How Did You Meet "Tarot"?
Tarot, or Tarot card, is something we can easily found around our lives recently. You might see them in Facebook, Instagram, bookstore or even a Tarot reading booth inside a mall. You may have seen them, but did you really know what is Tarot?
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Tarot Card Is A Tool
The "Tarot", also known as Tarot card, is actually a tool. And this tool has multiple usages.
The first usage is to understand ourself. we may sometimes face problems like:
- Why am I feeling sad about this matter?
- Why am I angry about it?
- What are my talents and gifts?
- What are my weaknesses?
- How can I improve myself to meet a better person?
and many more ways we can use it for understanding ourselves.
The second usage for Tarot is finding the solution to a problem. By "problem", I mean that it may not be about ourselves entirely. Such as:
- I'm in a relationship right now. What can we do to improve it?
- My friend and I will be going out for a trip next month. Is there anything we need to take note of?
- I'm currently employed in a company, but there's also another opportunity out there and maybe I could quit this job and try something new. How can I make my decision?
There are more reading questions for reference here.
But if you would ask something like this
- What to eat for dinner? (Don't rely on Tarot for every decision)
- What's the lottery number? (We wouldn't be out of money if this is possible)
- I'm feeling unwell, what should I do? (Why don't we start at visiting doctor?)
- What can I do to separate that couple? (So terrible! Watch our for bad karma!)
I urge you not to ask these kinds of questions (purely from my point of view)
The third common usage of the Tarot are activities that don't involve tarot reading such as:
- Meditation
- Creative Work
- Source of Inspiration
- Therapy
- Spiritual Growth
Type of Tarot Cards
Now let's take a look at the 3 most common types of Tarot cards.
Type 1: Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot (RWS Tarot)
The RWS Tarot is the most common Tarot deck you could find in the market. The Tarot deck you saw online that is shared by others are usually RWS based Tarot in most cases. So why is there so many RWS Tarot? From what I know, RWS Tarot have expressive art on it. The art on the card can also help us weave stories by looking at them or get the information we need. Besides that, if you're learning Tarot, there's also lots of information online that you can find about RWS Tarot.
I'm currently using RWS based Tarot card too. Although I wanted to learn another type of Tarot, but I'm not that "smart" enough. So I could only take it slowly, and start from the Tarot type that is easiest to find relevant information. I wonder if any of you reading this know how to do tarot reading by using a deck that is not RWS based? If you do, I must say you're pretty talented! No prizes 😜
Type 2: Tarot of Marseilles
The second commonly seen Tarot card type is the Tarot of Marseilles. Marseilles' characteristic is that the Minor Arcana will not have any character on it. Not even a protagonist that do "something", which is far from the RWS Tarot where we can easily understand by looking at the card. So when you're using the Tarot of Marseilles, you will need to have concrete information of Numerology and familiar with the card meaning of the Tarot of Marseilles.
Type 3: Thoth Tarot
The third type of commonly seen Tarot card is the Thoth Tarot. What's special about the Thoth Tarot is that there will be a lot of symbols like Kabbalah, Astrology, Alchemy, and other Occultism related symbols. So if you are an expert in these fields and are packed with knowledge, doing a reading with Thoth Tarot will be a lot easier.
Recommendation For Beginner
If you ask me you don't know which type to choose as a beginner, then I strongly recommend starting from the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) Tarot based deck. Because RWS based deck have the artwork that can give us enough information to interpret them. As long as you know how to weave stories by looking at the card, then it will be pretty easy to get started.
Most of the time, we could see that the RWS Tarot has character/person that is sitting, standing or doing something. There are also lots of colors on the card and some symbols that help us understand what the card is telling us with ease.
Nevertheless, if you have looked through all kinds of Tarot card type, but still like another type of Tarot system. As long as you learn wholeheartedly, I believe you will be able to interpret the card in no time.
Other than these Tarot cards, there are other types of cards which are not Tarot cards. Such as Oracle card, Lenormand, or other card types.
The Tarot System
Now, let me briefly introduce how is the system of a Tarot deck look like. In most cases, the Tarot deck we can find will contain a total of 78 cards per deck.
Some authors may add some extra cards when they are making it. Within these 78 cards, there will be 22 major cards and 56 minor cards.
These 22 major cards, also called Major Arcana, starts from 0 - The Fool, all the way up to 21 - The World.
While the minor cards, called Minor Arcana, contain 4 elements within these 56 cards. The 4 elements are Suit of Wands, element of fire; Suit of Cups, element of water; Suit of Swords, element of air; Suit of Pentacles, element of earth. In this Minor Arcana, there will be cards numbered 1 to 10 separately for all 4 elements.
On top of that, they have 4 court cards for each element. Which are Pages (not the page in books), Knight, Queen, and King. The author may also change the name of the cards base on the theme of the deck.
Flow of Tarot Reading
Now, I will be showing you an example of what does the flow of a Tarot reading looks like. In most cases, before a reading start. No matter if we're doing a Tarot reading for ourselves or for others. What would we need? A Tarot deck of course!
How would you do a Tarot reading without a Tarot deck? Although there are some apps available online that provide digital online Tarot reading. But without a physical deck, I would feel like something is missing. With a physical deck on my hand, I can touch it, smell it, I can even admire the beautiful artwork from all angles, it's even in 3D!
So, after we managed to get ourselves a Tarot deck. We should set the question we want to ask the cards. Without question (or if you're not being honest), your reading result may not be clear, or vague. By having a question, the answer you need will be easier to obtain.
After the question has been set, we need to choose a card spread. Although some Tarot readers might not use a card spread, but in most cases, using a card spread will help you deliver the reading in a good flow.
After choosing the card spread, let us shuffle our cards, there are a lot of ways to shuffle the cards. Watch here to learn the full reading process: "How Tarot Reader Earn?"
After shuffling the cards, you may let the querent cut the cards, or you could help them cut the cards. It's ok if both of you don't want to cut the cards though. When we draw cards, we should follow the card spread requirement, or draw the amount you intended from the card pile.
After we have drawn all the cards needed, we will have to look at the artwork on the cards, the connection between other cards you have drawn. Then interpret the cards based on the knowledge we have learned so far, plus our intuition. Some Tarot reader may not interpret the card by universal meaning or the card's original meaning. They may not learn the card meaning from books or from the traditional meaning of the cards. Instead, they may use intuition and personal psychic power to interpret the cards.
No matter which method you use, intuition or not, remember to tidy up after the reading.
Conclusion
Well? Did you learn more about the Tarot? What have you learned after reading this article? Be sure to leave your thoughts and what you learned with us in the comment section below. It's also very much appreciated if you could share this to your friends and family that like Tarot like you do.
Want to know what to ask in Tarot reading? Visit here: Tarot Service Info
