Tarot, the connection between Options

The Tarot experience.
I woke up one morning,five months ago, with only one thing in my head: I must buy Tarot cards, and so I did.
Since then, I feel that my tarot cards are an extension of me. They change their answer after my feelings about what I am asking them. Actually, they point out to the answer which I already know, but I'm not opening my eyes to the right direction so I need their help. It's kind of like God answering to the one looking for him: 'You wouldn't be looking for me if you wouldn't already have found me', (excuse my defectuous grammar). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)
Curious thing: if one card slips from the deck while I'm mixing them,and I get to see what it is, I'll surely pick that one.
I think I'm starting to love my cards.
I'll be really happy if some of you will share their Tarot experiences.

What deck did you buy?

As for cards falling out while shuffling: many times that card is very significant. My friend wanted a very concise answer to what he was gonna have to face. He was shuffling the cards for me and The Lovers fell out. Before he shuffled them back in i told him tht was his card. It fit to everything I saw prior to the readings i gave him.

Incidently, the card had been placed so that it showed upwards rather than downwards like the other cards. Whcih made it that much more significant.

fairly confused on tarot cards.. ive got the Thoth deck, which seems extremly more complex than most decks.. so much stuff to memorize. is there an easy way to get the basic understanding without complete knowldge of the sepheroth, astrology, etc? should i start w/ an easier deck?
how does everyone else seem to pick up tarot alot easier than i do?

You may find it easier to start out by using a 'standard' deck such as the Rider Waite deck. If you keep an eye out on eBay etc there are usually 'tarot for beginners' type books for sale at low prices.

I have the Rider Waite, Enochian, Merlin and Arthurian decks. I have used the Merlin and Arthurian decks in the past with very good results. The Rider Waite deck produced a number of very clear readings that were accurate. I have, as yet, not used the Enochian deck much so cannot comment on it.

i do not agree on the complexity of the toth tarot, it is no more or less complex than other tarot cards. The only difference is that the books on the toth delve more into the deck than books on other decks do.

The toth is just a standard tarot, and apart from a few cards (3 or 4, of wich the change can be easily understood if you read on them) the meanings of every card in a reading are the same.

The imagery of the toth is also better, wich makes it much easier to connect and feel a certain card, instead of logically remembering the meaning every time.

Study is required for a decent understanding of the tarot, especially if you want to do readings for friends. Trust me, reading trough a book while doing the readings will only make them laugh.

Trust me, reading through a book while doing the readings will only make them laugh.

It is strange that people are happy to refer to a book of spells whilst doing a ritual, and yet refering to a tarot manual brings about such mirth. I have not found that refering to a book has reduced the clarity or accuracy of my readings.

I use the Merlin tarot (surprise surprise) .... but have a number of other decks (Navigator Of The Mystic Sea; Kabbalah; Servants Of The Light are some examples) ... my affinity is with the Merlin tarot ...

I began by undertaking a visualisation/meditation on each of the tarot images in turn ... to get to know the individual card ... and to align their meanings with emotions and experiences of my own ....

I found it has helped to know the basic history/meaning of each card ... but it is not essential ...

The Merlin tarot are like personal friends to me ... and over the last 15 or so years of my relationship with them I have become to trust their insights and their advice ... I have many, many satisfied clients who my friends have helped through crisis in their lives ....

I am a firm believer you can read yourself ... I do a yearly forecast/insight for myself and the insights uncovered go a long way to provide acceptance and understanding of the roadway encountered as the year unfolds ...

I tend to use the Merlin tarot as a story telling aid ... which after all is one of the true uses of the tarot ... I will cast five, six maybe seven cards and then string together a story based on the friends who show themselves to me ... my own life can be the theme or it can be something different altogether ....

As an accomplished professional mystic I feel it is essential to get used to your tarot cards in this way ....

I will also put the Merlin Tarot to one side from time to time so as to let the cards 'rest' .... I will then use either the Servants Of The Light or The Navigator Of The Mystic Sea for professional readings .... or I may even give my client the choice of one of the decks for me to read from ....

Basically, I treat my tarot cards as friends and as extensions of my own self .... I find that I rarely have to call upon the 'set' or 'archetypal' meaning of the cards for inspiration ....

How I work is very much my own inimitible way ... a way that works very well for my form of magic .... but may not work for others .... what I advise is that you get to know your chosen deck of cards, play with them, use them to write short stories or works of phrose ... do everything you can to familiarise yourself with what the cards are trying to say ...

Let your own instinct determine the spread you use .... and be dynamic with your interpretation ... be aware of even the tiniest detail in the card .... learn to clear your mind of all the day to day drivel before you use the cards .... develop a recognition of what are your own thoughts and what are your own aches and pains ....

But most of all ... enjoy using the deck ... relax ... and unwind .... nervousness will keep the door firmly shut on the higher levels of awareness ... the tarot works best when you are relaxed and receptive ....

I have developed my own ways of interpretation ...

You can too as there are no set rules with the tarot ...

I underwent a theory and development class in the early days to learn the tarot ... Eileen Connolly ( I think that's her name) as a really good book on tarot meanings ... so I could learn the basics ... but that is as far as it went for me .... I use the Tree Of Life as a basis for my meditation work and often link the tarot cards I pull for myself on a fairly regular basis with where I am currently on the tree ....

