About Tarot

Here's what the dictionary has to say about tarot:

'Any of a set of usually 78 playing cards including 22 cards depicting vices, virtues, and elemental forces, used in fortune telling.'

I think of the tarot as a picture book with 78 pages that can be read in any order.

The tarot can be used in 'fortune telling' and to predict the future but it isn't limited to just that. I use tarot when I need to get some insight into a situation but mostly I use it when I feel I need a little advice

I believe that the future isn't set in stone. We can and do control our own destinies.

A tarot reading is a little like taking a photograph or holding up a mirror to your life. It looks at your life now but it can also tell you about the past and the direction you're heading in as well as offering advice. The reading can look at your life in general or you can focus on a specific situation or problem. It can help you see things from a different perspective or just to see the 'bigger picture'.

Tarot can be used to illuminate the underlying cause of a situation and so can help you to learn from your problems, as well as suggest ways that you can help yourself to get through them and move on.

By showing the past, present and future trends, tarot can be used to help us to help ourselves so that life's lessons don't need to be repeated again and again.

To me Tarot is the link to that divine spark within each and every one of us.

The Tarot is a deck of 78 cards, each with it's own picture. A tarot deck is divided into 2 parts, called the major and minor arcana.

The major arcana is made up of 22 cards which tell the story of a soul from innocence to enlightenment - this is often called The Fool's Journey.

The major arcana shows us important, psychological or spiritual issues going on in our lives.

The minor Arcana is divided into 4 suits a little like a modern deck of playing cards.

Each tarot suit represents a different area of life and is represented by one of the four elements; air, fire, water and earth.

Like this:

Swords / Air - thoughts, the mind, communication, words. Swords can also represent conflict, struggles and problems.

Wands or Batons/ Fire - passion, action, creativity and ambition.

Cups / Water - the emotions, the subconscious, intuion, psychic powers, love life.

Pentacles or Coins / Earth - the body, the physical, health, work and money.

Each suit also contains 4 'people' or Court cards - these can represent other people, situtations or aspects of our own personalities.

The minor arcana shows us the more mundane or everyday aspects of our lives.