Hướng dẫn bói bài Tarot The 2 hour tarot tutor the fast, revolutionary method for learning to read tarot in 2 hours

This is a very important key to reading Tarot cards.. Instead, yo willbe abletodevelop your own mean ings to the cards spontaneously if you immediately get into the habitoflookingatthe c

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-The2-hour

TAROT TUTOR

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m eth od fo r learning to re ad tarot cards in 2 hours

QI) ClO

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Pr meed a nd bou nd 1IlG re at Rr llai n by M a, !<.a \"lI of Gat ha m lt d

PART A: E-ZTHREECARDSPREAD 1

Et.'t'TJ Picntre T t' Us aScory

NO T I CE This m dhod i.s parant udto _ '"ifeMiTu tTw:t1mu aTlt fol · Iowrdi n d u aactOTdnin w hichc htyartPT t SnI!td! DoN O T

T ~ C eMothn-dwptnsuntileM anriJt sin THERRST 2

H O URS ~ b un rorr t<:tI, C"ompkt l' d!

PARTB:THEARSTZHOURS 11

G e lt ing T here I s Half the F un !

S CT I O N 1 : TH E I N IT I A L E XE R i SE •• •• •• •• •• • • 1 1

S ECT ION ~: T H E R E DI N G • •• •• • • •• • • • • • • • •• 1

The legacy of Pollv' s T e R oo m

V - uu I N fORM ATI O N SUp t R 1II (jIlW A1" • 1 23

A d,"OlIKN Sp"" aiUa,wl ittl e Eur.>s

VI. -r ue U I T1 ~ AT E QU E S TIO N" • ••.•.• 1 6 7

" Do Y ou E ve r Ge l A nl ' Grea t R e \ ' e! ari on ,, ?"

V II fl NA J E : T il E I AST (H f :' TUR E S IIOW • • • 1 9 1

Possibl e M e aninll:~ to the c r J~

My deepestgratitudelin.dygoestomy agen t MaryTahan, and

myeditor,Christine Zika They were the tWO verypowerful

forcesbehindth isbook

Special thanks to graphic desig er Michele Mo teforte;

Peter GrayCohen for biographic al informatio on the lateEden Gray; Lynn M Bucss for allowing me to include his

wonderful Tarot spreads {Five-By-Five and Yes or No); the

la teRichard GardnerforhisTarot spread (Past, Present , and

Future) and Magent a Wise for giving me permission to in

-dude it

Much appreciation for the help Ireceived fromthe guysatCopy Cats:Rob,Jim, and Kama ; and manytha nks to George

Keskenvand TammyMaurielloforthoselittle extras

Ishallbeeternallyindebtedtothe many spiitual teachersI

metalong the W3) ',wh answered my unending:questo s,in

dulged me in my youthfulexuberance, an alwaysencouraged

mein myspiritualpursuits

Iamalsogratefulto the many people whosefeedback over

the years helped me (0 navigate the courseof myTarot c rd

readingsand thedevelopment ofmy teachings

Ibelieve everyonec n readTarotc rds.It isreally an open

secret,and nowIshare it with the world.This gift was made

possible becauseof all theothers wh generouslyshared their

knowledgeand inspiratio with me

IN T R O D UCT I ON:

I

ST O p , LOOK, L I ST ~ N.

It was2A M Ihadbeenshuffling and throwingthec rdssince

10 P M.With each spread, I would look IIp the mean ings inhooks.Ihad been repeating this sameritual orweeks.Iwas[Ty-ing invain(0learn how(0readTarotc rds

A sophomore incollege,I had an English Litclass at 8:30

A M. Iwasexhaustedan had (0gel somesleep, but Icouldn'tstop Forcingmyself, Igathered the cards togetherand placedthem ina gl renng antique beaded bag.It wasintended solei)'forthem.Isetit high on ashelf

As Ilayin bed,hoverin between consciousnessan sleep,the cards began to rise up in my th u hts an the imagesdanced in mymind.Lastweekthe3 ofCupshad comeup twotimes,fallin inthe positionof thehom e Then I rememberedseveralfriendshad madea surprisevisittomyapartment.Fivedaysago,TheLoverscame upinthepositionof thefuture.The

followingdayaguyIhadbeen interestedinasked meout.More an more picturesswirledthroug myhead,appearing

xii I NTROOUC TlON : S TOP LOO~ A ND LI ST EN !

beforeme asreminders describing somethingthathad recently

happenedin myl e.What Ibegan torealizewas that thec rds

were actuallytalking (0me.Infact,they had alwaysbeentalk

-ing(0 methro ughthe p ictuTf5 on lyI hadnot been listening.

Fi-nally.sleep overlookme

The next dav,myclasses were over by 12:30 P M I rushed

back h me with no intention of srudvmg Pulling the cards

from the shelf IgrabbedalltheTarot booksand put them o

the shelf.I",HA Sg ingtoread the cards without thebooks.I was

g ingtolook onlyat the cards Whatwas in thepictures!What

did I see!Eureka!That wasthe wholekey! lookat thecards,

norinthebooks!

TAROT

TUTOR

E WT) P icture Tel ls a SlOT)

Jamessat before me spellbound He was a businessmajor at a

compet itive university on Long Island New York

"Howdo you do it!" hewonderedaloud

"It's easy!"Iassuredhim

Ip lleda card fromthedeck,theKnightofCups

"Looka tthe card Whatd youseer Iasked "Say wha tyou

seeinthe card," instructed

Atfirsthewasbashfulabout it.but Iinsisted

"Make someth ing up!"Iurged

Jamesquicklygave a descriptio

"Isee a man riding ahorse.He'sc rrying a cup.There are

wings on hishelmet andon hisheels."(SecFigure 1.1.)

Z TH E 2 - H OU R T R OT T UTOR ON E P IC T URE 1 W ORTH A TH U SAND WO RDS J

"It looks like a marr ied couple," he answered (See Figure

1.3 )

2ofC up ~ Look a t the ca rd Say what you see I n the

card : T wo peop le in love

o r a married co u ple.

FIG U RE 1 3

KNIGJ-IT of CU l"j.

After that, I laid the three cards side-by-side I instruct ed

Jamestomakeu a story about thethree cardsalltogether

"Someonec rries amessage aboutawedding parry.An invi

tation [Qawedding!"he blurred

IinformedJameshehad justgivenhisfi rstTarotc rd readingandallhehadtod wasJookatthe cords!

-F IGURE 1 ,2

J of Cup ~ loo'\ at the ca rd Say what you see in the card: Three women

d an c i ng and h ol ding

ev es It' s a party.

Knight o fC up s

Look a t the ca rd Say

wha t you see i n the

ca rd : A ma n i s ri di ng B horse H e carries a cup

-peatthe same exercise

"Lookat thecard.Saywhat youseeinthe card,"Iinstructed

again

James gave an therdescriptionof thiscard

"Isee three womendancin andh lding cu s.They're par

-tying!" hesaid, laughing.(See Figure 1.2.)

I then pulleda thirdcard, the 2ofCups,and repeated the

same instructio s

Let'sfry thesame exercee usina:a~Iofthreed iffer~mcards.

Look OIl theurd, and lU y ,, ·hal ,"'OU 10«.Make!Trea.uociations

loIoirh the imagn Be ffIOIltaMOUS and go with the hnl r h i~

thatCOffinto mind!

Look OIl Ihec rd Say 'AMt you see in the u rd: A man is

"""'i"" (5.< Figure1.4.)

Look ar li M' card s ~. ,,·MI ~'UU ~ in li M' c rd Whal

C ~ (0 your mind immaJiatd y: A man is 6ghting agairw

KX11cthlng.(SecFi~'\J1'C'1.5.)

ON£ PtCTUR£ IS WORTH A THOUSANO WOROS 5

Look at thec rd Sal' "'hal '"UU W"t' in thecard :A terribl eh~tora violent argument.(5«FiKUI'C' 1.6.)

Now look at the th reecardsstdt ·by·,iJe.W ca~whatyou

have seen Ineachcard intoa MOfY lncoepoeaee the k,uords

~'OU used 1 descnbe them :\\Ofk, 6ghu, badargumnu HO"·about somcthing hke th i$: Argument and power struggles

wh ere00('worb

6 THE 2 -HOUR TAR O T TUTOR

Here's anotherexample.Thistime tf)' it u.;u.outanyhints

Remembertolook at the card ~} 'what you see in the card

Go with what immed iately comes into your mind Fre t associ

-are.Then rnove on tothenextcard

Lookat thecard Say what ) 'OU seeintheca rd

ONE PICTURE I S WORTH A TH OU SAND WORDS 7

Lookat the card.~l' WMt vou see in the cu d

Now weavewhat you seein these cardsintoa storyorinter

-pretanon Makefretd UOCiatioruwith theimages,Usel<e) lW'fl:ls(0describethe m

Perh aps yousee an introspecti ve",'Oman who isthinkin2of

walking away from a t oublin g romance.Or maybe yo see a

woman wh is disappointed about a relationsh ipor tlunktng

about giving up o love completely You may even see a

woman re dinga sadbookabout an unfulfilling Ot unrequited

romance All of these in terpreta tions can be correct.Oryou

may see someth ing totallydifferent from what Iamsuggesting

Certa in lyothe r interpretations arealsopossible But.it isim

-porta nt to g with the first impression that pops into your

mind Agood cop will agree:Yourfill! hun chisusuall yyourbes t.

Dion Fortune was oneof the most famous and prolific

oc-cult writers of the twentieth century In her book Practical

Occultism in Dail y Ufe.she wrotehow.with any form of d

iv-ina tio n , the in te rpreta t ion [must] "leap spontaneo uslyto the

mind ." Always g with whar instantan eously comes to

your mind This is a very important key to reading Tarot

cards

Readin gTarot cards isreallyvery easy All you havetod is

look at the cards and say what you see!Bysimply looking at

the cards, you are makin g an intuitive connec t ion with them

The cardsspeak in a language of symbols If you look at the

cards, theimages actually dotalk toyou

Thisis atruly revolution ary techn ique Ibreak alltherules

And hereis atradesecret sod allthereallygoodreaders.They

arenot followingthe standard rules eithe r

With my radical method, there isno memorizingof mean

-ings,no years and yearsof studying; nor do youeven have to

th ink Instead, yo willbe abletodevelop your own mean ings

to the cards spontaneously if you immediately get into the

habitoflookingatthe cardsandsaying whatyousee.These in

-struct ionswillberepeal edthroughoutthebook.Constant r

ep-et ition is what helps the mind get past the resistance of

preconceived ideas If you have already been trying to figure

out theTarot , you most likely have severalpreconceived ideas

ONE PI CTURE I S WO RTH A TH OUSAND WOR DS 9

about the cardsand mayhavebuiltuparesistanceto thisnew

approach.Clearyour mind.Start afresh.Andalways remember

tolook at the cardsand say whatyou see!

