WHAT IS TAROT?[i]
The earliest Tarot cards we have date to mid-15th century Italy. They are playing cards, with four suits like our modern cards, except that there are four court cards (“face cards”) in each suit, rather than three. There is also a permanent trump suit, numbered from 0 to 21, featuring images Inspired by Hermetic and Neoplatonic philosophy and the Bible-- the same sources that inspired Alchemy and Kabbalah.
The trump suit is called “trionfi,” or “triumphs”, in Italian. The word refers to ancient Roman parades which began with captured prisoners and ended with the victorious general, the whole hierarchy being laid out in between. Renaissance Italy revived the custom, putting on “trionfi” for all kinds of festive occasions—except that the characters became symbolic representations of archetypes like Love, Death, Fame, Resurrection, etc., each one “trumping” the one before it. (This was the origin of parade floats.)
The Tarot trumps are likewise arranged hierarchically, and include archetypes like The Lovers, Strength, Temperance and Justice.
The four suits – cups, coins, wands, and swords – have various associations that can also be brought to bear on the reading: for instance, the traditional four elements (water, earth, fire, and air) and their psychospiritual meanings, and the four Jungian functions of emoting, sensing, feeling, and thinking.[ii]The numbers in the suit cards are also rich with meaning, largely derived from Pythagorean numerology.
SO WHAT HAPPENS IN A TAROT READING?
Based on what question the querent asks, the reader draws cards and arranges them into various “spreads”, with each position offering a context within which to interpret the cards.
Opinions differ why certain cards are drawn, and why they fall into the positions they do. Some people believe that “spirit guides,“ the Higher Self, God, or some other supernatural agency guides the cards. Others believe the order of the cards is random, and it is purely the interaction of the archetypal images and the unconscious mind that generates meaning.[iii]Still others believe Jungian “synchronicity”--in which the spiritual and material worlds align for unknown reasons—brings the right cards to the right places in the spread. Exactly which of these, or what combination and in what proportions, I believe in varies from day to day, or even reading to reading.
What you will find in short supply in a reading – at least in one of mine – is what is commonly called "fortune-telling." The Tarot, a tool increasingly used by Jungian therapists, is much better suited to helping us sort out the present than to predicting the future. So, while you are of course welcome to ask if someone is going to call you, or if you are going to get a particular job, you may find it more useful to seek answers about yourself: What sort of job should I pursue? Is my current relationship serving me? How am I to understand this event? How should I respond to these circumstances? What am I to make of all this? Usually, once you understand how you yourself are placed, predicting the direction in which things are moving becomes easier anyway.
Tarot scholar Mary Greer identifies four styles of Tarot reading: magical, psychic, therapeutic, and analytical. My own style is between 85% is 95% therapeutic, with the rest analytical. So you should expect to do some talking yourself. Besides asking for your question, I may ask questions of my own in order to get a sense of the big picture, understand your circumstances, and just get to know you a little better. As Tarot writer Gail Fairfield puts it, no one goes to the doctor and says, "I hurt – guess where?"[iv]
After shuffling the cards, I will lay them out in whichever spread seems most appropriate. I will tell you what I see in the cards, based on each individual card’s spectrum of meaning, the card’s position in the spread, and its position relative to the other cards, and the conversation will proceed from there.
"We often think of the ancient soothsayers and oracles as making predictions. We have written records, however, from Delphi and other oracles, and they show us that the majority of the statements of the oracles were not predictions but advice on how to make improvements and keep the favor of the divine. In modern terms, we may say that divination is a way of bringing into consciousness inner wisdom from the deepest part of our psyches, an inner reality that we may call the Higher Self. Communication with the Higher Self is what the Tarot is best suited for, and this is the best use for the Tarot." --Robert Place, The Tarot, Magic, Alchemy, Hermeticism and Neo-Platonism, 2nd ed.
My tarot card reading with Scott was beyond what I expected. I was actually uncertain what to expect when I reached out to Scott. Being a physician, I tend to stay firmly in the realm of science, but Scott's in depth explanation about the origins and history of tarot made me realize there was more to this fascinating practice than I previously thought. After a meaningful discussion, I posed a question to him, one I've been struggling with for quite some time. He recommended a particular tarot spread and then, with kindness, wisdom, and respect, walked me through his interpretations of what the cards revealed. Not only was my reading informative and uncanningly telling, was in its essence, an enjoyable experience. I left with new insight and guidance that has encouraged me to move onward from a place I was once stuck. I would highly recommend a tarot reading with Scott to anyone who is seeking an enlightening perspective on a particular aspect of their life. --M.M., a client
[i]See Place, Robert: The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination
[ii]See Rosengarten, Arthur, PhD: Tarot and Psychology: Spectrums of Meaning.
