All posts tagged Tarot

This article will depart from our usual discussion of the traditional Tarot, instead highlighting a different, all-new card-using system!
Phoenix of Denver, CO, multi-talented dancer, healer and instructor, has created her own set of cards that function well for dancers as a creative tool for self-knowledge. And that is, after all, what the cards are for, a mirror to reflect on what we know and what we have yet to learn.
Cartomancy Overview
There are many flavors of cards that act as a Mirror of the Self. In the more traditional card camp, we find both the well-known Tarot and the lesser-known (but increasingly popular) LeNormand cards dating from the Napoleonic era. In the more individualistic camp of the free-form creators, we find card systems such as the Fairy cards, Angel cards, and now Phoenix’s Dancing From Within Cards. These alternate systems have a plethora of devoted fans, in spite of being relatively new to the cartomancy scene. I am a long-time fan of Phoenix, and leapt at the chance to learn more about her creation.
No Nonsense!
This deck, created by Phoenix in 2013, is largely text- and affirmation- based, and is described as a game for self-knowledge. Phoenix says, “My hope in creating this deck was to provide exercises and tools supporting both personal and spiritual work, as well as growth in performance and movement. I want to help unlock the talent of every person!” While some card readers project a great deal of mysticism to the process of laying out and interpreting cards, I enjoyed Phoenix’s very no-nonsense, get-on-with-healing-thyself attitude. She describes her cards as a game, a fun yet meaningful way to unwind while challenging ourselves both in terms of movement skills and in terms of releasing creative, emotional, and self-awareness blockages. Her approach is so practical, and her motivation so sincere, I was curious how she was inspired to create these cards and how they are most often used. “A number of my students use them meditatively, to select areas of personal work. Others use them to generate fresh combinations in dance when they are feeling stuck and stale. ”
Elemental Inspiration
Her teaching has long been informed by the metaphorical elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water, as well as her deep studies in the Eastern Chakras as a way to name and work with energy in the body. In 2004, she began developing exersizes for her dance students utilizing these concepts, and developed this approach further while co-leading women’s retreats in 2011 and 2012. After a ‘Eureka!’ moment with her very supportive healer, she was encouraged to develop a card game to make these concepts more accessible to all. Phoenix got to work immediately. Inspired by that moment of awakening, the motivational words, phrases and affirmations throughout the Dancing From Within Cards all coalesced through a lengthy process of personal study and her own meditational practice.
What Do They DO?
This deck is a family effort, printed by her brother at Alphagraphics in Wilmington, NC, and conceived, designed and shipped by Phoenix herself. The set is comprised of 53 cards and instructions for 4 games, wrapped in a shimmery organza pouch! (Because …dancers.)
Opening up the shimmery bag, one takes out the cards and explore the four game options. The player then decides whether to:
Explore the Elements to deepen your technique, widen vocabulary, and expand your expression
Explore the Chakras and how you feel in your body, opening flow and blockages within
Deepen the Chakra work by adding in the human Talent and Affirmation statements
Combines the layers, pulling in both the aspects of deep personal work as well as movement

Chakras? Elements? What?
For those of you asking, what ARE Chakras and Elements anyway… As described in the Dancing From Within Cards, Chakras are your unseen but palpable energy centers in your body and being. They hold the energy of various aspects of your life, your past and being. Blockages are sometimes reflected in inhibitions, fears, and false limitations. Different Chakras correspond to different aspects of experience: survival fears, security, vocal expression, confidence and more.
The Elements, as Phoenix presents them, are those you may be familiar with from Western esoteric spirituality; Air, Fire, Water and Earth. So in her card game:
Earth represents grounding, rootedness, security, calmness, and self-assurance
Fire speaks of self-definition, with our personal power, boundaries and control over self (never others)
Water addresses matters of emotion, self appreciation and self-acceptance
Air describes our powers of intellect and ability to rely on intuition, thinking, inner truth and openness, interpersonal connectivity

Good For Who?
These movement based cards are designed to be open to all movers, all genders and levels of ability, from ballet to bellydancers, teens and up. In terms of dance or movement technique, they have offered assistance to people in terms of adding power and smoothness to the work. Phoenix describes how she has watched the cards assist that have struggled with their adding intention and depth to their movements. “They find that making the leap was less of a body effort and more a matter of accessing the energy behind it. In terms of performance, card workshoppers have a new way to access making their intention, and emotion, accessible to the audience.” She adds that folks with emotional or Chakra blockages are empowered by the affirmations and human abilities presented in the cards. Sometimes artists experience great openings and deeply healing experiences while working with Dancing From Within Cards.

How Do I Learn More?
Phoenix has been teaching for years with her feet firmly rooted in an Elemental approach. A national instructor with 19 years of experience, she’s workshopped with Dancing From Within Cards in a broad variety of settings. Both as a teacher and a career RN, one of her passions is doing face-to-face work with people, deepening soul and body connections. Due to the miracle of technology, she can work with folks one-on-one via Skype also. The actual Dancing From Within Cards are available on her website at www.phoenix-dancing.com.
Just remember, “It’s like a mirror. Sometimes you know what you will see… and sometimes its a big surprise!”

