Editor’s Note: This article continues our weekly series on the Tarot. You can find some of the earlier ones by clicking the “tarot” category link above (that should be working). We’re happy to respond to questions and will take direction from readers who comment, so please let us know what you think. You can visit Sarah’s website at this link. –efc
By Sarah Taylor
Over the past few weeks in our nascent tarot series, we have started by situating tarot in a wider system of thought where the personal touches the collective — one that is woven through much of the writing here on Planet Waves; and we have laid some groundwork for approaching a reading as clearly and effectively as possible. (The articles are listed at the end of this one.) Today, we are going to explore the idea of reading a tarot card: looking at it in order to gather meaning.
If, according to Dr. Roger Sperry, we are one of those who tend to approach things from a more “left-brain” perspective, we might balk at the thought of reading something that is visual rather than verbal. But if we come from the understanding that everything is symbolic (the subject of the first article), then I believe that we all have it in us to pick out the narrative of a picture. Some of us will simply take a little longer to get the knack than others who are well-versed in thinking visually.
If you consider yourself one who tends towards words rather than images, take heart. First, no-one is exclusively one way or the other; all of us rely on both mechanisms to move through life. Second, I don’t buy for a minute the belief many of us have that tarot is the exclusive domain of right-brain woo woo.
A good reading demands a combination of left-brain and right-brain thinking; of verbal and visual; analytical and intuitive. We apply both of these processes when addressing our cards. One cannot function effectively without the other. More than that: when they are combined, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Reading tarot cards is a form of synthesis, where two different approaches — knowledge and intuition — are combined to create something that transcends both.
So here we go …
Step 1 — Knowledge.
This is important: know your cards. Know the difference between major and minor arcana; court and pip cards (pips being Aces through to tens); swords, cups, wands and coins. Know what each classically represents. For example, what does the seven of coins mean? What are the differences between wands and swords? What is the prevailing quality of fours as compared to tens? What is the evolutionary journey described by the major arcana, from zero (The Fool) to 22 (The World)?