Tag: learn to read tarot

Yes, absolutely, ask why

A behind the scenes look at the how – and why – of reading Tarot

Before we get to the WHAT and the HOW of Tarot, let’s start with WHY Tarot.

Why get readings?

Why give readings?

Why do readings for yourself?

Why ask why? (as that old TV commercial said)

As I see it, it all comes down to one thing: freethinking.

Free your mind. Question everything. Ask why and draw your own conclusions. Tarot supports that. Tarot encourages that. Tarot enables that. If a Tarot reader wants you to do what they say without question – run.

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Over the years I’ve learned, sometimes the hard way, to trust my intuition. But it is a big ask for you to trust my intuition too. I’m honored whenever anyone trusts me enough to get a reading. I will always treat that trust with the respect and dignity it deserves. That’s why I ask members to request readings each time even though the reading is included in their membership. Consent is an important part of respecting you and the Tarot process. That’s why I won’t read people other than the individual getting the reading. People outside of our conversation have not given consent to be a part of the reading and it is important for us to respect them as well.

The British Psychological Society defines autonomy as “feeling psychologically free and having the ability to control your life.” Psychologist Carl Jung said that “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” That’s another reason why I do Tarot readings the way I do.

No fortune telling.

No predicting the future.

My style of Tarot is all about empowering your choices. It’s about supporting your autonomy. It’s about personal growth and greater understanding. It’s about processing difficult emotions. It’s about breaking free from thought-habits that narrow our experience of life.

That’s why I offer professional readings. That’s why I teach people to read Tarot for themselves. That’s why I use Tarot for myself. This post is a case in point.

On the exact day I was originally planning to publish this post, there was a spate of famous Tarot authors saying exactly these kinds of things on social media. It hit me at a vulnerable moment and I was half a hair away from giving up. If the heavy hitters are suddenly saying the stuff I’ve already been blogging about since 2005 (ish) what’s the use?

I’d been planning this post for months but kept getting interrupted by life, the universe and everything it seemed. So now, why bother? Why should I add my voice to theirs when it seems no one has been listening to us (and maybe still aren’t?)

On the other hand, why shouldn’t I? My voice and intuition is just as valid as theirs (and so is yours, by the way.)

It was literally one of those six of one, half dozen of the other type of decisions. On one hand it would make no difference to the big picture if I trashed the post. On the other hand, adding my voice to theirs might just amplify what genuine Tarot can do.

I did exactly what I would advise a client to do – I drew a card for inspiration.

The Allbright, art by Annalise Jensen for Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund. Deck used with permission

The Alleyman’s Tarot was close at hand and a quick shuffle and cut revealed the Allbright card from one of the expansion packs, not a typical card in the RWS Tarot card structure. I think it was made especially for this deck.

“The Allbright brings hope and illumination to knowledge of the past and to those undertaking difficult tasks. She is never far from those who are faithful, and those who have the courage to ask for aid.” – Annalise Jensen, artist.

I took that as a nudge toward writing and posting this. It is a little leap of faith to act on ideas like posting would be in service to aka “faithful to” the years I’ve put into Tarot work and to the art of Tarot writ large. It felt like a reassurance that the Zeitgeist energies would let me be heard by someone somewhere despite the many louder voices saying the same thing. I’m acting on the notion that the Allbright is a symbol of wisdom and will shine the light that draws in those that need this particular type of Tarot guidance.

The light shines brightest when we lift it up. The message sounds loudest and reaches the farthest when we all speak.

That’s why.

That’s why I’m posting this and is one example how Tarot can help us move from a silly little coin toss dilemma to greater insight.

Why use Tarot cards and Tarot readings? Not because they give us easy answers, but rather because they point to the right questions. These symbolic cards shine a light on the right path for our walking and working to begin.

Thank you so much for reading Sage Sips today. Next up: You Chose: Tarot Card of the Week. Fingers crossed for an upload tomorrow.

See you at the next sip!

