A Beginner Writes a Beginner’s Guide to Tarot
A few blogs ago, I mentioned that I recently started a book on Tarot and Jungian archetypes. So today I thought I would elaborate on my tarot explorations; I’ll share a little bit of the history of divination and cartomancy in general, the history and development of Tarot specifically, and how I, as a sceptical atheist, have found Tarot a useful tool for self-exploration.
Before I dive in, I want to make it clear that I am not a Tarot expert, a Tarot historian, and anthropologist or a professional reader. I’m just a chick with a blog who’s been exploring this tool. This is just my own experience and research. I’ll leave some resources at the end of this post if you want to dive deeper and learn more.
Basically, if you’re writing a university essay on Tarot cards, this is not a reliable source!
Also, although I plan to mention different beliefs people have about Tarot and it efficacy, I come from a more sceptical, psychological framework, and that bias will probably come through in this post (again, this is not an academic source). So if that’s going to upset you (if you’ve found this shared on some random occult forum or something), you’ve been warned. Don’t @ me.
But I’m assuming most of the people reading this know nothing about Tarot, so grab your notebooks, gang!
What is Tarot?
Tarot is a lot of things. It’s a divination system, a method of personal exploration, a form of artistic expression, a spiritual tool…
The most mundane definition is that Tarot is a deck of 78 cards, consisting of 22 Trump cards and four suits of 14 cards (10 Pips or number cards and 4 Court cards). The four suits, Wands, Swords, Cups and Coins, are analogous to the suits of standard playing cards today (Clubs, Spades, Hearts and Diamonds respectively). Of the 22 Tumps, The Fool has a connection to The Joker in modern card decks.
Three of the most famous decks are the Marseille Tarot (one of the oldest Tarot designs), the Rider-Waite-Smith (probably the most famous in our modern idea of Tarot) and the Thoth Tarot (a reimagining of the ‘traditional’ Tarot designed by Lady Frieda Harris with magical consultation from Aleister Crowley). As Tarot has become more popular, artists have reinterpreted the imagery and meanings of the cards, creating decks with different art styles and themes. Examples include The Modern Goth Tarot, The Wild Unknown Tarot and The Mythic Tarot, as well as decks based on various IPs.
Tarot decks differ from Oracle decks in that they always have 78 cards with the same 22 Trumps and suits (although the exact names of the cards/suits can vary slightly). Oracle deck are the original creation of the artist/designer and aren’t necessarily based on an existing card system.
The History of Divination and Cartomancy
As Tarot is associated with predicting the future in the public consciousness, it makes sense to talk about about divination.
I think it’s safe to hypothesise that divination is as old as civilisation. It’s almost a natural instinct before we learn the superiority of reason. How many of you remember ‘divining’ whether your playground crush liked you by plucking the petals of a flower? “He loves me, he loves me not…”
Throughout history and across cultures, humans have tried to see the future in a variety of ways. The Greeks and Romans used Augery (reading the behaviour of birds) to recieve omens. Astragalomancy (divining with dice) was also used in ancient Greece. Bibliomancy (divining with books) has been used in both Christian and Islamic cultures, using The Bible and Qur’an, as well as secular texts.
Interestingly, many divination methods employ items that are accessible, such as playing cards (cartomancy), bones (osteomancy), tea leaves and coffee grounds (tasseomancy), and palms (palmistry). Even the stereotype of the fortune-teller gazing into a crystal ball is a form of divination called scrying, which can also be performed with a mirror or a body of water.
Cartomancy specifically is believed to have started in the 14th century, soon after the first playing cards appear in the archeological record. Whilst Tarot is the most associated with card reading, regular playing cards have been and are still used in card reading, for example in Hoodoo, a magical tradition developed by enslaved African communities in the southern United States.
The Origins of Tarot
Tarot has a…I’ll go with ‘messy’ - history, in that it involves a lot of privileged white guys making stuff up to make themselves and their mystical abilities seem more legit and mysterious (woo!). 18th Century French occultists, amiright?
The mythic (and false) origins of Tarot involve connections with Ancient Egypt and the god Thoth. Connections were also made to the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, although I don’t know if the occultists claimed it was always linked to the Kabbalah, or if they super-imposed the Kabbalah onto the developing Tarot divination system.
