Tag - Tarot cards

The Moon

May 23, 2017

The Moon

The Moon (XVIII) is rich with symbolism. The Moon hangs serenely over a mountain range and two towers where a snaking crossroads leads to a river where a crawfish crawls out. A dog and a wolf howl up at the Moon. This is a dreamy and very symbolic card.

The Moon sits between two towers, the right life and the left life. The conventional path or the unconventional path. Beyond them are craggy mountains representing the uncertainty of our journeys. A road leads to them. This is the journey of life.

The journey begins in the water, the cradle of life, and crawling out of it – oddly enough – is a crayfish, representing the birth of consciousness. After all, crayfish live in the water and they can’t breathe on land. Yet, this one not only does that, but also braves walking between two possible predators who might perceive it as a tasty snack.

Perhaps the crayfish’s ignorance of land predators gives it the courage to venture on. If anything in the card represents the querent, it’s that crayfish.

The dog and the wolf represent the tame and wild parts of every person. They co-exist, and one is very much like the other. One starts from the other. One simply cannot be without the other. There would be no domestic dogs without wolves. Here, they howl together like wild animals.

The Moon is a mysterious card. It is both dangerous and promising, depending on who draws it, where, and when. It deals with dreams, illusions, fears, and the wonders of the imagination. The querent is called to look beyond the veil of normal human experience and see what proliferates in the dark of night.

When a client or querent draws The Moon, it means that this person is experiencing a phase confusion, wonder, and possibly irrational fear. They may also have a sense of life being surreal or dream-like, which could be like a pleasant dream or a downright nightmare, depending on who is walking with them, the dog or the wolf.

The Moon card can also indicate a querent who is wandering, groping in the dark, without direction. They may be either following their instincts and not listening to the world, or frightened and desperate for direction. Not all who wander are lost, but those who are lost should wait until daytime to complete their journey.

When the Moon card is Reversed:

The reversed Moon tells of a querent overcome with irrational fear, confusion, and anxiety. This person may also be so lost in fantasy that they lose sight of what is real and what isn’t.

The querent may have such a preference for fantasy that it becomes their life, and the limit their interactions with the real world to preserve their inner life, much to their own detriment.

This can also indicate a querent who, like the crayfish walking on land and embarking on a journey to the mountains, is grossly overestimating their ability or experience to handle what happens next.

In a three-card reading, this card means…

Past: In the past, the querent was either lost in a dream, or lost in reality. Either way, they lived in a fog where they weren’t quite in touch with the rest of the world. They may have discovered some interesting things about themselves they wouldn’t have learned otherwise.

Present: The querent is currently experiencing a sort of alternate reality or dark night of the soul in which they feel lost, uncertain, or deluded in some way. They may not be in touch with reality, which can be good or bad, depending on the situation.

Future: In the future, the querent will experience a time in which the question the things they simply assume are true and test their mental, emotional, and spiritual limits. There may be a crisis of faith or an identity crisis on the way.

The Sun

May 23, 2017

Psychic Reviews

Tarot Card Meanings

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The Sun

The Sun (XIX) beautiful and bright with tendrils and beams reaching out, looks serenely on as a young child with flowers in his hair rides a white stallion away from a white wall.

The child has triumphed over the white wall. Everything that has happened before is on the other side, where it can’t haunt or hurt the child. This child is not really so young though: this is the spirit born again, renewed and given another shot at life.

The child is naked and has nothing to hide. The child has a feather in his hair, showing that he’s accomplished a certain portion of his life. He doesn’t hold reins or the horse’s mane, and yet he’s in no danger of falling off.

He holds an orange banner, showing triumph over both the limitations of the body and its needs and the limitations of pure thought. He is now ready for action, with all confidence and optimism of a triumphant man.

Behind the boy grows a row of sunflowers. It was once believed that sunflowers grow in the direction of the sun. Here, they don’t grow facing the sun above them, but facing the child, who embodies the purity, vitality, and exuberance of the sun. There are four of them, representing the four suits of the minor arcana: wands, pentacles, cups, and swords.

When a client or querent draws The Sun card, it’s indicative of a triumph or success. It was hard-fought, hard earned, or hard-won, and now the querent can shed the baggage of the previous struggles and start over again in a new direction.

Life is good, even great. It wasn’t handed to the querent on a silver platter, but it is good. There is a sense of well-deserved happiness and prosperity. This card could indicate both personal and financial prosperity, as well as good health, and possibly fertility.

The Sun card could literally mean the arrival of a child, through pregnancy or adoption.

When the Sun card is Reversed:

The Sun card reversed can either mean that a person has gone from so confident and innocent that they’ve chosen to become naïve all over again, or that they can’t trust a good thing when they see it.

If the querent is too confident, they may think this phase of life lasts forever. While they remember to enjoy it, they refuse to see when it’s time to hunker down and be a grown-up again.

On the other hand, if the querent refuses to trust the good times, then all the sweetness of life seems to pass them by, and they have a dark cloud over their head all the time.