Learn With Me: Tarot on Target

I want to take a little break from exploring the Lenormand Tarot deck and talk about something that has been on my mind since a conversation with a potential client yesterday. We’ve talked about it before (don’t forget you can use the search bar to browse the 1500+ posts in the archive) but it’s time to revisit the idea of accuracy in Tarot.

As I see it, accuracy in psychic or Tarot readings begs the question “Accurate compared to what?”

Accuracy of anything is a measurement of that thing compared to some desired goal. Accuracy measures how on-target something is.

To measure anything, you have to make a comparison of one thing that you don’t know with something you do know, like a ruler. Even if one of the things you are using to measure is your eyeballing estimation based on experience – it’s still a comparison.

So what do you use as your ruler to measure the accuracy of a Tarot reading?

Is your measure predicting the future?

I can tell you that level of accuracy right now – zero.

If a Tarot reading tells you what actually happens ahead of time it is one of two things:

  1. Self-fulfilling prophecy – Cause and effect is a real thing. If you choose to DO something based on the reading, that action contributes to the end outcome. In this case, the reading caused the future, it didn’t predict it. Which is a good thing! That means you can use a Tarot reading to help you decide your best course of action. You can use a Tarot reading to help cause (or at least contribute to) the desired effect. The drawback here is that you don’t have control over everything. You can increase the chances of something happening, but you can’t 100% control everything and you certainly can’t 100% predict anything.
  2. Pure dumb luck. A broken clock is still right twice a day.

Is your measure getting good advice?

If that is the case, then there is a very high degree of accuracy, and it happens without regard for distance or delivery method (more on that tomorrow)

Is your measure stress reduction?

With that measure, Tarot has 100% accuracy.

People come to Tarot readings for a reason. There are as many reasons to get a Tarot reading as there are people and moments along their life’s journey.

A Tarot reading is a peaceful moment. A Tarot reading is a moment of hopefulness and optimism. A Tarot reading is a moment of calm, clarity and the hope of finding a solution.

If guidance, advice, and a peaceful moment is your measure, then my Tarot readings are as accurate as they come.

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Learn With Me: Lenormand Tarot, say it loud

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Part 1

Over the past several weeks we’ve looked at the history of Lenormand Tarot as its been told by Christopher Butler in the book accompanying this deck and a few quick online searches. The origins are as fuzzy as any other Tarot deck.

So far we’ve looked at a few single cards. The more I work with the deck, the more I appreciate the artwork. Color on black with a certain neon light at night aesthetic is my favorite palette. Been definitely feeling the intp, cyberpunk lofi aesthetic these days. This deck is a standout in the art and visual representation. I don’t care much for the pale colors and deliberately old, eighteenth century look of most of the other decks that I’ve seen. The lesson there is to find a deck you resonate with VISUALLY regardless of RWS vs Lenormand setup to the deck.

See? We really are learning stuff here.

We also learned how the Lenormand Deck pushes you toward intuitive reading. You have to rely on your own intuition for the role that the playing card insets play in the card interpretation – if any. In contrast, the RWS decks use that aspect of intuition through card reversals. Lenormand disregards reversals outright.

I have to agree with my friends who said, in their experience, Lenormand tended to be more blunt, direct, in your face and to the point. I have a hunch that this is a function of Lenormand being a smaller deck and, I suspect, you might get the same punchy quality if you did a major arcana only reading with a RWS deck. Some limited run specialty decks are majors only, and when I first experiments with “cybertarot” software back in the 90s, the demo was majors only – and this has a similar feel to those majors-only readings. Just like when a lens narrows a beam of sunlight, it increases the heat and intensity of the light it could be that a smaller deck increase the intensity of a reading. But I also suspect there is a “goldilocks zone” at play, too. Too small of a deck, or too large of a layout could dilute or blur the cards’ insights to the point that it is no longer useful at all.

