Tarot and More...

Tarot is a varied and wide-ranging divination tool which shares its origins with other sources of ancient wisdom.

This article explores a number of different Tarot packs, the alternative use of ordinary playing-cards, the connection with the 'Tree of Life', and a number of different spreads which may be used to provide simple and insightful readings.

In order to try Tarot for divination, it is recommended (although not essential) that you have some Tarot cards. Here is the first problem. When you find a shop (book-store, games specialist, New-Age store, etc) which sells Tarot cards, you will be presented with a choice of a number of packs.

If you are a more-experienced reader, you may wish to invest in alternative Tarot cards in order to provide options when you are making readings for people.

In both cases the questions are the same: which pack should I choose, which one is likely to be useful to me, which one will assist my interpretations when I am doing a reading, and which ones should I avoid.

The answers depend on a number of things: whether you intend to use your cards only for readings, or whether you will use them for meditation or symbolism in addition. Packs of Tarot cards can be quite expensive (particularly when sold in combination with a guidebook), so here is a table of some of the most frequently encountered Tarot cards which may help to prepare you for your choice:

Card Example	Deck	Major Arcana	Minor Arcana	Other Cards/Notes
	Rider-Waite Tarot	22 picture cards	56 picture cards: Suits: Cups, Wands, Pentacles, Swords.	All cards are helpful for interpretations.
	1JJ Tarot	22 picture cards	56 cards. Only court cards have pictures	Traditional symbolism, with no pictures to assist Minor Arcana inrerpretations.
	Le Tarot de Marseille	22 picture cards	56 cards. Only court cards have pictures	Traditional symbolism, with no pictures to assist Minor Arcana inrerpretations.
	Scapini Tarot	22 picture cards	56 picture cards: Suits: Cups, Wands, Coins, Swords	Medieval symbolism
	The Morgan-Greer Tarot	22 picture cards	56 picture cards: Suits: Cups, Rods, Pentacles, Swords.	Pictures differing from 'traditional' imagery mainly only in detail.
	The Universal Tarot	22 picture cards	52 picture cards: Suits: Cups, Wands, Disks, Swords.	Findhorn's tarot, which omits the 'Page' from the court cards. Unhelpful imagery for interpretation.
	The Mythic Tarot	22 un-numbered picture cards	56 picture cards: Suits: Cups, Wands, Pentacles, Swords.	All cards are helpful for interpretations, although Major Arcana cards are un-numbered.
	The Unicorn Tarot	22 picture cards	56 picture cards: Suits: Cups, Rods, Pentacles, Swords.	All cards include unicorns in their pictures.
	The Norse Tarot	22 picture cards including rune symbol.	56 picture cards: Suits: Cups, Wands, Discs, Swords.	The 22 Major Arcana cards contain rune symbols to reinforce meaning.
	Shapeshifter Tarot	25 picture cards (see note)	56 picture cards: Suits: Cups, Wands, Pentacles, Swords.	Although a 'non-standard' Tarot deck, it is easily interpreted. Major Arcana is extended to 25 cards.
	Celtic Tarot	22 picture cards	56 picture cards: Suits: Cups, Wands, Coins, Swords. Only court cards have pictures	Celtic symbolism and presentation not too helpful for interpretation.
	Haindl Tarot	22 picture cards including Hebrew letter, Rune, Element, and astrological relationship	56 picture cards: Suits: Cups, Wands, Stones, Swords. Court-card names are non-standard.	Pictures unhelpful for interpretation. I Ching hexagrams included on cards 2 to 10 of each Minor Arcana suit.
	Dragon Tarot	22 picture cards including astrological relationship	56 picture cards: Suits: Coins, Cups, Wands, Swords	Dragon pictures are attractive, but are unhelpful for the Minor Arcana interpretations.
	Osho Zen Tarot	22 picture cards	56 picture cards: Suits: Water, Clouds, Fire, Rainbows.	'The Master' card is an extra card - representing 'mastery of self'. Presented as a 'game of transcendence' this deck is unusual. Not recommended for people trying to learn tarot.
	The Herbal Tarot	22 picture cards	56 picture cards: Suits: Cups, Wands, Pentacles, Swords.	All cards contain a reference to herbs which relate to the card's meaning. Difficult to interpret.
	The Animal-Wise Tarot	22 picture cards	56 picture cards: Suits: Shareshifters, Ancients, Winged-Ones, Four-leggeds.	All cards refer to animals, and give equivalent 'normal' Tarot suit. Each card has an interpretation of a few words .
	The Medicine Woman Tarot	22 picture cards	56 picture cards: Suits: Arrows, Pipes, Bowls, Stones.	Court-cards in each Minor Arcana suit have different names from traditional tarot.
	The Lord of the Rings Tarot	22 picture cards	56 picture cards: Suits: Cups, Wands, Coins, Swords.	Based on characters from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, each card contains an inscription to aid interpretation.
	The Round Tarot	22 picture cards	56 picture cards: Suits: Cups, Wands, Discs, Swords.	As the name suggests, all cards are circular. Images are not traditional, are good for meditation, but do not aid interpretation
	Tarot of the Witches	22 picture cards	56 cards: Suits: Cups, Batons, Coins, Swords. No pictures to aid interpretation	Mystical/Witch symbolism, with no pictures to assist Minor Arcana inrerpretations.
	Tarot of the Cat People	22 picture cards	56 cards: Suits: Cups, Wands, Pentacles, Swords.	Pictures of striking unusual characters, often with cats. Unhelpful to interpretation.

