TAROT CARDS

Tarot Cards Are Much More Than You Think

They can help you dive deeper within yourself.

I don’t know why I didn’t own a deck of tarot cards sooner.

Maybe the cards weren’t available at the local books store when I was a teen. Or it seemed too much work to learn how to use them. Or my mother would have thought I brought the devil into the house. As the cards held past occult associations. And my mother was superstitious.

Then I got too busy with family and forgot all about tarot cards. Until I came to own my first deck, somewhat accidentally. It’s one of those stories of how one thing leads to another.

It all came about when I was searching for another book by Ambika Wauters. Since I love the Chakras and Their Archetypes I was curious about what other books she might have written.

The list of her books led to more on chakras, angels and a card deck. That led to a search on other card decks where tarot cards appeared. I may have had too much time on my hands that day. Or curiosity took over. Whatever it was, I played a game of: if I were to ever to buy tarot cards, what deck would I choose?

Soon as I saw images for the Golden Tarot of the Renaissance I was hooked.

The cards are hot-stamped in gold.

I added them to my list of Christmas gifts I’d like that year. And that led to searching for a book on tarot card readings.

I chose a tarot book for beginners, Learning the Tarot by Joan Bunning. And Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack.

I received both books and the tarot cards for Christmas in 2015.

The beginner book is the one I use the most. So if you’re looking for a great beginner book, I recommend it.

The author states the answers come from within. That the cards are about helping you develop your natural intuitive abilities.

There are major and minor arcana’s. A total of seventy-eight picture cards to reveal hidden truths.

The cards blend inner and outer realities and enable you to tap into your unconsciousness, which you may refer to as the soul, the higher self, or the super-consciousness.

The cards are all about helping you to understand yourself better and teaching you how to tap into your inner resources.

The illustrations of the cards in the beginner book are the universal Waite tarot. So I scanned all my cards, reduced them to the size of large postage stamps, printed them off, cut them out, and glued them to the pages in the book.

This book also has lessons to help you learn the tarot, but I haven’t gone into that. My interest has been only in pulling a card for a daily read.

Here’s an interesting story about a therapist who discovered people took more advice from the cards than from therapy sessions. So she started doing more tarot card readings.

The power of the tarot touches on the personal and universal. It opens us to receiving messages from not only the cards that can aid us in other areas of our life. We can also can insights and messages from symbols we’re drawn to, books, words in songs, etc.

It’s about being open to start paying attention and having faith in the process.

The author writes we trust our conscious minds much more than our unconscious, but it is our unconscious that often holds the deeper truths. From my experience as an artist, I know this is true.

I don’t use my cards every day. I go through periods of daily use. I have started that daily practice again.

I read somewhere that tarot cards should be wrapped in silk. I collect scarfs, and this deep green one became perfect for my cards.

After waking, I start my day by shuffling the cards, and ask my higher self for guidance for the day. I cut, then choose a card I’m most drawn to. Weird things sometimes happen. Like a card falls from the pack while shuffling. Then that same card is the one I select.

The author explains that she believes the meaning in the tarot card comes from the part of ourselves that is aware of the divine source of meaning. This is an aspect of the unconscious, yet it is much more. It acts as a wise advisor who knows us well. That it understands what we need and leads us in the direction we need to go. Some people call this advisor the soul, the super-conscious, or the higher self.

The author calls it the Inner Guide.

Each of us has an inner guide that serves as a fountain of meaning for us. Your Inner Guide is always with you because it is a part of you. You can’t destroy this connection, but you can ignore it. When you reach for your tarot deck, you signal to your Inner Guide that you are open to its wisdom. This simple act of faith allows you to become aware of the guidance was always there for you.

We are meant by nature to rely on the wisdom of our Inner Guide, but somehow we have forgotten how to access it. We trust our conscious minds instead and forget to look deeper. Our conscious minds are clever, but unfortunately, they just don’t have the full awareness we need to make appropriate choices day today.

The author also writes that you do not need the tarot to access your Inner Guide.

She says that the cards serve the same function as Dumbo’s magic feather.

In the Disney movie, Dumbo the Elephant really could fly on his own, but he didn’t believe it. He placed all his faith in the special feather he held in his trunk. He thought this feather gave him the power to fly, but he found out differently when it blew away and he was forced to fall back on his own resources.

The tarot cards may help you fly until you can reach your Inner Guide on your own. Don’t worry for now about how this might happen. Just play with the cards, work through the lessons and exercises, and see if you don’t experience a few surprises.

For me, tarot cards allow me to question and look at other possibilities.

I in no way consider myself any kind of expert in this area. On Medium I have come across Bev G 🧙‍♀️ if you are interested in learning more about tarot cards.