, who exclaimed: "We were just talking about that this morning!" Nothing earth-shattering, but it helps to indicate to the Querent that you are not a fake.
I think it is reasonable for a Querent to ask a diviner about something that has recently happened. If the reader says something like, "That's not what Tarot is for," one would be entirely justified in getting up and walking out. Tarot is absolutely for the telling of events --- past, present, and future. It can be for other things, too -- clarifying one's emotional state, exploring possible options in making a decision, and so on. If a reader says, however, that Tarot is not for the telling of events, there is something seriously amiss in the reader's training.
I cannot emphasize it enough . . . the Universe will speak clearly to you if you learn its language. Initially, this requires humility and ignorance. They are easy possessions, but virtue seldom gets willing heirs.
A couple other clear examples:
Empress, 9 of Swords, Ace of Cups, 7 of Swords: A break-in of a residence, and the beginning of a police investigation.
Knight of Swords, Chariot, 4 of Swords: A speeding ticket.
King of Wands, 9 of Cups, 3 of Swords, Moon: The Querent's grandfather is not feeling well. He has high blood pressure and takes medication for it. The medication is off in dosage and causing his problems. The grandfather needs to go to the doctor to have the medication adjusted.
Ace of Cups, 6 of Swords, 10 of Cups, 9 of Swords: Something will go wrong with the Querent's water pipes, and the house will be without water. I told her to stock up on jugs of water. The Querent literally scoffed at me and assured me that it could not be true. The house had just been built within the year, and it had been inspected 6 months before, when she and her family purchased it. She called me a week later and told me that the water main supplying the neighborhood had burst.
So, that one was true, as were all the others.
In a future entry, I will write about methods of divination in which the Querent says nothing. The reader must tell the Querent the question, and then answer the question. That can be done in horary astrology, horary numerology, geomancy, and in the sangoma bone-reading tradition.
One thing I advise people to do when reading for others is to try to tell the Querent some minor thing that has just happened to the Querent. Immediately give an event -- something you could not possibly know except for the cards -- in order to instill confidence in the Querent of your abilities. This is usually easy for me because my favorite spread is an unstructured 21-card Gypsy Spread -- 3 rows of 7 cards each. Something usually pops up at the beginning of the spread that you can mention.
The Empress, 5 of Pentacles, 9 of Swords, 3 of Cups
Above, for instance, I was reading for a woman in her 40s. She had a friend tag along because the friend was visiting her from out-of-state. I laid out 21 cards (a Marseille deck, which is not the deck picture above), and saw these four together at the beginning of the spread. I said: "I see that you are planning to renovate your kitchen. Do it. It will go smoothly without any problems or delays." She gasped and turned to her friend, who exclaimed: "We were just talking about that this morning!" Nothing earth-shattering, but it helps to indicate to the Querent that you are not a fake.
I think it is reasonable for a Querent to ask a diviner about something that has recently happened. If the reader says something like, "That's not what Tarot is for," one would be entirely justified in getting up and walking out. Tarot is absolutely for the telling of events --- past, present, and future. It can be for other things, too -- clarifying one's emotional state, exploring possible options in making a decision, and so on. If a reader says, however, that Tarot is not for the telling of events, there is something seriously amiss in the reader's training.
I cannot emphasize it enough . . . the Universe will speak clearly to you if you learn its language. Initially, this requires humility and ignorance. They are easy possessions, but virtue seldom gets willing heirs.
A couple other clear examples:
Empress, 9 of Swords, Ace of Cups, 7 of Swords: A break-in of a residence, and the beginning of a police investigation.
Knight of Swords, Chariot, 4 of Swords: A speeding ticket.
King of Wands, 9 of Cups, 3 of Swords, Moon: The Querent's grandfather is not feeling well. He has high blood pressure and takes medication for it. The medication is off in dosage and causing his problems. The grandfather needs to go to the doctor to have the medication adjusted.
Ace of Cups, 6 of Swords, 10 of Cups, 9 of Swords: Something will go wrong with the Querent's water pipes, and the house will be without water. I told her to stock up on jugs of water. The Querent literally scoffed at me and assured me that it could not be true. The house had just been built within the year, and it had been inspected 6 months before, when she and her family purchased it. She called me a week later and told me that the water main supplying the neighborhood had burst.
So, that one was true, as were all the others.
In a future entry, I will write about methods of divination in which the Querent says nothing. The reader must tell the Querent the question, and then answer the question. That can be done in horary astrology, horary numerology, geomancy, and in the sangoma bone-reading tradition.