The exercises in the following section are more in-depth

Follow the instruction s exactly the waythey are presented!

FollowThese Instructions

In the ExactOrder

In WhichTheyArePresen ted!

DoNot Skip Ahead!

DoNotRefertothe OtherChapters

UntiltheExercisesin

The First2 Hours

HaveBeen Correc tlyCompleted!

ThisMethod isGuaranteedtoWork

IftheInstructions

AreFollowed Sequentially

*

PART B: THE FIRST 2 HO URS

Ge lling Th ere I s Half lhe Fun !

*SECfION I: THE INITI AL EXERCISE

Marie showedme all ofherTarot books

"They'reso confusing," shecomplained."Ican't figurethem

o ut!"

Havin gjust enteredherfreshman year ata collegein Penn

-sylvania,she waswell -acquaintedwith Tarot cards.Hermoth er

had consulted man y readers while Marie was growing up in

New Jersey By her mother's side for man y of these sessions,Marie watched with burning curiosity, wond ering how it was

done

Now she wasdetermined rocrack the codeherself andmaybe

evensave her mother some mon ey But Marie had fallen into

thetrap oflooking up the meaningsinbooks, trying rom

emo-rize them; and she found allof the inst ructions too com

pli-cated tounderstand

"Thesebooksgive me aheadache!" shecomplained

"Put the booksaway," Iinstructed.Igathered them togethe r

andset them off to the side

And theseCITethe same instructionsI nowgil'"toall o f you Tamr

e nthusiasts rur yourTarorbooks away ;all ofthem rutthem hig h

ona shelf ,outo f reac h You wiUnotbe n e edin g them AU youne ed

nowisyourdeck of R ider-WaiteTarotCards

You are going to start with the first card If you have just

taken thedeck outofthepackage.the cards willbeinorderand

the first will be The Magician I you have been playingwith

themforawh ile{and l expec t you have) it is nor necessarytoput them inorder.You canstart withwhichever cardis on top

12 TH E 2 - HOUR TAROT T UTOR

PICK UP ACARD AND LOOK AT IT.SAY WHATYO U

SEEIN THECARD Quickly say onething yo see in thecard

Besponta neo s,d no t thinkabout it; instead,saywha teve r

im-mediately comes to mind Yo may see a man standin with

outstretched arms.Saywhatyou see Yo may seesomeone sit

-tingunder atreestaring atcups.Say whal yousee

Say at leasto ething you see orasman y asthreethings;but,

be very quick Donot pause orhesitat e Donotstop to think

Spontan eously and quickly, SAY WHAT YO U SEE IN THE

CARD.Then move on to to the next card, repeat ingthe same

exercise until you have gone through all seventy-eight Tarot

cardswry quickly. Bespontane0U.5 andspeedy

*

N OW P UT THE BOOK DOWN

LO OK ON LY AT THE CARDS WHILE

DOING THI S EXER CISE.

DO NOT PI CK U P THE BOOK UNTIL Y O U HAVE

COMPLETED THIS EXER CISE.

IF YOU HAVE COMPLETED TH E

EXERCI SE ABOVE , YOU MAY CONTINU E WITH THE

FOLLOWING EXER CI SE.

*

Now you are going to repeat the same exercise; except this

time ataslower pace.Look closerand longer at the cards.-Ta k e

some time to notice more details in the pictures Look for

somethi ng you did not see before Here are someexamples to

get you sta rted

TEMPERAN C E:Anangel standswith one foot in the waterand

o e foot on the ground.Water is pouredfromcha lice tochal

-ice.Tohisright, apath leads tothesu in thebackground

ru E ST AR :A woman has one foot in the water and aknee onthe ground She pours water into the water and onto the

ground.Behind her is abirdperchedinatree

ruE KlOL:A man looks to thesky while steppingoffacliff.A

dogbarksat hisfoot Heholds aflowerin hisleft hand

QU EEN O F PENTA CL ES : A rabbit scoots by to the left of herthrone.(Youhavetolookcloselyforthis.Even theQueenher -

s e lfdoesnot see ir.)

1 0 O F P ENTA CL ES :In theforeground sitsanolder man looking

o (Thisisanothe rone youhave to look forclosely.)

KIN G O F WAN DS :A man sitso a throne Leaves sprouto t of

thewand heish lding.A tiny lizardsitsto hisleft

7O F WA ND S:A man wearsa shoe on hisright foot an a boot

on hisIcft foot

QU EEN O F WO RDS :A woman sitso a th rone.Her lefthandis

sligh tlyraised.Shestares off intothe distance.Onlyher profil e

isvisible,nother ent ireface

PA G E O F SW OR DS :A youngman appearstobe leaning tohisleft,

but looks tohisright.The topof the sword heholdsis missing.Birdsfly above

1 THE 2- HOUR TARO T T UTOR

9 OFSWORDS, Astrological symbols and roses cover the blan

-ket.On the panel,belowthe bed ,appea r to be two menfight

-ing.(Hereis ano the rone you must look at'oeryclosely.)

6 OF WO RDS,To the left of the boat, thewater is calm; to the

right, thewater isrippled

Your responses sho uldstill be quick and spontaneous Take

on lya few minutes with each card Go through all seven

ty-eigh tcardsagain Look at the cards and saywhatyousee

Ihope youhave complete d the above-exercisesexactly as I

have instru cted These exercisesare very impo rta nt Theylay

the founda t ion for all your future work with Tarot cards By

lookingat the cardsyouareallowingyoursubconsc ious mind to

make an intui tive link with the Tarot 's symbolism,and you are

already beginni ng naturally to develop your own mean ings to

the cards.In othe r word s, whe ny ulook at the picture, you in

-tuit ively getthepicture.This isano going process.As you co

n-tin uouslylook at a Tarotca rdover theyears, youwill likely see

someth ing different an d reviseitsmean ing

Spontanei ty is the essent ial key It unlock s your im uiti''et

psychic faculties by facilitating the sh ift from logical thinking

to intuitive perception Rat ional thinking inte rferes with the

intuitive mind If you depend on your rational (thi nking)

mind to read the cards,it willbe anexercisein futility.Spo

n-tanei ty,notthinking, engagesthe in tu it ion, which lets im

pres-sions flow smoo t h ly.This brings insightsinstantlytoconsc ious

awarenessand works in harm onywith thetrue essence of Ta rot

cards

PART B: THE FIRST 2 HO URS

G elling Th ere Is Half the Flln!

*SECTION 2: THEREADING

Sean fidgeted with the cards.He was about to give himself his

first Tarot reading

"I'malittle nervous abo ut this," he con fided

"No needtobe," Iassured him

Thisisthe same assurance Igivetoallof you Tarotaficio

na-dos You willstill cont inue with the basicexercise:Loo k atthe

cams a ndsay what yousee,except thistimethe cards will have

part icu lar placem ents

It has been my observat ion that this iswhere man ypeopl e

begintoexperienceextremeco fusio Iamgoingtoelimina te

tha tby givingyouanothe rtrade secret Skilled readers arenot

think in g about the cards' positions in a spread Skilled readers

are looking at (reading) the c ams.This is exac tly what I havebeen teaching you Keep this secret in the backof your mind

whe n followin g the next set of instructions, The various

spreads used for Tarot card reading are designed to give the

reader some direction.It isthe cards themselvesthat will ulti

-matel yd thetalking!

There are coun tlessspreads that can be used ,but the most

popular istheCelt icCross Spread

16 TH E 2 · HOUR T AROT TUTOR

r, Thefirst step isto selec t what is calleda signijicacor This

isthe card used 10 represent the person getti ng the reading

That individualis called theq uerem. The signi ficator isusually

a court c rd that bestdescribesthe appearance of thequerent

Here aresomes uggestedguidelines for thisselect io :

Blackhairor verydarkhair,darkeyes-Penlacles

Blond orvery lighthair,blue or light eyes-Cups

Redhair or lightbrownhair,hazel or brown eyes-Wands

Light, medium, or dark brownhair,gray or lighteyes-Swords

A man35 yearsof age orolder-a king

A wo man 35 yea rs o f age o r o lder-a qu een

Ayoung man 18 to 34years of age-a knight

Ayoung woman 1 to34 years of age-a page

A teenager orchild{maleor femalel-apage

I repeat, theseares uggestedguidelines only You c n also

se-lecta sign ificatoracco rdin 10you rown personal taste andstyle

byusing whichever card you feel best represents the querent

Foramotheryoumight useThe Empress;forafathe r,TheEm

-peror; a clergyman or very religious individual, The Hiero

-phanr: a judgeor alawyer,Justice.Orregardless ofappearance,

you may see abusinesswoman astheQueen of Pentacles or the

Queen of Wands; a student asthePage or Kn ightof Pentacles

andso on.Many years ago,adear friend of mineused10insist

my significatorwasTheHigh Priestess

A sign ificato r is not necessary I have been reading Tarot

cards for over three decades and stopped using a signi ficator

yearsago because I felt it did not add to the reading I know

man y othe r profession alswhoalsoagree with me.Thechoice is

yours.Tarot cardre dingis anart;youare the artist

ONE P ICTURE IS WORT H A TH OUSAND W ORDS 17

Afteryouchoose a sign ificator, ifyouchoose todo so,put it

10the sidefor thetimebeing.Youwillbeusing it when you lay

out the cards

~. Thenext step isto shuffle the cards.Ifyou have selected

a sign ificato r, the cardsareshuffledwithout it.Remem ber,keep

i aside for now.If you haven tselec teda sig ificator,sh

uf-fle the entire deck The querent usuall y sh uffl es the cards

However, this is aprlUticere ading,so youare goingtobe thequerent and giveyourselfa readingand sh uffl e thecards foryourself

