Welcome to
Reading
Tarot
A Quick
& Dirty Guide To Reading Tarot
Featuring:
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Here are some shortcuts
to doing your own readings.
The Vertigo
Tarot
Illustrated by Dave
McKean
Text by Rachael Pollack
Inspired by: 'The Sandman' by Vertigo
Comics
Sandman
created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth and Mike
Dringenberg. Death, Desire and Despair created
by Neil Gaiman and Mike Dringenberg.
Sandman and all related characters copyright
DC comics.
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A
Quick & Dirty Guide to
Interpreting The Cards
with
Excerpts from The Vertigo tarot by Rachael Pollack
- RP
Note:
If you
do not have an actual Tarot deck of your own,
you CAN use a Normal playing deck of cards!
Basically the four suits are the same - yet
with different symbols.
Hearts
= Cups
Spades
= Swords
Diamonds
= Coins
Clubs
= Wands
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Cups
Water / Love, attraction,
Romance, emotions.
Down-side: Emotional extremes, vindictive.
Characterized
by Water, this suit represents love, fantasy,
imagination, passivity, the unconscious, relationships,
and friendship.
Cups are a classic suit in Tarot and playing
cards, and may have later developed into the
suit known as Hearts.
"Some historians believe that
the four suits represent different classes
of Medieval society. Cups would symbolize
the Clergy since the blood of Christ is received
from a chalice." - RP
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Pentacles
(or Coins)
Earth / Money,
Business, Work
Downside: High expectations, over work.
Characterized
by Earth, this suit signifies work, nature,
money, physical reality, home, stable relationships,
routine activities.
The suit Pentacles originally comes from the
classic Tarot suit known as Coins (or Discs).
When the Order of the Golden Dawn created
their own Tarot deck, they changed the Coin
suit to Pentacles, partly because they wanted
the suit to signify something more than commerce
and money. They also changed this fourth suit
to serve a more specific purpose, that being
the tools of the ritual magician. In magical
ceremonies, magicians focus the power of their
will through a wand, a knife or sword, a sacred
chalice, and finally, the sign of the pentacle,
often drawn in the air with the point of a
knife.
"Some historians believe that
the four suits represent the different classes
of medieval society. Pentacles, being derived
from coins, would represent the merchant class."
- RP
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Swords
Air / Intelligence,
Aggression, Physical activity
Downside: Temperamental, judgmental, Hasty.
Characterized
by Air, this suit symbolizes mind, mental
activity, analysis, conflict, pain, quarrels,
heroism, sadness, abstraction.
The suit Swords is one of the classic Tarot
suits. In Spain, the classic Tarot suits are
still used, not only in Tarot, but in ordinary
playing cards. In other countries, Swords
became Spades. Some historians say that the
playing cards descend from the Tarot, while
others claim that the two kinds of decks evolved
at around the same time.
"Some historians believe that
the four suits represent different classes
of medieval society. The suit Swords would
represent nobility, as these are the tools
of their warfare." - RP
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Wands
Fire / Communication, writing, the Internet
Downside: Thoughtless, forgetful, over-analyze.
Characterized
by Fire, this suit represents the experience
of energy, action, optimism, creative impulse,
adventure, sexuality, movement, beginnings.
The classic Tarot suits are Staves, Cups,
Swords, and Coins (or Discs). Over time, Staves
acquired the name Wands. The pictures, however,
continued to show a staff, or branch of wood,
usually with a few leaves, or buds growing
on them. In the Vertigo Tarot the Wands appear
like torches, and sometimes paintbrushes.
"Some historians believe that
the four suits represent different classes
of Medieval society. Wands would represent
peasants since the peasants grew staves."
- RP
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King
Mature adult, Control, Command.
Traditionally male.
Someone you look to for Instruction.
Downside: Judgmental, bossy, controlling.
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Queen
Mature adult, Management, Sympathy. Traditionally
female.
Someone you look to for Advice.
Down-side: Emotional extremes, smothering,
vindictive.
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Knight
Physically active adult, Aggression, Achievement,
Focus. Traditionally male, but can mean an
Aggressive Female.
Someone you look to for Action.
Downside: Temperamental, aggressive, Leaps
before looking.
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Page
Young person, chatting, phone calls, education.
(Teen-aged Male or Female)
Someone you look to as a friend.
Down-side: Immature, emotional extremes, silliness.
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A
Do it Yourself Simple
Tarot Reading:
One
Direct Question
>^..^<
Have the
Questioner choose
their question Wisely!
Just like magic - Tarot tends to answer by
taking the shortest route -
pretty much like a Fortune-cookie.
The clearer
your question - The clearer the answer.
THE READER DOES NOT NEED TO KNOW THE QUESTION!
Merely if
the question involves:
A person, a place or a situation.
Short-cut - Have
your questioner Write Down the question they
want answered!
Directions:
Shuffle your
cards as you feel comfortable.
Three times is the normal limit.
Spread
the deck out in a fan.
Have your
questioner choose 3 cards.
Push the rest of the cards back together
and place the rest of your deck to one side.
Lay the
first card in the center
This is the Focus
- the direct answer.
Lay the
other two cards to either side in a fan.
These are the details supporting the answer.
LOOK at
the center card.
(The best
way to interpret your cards
is to say the first thing that pops into your
head.)
Use the
last two cards to support what the center
card mean.
What
if I get 3 Court Cards? (King/Queen/Knight
Page)
What do each
of the cards represent? Go from there.
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Choosing Your Own
TAROT DECK
By Morgan Hawke
(C) 2002
If you are an experienced Reader, (meaning
that you already have the different interpretations of the
cards memorized rightside-up and upside-down,) just about
any deck will do. You are free to choose any deck whose art
and subject matter pleases you the most.
However, if you are new to Tarot or still need the book occasionally,
then you need to look closely at the different decks available
BEFORE you make your possibly expensive, investment.
Try to avoid buying decks that you can't
examine.
Some decks that are labeled as Tarot decks don't possess a
Minor Arcana - only the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana.
These decks are Oracles. You would use these decks in addition
to a tarot reading in progress. Your Querent pulls a card
from your Oracle to add meaning and depth to the cards already
laid out during their actual Tarot Reading.
Look
at the cards & see if their picture or illustration are
monotonous or repeat.
Far too many Tarot decks have beautifully illustrated Major
Arcana or Trumps but the Minor Arcana cards have a picture
of two coins on the Two of Coins, three coins on the Three
of Coins, etc. Maybe they have a pretty background but not
a whole lot of anything else.
Unless you are Very familiar with the meanings of the different
cards, this repetition could cause a lot of frustration when
you go to do Readings at the local coffee shoppe. If you have
to pull out the book for each & every card, you will end
up taking up a lot of time flipping through pages. Nor is
this conducive to the questioner's confidence in their Reader.
Look
at the pictures & see if you can deduce the meanings of
the cards by the pictures alone.
THIS is what you are looking for.
If you've found a deck you can easily read, but the art or
subject matter isn't quite to your liking, or the price is
just a little too steep, keep looking!
Each deck has it's own flavor, whether it's Kabbalistic, Pagan,
Christian, based on fantasy novels by a beloved author or
based on Feminism and Folklore. There is one (or Twenty!)
different types of Tarot decks out there to suit everyone's
taste and level of experience. Just keep looking!
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More on the
individual Vertigo Tarot cards & their meanings?
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Buy Vertigo
Tarot
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