Next in our ongoing Zaghareet series on tarot for dancers, we will explore through personal testimonial how the old-fangled practice of tarot reading can be useful for dancers in both daily life and as a tool to mark and celebrate milestones.

Just as with drilling dance moves, steady tarot practice brings facility and depth to our use of the cards. To get our skills up, some folks read or meditate with the cards every day. Some, like myself, have a hands-on practice with clients during the week, or for dozens of people over the course of a festival. But above and beyond the benefits of regular reading, sometimes a special reading is called for, an experience standing out from the rest of the week or year.

Dancers find many special occasions for readings, from practical or ceremonial.

The tarot can be a catalyst in several ways for dancer’s creative projects. We may do a reading at the start of a project. Multi-genre artist Zoe Jakes strives to bring the traditional icons to life with dance in her cartomancy-themed show. “The cards are my main inspiration for House of Tarot, and we make a reading based around each show.” Other dancers that have staged tarot related shows and projects include the West Coast’s Delilah and NYC’s Neon. It’s a European tradition with a rich and vital visual heritage that gets dancers inspired.

Birthdays are a popular time for card readings, marking as they do a clear boundary between past and future. Whether in a light-hearted party setting, something ceremonial, or a down-to-business approach, a birthday is a wonderful occasion to consider what potential the upcoming year might hold. Nadira of the East Coast Classic Competition says “As it’s my Saturn Return this year, I will do a full Birthday speed! Usually, I get one overall year projection reading, and then on my own have single card readings during the full moon for personal questions and new moon for business projections.”

There’s a spectrum of natural calendar occasions, from the phases of the moons to the Solstices and Equinoxes that offer good times for self-reflection by the student of the self and the earth’s natural rhythms. Katarzyna Wrona says, “I’ve been doing readings on the full moon nearly since I started (there’s always something ‘different’ about those).” Dana Beaufait of Seven Cities Dance Studio in Norfolk, adds, “Special occasion times in our life can be flag stones at crossroads to make adjustments to our lives enabling us to get closer to our true selves. During the full and new moon cycles I ask the smaller questions to track my expansions and contractions from month to month. During the solstices I go big with lifespan ideas and inquiries.”

My co-author on the book for the World Spirit Tarot, Jessica Godino, has always done New Year’s readings. She says, “Just this past New Year’s night, a group of friends and I got together and were pulling cards, and I was still amazed at how helpful and relevant it was!”

Speaking of parties and social occasions, Christy Anandaconda Smith, a dancer, writer, and singer in Atlanta, says, “Lately, I have taken them to several going away parties, offering a reading instead of one more thing to pack. I know my gift is meaningful when the first card out, before I’ve ever said a word, is so powerful that my friend cries. With joy, with acknowledgement, with recognition, with shock… it’s been a different reason every time, but that gut power is the constant.”

Dancers that use the tarot as part of their spiritual experience have found a variety of ways to incorporate the images into their women’s events and community gatherings, as well as for personal readings and meditation. Jaia of Ananda Dance Company in TN uses the cards to hone in on what work she wants to undertake in her seasonal women’s circle, “The tarot has been helpful in so many ways, but one way I especially love using this medium is when seeking guidance on ritual focus. It’s so helpful when deciding what to address, and how.”

When using the cards to evaluate our options, our inclinations and our pitfalls, we should always remember that nothing is written and immutable. The cards do not tell us how things WILL be, but rather how they will be if we maintain our current course. If we dislike the predicted outcome, we can strive to effect change through our actions. To take action, we need to honestly consider our prospects and proclivities, and these old-tangled cards help readers to rediscover the gift of personal time. In this multi-tasking fast-paced digital age, the opportunity to reflect deeply on our decisions is oh-so-rare, precious, and ultimately, practical.

Welcome back to our series for the Tarot-Curious bellydance folk!

Got Cards?
So you recently bought, found or were gifted a set of cards. Now you want to know how to take care of them. You ask yourself, “Self… Are there special rules to be aware of? Weird chants or arcane rituals to perform? Should I pour out wine for my homies or pray to the saints?”
Well, be reassured! Like bellydance fusion, there is no one unbroken tradition of tarot that dictates your course from here, but read on for some good guiding principles as you find your own way. As with personal habits, from skin care to keeping track of our finances, smart actions reinforce themselves (And poor habits make work you will learn to avoid).

