I have early memories of my dad bringing out his wooden box which held his rune stones, and the blue patterned bag that held his deck of tarot cards. There was a specific smell about them.

At some point in either college or high school, he gave me his set of cards, along with a book that explains them: The Sacred Tarot Unveiled by Allyson Walsh. (I have looked over the years and have never found a comparable book. I highly recommend this one.) You are not supposed to buy a deck of cards for yourself, you are always supposed to receive them as a gift. It wasn’t until 2008 that I really started getting into them.

At the time, I was in an unhealthy relationship which left me alone in my room waiting for an arrival, a text, or call. Something. I found myself sitting, full of anxiety. I found it as a sort of prayer. A kind of connection with the divine. Many religions believe the tarot as part of the “occult,” or something of the “devil.” I don’t believe in any of that. I only know that God finds myriad of ways to connect with us, and the tarot is one of them.

What I found comfort in, was doing a tarot card reading for myself, a specific type of reading — a five card spread — on relationships. I have used it over the past 10 years, on average a couple times a year, usually about relationships – mainly romantic, but also family and friends. I have a notebook where I record my readings over the years so I can go back and look at previous readings, but also take note of cards that repeat over time, especially for certain relationships.

This past year, I saw a friend who was struggling to figure the tarot out. Unfortunately we live far away from each other and I couldn’t teach her in person, so I bought her the book I mentioned above, and wrote a letter for her. I am posting it here if others find it helpful, but also for myself to reference in the future.

This is my short guide to how I use the tarot, as a companion to the book The Sacred Tarot Unveiled:

GENERAL APPROACH

 The general way I approach the Tarot cards are that they are as “mystical,” “magical,” or “spiritual” as you want them or make them out to be. Sure, they are pieces of plastic and paper, but if you want to learn, I think they can shed light on deeper things going on. I personally don’t think of them as “telling fortunes” but more encouraging me and guiding me to look at things in ways that I might not see otherwise. It can get me out of ruts in the ways that I think and see things. But ultimately, I think each individual determines how they read them and use them, and their own relationship to them, and how they derive meaning.

READINGS

Choosing a reading: Usually I feel called to do a reading when I feel jumbled, alone, and/or lost, and with a lack of clarity around a specific issue or relationship. I mainly use the relationship reading (which I’ve marked in your book with a purple tag “R”) and I also occasionally use the three-card spread. This is the reading my dad always used when I was growing up. It allows you to explore a simple questions or issue, or even feeling, with a “past,” “present,” and “future” cards. I have most frequently used the five-card spread relationship reading over the past 10 years. Usually, I have used it for romantic (or romantic interest) relationships, but also family and friends occasionally. I found it works best to do a reading for whatever is most heavily weighing on my mind. On a few occasions, I couldn’t identify who/what it was, but did the reading in response to the feeling and energy, and afterwards was able to see who it was about based on the cards. You might end up doing it a different way, but this is at least how it has worked for me.

Laying the cards: When I set out to do a reading, I always light a candle that I have designated as my “tarot” candle. I find it helps me set intention and “mark” the beginning of the “ritual.” I shuffle the cards and imagine the energy of the thing/person that has been weighing heavily on my mind moving from me into the cards. I then lay them out, breaking the deck into five parts however the cards want to break, even if the piles are uneven. For me, I find the laying out the cards the most important part of the whole reading. I make sure to break them into stacks and lay them out in the spread the way the cards want to be laid out, how they naturally break. For example, the last reading I did, an extra card fell out of the deck as I was laying the fifth card for the relationship spread. I left it out and read it as a second future card because I felt like it wanted to be out.

Once I have the cards laid out, I take care to flip each card over in the same, either from the side, top or bottom. If they are reversed, I leave them that way. Why I take so much care with this part is that I think about the fact that there are 78 cards, each can be reversed, so that’s 156 possible cards, and then either 3 or 5 possible locations. Probability-wise, that is a huge amount of ways that the cards are oriented and, in their locations, and the order they are presented in the spread. Call it chance, fate, energy, God, the supreme Goddess –whatever– I feel like the cards are in their places for a specific reason, and it is up to me to try to learn from that. I guess this is the key to my belief/understanding in the cards. Again, I think this is deeply personal, and might have different meanings/understandings for different people, but this is how my relationship with the cards manifest.

Reading the cards: As for reading the cards, I look them up, and the tags help me navigate the book. Generally, reversed cards are negative and signify delay and/or stagnation, or nor fully manifested. Cards that are right-side-up tend to be positive and strong. To read the reversed cards, the book has a summary of the reversed readings, however I also consider the fuller description of the right-side-up cards, and just think about it as somehow delayed, or potentially the opposite, or negative version of it. Generally, swords indicate decisions, cups indicate relationships, pentacles indicate finances/material things, and wands indicate work/effort. The major arcana cards tend to be more powerful.

Quick Guide

Swords: decisions
Cups: relationships
Pentacles: finances/material things
Wands: work/effort

Major Arcana cards: more powerful
Reversed cards: negative, opposite, delay, and/or hesitation

I find that the cards can speak to both immediate, short term issues, and sometimes long-term issues in whatever I am asking about. So, for example, the “future” card, more often than not, is talking more about the immediate future, or in several months. I have not found it to be a long-term future. That could be the way in which I interpret or ask, though I think because it is often dealing with an immediate emotion, feeling, or concern, the “results” are more immediate.

Also, sometimes I don’t know what the cards mean, and it only makes sense after the fact. I find that keeping a notebook, and recording my readings, and coming back to look at them days or months later is an excellent learning tool. So, I would recommend getting a notebook and recording each reading you do. I have a record going back ten years, and it is amazing to see the dates that I do them, and also notice the frequency of certain cards in certain relationships.

For example, a card that repeated very frequently in my relationship with [XX] readings was the six of swords, which is an image of two people in a boat moving away from troubled water, on a journey. This matched very accurately to so much of what I struggled with and/or hoped for in our relationship. Again, when I consider the probability of 156 possible cards in 5 positions, the fact that it came up so frequently meant something to me.

Another powerful reading was when I was feeling sad about my friends leaving the first semester of grad school. I did a reading about them and for the future card I got the three of swords, which is a heart pierced by three swords, with rain, indicating physical and emotional pain and sorrow. This very adequately represented what I was feeling and would be feeling more acutely when they all left at the end of the semester. Whereas I more-or-less knew these things in both of these readings, to have the visual, and to have them show up in the readings was really helpful for me to acknowledge what was going on and be reassured that what I was feeling was real and important.

Make of them what you will. I find that the more you use them and learn about them, the more meaning you can derive from them.