In addition to the regular Tarot cards, you may encounter other packs of cards which may confuse you about how they are used.

Pack	Decription	Comments/Use
Angel Cards	52 picture cards (normally)	These cards are often used to seek assistance or understanding in a particular situation. Often, on card is selected randomly to provide guidance for a week.
The Psy Cards	40 picture cards	These cards are meant to help self-discovery, and to be useful in counselling others. You need to validated these claims for yourself before they to use them seriously.
The Rune Cards	25 picture cards	These cards relate to normal runes, and can be used instead of selecting runes. In rune 'casts' the possitions of the runes is important - difficult to achieve with cards.
The Bach Flower Oracle	39 cards	These are used for healing, divination, and meditation. The cards chosen at random identifies are used like Tarot, but interpretation needs help.
Healing Flower Color Cards	38 basic cards plus 39 meditation cards	These are used for healing, divination, and meditation. The cards chosen at random identifies are used like Tarot, but interpretation needs help.
Aura Soma Cards	98 colour cards	Colour resonance, attraction and responsiveness is the basis of Aura Soma. A book is recommended to assist with interpretation.

Is there any option other than using a pack of expensive Tarot cards if you wish to do a reading? Yes, there is....!

Cartomancy is 'fortune-telling' using playing cards (instead of Tarot cards). A normal (English) pack of playing cards contains 52 cards (13cards in each of four suits: clubs, hearts, spades, diamonds), plus two jokers. A Tarot pack (traditionally) consists of 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana cards, then 56 Minor Arcana cards (14cards in each of four suits).

The relationship between normal playing cards and Tarot cards is in the cards of the Minor Arcana, less the 'Page' card in each of the Tarot suits. To make a pack of Tarot cards equivalent to a pack of playing cards perform the following steps:

1) Discard 21 Major Arcana cards, keeping only 'The Fool',
2) Discard the 4 'Page' cards.

Now you have just 53 cards, and you can use the Minor Arcana card interpretations for each equivalent playing card, where Spades = Swords, Hearts = Cups, Clubs = Wands/Batons, Diamonds = Pentacles/Coins/Discs, and the Jokers are 'The Fool' symbolising 'sense/nonsense'.

Here is a link which provides a summary of the Minor Arcana interpretations:

The Tree of Life is a Kabbalistic representation of the spiritual stages and states of existence, and the path through the Tree maps growth, understanding, and learning.

In the picture on the left, the ten 'nodes' represent each of the first ten cards in each suit of the Minor Arcana..

In the picture on the right, the nodes have their Hebrew names added, and the links between the ten nodes provide the names of the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana

In the Tree, the names/meanings are: Kether (1) is 'Crown', Binah (2) is 'Understanding', Chokmah (3) is 'Wisdom', Geburah (4) is 'Judgement', Chesed (5) is 'Love', Tiphereth (6) is 'Essence', Hod (7) is 'Reverbation', Netzach (8) is 'Victory', Yesod (9) is 'Foundation, and Malkuth (10) is 'Kingdom'.

The Celtic-Cross is probably the most popular non-trivial spread used by Tarot readers. There are also a number of other spreads which were covered in the Tarot topic in June last year. Please click on the links if you need to refresh your memory.

Additionally, here are a range of alternative three-card spreads for simple (and significant) readings, and also a spread known as the 'Sacred Quest'.

Even three cards can be laid in a different order, and each of the cards can be assigned a different meaning.

Card 1: Experiences of the Past
Card 2: What is happening now
Card 3: Future direction

The future direction should not be taken literally, and its direct and detailed relevance depends on the question asked in preparing the reading.

Card 1: The intellectual attitude of the querent
Card 2: The actions taken in the querent's situation
Card 3: The lesson which may be learnt from the situation.

Card 1: Situation requiring a choice to be made, or outcome if no action taken
Card 2: Outcome if choice 'A' is taken
Card 3: Outcome if choice 'B' is taken

Card 1: Situation
Card 2: What the querent has contributed to the situation
Card 3: What the 'other' person involved in the Situation has contributed to it.

Card 1: Overall recent experience of the querent
Card 2: Challenges in store for the querent
Card 3: Personal characteristic or 'quality' which will assist the querent in facing the challenges.

Card 1: The Quest of the querent
Card 2: The querent's present path
Card 3: Where the present path leads
Card 4: What opposes the querent
Card 5: What aids the querent
Card 6: What the querent must sacrifice
Card 7: What the querent will become.

Tarot is an immensely rich source of divination and meditation. Many new packs of Tarot cards are immensely beautiful and are helpful for meditation, but often confuse (or are unhelpful to) interpretation.

As always, the best solution is to find what suits you best, and rely on whatever comes to you when doing readings - do not force any interpretation, and don't be dishonest with the subject of any reading, because the consequences can be serious for those involved. To overstate your knowledge and understanding is at leat a betrayal of trust, and can be much, much worse.

That sounds severe, but respect the tools in your hands, don't force what is not there, relax and enjoy the symbolism of Tarot, and wait to be amazed at exactly what does appear to you in the middle of any reading!

Disclaimer:
The opinions and facts contained in these pages are the sole responsibility of the editors and respective authors. Any actions you may take as a result of anything you read in these pages is your own responsibility, and the editors and respective authors, whilst operating in good faith, do not warrant in any way the accuracy or authenticity of any information contained herein, and acknowledge no consequential liabilities.