I will often determine the anticipated outcome of an important event by the three cards I pull the night before .... but it is not the cards which are telling me the answer ... it is myself ... the tarot are but a focus for the higher mind to write its script on the manifest plane ....

Good luck ... be open minded and formulate your own rules regarding your relationship with the tarot ....

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/bigwink.gif)

I have been using tarot for many years, for personal exploration, as well as for friends. My favorite decks are the Rider deck, and Australian animal deck. My newest decks are the Lars-Kristian Holmsen and the Waking the Wild Spirit decks. I also connected well with the Osho Zen Tarot deck.

I do agree with the others who've said to spend time meditating on the meanings of the cards.

As I get to know a new deck, I like to pull a card a day, to "meet" and get to know each card. I like to study the image. I sometimes get more from my own observations than from the books. When my meaning varies, I always go with my feeling over the text.

Just my viewpoint. Hope it was helpful.

Emba

I had my first encounter with the Tarot when I was 8 years old, and was fascinated by the strange pictures in the book I was reading.
I actually got my first pack when I was 13, but found the learning curve a bit too steep at the time, and got rid of them due to circumstances which would be too off topic to explain here.
I really got into them when at the age of 24, I acquired the Thoth deck, and I too found them overwhelming at first but I persevered and found that it didn't matter how complex the images were, as they meant very little to me at the time and some of the symbols stood out a bit more than the others which helped me to associate them with the reading in hand, being of a significant nature, and this enabled me to develop my clairvoyant abilities to a better degree.
At first I used the booklet included with the cards to interpret the meanings, doing many readings a day to get the general keywords associated with each card fixed in my memory.
I would do readings for friends, joining the keywords in such a way as to form a story, or narrative which would make sense in a logical way, and this proved a success more often than not.
Another good way of practising, is to do a general reading for the following day, interpreting it and looking out for possible significant events the day after to verify, or otherwise the previous day's reading. I found this a good way of getting accustomed to the way the Tarot cards work.
The other posts above also give excellent advice on their use, so I will try not to repeat too much of what they say.
My favourite book on the tarot is, surprisingly enough, a book called 'The Tarot' by Alfred douglas, as it gives simple meanings, and a good selection of spreads to get you started, along with a comprehensive overview of the history and background of the cards.
I generally use the Golden Dawn spread described in the booklet, and a modified version of the Celtic Cross, whereby I lay down three cards for every one that people normally use in this spread, in the same manner as the Golden Dawn spread.
This results in a spread which has thirty cards as opposed to the normal ten, which most people would probably consider overkill, but I never liked the method of using reversed cards, as the majority of my readings were dominated by them, and this used to make me feel depressed, so the thirty card method has stuck with me, and I have found it to be very effective for my purposes.
The Thoth deck did overwhelm me at first, (Especially seeing as I was sometimes using thirty of them.) so I also bought a pack of Morgan Greer, as I liked the colours, the similarity to the Rider Waite pictures, and the fact that they had Stars on the back (Very significant for me-Every man and every woman is a Star, and all that).
There are many different and contradictory ideas concerning the meaning and methods of the Tarot, and it's best not to get too involved in all this, as it's very confusing.
Everyone has their own ideas concerning them, and I found I automatically adopted the bits that were relevant to my own way of doing things, so it's best not to rush the process of learning, and to allow your method to develop at your own pace. As the above posts point out; there are no rules, only guidelines and youwill automatically develop your own preferences from there.
Hope you find this helpful.
Yours in light and darkness.
Steve.

I highly recommend Eden Gray's books on Tarot interpretation for beginners. Her discussions of the cards will help teach newer readers about their meanings, although each reader will eventually develop personalized interpretations based on experience.

This post has been edited by Penny_Lane: Aug 6 2006, 04:40 AM

learn the Thoth and you will master Tarot....

Crowley's BoT is wonderful for deep study...

try Banzhaf for an introduction, i'm writing a HUGE book on Thot with everything explained, self-contained .. so you don't need to follow
out all the allusions etc.

I have had quite a fews packs now and I have two firm favrourites that suit me and one I had to get rid of, we weren't compatible LOL

I have a day to day pack, a pack for more emotional type issues, a pack for really serious, 'tell it me straight' things and a personal pack which I use only for myself.

Not many out of the ordinary experiences to tell with the cards, but I bought a very tiny pack to carry around with me, it was a variation but very similar to one I owned as a large pack and it had mischief in it and wouldn't tell me anything. Maybe someone had used them before, the pack was a little damaged looking, so they weren't quite right and I threw them away. I suppose I could have cleansed them in some way, but I didn't feel I could work with them after that anyway.

I personally use the Crowley's Thoth Tartot, though I have four other decks. I have had them for over 2 years now surprisingly. I get extremely good readings with them. I read through the BoT. Interesting, complicated, intricate, and in my opinion easy or anyone to learn to read the cards with. Even my touchstone readings are getting that much better. I managed to freak out a tarot reader of higher experience because it was just that good of a reading. I think her exact words were... Frightneningly accurate. *note: it was a touchstone and I managed to get a detailed paragraph out of it.*

Yeah. It gives a couple of good spreads in the back too. There is definitely something in guessing what the person is asking through finding the person's significator in one of four decks.

This post has been edited by Kariston: Dec 4 2006, 04:39 PM