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What Is Tarot?
Chapter

1
In This Chapter
◆ Your future in a pack of cards?

◆ The reader and the Querent

◆ How Tarot works

◆ Are you a Fool?

Admit it—you’re curious. Who isn’t? Everyone wants to know about the
future!
Hindsight might give you 20/20 vision for understanding what’s happened
in the past, but what (or who) helps you figure out what’s coming up in
the future? When you think of fortune-tellers, do you picture Whoopi
Goldberg in the movie Ghost, channeling spirits with a crystal ball? How
about the Wizard of Oz (the mighty Oz sees all, knows all!), dispensing
magical powers to eager applicants who’ve proven themselves worthy?
Is it even possible to “predict” or “tell” someone what his or her future will
be? Remember a little thing called Free Will? We do. (We know some
skeptics are among us.)
So right now you’re curious about the Tarot. What, exactly, do Tarot cards
have to say about the future—most particularly, about yours? Let’s take a
closer look at the cards.
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4 Part 1: All About Tarot

Just a Pack of Cards?

We’ve seen you lingering in the New Age section of your local bookstore, eyeing the
Tarot decks. Maybe you’ve heard about the Tarot from friends or co-workers who’ve
gotten readings. Their enthusiasm has you wondering. Flipping through the deck, the
medieval-looking drawings on the cards seem so exotic. What could these mystical
talismans possibly mean for you? Is it all just a bunch of hooey in a fancy-looking
deck of cards? If nothing else, you think to yourself, it’s some fun for a Saturday after-
noon. Yet you have that nagging question of how that situation at work is going to
turn out. What would the cards have to say?
From time to time, we all look for guidance. It could
Card Catalog be on a grand scale, something that will affect the
very course of our lives, such as deciding whom to
The Tarot is an ancient
method of fortune-telling that uses marry or where to live. Or it could be something of
the 78 cards of the Tarot deck smaller consequence but important in the moment.
to create a story of you—past, We look to a lot of sources to help us make our deci-
present, and future. sions. Here’s a list of some of the sources most of us
don’t think twice about consulting every day:
◆ We look to the five-day weather forecast to get a handle on whether we’ll need
to carry an umbrella, break out the sun block, or put the snow tires on the SUV.
◆ How about listening to the radio for the daily traffic reports? It’s essential to
know the most efficient and beneficial route for getting to the office on time.
◆ Hey, admit it. Do you check your daily horoscope?

◆ Status meetings at work or guidance counseling at school help give us a good

perspective on what we’ve already accomplished, what needs to be done today,
and how to tackle future challenges.
◆ Medical doctors and other health-care professionals tell us how to develop good
life habits to keep our bodies healthy, while psychologists and therapists offer
good counsel to help improve our mental well-being and promote healthy rela-
tionships with others.
◆ Many of us turn to our faith in a higher power to draw inspiration and guidance
through prayer and the study of sacred texts.

We have so many choices to make every day! We’re just like the guy in the 7 of Cups
card: bewildered with choices. Which choice is the best one? Who can help us make
our choices? And how will things turn out?
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Chapter 1: What Is Tarot? 5

Tarot is one of many metaphysical tools that enable us to look into our lives and find
some extra information we hadn’t really understood or known about before. Working
with the Tarot brings to light a confirmation of things you’ve always known (your
own inner wisdom) or it adds a new perspective to a perplexing question or problem.
Tarot gives the guy in the 7 of Cups a context for understanding not only what his
choices are, but how he feels about them.

Are you like the guy in the

7 of Cups—faced with too
many choices and not enough
perspective to decide which is
the right choice to make?

Meet Your Magician!

