What information can you access with the tarot? Each card contains three very different types of message to consider. Primarily, the cards can be used for fortune telling or divination – to reveal information about the future. They can also be used for therapeutic healing, to determine ways to change your destiny and restore emotional well-being. Tarot is also a powerful tool for encouraging spiritual growth and awareness by revealing the higher purpose behind life’s challenges.
When you take all three facets of the tarot into consideration during your readings, you will discover a vast treasure of new meanings hidden within the cards. As you grow in skill and understanding, your tarot cards will reveal more and more to you. Whether you are looking for specific answers, greater understanding, or spiritual direction, each card can adapt to your concerns and provide endless information for you to consider.
As an example, let’s look at the first major arcana card, the Fool. In its most basic interpretation, this card predicts a journey, a fresh start, or a new beginning filled with possibilities. Whether the querent’s focus is on business, a relationship, finances or some other matter, you will want to view the card as it relates to the topic at hand. With each additional card you draw, the meaning of the initial card will expand and change. If your second card is the Ten of Swords, a delay or short-circuit in the querent’s plans may be suggested, which would change the reading’s course. If someone is asking about a new career, these two cards together would indicate blocks to movement. If their question is about a new relationship and its long-term potential, these two cards combined would suggest that it may be troubled early on.
Taking these two cards to the next level, the therapeutic message is that the querent will need to look at his or her circumstances more closely to determine what they need to change within themselves before their new journey can begin. In the case of a new career, the querent may need to consider higher education, or it may be that they are pursuing work that is not in their best interests. In a new relationship, the querent should be cautioned to look for red flags and to be true to themselves. If the relationship falls apart in its early stages, it may have something to do with blocks the querent is creating (whether intentional or not), or the relationship itself simply may not be in the cards.
Armed with this information, it will be easier for the reader to guide the querent’s focus back to him or herself. This way, the querent can determine what needs to change before moving forward, or how to become empowered to manifest a different outcome.
Spiritually, the combination of the Fool and the Ten of Swords refers to blocks within oneself. The cards may be asking the querent to examine where he or she feels cut off from Spirit, and may possibly explain why attempts at a new beginning continue to fail. Once the querent reestablishes a connection to Spirit, blocks will fall to the wayside and interests can be pursued again.
Another example is the Four of Pentacles. In its predictive form, it can indicate holding on to something. The person might be building a fortune in a somewhat miserly fashion, jealously keeping information to his or herself, or physically putting on weight. On an emotional level, this person could be holding onto old ideas, hiding behind self-made walls, or retreating into isolation. As a spiritual card, the Four of Pentacles can indicate someone who is cut off from Spirit, who refuses to share personal gifts with the world, or a person who moves through life feeling fearful or unprotected, which is a manifestation of being disconnected from the self.
When you read tarot, remember that each card expands and adjusts to the querent’s questions and the influence of surrounding cards. When you consider the three meanings of each card during your reading, you will be able to look more specifically into the spiritual and emotional aspects of the cards in addition to what they may predict for the future.
For an article on how to get started reading Tarot, check out Tarot 101.
The above is an excerpt from Susyn’s new book, Tarot Prediction and Divination: Unveiling Three Layers of Meaning, which is available at llewellyn.com. Susyn Blair-Hunt (Albuquerque, NM) is internationally known for her psychic Tarot and astrology readings. A professional metaphysical consultant for over twenty years, Susan is a featured columnist for Kajama.com where she provides daily, weekly and birthday horoscopes. She also contributes to Kajama’s weekly advice column, Double Vision. Susyn was recently named one of the top female psychics on the Internet. For information on her readings, select the Reading Options tab at the top of this page.