Ialwayssay10sh uffle the cards untiltheyf eelright.By thisI

mean, when one f eels comfortablewith the energyof the cards

andthatarapport has been madewiththem

There is atheory among bridge players andcardsha rks that

a deck of fifty-two cards must be sh uffled seven times to be

thorough lymixed TheTarotcontains seventy-e igh t cardsand

could probablyuse about ten or eleven shuffles

Unfortu na tely most people d n t sh ffle very well; so I

suggest you,or thequerent , put some ene rgy (or ump f) intothis procedur e an give the cards a really good mixin g You

might try rel axing by taking a fewdeep breaths;then clear

yourmindas you shuffle.A clearmind makesforaclear read

-ing, even if asking a speci fic question,which , of course, the

Tarot can be used for However, there will be instru ctionsfor

that later For the time being,let 's see what comes out Ifind

this 10 be one of the most fascinating aspectsof the Tarot

Man ythings are revealed.Futureand une xpec ted eventsc n

be seen in the cards, especially when you give them the

cha nce 10 talk freely It is easier 10 hear their voice if the

mind isclearwhen sh uffl ing

18 THE 2- HOUR TAROT TUTOR

Cut the dec k into three se pa rate piles with your left hand going lett When

rea ding for anotherperso n, t hequerentcutst he deck withthe left hand

J After you have thoroughly sh uffled the cards, place rhc

deck facedown and with yourleft hand,goinglefr, cut thedeck

into three separate piles (See Diagram 1.1). Remember, if you

were readingfor someo ne else, thequerent would CUI the deck

However, the readeralways picks up the cards afte r they have

been cut by plac ing one pile on top of the othe r Wilh your right

hand, pick uppile 1 firsl.Place it on top of pilenumber 2 and

thenplace that on rop of pile3 You should nowbe holding a

full deck of Taror cards inyour right hand

According1 tradition, afte r thequerent has CUI thedeck il

should nOIbe touched again bythe queren t, bUI handled on ly

by thereaderuntilanothe rspread isdone.Thisis one tradition

1amstrictabo ul -my personal taste.Later on ,youcan decide

for yourself howyoufeel about thistradition

3

DIAGR AM 1 1

4· Foll owin g Diagram 1.2,laythe cardsoUIfaceup I a s

ig-nificator isused , it isplaceddown first (faceup), under the card

in Posit ion 1 Some readers will say the following word s OUI

loud whenplacing eachcard inits proper position Ir is nor n

ec-essarylosaythis.Hereagain, i depends ony urpersona lstyle

1used lo repeat these words many years ago, now I do 't (l

wan t 1 reemphasizerech nlcaliries arenot what'sreallyirnpor

-lam.They are merel yrituali stic and add n magic10there d

-ing.Themagic is in the con nec tionyou make withthe cardsby

lookingat thec ards and saying wha t yousee.)

P osition 1 " This is wh at covers you."

P osition 2 " This i s w h at c rosse s yo u."

P os it ion 3 " Th is i s abov e yo u:'

P ositio n 4 "Thi s i s bel ow yo u."

P osit i o n 5 " Th is i s be hind yo u "

Position 9 "Th ese a r e y our h opes a nd/o r f ears."

P ositi on 1 0 "Thi s is th e o u tco me o r ulmination."

5 After you have laid the ca rds OUI,qu icklyread over the

explanation for each positi on.Donortrv 1 memorizethis,Do

notbeginreferring1 thec rds in the spread un ti l lgive the in

-struct ions todo so, and don'tworry if you forgeIeveryth ingassoon asyou haveread it.(I willgive more detai lsabout thisin

the ne xt chapter.) Many people tell me they have difficulrv

remembering these positions: and this is where 1see the diffi

-culty beginning.What ismostimportant isloalwaysremem berthe basic exercise: Lookat the ca rds and say what yo u see! This

con nects you direc tly with the cards After playingwith the

cards for awhile,the positions will nat urall y fall into place Bur

they will never be as importan t as the images in the cards

themselves,

20 T HE 2 - HOUR TARO T TU TOR

Mean ings tothePositions of theCelticCross Spread

I Th isIsWhat CO\C TS You Thisrepresentstheatmosphereor

(emotion al) environment in which infl uencesare working

2 Th is I s What Crosses Y ou.Thisrepresents anobstacle oran

/

aid

3. This IsA boveYIt.Thisindicat eswhat the querent is or

sho uld beaiming for in themailer.It is some t imes thesol

u-tiontothe issueortheanswertotheproblem

ONE PICTURE IS W ORTH A THOUSAND WORD S 2 I

4. T hi s I s Below Y ou Thisdescribes thesubco sciousrnotiva

-to ofthequerent, howthe querent isthi nking,orthebasis

or ounda tio of the mailer

5 Thi s I s BehindY o lt Thisrepresents influencesthatare now

passing awayorthe immediateordistantpast

6 This I s Before You This isthefutureor influencesthatmay

haverecently come intoview

7 T his Is YOIt Thisrepresen ts thequerent and/o r th e que

r-en t'satti tude in thesiuation

Thisrepresents the que rent 'sh me, family,friends, or(ma

-terial) e, nvironment or theinfluences therein

querent'shopes and/or earsregarding the mailer

situation willtumoutin theend

Youare n wreadyto lookat the cardsin the spreadbefore

you.You aregoingtogivey urselfaTarotcard reading.Donot

wor ry about any othe r details at this time,even invert ed/up

-side-down cards.I willaddressthat issue an manyothe rqu

es-tons later on in Chapter3.At thistime, allyou havetodo is

loo katthe c ards a ndsaywha tyousee.

Start with the card in Position I Lookat the cam a ndsay

wha tyouseeinthe card Project what you see in thecard into

the mean ing of that posit ion If y u have to refer to the d

e-scriptio of this posit ion, do so very quickly, but do not get

cau h tu in thinking about it If you havediffi cultyrelatingthe

cardtorhe position,diS Tel'Jrdtheposition' smeaningandfocus only

orde rofthe day!Quic kly moveon toPosit ion 2an repeat the

sameprocedure.Gothroughallten posit io s

Con ratulat io s! You have just given y urself a Tarot card

re din g.For man yof you thiswasthefirst time Iknoweve

ry-onegotsometh ingo tof it.I you havefollowedthese instruc

-tions correc tly,the entireprocess sho uld have taken about two

hours.However there ismuch more to be gained! Stillfocused

o thesamespread,here arcsome additional pointers:

• Be sure to takedated not es of the cards that came up in

this first re d ing and allyour practice spreads You will most

likely be up tillthewee hours ofthemorninglikeIwas,throw

-ing and throwing the cards over and overagain Indeed ,a lot

can be learned from these ini t ial pract ice readings Pat terns

emergefrom the ver ybeginning; the cards reallydo start talk

-ing.Byobservin these patterns,youcan learn the languageof

the cards However it is impossible to remember all the cards

thatcome up.That iswhy the note s make for easyreference

Usethe CelticCross Spread Worksheet providedat the endof

th ischa pte rto record the cards' positions.Anextra worksheet

for the Celtic CrossSpread is also provided at the endof the

book.Make copiesand keep them inaTarot file

• Under the worksheet section for N otes and/or

ObSCTl!CI-tions, keep trackof any happenings,occurrences,oreventsthat

rem ind you of the cards that came up in the spread.See what

ONE P ICTURE IS WORTH A THO USANO W OROS 2

transpiresin afew days.Arctheevents reflected in anyof the

cards! You will sec some very intere sting correspondences

These observat ions will be helpful in furtherdeveloping your

own me n ings,becausethec rdswillbe talking toy u

Also, in this sect ion, write down an yf eelings you may have

had about the cardsin the spread.Rem ember you arebegin n ing

toworkon anintuitiveleveland willgetf eelingsthatcont rad ict

rationa l thinking Gowith yourf eelings !

• Thisis on lyapracticereading.Donot take it too seriously

and donot lose sleepover it.Eventuall y, if not right away, you

will begin experiment ing o y urfriends and family Heaven

help them ! Alwaysbegent le!

There is anold vaud eville joke.Som eone asks a taxidriver,

"Ho w doyouget toCarneg ieHall?"

Th e d river' s an swer i s"Pract ice,practice practice!"

The same istrue for learninghowtoreadTarot cards PTac

-r ice m akes perfec t!Cont in ue workingwith thisbasic spread.You

can use the Celtic CrossSpread for a general reading, to see

what comesout.Ory ucan use ittoanswera spec ificquestion

I you wish toadvan ce,there arc instructionsforavariety of

different spreads in further chapters, includi ng work sheetsfor

the most sophist icated, also, in the back of the book Some

spreads may yield en rmous amounts ofdetailed information;

otherscan be usedtoanswera spec ific question; or, if you arc in

a bighurry,there arespreads that givequickandspeedy result s

Then again, ir may boil down to personal taste and style and

wha tyou feelcomfortablewith Man y peopleworkexclusively

with the Celt ic Cross Spread and have excellent results.The

choice is yours

PERMISSION IS NOW GRA NTED TO REFER TO THE

OTH ERCHA PTERS INTHIS BOOK You nowhave a solid

found at ion forTarot card leading and aleo your wayto

be-coming ahighly skilled reader BUI , always remember: LookIII

the cardsandsa,whal ,au see! Enjoy!

Celtic Cross Spread Worksh eet

SAMpLE READINgS fOR THE

CALL M E I N T HE M O RNIN G !

Bu m anor a nge c andleandc all m ein!he m ornin g!Thisisthe ad

offer as a quick remedy to a stressful situat ion A powerful

healer, Irenewask ownforher infinitereserves of energy,her

compassionate nature, and her great cooking She also knew

balanceand harmony

So when Erica called me in the late evening, frantic and

frustrated with her firstattempt to giveaTarotcard reading,I

thought about recommend ingthe Hig Priestess's/i x-all But I

didn't want Erica to lose anysleepover this,like man begin

-ners (inclu ding myself) have do e So Idecided to jump-starr

her with an in-depth look as to how I might interpret this

spread

Ericawas an aspiringdancerto whom Ihad given my crash

course the previous eveni ng She appea red confide nt about

what she hadlearn ed, but later,whenshe tried to giveher sister

a reading,she had trouble linkingthe cardstogethe rintoa

co-hesive story

Unfortuna tely thisis verycommon because the mind tend s

to quickly slip back into ratio al mode.A ration al mind is, of

course, necesaryto deal with day-to-daypractic lities, but ra

-tional th ink ing interferes with Tarot card reading which r

e-quires n on -rh inking The mind must be trained to go into

intuitilJemode (that s,non-thinkingmode).The spontaneity

ex-ercise helps to make this shift That is why the fundamental

teachingmust be drilledintoyour head.Peopletend toforget i

almost immediatel y and find themselvesin a quand ary.When

beginni ng a Tarot reading,remem ber to always retu rn to the

basic instructi on: Looka l rhec ards a nd say what)'OUsee.

Becauseanin-dep thana lysisof aTarot spread puts toomuch

emphasison rhinking, itcanbe counterproductive.That isfur

-therevide nced byanothertradesecret: Adept readers are look

-ing at the otoer all pi cture ( s);they are not breaking down the

spread card-by-card, p sition-by-position That would be an

obstruct io to the ent ireint uitiveprocess

Therefore this jump-start for Erica, along with two othe r

samples, is incl uded with great reluctan ce Pleas e,d not d

e-pend o these samples.The intention is only to give youan

idea of howa spread maybe interpreted by showin the basic

mechan ics of a read ing Peruse them o ce Incorporate what

you canreadilycomprehen Skimover what doesnot imm

edi-ately click.Then mo e forward;alwayscont inuingwith theb

a-sicsponta neitypractice: Looka lrhec ards a nd say w hat)'OUs ee.

