A Technique for Dream Interpretation with Tarot
A dreamer shares a dream, and I use tarot to find its meaning. Use this example to learn this technique!
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Tarot is a book of spiritual wisdom in picture form that tells the story of all human experience.
With tarot, we connect with Spirit to discern wise guidance for the present, develop understanding of the past, and learn ways to work to manifest our goals and possibilities for the future.
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A dreamer shares a dream, and I use tarot to find its meaning. Use this example to learn this technique!
The archetypes of tarot are timeless.
Read MoreWhat is a tarot reading? Is it simply the process of interpreting some cards pulled at random?
Yes and no.
Any tarotist, and any tarot client, will tell that that something special happens in a good tarot reading; something beyond the recitation of standard card interpretation. A tarot reading is a process during which information is received, connections are made, truth is heard and inspiration happens.
A tarot reading is a separate thing from both the tarot cards and the tarot reader. A tarot reading has a life of its own.
The question is, how can you make this process, the process of tarot reading, happen? Of course you must study, and learn your cards. But you also have to practice actually giving readings. And, if you wait until you really feel like you know your cards inside out you’ll wait forever. You have to jump in and start using your cards. Here are some of the important points you’ll want to consider as you discover your inner tarot reader.
Point 1. Understand this important truth. There is no one right way to perform a tarot reading. It’s good to try different techniques, and even to invent techniques.
Point 2. How much tarot knowledge you may have is not as important as your ability to tap in to your intuition and to be an open channel. When you go to your cards it should be second nature to breathe, focus, ground, center, pray, create sacred space, invoke elements and entities, meditate, or do whatever works for you to make sure that you are in the proper space to give a reading.
Point 3. How you begin your reading is up to you. You can ask a question, or start with an overview. You can lay out cards in a spread, with designated positional meanings, or a pattern with no specific positional meanings.
Point 4. How you interpret the cards is up to you. The techniques you can use range from classic interpretations to allowing yourself to intuit your reading based on what you see in the images and how they make you feel.
Point 6. There are correlations between tarot and astrology, numerology, Kabballah, the Four Elements, and other esoteric and philosophical systems. You can use any of these you want in your interpretations, or none at all.
Point 7. However you arrive at your card interpretations, you must interpret the cards based on the position in a positional spread, the question, if indeed a question was asked, and the surrounding cards. These contextual concerns are what makes the ultimate difference between a reading that feels personal, specific and on-point, and a reading that feels general and uninspired.
Point 8. Keep your personal opinions out of the mix. This can be difficult. You will form opinions based on what you see in the cards – that’s the point. But you will probably have other opinions too, based on your own personal experience. No matter what the subject matter, interpret the cards and give the reading. Leave your soap box at home.
When you enter into the process of tarot reading, you will tap in to internal resources you didn’t even know you had. When you find your inner tarot reader, you will also find your inner confidence, creativity and spiritual connection.
As you can see, there is no one right way to do a tarot reading. However, you must have a sense of what techniques work for you, and how you, personally, perform your best readings. Practice, study and innovation are all important parts of learning to give a great tarot reading!
If you are truly interested in being the best reader you can be, make sure you check out my upcoming premium webinar, Sharing Wisdom – Reading for Others!
When I first became a tarot professional I was surprised at the number of local organizations who asked me to speak at their meetings.
In the first two years of my career I was the guest speaker at a Rotary holiday party, a TOPS (Taking off Pounds Sensibly) meeting , a high school honors psychology class (I was a student’s senior project) and a hospital ladies auxiliary luncheon.
This was a part of my career I hadn’t planned for and didn’t expect. Luckily, my involvement in youth activities in my church and school had prepared me to avoid being nervous speaking in front of a group; or at least to cover up my nervousness with a smile.
Fast-forward twenty years. I don’t rely on local business as much as I used to. Blogs and webcasts have a wider reach than small-town clubs do. Nonetheless, I still make myself available for speaking engagements. Recently I spoke at a service group luncheon and a library event.
The interesting thing about these kinds of speaking engagements is that they allow me to present tarot to people who are tarot-naive, and who have some misconceptions about it.
I also speak at tarot conventions, metaphysical fairs and churches, of course. Those kinds of events are fun and rewarding, and require a different kind of finesse. There, you really are often preaching to the choir.
If you are a tarot pro or hobbyist with enough Leo in your chart to warrant your presence at a podium, consider making yourself available to speak for local groups in your community. It’s fun, it’s good for business, and, most importantly, it allows you to be an ambassador for tarot.