Taking Care of the Deck: Storage
Keep your deck in a bag or box (Or both, a bag IN a box) of your choosing. I recommend something sturdy and noticeable, so that unlike me you don’t spend 50% of your life squinting at shades of black fabric in your studio, uncertain as to whether you are looking at a skirt, your bathrobe, a dance bag, tarot cards, nor the cat. The goal after all is to keep them in one place, away from mess, where you can find them. Some folks prefer bags in either patterns that evoke their meditative or spiritual side. Traditionalists will go with draw-string solid-hued silk (or silk velvet) bags. Possibly the silk became traditional because of its ‘fancy’ i.e. High-brow and serious connotations, and also for the pureness of it, literally one natural fiber that is sturdy, lovely, and ultimately compostable. Back in the day, synthetic fibers had been invented, so they haven’t had time become ‘traditional’; who knows what traditions our poly-blend future holds? In any case, many old decks in my collection are stored In these old silk bags. As far as boxes go, many things can work. I have old cod fish boxes that I have illustrated, wooden cigar boxes, jewelry boxes, etc. These are for ‘stay at home’ storage; just the bags go traveling.

Taking Care of the Deck: Reading Surface
You can READ on any levelish Surface, from special painted ceremonial table-covering to car dashboard. It just depends in how ceremonial or showy you like to get, Being a kitchen witch, I can’t take time for a lot of new age frippery, and I read on anything dry, clean, nonwindy, and flat. BUT, if candles and incense and OMing get YOU in a good intuitive place to use the cards, go for it. now, just like game and playing cards, these cards can be readily damaged by the elements, notably fire and water. Alcohol-splattered surfaces near open flames not totally recommended. Keep a clean surface!

Taking Care of the Deck: Traveling
I keep my favorite first edition in a shabby black zip bag just the right size to fit in my carry-on. I don’t check it. If I’m doing a schmancy gig like a corporate party or cabaret show, I’ll transfer that little black bag into a black beaded purse on a long strap, keeping everything in character, but close to me.

Other People and Maintaining your Deck
Some folks dont permit others to touch their cards. That is a personal choice. I DO let others handle my cards, making the reading interactive and hands-on. I’m not afraid of people’s mojo and I find letting them work with the cards empowers them.
However, every now and again it may feel like your cards need a ‘reboot’, sort of an energetic spring cleaning, to rinse all the ‘other peopleness’ out of your deck.There’s a number of ways to do this, and some are more ‘far out’ than others. I won’t offer any theories why they may work, but I do pass them along in good faith.
First, restack your deck in factory order, from Ace of Wands through to The Universe, in the sequence they appear in your book. Doing this helps to both reorder your thoughts and settle the cards. This is generally sufficient for my ‘cosmic cleansing’.
Some other options are to take your bag of cards and set it in a bowl of salt, a stand-by for grounding and cleaning in ceremonial circles, or if you are really into rocks, set them down for awhile with crystals. Friends who do tarot and are on the First Peoples/ Red Road also smudge their cards with sage, which entails burning sweet-smelling ceremonial herbs over them, which truly is amazingly soothing. I have heard of tarot lovers putting their decks on a window sill in moonlight as well.

Preparation for Reading
Now we examine the actions we take as a prelude to reading. There are no rules but there are many traditions to choose from – and new ways to make. Some traditions involve elaborate rituals to sanctify the space, to invoke your guardian angels, to enter a meditative space. As a busy mom, dancer and event producer, I ain’t got time for that. Building on the methods of Kate Nordstrom, my original tarot mentor, I have developed a simple and expedient way to prepare for readings for myself or a querant. You can develop your own method too!
Shuffling the cards for a minute, I hold in mind the intention of acting as a conduit for information to help the client or querant. I counsel them to fashion a clear, answerable question preferably with a time frame (this week, six months, this year) and hold it in mind while THEY shuffle the cards. I discourage them from small talk me while they shuffle – their task is to remain focused on their question. While they do that, I unobtrusively rest my palms face up on my knees and continue to think of being a conduit for them. When they are ready, they place the cards on the table and with the non-dominant hand, cut it to three piles and re-stack randomly, repeating this cut and stack process till it has been done three times. I never ask them their question but they sometimes opt to share.
The querant sets the deck back on the table and fans them out face down. With that non-dominant hand, I have them select their cards by feel, feeling for warm or cool cards, placing them face-down in any order. Once they remove their hands after all this, I turn their cards, face up, and move into the interpretation phase.

And… Crazy People, Pushy People, Funny People
I don’t mind people touching my cards, but I have heard some absolutely spurious bull over the years about the cards, so this paragraph is dedicated to the hilarity and audacity of some folks. Favorite foibles include the woman who interrupted my lecture on the history of the deck to insist the cards came from Atlantis (possible I suppose in an infinite universe, but she was unable to substantiate this claim). I had to cleanse the cards after that one.
In another vein of kooky, I had a teenager tell me recently, “No offense, but my friend told me that no REAL tarot reader would ever charge money for readings”, and then hang around my table… just in case. I bowed to her friends expertise but, no, I did not do free readings for her and her assemblage of hopeful friends to prove myself authentic.
And now at the last, something awesome; at a corporate costume party gig for extremely affluent people, I read for a man and his wife who were crassly and hilariously dressed as Donald Trump and his Mexican girlfriend. They got the Greater Trump, card of corporations and infrastructure, The Emperor. For the tarot reader, that’s such a great pun!

