TAROT
It's written on the cards
Jocelyn Newmarch

Think of Tarot cards and one immediately thinks of gypsies, mystery,
magic and forbidden knowledge. But what are the cards all about anyway?
And why have they endured for so long?

How did the Tarot begin?
It's thought that the Tarot deck was first used as a card game, way back
in fifteenth century Europe.
As far as we know, regular playing cards were first used as a means of
divination in 1770, when Jean-Baptiste Alliette (also known as
"Etteilla") published the clairvoyant meanings.
Antoine Court de Gebelin theorised in 1781 that Tarot cards contained
mystical knowledge originating from the Egyptian deity Thoth, god of
wisdom, and the Tarot deck became increasingly popular due to his
influence.

Following de Gebelin's theory, a deck designed by Etteilla was the first
to be made publicly available expressly for clairvoyance.
A hundred years on, Eliphas Levi speculated on a possible link between
Tarot and the Jewish mysticism of the Kabbalah. No proof was available
to support the notion that the Tarot originated in Israel, but the
theory remains popular today.

A number of secret societies and mystical organisations adopted the
Tarot, including the Rosicrucians, the Theosophical society, the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Church of Light, all of which
brought their own nuances to bear on the Tarot folklore.
So why does Tarot still remain relevant?
Tarot cards have often received very bad press, but perhaps their
ultimate message is a hopeful one: that life is not meaningless and that
we can learn and grow from what happens to us. Because you are
continually asked to reflect on the card's personal relevance to your
life, you can become more self-aware and in tune with your inner
experience through them.

What is a Tarot deck?
There are literally hundreds of Tarot decks, reflecting nearly every
kind of religious and philosophical tradition, but the version most
widely accepted today is Arthur Edward Waite's version.

Each Tarot deck contains 78 cards, and is made up of the major and minor
arcana. There are twenty-two cards in the major arcana, while the minor
arcana are made up of four suits, which are Cups, Swords, Wands and
Pentacles. The suits are numbered from ace to ten, as in a normal deck.
There are also four types of court cards, identified variously as Pages,
Knights, Queens and Kings; or Princes, Princesses, Queens and Knights in
certain decks.

While the numbered cards tend to deal with relationships or events, the
court cards almost always relate to people in the Querent's life. (The
person for whom the Tarot is dealt is known as the Querent.)
The major arcana is perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the deck. This
is made up of twenty-two cards which represent archetypal events or
experiences in the journey of life.

There's nothing terribly esoteric about the cards per se — their
prophetic powers come from their position in the spread once dealt. Each
card has a general meaning attached to it, and if you become a regular
reader, you might find that you start attaching personal meanings to
them too. Connections are often made between Tarot cards and Zodiac or
alchemical symbols; whether or not you accept this in your own reading
is a matter for personal choice.

The Tarot symbolism is flexible enough to suit a wide variety of beliefs
and interests and there are probably just as many ways to read them as
there are different packs. If you want to take it up, it's important to
find a deck whose artwork fits in with your personal values.

The Major Arcana

The cards of the major arcana, in order, are:
The Fool,
The Magician,
The High Priestess,
The Empress,
The Emperor,
The Hierophant,
The Lovers,
The Chariot,
Strength,
The Hanged Man,
The Wheel of Fortune,
Justice
The Hermit
Death
Temperance
Devil
Tower
Star
Moon
Sun
Judgement
World

How to deal the cards
Before you begin the reading, think about the issue or question that you
would like clarity on.
There are probably hundreds of ways to deal the Tarot cards, involving
various degrees of complication, and as you learn more about Tarot you
can also make up your own method.
The simplest and probably most popular method is to draw only one card
from the pack, which can help to focus a particular issue.

Another popular method is to draw three cards, where the first
represents the issue, the second your attitude, and the third, the
lesson which can be drawn from it. As a reader, you need to figure out
how each card relates to the position in which it falls and to the
question at hand.

These days you can also get an online Tarot reading, but personally I
find it hard to take these seriously when I know it's just some fancy
footwork with the Java scripting. They say psychic energy knows no
boundaries but I have my doubts when it comes to the cyberworld.

This article is a printout from iafrica.com