Tarot cards use symbols and archetypes to express ideas in a language that we all recognise. It is the language of myths and fairy tales; of songs and stories; of movies and dramas; of poetry and fable.
The cards speak of queens, kings and princes, heroes and villains, the sun, the moon and stars, swords and cups, beggars and thieves, children and crones, wands and thrones.
Each one represents an aspect of who we are, what we fear and what we aspire to: our thoughts, feelings, actions and behaviours.
(Left: the archetypal old king and his youngest daughter from King Lear and other traditional stories.)
We learn to use images, symbols and archetypes to communicate ideas from our earliest days. Gazing at our first picture books, figuring out which toilet to use, reading road signs, laughing at comics, puzzling out instructions for assembling furniture and adding emojis and emoticons to our messages; we understand how to communicate using the language of symbols.
All cultures share legendary tales of lovers, heroes, villains, wise women and fools, losers and winners. Their adventures in songs, traditional fairy stories, books or TV soaps reflect our own personal journeys. Just as the Tarot charts our own inner journey from innocence to experience, from childhood to old age, or from being a part of the undifferentiated unconscious to becoming a fulfilled and fully-functioning individual.
By laying out the cards mindfully, reading and making sense of them as they relate to our own daily lives, we use the symbolic language to communicate with our inner, unconscious self. Things that have remained hidden, sometimes for years, can be revealed to us through the language of the tarot.
Practical tarot is about understanding the language of the cards, being open and allowing them to reveal and explain our past, present and future actions.
Through tarot work, we reflect on what we do and why. We see how things are the way they are. And then we can predict how they will be in the future if nothing changes.
By shedding light on past events, feelings and actions, tarot illuminates the present.
We learn what we can change, how to change and when to embrace new and different thoughts, feelings, ideas and behaviours.
By understanding the present, we can change the future.
Like most things that matter in life, a rewarding tarot reading comes from hard work and honest thinking, the courage to face our demons and the resolve to tackle them, the understanding of what brings love and joy into our lives and the ability to find it in others.