This installment in my series of articles for Zaghareet presents some succinct suggestions for making the study and enjoyment of the tarot part of your regular routine.

What is Tarot and How Does it Work?

Tarot cards are a series of images, usually 78, passed down over the centuries, used for self-reflection and meditation. Some of the cards are selected at random and then interpreted through a mix of symbolism, intuition, and context. Our deep mind knows more than we admit, and study of the tarot provides a fascinating mirror for us to understand our motivations, challenges, and probable outcomes. Carl Jung similarly used the I Ching every day.There are lots of ways to bring tarot into our daily lives. I have outlined a few below!

Meditation

A wonderful way to let the cards work for you is to meditate on them. Pick a favorite card, or even one that unnerves you, and tack it up on your bathroom mirror. Just ruminate on it twice a day while you brush your teeth! Eventually it will be like an old pal. Try another. Some cards will appeal to you seasonally, some in times of crisis. Take note of the sequence of the cards you choose; they present an extended reading all of their own.

Study

The history, utility and symbolism of the cards is deep. If you want to know more, follow the books and blogs of scholars like Mary K. Greer and Rachel Pollack. There are social media groups for enthusiasts. I’ll make a plug here for Princess Farhana’s fun online site, ‘Divination Nation’. There may be an alternative or metaphysical bookstore near you where you can get your hands on some books and find other authors you like. And similar to the bellydance circuit, the tarot realm offers a world of local and international tarot conferences, where you can geek out on new ways to read the cards, history, and fine points of iconography!

Readings

The bulk of work with tarot is done through readings of the cards, and that can be a lifelong discipline. Practice makes better. Maybe you read every day, and keep a journal of your readings and their outcomes. Perhaps you throw the cards down once a week while listening to ‘Car Talk’ on Saturday morning, or trade readings with your dear ones on the full moon. I have known folks who do a big reading for the year to come on December 31. Some enthusiasts make the leap to reading for money, online, over the phone, in bookstores and Psychic Fairs, or with private students and clients. Know that real clients bring real problems, and you are expected to help if you deal the cards!

Performance

Perhaps as a bellydancer, you feel compelled to do a dance piece embodying the Empress or any other archetypes in the deck. Maybe you want to do a whole show. If so, dig below the surface fashion of the cards. Get into the tarot, their meaning, their history, and the sources of the art that inspires you. Artists like BellaDonna, Zoe Jakes and Delilah have all explored this theme, and you want to bring something authentic and unique to the timeless landscape of the cards.

Creating a Deck

I’ve done it, and you can do too. Decks have been made with collage, fabric arts, photography, painting, digital art and more. (To be inspired, or daunted, get a copy of the most recent ‘Encyclopedia of the Tarot’ by Stuart Kaplan. It archives tarot rendered in stained glass, bas relief, you name it!) It is my suspicion that more decks have been generated in the past fifteen years than in the previous century. There are James Bond, Hello Kitty, Steampunk, and art pornography decks, as well as amazing tarot of depicting virtually every cultural heritage you can think of from Native American to the Finnish creation myths. Your options creatively are as broad as your imagination.

A full deck is a massive undertaking, but more attainable than ever before with the advent of self-publishing in addition to the established publishing houses. Self-publishing takes money, but the really hard part is getting through the monumental body of work. A traditional deck has 78 cards – you best get busy.

In conclusion, there are many ways to get some tarot in your daily life. The ‘toothbrush meditation’ offers you an effective but casual, on-the-go approach, whereas serious and scholarly study can immerse you utterly in history, imagery and psychology. In spite of bad press, tarot has been blooming for centuries, and has really been rehabilitated in these modern times as a graceful, meditative tool for counsel and self-analysis.

Welcome to the newest installment in this series of articles for Zaghareet on the centuries-old tradition of tarot cards. Past issues have touched on their history, basic structure, how to get started reading, and some lesser known ways to use the cards as a tool for self-knowledge. This article will assume some you have familiarity with tarot and now want to learn more about unlocking the potential of the Aces.

What is a Tarot Reading and How Does it Work?

To read the cards, we lay out of a small quantity of cards chosen by chance according to various patterns, and interpret them through a mix of symbolism, intuition, and context. I call this the direct line to your gut instinct. The story told in the cards offers wisdom and sometimes an amazingly helpful mirror to the self. Although cards have been co-opted by Hollywood as a source of unrest and even evil, they have a long, well-documented history for both use as a harmless adult parlor game and a Jungian style tool for self-knowledge.

