What is Tarot? | Unearthed X Suburban Witchery

 

The Tarot that we know today is wildly different from its humble beginnings in 15^th Century Europe. Tarot began as a simple set of playing cards in Italy (as far as historians can tell) and by the late 18^th century it had evolved to be one of the main tools for divination and was rapidly spreading throughout the world. This has led to more and more decks being custom made for divinatory purposes to aid the reader in divining hidden knowledge from within their depths.

 

In this post we will go over the fears surrounding Tarot, how it works, the differences found amongst Tarot decks and how to get started reading the Tarot for yourself!

 

   

Paper cards do not bring bad energy, people do. Whilst the tarot can connect you to your intuition and spiritual awareness it is not evil and will not open a gateway or portal for bad spirits or energy.

 

Some religious people still carry the inheritance of the Catholic Church from past centuries. The Catholic Church would condemn anything, esoteric or not, that was not in line with their beliefs. This has to do with religious power rather than true supernatural occurrences.
Cards themselves cannot be evil and tarot is not condemned or even mentioned in the Christian bible.

Tarot is a form of Divination which is the practice of communing with the divine and divination is often practiced in the bible! King Solomon himself practiced the divinatory art of orthinomancy (divination by birds).
Tarot is actually in a class of divination called bibliomancy. Opening the bible to receive guidance is the same idea as pulling a card and depending on your beliefs you can talk directly to God (or Goddesses) using the cards as a guide. Traditional tarot symbolism is also largely based on Christian symbolism.

 

 

 

Tarot can tell you a likely future outcome based on your current decisions but the future is not fixed, it is changeable and you have free will!
Most professional readers would much rather work with you in a reading to create the future you want to see that gives you choice and empowerment in your own life.

In saying this, it is a remarkably useful tool for prediction and some readers are very adept at divining percentages of likely scenarios and outcomes extremely well.

To be deemed a true Tarot deck, it needs to consist of 78 cards. 22 are called the Major Arcana and are numbered 0-21. These Major Arcana cards depict well known archetypes such as ‘The Lovers’, ‘The High Priestess’ and ‘Death’ which relate to the various spiritual stages in life. We then have 56 Minor Arcana cards which consist of 10 cards numbered from 1 (Ace) to 10 plus 4 court cards which are the Page, Knight, Queen and King and are split into 4 suits known as Cups, Pentacles, Swords and Wands. These suits relate to the 4 elements of Water, Earth, Air and Fire. The Minors generally speak on life situations and Court cards often represent people or personality traits.

Some modern decks have chosen alternative names for some of the cards such as shells instead of cups and arrows instead of swords, but the general idea and energy remains the same.

These days you can find anything from a traditional deck like the Rider Waite Smith which still hails its symbolism from the original Italian style all the way to a Unicorn and even a Cat Tarot deck!

 

 

 

The cards are shuffled and selected according to the question. The tarot cards selected are always the correct ones and will always have the right message for the querant. Tarot cards read your energy and the reader will then interpret what they are saying with their intuition and knowledge of the cards. The Tarot cards can be used to empower you, find clarity on a situation and help with life choices, however, this is not the only way to use the cards!

I have known psychologists who use the cards to help clients unlock parts of themselves by delving into the archetypes that best suit their situation or the characters in their life. This pulls from some Carl Jung and Rorschach psychology techniques and is not a form of divination.

 

In a similar fashion, there have been authors who utilise the cards to assist in character development and plot twist creation! There is a myriad of creative uses for these brilliant pieces of card art.

 

YES! It is an open practice and easily accessible. The best place to begin is by purchasing a deck, or downloading a Tarot app.

Whilst anyone can learn the meanings and read for themselves and their friends, not everyone has the gift to read professionally but you’ll never know until you try!

It also pays to mention that YOU CAN BUY YOUR OWN TAROT DECK. The myth that it needs to be gifted to you is an old-wives tale meant to exclude others from the practice and has no merit in truth.

 

When reading with my cards I LOVE to utilise crystal energy. Tarot and Crystals go together like 2 peas in a pod! You can use crystals like Selenite to cleanse your deck of built up energy between readings, and crystals like Rainbow Moonstone, Merlinite and Labradorite are excellent for opening the Crown Chakra to receive divine wisdom and boost your intuition.
When I first began reading I would wear Lapis Lazuli earrings to really open up my third eye to the symbolism of the cards and it helped a lot!

 

If you’re really keen to get started here is my YouTube video to help you on your way!

Hana x