posted July 27, 2003 02:20 PM         

Welcome to the beginning of our Tarot Symposium.

I think perhaps the best way to begin is to take a look at the basic construction of the Tarot.

The Tarot is composed of what has come to be called the Higher or Major Arcana, and the Lower or Minor Arcana.

The Higher Arcana is comprised of the NAMED Cards from 0 - 21. That is to say, the series beginning with The Fool and ending with The World. These cards are what may be termed the "movers and the shakers". They are given more significance in a reading than the Lower Arcana in a general sense.

The Lower Arcana is comprised of the 4 Suits of the Tarot: Wands, Pentacles, Swords and Cups. Each suit contains 14 cards. The pips or numbered cards, from the Ace to the 10, and the Court Cards which for our purposes will be named: Page, Knight, Queen and King. Here I think Linda might mention the number 14 as signifying the pieces of the sundered Soul of Osiris.

Each suit corresponds to an astrological element:

Fire: Wands
Earth: Pentacles
Air: Swords
Water: Cups.

The Lower Arcana, though they have a spiritual significance to be sure, are generally representative of events and circumstances in the mundane world. They represent the array of human experience on a practical level.

This breakdown into the 4 suits can also be ascribed to the 4 worlds of the Qabalist. That is to say they represent the levels of Creation from the most energetic or spiritual to the most material or manifested aspect of reality.

If anyone is particularly interested in a more indepth explanation of the Qabalistic Worlds, we can open another thread for that purpose, but I think that mentioning it's connection to the 4 suits is sufficent at this point for the beginner.

For our purposes we can break down the suits in the following fashion:

Wands (or Rods): business, enterprise, achievement or distinction

Pentacles (or Coins): money and security, foundations; real estate

Swords: troubles, strife, upheaval, also intellect and communications

Cups: love, relationships, family, emotional matters

Obviously there will be some overlapping of the suit meanings, but in a general way, those are the key-notes for each suit.

For more info on the Tarot/Astrology correspondences that I use, please see this thread:

http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum18/HTML/000057.html

Any other thoughts, comments or questions before we move on?

In the Light...
A

posted July 28, 2003 09:17 AM         

An example would be:
Does this man really love me?

So I recieve the 7 of Pentacles, this card is not an emotional card, so how would I interpret this? Dealing with one card only.

BTW, this isn't real, just an example of something that would come up from time to time.

posted July 28, 2003 09:25 AM         

It's the only system I know by heart. And I have not delved into any Quabalistic studies, but I am very big fan of Madonna.

posted July 28, 2003 04:16 PM         

Well, Pentacles are involved with anything that has to do with a sense of SECURITY, and for some people that could be as easily love as money.

The Seven of Pentacles shows a picture of a man admring his handiwork in his garden, enjoying the fruits of his labor so to speak. So one might extrapolate that in answer to the question you posed, the man is content in the relationship. It represents reaping the rewards of that which you have sown.

Now, in regard to you hypothetical question; is the card upright or inverted? In a one card reading such as this, I might just as easily ignore the symbolism of the card itself for a simple upright = YES and inverted = NO. However if I were looking for a YES/NO answer, I would also certainly pull more than one card, always an ODD number and simply count the uprights/reversed. The central card would represent the PRESENT, and that gets 2 points. Majority upright = YES, majority inverted = NO. And just as often one will get an equal number of Ups and Downs, signifying a sort of so-so or MAYBE answer.

I find that the Tarot can often be capricious, and if one is not most careful in the way a question is framed, the results can be puzzling at best and vexing at worst.

Often the Tarot will reflect an inner state or something that is more pressing on the mind than the "question" that is asked. More on that topic later.

By the way... numerology is numerology. The INTERPRETATION of the numbers doesn't really change from system to system... what changes is the alphabet letter/number values. Make any sense?

Hope that helps a bit.

Blessings..
A

posted July 29, 2003 12:37 PM         

Long time no see... miss our little chats! How the heck are ya??

Cat71...

I will have to borrow a page from Linda's book here and say that I think NOT using reversed meanings is sloppy Tarot. Here's why. If the Tarot were NOT intended to be read with reversals, why draw pictures that can be right side up and upside down? Why not then use images that look the same no matter what direction the cards fall?

Now, the reversals DO NOT always REVERSE the meaning of the card. Sometimes they magnify it, other times they DO reverse it. But to me we're ignoring a whole slew of valuable information if we discount the reversals.

I have tried both ways in my practice, and for me, it is infinitely more accurate if I use the Reversals.

In terms of the same cards always being reversed... that would only be if you ALWAYS picked up the deck in the same way. And if one is always starting out wih all the cards upright, to me, that about amounts to stacking the deck!

I might suggest that you try to read with REVERSALS some time, and see if it works for you. If it doesn't, then ditch it. If it does, it might open up a whole new dimension in your reading.

Blessed Be...
A

posted July 30, 2003 01:22 AM         

Do whatever feels intuitively right.

I know that there are many books that give alot of rules about shuffling the cards and cutting them and breaking them into 3 packs with the left hand and all that stuff. Waffle!!

Only thing that I don't do is riffle shuffle the cards. I always use the hand over hand method to shuffle the cards. I think that violent riffling kind of "upsets the energies" and I only do that sort of thing if I have had a reading with someone whose energy was inharmonious to my own.

Of course if you are comfortable doing the riffle shuffle method, by all means use that. And if you are comfortable following the traditional left hand ritual, use that also.