Before we conti nue, there is one other issue I have given

permission torefer totheothersections ,and yes, hat doesincludethe secto on PossibleM eanings I hope you did not peekinto th is sectio n unt ilafter the basic instructi ons were faith-

-fullyfollowed.Even ifyou have (and I knowmany ofyou have

because tha shuman nature), Istillencourageyouto firstloo k

a l l he ca rds and say what yo u see before checkin out mysgested meanings.Remember,Iam te ching you howto depend

ug-o y urown intuition to readTarot cards and howto develop

y urown mean ings.Idon't want yo tofallbackin totheaim

-lesshabit of lookingup the mean ing of each card However

some people tellmereading the cards is easierfor themk ow

-in theyhave the option But, when followin these samples,

trytuningin to yourown intuitio n first.You will be amazedat

the insights youget And, don 't be surprisedif youtota lly d

is-agree with my interpreta t ions That is an excellent sign of

progress!

Referring to the dated worksheet E ca filledout [See Sam

-ple CelticCross SpreadWor ksheet (Erica j], lay yourcardsoutaccordingly Now let 's lo k at several detailed clues in th is

spread.Not ice on theworksheet hat keywordsor pithy mean

-ings are given for eachcard.Relating to thespreadbeforeyou

and the not es on the worksheet , followalong,as I review the

meanings of the positionsstep-by-step with the cards falling

there in Ericachose the Queenof Pentacles asthesignificator forher

sister.A verydark-haired woman , sheisth irty-eigh t yearsold

In Posit io I. Th isisU · hal cooers y ou Thisrepresent sthe a

t-mosphere or emotional env ironme nt in which influences are

working Isthere tension in the air Isthe atmosphere relaxed

and easygoing!The 7 ofCupsmay indica te an atmosphereof

fantasy.imaginati on ,ordelusion The 5 ofWandscouldsuggest

that influences of manipulation, power plays or mind games

areopera ting in theatmosphe re

Loo kat th e ca rdtha tfallsin Position 1, the 9of Swords.Say

whatyou se e.Clearlythiswom an isworried and distraught.She

sits u in bed, perh aps unable to sleep This pictur e literally

speaks for itself.Obviously, he at m osphereisfilled with lOOTT y.

Worryis akeyword

In Position 2,Th i sis whatcr ossesyou.This can repr esentan

obstacle or an aid It depends on the card Usually, if it is a

posit ive card it is helpful If it is a negative card i means

there is an opposit ion , but not necessarily At thispoint inru

-i ti,, ~ interpretat ion must be incorporated Let's look at some

Suppose it is the Queen of Wands She may be a helpful

apositive card,3 ofCups(friends) Howevermost of the othe r

could be causing problems and interfering Here again your

intui t ion must comeintoplay; and,rem emberthe cop's ruleof

th umb: Y our fill! hun ch is u s uall y your best-a nd my rule of

thumb, s po ntan e ity.Gowith the first thingthat popsinto your

mind!

Most of the c rds in th is spread are posit ive But a sponta

-neous impr e ssiontoJustice istha t thisrepresents a lawyerorl

e-gal matter.Alo gwith heightened intuition, lifeex erience is

anot herassettodecipherin gTarotcards,andm ylife experience

Sampl e Celti cC ross Spr ead Worksh eet (Eri ca)

8. K n i ght o f C ups a m e ssage co m e s t o t he b orne

H o m e F am il y , F riends, a nd/o r E n vir onm e nt

9 5 of penta cle s f ear of finan cial p robl ems

H o pes and/ or F ea rs

10 8 o f p entacle s ne w j ob

Out com e r Cul mln atkm

N ot es an d/or O bservati ons : (c orresponding eve nts feeli ngs,ete.)Wilma thought mysisterwo ld receivea lucky jo offer

11-8-99 my sisterr eceive dacall at homeaboutth eoffer

Shedidnot sufferan financial loss

tells me that lawyers spell trouble Furthe rmo re, Just ice is

pre-ceded by a difficult card.If it had been preceded by a positive

c rd, The Star for instance, I might say it meant good news

from alawyer,ajudge oraboutalegalmatt er

Nevertheless for practical purposes thekeyword need on ly

bela wyer,and that iswhat iswritteno the worksheet.Eventu

-ally,asweproceed,the significance ofJustice(in the conte xtof

the othe rcards)willbecome clearand thekeyword will make

sense This is ano the r import ant lesson Never belabor the

meaningofac rd.Keep movingalong with thereading.Eve

n-tuallyeveryth ing will fallintoplace.Thisis a good exampleof

howimportantspontaneiy is.Sroppi ngto thinkabout one card

will interferewith thepsychicflow

In Position 3,Thi sisabove y ou.Thisindicat eswhat thequer

ent is orsh uld be aimingfor in the matter.It is, manytimes

the solution totheissue ortheanswerto theproblem

Another interpr etation is that this foretellswhat will h

ap-pen in thefutur e ifn furt heraction istaken.Ifi is apositive

c rd, the querent iso the righ t path I i isa negati ve card

thequerent ismovin g in the wrongdirection andsh uldco

n-sidera cha nge

Again ,thisposition is subject to interpret ati on depending

on the card These are merelyguidel ines designed to give y u

some focus.U ltimately,thec ards transcendthe positionsand y o ur

intuitiveperceptionwilltranscendthec ar ds A professiona l reader

with a very large following told me h w she f eels the cards

And, that isexactlywhat youwillsoon n t ice you are natu

-rallydoing; when you loo kat th e ca rds and s ay what y o see

Keep thisin mind as yougoth roughthese sample int

erpreta-t i on s

Regarding Position 3, the cardof Strength speaksforitself

The querent shouldstrive to be strongand determined in th issituat ion Note the pithy interpretat ion written on the work-

sheet.determinationi s n ee ded.

In Posit ion 4.Thi s is be low y ou.Thisdescribes the subco

n-scious motivat ion of the querent or how the individual is

think ing A positive card ind icat esthat one is spurred o by aconfident prompting A difficult card, let's say Knigh t of

Swords.maymean the querent ismotivated bya lot of anger.This position can also mean the underlying factor, basis, or

foundati on of thematter

I would interpretTheMagician in thispositio asthequer

ent being motimtedbytheneedforcontroland power.

In Position 5.T hi sis be hind y ou This representsinfluences

that are now passing away or the immediat e past However,from myexperience, I have alsoseen this to ind icate an intlu-

ence from the distant past There is a teason for this Whenread ing the Tarot, it isthe subconscious mind of the querent

that comesinto play.I an issue from the lo g agopast is still

having an emotiona leffec t on the querent, even if not cosciously, t may verywellcome o t in thereading.In fact ,youmay seethishappeningwith thee ntirespread, not onlyth is po-sition What is onorin the querent's mind, consc iouslyor un-

n-consciously, comes out in the cards This is a very curious

p enomenon of psych icdyna mics Iwilladdressthat in moredetailinCha pter3

The 7ofWandslookslike apowers trugglehasrecently taken

place.Since it fallsin the samespread withthe card representing

a lawyer,my immediate response wouldbe that there is a con

-nect ion.There dingis start ingtomake sense!Let'smo e on

In Position 6,T h is is be fore yo u This describes the future,

what willbe happening soon; or, it mayreflect influenc esthat

have recentl ycome intoview.The Wheel of Fortune iswith

-out a doubt a posit ive card and in a propiti ous placement It

looks as if stuldenluck or o pportunity will be coming in very

soo n.

In Position 7, Thi sis yo u.This sign ifies the querentand/o r

the querenr's att itude in this situat ion The 9 of Cups, the

querentishappy orpleased.The 2 of Swords, thequerentisun

-cella in or undecided My sponta neo us meaning to the card

that falls here,the4ofCups, isd reamingorwis hing fo rsOlnething

bett er.

In Position 8, Thi sisyo ur h ome, f amily, f riends , a nd/or e

nvi-ronment.I usuallyinterpr et this positio nasrepresentingthe ac

-tualhom e,the familyor familyinfluences,friend s, and/o r, in a

generalsense, the actualma terialenvironment TheEmpressin

this posit ion may mean a mother, a mother-type figure (a

mother-in-law or aunt, for instan ce ) or a mother-to-be (pr

eg-nant wom an) comes to the home for a visit The Knight of

Cups, in thisposition ,looks asifa m essage co mes toth e h mne.

In Position 9,Th ese ar e YOl <T ho pes a nd/or f ears.Tradit ion ally,

thisposition isinterpr eted asthequeren t'shopes or fears relat

-ing to theissues at hand However, Iknow one readerwho in

-terpretsthehopes orfears asbeing oneand the same Thisadds

ahighl ypsych ologicalslant tothis inte rpreta tion Forexample,

one may be consciously hopin gfor success, yet unconsciously

fearin git at the same time.Perhaps becauseof low self-estee m,

one feels undeserving of success and is subconsc iously more

comfortable with failure This complex interpretati on is n t

necessary, butit iscertainlyf oodf orthou ght.However, itmay be

easierto interpretthisposition ase ithe rhopes orfears d

epend-ingon the card.Here, he5of Pentacles,indicat es tomethere

is af ear o ffinancialpr oblems.

In Position 10,Thi sisthe o utcomeorc ulmination.This tells

h wthe situation willturnout in the end.Of course,afavo

r-ablecard foretells a favorabl econclusion.However, a negative

card should not beconstrued as all is lost Tarot devotees

be-levetheo nlything constant inlif eisc hange.I adifficultcard falls

in this position,look toPosition 3for apossible solut ion

Inthis spread, the 8 of Pentacles showsa man working My

prediction would be ane w job. However,more could be added

totheinterpr etati onof thisposition by combini ng itsmeaning

with the card in Position 6, which indicat esthefuture,In this

spread, the Wheel of Fortune (sudden luck or opport uni ty)

mergedwith the 8 of Pentacles(anew job) could be stretched

to mean alu cky n ew jo bopportunity

After reviewing the spread with Erica, I inst ructe d her tolink the keyword s togethe r,and, while doin gthat , she would

be creatingathemeforthe reading:W orrybecauseofalawye r;

arecent powe r s rruggle; therefore, there is a n eedforconrrol;

de-termination isn eeded toresolve thisissue;whilewi shingforso

me-thin g be tter or a bette r situa tion , but also afraid of having

finan cial pr oblems ;am essageisreceived bringing alu cky o

pportu-nityfora n ew jo b.

