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 Tarot Guide For Beginners

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suziesheree
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suziesheree


Posts : 1431
Join date : 2009-03-23
Age : 50
Location : Penrith NSW Australia

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PostSubject: Tarot Guide For Beginners   Tarot Guide For Beginners Icon_minitimeSat Aug 22, 2009 6:04 pm

hey guys i just found this wonderful info

Choosing a Beginner Tarot Deck

If you are just starting to read tarot cards or have never done any work with the tarot, we suggest you start with the Waite-Rider deck, typically acknowledged as the easiest deck to work with for beginner magicians.

The people who created the modern tarot, all of whom were members of the Order of the Golden Dawn, designed the Waite-Rider, Morgan-Greer and Thoth decks. Arthur Edward Waite created the Waite-Rider deck (Rider was the name of the publisher) and Pamela Smith, also of the Golden Dawn, did the artwork for the cards.

Lloyd Morgan and William Greer disagreed with Waiteís approach, arguing that the Waite-Rider deck was too austere, too mental and too intellectual. They created the Morgan/Greer deck by adding fancy symbols, such as vines, to the top half of all the cards in the Waite-Rider deck.

The Waite-Rider, Morgan-Greer and Thoth decks were created by magicians for magic These decks, and only these decks, can be used for all three magical purposes described above. For instance the Aquarian deck is a beautiful tool for divination if you are used to working with Zen or Hindu concepts, but itís virtually useless for spell work and has no relationship at all to the Tree of Life.

Keying Your Tarot Cards

Because your tarot cards are magical tools (like the wand, athame, chalice and plate), they must be ìkeyed.î Keying is the means of personalizing magical tools for your own use. In this case, keying ties the cards not only to your own personal energies, but also to the Universe at large. This means that when you throw a tarot spread with a keyed deck, the cards not only represent elements, people and concepts in the Universe ñ they are tied to them.

Keying is what allows tarot spells to work. Because the cards are actually linked to physical things in the Universe, when you change or re-arrange the tarot cards, you also change or re-arrange things in the physical Universe.

In the progression of magical studies, the study of tarot cards comes almost at the end. This is because you need the plate, athame and sun candles to key your tarot cards. You need to have studied and practiced with these other tools before you can key your cards.

While it's possible to throw tarot spreads with unkeyed tarot cards, the results will be less accurate than with keyed cards.

Using a Signifier

A signifier is a card that stands for someone or something. The signifier in a Tarot reading poses the question that we want answered. We tie our Tarot readings to specific issues and questions by using keyed signifiers.

Most people who use the Tarot today do not use signifiers. This leads to readings that are both less accurate and less effective. Using a signifier guarantees that the reading will be about the person or thing you want to find out about, and only about that.

As a guide, we choose signifiers for people based on chronological age and sun sign. For instance, children 12 and under are usually represented by pages, teenagers by knights, adult females by queens and adult males by kings.

In the Crowley deck the page has both a male and female card - the prince or princess. The adult male is signified as a knight in the Crowley deck because Crowley said that there are no adult males ñ males never reach maturity!

Meanings for Tarot Cards

While there are lots of books out there that give you the meaning of tarot cards, one of the best and most personal ways to develop meanings for the cards is to actually study the cards themselves. The cards were developed with symbols and pictures that represent the concept being expressed.

For instance, in the Waite-Rider deck, the Four of Swords depicts a man lying on a bier, on which is pictured a horizontal sword. The meaning of the card is "to bury the hatchet" or let past conflicts come to resolution or rest. The man is literally resting on top of the sword (swords are the fire element, which includes conflicts or fighting) - he is resting on old issues and allowing them to come to rest. He has "buried the hatchet!"

Similarly, in the eight of wands (see below) you can see flying wands coming down to land. Because wands are the air element, and stand for ideas, inspiration, thoughts and communication, the eight of wands represents new ideas or inspirations. Once you know the element associated with each suit and look at the card for the concept being expressed, you will begin to intuit the meaning for tarot cards easily. This approach is both more reliable and more intuitive than relying on someone elseís interpretation (although you may want to use someone elseís definition as a starting point).

Many of our students learn the meaning for tarot cards by taking one card a day, intuiting the meaning, then looking for examples of that meaning or concept in everyday life. For instance, the in the seven of swords card (see below), a thief is stealing away with 7 swords. Swords are fire, which is also power, therefore the seven of swords is the loss of power. Once you intuit this meaning, looking for places in your life or in everyday life where you or someone else is losing power. When the concept is translated into everyday life, the meaning becomes real and you will never forget it.

Major and Minor Arcana

The tarot is comprised of Minor Arcana cards in four suits and Major Arcana cards, which are not in suits. The four suits of the Minor Arcana are Wands, Swords, Cups and Plates, which match the four elemental tools. Minor Arcana cards are the numbered cards in each suit (ace through 10) plus the court cards (page, knight, queen and king).

Major Arcana cards are all the other cards in the deck and are related to but not tied to a particular suit. They represent principles, concepts or ideals while minor arcana cards represent the many ways that those principles manifest in the everyday or mundane world. The ideas expressed in the major arcana cards are not taught in our culture so we have lost touch with them and we have no foundation for them. Therefore, we have to be careful not to apply present day meanings to these past time symbols.

Getting Started - Tarot for Beginners

Anyone can learn the art of reading tarot cards - it's not difficult. Like any art or science, it just takes practice and a strong desire to learn. One easy way to start learning the tarot is to get the Esoteric School Tarot Home Study course, which will teach you everything covered in this article, including the art of reading tarot cards, Tarot Spreads, meanings for tarot cards and two real tarot card spreads.

Discovering the Meaning of Tarot Cards

There are so many tarot decks around (and books that teach how to use those decks) that it can be difficult to know which meanings to apply to tarot cards. So many "gurus" give conflicting meanings - which one should you use?

While there are lots of books out there that give you the meaning of tarot cards, one of the best and most personal ways to develop meanings for the cards is to actually study the cards themselves.

The cards were developed with symbols and pictures that represent the concept being expressed.

For instance, in the Waite-Rider deck, the Four of Swords depicts a man lying on a bier, on which is pictured a horizontal sword. The meaning of the card is "to bury the hatchet" or let past conflicts come to resolution or rest. The man is literally resting on top of the sword (swords are the fire element, which includes conflicts or fighting) - he is resting on old issues and allowing them to come to rest. He has "buried the hatchet!"

Similarly, in the eight of wands you can see flying wands coming down to land. Because wands are the air element, and stand for ideas, inspiration, thoughts and communication, the eight of wands represents new ideas or inspirations. Once you know the element associated with each suit and look at the card for the concept being expressed, you will begin to intuit the meaning for tarot cards easily. This approach is both more reliable and more intuitive than relying on someone elseís interpretation (although you may want to use someone elseís definition as a starting point).

A great way to learn the meaning for tarot cards is by taking one card a day, intuiting the meaning, then looking for examples of that meaning or concept in everyday life. For instance, the in the seven of swords card, a thief is stealing 7 swords. Swords are fire, which is also power, therefore the seven of swords is the loss of power. Here is a quick guideline to help you with the elements and their meanings:


Wands (Air) - Ideas, communication, thoughts, enlightenment, concepts

Swords (Fire) - Power, motivation, action, force, conflict

Cups (Water) - Emotions, feeling, compassion, language of Spirit

Discs or Plate (Earth) - Manifestation, physical expression in the world, physical creation


Once you intuit this meaning, looking for places in your life or in everyday life where you or someone else is losing power. When the concept is translated into everyday life, the meaning becomes real and you will never forget it.

http://healing.about.com
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