The origin of Tarot supported by historical and archaeological evidence is that the imagery we know today came from Italy. Trionfi, as it was first known, was used for both card games and card tricks, and spread to Austria, Germany and France. In Italy today, cards with imagery very similar to Tarot are still used for card games.
Another possible origin of Tarot that can’t be confirmed or disproved is a link to the Indian Subcontinent via the Romani people. Tarot has long been associated with the Romani and cartomancy was very likely used by them as a way to earn a living. Whether the imagery in the Italian decks was also influenced by Romani culture is a question that so far hasn’t been answered.
Tarot in Practice
Now we’ve got all that out of the way, how do people use Tarot?
Well, it depends on how you think Tarot works.
If you were to observe someone doing a reading, it would probably look the same regardless of the framework the reader uses. They would shuffle the deck, ask either an overarching question or a question per card drawn, blind-draw the cards, lay them out in a spread and interpret the answer based on the individual card meanings and how they relate to each other.
Here are some of the ways readers use the cards - if the woo-woo makes your eyes roll, maybe skip to how I use the cards:
to communicate with spirits or deities
to communicate with the dead
to commune with the cards themselves
to contact their Higher Self
to predict the future
So what do I think is going on?
Firstly I don’t think anything mystical is happening. I do use my intuition to choose the cards. Sometimes I’ll shuffle and if a card catches my eye or falls out and I’m like, “yeah,” I’ll pull it. Other times I’ll shuffle until I feel I’m ‘done’, cut the deck randomly and pull from the top. But I don’t believe the deck or a deity is ‘telling’ me what to do. The most metaphysical explanation I could get behind is the Higher Self, maybe. But the jury is still out on that one.
What I do think is that humans are really good at pattern recognition (incidentally, this is why I think Astrology seems to accurate). I also think the rigid meanings of the cards helps to bypass your ego, helping you make decisions or see situations in more helpful ways.
For example, let’s say you ask the cards about an issue at work. You’ve been looking at it from a financial perspective - maybe you think you’re unhappy because your salary is crap. This would be the domain of the suit of Coins. But when you pull the cards, every card is from the suit of Cups, which rules emotions and relationships - also important to workplace happiness. The reading forces you to look at your problem from this perspective. How can you improve your work relationships? Are any relationships holding you back? How can you make sure your emotional needs are being met or respected at work?
It’s like when you talk through a problem with a friend and they say, “have you tried this?” and you go, “I never would have thought of that!”. Our ego can keep us stuck in our own perspective and Tarot can show us a new angle.
Edit: I do also think that, most of the time (trauma, perceptive distortions etc not withstanding), we do know deep down what we want/need to do. Sometimes we can use reason to try and justify the easy/more comfortable/more socially acceptable course of action. Tarot or other less scientific, more intuitive methods can help us to listen to and trust our gut feelings on a matter. Although this can also go both ways.
How I Use Tarot
I read for myself vary rarely, usually on big occasions like my birthday or the new year. I also tend to focus on questions that either empower me to take action or encourage me to reflect. For example, I might ask, “What action can I take this week to help with X?” or “Where could a seek more support around X?”
I also find it useful to journal about my spreads, both writing down my initial interpretation and using it as a springboard for further long-form journaling.
At the beginning of the month, I like to do a one-card pull. This not only helps me get more familiar with the cards (as I’m still, very much, a beginner) but also gives me something to keep in mind and reflect on.
Recommendations
If this post has whetted your appetite, here are some useful resources for you.
Firstly, Kelly-Ann Maddox has a video tarot course for free on her YouTube channel. Its a little old but still a fantastic resource if you want to start reading:
Secondly, if you want to dip your toe in but don’t want to spend your coin on a deck you may never use, there’s plenty of blog posts on how to read with traditional playing cards. The website I used when I started with playing cards is no longer up, but here are a couple I found whilst writing this blog:
Intro To Cartomancy: A No-Nonsense Tarot Alternative That Uses Playing Cards
Cartomancy: the art of divination/fortune telling with playing cards
Finally, if you’re interested in getting a reading from someone else, make sure you do you research. Not only are there plenty of charlatans looking to scam you out of your money, but readers have very different methods and beliefs that affect what they offer. If you’re looking for a reading for self-empowerment, you don’t want a reader who specialises in contacting deceased loved ones.
So that’s your beginners guide to Tarot! Go forth and do whatever you want with this information!