Tarot Basics

Good morning everyone. We are going to look at a few useful spreads this week but for today I just want to recap a few points before we do that:

The cards itself tells WHAT is happening.

The position in the spread indicates WHERE in the person’s life it is happening.

There are 78 cards in the standard deck 22 of the Major Arcana and 40 of the minor with 16 court cards.

The sequence of cards in the Major Arcana is often said to represent a journey of the soul, from the innocence of childhood, through various trials and ordeals to maturity, old age, death and resurrection and spiritual transcendence. The minor Arcana represent everyday affairs in the real world and the Court cards can be people, situations or stages of an idea, process, thought or emotion.

When you look at a card:

1. If it is a minor arcana card what element is it? The ancients believed all life was made up of four elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

The universe has long been understood to be made up of these four elements. Fire and Air have a + or external polarity and Water and Earth are receptive or of – polarity.

In medieval times you can equate these elements as follows and this should help you remember their quality.

WANDS ALSO KNOWN AS BATONS, CLUBS FOR FIGHTING, COMPETITION ETC-FIRE

CUPS - CHALICES, CELEBRATIONS, DRINKS- WATER

SWORDS - BATTLE, CONFLICT- AIR

PENTACLES or DISCS – TRADE -EARTH

A FEW KEYWORDS TO REMEMBER:

Wands = Fire = Action, competition/career Swords = Air = Thought/Conflict Pentacles = Earth = Material World/money Cups = Water = Feeling

2. Number influence. There is a vibrational quality to each of the numbers of the suits and an associated process 1- 9 in each suit and also through the Major Arcana.

3. Imagery and intuition.

Tomorrow we will look at some general guidelines to use when doing a reading for someone and then we will move on to a specific layouts and when to use them Have a great day!