The origin of the Tarot is a mystery but to understand its nature, one must begin where the Tarot begins in the realms of the imagination.  Through imagination it is possible to travel instantly into the past or future or to other lands, beyond the earth and to realms that we don’t understand in the physical world.  Because imagination is so vast and powerful and so very different from the material world it appears both very seductive and very frightening.

An aura of the unknown clings to the cards and some religions shun the cards and others think of them as symbols from an unenlightened past.  The word “Tarot” is the French term for a deck of cards which are used for both games and divination. The cards seem to have travelled to France from Italy where the word for the deck is “Tarocco”.  What is the Tarot?  A deck of cards with pictures invented in Italy in the 15th century as a popular card game.  Later in the 18th & 19th centuries the cards were discovered by a number of scholars of the occult.  They revealed the tarot as we now know it by linking the cards to Egyptian mysteries, the Qabalah, alchemy and other mystical pursuits.

The Tarot is generally viewed as a tool for divination, with a seeker, who is someone who is looking for answers to personal questions and a reader who somehow knows how to interpret the cards.  When the seeker has shuffled the cards thinking clearly about the question he requires an answer to,  the reader lays out the cards in a pattern called a spread.  Each position in the spread has a meaning and each card has a meaning as well.  The reader combines both of these to shed light on the question.

What can we do with the Tarot?  The answer lies within each of us.  The unconscious mind affects everything we do.  We may not know the power of the subconscious but the Tarot is a tool to explore its landscape.

Each of us has an Inner Guide who is always with you because it is part of you.

You can ignore your Inner Guide but when you reach for your tarot deck you are signalling that you are open to its wisdom.  Nature intended us to reply on its wisdom but somehow we have forgotten to look deeper and we trust our conscious minds instead.  When we know how to access our Inner Guide we tend to experience life differently because we are aligning our conscious will with our inner purpose and our path becomes more joyful.

There are many ways of approaching the Tarot and each person must decide
which way makes the most sense.  It is a set of seventy eight pictures which express all the forces that affect human nature.  For those who seek to learn how to connect with their Inner Guide the path is easy, enlightening and magic.  Using the Tarot for divination, which means Divine guidance is a practical way of learning its deeper secrets.  The old myths and fairy stories are ways of feeding the imagination and should be read in the knowledge that they belong to another form of knowing and perceiving.  The pattern of symbols in the spread must be allowed to play upon your imagination until the connections begin to filter through.

Everything in our universe is an energy manifestation.  It is clear that those who studied ancient wisdom and the alchemists knew about these energies.  The Tarot is based on the elements Fire, Water, Earth and Air.  The wand is the symbol for fire, the cup for water, the disk for earth and the sword for air.  Wands represent action, skill, initiative, pushing forward in some way.  Cups the symbol of water govern the feelings and sensing, imaginative aspect of our lives.  Fire and water are the dynamic elements of our lives and earth and air are the inert, moved only by the interaction of fire and water.  Disks are the symbol of the element earth and govern earthly matters.  Swords are the symbol of air, air is the element of our intellect.  Very often in lists of card meanings they are associated with the unpleasant. It seems we should use our intellect sparingly replying more upon our feelings and instincts and intuitions as guides to our lives.

In the middle ages we communicated far more with symbols than we do now and this is a loss to our intuition which manifests in symbols, such as in our dreams.  Certain cards in the tarot form into groups, the Major and Minor Arcana. A major arcana card represents an energy that is deep, strong and long-term.  The minor arcana cards do not carry the same significance but are still important. Court cards which include the Knight, Queen, Prince and princess generally relate in some way to people who are important in our lives.  They show us also what we have to learn and what we wish to master.

Everyone can learn to use Tarot because it is based on a principle we have all been using since early childhood. That is to view everything in pictures.  Pictures form in our minds before we put words to them but sometimes our pictures are not as clear as they might be because we put too much emphasis in life on words.

The Tarot is a wonderful tool for exploring the subconscious and enhancing the mind.  It allows us to escape into a new world of our own making that can directly influence our lives and how we respond to the rest of the world. 

Come and join me on a journey of exploration by learning the Tarot and raise your consciousness to another level.

Kairen Kellard – Qabalistic Teacher (Order of the White Lion)

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