Tarot Card Reading
How to choose a deck of tarot cards
There are many decks of Tarot Cards on the market now and choosing one can be confusing. This is the first issue I look at in my Tarot courses, to try to help students buy cards which are as easy as possible to learn. Traditional Tarot decks are all of the same structure, 78 cards divided into the Major arcana and Minor Arcana. However, where they differ is in their illustration.
The main issue is to get a deck with which you feel some affinity. You must like the pictures, as you are going to have to meditate on them and learn to interpret the message they convey.
I started out reading the Tarot as a teenager and bought my first set of cards. It quickly became obvious to me that the cards I had bought were very hard to learn because they only had pictures for the Major Arcana. I struggled along with them for a while and eventually bought another deck.
The cards I use today are the Norse Tarot. They are a fully illustrated deck with pictures not only in the Major Arcana but in the four suits as well. By "illustration" I mean a real picture which tells a story. Packs with cards showing five sticks or six coins, instead of a picture are going to be very hard to learn. Look at these two images of the Three of Wands below and you will see what I mean.
On the left we have a card which has three rods or sticks on it. On the right we have the Three of Wands from the Norse Tarot, showing two men engaged in a conversation. The man on the left is carrying a chest, presumably of money. The ship in the background is ready to sail. They are merchants planning a trading venture. That is what the card is about, planning a new business venture. Do the three sticks on the left tell you that? No - you need the picture to stimulate your imagination and your intuitive ability, in order to give a good reading.
This is one thing you really need to take into consideration when you are choosing cards for yourself. Below is some more information on the structure of a Tarot deck.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE TAROT
The Tarot is thought to have originated in Europe, perhaps around the 14th Century. It has four suits, like a deck of playing cards and these each have Aces to 10s, as ordinary playing cards do. These four suits, Wands, Pentacles (or Coins), Swords, and Cups are called the Minor Arcana.
There is a difference in the court cards however, as there are four in each suit, not three.
This raises another issue which you may want to consider. Many decks have three male cards and only one female card. The Norse Tarot has two of each gender - an adult and younger male (the King and Prince) and an adult and younger female (the Queen and Princess). This makes interpretation a lot easier and you may well want to search for a deck which takes this into consideration.
In addition the Tarot deck has the 22 cards of the Major Arcana, which people usually think of as "Tarot" cards which include well known images such as The Lovers, Death and the Sun. These provide a different function in a reading from the Minor Arcana and can represent significant life stages and changes.
So, in total, the traditional Tarot deck has 78 cards. If you have some divinatory cards which are not arranged like this, they are not traditional Tarot.
WHICH CARD REPRESENTS YOU? 
This is a question people often ask me. The answer is based on your sign of the zodiac, the Sun sign you were born under.
- If you are a Fire Sign (Aries, Leo and Sagittarius)
- You are represented by one of the court cards from the Suit of Wands.
- An adult man would be the King. An adult woman would be the Queen.
- Younger people would be a Prince or Princess, according to gender.
If you are an Earth Sign (Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo)
You are represented by one of the court cards from the Suit of Pentacles or Coins.
An adult man would be the King. An adult woman would be the Queen.
Younger people would be a Prince or Princess, according to gender.
- If you are an Air Sign (Aquarius, Gemini and Libra)
- You are represented by one of the court cards from the Suit of Swords.
- An adult man would be the King. An adult woman would be the Queen.
- Younger people would be a Prince or Princess, according to gender.
If you are a Water Sign (Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio)
You are represented by one of the court cards from the Suit of Cups.
An adult man would be the King. An adult woman would be the Queen.
Younger people would be a Prince or Princess, according to gender.
Also Read
0 Comments