I mentioned in “How To Read Tarot Cards: Setting Up Your Tarot Notebook” that we’ll be breaking up the card meanings up into 4 sections: Initial Feelings and Impressions, Artistic Impressions, Personal Meaning, Meaning as given by the book.
Before you actually begin setting up your card meanings, you will need to clear your mind. Set down in silence for a few moments before beginning. Close your eyes and gently push all other influences from your mind. Once your mind has settled down, then it’s okay to begin. Doing this ensures that you don’t inadvertently cloud your card meanings.
The sections:
Initial Feelings: Instead of pondering the meaning of the card or what the card could mean, I just write down the feelings I get while holding the card. I note my breathing, my heart rate (is it fast or slow, calm, or agitated). If any images flash through my mind, I also make a note of those as well. Write down everything you feel and think about the card, whether or not it’s a sentence, paragraph, or pages long.
Artistic Impressions: Once you’ve gotten all your feelings about the card out, look at the card. Look at the details and the design of it, the patterns, shapes, and colors. Make a note of the design under this section. Many tarot decks leave clues in the artwork with hidden meanings. Once you look close enough, these clues and hidden meanings are revealed to you.
Personal Meaning: Based on your initial impressions and the artwork of the card, write down your meaning for the card. Don’t look at any other tarot books or guides, listen to the card and simply write down what this card is saying to you.
Meaning from the book: If your tarot deck came with a book of interpretations, then you can write down that meaning in this section. I want to note that even if your interpretation of the card is completely different that the one given by the book, it is okay. The whole purpose of the 3 prior sections was for you to get in sync with your cards and you have – that is what the card means to you. But when you write down the meaning from the book, it may give you an aha moment or some clues in the artwork you may have overlooked.
In the next Tarot How To installment, we’ll be going over the interpretations for the first card in the Nigel Jackson Tarot deck.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
That’s great exactly how I was taught to read the tarot, always looking for new method’s