An overview of Tarot and Aces

Each number value in the cards has certain qualities shared across the suits.
In other words, all Twos have something in common as do all Sevens, Nines and so on. If the Ace is the seed, as the numbers get higher, the qualities of that suit grow, bloom, or increasingly chafe.
Ace – Raw potential, root of the suit’s power, a gateway to the future. Nothing concrete yet, but a potent idea or possibility.
Two – First steps towards manifestation, new beginnings and debuts. Also the start of separation and individuation.
Three – An initial level of stability and accomplishment. Potential is being unlocked bit with far to go.
Four – Stable, accomplished, public recognition or kudos, and a sense of plateau.
Five – My teacher called these Chaos cards! Everything is in upheaval on the way to the next level of development or being.
Six – Whew, Sixes offer new and greater stability as well as a broad scope. Sixes offer a more enduring, mature expression of the suit.
Seven – The Vortex cards! Challenge both welcome and unwelcome, adventure, being shaken up and down, to possibly re-emerge.
Eight – In some ways, this is the suit at its pinnacle of freshness and ripeness. Rapid developments moving to solidity.
Nine – Compost! Nines express the qualities of the suit stridently! Sometimes too much; too much swordliness, too much cupness!
Ten – The absolute fullness of the suit for good or ill. Pinnacle, closure, shifting into something altogether new.

The Aces are the first cards in each suit, from lowest to highest, and stand in the place of the One. An Ace is depicted with one single spot, or image. The next is the Two of any given suit.
The Aces in particulate often refer in a reading to a new venture, new stage of life, or a radically new perspective. Sometimes they are the door that opens to let you out of the crowded room of limitations you have been in – the unexpected job, hobby, relationship, harvest. There are also fascinating parallels between the Jungian based Meyers-Briggs tests and the wisdom of tarot. The curious reader may consider following that discipline, for a more ‘rational; approach to some of the tarot’s wisdom.

Aces in the Suits
Each suit has its own arena of influence and description. The suits are basically the same as those of the tarot’s cousin, the modern playing deck.
Wands – Manifesting, getting things done. Fire, passion, will-power and creative endeavor. Wands make manifest that big art project you have meant to do, the opera you were going to write, the greenhouse you are build or the enormous tiara you were hoping to bling out. It can be more than a project but rather a whole business undertaking. It can occasionally be a fiery and productive romantic relationship. In the Jungian Meyers-Briggs personality parlance, Wands are Intuition.
Cups – Pertaining to a surge of new emotional or spiritual life. This comes up most often for relationships, be they friendly, romantic or familial. Sometimes for the birth of a baby. In the Jungian Meyers-Briggs personality parlance, Cups are Feeling.
Swords – Big, game- and life-changing ideas, the Ace of Swords can also describe the power of new inventions in your life. Swords being the suit of air, the intellect and communication, this card can describe the need for and development of some strong and necessary boundaries. In Jungian Meyers-Briggs personality terms, Swords are Thinking.
Pentacles – Also known as Coins, they speak to the arenas of health and wealth. When the Ace of Pentacles come up in a reading, we are most often looking at Wellness, either of the body or of the wallet. Not likely to come up for a found $5 bill on the ground, but certainly for an inheritance, auspicious outcome on an initial investment, or even for the birth of a baby. In the Jungian Meyers-Briggs personality parlance, Pentacles are Sensation.

In Essence, with Aces, EVERYTHING is Possible
When Aces come up in a reading of any kind, they are comparatively straightforward. They describe new beginnings, but JUST the possibilities. The burden is on the querent to build a bridge of right actions from that potential to the desired result, be it a stable relationship, healthy liver, or a pile of cash. Aces generally ask you to consider, relative to the question, the need for you to make space for something new!

Ace-related Facts and Superstitions –
World War One Flying Aces: Best known to the modern generation thanks to Snoopy’s alter ego in the old ‘Peanuts’ cartoons, a ‘Flying Ace’ in military history is defined as an aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy planes, and hence, an expert. The term is credited to the French. This definition flows neatly into the next two points of interest.

To Ace an Exam, To Have an Ace up Your Sleeve: In the words of dictionary.com, To Ace It is a slang idiom indicating ‘A person who accomplishes something with complete success.’ It means to come out on top of a challenge. Again, this concept of primacy, being at the fore, dovetails nicely with the Ace being the icebreaker, the leader, for each suit of cards. Likewise, to ‘Have an Ace up Your Sleeve’ means being prepared with the tool, skill, or special circumstance sure to turn events your way, as if one was playing to win at cards. The Aces in most English-speaking countries are the highest ranking cards in the playing deck, and having another Ace may ensure victory.

This is Aces!: A high compliment, superlative. This expression again refers to the Aces primary, i.e. first appearing, status in the deck.

Most interestingly, we come to the Ace of Spades, the Spadille (or ‘little sword’), as ‘the Death Card': In legend and folklore, the Ace of Spades has been known as the Death Card, and been a popular folk icon in theaters of war. In the Vietnam war, it was used by US troops in an attempt to frighten the Viet Cong, due to a mis-apprehension that the Viet Cong feared the symbol. The Bicycle Card Company manufactured cases of Aces just for the military. Conversely, the Ace of Spades was painted on helmets and craft by soldiers to invoke good luck, due to its fortunate connotations in card playing.

