Tarot is all the rage these days! There’s never been a better time to start learning or break out of your tarot shell. Yes, there are some who would discourage you and tell you tarot is dark, scary and can unleash all manner of ills in your life. This simply is not true. Even if you have no desire to ever read cards for someone else, the Tarot is wonderful tool for self-discovery.
Something you may not know is that many psychologists use tarot with their clients. Yes, it’s true! In fact, I have attended several conferences on psychology and tarot. While I’m not a psychologist myself, I find it fascinating. After all, Carl Jung himself was a tarot enthusiast.
If we can accept the use of the Rorschach test and Myers-Briggs personality testing, why not tarot? Tarot combines these two techniques beautifully and more and more tarot decks are being created to reflect our modern lives. It’s a perfect fit!
For the purpose of this blog post we will concentrate on the suits of tarot. There are 4 suits in a tarot deck, just the same as with regular playing cards. The suits are most often called Swords, Wands, Cups and Coins. They are easy to identify even if you have never seen a tarot deck before.
Each suit represents an aspect of life. Swords are ideas and communication. Wands are vitality and creative force. Cups represent our emotional life and relationships, and Coins connect us with our wealth and finances. All you need to start is a tarot deck! I suggest getting a tarot deck that is “Waite-Smith” based as these decks are the most commonly used.
Let’s take a look at 3 easy ways to connect the Tarot to your daily life.
- Connect through Storytelling
Each suit tells the story of our relationship to one of the 4 aspects of life. Pick a suit and layout the cards in numbered order from left to right, then create a story of moving from novice to mastery in that realm of life.
Example: Using the Suit of Swords, I can tell a story of going from learning how to spell to becoming an international best-selling author!
- Connect through Pop Culture
Shuffle your deck and choose any card at random. Ask yourself if this card reminds you of a movie, TV show, book, song or other piece of art? If so, why?
Example: The 9 of Wands shows an image of a man who has been in a long drawn out fight. He has a bandage wrapped around his head and is clinging to his walking staff for support. I look at this card and in my head I hear Gloria Gaynor’s voice singing “I Will Survive”.
- Connect through Personal Action
This activity asks us to align our daily activities with the tarot images. Shuffle your deck and choose any card at random. Examine the image and think of an activity you can do to act out the energy of the card.
Example: The 3 of Cups shows three women dancing and raising their cups in celebration. I decide to act this out by calling up some friends and inviting them to go out to dinner.
There is much more to the Tarot but this is a wonderful way to jumpstart your reading proficiency. My tarot students have had great success using these techniques. In fact, they can’t believe how easy and fun it is!
Begin using these 3 easy steps and you will start reading and relating to tarot quickly and expertly on an intuitive level in no time.
