What is Tarot? How and Why does it works?
Therapeutic, philosophical, psychological and spiritual, the Tarot is a powerful tool using visual symbols linking our inner and outer worlds.
Tarot: just a pack of cards?
As we know, the Tarot is not just a 4-player card game, which most of us have touched at least once in our lives.
It has gone through many eras and uses, from fun to philosophical learning, from divination to personal development.
Rich of 78 cards or Arcana, the Tarot is composed of 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana. In cartomancy, and more particularly tarology, the major Arcana represent, through Archetypes, the journey of the Soul, when the minor Arcana represent the actions and events of the daily life.
The reading of the Tarot is based on the interpretation of symbols gathered on the cards, and the interaction between each of them. A precise and complex system, at the service of the evolution of Consciousness for a global and sustainable well-being.
It gives access to the unconscious and our inner wisdom, and puts the responsibility and power of our life back into our hands.
The Tarot: Between Tradition and Modernity.
Its golden age goes back to the Middle Ages: the tarot is 600 years old!
The TAROT DE MARSEILLE does not come from Marseille but from Italy and Spain, and was originally created for wealthy families, such as Mantegna (1465) and Visconti (1466). The brand Tarot de Marseille is dated 1793, and its version that we know today was published only in 1930.
I will spare you here the magnificent story of these mysterious Arcana (Arcanum in Latin means secret), and go straight to the point: the Tarot was created to play, and also helped, back then, the students to integrate the main elements of Platonic philosophy. A good visual was well worth a long speech!
It was not until later that it became a divination tool, in the 1700s, incorporating many systems, symbols, and other incredibly broad and more complex meanings: Alchemy, Esotericism, Occultism, Astrology, Kabbalah, Chakras, Numerology, Elements, Freemasonry ... you name it. Then the 60's marked a major turning point in the use of the Tarot.
The most used Tarot in the world today, and the one with which I work mainly, is the RIDER WAITE SMITH, dated 1910. Its biggest difference with the Tarot of Marseille? its minor Arcana are illustrated!
History has determined the evolution of the use of the Tarot, which makes it simply timeless.
(At each Tarot its aesthetic: here, the 2 of Pentacles, Illustrated or not, belonging to 7 different tarots)
Tarot: predictions or personal development?
The $1000 worth question! In today's practice, we find again those who use it to make predictions, and those, like me, who do not. Let's give back to the revolution of the 60's what it brought us: Tarot is nowadays a tool of introspection, at the service of personal development and intuition. People who want to know more about their future are those who doubt the validity of their actions in the present. The doubt is human and can be very beneficial: the Tarot then arrives as a guide, not as an executioner.
The purpose of the Tarot being to empower you, it would be antinomic to crush your free-will by sowing a bad seed in your mind, which would condition you, sometimes, for the rest of your life!
Also, let's be realistic: who wants to be told, whether it is true or false, that she can not have a child or that he will meet love in 10 years ??? And at what price !!!
If Carl Jung was interested in the Tarot, saw Archetypes, Shadow, Anima / Animus, Conscious / Unconscious, or Synchronicity, it's because there is much more to dig than a divination system basic.
To predict the future, tea leaves or the bowels of a chicken do the job, nothing to do with the Tarot.
Note: a drawn card that is part of the entire spread may evoke energies in the making, but by no means give a clear idea of what will happen to you. Just because YOUR FUTURE IS DETERMINED BY THE ACTIONS YOU TAKE RIGHT NOW!