In the film ‘Carmen’, there’s a shot of notoriously mysterious actress Theda Bara cast as a fortune teller. With great soulful eyes she is laying out the dreaded Ace of Spades! This role and shot were reprised by Rita Hayworth. Tarot, of course, has a more imposing designated Death Card in the Major Arcana, which just as sensationally appears in any film with hint of the mystic. The Tarot’s Death card is generally about transformation, challenge, and letting go of old patterns, rather than physical death. The Ace of Swords, as we have seen above, speaks to the potential for big decisions, bold actions and hard boundaries. Those brave steps and radical closures may FEEL like death, but are usually more metaphorical in nature.

In conclusion, Aces celebrate BEGINNINGS!

While leading a tarot seminar a few years back, I was asked, ‘What is the biggest reading you’ve ever done?’ As a tarot practitioner, artist and author, I’ve used the tarot for many kinds of readings, from three card party-style gigs to in-depth relationship sessions lasting multiple hours. But the biggest? That would be a very special reading that took five years to complete, and encompassed every card in the deck. It was a mighty undertaking. It unfolded over the course of creating all the art for the World Spirit Tarot, and the wisdom of every card touched me in the ultimate extended reading!

What is an extended reading?

Usually an extended reading is a record of the cards that recur in your personal spreads over time. The same cards or suits often appear over and over, as if knocking at your psychic door, saying, ‘Hey there, don’t forget me!’ The typical deck has 78 cards, and we usually pull no more than 13 in a spread. And yet we tend to see the same handful over and over. Repeating cards have a significance that often addresses the core of who you are in your life and why. Unresolved and shadowy aspects of Self may asking over and over to be brought to light. Try to attend to these issues; if these facets of yourself don’t receive conscious attention they may demand attention in other ways, through ‘rotten luck’ or damaging behaviors. Please notice and respect these cards as they recur. They are ambassadors from your deep self.

My original tarot teacher, Kate Nordstom then of Rockport, MA, showed my my first examples of this. Regardless of the intended subject of my readings, the Five of Pentacles appeared in every spread. This card of chronic security issues suggested that growing up in a hardworking household where adulthood meant frantic concerns of money and scarcity was paralyzing my hopes and creativity with pessimism and fear of privation. Noticing the recurrence of the Five, I saw how this unconscious attitude was a hindrance, and I at last began to outgrow that learned anxiety.

To track your own extended reading, begin journalling the cards that come up for you over time. They will show you something about the pulse and tides of your deep mind. Some cards will come up repeatedly for years and then sink below the waves, while other images surface and become well-known friends. It defies chance and merits attention.

Now, my most extreme extended reading occurred with the creation of the World Spirit Tarot. I intended to start illustrating the deck from the beginning, with the Ace and Wands, and systematically go through the deck from that first Ace to the last card, the Universe. However this plan rapidly foundered; even armed with copious research notes, I just could NOT render the art ‘in order’ with any authentic understanding. Sure, I could make an image that could stand as a decent product for consumption. But I wanted true inspiration and authentic iconography, to capture each card for future generations. Not just any academic, symbolically ‘correct’ image would do. I wanted to feel that each card was ‘right’.

With blank woodblocks piled about me, I designated one for each card, and let the images come to me in any order. Freed from constraints of sequencing, the images began to flow as if creating themselves. Over time, a pattern emerged. Some cards came easily; the Empress, Temperance, the Three of Pentacles quickly came through. The tarot has evolved to have a card for every aspect of our daily experience. Yet two years later, the Emperor, the Hierophant, the Five of Pentacles still had not. I just didn’t ‘get them’, or the forces they represent. Additionally, something always interfered when it was time to work on these more difficult cards – a phone call, a cat knocking over a plant, struggles with content and composition.

Eventually I had to consider that behind the lack of inspiration and follow-through on those tough cards lay a some magical commentary on my character and experience (I was quite young). I began marking each block-print with its date of completion. They stacked up, becoming a colossal wall of art bricks, a lengthy tarot reading chronicling my development in those poignant years of my life. Sometimes a block had to wait until I had the actual life experience to truly understand the meaning and material of a card before I could create a worthy image. Other times, working the cards summoned their forces into my life. As in, “Ack! Next week, it is the Ten of Swords & I won’t even want to leave the house!”

So, part of the extended reading for me was not only discovering which cards and images were pleasantly accessible to me, and which were difficult, but also to ride through the full human spectrum from struggle to epiphany as the lessons of the cards were gloriously and poignantly unfurled – triumph, joy, death of loved ones and relationships, accomplishment and futility. It took five years to ride that ride.

Fortunately not everyone has to spend years actually creating a deck to experience the tarot as a long-term teacher. Consider chronicling the cards that recur for you, and respect and learn from them. Bring their forces into your life through contemplation of the individual icons. Again, you can employ the cards for fun, party-style three card spreads, and that is great. You can do deep readings that take hours. Or you can embark on the extended reading that never ends, and track the cards that speak to you across the years!

