Tarot Topics Community Blog - A Blog Spot for the Tarot Enthusiast

Personal Card Meanings

Christiana — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:38:59 +0000

In any tarot group, the conversation will turn to what particular cards mean to us. So often, a person will come up with a meaning that is very different from any standard or traditional meaning. Sometimes, by looking at numerology, the elements, or the illustration in a particular deck, it is easy to understand and justify the particular meaning. Sometimes it is not at all.

For instance, some people see the Three of Pentacles as predictive of a new baby. There is very little to support that traditionally. But, since the earthy Pentacles are very physical, and the number three is very productive, and the Waite image is in a church (think baptism) this departure from the traditional meanings of the card can make sense.

Last night, in a tarot class, one student said that the Two of Pentacles often shows up for her as predictive of an important telephone call. I have a hard time making that fit, except maybe that the number two can indicate a conversation between two people. But, for this particular student the message is clear.

This is part of the beauty of tarot. While I do believe it is important for us to know the traditions behind the cards, it is equally important for us to listen to the cards when they tell us what they mean to us.

It is as if we develop a personal relationship with each card, and an agreement about what each card might mean when it comes up in a reading.

While I would never say that any card “always” means a particular thing, it is clear that some cards often mean very specific things to specific readers.

Wald Amberstone once said something very important to me; something that I share with all my students.

“We trust the Universe to bring the right question to the right reader with the right cards at the right time.”

That one statement takes away a lot of anxiety, doesn’t it?

Sure, every reader sees the cards differently. Some tarot decks read very differently than others.

But the way tarot works is both amazingly universal and deeply personal – enough to allow each of us to hear what the cards say to us.

When we can share this with each other in a tarot class, fellowship or on-line discussion, sometimes we learn new ways to work with the cards for ourselves. Other times we find ourselves shaking heads, rolling eyes and saying, “How in the world do you get THAT from that card?”

But it just doesn’t matter. If that is how the cards speak to you, and it helps you to give great readings, that is all that matters. The fact that we each develop a personal relationship with the cards, and a personal reading style, is what is important.

Reading the Cards That Are Not There

Christiana — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:49:48 +0000

The best tarot readings are detailed and nuanced. A great tarot reading will also offer some sort of homework or aftercare – suggestions, referrals or exercises for the client to do after the reading is over to help the client achieve his or her goals.

Often we get more information in a reading by interpreting the same cards on many levels. We all know each card has many meanings. What some readers don’t realize is that sometimes many of those meanings may be true at the same time, in the same reading.

We also get more information by adding clarifying cards, or by asking questions and pulling cards in a dialogue format.

Some readers get more information by using companion skills and tools – palmistry, mediumship, pendulum, psychometry or other card oracles, for instance.

Another way to get more information is by reading the cards that aren’t there. What? How can you read cards that aren’t there? Today I offer you four easy ways to do exactly that.

Turn it Around!

Sometimes desirable cards show up in present or future positions.This is great, but what happens if they show up reversed?If this is the case, the trick is to figure out what the client would need to do to turn the card right side up.Do that by looking to the surrounding cards for clues, referring to companion skills or tools, or by asking the specific question “What turns this around?” and pulling another card.

Control the Forces of Time

Many spreads use an element of time; positions of Past, Present and Future, for instance.What if there is a card that refers to a past injury, but it shows up in the Present position because the client is still experiencing the wound?If this is the case, the trick is to help the client take that energy out of the present and move it into the past.Use the same methods to do this as in item number one.The question you can ask is “How can we move this energy into the past?’”

What’s Missing in the Distribution?

Look at the distribution of suits, and see if one is missing entirely.What does that missing element signify in your clients’ life?Add that to your interpretation.

Who’s Absent?

You will often see an incomplete set or run.In fact, this happens more than you might think.When you see three Aces, or three Knights, or three of any rank and number – interpret the one that is not there as the missing key – the action the client needs to take, or the strength the client needs to muster.

When you see a run – many numbers of the same suit – look to see which numbers are missing.Interpret these missing cards as the steps or concepts the client might be missing on the journey to fulfill his or her goals.

Each reader can take these four steps and adapt them to his or her own reading style. With practice, you will find your ability to discern important details from the cards significantly increasing.

Do you have any tips for other tarot readers? Please feel free to share them on this community blog!

Two-Card Spreads

Christiana — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:06:45 +0000

Most tarotists are familiar with the handy-dandy ever popular three-card spreads. There is Past, Present and Future, Morning Afternoon and Evening and Body, Mind and Spirit. Three-card spreads are easy, fun, and extremely useful.

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about two-card spreads. We played with some last night at Tarot Circle in Jupiter. There’s Help and Hinder, Either Or, Stay or Go, Work and Play, Inner World and Outer World or any other you might imagine.

Two-card spreads are great for a quick reading, for making a decision, or as an adjunct to a larger reading.

Because two-card readings are so small – only two cards – you can be very specific about your question. If the cards don’t make sense to you, you can pull clarifying cards and still keep the reading short and sweet.

