cyberwitchery for everyone

Tarot is awesome. Whether tarot is a set of symbols for your pattern making brain to generate meaning out of your personal experience OR divine order being revealed through the chaos of randomization, WHO CARES! It provides clarity to our experience and that’s what matters. I like to say that we are “reading the present” as a reflection of our Self in that moment and the threads pulling us into the future, as opposed to the idea of “reading the future” which is silly, cuz it always changes. Especially when we do!

basics

Tarot has two sets of cards in the full 78: Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. Major Arcana make up 22 cards from 0 (The Fool) to 21 (The World) as the optimistic yet naive Fool sets out on a quest to get what they Want but through trials and tribulations ultimately gets what they NEED through the endless cycle of personal transformation.

The Minor Arcana have their own journey of 56 cards from 1 - 10 and four face cards in the realm of ideas, action, emotions, and the day to day world. The realm of Swords / Air / Ideas leads to Wands / Fire / Action leads to Cups / Water / Emotion leads to Pentacles / Earth / Material Matters and The Page, Knight, Queen, and King all represent aspects of self (or another person) in that realm more than the ups and downs of the journey itself.

method

Ultimately it doesn’t matter as long as cards are shuffled and laid out, however having the query in mind and an intentional desire for clarity while you shuffle is probably a good idea so you’re more open to tease out meaning in the reflection. Generally I utilize two different 3-card spreads, where the placement of the card indicates what it refers to. My first is for a general vibe check with a card for Thinking | Feeling | Doing, and the other is for clarity on a situation with a card for Situation | Action | Outcome. Often times the vibe check points to a particular thing on our mind anyhow and is easy to follow without having to overthink it.

I like shuffling by randomly dealing into six piles because the repetitive action may cause a card to flip over accidentally and I will always use those in a reading in the order they appear. Then I combine the piles, cut the deck — if reading for someone else, I have them cut — then literally just pull out cards from anywhere in the deck at random. If I see a Reversal (card not facing the question-asker) I read the POTENTIAL reversed meaning first (I use the incredible resource Labyrinthos - Android or Apple - to learn, study, and reference) but I like to think of them as either: the reversed meaning entirely, the fact that both are in play at the same time, or to focus on this meaning in the standard position.

I hope this explanation helps you see and accept yourself more clearly with this lovely symbol system. If I’ve read for you before, thank you for sharing your experience and it is always my pleasure to reflect upon it with you. Let me hear how things turn out! Alternatively, use something online or get your own deck to practice and let’s nerd out about our experiential divination research together.