I bought a deck of tarot cards this weekend. I went to the bookstore on a whim and the deck with a short introductory book was less than $10. A more complete book was less than $7. I’ve always loved tarot readings although I’ve only had them done them 3 or 4 times in my life. Since I am a fervent non-believer of the idea that cards can tell the future, my explanation for why I enjoy a reading has been that it’s the only way to find someone who is willing to talk about me for a solid 30 minutes. To be fair, I do have quite a few friends who will listen to me whine (and try to give constructive criticism) for a good amount of time, but I tend to feel guilty when they do this for me. My first day with my tarot cards I had a fabulous time. Before I even read the book, I started sorting through them. I spontaneously separated out the 22 “Major Arcana” cards from the 56 minor cards (these are basically like a deck of cards with one extra face card in each suit). Next I tried to group the major arcana cards, but I needed to read a bit in order to do this. I put them in the order of a life cycle and correlated the major arcana cards with the “suits” of the rest of the deck. All of this appealed to my logical side. Next, I jumped right into a reading. I liked that different card layouts have different purposes such as answering a specific question or summarizing current concerns or the week ahead. I loved that I could immediately try a reading by just looking up the card and deriving a meaning based on its placement in the layout. I was amazed at how incredibly “accurate” or insightful my readings were. That same day I talked to Haus Frau, who has always done her own readings, and who has also read for me once or twice. She recommended a fabulous website: http://www.learntarot.com/.

So by now those of you who find tarot cards silly may be asking yourselves, “what is your point!?” My point is this… why might a highly logical, not very creative or spiritual person be so easily drawn to tarot cards. Of course, the fact that I’m a skeptic and that I don’t see tarot cards as a threat to my religious beliefs is important. But beyond this, what really appeals to me about tarot cards. I read a bit of the website (listed above) and figured it out. When I read the cards, I am considering various aspects of my life fairly carefully. Think about it. How often do you sit down and ponder any aspects of your life. To do a good reading, I am supposed to meditate on my life or a question concerning me while I shuffle the cards. I don’t do this well yet (to be honest I pretty much skip this part), but when I learn to incorporate this, I expect my readings will become even more insightful. The website mentioned above talks about how tarot cards are merely a tool which allows us to get in touch with our own unconscious mind and that if we were really good at this we wouldn’t need them. She/he also likens tarot cards to Rorschach inkblots. This totally makes sense to me. Obviously I see what I want to see in the cards, but at the same time; some cards tell things I don’t necessarily want to hear. For example, my first reading (and another subsequent reading) told me that my own stubbornness is what is obstructing me! I seem to be able to see things that I might not have appreciated consciously. I suppose I could find the time to meditate a bit, and then sit quietly and think about my life, my decisions, chance events and how I manage them without using tarot cards. I could even write lists of things to do or keep track of dreams in order to focus more energy on running my life successfully. But the advantage of the tarot cards is that it’s just plain of fun. It’s a great way to think about my life, my attitudes and the people in my life and it might even inspire me to make some positive changes.

Care to respond with your own post Haus Frau?