Often I am dismayed at the way the public at large perceives tarot, and tarot enthusiasts. Often, tarot pros drive me to sarcasm by complaining about unfair business laws, or their clients’ misunderstanding of their abilities. These inequities affect me, too. Rather than rail at how hurtful, ignorant and unfair it all is, let’s try to create change!
If the public at large understood tarot, and understood our profession, our jobs would be easier. Rather than letting shysters and frauds define our field, we have a chance to define it on our own terms, simply by being more visible.
There are two important things to remember when you speak about tarot to the public. First, tarot is a vast topic. You can discuss tarot from a perspective of history, art or use. You can demonstrate tarot in action by giving readings during a presentation. You can show cards to audience members and ask them what they see in the pictures. There are infinite ways to present tarot. Find the ways that work best for you and your audience.
Secondly, speaking gigs are easy to find. Check your local library system. They probably have a list of presenters. Find out what you have to do to get on the list. Your Chamber of Commerce might be another way to make yourself known. Colleges and universities also have opportunities for local speakers. The important thing to remember is that once you get your first speaking gig, many more will follow. It’s almost guaranteed that, once you finish your presentation, someone will come up to you, shake your hand, and ask if you can do it for their group, too.
Over time, you will speak in front of local policy makers, who will learn from you that tarot isn’t the harmful, scary thing they thought it might be. When asked to raise business taxes on psychics, or to regulate the psychic industry to the adult district, they will think of your smiling face and refuse to pass a law that might hurt you.
That may sound far-fetched, but I know for a fact this very thing happened in the first town I ever did business. It could happen in your town, too.
We have the power to change the way the public perceives tarot. Let’s make it happen!
Modern tarot creators enjoy stretching tarot to fit every possible theme and worldview. That’s a good thing. Tarot’s ability to speak universally, using the imagery of so many cultures, is part of its awesome power.
I believe it is the strength and power of the tarot archetypes that allow tarot this much flexibility. Unfortunately, it is possible to stretch a card so far beyond its archetype that you lose the archetype entirely.
We are all aware of the trend to rename some of the more difficult Major Arcana cards. Death becomes Transition; the Devil becomes Materialism, and so on. We often discuss this trend in terms of the dark cards, the Tower, the Devil and Death.
Another Major Arcana card that often receives this same treatment at the hands of deck creators is the Hierophant. Weirdly, there is generally very little protest when a well-intentioned modern deck mangles this particular archetype.
I think deck creators’ tendency to mangle the Hierophant, and our tendency to put up with it, comes from two factors. First is the way most tarotists seem to feel about Hierophant energy. We don’t like rules and structure. We fear the religious hierophants in our own community who discriminate against us and disrespect us. Of course, we don’t want any of them in our tarot decks!
The second factor is that we seem to lack a basic understanding of the Hierophant. Because we don’t understand him, we don’t see his value along the Fool’s Journey.
I can think of three well-loved tarot decks that, in my opinion, really get the Hierophant wrong.
The first and oldest is Motherpeace, my second-ever tarot deck. In Motherpeace, the Hierophant is a man wearing false breasts, pretending to be a woman. Clearly, sensitivity toward the transgender community was not on the minds of these deck designers when they were creating the then-definitive feminist tarot of the 1980s.
The idea behind this vision of the Hierophant is that the matriarchy is the keeper of true spiritual authority. By pretending to be a woman, the Hierophant is trying to claim an authority that is not his. Trust me, this played better in the 1980s than it does now.
Modern spiritual decks with Pagan and New Age themes often try to “fix” the Hierophant. Tarot of Transformation renamed him “Spiritual Leaders” and used the key phrase “Taking the Hierophant off the Pedestal.” Chrysalis Tarot calls the Hierophant the “Divine Child” and says this in its LBW (Little White Book) to justify the change.
“Most tarot decks title this card the Hierophant, a religious authority figure. In Chrysalis Tarot, the task of spiritual growth is an individual responsibility that requires an open mind and critical thinking.”
To me, this kind of thinking shows an incomplete understanding of the Hierophant and of tarot in general. When we fail to embrace the Hierophant, and all the archetypes of tarot, we become unable to gain the knowledge, wisdom, insight and divinatory intelligence that tarot can provide.
Five hundred years ago, the Hierophant was the Pope. That’s why we see him as a religious authority. When we consider the position held by the Roman Catholic Church in Italy at the time of tarot’s emergence, we understand that the Pope was not just a religious authority, he was the ultimate authority.
Today, the Hierophant speaks to authority in relevant and important ways. To remove the Hierophant’s authority, as the three decks I mentioned have done, removes an important piece of the tarot puzzle, and risks making tarot less effective.