To help you understand how to use the Tarot, just consider us your Magician.
Throughout this book, we’ll be your teacher and guide, unlocking the creative power
of the cards and showing you how to interpret their many meanings.
Study the Magician card shown in the following figure. The Magician invokes the
Cup, Wand, Sword, and Pentacle on the table as the instruments of his creativity.
What a wonderful garden blossoms from the fruits of his efforts!
We’ll let you in right now on the great secret of the Tarot: The power to make the
Tarot more than just a deck of cards lies within you! That’s right. With practice, you
can learn to become your own Magician, your own wizard, your own oracle. As Glinda
the Good Witch told Dorothy at the end of the Yellow Brick Road, she’d always pos-
sessed within herself the power to make her own wishes and dreams come true. And
so do you. The Tarot is an instrument of insight into your own Free Will. You are the
one who possesses the magic. Let’s find out more.
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6 Part 1: All About Tarot

We’ll be your Magician:

a teacher and guide to the
Tarot.

Card Catalog
Oracles are sacred objects or altars used by many cultures throughout history
for the reception of divine guiding messages and holy truths. The site of the oracle is
considered a holy place, and often only priests or shamans can visit it. Shamans or
high priestesses were believed to have had divine connections. Therefore, they became
the “speakers” of the messages. Many ancient sites, such as the ruins at Monte Alban
in Oaxaca, Mexico, contain structures archaeologists believe were used by priest-
astronomers to interpret divine meanings for everyday events.

A Tarot Primer
The Tarot reveals what’s really happening below the surface of events around us. The
Tarot is a visual medium; those of you who love pictures, art, music, design—any-
thing picture-related—can appreciate all the rich colors, symbols, numbers, and
archetypes present in the Tarot cards. It doesn’t take a degree in math or science to
work with this wonderful medium of enlightenment and personal awareness. It’s easy!
The 78 Tarot cards represent every element of life, every emotion we will experience,
every lesson that needs to be learned, and every condition possible to know. The
story the Tarot tells every time you receive a reading allows you to know more and
gives you the decision-making edge extra knowledge can provide.
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Chapter 1: What Is Tarot? 7

You’re in the Cards

The Tarot opens your intuitive sense. Its pictures stimulate your gut feelings. Do you
already have a Tarot deck? Start shuffling. The Tarot cards absorb the thoughts,
ideas, and curiosity of the person who shuffles the deck. By shuffling and concentrat-
ing on the question at hand, it’s your energy that’s being reflected through the deck of
the Tarot. Your subconscious wisdom is shuffled into the cards. When the cards are
thrown into different patterns, or spreads, the
relationships between the cards reveal your per-
sonal wisdom as you infused it into the deck. Card Catalog
The 78 cards of the Tarot deck are divided into Tarot spreads are differ-
22 Major Arcana cards, which lead us through the ent methods of laying out the
archetypal passages in life’s journey, and 56 Minor cards during a Tarot reading.
Tarot readings occur when the
Arcana cards, which illustrate the various things
cards are laid out to reveal a
that happen to each of us from day to day. We’ll
particular story.
look at the Major Arcana in Part 3 and the Minor
Arcana in Part 4, but you can sneak a peek at
them now.

The Sun, a Major Arcana

card, and the 10 of Cups, a
Minor Arcana card, repre-
sent two ways we move into
the light of contentment, joy,
and strength in awareness.
The Sun depicts a mythologi-
cal motif, while the 10 of
Cups shows one way we deal
with everyday challenges and
opportunities.

The first difference you’ll notice is that the Major Arcana seem to represent mytho-
logical motifs, while the Minor Arcana show more everyday events. That’s exactly the
case: The Major Arcana cover the big stuff, while the Minor Arcana are the everyday
cards. The Minor Arcana are further divided into four suits:
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8 Part 1: All About Tarot

◆ Wands

◆ Cups

◆ Swords

◆ Pentacles

These correspond to clubs, hearts, spades, and dia-

monds in a regular deck of cards. Each of the 4 suits
Card Catalog has 14 cards: 10 numbered cards (the Ace through 10)
The Tarot deck contains and 4 royal cards (a Page, Knight, Queen, and King).
22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor
The four suits of the Tarot deck—Wands, Cups,
Arcana cards. The Major Arcana
cards depict an archetypal jour- Swords, and Pentacles—correlate to the four ele-
ney through life, while the Minor ments of the astrological signs of the zodiac, and for
Arcana cards show everyday good reason: They’re the four energies of life. You’ll
events. find out more about the fascinating relationship
between the Tarot and astrology when we look at
each card in detail in Parts 3 and 4.