Sometimes two-card readings can be very clear in their answer. Other times they show a balance, as if the decision you are agonizing over shouldn’t be an agony at all. Sometimes, neither choice is a bad choice. Maybe it really is all about what you actually want.

I’m not sure how I got this far into my tarot journey without exploring these wonderful little spreads. It just goes to show that tarot exploration is limitless. In a world of things that don’t live up to their hype, tarot is a breath of fresh air. Tarot will never be boring.

What two-card spreads can you think of?

Do Magick on Friday the Thirteenth

Christiana — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:24:05 +0000

Today is Friday the 13^th. To set the record straight, Friday the 13^th is considered “unlucky” because it is a very magickal day. If you do magick on Friday the 13^th, your magick will be strong and powerful.

In the times when people were afraid of magick, and were afraid that people would “cast spells on them” Friday the 13^th got its unfortunate reputation.

So, today is a good day for magick! Plant a seed, bake some bread, cast a spell for healing, or do a tarot reading. Whatever you do today, do it with magickal intent. When you go to the gym, visualize yourself becoming strong and fit. When you eat your meals, visualize them as filled with healing energy.

That’s what magick is, really. It is energetic power that comes from intent, and from visualization. It is strengthened by the use of magickal tools such as crystals, herbs, metals and symbols. You can do effective magick without those tools, but you can’t do it without the intent, or the vision.

So today, where ever you are and whatever you are doing, make it magickal!

Cards of Patience

Christiana — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:48:51 +0000

We all know that patience is a virtue. Just about everything we encounter in life requires our patience, from traffic to spouses to kids. Tarot requires patience, too.

Some tarot students have a hard time really getting into the cards because they lack the patience to learn and study them. Some tarot readers have a hard time being readers because they lack patience with their clients.

Within tarot are specific cards that teach patience, advise patience, and help us understand the wisdom of patience. For me, there are four cards in the deck that reference patience. Interestingly, three of them are Major Arcana. To me that indicates the spiritual nature and spiritual virtue of patience.

The cards of patience are the High Priestess, the Hermit, Temperance and the Nine of Wands. Each card bears a different message, and carries a different energy – but they all share that one key word: patience.

The patience of the High Priestess is the patience to be still, to be silent, to look within, and to study. The patience of the Hermit is the patience to endure the long journey, loneliness, and those who are as yet unenlightened. Temperance teaches us to be patient with the process of creating our lives. The Nine of Wands teaches patience in battle, and in healing.

Together, these four cards remind us that patience is the key to achieving the spiritual perfection that is available to us, and to enduring the challenges ahead of us.

Four Cards for the Springtime

Christiana — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 16:00:19 +0000

Springtime has always been special to me. Living up North, springtime meant the end of the dreary winter season that I dreaded and distained. Now that I live in Florida, I still love spring because of what it represents spiritually.

Even though we have a year-round growing season here, springtime still represents renewal, rebirth and rejuvenation. The theme of resurrection is still pertinent.

That spring theme of resurrection is part of doctrine in many religions, including Pagan Ostara and Christian Easter.

Another aspect of the vernal equinox around which all the spring holidays are based is that it marks the increasing return of the sun, and advancement toward the “light half” of the year.

As an exercise in Tarot Circle, I asked folks to look at four cards to discuss the move from the “dark half” which is the internal, introspective time, to the “light half” which is the external, extroverted time.

For this exercise, I chose the Magician, the High Priestess, the Sun and the Moon.

The Magician and the Sun share the same numerology, both being number one. The Magician and the Sun are both elementally masculine; the Magician being Air and the Sun Fire. The High Priestess and the Moon are both feminine Water.

In many ways, the Magician discusses the ways we learn in the outer world, the High Priestess discusses the ways we lean in our inner world. The Sun may represent our public doings; the Moon may represent our more secretive doings.

The process of comparing and contrasting these four cards in this context was very enlightening.

At this time of balance between light and dark, outer and inner, it is interesting to look at these cards to see the wisdom and subsequent action that can happen in the outer world with the Magician and Sun, and the inner world, with the High Priestess and Moon.

As we move toward the time of light, we take the wisdom of the High Priestess and the Moon with us, and use the energy of the Magician and the Sun to let that wisdom shine for the world to see.

Becoming the King of Cups

Christiana — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 20:22:09 +0000

Anything can happen at a Tarot Circle meeting. At our last Tarot Circle meeting in West Palm Beach, I became the King of Cups!

I wasn’t looking for a new significator. The Queen of Wands has represented me beautifully since I chose her, or she chose me, in the mid 1990’s.

In the Tarot Circle meeting, we did a series of tarot exercises to help us each discern our spiritual path, and to hear the voice of Spirit.

When my Final Outcome card came up as the King of Cups, Lori suggested that I was actually becoming the King of Cups.

I had to think about that.

While the King of Cups is normally reserved for males, I do have a lot of yang energy.

The King is the leader, and the authority. That is perfect for where I want to go in my career, and in my life.

The King is Fire, which honors my Queen of Wands nature, my Leo rising, and my passionate, creative nature.