In a reading, the Hierophant can represent the rules and the authority of any “church.” That can be the “church” of medicine, law, or governance, of corporate, educational or military structure or spiritual doctrine.
When we need to submit ourselves to the church of medicine for surgery, we need the Hierophant, a surgeon who knows every piece of the doctrine, rather than a Divine Child who wants us to figure it out ourselves.
When we earn an academic honor, we have become expert in the doctrine of the Hierophant, not the introspection of a Divine Child.
In a reading, the Hierophant can suggest consulting a doctor or an attorney. The Hierophant can encourage your professional authority as a manager or a business owner. When the Hierophant appears to suggest these things, he commands our respect for the due process we all must endure. A Divine Child has no need or respect for due process, achievement, or a learned body of knowledge.
When we understand and portray tarot in a limited way, we limit the power of tarot. Right now, we seem to be inclined to limit the powers of the Hierophant.
When we examine the way our culture processes a tarot card, we understand something about our culture. At a time of corrupt governments, disenfranchised citizenry and economic disparity, none of us like the Hierophant energy very much.
The answer, though, is not to engage in navel-gazing and withdrawn self-discovery. The answer is to earn your own authority, and wield it wisely. That’s the way to change the authoritarian structures of the hierophants that don’t serve us. At the same time, when you need an authority – a doctor, a lawyer, a priest, you really can’t accept any substitutes.
Sometime the Hierophant comes up in a reading to describe a stubborn and didactic personality. The Hierophant has told me of a client’s dogmatic Evangelical husband, whom she would later divorce. The Hierophant has told me of a client’s spiritual leader who was abusing her sexually. The Divine Child in the same place would not have been able to communicate these things to me.
Our discomfort with the Hierophant is understandable. However, when we remove the Hierophant from tarot we miss the opportunity to explore the dichotomy of this specific energy. When does honoring tradition build our community, and when does it oppress us? When do we need the authority of a body of knowledge, and when is it best to trust or inner guidance?
True enlightenment comes from both studied knowledge and intuitive wisdom. The Hierophant is an important part of that journey. Through studying difficult tarot images, and seeing the ways in which they speak in readings, we learn about ourselves, and our society. The tarot archetype of the Hierophant is complex, and irreplaceable.
Separate from your Minor Arcana the four Aces, four Tens, and all sixteen Court cards, separated by rank. As we explore each number and rank, consider how the suit/element is expressed in each card.
Aces: Aces are a new beginning, the source or the essence of their element. The Ace is the purest form of the element.
Shuffle your four Aces, and ask this question: What is a source of strength upon which I could draw more fully?
Pull one card to give your answer. What card did you receive? What does it mean to you?
Tens: Tens represent a fullness, or the completion of a cycle or a journey.
Shuffle your four Tens, and ask this question: What am I full of right now?
Pull one card to give your answer. What card did you receive? What does it mean to you?
Now look at your Ace and your Ten together. How does your Ace give you strength to help you with your Ten?
Pages: Pages refer to youth, learning and communication.
Shuffle your four Pages, and ask this question: What am I learning right now?
Pull one card to give your answer. What card did you receive? What does it mean to you?
How does the lesson of your Page tie in to the story told in your Ace and Ten?
Knights: Knights refer to coming of age, travel and pursuit.
Shuffle your four Knights, and ask this question: What should I be pursuing right now?
Pull one card to give your answer. What card did you receive? What does it mean to you?
Queens: Queens refer to mature feminine wisdom, and nurturance.
Shuffle your four Queens, and ask this question: What is my source of wisdom right now?
Pull one card to give your answer. What card did you receive? What does it mean to you?
Kings: Kings refer to masculine leadership, and authority.
Shuffle your four Kings, and ask this question: Where should I take a leadership role right now?
Pull one card to give your answer. What card did you receive? What does it mean to you?
Now look at your Knight, your Queen and your King. How do these three energies support you in taking your next steps forward in life?
Take all six cards you have drawn today, and shuffle them. Pull one to give you a final thought. Pay special attention to it’s number/rank and it’s element. What direction does this card give you?
Tarotists, here’s a question for you. Have you ever done a tarot reading standing up?
I’m often hired to entertain at cocktail parties and receptions. Sometimes I choose to stand at a cocktail table rather than sitting at a traditional table.
In the cocktail party setting, keeping the client standing helps keep the line moving quickly. It also allows me to use my body more in reading.
How does one use their body in tarot reading? I can think of two ways. First, the psychic connection happens as energy flows through the chakras along the base of the spine. When we stand, the spine is straight. Our feet are firmly on the floor, connecting us to the grounding and sustaining energy of Earth. As we connect to spirit with the crown chakra, the standing body forms a straight line of energy.
