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Tarot for Transformation

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March 20, 2007

Posted by chameleon

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“Will you read for me?”

If you own a tarot deck, if your friends know that you read, if you’ve let slip that you even own a book on the subject, chances are that you’ve been asked that question. Most people view the tarot as a tool for divination. I’m being nice here - if I were being blunter, I’d have said ‘party game’. I vividly recall the night that I was studying at a local coffee house, and was approached by a stranger who asked if I would read for her. Since I believe that service is practice and practice leads to healing and enlightenment, I very willingly agreed. The reading that I laid out was vivid, the thread of story and meaning strong - it was, in short, one of the easiest to interpret readings I have ever laid out. I followed it through from card to card while the young woman sat there, listening intently, fingers tapping away on the tabletop. When I finished, she frowned and exclaimed impatiently, “I KNOW all that. I want to know what’s going to happen next!”

We all want to know what happens next, but using the Tarot only as a tool for prediction is rather like using the Bible ONLY as a tool for divination. While it’s certainly possible to use the Bible as guidance that way, its value lies far deeper. The same is true of the Tarot. When used as an aid to meditation and focus, the Tarot can become a powerful tool for transformation, helping you to identify needs and guide you through the paths that your subconscious mind knows you must traverse.

Every card of the Tarot has been imbued with significance built up of years of tradition. The meanings that we attach to the cards today have grown layers like a pearl, as each interpreter sees different levels of symbolism or arranges the suits and trumps into different patterns. The suits and individual cards have been aligned with numerology, with astrology, with the elements, with the Kabbalah, with the planets - in fact, at one time or another, they have been aligned with nearly every mystical tradition in existence. There have been books written to tell you how to interpret particular combinations of cards, how to create your own layouts, how to get yes or no answers from the cards, how to read the story of Jesus in the cards. There are theories that link the Tarot to the early Gnostics, to the Egyptians, to the Romany, to the Renaissance. The traditions and theories surrounding the cards could fill an entire library - but in the end, the value of any spread of cards and the meaning of any individual card to you, in your life, this moment in this situation, is entirely dependent on your own interpretation and the way that you relate it to your life.

It helps to think of Tarot as signposts on the road of life. Like signs, the cards offer information. They give warnings of dangers, alert you to coming attractions, point you in the directions of places that you want to go. They’re an invaluable aid to navigating your way from point A to point B. Some signs tell you what’s far ahead - others are more immediate. You can choose to ignore them and navigate by the seat of your pants. Like signs, readings and interpretations build on one another - and the choices that you make, like the roads that you choose, can completely change the direction in which you are heading.

Over the next few months, we’ll be taking a journey through the Tarot deck, card by card. I’ll discuss the traditional interpretations, and offer some alternate interpretations that have been suggested by various luminaries in the field of Tarot revelation and study. Along the way, we’ll talk about ways to use Tarot in your life to help focus your mind and guide your decisions. Join me on the journey, and find out how Tarot can help you transform your self and your life.

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