The original concept for this article was first printed in 2001 in an industry trade publication, New Worlds of Mind & Spirit by Llewellyn. This version updated in 2015 by Lauren Onca O’Leary

Welcome to the third installment of our Tarot for Dancers series. The previous issues offered an overview of tarot history, deck structure, and classic reading procedure. In this issue, we will explore the People Cards. If you have a deck of cards, you may want to get it out and follow along.

Who Are All These People?

Of all the cards interpreted in the deck, these sixteen are the most difficult. They typically represent the players on your life stage, although sometimes they describe aspects of yourself. The People cards are more commonly known as the Court cards, Royals, or Nobles. They show a stunningly neat parallel to the Jungian Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator, devised to test for and describe sixteen distinct personality types. Experience will make them familiar to you.

Searching though your deck, extract the People cards. There are four in each suit, hence sixteen total. Notice that they span age and gender widely. In a traditional deck, they are titled King, Queen, Knight or Prince, and the Page or Princess. Don’t be overwhelmed by their ranks aka fancy titles: be they Court, Royal, Noble, whatever, they are just …People. Times change, and some decks, including my own World Spirit Tarot, dispense with the Nobility concept completely or rename the elemental suits themselves. I opted to maintain the standard structure but reframe these arenas of adeptness in a more spiritual way.

Rank and Suits and Elements, Oh My!

So who are they, and what do they actually do? Here’s an overview in very general terms:

Kings, Sages – maturity, leadership in the public sphere
Queens, Sibyls – maturity, catalyzing influence in the interpersonal sphere
Knights, Princes, Seekers – questing evangelism in action
Pages, Princesses, Seers – introspective exploration and learning

Please note that the tarot of this century is predicated on the four suits correlating with the four ‘western Elements’.

Fire – Wands, also called Staves (Clubs)
Earth – Pentacles, also called Stones (Diamonds)
Water – Cups, also called Chalices (Hearts)
Air – Swords, also called Blades (Spades)

Imagine that each of these people is THE expert in their arena of influence. The People cards do merit in-depth study and I recommend Mary K. Greer’s definitive work, called “Understanding the Court Cards”. Anecdotally, I can mention that the youthful naiveté of the Seers speaks to private journalling, independent crafting, small start-up businesses, singer-songwriting and a bevy of other creative, reflective, expressive engagements. The Seekers have strong and zealous behaviors without filters, best understood in terms of contrast; brave or foolhardy? dreamy or unrealistic? stalwart or stubborn? Sibyls reign through collaboration, overarching in matters of confidence, communication, and relationships, not only romantic, but familial and professional . And the Sages, as home-grown iterations of the Emperor, are strong leadership types, offering aspects of security, ‘big-picture thinking’ and consequences. They tend to trigger folks uncomfortable with authority.

People Cards as Significators

One way to employ them is as Significators. This custom involves selecting one card to represent the Querent. Brigit from the Biddy Tarot blog compares this to choosing an avatar for Social Media, an image to represent you, be it ‘witty kitty pic’ or a flattering shot of you on the beach. I like ‘The Matrix’ analogy of the residual self-image – it is what you think you are, or could be, like. In days bygone, Significators were chosen by appearance, i.e. a red-haired adult women was automatically the Queen of Wands, and anyone dark or swarthy, being ‘earthy’, was Pentacles. The tarot community by and large now eschews that approach as inherently ageist, sexist and racist. Instead, pick one you like! Your instincts will serve you. Once you know the cards well your choices may change. For now, go for it, and ask your client to do the same. Experiment. Lay your card at the center of your reading at the start and interpret from there.

Interpret Them in a Reading How?

Here’s the thing. They aren’t that complicated. Or, rather, just as complicated as the real people in your life. When they appear, search for their relevance to the question as:

Symbolic of the actual humans involved in the matter at hand. Maybe this one is that bossy woman in your troupe, or the guy on a horse is your husband or drummer. These are snapshots of the personalities afoot.
A call to be aware of these specific traits in yourself. Perhaps you need to cultivate this card’s leadership skills, or that one’s studiousness.
A message. People cards may pop up as harbingers of change, calls to action, that sort of thing.

But, how do you know which it is? The same way you learn to listen to the tarot, with a blend of intuition, courage, and studied familiarity with the symbolism of the cards. Work your way down the list. Don’t be afraid to quiz a client about the People cards in their spread. ‘Who is this?” “Could it be that you need to focus on communication skills?” “Any history of conflict with strong-willed dancers?” Then fine-tune the interpretation to both describe the situation and give homework. Like a mirror, without fail, the card that points to an actual person ALSO calls upon the Querant to mirror (or resist) those qualities. If no real people are described by the card, then delve for the subtle message.

One option I’ve read about but not explored is to ‘program’ the cards before you pull them. Think ‘These People cards will be actual people, or events, or personal qualities’. This allegedly works better in smaller spreads, when the symbolic language of the cards is be written in bold strokes.

Bonus Significator-Based Spread:

This interesting spread comes to us from the Golden Dawn, an organization that had a formative role about 100 years back in how we use the tarot today.

