TAROT FOR BEGINNERS BY BARBARA MOORE

1: Basic

Tarot cards are really amazing in so many ways. For one, you will be glad to know it is not difficult to understand the basics of the deck and of reading the cards. The process breaks down into very logical parts that build on each other. Go through the steps, and you'll be reading before you know it.

Learning to read the cards has a lot in common with learning to read. First you learn the alphabet, then you put the ABCs together to create words; the words create sentences, and so on. Once you have the basic foundation, you continually add to your vocabulary and become more skillful in adding nuance and precision to your written and spoken communication. You can then take language in any direction and do any number of things with it: write poetry, tell amazing stories, communicate information, sing. Reading the cards follows much the same path. You learn basics. Your cards become your alphabet. Your readings become your essays. Your reading style becomes your novel, poem, or song.

Before going somewhere new, it is usually helpful to look at a map. Once you have an idea of the lay of the land, it is much easier to see how the individual elements work together. This chapter is packed with lots of interesting information that will help you begin creating the map for your journey into the world of tarot. Because so many subjects have their own jargon, let's start with a glossary so we are all speaking the same language. A short history lesson is necessary as well—not so much that you know who did what when, but more so that you understand tarot's fluid nature. And then we'll get to what is for many the main feature of tarot: what makes a reading a reading.

Part of the reason you are reading this book, I hope, is to learn what the cards mean. We can make that process a loteasier by understanding the structure of a deck and breaking it down into smaller, more manageable bits. And, since you are going on a journey, it is wise to keep a record of the experience. Hence, we end this jam-packed chapter with ideas for keeping a journal.

Glossary

Arcana: A secret or mystery.

Court cards: The sixteen cards of the Minor Arcana named page, knight, queen, and king.

Divination: The act of divining; predicting the future or interpreting messages from the Divine. Traditionally, divination is the act of telling the future. Modern tarotists use the term to mean communication with the Divine.

Divine: Not a tarot term but used in this book to mean God, the universe, Great Spirit, Higher Self, higher power, etc.

Fortunetelling: Predicting the future.

Golden Dawn: A secret magical society that existed in England at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. Arthur E. Waite (creator of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot) and Aleister Crowley (creator of the Thoth Tarot) were members.

Major Arcana: The twenty-two cards in a tarot deck, numbered 0–XXI.

Minor Arcana: The fifty-six cards in a tarot deck, divided into four suits and numbered ace through ten, plus the court cards.

Predictive: As in a predictive reading—a reading in which the future is foretold.

Prescriptive: As in a prescriptive reading—a reading in which the focus is on giving the querent advice. 

Qabalah: A Western esoteric and mystical tradition drawing on Jewish Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), astrology, alchemy, and other mystical studies.

Querent: In a reading, the querent is the person asking the question. If someone is reading for herself, she is both the reader and the querent.