In my experience, larger layouts will do that regardless of the deck’s size. Even the 10 card celtic cross can get unwieldy and contradictory. I see no value in even trying the every-card-in -the-deck 4 x 9 grand tableau layout that is common to Lenormand. It is absurd to me on its face. My hunch is that Mlle Lenormand was riffing from pure intuition and using the cards to connect with her clients. That isn’t to say that it is schtick or performance or a con or a trick…people are sometimes more willing to believe “the cards” over what another human has to say. The cards make us feel that the information is otherworldly, something more or special compared to human insight.

The cards are skeletal armature. The cards are a structural foundation on which human intuition builds.

That is the larger, functional insights from these cards today. Please read tomorrow and we’ll take a look at these cards specifically in this pathway layout. The right hand card is fading energies, the middle card is current energies and the left card is growing energy as I read these.

continues tomorrow …..

Learn With Me: Lenormand, The Moon

Learn Lenormand and Tarot together

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There is more to unpack here than it seems.

From a purely intuitive point of view, when the card turned over the message was simple and clear: Trust your own intuition right now. You already know what you are seeking to know. Trust your gut. Even if you don’t want to face it, deep down, you already know.

But from the “Let’s Learn Lenormand!” point of view, things are evolving.

As I dug into some other online resources to learn about the card, it starts to get contradictory and confusing. Honestly I’m not surprised. Lenormand is the quinessential large layout and this deck is very tied to that method and therefor that energy.

On one hand, the Moon in this deck vibes just like the Moon in the RWS based decks.

Which makes sense, because according to some sources, the deck is based on the Thoth Tarot and Thoth oracles while other sources say it is from oracle cards created directly by Marie Lenormand. Or both.

It doesn’t really matter except for vague background context which may or may not be helpful in any given individual reading. Like I’ve said over and over – no matter what oracle you use or how you use it, the REAL oracle is our own innate human intuition and psychic senses. The cards, runes, charms, crystal balls, bone or chicken gizzards are all just amplifiers and clarifiers that help access our intuition with greater ease and to communicate it to other people with greater clarity.

The Lenormand specific interpretations are all over the place. Some say it is just like the RWS moon. Others say it is nothing like the RWS moon. Christopher Buther, this deck’s author, basically connects it with intuition like other Tarot, but changes the meaning quite a bit based on adjacent cards.

My hunch the message here is to show just how interdependet the card interpretations are. The grand tableau layout using all of the deck is very interconnected and very interdependent.

It may be time for us to move on from one card readings and start with a tres petit tableau to play with the interconnected and mutually modifying card relationships.

Although, admittedly, I’m beginning to think good old Marie used the cards a prop as much as anything, laying them all out on the table and letting the psychic reading fly, occasionally making something up about the cards in front of her to justify what intuition had just told her. Which is as good of a use of the cards as any. They are props and prompts in the end, no matter how structured or methodical our approach to the cards may be.

*shrugs* who knows

There is your Tarot lesson for today: Trust your intuition.

Trust it when you are using Tarot cards, no matter how you use the cards. Trust it in pure form just out and about in daily life. Like a full moon in the middle of the night, trust your own good intuition to light the way.

Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!

Learn With Me: Lenormand Tarot, The Bear

Mama Bear meets Lenormand Tarot

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Today, two points jump to mind about the Lenormand Tarot deck as a whole rather than the Bear card specifically.

It is interesting that Lenormand has several cards with (non-human) animals as the whole focus and symbolism: bear, snake, birds or owls, fox, stork, mouse and fish. Marseilles / Visconti / RWS format decks have animals sprinkled through the deck but never as the primary or sole focus of a card. The closest is the Strength card which prominently features a lion, but it is more about the human’s interaction with the lion and the symbolism about strength and leadership that is associated with lions rather than the animal’s actual characteristics or behavior. Other than that, we mostly see the knight’s horses, a few dogs, an ox, a fish in a cup and a lobster taking a moonlight stroll on a beach.