Life Energies: The Tarot Suits and Their Astrological Elements

Corresponding
Suit Element Meaning Astrological Signs
Wands Fire Action, initiate Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
Cups Water Emotion, intuition Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Swords Air Communication, mental Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
activities
Pentacles Earth Possessions, the physical Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn

You can think about the Tarot in a number of ways: as a tool for connecting with the
universal unconscious, as a way to get in touch with your sixth sense of what’s true, or
as an unfolding story revealed in pictures. Any way you look at it, interpreting the
Tarot is fun!

The Reader and the Querent

People like Arlene, the expert co-author of this book, who have studied the Tarot for
many years, are called Tarot readers. As with any method of fortune-telling, reading
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Chapter 1: What Is Tarot? 9

the Tarot is much more than merely memorizing what each card or symbol means.
In addition to understanding Tarot cards, Tarot readers have strong backgrounds in
disciplines ranging from psychology to mythology and recognize that a reading opens
life’s possibilities rather than narrows them to an inevitable course of action.
Just as certain people are natural painters while others can’t draw a stick figure, some
people are naturally good at reading the Tarot. The best Tarot readers understand
that no card has any one meaning, but rather is a metaphor for a variety of interpreta-
tions.
The person asking the reader a question is
Card Catalog
called the Querent. Querents might ask spe-
cific questions: “When will I meet my soul A Tarot reader makes
mate?” or “Will I win the lottery?” They might interpretations of cards for a
ask about the world: “What’s going to happen in Querent, a person who asks a
question of the Tarot. Querent
the year 2005?” or “Will any film ever top Lord
comes from the Latin word
of the Rings?” Specific Tarot spreads can address quaero, meaning “to inquire or
different types of questions, such as how to seek, or to embark on a quest.”
set a goal, make a decision, or find a solution Readers consider Tarot cards
to a problem. Readings can span a time frame metaphors, rich images that hold
(“What’s going to happen in my life this year?”) meanings that can be transferred
or reveal a message (“What’s my purpose or mis- or carried over to the Querent’s
sion in life?”). You’ll learn all about different particular situation or question.
Tarot spreads you can do in Part 5.
Many Tarot practitioners do a daily reading where no question is asked at all. Often,
they don’t even interpret the cards when they select them, but merely make a note of
what they are. Then, at the end of the day, they come back to them and note the con-
nections between the cards selected and the day’s events.
The reader and the Querent don’t necessarily have to be in the same place. Readings
today take place online or with the absent Querent thinking about the question as the
reader deals the cards.
What if the Querent wants to know about a family member, a spouse or life partner,
or another person? The Tarot will answer the question through the energy of the
Querent him- or herself. Whatever information is revealed through the Tarot will
have to do with the Querent’s own relationship to the person the Querent wants to
know about. Remember, it’s the Querent’s energy that infuses the cards for a reading,
and theirs is the energy that will come through.
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10 Part 1: All About Tarot

Tarot Q&A
We know you’ve still got a lot of questions, so we’ll get a jump-start on answering
the five questions we get asked the most:
◆ Does Tarot really work?

◆ How does Tarot work?

◆ Can you read your own cards?

◆ Does Tarot seal your fate?

◆ When can you start reading the cards?

We’ll answer these questions in the following five sections. Keep in mind, though,
first and foremost, that Tarot is not a magic trick. We’ll say it again: The magic in
Tarot comes from you!

Does Tarot Really Work?