[iii]See Pitisci, Vincent: The Genius of the Tarot: A Guide to Divination with the Tarot
[iv]See Fairfield, Gail: Choice-Centered Tarot
The earliest Tarot cards we have date to mid-15th century Italy. They are playing cards, with four suits like our modern cards, except that there are four court cards (“face cards”) in each suit, rather than three. There is also a permanent trump suit, numbered from 0 to 21, featuring images Inspired by Hermetic and Neoplatonic philosophy and the Bible-- the same sources that inspired Alchemy and Kabbalah.
The trump suit is called “trionfi,” or “triumphs”, in Italian. The word refers to ancient Roman parades which began with captured prisoners and ended with the victorious general, the whole hierarchy being laid out in between. Renaissance Italy revived the custom, putting on “trionfi” for all kinds of festive occasions—except that the characters became symbolic representations of archetypes like Love, Death, Fame, Resurrection, etc., each one “trumping” the one before it. (This was the origin of parade floats.)
The Tarot trumps are likewise arranged hierarchically, and include archetypes like The Lovers, Strength, Temperance and Justice.
The four suits – cups, coins, wands, and swords – have various associations that can also be brought to bear on the reading: for instance, the traditional four elements (water, earth, fire, and air) and their psychospiritual meanings, and the four Jungian functions of emoting, sensing, feeling, and thinking.[ii]The numbers in the suit cards are also rich with meaning, largely derived from Pythagorean numerology.
SO WHAT HAPPENS IN A TAROT READING?
Based on what question the querent asks, the reader draws cards and arranges them into various “spreads”, with each position offering a context within which to interpret the cards.
Opinions differ why certain cards are drawn, and why they fall into the positions they do. Some people believe that “spirit guides,“ the Higher Self, God, or some other supernatural agency guides the cards. Others believe the order of the cards is random, and it is purely the interaction of the archetypal images and the unconscious mind that generates meaning.[iii]Still others believe Jungian “synchronicity”--in which the spiritual and material worlds align for unknown reasons—brings the right cards to the right places in the spread. Exactly which of these, or what combination and in what proportions, I believe in varies from day to day, or even reading to reading.
What you will find in short supply in a reading – at least in one of mine – is what is commonly called "fortune-telling." The Tarot, a tool increasingly used by Jungian therapists, is much better suited to helping us sort out the present than to predicting the future. So, while you are of course welcome to ask if someone is going to call you, or if you are going to get a particular job, you may find it more useful to seek answers about yourself: What sort of job should I pursue? Is my current relationship serving me? How am I to understand this event? How should I respond to these circumstances? What am I to make of all this? Usually, once you understand how you yourself are placed, predicting the direction in which things are moving becomes easier anyway.
Tarot scholar Mary Greer identifies four styles of Tarot reading: magical, psychic, therapeutic, and analytical. My own style is between 85% is 95% therapeutic, with the rest analytical. So you should expect to do some talking yourself. Besides asking for your question, I may ask questions of my own in order to get a sense of the big picture, understand your circumstances, and just get to know you a little better. As Tarot writer Gail Fairfield puts it, no one goes to the doctor and says, "I hurt – guess where?"[iv]
After shuffling the cards, I will lay them out in whichever spread seems most appropriate. I will tell you what I see in the cards, based on each individual card’s spectrum of meaning, the card’s position in the spread, and its position relative to the other cards, and the conversation will proceed from there.
"We often think of the ancient soothsayers and oracles as making predictions. We have written records, however, from Delphi and other oracles, and they show us that the majority of the statements of the oracles were not predictions but advice on how to make improvements and keep the favor of the divine. In modern terms, we may say that divination is a way of bringing into consciousness inner wisdom from the deepest part of our psyches, an inner reality that we may call the Higher Self. Communication with the Higher Self is what the Tarot is best suited for, and this is the best use for the Tarot." --Robert Place, The Tarot, Magic, Alchemy, Hermeticism and Neo-Platonism, 2nd ed.
My tarot card reading with Scott was beyond what I expected. I was actually uncertain what to expect when I reached out to Scott. Being a physician, I tend to stay firmly in the realm of science, but Scott's in depth explanation about the origins and history of tarot made me realize there was more to this fascinating practice than I previously thought. After a meaningful discussion, I posed a question to him, one I've been struggling with for quite some time. He recommended a particular tarot spread and then, with kindness, wisdom, and respect, walked me through his interpretations of what the cards revealed. Not only was my reading informative and uncanningly telling, was in its essence, an enjoyable experience. I left with new insight and guidance that has encouraged me to move onward from a place I was once stuck. I would highly recommend a tarot reading with Scott to anyone who is seeking an enlightening perspective on a particular aspect of their life. --M.M., a client
[i]See Place, Robert: The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination
[ii]See Rosengarten, Arthur, PhD: Tarot and Psychology: Spectrums of Meaning.
[iii]See Pitisci, Vincent: The Genius of the Tarot: A Guide to Divination with the Tarot
[iv]See Fairfield, Gail: Choice-Centered Tarot