There are two full decks that share a similar energy to Lenormand’s animal cards: the Medicine Cards oracle deck by David Carson and Jamie Sams and Animal Wise Tarot by Ted Andrews. I’m sentimentally attached to both of these decks because Medicine Cards was my first deck and entry point to reading any cards, Tarot or otherwise. I have always had great respect for Ted Andrews and his writings have been utterly influential and invaluable to me. I was so fortunate to meet him at one of his Animal Speak workshops around the time that Animal Wise Tarot was first published. There is a significant intuitive connection from between these decks and the Lenormand, more than typical RWS decks seem to have. This is the first I’ve noticed that energy-similarity since this is the first animal-symbol Lenormand card we’ve drawn.

The Bear card is about that well-known “mama bear” protectiveness, and begs the question of who protects you? Who do you need to protect? Where do you need to protect yourself better? Where are you too guarded?

The other thing that captures my attention is the 10 of clubs on the Bear card.

All 36 of the Lenormand cards have a playing card on them in addition to their primary symbol. Not all of the playing cards can be represented in the smaller Lenormand deck. Christopher Butler’s guidebook that came with this Healing Light Lenormand deck is oddly silent about the playing card references. I’m looking for more information about that part of the Lenormand cards and will update you later in the series.

In my book Peace Tarot, I give you an easy technique for using regular playing cards to find your Tarot daily meditation card meaning if you don’t have a Tarot deck to use. There is a link where you can buy a copy of Peace Tarot above the video if you are interested in learning more about DIY daily meditation style Tarot, that works even if you don’t own a Tarot deck. Using that method, the 10 of clubs connects with the 10 of wands, which is a different energy than the bear. The bear to my mind today is connecting with a major arcana energy much more akin to the Emperor card is also connected with strength and protectiveness. It is difficult to access that kind of major arcana vibe with the playing deck (we talk about that in Peace Tarot, too)

If you live in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh PA, USA keep an eye on your local library websites. I’ll be presenting a Tarot for relaxation workshop based on the information in Peace Tarot at a few locations this Fall. It’s a very inexpensive .pdf in the Sage Words Tarot Shop, I hope you’ll consider giving it a read.

In honor of 10 years of Peace Tarot and how meaningful and useful a daily meditation Tarot practice has been for me over 30 years of card reading, I’ve decided to return to daily meditation Tarot readings for the collective energy in the blog through New Year 2024 which will mark the one year anniversary of TaoCraft Tarot relaunching as Sage Words Tarot. I’ll decide then what, if anything is next. After all the upheaval in the world since the pandemic (politically since 2016 here in the U.S.) a return to some steadiness and simplicity is probably a pretty good idea.

Instagram and Threads is still the best social media to catch me if you want to actually interact. I’m Sage Words Tarot on all the socials (except Twitter – X . I quit that mess months ago) I hope you’ll follow along here, on the socials, on ko-fi or the Substack weekly newsletter. The newsletter happens on Thursdays. Next Wendsday “Learn With Me” will be back with a review of the Healing Light Lenormand deck as a whole thing that I bought – on sale from Llwellyn Publishing. Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!

Healing Light Lenormand by Christopher Butler © 2021 Lo Scarabeo srl, via Cigna 110, 10155 Torino, Italy. All rights reserved, used by permission.

Tarot Turnover: What Day Is It???

Members-only learn to read Tarot post is now up on the TaoCraft Tarot Ko-fi page. Please join to read more!

“I’m happy the star is our card today. My feeling is that it is a good omen for the year to come. I hear “quiet commemoration and dignified beginning” for the year to come.”

New Tarot Turnover for members

See that pumpkin in the corner? 78 cards, near infinite Tarot possibilities

the members only post is up

Ever wonder how only 78 cards can provide inspiration and guidance for uncountable people for hundreds of years?

We talk about that in today’s Tarot Turnover.

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Watch Out for those Petards

Members only learn-to-read Tarot post featuring the Five of Swords, hoisting and petards now available on the ko-fi blog.

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Tarot Turnover: Happy September ’22

Learn to read Tarot intuition building exercise now up on the members-only ko-fi blog. This week: The Hermit

Intuition practice “Tarot Turnover” exercise is now available on the ko-fi members only blog.

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