So, you'd like to know the truth about the tarot? Well, there are a couple things you need to realize first before we dig into that:
- People always use the worth "truth" to mean a universal truth. When in reality, most truths are personal truths, which only apply to the person having the experience with said "truth". Meaning MY truth and YOUR truth can be two, totally different things.
- The tarot is older than anyone living at this time. Something that's been around that long has probably had many uses and many "truths". So today's truth? Is not yesterday's truth, and tomorrow's truth may look nothing like today's. So keep that in mind when you're dealing with something that nobody can agree on, like the tarot.
Is it good? Is it bad?
It's freaking glossy cardboard. How can you classify a paper product as good or bad? The only way you can is to say "depends on how you use it".
If you take a tarot card, and shape it into a knife and stab someone with it, sure, it's super bad. But if you're just opening the package, laying them out on the table, and playing around with them? Who on earth is that hurting?
If you're a con-artist and you say to someone "I can see everything with these cards! Just give me $200 and I will tell you it all!" Then YOU are bad, not the cards. That's where the misconception lies. When we lay the blame on the tool instead of the user of the tool, that's where the problems are caused.
If I give you a hammer, and you build a homeless person a house, that hammer is amazingly awesome. But if I give you a hammer and you kill a homeless person with it, then yeah, that hammer kind of sucks.
BUT is it the hammer's fault? It's just metal and wood. Metal and wood cannot jump up and do bad things.
But, but, there's the devil and death and other bad stuff on in them!
So what? Those aren't bad cards. Those cards (among the 20 others which are called "the major arcana") are archetypes, which are symbols for universal life. Endings are a part of life (which is what the death card means). Every single card in the deck is a reflection of universal life. Every single card can be applied to every single person, and it will make sense. You can't fear pictures, that's just silly. And if the pictures are REALLY scary, throw them away and replace them from some other deck with neat pictures you like to look at.
Simple.
But, don't you have to be psychic to use them?
Pardon my words here for a second, but only ignorant people think this. The cards are tools, yes, but for anyone, not for "special" chosen people. And the cards are no more magical than that hammer you used to build that house above. Do psychics exist? I have no freaking clue. Maybe, and maybe not. But, what does that matter in relation to you using them?
But as a RUUist, I don't believe in psychics (because I don't believe in anything). Am I okay with people thinking they are psychic? Eh....not sure. So many shysters out there looking for a sucker, and I don't approve of that at all. Yet, which is almost worse, some don't even realize they're not psychic, and that's sad. I know, because:
I used to be one of them.
Let me tell you a story....
I've been a tarot reader for over 26 years. I used to believe hardcore in psychic abilities, ghosts, magic, and other junk. Then one day, I got slapped in the face.
Granted, it was a metaphorical slap, but still, it kind of hurt. I grew up my entire life with 2 certainties: I was psychic. And my house was haunted (hell, I even wrote a book about it). But then I started to learn about cold readings, and got really discouraged. And then I wondered if anything I believed was true, so I stopped thinking about ghosts and guess what? The hauntings stopped. If I was actually being haunted, then me not thinking about it shouldn't stop it right? But it did. And that's when I reallly realized, it just wasn't true.
This turned my life upside down. When I learned about cold readings, I realized that was exactly what I was doing in my readings that I was getting paid for. I was the shyster! But it wasn't on purpose...but the guilt was eating me alive, so I just put my cards away and didn't touch them again for almost a year. How could I have been tricking people out of their money and not know it?
But the truth was, I wasn't really tricking them. The only thing I was tricking them about was how I was getting my information. What I was doing true and real, because the way I read the tarot was never psychic at all. In the 26 years I read the tarot, I only had a handful of people ever tell me what I said to them didn't apply, and yet not one of them asked for their money back. So, why did my readings work?
Because of the way I read them.
When I read them, I was not like Miss Cleo and told my clients a bunch of BS crap what "may or may not" have been real (most likely, may not). I counseled my clients with them, which is what I am best at. I had clients all over the world (like Mexico, Australia, Europe, etc.) who contacted me on a regular basis to counsel them. I made sure to tell them I wasn't a licensed counselor, I called myself a spiritual counselor...which I was. But at my core? I really did think I had some kind of psychic gift. And that's why I felt so damn guilty when I finally realized I didn't. And I felt like my entire life was a complete and total lie.