Okay, if the cards indicate wealth and financial reward, should you run out and buy
that new Armani suit or dress? Maybe, maybe not. The reader’s skill of interpreting
the Tarot involves the ability to remain objective, to accurately describe the message
of the cards, and, with the Querent’s help, to put that message in the right perspective.
The cards are a great tool, but they’re not so great at giving orders or pronouncing
ultimatums. The message of the cards, properly understood, gently (or not so gently,
depending on the situation) guides you to arrive at the correct decision that already
waits in your heart. That doesn’t mean the Tarot does this by providing an easy excuse
to let you get your own way and buy that convertible!
Now, wait a second. If the cards are showing what you already know in your heart
to be true, why bother? The answer is that the cards are in touch with a universal
intelligence—our human collective unconscious—something we westerners are not
always good at tapping into. Like the dream world that opens your mind as you sleep
(Sigmund Freud called dreams the “royal road to the unconscious”), the Tarot cards
awaken that place deep within you that is in touch with your human nature.
Tarot works when you look closely enough to get the real message, to both receive
and understand it for what it really is. This means coming to the reading with an open
and unprejudiced mind. Don’t assume anything—either as reader or Querent—and be
ready for anything. The true message of the Tarot might surprise you!
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Chapter 1: What Is Tarot? 11

How Does Tarot Work?

We’d like to call on a really smart guy, psychoanalysis pioneer Carl Gustav Jung
(1875–1961), to answer this question for us. Jung was fascinated by the patterns of life
and the way seemingly unconnected events were in fact connected. He noted that
every day of human experience is filled with what could only be called meaningful
coincidences, or synchronicity.
Jung’s study of synchronistic events led him to examine ancient occult practices from
astrology to the I Ching, and the Tarot was no exception. He found that the mysteries
revealed by these practices were in fact not
mysteries at all, but events common to each of
us on our paths of life. Card Catalog
Synchronicity is the prin-
Jung called our common situations (and com-
ciple of meaningful coincidence,
mon recurrent characters) archetypes and studied in depth by psychoanaly-
believed that ancient fortune-telling methods sis pioneer Carl Jung. Jung also
revealed these archetypes to us symbolically. He postulated that human experience
noted that although modern science “is based on could be categorized into com-
the principle of causality,” occult methods look mon archetypes: typical patterns,
to a “picture of the moment.” Jung concluded situations, images, or metaphors
the pictures on Tarot cards are “descended from that recur among all humankind.
the archetypes of transformation.”
We agree with Jung that Tarot cards are a way for us to connect to the archetypal
wisdom of the human collective unconscious. The Tarot deck in its entirety is a
portrait of the human condition, its potential, and its possibilities. Shuffle the deck
and deal the cards: Your Tarot reading is a reflection of those possibilities inherent
in your life and present situation.

In the Cards
What have dreams got to do with the Tarot? A whole lot, it turns out. The
metaphors in our dreams and in Tarot cards have a lot in common. Jung asserted
that all humans share common archetypes, but that most of us can get in touch
with them only through our unconscious. Dreams are one way of tapping into our
unconscious thoughts, feelings, and awareness—and the Tarot is another.
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12 Part 1: All About Tarot

Can You Read Your Own Cards?

Most Tarot readers read their own cards every day. Yes, they’re pros, but how do
you think they got to be pros? A serious student of the Tarot devotes a lot of time
to reading her or his own cards—and coming to understand intuitively what those
cards are saying.
Likewise, the best way for you to begin to study the Tarot is to pick a deck that appeals
to you (more on Tarot decks is covered in Chapter 22) and then live with those cards
for a while. Spread them out. Pick them up and look at them. Lose yourself in the
pictures. Work through the exercises in Part 2 that are designed to help you become
familiar with the Tarot and to explore your own emotions and reactions to the deck.
Don’t read ahead to the “meanings” of the cards we give in Parts 3 and 4. Those
meanings are only launching points for your study of the Tarot, and you shouldn’t
let yourself be limited by them—not now at the beginning of your journey, and not
later on either, when you know the cards well. Ultimately, Tarot cards are a tool to
unlock your imagination, and how you read the cards—alone or with someone else—
is up to you.

