“You’re an archetypal tarot reader, awesome! . . . Sorry, but what does that mean exactly?” I get this every time I tell someone what I do at a party, and for good reason. People know what the tarot is and basically how it’s read, but when I add terms like “archetypal”, “psycho-spiritual”, or “depth psychology”, a bit more explanation is required. And perhaps you’ve
That tarot deck you have in the back of a drawer may be the key to unlock your creative potential. If you are a creative at heart, probably one of the most persistent thoughts at the back of your mind is how you can feel more inspired, more productive, and more in flow with your creativity. For so many of us trapped in the doldrums
Even if you don’t read professionally, you will, at some point, likely pull cards for someone else, and navigate the tightrope of tarot ethics. You’ll have to discern whether it’s best to tell the person the Tower is about to fall or just say everything’s okay and maybe a vacation is in order. You’ll have to help them sort through some choices you would never
We all come up against cards that, no matter what we do, simply don’t make sense. Every week my inbox is flooded with DMs from people who want to know how to interpret a card (which is, somehow, at least half the time the 7 of Swords). Sometimes they’re stuck because they can’t make sense of the card in the context (e.g. the Lovers at
Absolute tarot beginner? Start here. More and more spiritual souls are seeking out the tarot as a tool of psycho-spiritual development, but though they start their journey with tremendous excitement, many newbies quickly get discouraged. And this discouragement does not come from the task being difficult, so much as it comes from it being overwhelming. Because we all want to master the cards, but we
Court cards are killer, there’s no way around it. Every tarot reader hates court cards because they’re nearly impossible to read. If you pull one or two, you can find a way to make them make sense, but when you pull five in a single reading (as I have done many, many times) you can’t help but wonder what the hell to do with them.
The language of the tarot and the language of dreams are one and the same. I once had a dream that I was in a quiet apartment in Paris, looking through its tiny window at the Eiffel Tower glittering against the black night. There was nothing else happening in the dream, no rustling around for a lost earring or a stranger knocking at the door.
This may sound a bit silly, but I only really felt that I mastered the cards once I realized the powerful connection between the Jungian cognitive functions and the tarot suits. Of course, for the average tarotist, learning about the Jungian cognitive functions may never come in handy, but for the deep, archetypally-inspired reader, these connections can make all the difference. While “Jungian cognitive functions”
“Women do have a quest at this time in our culture. It is the quest to fully embrace their feminine nature, learning how to value themselves as women and heal the deep wound of the feminine.” These words by Maureen Murdock are her answer to Joseph Campbell’s statement that, mythologically, women don’t need a journey because they themselves are the goal. To be fair to
Do you ever go to the cards confused, heartbroken, lost, and walk away feeling even more confused, heartbroken, and lost? We all know the transformative power of the tarot. You likely discovered it yourself in your first reading, when the Magician, the Hermit, the High Priestess looked you in the eye and told you exactly who you were. And then, as the story usually goes,