Note: Part two of Juan Cole’s article was delayed by a technical glitch last night. It will publish tonight at 6:00 pm EDT. – amanda
Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article tells you how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc
By Sarah Taylor
The Weekend Tarot Reading this past Sunday sparked two very interesting discussion threads in the comments section, which I’d like to expand on a little here.
The first concerns the purpose of a tarot reading: what is it there to achieve? The short answer to that is that it depends on the intention of the tarot reader and (if applicable) the client. There are as many reasons to do the reading as there are intentions, and it would be an impossible task to list each permutation. However, I’d like to focus on two of those approaches — the two that were raised in the comments section of this week’s reading — namely: a) working with tarot as a form of divination, and b) working with tarot as a therapeutic tool.
Tarot as divination
According to Princeton’s WordNet site, one of the definitions of divination — and the one I’m choosing to use here — is “a prediction uttered under divine inspiration”. The word “prediction” implies something that is future-based, and I would expand on this to include the present as well. In other words, it is the use of divine inspiration to look at possibilities, both present and future, that might otherwise remain hidden.
I think it’s a fair assumption to make that most people are more familiar with tarot as a divination tool than with any other kind of tarot work. Tarot as divination forms the basis of my own professional readings, and it is probably the most sought-after form of reading that there is.
There is something compelling about being given the opportunity to experience those landscapes — inner and outer — that evade our five senses. It can enlighten; it can give a sense of meaning; it can help us to feel that we are in control; it can be an escape from playing the central role in our own lives and from assuming responsibility for our decisions. All of these are reasons to seek out a tarot reader and I try not to judge any of them, knowing full-well that all of these motivations have been my own at some point in the past.
However, I’m not interested in discussing motive today as much as I am in process: what is happening when tarot is being used as a divinatory tool? What goes on with the tarot reader? An explanation that fits my experience more than anything else is the one that I referred to briefly in the comments section of this week’s reading, and which I first came across in the book On Becoming an Alchemist by Catherine MacCoun.
To use the writer’s analogy in the context of tarot (and if there are any deviations from her intended meaning, I offer my apologies in advance): when we divine, we are bringing meaning down from above. We ascend the vertical, commune with the wisdom that is there, and then we come back to the horizontal, translating that message into words. This is where the idea of “getting out of the way” really comes into its own. As divine interpreters, for want of a better phrase, it is our job to ensure that the message is delivered as closely to its source form as possible. When we do, we are able to give the client what it is that they were looking for: meaning, in whatever form it chooses to make itself known.