Numerology and stuff

What are Tarot Cards

There are 78 Tarot cards in each deck.  Some decks have an additional card which is blank.  We will be covering the meaning of the Blank Card in a later lesson. The Tarot cards are broken into two sections:

Minor Arcadia

Major Arcadia

The Minor Arcana also known as the Pip Cards represent the everyday occurrences in our lives.  The ups and down, the mini dramas or traumas of everyday living. Their energy fluctuates and is generally transient.  The Minor Arcana consists of the Four Suits – Wands (Fire),  Cups (Water), Swords(Air) and Pentacles (Earth).  Each Suit has 14 Cards which are broken down into the 10 Story Cards of the Suit Ace – 10 along with the Suit's 4 Court Cards – Page, Knight, Queen and King.

They are the personalities or Actors in The Tarot. They represent The querant and People Involved with The querant.  Sometimes they just carry the message of the Energy or Suit they represent such as "Act like Me in this situation". The Minor Arcana Cards Ace to 10 tell us what is happening while The Court Cards tell us who it is happening to along with other Key Players in the situation.

These cards carry far more weight and their energy is more fixed and powerful.  The Major Arcana represent the deep driving forces behind what the Minor Arcana is showing.  Major Cards appearing in a reading suggest that the querant is accessing, or is being accessed by powerful forces which are feeding the situation being represented by the Minors. The Major are more serious and fixed in nature.

Whereas, the Minor Arcana tell us what is happening in our life, the Major Arcana tells us why.  The Major Arcana is deeply Spiritual and they contain Karmic Lessons that the querant is dealing with or trying to overcome.  We will be looking at them in much detail in the Part  III of this course.

Each card has a picture depicting Archetypes, Archetypal Situations or Symbols with Universal Meaning. The cards are shuffled, drawn blind and laid out in a spread.  The spread is then interpreted. The cards are used to gain insight into a particular situation or for guidance, and each card is multi-layered with many interpretations. It is up to the reader to determine their specific meaning in a particular reading.

Attention also has to be paid to the surrounding cards in a spread as these can strengthen or weaken the meaning. Attention also has to be paid to the dominance or lack of a particular Suit i.e. Wands/Cups/Swords/Pentacles. The Numerical Association of the cards, the general Colour Trend, Elements, Symbols, Astrological Associations and whether a card appears Upright or Reversed must all be taken into consideration in order to build up a picture of what is going on in the querant's life in relation to their question.

As a self-development tool, the Tarot opens the doors of our mind by tapping into our Subconscious to truly know who we are, to understand why we are the way we are and also to realise that we have the power to change who we are.  The Tarot will open our eyes to the workings of the human psyche and realisation of the results of cause and effect influencing just about everything we do in life.  The Tarot will help us take a hold of our life and accept responsibility for where we are in our life as opposed to the blame syndrome which we so easily and readily fall into.

The Tarot cards are multi-layered, quite like an onion. Peel one layer away and lo and behold another is just below it. Getting to the specific meaning of the card for an individual sometimes involves peeling away layer after layer of meaning to get to the heart of the matter.  It is the job of the reader to decipher which meaning is applicable to the individual.

The Tarot should reveal itself like a story with beginnings, middles, endings, important characters, various scenarios, surrounding friends and foes, family, work, relationships and travel.  As humans we are very complex.  We are never just experiencing one thing at a time in life and when we do a reading for someone, even though they seek insight into a relationship issue, more than the issue in question will come to light. Therefore we must learn to read on many levels.