I write books about tarot (here’s a pic of my newest baby) which means loads of tarot facts are thumping around between my ears. If you are reading these words, it means you love to study the cards as much as I do.
Tarot students are often nervous to “get it wrong” if they don’t know what a card means. What most new cartomancers don’t realize is that their so-called ignorance of the cards is really their strongest asset. The key is waiting for the information to come to you.
“Book knowledge” and vast arrays of esoteric theory are not necessarily helpful when it comes down to reading for ourselves. After all, we dive into the cards and visit psychics/intuitives for information we don’t know. If we knew it, we wouldn’t be asking in the first place.
When reading for ourselves how can we break out of the rut of what we know? How do we keep our personal readings fresh and insightful?
Simple.
Ask the cards what you don’t know.
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1). Clear your mind.
2). Sit with shuffled deck in front of you.
3). State out loud, “What I don’t know about the _____ card is that ________________.”
4). Fill in the blanks by selecting a card and finishing the sentence. Don’t try too hard. Let some aspect off card strike you and state it clearly and articulate it out loud or write it down.
Once you figure out why this particular answer came to you, discover why it is relevant to your situation.
You will know your information is good if:
1). The information surprises you or makes no sense.
2). Upon reflection, the information holds particular resonance for you.
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Personal Example:
Yesterday morning, I grabbed my tarot deck, thick with the humidity of summer. I said, “What I don’t know about ((randomly selected)) the Moon card is that…” I waited for it to come to me “… the brown dog on the left belongs to Gertrude Stein.”
Hmmmmm, ok, that’s a weird piece of information.
But Gertrude Stein holds a certain amount of personal resonance for me. I googled “Gertrude Stein’s dog” to discover if she was indeed a dog owner/lover. She was. Even renowned photographer Man Ray photographed her beloved pooch. Here’s Ms. Stein is with her dog Basket and Alice B. Tolkas (pictured on the right):
I understood why I received this random message and it was two-fold. First, it was a joy to discover that some random part of my consciousness picked up on a true fact. Two, and more importantly, I’ve been revising my first novel this summer and it has been a monster struggle.
Gertrude Stein was a mentor and guru to many of the 20th Century’s greatest modernist writers and artists. I went further in interpreting the message: “It is important to plod forward, just like the Moon’s crawfish crawling out of the water. Move forward, one word at a time. And passing the towers, braving the beasts and basking in mysterious moonlight confusion, the ghosts of artists past, present and future travel with you. While the road marked is your own, you are far from the first to travel on it.“
Now how’s that for a message first thing in the morning?
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I hope you try this way of questioning the cards and I hope you find it fun and useful. It makes a great addition to your card-a-day practice.
Drop me a line or a comment if you want to share any cool messages that you receive by using this method.
Speaking of the Moon tarot card, enjoy tomorrow night’s Full Moon!!!
And check out this awesome recent review of 365 Tarot Spreads on Spirituality Today!