So you want to learn Tarot? There are so many books, teachers, web sites, facebook groups around. And we all get lost while trying to learn, spending I don’t know how many hours, days, months, years sometimes, because of all that wide choice.
We go from book to book, hoping that buying a new book is going to fix the problems we encounter. And then to that website which is going to give me a clearer view of La Papesse. And then a virtual friend on one of these facebook groups tells us that we don’t have a good grasp of la Papesse, because La Papesse means this. Or that. Sounds familiar? Such nonsense we go through when trying to learn.
Do we really need to go through all that? Why do we make things so complicated for ourselves? Do we really need 50 different books telling us what La Papesse means?
So, you want to learn Tarot? You want an advice, only one? Read your cards, not so many books. Get one good book, just one, or a person that can guide you to get started. Not many, just one. Get out of facebook for a while. Stop browsing the web about information on Tarot.
Get a deck, a Marseille, the 22 majors. Bring it with you everywhere. Look at the cards when you have 2 minutes. Try to see how the cards relate to real life. You’re driving? You are in the Chariot. You’re working? You are Le Bateleur. You’re reading? You are La Papesse. That’s it, try to emulate the people you see in the cards, and try to see how you feel when doing that. Get a sense of what the cards mean. To you, not to such or such pretended “expert”.
Because you see, Tarot books gan get go only so far. Look at history books, how was life when these cards came out. And art books, they can tell you so much about these cards. Tarot and life are intermixed, learn about life and you’ll learn about tarot.
Easy? Hell no, it takes time.
And then? You ask a clear question. You put a few cards on the table. And you read them. And this is important. Speak, I did not say mumble, speak clearly what you see. Describe the cards, what are the people doing, how they interact, who’s doing what to whom, who is in power. Usually the closer the interpretation is to what you see, the best it will be. How do you feel? Try conveying all that in your spoken response.
Rinse and repeat. At least you’ll come with your own voice, your own words, you won’t sound like a parrot blindly repeating what someone else wrote in a book.
So, as the Tarot is the master, I did a french cross, all majors, and asked my Tarot de Marseille: how do we learn Tarot?
I must say that I really was not surprised to see the Hangman in the middle, as synthesis of the spread, since any kind of learning requires time and sacrifice. Learning requires effort, and it is even uncomfortable at times, a nice analogy to this character being upside down and attached by one foot.
For me, the synthesis is the card that gives the general mood of the reading, how we color the interpretation the other cards. So in this reading, the notion of time and sacrifice will modulate a little bit the other cards. And of course curiosity, since this hanged man is upside down, he sees the world differently, from a different point of view. What else? The head is close to the ground, learning will have to remain quite practical in nature.
Force in what can help us and the Empress what works against us. These two cards represent an interesting dynamic. On one side we see this lady trying to tame a lion, and on the other, a lady in control. First observation, if the lady in control is in the position of what works against us, it reinforces the idea of the hanged man, the notion of time and certainly of difficulties to try to control the learning.
Force on the other hand, if we think of the idea of taming a lion, shows that there is a subtle game between human being and animal, a game where everyone must trust the other. Not an easy balance to find. The lion seems to let himself being mastered, but the man would be easily dominated in an instant. So we have an apprenticeship that requires to rely on our instincts. That requires a regular and repetitive work, starting slowly and progressively increasing the difficulty.
And opposite Force, the Empress. It would be crazy to think that one day we can dominate the tarot, take absolute control. Using the strength of her intelligence is certainly interesting, but using reflexes and instincts is certainly more productive in learning than excessive intellectualization as the Empress would. We do not dominate the tarot, it’s the tarot that dominates us.
Faced with all this, what does the Pope advise us? The pope, by definition the highest authority of a religion. Since we are talking about religion, it is certainly what the tarot should become for us in this apprenticeship, our religion. Like the Pope who interprets the scriptures, it is up to us to behave in the same way when interpreting the tarot. The roles are similar, we serve as tarot guide, the same way the pope is the guarantor of traditions. How do we get to this position? First, we must have faith, the same way a pope would, unconditional faith in our tool. Then, by being the bridge in between Force and l’Impératrice. That does not happen in one day, we’re looking at getting the right guidance between instinct, feelings, and intellectual. Not an easy task. After all, as we have seen, the tarot is the master and decides when we are ready.
We could also use the services of someone to advise us. But once again be careful not to fall into dogmatism, the Pope points to the Empress, on what works against us, a sign of not falling into too closed ideas. The Pope is above the Hangman, he has arrived at his position by his efforts and his curiosity. The scriptures here are the tarot itself, probably the best guide we can follow.
And all this to finally reach le Bateleur, someone who performs in front of a crowd for living. This is the ultimate goal, like this performer, to use our tool, the tarot, in public to refine our learning. This requires the expertise of the Pope. Also, doing a magic trick as he does is not easy, it requires very precise gestures. Repetition and sacrifice as the hanged man shows, everything must become instinctive as in la Force, without the strict control of l’Imperatrice, and of course having the tarot as a guide as in le Pape.
Deck: Le Véritable Tarot de Marseille, by Kris Hadar