But had I known? Had I known I wasn't psychic and informed my clients that I wasn't? I could have went on with my tarot practice without guilt. But I was ignorant. I didn't realize the truth.
What is my truth?
My truth now? Is that the tarot is tool for everyone. And it takes absolutely no psychic ability to read them. And knowing how to read them is a gift. Not from god or the universe, but from you. You give yourself the gift of ability to do something when you work hard and hone your skills. And the other gift you give yourself and your clients is: honesty. You don't pretend to be something you're not. You don't pretend to know things you don't. The human mind is pretty suggestive, and if you go around suggesting something like, oh I don't know, that someone's husband is cheating on them (as I once did in my early 20's)? You might ruin a marriage. Or worse.
(note: He WAS cheating on her, but it wasn't for me to be the one to tell her with my tarot...the signs were obvious, but she had to be the one who saw them....as a tarot reader, I could had explored the idea of why she thought he was cheating with her, and let her see it for herself and not tell her myself what was obvious. It needed to be obvious to her. He, in turn, used the fact that she heard it from a tarot reader that it "obviously wasn't true" to get her to believe him. Which she did. Ethics, my friend, don't use them properly and it could blow up in your face.)
Am I telling you to use the tarot for others and run out to become a reader at the local fair tomorrow? Sure, if you want to. But, honestly, I think you should wait a second first. I'd rather you use the tarot for you first. Learn how to use these gorgeous and amazing tools for your own personal growth before you go read them for others. But don't learn how to read them from the booklet, that never works. And other places online will teach you how to read the meanings of the cards in a "psychic" way, which is kind of foolish if you ask me. And yet other places will tell you silly things such as "wrap your cards in silk to keep out negative energies!" Where is the scientific basis for that? What studies have been done? None, that's how many. Instead, just follow my instructions below on how to read them for yourself.
So, if the tarot isn't magical, how DO you read the cards?
With your MIND!
Just kidding.
Well, actually, yes, it's really true. You do use your mind. And that's it. You use common sense. And, you have some fun with it!
Reading the Tarot RUU Style Step-by-Step
- Open your deck, throw away the plastic, and shuffle your cards.
- Ask a question about what you want to know about (ask personal stuff such as "What do I need to know for (insert life subject here) in order to (insert life verb here)?"
- Lay out some cards in any fashion you like.
- Look at the pictures. What do they say to you?
- Write your answers down and examine them. Where do you see your answers?
And that's it. No fancy business. Just read the pictures. Pretend the people on the cards are real people. What are they saying to you? Ask them your own questions. See how they answer. And write it all down.
And you can use the tarot for oh-so-many things as a RUUist:
- Story ideas (character creation, plot, setting, almost anything in a story can be created with tarot cards....actually, since it works so well, I am surprised it's not the main use of the tarot today...go figure)
- Health issues (never a replacement for a doctor, only a possible explanation what in your own psyche might be at the root of the health issue--like "what's causing my anxiety?", etc. You'd be surprised what you can figure out this way.)
- Shadow work (digging deep into those dark places in your mind that you normally dare not travel--the tarot, with it's pictorial representations of life experiences, can open up those parts to shed light where normally light doesn't reach...we talk about this more in depth in my "pay what you want" class below)
- Self-exploration ("Who am I and where I going?" By using the tarot to ask specific questions to guide you in your self-exploration, you can delve into some pretty deep stuff--we cover this in class too)
So, the truth about tarot?
- It's not magic.
- You're not magic.
- And everyone has the ability to use such a fun tool for themselves and others.
Good luck and have fun, my fellow RUUists! And go grab yourself a deck and see what you can find out : )
Let me know below if you use the tarot and how it works for you, or if you go out and pick up a deck for the first time and try it : )
If you want to a learn more in-depth way to learn about using the tarot for nonbelievers in a no-nonsense way, then head over to my sister site:
RainyDayTarot.blogspot.com
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