Insta ntaneously,Erica gotan intuitiveflash Therereallywas

athemebecausethe cards were talkingtoher.Her siste r,alegal

secretary in a busy law firm, was havin problems at work,

There had been a severe power struggle with one part icularly

difficult lawyer.She needed a job where she had more cont rol

and had, in fact, applied fora job as an office mana ger.She

wished verymuch to behired for thisjob , since itappeared to

beamore congenia lsit ation.Meanwh ile,however,shewas so

worriedand distraught about the problems at the current job,

shewasafraidofbeingfiredand losingwages.Henc ,she act

u-ally had sufferedseveralsleeplessnights

Itold Ericam ypredic tion wasthathersister would indeedbe

hired for the job she wantedand would get ac.~ 11 at homeina

fewdays Erica n ted this on theworksheet.A few dayslater,

her sister wascalled at home and offered the job Erica also

n ted the outco me of these tum of events o the worksheet

Once again I rem indedErica.asIam rem inding you toalways

refer back to the basic exercise: Lookat rite ca rds andsay u,hat

yousee.A technicala nal ysis o f a spreadisr e all ynorasimportantas

makingaconnectionwithrite cards rhemsel , ,,s Thenextsampleis

anexcellent exampleof this

This spreadwaspresented tomeb TIna.A student ata col

-lege in Colorado,she wasenteri ng hersopho moreyear.Over

the summer she had given this reading to her cousin's friend

Brian.It isverysignificant because itshows howy ucan look

at theoverallspreadand getan instant impression without g

o-ingthrough itcard-by-card Remember thetradesecret: P rof

br eakin g down th e s pread c ard-Iry- c a rd ,position-Iry-position

TIna had been pract icing diligentlywith the cards.She as

-sured me she had followed myinstruction sto the r However

when she gave this readin g,something unusual happened By

following my instructio s of loo king a t th e cards. she suddenly

gotarush of impressions.Shefelttntlledinbythe cards,and n

o-ticed how intense an fixed her concentration was Wisely,

TIna relaxed, let the energy flow and followed her hunches

The impressions from the cards were so strong, she nat urally ,

without even realizing it, began disregardin the positions in

which they fell Instead,she went o simplysaying what she

was seeing in the cards It was as ifshe felt an invisible force

lead ingher along.TIna called me for feedback an explained

what she had d ne Referring to the worksheet she filled o t[See Sample Celtic Cross Spread Worksheet (Tlnaj], lay the

cardso taccordinglyand followalong

Aquickoverviewofallthe cardsgaveTIna somecontradic

-tory information.The Lo ers crossedthequerent.Thatshould

begood.But, thefivediffic ultcards in the spreadstruck heras

not sogood TIna's intui tion told her something wasn' t right

Her first insight was a love problem But The World an TheSun also cau ht her eye These spoke to her about travel to

someplace warm and sunny She then focused on the 4 of

Swordsand the 2of Swords.These appeared to indicate sleep

-ing o an issue (4 of Swords) and being tom apart (2 of

Sword s) The similarity between The Lovers and The Devil

was an the r indicator In TheDevil, TInasawabadversion of

The Lovers.The Devil isfollowed b the 5of Swords, a fight

And, the 8ofSwords lookedlike Brian mayhavefelt arestric

-ti n

Keep in mind allof this information was rushing to TIna

quickly.She reallywas,at that moment f eel in gthe cards, n tthinking about them

TIna decided to stick with the lo e theme, which j umped

righ t at her The second theme that hit her was the traveltheme.and there wasn denying anxietyand stresswere visi-

ble in the cards.Tyingall this to The Cha riot, TInafelt thatBrian wanted toget movingo something

Here'sher inte rpretation.Brian felt restrictedand rom apart

inarelat ionship.Hewastrying tosort ito t.Therewas anasty

argument with a love interest He was very angry.He really

wanted freedom(The Fool).TIna concluded that in thefuture

he wasgoing to travel to a warm and sunny climate, perhaps

California TInacouldn't figureout what travel had tod withthe loveproblem Butshe followedherspont aneous feelings.Brian confirmedthe reading.He toldTIna he wanted adven-ture, and had been thinking about traveling to California But

hisgirlfriend wantedto stay on the EastCoast Hebegan tofeel

restri cted in this relati onship, and couldn't decide what to do

Then they had a huge argument That made hisdecision forhim He broke off the relati onship and was en route to the

West Coast

TInawasuncomfortable about how she haddonethis.Itcetainlywas an unfamili arfeeling.ButIexplainedtoherthat, re-gardless of how it felt, it was correct She had reallygiven a

r-p sychicTarot card reading!Th isiswhat happenswhen yougofor the overall picrurel s) You begin tof eel the cards,and they

conveytheirmessagestoyou ona subconscious level

TIna had learn ed a very important lesson.There really are

n formulasfor reading Tarot c rds.There arc guidelines; your

f eelin gs,h wever, aregoing to be yourstrongest guide.Reading

Tarot cards i s a n in tuitive a rt n o t a m ath e mat ical equa tion.

Remember, when youloo katth ecards ,youarc gettinga f eeU ng

instantly The images evoke a response in the subconscious

mind.There isaspontaneous reac tion.That iswhyIenco urage

youto immediatelysa y whalyous ee.

Another aspect TIna learned was that of fixed con cen

rra-tion TIna felt asif thecards were pullingher in This iswhat

happenswhen you are making a psychic connection with the

cards:andit iseasilyaccomplished bysimply lookingatthe c ards.

You willprobablybe aware of this even in the initial learn ingstages Stayconnectedand gowith theflow

Ho pes and/ or F e ars

Sample Celtic Cross Spread Worksh eet (Tina)

Outcom e or C ulm i nation

N otes and/or Observations : corresponding fNents., f eelings e tc )

Bro b>d J<N~ ,bcvt , ~ m<-ti"&rr.I>tiofl(h;p.It<- • Jh ~

~fYia'.d b>d •••~/I'C.flf• J M>Icc:."p 13Yi ~ hc:.adc:.d

f0r-th:. ~t~t

In Cha pter3 under thequestion, Howexac tl ydoTarol cards

wor k !, I writ e about h w the cardsserve as a focusin tool for

harn essing psych ic ene rgy After readi ng Tarot cards for so

man yyears, I amabletofocusas soonasthefirstcard isplaced

d wn,I immediately g with my feelings; and, therefore, I

in-stantlylock intopsyc hicmode Ikeep thisfocus as Iquickly lay

the cardsout Theability tofocus instantlyis akeyto giving a

psyc hi cTarot reading.Liken th isto thread inganeedle.That is

the hard pan However, once the needle is th readed, the

sewing iseasy.It's the same th ing when making a psychiccon

-nectionwiththe Tarot cards You arethreadingthepsyc hicn

ee-die.Once the con nec tio ismade, the read ing iseasy.TIna is

definite lyonthe righttrack !

Othe rinte rpretat ionscouldbedrawnfrom thisspread.And

they'd allbeaccurate.That'swhat isso intriguing about these

c rds.It'swhat you, the re der, see in them That iswhy Iin

-struct you to loo katthecardsand saywhalyou see.

Thisisanothersamplee a m p le.Thisread ing was given by

Brendan, a web site designer, to his mother Brendan co

n-fessed he had glanced at these t io o PossibleMeanings be

-forefinishingthe instructions in Th eFirs! 2 Hours However,

he had slill taken the time to learn the basic techniq ue of

lookin gat thec rds SoI orgave him for thisind iscretion.He

also told me tha t he disagree d with many of my interpreta

-tons and had quicklycome u with some of his own mean

-ings That is high ly acce pta ble and his reading was highly

acc urate.Refertohisworksheet ,and laythe cardsalit

accord-ingly.Then foll ow along as Bren dan explained his on- ta rget

interpretatio

ignificar or-e-Queenof Wands: Brendan saw his motheras

anindus trio s en trepreneur,

Posit ion 1 - 10 of Wan ds: Bren dan's mother was

over-whelmedwith responsibility.Thisisamatte rofwhich Brendan

wasalreadyaware

Positi on 2 - The Empress: Bren dan'smotherwastakingcare

of hermother, Brend an 's grand mother, wh had been very ill

Bren dan knew this, too It played into the overwhelming reo

sponsibilityput upon hismother

Posit ion3 -2 of Cups: Bren dan's parentshad div rced twoyears ago His mothe rwas seeing a man wh wanted tomarry

her, butshe felt she wasn 't read y yet Basedon theca rd,Bren

-dan could see that this relat ionsh ip did make his mother

happy.He alsosuggested that marr iagewouldbe a good move

forher

Posit ion4 - TheHan edMan :Brendan'smotherwas giving

u alotof hertimetocare for his grandmothe r.Unt il theread

-ing, Brendan had not beenawareofh w much hismother had

reallybeensacrificing for the care of her own mother.Thisis

something Brendan'smother kept toherself Here, the reading

wasrevealing un known informat ion

Position 5 - The Knight of Swords: One week ago, his

mother's car hadbroken down

Position6 -9 of Pentacles: Brendan mother was a s ha pa hali c.She firmlvbelieved whenthegoinggetslough, the rough go

s happin g.Brendanpredicted a shoppingspreecoming upsoon

Position 7 - 5 of Wands: Brendan pred icted his mother

would be starting an exercise program, some thing she had

never beforedon e Shead mitted to looking intogymsan ex

-ercise stud ios,Thiswas a verybig pieceof surprise infonnat io

from thereading.But Bren danhadfollowed thego ldenru leand

readwhat he saw in the card,andby doing sohe learned a valu

-able lesson You never know what you will see in the cards

Sign ificator OM "" of W0"J,S

when giving someone else a readin g.Donot presume y u a

l-ready know what is going on in that person's life You really

don 't That is why it is important to loo kat t he cards and say

what you see, not what youth inkcanorcannot happen

Position 8 Page of Swords: Brend an saw this card as his

youn ger siste r, Julie,whohad been livinginanapart ment near

the localcollegeshe attended Impulsive and temperament al,Julie was a hand ful His mother had been relieved when Julie

moved out But now Brend an saw Julie in hismother's home

How could that be ?Here again, Brendan went with what he

saw in the cards.His mother then informed himwith dismay

thatJuliewasmovin gbackhome.Anotherunexpect edr

evela-tio from the cards!

Position 9-5 of Pentacles: His mother was worried about

money.Thismade sense His ailinggrandmothe rand the cost

of repairin g the car was causing understand able financialdi

s-t r ess.

