Editor’s Note: Sarah Taylor was unexpectedly unable to write today’s Weekend Tarot Reading, and I got the message late. In its place, here is one of Sarah’s early articles on how to read tarot cards, which originally published Sept. 22, 2010. — Amanda
By Sarah Taylor
In last Wednesday’s exploration of Death and The Tower, I referred to the idea that no card has a definitive meaning that can be applied in every reading. The message that a card brings with it is affected — however subtly — by each client; by that client’s interaction with the tarot reader; and by the circumstances and subject on which a reading is based.
Its message also depends on the other cards in a layout, and it is this correlation between cards that we’ll be looking at today.
The three-card reading
I am going to be talking about the cards as they are depicted in the Xultun layout — although I have also included the equivalent cards from the Rider-Waite Smith deck so that you have something familiar with which to anchor yourself if you start to feel somewhat adrift. If you do get that floating feeling, look at the Rider-Waite Smith cards for a few moments, and then go back to the Xultun layout.
A little earlier, I shuffled the cards. One card fell out of the deck while I was shuffling, so guided by the law of synchronicity I took that as the first card. (I refer to these “jumpers” and take their calls for attention seriously.) I then cut the deck, and picked the other two off the top of the last cut.