As the King of Cups, he is also Water, which honors my Scorpio birth sign, and my desire to be compassionate and loving in all that I do.

As “Fire of Water,” the King of Cups can be a contradiction. As water sometimes extinguishes fire, I am often guilty of being my own worst enemy. But, in perfect balance, the King of Cups represents a person who exemplifies love in action.

Nicely, many modern tarot decks leave room for folks of either gender to identify with any of the Court cards. Some artists have remained the King as Master, Shaman, Exemplar, or Sage. That makes it easier to fit my female self into this male card.

As I adopt this new significator, I am well aware that I am not yet deserving of it. But, by adopting it, I set my intention to one day embody the energy of the King of Cups.

Review: Personal Tarot - Reading for Yourself

Joanne — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:30:31 +0000

Whether you are a beginner tarot reader, an advanced professional, or read for your own enjoyment and enlightenment, you should consider taking a webinar presented by Certified Tarot Grandmaster, Christiana Gaudet. I have had the good fortune to have begun my tarot studies with Christiana, and have just completed her course on Personal Tarot-Reading for Yourself. Self-reading has never come easy for me, as I have always felt I am too close to my own situations to accurately see what the cards are telling me. Christiana carefully, step by step, covers every aspect of the hesitation we all feel when reading our own cards.

Beginning with our personal birth cards, and how to find what they are, we learn the significance of these cards and what they mean in our personal lives. From there, we learn our astrology cards (our Sun card, our Moon card, and our Rising card), our personal significators (cards we feel represent us), our native significators (court cards that represent us by gender, age, and astrology), our goal cards (cards that represent attributes we want to nurture within ourselves), frequent cards that come up time after time, and our affinity cards (cards we especially like or are drawn to).

She then goes on to explain the benefit of tarot rituals—that being keeping a journal, drawing a card of the day, using tarot for magick and manifestation, or using a special spread. She tells how to have an actual dialogue with the cards—questions we can ask about ourselves and our situations. How to ask questions that will help guide us, or advise us along our way, such as “what does the universe want me to know”, or what is my biggest challenge.”

Reading tarot is a very spiritual event. The cards themselves have several layers of meanings, and we need to pay attention to what happens along our way—perhaps what you thought the card meant in the early morning when it was drawn may turn out to have a different affect on your life by the end of the day. Christiana teaches us that reading tarot is a very spiritual event, but we must also know the art of detachment. We need to be open to the messages of the cards. We need to go deeper into them if at first we do not understand their meaning. We need to see the cards, and not what we think we want to see.

As Christiana will tell you, tarot is a tool of divination, and a spiritual lesson. And the lessons that she will teach you will give you a broader understanding of those tools that will ultimately make you a better person, and a better tarot reader.

Celebrating the Crone

Christiana — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:33:40 +0000

In Some Pagan traditions, we see the divine feminine as a triple Goddess. She is Maiden, Mother and Crone. We can also see these three faces of the Goddess as the three stages of womanhood.

Sadly, Western society seems to revere women in the maiden stage of life a lot more than it reveres mothers and crones. This causes women to long for their youth, rather than choosing to celebrate the wisdom that comes with age.

When we look at the Major Arcana of tarot, it is easy to see the High Priestess as Maiden and the Empress as Mother. The question is which Major Arcana card would represent the Crone?

In some decks, The Hermit is female. That would be a good choice. In some, Death is as a woman. That would work too.

But here’s the rub. The High Priestess and the Empress are always female, no matter the deck. The Crone should have that same honor. I think she should be associated with a card that is always feminine as well.

For this honor, then, I submit two choices. One is Strength, usually pictured as a woman who has tamed the savage lion with her compassion. The other is the Star, who pours the healing light of heaven upon the Earth. Both of these images are extraordinarily beautiful and sacred, are are almost always illustrated as beautiful women.

In our society, we often think of older women as dried out, used up, crotchety and ugly. What would happen if choose to honor crones as compassionate healers who radiate beauty?

As women, we could learn to feel beautiful even as our hair color fades and our skin starts to show the marks of time. We could share our wisdom and feel empowered to truly make a difference on the planet.

A few years ago I had the honor of performing a croning ceremony for a few friends. I wrote a chant for the occasion.

She is Maiden, she is Mother, she is Crone
She is spirit, she is magick, she is flesh and bone.

She is courage, she is wisdom, she is grace
We see the Goddess in her face
As youth leaves, it leaves magick in its place.

A friend of mine used to say "Things of quality have no fear of time." More than anything, this is certainly true of women.

Help with the "Quiet Querrent"

fairwinds4linda — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:12:35 +0000

I am looking for guidance here. Recently I did a Celtic Cross reading. I went through the reading and created a general story for my querrent because she did not have a specific question. During the reading I would pause and ask if anything I was saying had meaning for her, or if I was helping her to think differently about any situations in her life. Although, she said it did, she wouldn't elaborate and was quiet during much of the reading.

I wondered if I should be doing something differently to pull out more conversation from the querrent to help her get more from the reading. Should I ask closed ended questions, different types of questions? Or, are some querrents just quiet?

Thanks, Linda