Position IO-Queen ofCups: Brendan predict ed along with

hismother'simminent sho ppingspreethat she would getanew

hairstyle and makeover His mother confirmed; she had beenthinking of doin gthat ,too

Brend an gave his mother a great readin g He looked at the

cards, followed his intuition , and, despite my admon ish ment,

got a bit of a boost bylookingup some of the meanings All

that mattersisthe end result It worked

And if these sample readin gsdon'tworkfor you, burn ano

r-ange candleande -1lUli 1mein themorning!My e-mailaddress isprovided at the endofChap te r3

8 Pc2\ ~ e o £$\NOytAS IMB e i si " t he bO lMe

Home , F amily , F riends, anc VOf En vironment

3 2 o c at'S MO",", $\""0"":1 serlMG"a j eJ, ", smi

O utcome o r Culm ination

N otes8nd /or O bsef\latJons: (co rrespondingevents,f eelings, etc )

1-\0 "" 'o o,,~hrso""e " ew clol-hes,~or "Ih",i, c " r ", ,,J,

"""I< eove', J,yeJ,h",i,'o10"J" ",,,J, j oi,,e J,"I

Q U ESTI ONS, ANSW ERS,TROUBLESH OOTING,

reerinacting,andwas10m between practical ity an sta rry-e yed

ambition s.Me nwhil eshecha nneled her creativ eenergiesinto

studyi ngtheTarot

She whispered in a fearful voice:"Wh ydoe stheD eath card

keepcomingu inm y pr aaic e r eadin gs' "

Noneedforalarm,Iassured her.It isavery curiousandc

early p asesof workingwith Tarot cards.While pract icingoyourself, inmany ofthesespreads theDeathcardwill keepap-pearingoveran overagain Iremember thishappeningto mecount less rimes; and, since it was often late at night I was

spooked! But theDeath card isreallyconsideredaposi ti'"card;

and 1 believe itsfequ ent appea rance in these initial practi ce

readings also hasquite positi ve indications

Let 's take a close look at the Death card Pull itout of the

w hile ho rse.He is gree ted by anofficial-looking man (a priest or

bisho p.perha ps)bearinggifts.Thes un rises inthe background

Theseelem ents of the symbolismcan be construed as a

uspi-cious intending to convey a spiri Ulal connotation It is the

name of the card Dea th. that terrifies people But since the

symbo lism has a spi ritua limplication th isTarotcardbespeaks

of a spiritualdeat hand tha t ten ds toplayout as a psychological

tran sform at ion

Aspiritua l deat h isreall y arebirth or an awaken ingtoanew

consc iousnesso r awa reness H owever it r equires aletting goora

releasin g of tha t which n longer work s in our lives and im

-pedesourgrowth;and that isthedeath (figumtivelyspea king )

of the old the worn out.and the useless Inorde rto movefor

-wardwemust let go of what isn longerneeded inourlves;we

mustclear awayallthedebris.Touse a commonexpression we

mustc ut o ff t h deadwood

Fear of death tha t isthe actualdeath of the physicalbody

comesfrom theuncertainty about wherewewillgo after death

Therefore thenoti on ofa spiritual death evokes the exactsame

fear; and this fear plays out in man y aspectsof our lives.Thus

weh ldo to many unnecessary things inour livesbecause of

thefear of what life would be like withou t them We tell o

ur-selves we need these things for oursurviva l; that oursurvival

depends on keepingthose thingsinour lives which hould r

e-ally be discarded Because of our fear of the unknown wecan

or rel igio sbeliefs eve n hobbies orinte rests.Eventually and re

-luc tant lyyou had to let go of them Perhapsyou yourself

fi-nall yre lized it.Or perhaps they were even taken from you

Regardless of the circumstances.the process of letting gocould

have been frigh teningbecause the re was an uncertainty about

what would happen or what life would be like without them

Thisiswhyevena spiritualdeathcanbe quite difficult

Buto cethereis arelease theway is clearedfornewnessto

enteryour life.Man ypeople report feeling light and freeo ce

the unnecessaryhas been released.That iswhy people wh g

through arel igioustran sformation saytheyhave beenr eborn.A

spiritua l death which is really a s piritual rebi rth i sa renewa l

With a spiritual rebirth comesanawaken ing.awhole new co

n-sc iousness , a n ew a wa r n ess, a n e n lighte nment.

So the Death card is not the card of physical death; butrather itsymbo lizesthe death of the old the worn-out or the

useless.Lookcloselyat thec rd again A w hile horse;white is

the colorofspiritualpurityan innocen ce.Theri sing(not se tin g)sun tells of anewdawn ing day bringi ng with it new be-

t-gin nings new directions a whole new cycle of one's life

Although the lett ing-g may have been uncomfortable, the

way now becom es cleared for new opportunities to enter o r

lives.Whenadoorclo ses.a windowo pens.

The Tarot opens the gate to new spiritual horizons When

4 THE 2 - HOUR T AROT T UTOR

youbegin work ingwith theTarot , your intuit ion begins tod

e-velop;and,along with that,you willbegin to experienceanew

spiriwaJawarenessorconsciousness.This moves youinto a new

cycle of yourlife.Hen ce,the Death card,symbolizing thisnew

consciousnessand moving into a new cycle of your life, may

frequen tlypop upin these very first practice read ings

Thethirteenth cardof theTarot deckis a powerfulcardtha t

imparts aprofound esotericinsight through itssymbo lism:Out

w ith the o ld andin with the new

How sho uld I readinverted/reve rsed upsidedown cards ?All

the sta nda rd books give two meanings for each card One

meaning,if the cardfalls right-side-up: ano the r, if the card falls

upsidedown.Thereversedmeanings are negative.You ate then

instructed to memorize bo thof these meanings However r

e-member myway of doingthingsdoesnot involve memori zing

meanings Sowheni comestoreversedcards I aswellasmany

othe rprofessionalre ders I know,d not read them any differ

-ently! 1 have tworeasonsfor this

First:Tryingto interpret a cardby givin i areversedmean

-ing forces you to pause and think, and that inte rferes with

sponta neity and the flow of psychic impressions Remember

the profession al reader wh told me, she feels the cards?Yo

cannot feel the cards if you are tryingto think abouta mean

-ing

Second: There are already difficult cards in the deck that

can indicat e severecha llenges For example, the suitof Swords,

The Tower, and TheDevil I,therefore, seen necessity for in

-terpret ing cards in a reversed manner (with a negative mean

-ing) if there are alreadycards to indicate negative influences

Supposethe 10 of Swordsisreversed?Some peoplethinkthisis

the worst card in thedeck How can youmake the inte

rpreta-tion of the wor stcard worse?My opin ion isthat the negati ve

cards speak for the mselvesbyturningup in the spread, r

egard-less of thewaytheyfall

Again youaregoing to have to decidefor yourself how you

want todealwith th is Yourpersonal style!Tarotcard readingis

anart:youare nowthe art ist But I think trying to interpret r

e-versedcards differentlywillcauseconfusion Icanassureyouas

lon g as youcont inue with the basicexercise:Look tU t he cards

andSlrJ what you see,eachcard will talkto youany whichwayitfalls

Why is the quer ent supposed to cut the deck with the left

han d? This is a ritual that 1believeto benothingmore than a

Gypsy superst it ion Esote rically speaking, the unconscious

mind is symbo lizedbythe left hand,whilethe conscious mind

is symbolized by the right hand Thisdistin cti on isclearly a

p-pliedtopalmreading.Thelefthand tellswhat theindividualis

born with (the uncon sciousmind) Theright hand tellswhat

onewill(con sciously)d with these inherentqualities.Hen ce,

lo istically, theleft hand isthe passivehandand theright hand

is the dominant act ive hand (O f course, this is reversed if

someone isleft -hand ed.) So Iassume, since a Tarotcard read

-ing involves connecti ng with the subconscious mind,th is most

likelyexplains the originof thisritual

While it does serve to set themyst ical toneassociatedwitha

Tarot card readin g,there isn magical power afforded by this

observance If the querent accide nrally usestheright hand to

cut oreven ClltSthedeckto theright insteadof the left,i will

not affect theread ing inany way.I have seen thishappen man y

times,when Iamgivinga read ing.It is, in my opinion, no big

50 THE 2- HOUR T RO T TUTOR

deal And since, according to met aphy sicians,n othingeverhap

-pens byaccident Ithink maybe there is a reason for th is minor

error.Remember theTarot isan intuitive medium and it isu

s-ingtheintuition that givesgood results

Although Ioverlooka mistake in the cutt ingof thedeck, I

might add there are two things Id insist on.One isthat the

cards are cut into thr eepiles Nor two,not four,but three piles

exactly Andafte r thedeck hasbeen cut ,Iinsistthat thequ

er-ent doesnot touch themfor any reason Iamtheone who picks

them up.I ealize there isn magicinvolvedhere eithe r,but it's

m yperson alstyle!

What if theq erent isleft-handed ? There are thosewho say if

the querent is left-handed, the cut shou ld be made with the

right hand andthe reader sho uld pickup the cards with the left

hand.Inothe r words,the ent ire ritual shouldbereversed.P

er-sona lly I find this to betoo confusingand cumberso me to deal

with I like th ingsto be simple I believe simplicity willfacili

-tat etheflow of positive energyand intuition So Ikeep the rit

-ual rhe same, regardless of wheth er or not someo ne is right-or

left-h and ed.Again what you do is your decision Yourperson al

style

What do you mean when you say, "Shuffle the cards until

theyfeel right"?The shu ffling, ingenera l,gives thequerent an

opportun ityto develop a rappo rt with the cardsand toput her

person al dbrations into them By asking the querent to sh uffle

the cards until theyf eelright,youare further enco uraging herto

focuso thec rdsand to make a connec t ion with them o a

f eeli n or vi brational le ve!'Thismakesiteasier forthe reader to

intuitivelytune intothequerent (aswell asthec rds) an give

amore effect ivereading When givingaTarot readin g, you are

working with energies and vibrations So a mutual tune-in bboth thequerent and the re der greatly facilitates the flow of

psych ic energy

Is it true that some readers will not allow anyone else totouch their cards? Ihaveheard this,but never seen it.Rumor

has it there aresome readerswhowillnot allowanyo ne elseto

touch theircards in an atte mpt to keep them totally free of

negati ve vibrati ons Instead of havin g the querent sh uffle the

c rds, theTarotreader willsh uffle the cardsandc oncentrateo

the querent, I the reader's conce ntra tion is good, the results

willbealso

In some instan ces, if a reader feels tha t someo ne who has

come for a consultat ion is emitt ing negati ve ene rgy,the reader

may, in that case, choose nor to let the querenr han dle her

c rdsinorde rto prot ect them

I have always viewed my cards as user-frie ndly. In fact, I

rather Uke the querent puttinghervibration s into my cards It

helpsmewith the tune-in.Here again, th isis goingto be yourpersonal cho ice Exper iment to seewhat worksforyou