The querent may also be experiencing a lack of confidence that doesn’t have a rational basis. They may be afraid of trying new things or making dreams come true, but doesn’t have a reason to fear them. They may be quite good at whatever they wish to do, but just won’t take the next step to put themselves out there in the world.

In a three-card reading, this card means…

Past: The querent has recently experienced a time of great confidence, optimism, and possibly prosperity. They’ve probably surmounted serious obstacles and have come out with a new point-of-view and a desire to take on the world.

Present: Right now, the querent is enjoying a hard-earned bout of self-confidence and good times. They’re accomplishing things and reaping the rewards. They’re also staying positive and hopeful for the future.

Future: In the future, the querent is going to get over whatever obstacles are in their way, making those obstacles a distant memory when they triumph spectacularly. All their troubles will be over, and they can finally relax and walk in the sunshine.

Introduction to the History of Tarot

February 23, 2017

Psychic Reviews

Tarot Information

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Where does Tarot Come From?

Tarot comes from a long line of objects used for divination. Arab cultures engaged in cartomancy, or the use of cards for divination centuries before the tarot deck was used for the same purpose. There is a belief that tarot cards came from ancient Egypt, and that the symbolism was handed down from the ancients. There is no evidence of this, but that doesn’t diminish the power of the tarot anymore than the power of runes is diminished because runes were also once used to write letters and sign posts.

Tarot cards, as we know them, literally started as a playing deck. In about 1350, the Italian tarocchi, or tarot in French, was a set of playing cards with ornate, symbolic pictures. Like modern day playing cards and tarot cards, the deck included 4 suits with court cards like kings, queens, knights, jacks/pages as well as ten numbered cards.

It wasn’t until the late 18^th century that occultists in England and France determined that the pictures in the cards were not merely ornamental but symbolic, and that the cards could be used for divination. The theory behind tarotology, or the basis for divine inspiration from interpreting tarot cards, is that the cards represent different aspects of life, life experiences, or life possibilities, and that the tarot card reader taps into the collective unconscious when choosing the cards to pick those that accurately represent the past, present, and future. Another theory is that the tarot card reader is guided by a spirit or by the universe itself to choose cards with symbolism that the reader will interpret to accurately represent the past, present, and future.

There are tarot decks for every taste and aesthetic, so listing all of them may be impossible. However, there are historically a few different types of tarot decks for which others can trace their origins.

The Fundamentals of the Modern Tarot Deck

The modern tarot deck was created in 1901, known as the Rider-Waite deck. A.E. White was a mystic and member of the Golden Dawn. He interpreted the symbolism on the 15th century tarocchi and had artist Deborah Coleman Smith illustrate his descriptions. This 78-card deck is the mother of almost all modern decks, as the symbolism and imagery for each cards hails from the Rider-Waite card illustrations.

While tarot decks can vary widely in their designs, every modern tarot deck has 78 cards, including 22 major arcana cards and 56 minor arcana cards.

The 22 major arcana cards numbered 0 – 21, with The Fool starting at 0 and ending with The World at 21. The 21 major arcana cards are not part of one of the suits. Each one is its own distinct archetype and symbolic message. The major arcana has been interpreted to be like a life’s journey, from being born as the Fool, to experiencing all that life has to offer, to The World, the end of life’s cycle.

The minor arcana consists of 56 cards over four suits: Pentacles, Swords, Wands, and Cups. The suits represent the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, respectively. The elements have had a place in Western occultism since the times of the Greek and Roman empires, beginning with the study of alchemy. The elements are still a major component of astrology and magick within some pagan traditions and practices

The suit of Pentacles belongs to the element of Earth. Earth deals with the tangible, such as wealth, production, food, bodily needs, the physical world outside of the mind, and the feminine.

The suit of Cups belongs to the element of Water. Water deals with the emotional and psychic. Relationships, intuition, psychic ability, feelings, imagination, and the feminine are the province of water.

The suit of Wands belongs to the element of Fire. Fire is the spark of life, and as such, it rules energy, action, inspiration, creativity, sexuality, movement, passion, enthusiasm, and the masculine.

The suit of Swords belongs to the element of Air. Air is the intellect, the higher mind, invention, innovation, change, transcendence, agreement, communication, open conflict, and the masculine.

Each element of the minor arcana has 14 cards. There is an ace, king, queen, knight and page, and cards 2 – 10. Each of these cards has its own picture with its own meaning according to whichever element it belongs.

Using the Modern Tarot Deck

There is no definitive source on how a tarot deck should be used for a reading. There are recommended and popular spreads. Some readings may involve one card, some three, some upwards of forty-two. A.E. Waite of the Rider-Waite Deck, included in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot various spreads, including the Celtic Cross. However, a spread is as personal to the reader as is the link to the tarot deck.

There are as many possible spreads as the imagination can come up with. A reader may choose a specific spread based on the type of reading you request. There are readers who prefer to create their own spread. This is perfectly reasonable, as divination and magick are all personalized in order to increase their effectiveness.