Tarot 101

     Over the years, I have been asked many times to teach classes on various subjects. I do teach students one on one, but have never had the time nor space to teach classes for groups of people. This, by the way, will be changing soon, with the introduction of my Instructional Tapes to be announced this spring.

     The most popular topic I am asked to teach is the Tarot. Most people truly want to be able to know what their future is, or what an answer to a problem would be, so it would seem to them that using the tarot would be a shortcut to get that information.

     However, the study of the basic Tarot will take a matter of months, depending on how much time you have to work on it. To become really proficient takes much longer.

     People also confuse being psychic with being able to read the Tarot. One is usually born psychic. That doesn't mean that the person is automatically a professional tarot reader. What it does mean is that we, (psychics ) have to work to learn the Tarot basics just like everyone else. That also means that anyone can learn the Tarot with enough desire to do so, with no prior experience or gifts.

     As with anything that one is learning, the more you practice, the better you do. Tiger Woods was born with a natural tendency towards golf, but that doesn't mean that he hasn't had to practice and perfect his performance with many long hours of work throughout his life. We are given gifts on this plane, but what we are generally given is the raw material, as it were. It is up to us to polish that raw material into the diamond that it naturally is.

     Now, to begin, you need to choose a Tarot deck. For this you should visit a book store or new age shop in person to pick out your deck. It is also preferable that you would be able to look at the cards in the process of choosing, so that you can make the best choice possible. It is very difficult to choose what is best when you only have the top card that is glued onto the deck box, to look at. Choosing your first or any of your Tarot decks is a very personal thing. However, if you truly get stuck and don't know which one to pick, choose the Rider Waite. That deck is traditionally the beginners' deck.

     How you cover your deck again is personal choice. You may cover it in a piece of dark blue or black silk or satin. There are also lovely Tarot bags for sale in different shops and shows that you may choose to wrap your deck in. The object is to wrap it and keep it out of sight so that a casual guest wouldn't pick it up and play with it. Your deck is very special and needs to be treated as such. Many of us have several decks, with just one deck that is all ours, that no one else touches. However, time and finances will decide in your life when all that occurs. For now, you need only the one deck. One more note on the deck type. It is my personal favorite to have a deck with no borders. I have many decks, but the ones I read with the most have no borders. This to me means that once I enter the card itself (symbolically), I am not trapped by the card's borders. This is something truly of personal preference.

     The next thing to do is to choose your instructional books. I do have the names of several that are quite good, for beginner right through advanced. Choose a book with lots of illustrations and easy to understand instructions. Both these points are very important, as you will be learning your basic forms and meanings here. I do emphasize basic, because after you learn your basics, I'm going to encourage you to not open those books again. But that is later on. I tell potential students that after you learn your basics, throw the books away! I mean that only symbolically, in that once you are standing on your own psychic feet, don't regress back to the books, or back to the crawling stage. It only serves to confuse.

     Ok, so now you have chosen your deck, it's cover and your first book or books. Let's open the deck and play with it!

     Look at each card closely. The deck you have chosen resonates with you, or you wouldn't have purchased it. The pictures on each card speak to you. There should be the regular deck of 56 cards (kings, queens, jacks, and pages etc.) which is called the Minor Arcana and 22 cards in the Major Arcana. The Major Arcana starts at Zero for the Fool, and ends at 22, the World. Every single card in that deck means something; whether by itself, what card it is next to in a spread, and what kind of spread it is in and the location within that spread.

     Handle the cards and begin to get comfortable with them. Tarot cards are usually bigger than regular playing cards, and do take a little getting used to shuffling them. A new deck is also very slippery and you want to get them broken in a little. There is no better way than imbuing them with your own energy by shuffling and handling them. Also begin to look at your book, and the meanings of the cards. Stick with just the upright meanings for now.

     In lesson two, we will do what a called a Celtic Cross. This layout, or spread, is one of the easiest and best known to do.

    Stay in harmony!