If at any time you feel yourcards areoverlysaturated with

unwanted vibes,youcan clean sethemb passingthemthrough

incense smoke A classic occult form ula isthe combination of

frankincense and asafoet ida Frankincen se isforpurif yingn

ega-tiveene rgies.It has apleasant aroma Asafoetidaisforc leansing

negat ive ene rgies It is malodorou s! Together the odor is p

o-tent You'll haveto look forthese ina specia ltyshop,and they

must be burned o a smallpiece of a spec ial type of charcoal

52 THE 2 -HOUR TAROT TUTOR

and inan incense burne r.A specia ltyshop will beable10 pro

-vide youwithallthenecessary equipmen t, However, you really

need n t go 10 such an extreme Any standa rd joss st ick in

-cense willdo the job quiteeffectively

DoTarot c rds requ ire specialcare ?Tarot c rdssh uldbe

ac-corded the samecareand respect given to any sacred objec tor

prayer book.Traditionallythey aresupposed 10be wrapped in

silkandsto red inawooden boxthat isplacedhigh ona she lf

Silk insulatesagainst unwanted spirilual vibrat ion s.The c

us-rornarv colorsfor the silk cloth are eithe r black or purple Un

-fortunat ely,black has got ten a bad rap and is often associated

with evilor theblackarts.Thisis an unfounded misconception

because black is really a very spiritual color Members of the

clergy suchaspriests,monks, and nunswearblack Asfor pur

-ple.ithas alwaysbeenassociated with spiritualityand used e

c-clesiastically

The wooden box protect s against undesirable e a rr hlyvibra

-tions.By placingthe box higho a shelf,it is symbolicofhe

av-enlvelevation

Ibelieve however thatyou canstoreTarot cardsanyway you

want as lo g as you care for them with reverence I keepone

deck wrapped ina redsat in scarf and secured ina wooden box

bearing a carvingof anowl(awise oldowl);and ano ther deck

wrapped ina clothscarf that has avery special meaningtome

It isalsocustom aryto spread the silkclothon thetable and

place the cardson it whengiving there ding.Although thisis

another practi ce I personally,have never felt tobe necessary

you can incorporate this aspect in accordance with your own

individual taste

ARE WE HAVING F UN Y ET ? 53

Should I sleep with Tarot cards under mypillow?Thisis a

n-othertradition al suggest ion Ihaveread about,and was also r

ec-ommended10meby afriendmanyyears ago.Theoreti callythis

maybridge alink between the cardsand thedeep subco nsc iousmind

Myfriend told me ofabizarre experienceshe had one night

Rout inelyin thehabit ofspreading the cardsout underher p

il-lowwhile sleeping,she haddisturbingnightmareso ep

arricu-lar night he awoke tofind The Devil had surfaced10thetop!

I tried this practice myself But,since I am such a restless

sleeper, he cards did nothing more than get in thewayof my

constant tossing and turning.Hence I made n moreattempts

at hisu comfortable experimen

Youmight tryselectn o lyonecard that you especiallylike

andsleepingo that 10seewhat happens.Thisis ano therpro

-cedureyouwill have10test fory urself

What is the Tarot (or Tarot cards) ? The Tarot, pronouncedraro, is adeck of seventy-eight cardsconta ini ngsymbols from

man y ancie nt cultures Today it is common lyused for divina

four suits: Pentacles, Cups, Wands and Swords These suits

correspond 10 thefourelements-s-eart h, water.fire, and a

ir-which the ancients believed made up the world.Each suit has

anace, king, queen,knight and page aswell asnumberedcardsfrom two10ten

,

54 THE 2 - HOUR TAROT TUTOR

Wheredo Tarot cards come from?Thehistoryof theTarot is

vagueand unclear.There arecount lesstheories; an for every

onetheor ythere areat leasttwocounter-theoriesdisprovingit

SomesourcessayTarot cardsoriginatedinChina, othe rssay

Egypt,an stillothe rssaythe ir roots are in India.Y thefirsr

clear historical referen ces say the cards appeared in Europe

around the fourteenthcenturyas a game known asTarroch i.It

is ironicallyth isclassicaldeckthathasremained relativelyu

n-changedfor morethansixhundredyears!

Most likely the Major Arcana began developing first an

graduallyevolved over a period of c nturies into the twenty

-two Major Trumps.One populartheory is that theymight be

theveryearliestrecord ings of myths,fables,andsigni ficant hi

s-toricalevents.Inthebeginn ings of civilization, these accounts

were handed down orally, but eventually they were put into

pictorialform

Indeedmanyof theseMajor Trumps are clearlyremini scent

of biblicalstories.For instanc TheLoversappearsto me tobe

thedepictionof the storyof Adamand Eve;TheTower,ano

b-viousillustration of theTower of Babel;and TheHangedMan

issuggestiveof thecrucifixio

TheHermit remindsme of Diogenes,theGreek philosopher

andascet ic, who isthoughtto havelivedfomrou h ly 412B C.

to323 B C Diogenes isthe subjectofnumerousapocryphals

to-ries.Hisendless search foran honest man was supposedlyco

n-ducted in broad daylight with a light ed lantern ! Note the

uncann y resemblance of that legendary image to the card i

t-self

Anotherpopulartheor y about theMajorArcanatells ofthe

spiritual leadersof manycountriesand culturesgathe ring to

-gethe r in Fez (o ce a province of Morocco) around the year

1 00,somerimeafter the great library at Alexan ria in Egypt

wasdest royed Theirobject ive was to preserve esoteric teach

-ings,but inorder todo sotheyhad to bridge thelanguage ba

r-rier Since in ancient times most peopledid not read or write,

symbols were used instead of words to convey information Thus a common language of symbols(based on myst ical sym-

bols taken from man y cultures) was developed and put onto

cards; while thekey was to remain a secret knowledge that was

exclusively transmitted bywordof mouth from one generation

to thenext

Therehas alwaysbeenspeculation that the Gypsies brought

the cardsinto Europe.Here is a perfect exampleof anespoused

theory with a valid counter-theory disproving i In this

in-stance, historical fact easily proves the cards were in Europebefore theGypsies,who mayhave arrivedaround thelate four-

te nt hcent uryor early fifteenth cent ury However,the Gypsies

probably werethe firstto startusingthemfordivination in

or-dertoearn theirlivings

It wasn 't unt ilthe eightee nt h century that a French writer,

Antoin e Court de Gebelin , noted the cards' mystical sy

mbol-ogv,Soonafter hewroteaboutit,manyotheroccult writersfol

-lowed suit and began tout ing the immense repository ofesoterick owledge contained intheimagery

It is said that the symbolism in Tarot cardsconta inshidden

truths about thefundamentallaws of the universe andthe m

ys-ter io swisdom found in theforcesunderlying thecosmos The

pictorial representations illustrat e the ste psof the soul's p

ro-gression through spiritual growth As consciousness unfolds,

the Tarot su tlydisclosesits secrets

Oftendescribed astheultimate R orschac h tes t,what we seein

the cards is merely a reflect io of o r own inner psyches

Therefore byusingtheTarotinapracticalmanner as atoolfor

fortune-telling , the subconscious mind easily con nec ts o an

intuitivelevelwith the cards' enligh tenin doctrine

Is there any con nectio between Tarot cards and playing

cards?The structure of playing cards is verysimilar to that of

the playing cards' joker is an obvious offshoot of the Tarot

Asfor the history of playing cards, it isequally asvague as

that of Tarot cards Some historians think that playingcards

mayhave come fromChina orKorea.Atsomepoint theywere

combined with the Major Arcana and fashioned intothe Ta

r-rochideck

Howeverothe rscho larsbelieve that playing cards are ac

tu-ally the offspring of the original seventy-eigh t Tarot cards

Thus the age-old question " Whic hcamefirst :thec icken arthe

egg!"r em ains un answ ered

What is the difference between the Major Arcana and the

MinorArcan a?It is said that theMajorArcanadealswithspir

itua l or psychological changes or internal conflicts, wh ile the

MinorArcanaisindicativeof dailya tivities, mundaneevents

externa linfluences,and/orpeo le

However, my experience has been that these distinctions

canbe interpret ed interchangeably.I have seen theMajorAr

cana represent people and outside influences,and I have seen

the Minor Arca na indicate internal psych ological changes

A RE WE H AV I N G FUN Y ET? 57

-ition of there der

What dothefou rsuitsoftheTarot mean ?Traditionally,Pen

romance, friendship, happiness emoti on, an relat io ships

Wan ds sign ify dynamic energy,enterprise,creat ion ,agriculture

tension,andsomet mes violence

Foreasyreference:

n-dard re ommendat o Theq eren t is askedto concentrateo

or hold a specificq estio in mind when shuffling the cards

However I have always found it more effective to follow adif

-ferent procedure

First.I ask the querent to clear her mind When o e is re

-laxed ,energies tend to flow more smoothly.I o e is an xious,

energies canbott le up.Think in gtoohard about aspecificques

-t o may create inte rfering tensions If Isense the querent is

deal ingo t the cards

By the way,if nervousness and tensio are too great , I may

n t even continue with the reading because the an xieties

I I

5 T HE 2 - HOUR TAR OT TUTOR

would prod uce a great barrier I therefore ask the querent 10

reschedule the appointment Iknow several othe r successful

professionalswh follow th ispractice also

Assuming theemotiona lstate of the querenris cond ucive10

giving a re ding, I prefer10initiallyseewhat comesout.(Sev

-eralof mycolleaguesalsoagree withthis course, I mightadd )

So I begin b throwing o e 10 three different spreads Many

times the answer 10 the question the querent is looking for

comesout then.And, since it is a spontaneo us response,

unfet-teredbyanypreprogrammed thinkingo my part asa reader, it

isusuallyquite anaccurate psychi cinsight

Besides, life's issues are somet imes so complex that there

couldbe manyconditions affectng the querent 's concern that

aren't even real ized By giving an impartial answer, many of

theseothe rfactors canbeintuit ivelypicked up, oo

So my first recommenda tion is10 c ndidly see what comes

o t However,there are advanced spreads inCha pte r5 thatc n

be used toansweraspecificquest ion.Ory ucaneven use the

basic Celt ic Cross Spread for a spec ific quest io These are

some more things you are going 10 have to experiment with

yourself,10 see what works.No matter which spreads you use,

y u will get insightful information as lon g as you loo k at th e

cards a nd s ay w hat y o s ee

Can ayesor no quest ion be answered with the Tarot? There

arespreadsinChapter5that can be used10answeraye sorn

question.Again,becau sethere aresomanycomplex factors

en-tering into a partic ular situat ion, and because life's issues are

rarelyclear,cur-an d-dry, I don talways findthese spreads10be

effective, particu larly,as I have mentioned, when there is a

strongemotional investmentinagiven matter,

ARE WE HA V I NG F UN YET ? 5

There are timeswhen the cards willnot directly answer the

quest io being asked, but instead will givean indirect answerbecause there are u nknown influences affect ing the issue It is

st illimportanttotakenote of the cards appearing inthe spreadbecauseme ssages aT e alwa yscomingthrou gh ,even if it isnotone

you are lookingfor

Some of mycolleagues have reported remarkable success u

s-ing Tarot cards to answeryesor noquestions.Thisis someth ing

else youwillhaveto experiment with to see whatworksforyou.One piece of advice: If you try these spreads,the clearerthe

q uestion the clearer the answer. A muddled question yields a

muddled answer.Trytophrasethe questio succinct ly in eight

words or less, and askthecardson lyo e question at atime.By

the way, he questionc n beasked verbally (out loud ), or the

querentcansilentlythink about it toherself

Can all quest ion s be ans wered with the Tarot? Thelat e EdenGray, one of the foremost Tarot autho rit ies of the twentieth

c ntury,maintain ed thata nyquestion couldbeanswered with

Tarot cardsand insisted on their"unfailing accuracy." Lynn M

Buess in his book, The Tarot and T ransfonnation,agrees "A

Tarot reading can be extrao rdi na rily accurate and detail ed,"

writes Buess, But, he goes on to write, "The re aretimes, how

-ever, when a reading is genera l, garbled and seems extremely

con fusing." My experience is consiste nt with Buess's findi ngs

At times,a readingisunbe lievably lucid,but clarityisnotthe

case with every reading.And,afte r nearlyfourdecades of peer

ing into the future, I have come 10 the conclusion that with

anyformofdivination, the reareinfinite possibilitiesaswellasfrustratinglimitations