The only other thing that I try to do is to turn the cards over from side to side, rather than flipping them over from top to bottom, or botttom to top. As I used reversed meanings, that would automatically reverse every card that you lay out.

Oh, and I suppose that I have one other quirk.. I tend to read the cards that I lay out in a straight line from Right to left, right representing the PAST to me and Left representing the FUTURE. This may have something to do with a few Lifetimes as a Hebrew High Priest. Now, I have a friend that reads teh cards like a book from Left to Right... past to future. And she's a great reader. I think that the upshot there is to be consistent! Pick a system and stick with it... and then, if you FEEL that something is out of kilter, make adjustments as needed.

Hope that helps a bit.

Blessings...
A

posted July 30, 2003 03:10 AM         

SunShyne

posted July 30, 2003 03:48 AM         

I think you already sussed out your own answer there!

The answer will come in whatever form it needs to. If you NEED to get the High Priestess upright to reveal a piece of information.. then it will come up that way. That's part of the magic of the Tarot.

Make any sense?

Blessed Be...
A

posted July 30, 2003 07:46 AM         

Ah yes, the reading for meself thing.

I try NOT to do it unless it's something I can be objective about. When I need real clarity I will ask my friend for a reading.

Every once in a while, I may ask a simple YES/NO question and just answer myself with a simple count... totally disregarding the cards and trying to interpret them, I find that my current state of mind often will impact my reading.

So, in your situation, I would probably advise that you ask a direct YES/NO question; or have someone else read for you.

The only problem with the YES/NO method is that often times I don't like the answer... but oddly enough it's often the RIGHT one.

I wish you clarity!

Peace...
A

posted July 30, 2003 10:40 PM         

Before we move on to the meaning of specific cards, I'd like to talk about my approach to Tarot.

The best single piece of advice I can offer is to LOOK at the CARDS and to LISTEN to the Inner Voice to give you the story that your querent needs to hear. Each card does have a specific meaning both upright and reversed, but sometimes being near another card will modify, amplify, nullify or otherwise adjust its meaning in THAT particular spread.

One thing to look at in the Tarot, particularly the Lower Arcana, is the HANDS of the person or persons pictured in that card. I have never seen this mentioned in book, but they often give a clue to deeper meanings.

Are the hands gloved? Could that imply that the person is feeling defensive? Could it imply that the person pictured in the cards is HIDING something? Are the hands even visible? In that case, is there anything that the querent can DO about the situation? Or perhaps do they FEEL helpless?

What direction are the people in the card facing? Are they looking AT a card that signifies the querent? Or are they looking AWAY from the querent? Do they have a beard? Does the beard imply masculinity, or again, something hidden?

These are some of the things that I look at GENERALLY before I even try to interpret what the cards may mean in a given spread. Sometimes something will just jump out at you or seem to "light up" to your Inner Eye... use that to help decipher the messages for your querent.

Hope this helps a bit.

Blessings...
A

posted July 31, 2003 03:04 AM         

I'm going to try a reading with reversed cards for the first time....after some analysis, I've realised that I've always been a bit scared of reversed cards, sort of like they'll give me answers that I don't want to hear - and that's just not a good enough reason to discount their validity without trying them, so here goes...

posted August 01, 2003 07:01 PM         

When you have your deck ready for the first time. Should they all be right side up ie; heads pointing up & feet down? If so, how do they get reversed? or am I ahead of mys-elf?

posted August 02, 2003 03:02 AM         

Hi A, I tried a reversed reading this morning. What's a reversed Tower in the outcome position? And a reversed 6 of cups that keeps cropping up? And is a reversed Fool a warning not to look before you leap? Thanks!

posted August 02, 2003 08:37 AM         

My Virgo moon wants all the cards orderly with all the lovely knights, pages ect standing on thier feet or rather their feet pointing towards my chest when I shuffle them. I also feel the need to sit south and their heads/deck point north. They`ve taken on a life of their own & I`m not certain where rules/ intutition merge..

posted August 02, 2003 12:14 PM         

Juniper, only rule I have is that there are NO rules.

If you like to face the little people all the same way, so be it... too much work for me.

Whenever I get a deck in my hands to shuffle I always take some cards randomly and reverse them according to my intuition. Some people like to go thru the deck and put them in some kind of order, but again, to me, this kind of smacks of stacking the deck.

Sun.. in terms of your cards.. hard to be specific without knowing what spread you are using or what your original question was. Sounds like you used a specific spread with an OUTCOME card, and I tend to stay away from such things as they tend to limit the interpretation to me. Particularly limiting I find that horror of the Celtic Cross - it just doesn't make sense to me.. and I have only ever used it for VERY specific questions.

I tend to be more free form when I lay out the cards, sort of let them tell me what they mean.

That being said: Tower reversed can be holding on to old ways of thought, beliefs that have outlived their usefulness. Can be an unwillingness or inability to let go of the past. It's also an indication that changes have already been made, and you must now adjust to the new order.

6 of Cups reversed: can represent a desire to remain in the past in some way. The advice is to be more open to the present and its possibilities. Time to let go of the outmoded and live in the now... find some new friends and enjoy new adventures.

Fool reversed: the temptation here may be to do something foolish, to rush in where angels fear to tread. The advice is to look carefully at what is ahead and not charge headlong into anything.. don't just make a change for the sake of making a change.

I dunno if that helps, but that's what I have for now. Again, not knowing what your question was, hard to be more specific... but I can already see some repeated themes in these cards.

Bright Blessings...
A

posted August 02, 2003 02:48 PM         

I`m loving this already

OK, no more questions and I`ll listen now.