I have to think this standing posture is helpful in handling the psychically-challenging work of tarot reading in a party setting.
The second way I use my body is in expressing the reading. While standing, it becomes possible to act out scenarios and use body language to make the reading more entertaining and understandable.
This weekend I had the experience of performing longer private readings from a standing position. I was working a private party, and the table provided for me was a large, high drafting-type table. The chairs were low folding chairs. It was impossible for me to sit in the low chair and do a tarot reading on the high table – the angle was all wrong.
So I had my clients sit, and I stood at the table, kitty-corner to my client’s chair. From there I moved the cards around, laying them out, pointing out the images and moving them like puppets around the table. Sometimes I felt like a military general playing out scenarios over a model battlefield.
I was on my feet for four hours. At the end of the party, I felt energized. Think about the posture of the Magician. Surely, this is what I felt like, giving readings at the standing tarot table.
There are limited opportunities to perform tarot readings standing at high tables. When presented with a high table, even unexpectedly, take off your heels and give a full-body standing tarot reading.
As your perspective over the cards changes, your ability to see things might increase. Your standing posture will energize you, and connect you more easily to your psychic guidance.
It can happen that a particular card might follow you around for a while. We call this a repetitive, frequent or recurrent card. When whatever life situation the card is referring to resolves, the card takes its normal place as one of seventy-eight in the deck.
There are a few ways a card can stalk you. Having the same card turn up for you, at random, in readings repeatedly, is a common phenomenon. If you pay attention, you will notice your recurring cards earlier and more often. Once you notice your recurring card, you can spend time in meditation with it. You can journal about it. You can discuss it with you tarot friends. The one thing you must remember is this. This card is here to help you. Find a way to use its energy to ease the difficulty of whatever transition caused it to appear.
Cards can recur in other ways, too. Sometimes a card might just be on your mind. You might hear songs that remind you of it. You might dream of it. Many tarotists always have a card or two they are currently contemplating.
Sometimes we will see things in the world that remind us of a particular card. The world is full of tarot symbols, both intentional and unintentional. The power of symbols suggests that, regardless of what prompts you to call a particular card to mind, once that card has been summoned it bears meaning for you.
Make friends with your tarot card stalkers. They will help you through hard times. Sometimes they will be the tools you need, even before you know you need them.
I’m reading Rana George’s exciting book, “The Essential Lenormand” as I work to add the Lenormand fortune-telling system to my toolbox.
One of the techniques George describes is to “activate” a specific card to represent a unique character or situation within a reading. The way the activated card appears when the cards are drawn can easily guide the reader to a clear answer.
George’s book is full of aha moments for me. One of them is that I have been activating tarot cards for as long as I’ve been reading and teaching tarot. The funny thing is, I never thought about, spoke about it, had a name for it, or taught it as a technique. It was just something I intuitively started doing, and kept doing because it worked.
One of the great things about being diviners in the digital age is that we can easily share our ideas, techniques and strategies with one another.
That we so often come to the same ideas independently of one another is, to me, an indicator of the veracity of our work.
The next time you are working with tarot to answer a question, try Rana George’s idea of activating a specific card to represent something unique to the situation. See how the presence and position of that card in your reading gives insight that you might not have otherwise had!
There are many schools of spiritual thought that focus on the need for balance.
In tarot, many of the cards speak of balance.
Many of us experience life as a balancing act as we navigate work, school, relationships, parenthood and well-being.
Our human nature wants this or that, one thing or the other.
Our spiritual nature knows that when we find balance, we find enlightenment.
To help you find balance in your life, and to help you find the ways tarot speaks about balance, try this exercise.
First, go through your tarot deck, card by card, and sort out every card that speaks to you of balance.
Some, like Justice, Temperance and the High Priestess might be obvious. Others you might choose could include Strength, or the Lovers. Don’t forget the Minor Arcana cards, like the Twos, and the Six of Pentacles. Not everyone will agree, so if you do this exercise in a class setting each person’s group of cards will be a bit different.
Once you have your group of cards that speak about balance, look at each card one at a time. Think (or even better, write in your tarot journal) about each card and how that card speaks about balance. What is unique about each card’s message of balance? How can this card help you achieve balance in your life?
Now, take your group of balance cards and shuffle them. Draw one card at random to answer each of the following questions about balance in your life. Replace each drawn card back to the group for the next shuffle. If the same card comes up more than once, pay some extra attention to why that card might be important in your life at this time.
In what aspect of my life am I doing a good job achieving balance?
Where in my life to I need to be better at achieving balance?
What can help me achieve this balance?