Introduction to Tarot

Welcome to Tarot 101! 

This is a guide from an imperfect user,  someone who won’t have a booth up at a Renaissance Fair, but someone who is interested in this modality of divination. Tarot is a tool I’ve had in my toolbox for about 5 years, and while I use it on a consistent basis I don’t see myself as a practitioner. It is something I reach for a channeler, but not my sole input so I don’t wholly identify this as my sole mode to receive advice from the divine. 

Let’s back-up: what are these cards? 

The traditional tarot deck -the Rider Waite - originated in 1909 with 78 cards that we use today. These include 22 Major Arcana cards and 56 cards divided equally between the 4 suits; swords, cups, wands and pentacles/coins.  The tradition of using cards within the imagery originates much further back in France and Europe in the 15th century. Through these five suits, we see different stories that help give context in our lives. The 5 of cups and 5 of wands do not mean the same thing but follow similar transformative patterns of evolution from idea to embodiment. The swords represent the mind/intellect and the element of Air; the cups are feelings/emotions and water; pentacles (also known as coins) represent the physical and external and the element earth; and wands represent energy, spirituality, intuition and Fire. The other journey happening within the cards is the Karmic journey or the Fool’s journey. It starts with the naive Fool (Card # 0) and ends with the unified completion of the World (Card #21) 

There is also another system of cards known as Oracle Cards whose meanings vary from deck to deck, author to author. Some are historical figures, animal guides, Angels, Crystals, anything! The only limit is the artist’s and author’s imagination. I think both of them have their place within a practice and  own multiple of each style, oracle and traditional tarot. 

I use tarot in a few different ways: situational and I need advice, for a lunar event and for a Sabbat. It’s a wonderful tool that I weave into a weekly routine for the moon and an extra boost when needed or when it coincides with the solar holidays. For the lunations and Sabbats I use structured spreads because I like to refer back to them throughout the year and look back on the internal growth I’ve experienced. It’s almost like a portion of the year book that I reference throughout my journal. When I’m wanting advice on a specific topic I’ll either look up a spread OR shuffle through and read as many cards that jump out to me. 

I hope this was a helpful introduction to you on tarot and if you're looking for a specific spread that I’ve tested and used you can follow my account on Pinterest OR subscribe to my newsletter and get my full moon and new moon spread as a reward for signing up.