Does Tarot Seal Your Fate?

No. Nothing “seals” your fate. Your life path is a series of possibilities, branching off
in one direction or another with each decision you make. A Tarot reading might sug-
gest to you what could happen if you continue along a certain path, but it’s up to you
to take the responsibility of choosing your own direction, if you dare.
Much of the fear and superstition associated with the Tarot—and with all the occult
sciences—is that they somehow do foretell the future and seal your fate. Nothing about
the Tarot is inexorable or inevitable. What you do with what the cards show is up to you!
The Tarot reveals possibilities and probabilities, not certainties. In fact, the only thing
that’s certain about life is that nothing’s certain. Fate is what you make it.

When Can You Start Reading the Cards?

When can you begin giving readings? Today!
One of Arlene’s most memorable first readings was about a former boyfriend. The
question: “Why did the relationship end?” (Arlene felt unhappy about the ending,
of course.)
The cards came up to tell her that everything about the relationship provided lessons
for Arlene to get her ready for the next relationship. Whoa, Arlene said to herself.
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Chapter 1: What Is Tarot? 13

Then, one year later, sure enough, a more compatible relationship came. Practice
makes perfect—not only with the Tarot cards, but with relationships, too!

Do You Really Want to Know the Future?

Sometimes what we’re looking for might be not so much a glimpse of the future, but
a glimpse of our true selves. The better we know ourselves, the more likely we are to
have the confidence and self-esteem to work through our life decisions fully and with
the care essential to produce splendid outcomes.
The Tarot can be a wonderful tool to help you get in touch with yourself. Instead of
waiting passively for life to happen to you—reacting to events and emotions without
fully understanding or appreciating what’s going on around you—you can use the
Tarot to enhance your experience and active participation in the events and emotions
of your life.
How proactive are you? Let’s imagine your apartment lease is up in six months.
You’re not happy where you are but can’t decide where to move. You …
◆ Wallow in indecision for months and end up extending your lease to put off the
move for another year.
◆ Muse about moving to a city or town you’ve always loved, like Las Vegas,
Nevada, or St. Michael’s, Maryland. You’ve been talking about it for years, actu-
ally. But you wait until the last minute to take it seriously and lose the opportu-
nity to plan a move to that dream location.
◆ Embark on a diligent search for a new apartment without addressing your feel-
ings about where you’d really want to live or why you’d want to live there. Just
moving anywhere is progress enough. And forget about buying a house … that’s
too much to contemplate, much less do!
◆ Pack up your belongings and move back in with your parents or another family
member. It’s really just temporary.

Fools Rush In
Are you secretly looking for an oracle to divine your true path and tell you
what to do? Avoid that temptation and listen to your own inner voice. When you take
responsibility for your decisions into your own hands, heart, and mind, Tarot can
become a wonderful tool for personal exploration and growth. But it’s not a substitute
for your Free Will. Don’t be a slave to the cards!
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14 Part 1: All About Tarot

The Tarot is only one tool you can use to make your life decisions resonate closer to
your heart’s true desire. It’s not about surrendering to fate or being handed a one-way
ticket to the future. It’s about making choices that are honest and that feel right for
you. It’s about getting in touch with your own life energy and using that energy to
live up to your fullest potential as a human being.
What road should you take? What future lies in store for you? How will you grow
and learn? Come on the journey through the Tarot with us, and you’ll find yourself a
Fool for the world!

The Fool embarks on the

journey of life.

The Least You Need to Know

◆ Tarot cards are a tool for understanding ourselves and connecting to a great uni-
versal wisdom: the human collective unconscious.
◆ A Tarot deck consists of 78 cards. The 22 Major Arcana cards describe the pas-
sages of life’s journey. The 56 Minor Arcana cards describe everyday issues and
events.
◆ The Minor Arcana cards are divided into four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and
Pentacles.
◆ The Tarot reveals the possibilities and presents a forum for self-exploration but
does not predict or tell your future. You choose your own fate.