I havepreviouslymentioned theoverwhelming influence of

60 THE 2- HOUR TAROT TUTOR

the emo tionalstateof thequerent,If thequerent is anxio usor

has a stro ng emo tiona l investm ent in a matt er, the clarit y of

the reading will be greatly affected And this iswhat factors

into the greatest and most frustrat ing limitati on with Tarot

cards

Dion Fortune writes in Pracrical Occulris m in Dai ly U fe:

"Anyon e with practi cal experience of seership kn owsthat to

tryto obtai n en ligh ten ment bypsych icmeans conce rn ingany

matter in which one has astron g emot iona l biasis seldomsat

is-factory, for the bias vitiates the results to such a degree that

theymayprove most misleading for the strongemot ion in

themind of thequerent isveryaptto influence thepsychi c

un-consciously,so that the resultsobta ined may either be colored

b desire,or, if theinfluenceis unconsci ouslyresisted, maylean

to the other extreme." Th is kind of confusion is most notic

e-ablyevident with romantic issues!

Someof the mostamazinginsigh tsIhavehadwith the cards

havebeen while reading at partiesand specia levents.Perhaps

it isbecausethe guestsare not looking for anything in partic

u-larandarecompletelyrelaxed Thisisquitethe contrary, when

someone comes in for a private co sultation At tha t time,

thereis usuallyahighlevelofantic ipatio

But you have asked me about anyquestion; to whic h Ian

-swer, note verythingisgivento us.Afte rall, we areonlyhumans:

and perhapsnot supposed to know everything Bydivining we

are trying to intercept the Universal Mind, and this is not as

easy as i seems.Cosmic tools, such asTarot cards, astrology,

numerology, and palmistry,give us a connect ionbetween time

and space and provide uswith eno rmousamounts of inform

a-tion But, there are some thingsthat are not in o rhand s and

are no e of o rbusiness.Case in point, quest ion s about death

orillness.These arestrictly.oer boten!

If ever I am asked when someo ne will die, my answer is,

"O n lyGod knowsthat " Ialsoavoid diagnostic questio nsabout

he lth because I think it isirrespon sible and uneth ical for a

psychictoanswer them Myresponse is, "I'm not a doctor."

However someti mescertai n taboo topicsdo comeour un

ex-pect edl y- especially when no one islooking for them ! This

anom aly supports the theor y of emo tiona l investment I talkabout this inCha pte r6, along with an unusual questio n I was

asked to answer with Tarot cards when appea ringo U ''f!With

Re gison Halloween of 2000 Regis asked me, "Who would win

the presidentialelecti on ?" It was an odd question to ask with

the Tarot but the cardscame through, proving that the

possi-bilities canbe infin ite

Regardless of the questions you ask or the spreadsyou use,

ke p in mind the true purpose of divinati on as described by

Dion Fortu ne:"A divinati on sho uld be regardedas awe

ather-vane which shows wh ich waythe winds of the invisibleforces

are blowing: but it sho uld always be remembered that a

weath ervane isnot meant to determine the coursethata ship

is totake:itmerely indicatesh wbest to trimthesails."

Is there a way to time events with Tarot cards?One of the

difficult ies encount ered with Tarot cards and other fonns of

Tarot, we tune into the astral level This is a highe r

dimen-sional plane commonly known as thef ourth dimens ion.Accord

-ing to Swami Vishnudevananda, in his book The C omplete

lUu.s rroted Booko fY"&,,, "allextrasensory perception and these

so-called unexpl ained mysteries are the func tio nsof the astral

body in a higher dimensional place." Time and space (as we

perceive it) aretranscendedo theastral level,making it diffi

cult to determine the rimingof events

Manyold- timereadersusedto sayanevent will take place in

threedays.threeweeks, orthreemonths becauseof rhe i

mpos-sibility of psychi cally zeroing in on timin In fact , there is a

ver y old psych ic joke: Leare the timing[0 George Georgewas a

make-beli eve characte r invented by old occultists ince they

could n't deal with timing, theyused to say Georgewould take

careof it

However,here are some technical guide lines that you may

find helpful Use them in conju nc t ion with your intuiti on But

keep in mind that these guidelinesare not laws.So youcan be

flexi blewith them

• Thefour suitsofthe Tarot can represent measures of time:

Pentacl es -years; Cups-days or weeks; Wands-months;

Swords-ho ursor days

• The Ace of Pentacles could be inte rpret ed as approxi

-mately one year;theAc of Wands,o e month; theAceof

Cups,oneday oro ewe k; the Ace ofSwords,o houror

oneday

• TheMajorTrumpcardsusuallyindicat e aneventorsitua

-tio taking placeimmediately

• The Minor Trumpsmay represent less immediat e even ts

oreventsfurrhe r intothefuture

• Manymodem readers,myself incl uded, can bemore pre

-cisewithtimingby usingacombination ofastrology and n

u-ARE WE HAVING FU N YET? 6

merology.These are more grounded esote ric sciences and I

have excellent result swiththisblend

Withastrology,thephasesof the moon are very importan

Observatio of these lunar phases can be easily incorporated

intoyour re din gs.(Moststandardcalendarsindica te thelunar

phases.)

• Thenewmoonisthetime for new begin ni ngs It produces

a new cycle Man y issues are triggered off with the new

m oo n; n ew dev el op ments c o me i nt o vie w o r n ew matters

come up It is the timeseeds are planted , projects are init io

ared,orsome th ingis starred

• Thefull moon brings mailers to culmina tion, completio

or fruition.It isthe time ofend ings.Look tothe full moon

to mark thefinali ty ofan issueorwhen, in fact,thequerent

will findananswer tothematter, orsomet hi ng unexp ect edly

sur aces

Wh ile onthe subjectof thefull moon,here is an interesting

bit of informat ion Thefullmoon is a veryemotio nal time.As

the moon gets bigger, people's probl ems get bigger Issues be

-come magn ified and exaggera ted and people have to find a

n-swers Man yreadersnot icemore callsforconsultat ionsaround

this time !

Thefullmoon isalso said to be a very psychic time! Ihave

had extraord inarydiscernments when re d ing at thistime,but

have notnot iced the same with thenew moon, excepto a

so-lar eclipse, which isanewmooneclipse

Some people recommend giving read in gs o ly when the

moon is in a water sign, especially Pisces (A n astro logical

eph me ris orastro logicalcalenda rprov idesthisdata )Watet is

thepsychicelement

But I havenoticed that regardless ofthe signOt phases ofthe

moon , extraordinary insights can st ill be had The internal

cond it io of the queren t seems10be weigh tier than external

celest ial influences

With numerol ogy, i is helpful 10 know th querent's per

son lyear, persona l month, and personal day.Numerology is a

v luab leshortc ut10tim in g

Here isa exampleof how Icomb ined myknowledge of

as-trology and numerology in ord r 10 zero in o a time frame

when readi ngforabusin essman From thec rdsIcould tell he

waswaitin for ap one callabout anewbusin essventure.The

Ace of Cups, 10of Pentacles, and TheCha riot were some of

thecards that came up in th Celtic CrossSpread.Hewasina

I person lyearanda I person l month- a limeofnewbegin

-nin gs I predict ed h would get a call with good news on the

dayof thefull moon,which was in fivedaysand fell exac tlyo

his I personalday Sureenough, the following week ,his wife

phoned 10 tell methe callcame exactly when Ihad pred icted

Again I want to rem ind you th t these guidelin s are nor

written in stone, These are merely some add it ional tools yo

may find useful You ate g ing to have to expe rime nt with

them Besure to take dated notes and follow up o what h

ap-pens

theMajorTrumps,I ha e n verfound this10be effect ive.Nor

ha e Ifound it effec t ive 10in te rp ret the meaningr of th indio

vid ua l Major Trump cards in the context of their respe ct iv

numbe rs,because to me they never fit, especiallywith th t

ra-dit io al numerology I stud ied Othe rs disagree with me and

think most,butnotall,ofthesenum be rsfit nicely,with thisdis

-crepa ncydue 10 the fact th t we are not eve certain of the

originalarra ngement of th MajorArcana

With thefo rsuits oftheMinor Arcan ,I have been able10

incorporat eth num bero ac rd withameasureof timec rre

-spond ing to that suita d h d goodresul ts.Fore amp le, the2of

Swordsmaybe interpretedas anevent th t willta eplacein two

hoursortwo days;4ofWands, ourmonths;6ofCups,six days

orsixweeks.Here again , there is alot ofintuitivefeeling.Thisis

somethi ng else you'll have 10play around with,perhaps wh ile

alsoworkin gin theq erc nt'sperson l numerological vibes

Can you give me a crash cou rse in bas ic nu merol ogy? Nu

-me rologyisbasic mathemat ics.Grabapenci land paper.In notime you will be doing the calculations in y ur head Foll ow

alo ng!

Start byca lculat n theunit'CTsal year Add thefourdigitsof

the currentyear 200 4 2+ 0+0 + 4= 6 2004 isa6unil'CTsal

procedurewouldh ve bee asfollows: I +9+ 9+ 7= 2 6.Bur

in num e rology ev ryth ing must be re-added in order 10 be re

-duced to a sin ledigit.So 2+6= 8.The year 1 9 wasa 8

u i'CTsa/y ear.

To find y urperstmal y ear vibration ,add yourb irthmonthand

bi rth day 10the curre nt unit ,.sa/ye a r(whic is 2004ora6).I

your birt hday is anuar y17 (1/17), add I + I + 7 +6 = IS.Re

-membertoa lway s red uce coas i n gledigit I +5 = 6.Your personal

2005.)