But what is tarot? Well, as mentioned I’m not an expert, but I can say the following: You can probably only trace tarot cards about 600 years back. I think they are much older than that. It was of course the gipsies who used them. A tarot deck consists of the large Arcana (the large secret, also called the triumph cards) and the small Arcana (the small secret, also called the court cards – at least in Danish). Tarot is said to be “the mirror of the soul”, meaning you already know the answer to your question. But it might be nice to see the answer lying right in front of you. You cannot ask yes/no questions, since the cards cannot answer yes/no – a pendulum can do that.I don’t believe in tarot myself. I think it is funny and interesting, and I always say to those I predict that “it is only cardboard”, meaning they must never believe what I tell them and go home and change or rearrange their life based on what I’ve told them. Strangely I’m almost always 100% right. You also have a professional secrecy to those you predict. What is asked must never be told to others! You must never tell others’ fortune without their knowing. It is like prying – and you DON’T do that. I cannot tell my own fortune, it is never true, so I’ve stopped doing so.
You can buy millions of different card decks at different price levels. If you don’t have a shop nearby go to the internet on which you can also find decks to download for free. You should choose a set that appeals to you visually, since there is a lot of meaning in the motif. The most known tarot set is Rider Waite, which I think is both ugly and dull, but I have a tiny travel set, since it is often referred to in books.
You can also buy tonnes of different books. If you like used books you can buy them cheap at Amazon. I will not recommend any in particular, but ask in a shop or flip around in the book and read some bits here and there and see if it appeals to you.There are also lots of free online courses on the internet and you can read a daily card too. Reading a daily card might be good practise – something I ought to do more often.
There exist a lot of different decks, I suppose the Keltic Cross is the most know. I like the “past-present-future” deck, which is three quick and easy cards to open the ball with. I predict most in time frames - the client chooses e.g. a card for each 6 months, 3 months or a card for each month considering the nature of the question. But never more than two years, I’ve been told that the cards cannot predict correctly for more than two years.
And last – Death doesn’t necessarily mean death (in fact never!)! I often have to start telling this, since many have seen movies where the heroine gets a card with the Grim Reaper and then the action gets truly horrible. The death normally means that something ends, and something new starts – and that might be very positive. I like the Death in the Arthurian Legend, since it is so little scary:
It is Gwyn Ab Nudd who once a year collects all the dead souls and brings them with him to the kingdom of death, and that is great. I think you stayed indoors that day.So if you think tarot is interesting, but have been a little afraid it was some mumbo-jumbo, I can only recommend you to get started. It is both fun and cosy.
I think the tarot cards would be pretty to collect as art. Many years ago, I learned to read palms but I have forgotten how in my dotage. It was lots of fun to do it at parties and people always wanted their palms read. Too bad that I cannot now remember how...
SvarSlet-> Flaurella, you could read palms! Very interesting. I have a cd with lessons in palm reading, but have never gotten to it. The Arthur cards are truly beautiful, perhaps I could scan them and frame them. Everybody wants me to read cards when they hear I can do it.
SvarSlet