Tarot- The Essential Cosmic Tool

Early in my spiritual journey, I came across many teachers and books discussing spirit guides- divine beings that were available for guidance and wisdom to everyone. Of course I wanted to meet with my own guides as quickly as possible to help me with the horrors, joys, and questions of life. My inner skeptic was very vocal about how ridiculous this notion was, and even after many attempts of communicating with my guides through mediation or dream exercises, I felt I could not trust my imagination enough to bring through the answers I sought. I did pay a few psychics/psychic mediums to "deliver" the messages from my guides to me, and it was fun. I just did not want to keep paying for it every time I had another question.

Luckily it did not take long to come across mystical/pagan teachers that were taking about tarot decks. Let's start with the pretty awesome history of the tarot deck: Traveling way back to the days of the Renaissance in Italy where merchants found incredible wealth through trade, many prominent families played parlor games, one in particular called carte da trionfi ("cards of the triumphs"). They were beautiful cards depicting many different symbols of the times, often in gold leaf, and commissioned first by the Visconti & Sforza families. Later with the invention of the printing press, these decks were used for gambling in the courts of France and eventually across Europe. With the rise of occultism in the 1700's, a French mystic developed called Etteilla, developed the first deck of these symbolic cards specially designed for divination. (Divination is the practice of divine insight by use of earthly objects, such as cards or tea leaves for example). By the 1900's the British occult society of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and three members, Rider, Waite, and Smith, changed the divination deck by adding full illustrations of scenic images into 78 cards: 56 minor Arcana and 22 major Arcana. They also contributed astrological components to the deck.

It is fair to say that the use of tarot must have significance if their use is still around today and growing! So how does one use a tarot deck on their own? I personally go to a quiet place, choose the tarot deck I want to use, say a prayer of thanks to all divine guidance that is assisting me, and then I shuffle the cards face down. I fan the cards out onto a tabletop or my lap, keeping them face down, until they are spread out.  The most common "spread" of tarot is a 3-card-draw, meaning drawing 3 cards, one at a time, and placing them upright on the desk. This can be for any combination of inquiries: Past/Present/Future, Mind/Body/Spirit, Problem/Cause/Solution, or even You/Other Person/Relationship. Going with Past/Present/Future- the first card drawn could be where you've come from, meaning growth or struggles. Present could represent where you currently are on your path, and Future could represent where you may be headed. There are Upright & Reverse readings of every tarot card. I look at Upright as what to aspire towards and Reverse as what to be mindful of. Some tarot readers see fortune/misfortune or good/evil- the cards themselves can be interpreted in endless ways. I try to learn from them for the best possible growth instead of getting hung up on the negative doom & gloom they may seem to be showing. Even the Death card can be exciting and quite useful! I freestyle my readings to what they mean to me, and also look up the cards themselves to learn deeper and see what I may have missed. I highly recommend getting a Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) deck with a guide book, as this is the best out there! There are many more kinds of tarot and even spirit guide decks, all with their own mystical fun and glamour. There are also endless "spreads" and no particular set of laws governing tarot, so give it a try.

If you are like me and cannot connect with your spirit guides due to static, perhaps tarot is just the right way to pick up those mystical signals and messages :)