In this variation, the Significator is chosen, and shuffled back into the deck. Cut the deck into stacks, and scan them for your card. Once located, the cards touching it on either side, and fanning out from there, become the spread with your card as the central axis. Essentially, the closer to the starting card, the more relevant they are deemed to the Querant. It’s as if the Significator, in representing you, has access to your deep, gut-level information.

The Bottom Line

The more you pal around with them, the more comfortable you will be with interpreting the People cards. Recognize their traits in the humans around you. Take the Meyers-Briggs test free online with friends and then study your People cards, exploring correlations. And most of all, trust your instinct. We have survived over countless generations in part because of successfully interpreting social cues. Likewise, these images have evolved to communicate specific traits and very human messages across time. Be brave, and take the time to get to Know Some People.

Welcome to the next in my series of articles for Zaghareet on the centuries-old tradition of tarot cards. Last issue, we touched on their history and basic organization. This article will assume some you have familiarity with the cards, and now want to learn how to interpret, or ‘read’ the cards… so read on!

What is a Tarot Reading and How Does it Work?

Reading the cards, sometimes known as throwing cards, is the laying out of a small quantity of randomized cards according to various patterns, and interpreting the story they tell through a mix of symbolism, intuition, and context. Think of it as a direct line to your gut instinct. Your wise unconscious mind derives meaning from the dream-like visual language of the cards, and has great advice for you about likely outcomes… if you are wiling to listen.

Learning to Read the Cards

There are many approaches to reading and laying out the cards. These patterns are called ‘spreads’. The Celtic Cross is well-known, but there are hundreds to choose from. A typical spread has from five to ten cards, although I did watch tarot master Rachel Pollack do one with EVERY card in the deck once.

Maybe your aunt taught you the cards at her knee. Maybe you found a mentor, as I did. There are people who can read them using a mere poker deck, with no pictures to guide them. But most start with a new deck of tarot from this century and the little white book. With experience comes courage and facility with the images and their associations. There are wonderful writers such as Mary K. Greer, and internet resources such as the Aeclectic Tarot Forum. Experiment, study, and repetition will help you develop habits that work for you and get results.

Now Lay It Out

Let’s use my favorite 5-card spread. Imagine the cards as guests at a dinner table. Read the how-to that follows. When the cards are revealed, search the assemblage for their collective wisdom. When in doubt, ask “What do I need to know right now?”

Clear a reading surface about 3 feet square. Take slow breaths. Clear your mind. If you are reading for someone else, they being the ‘Querant’, have them do the same. Ask them to hold their question firmly in mind. Shuffle the deck thoroughly yourself, pass it off, and have them ‘get their question’ into the cards by shuffling a bit more. This next bit is a tradition I have stuck by. Putting the deck down in a stack, with their NON-dominant hand, split the deck twice into three piles. Continue this way, recombining and splitting again in three. Repeat till the deck has been cut three times total.

Have the Querant set the stack in front of themselves, fanning the cards out with the non-dominant hand. Have them continue to hold the question, passing their hand across the cards feeling for cards that feel ‘different’. They pull cards one at a time, laying them facedown in the pattern dictated below. They can either share the question with you aloud, or not. I mostly don’t ask.

Cards will lay out simply, like this: X X X X X

Let’s Interpret It

When the pattern is complete, turn cards over slowly in any order, looking at the whole picture. Reversals (upside-down cards) are a study unto themselves. I don’t use them, but will explore them in a future article. Each card has a spectrum of meanings, from benevolent to challenging, that can be grasped based on context. If you wish to work with reversals, leave them as you find them. If you don’t, turn the cards upright and move to the next step.

Now, look for Frequency: is there a preponderance of any one number, rank or suit? Make a note. Also look for Dignity: watch for the mood of a card by the company it keeps. Think of it as one great house on a bad block. Try to discern how the cards are dignified by the neighbors. Is everything rising at last? Are hopes being dragged down? Also, sometimes while shuffling or laying cards, one will jump out of the deck. This card is whimsically known as a ‘volunteer’ and is included in the reading, off to the side. Think of it as a footnote to the topic at hand.

Explain the meaning of each card aloud with your Querant, and then regard the group as a whole. Watch how each image affects the Querant. Ask questions to give the best interpretation possible. “I can see this bothers you. What does it remind you of?” Two of my favorite examples are of the man who lit up when he saw the Queen of Wands. “That’s my cat!” he smiled, pointing to the feline by her feet. This card instantly had warm associations for him. More poignant is the example shared by my early mentor, Kate Nordstrom. The traditional Rider-Waite-Smith depiction of the Two of Cups is a convivial scene of a man and woman holding goblets, his hand is extended towards her. Kate described her client crying out, “He’s trying to take her cup!”, speaking volumes about the Querant’s state of mind, and the real questions being posed to the reader.

Build on It & Save It for Later

Sometimes the meaning is so clear and so timely that 5 cards reveal all. Sometimes new, more informed questions open out of those first five. Never fear. Add a one, or a whole extra row, if needed. Select a card in the reading already laid out, and frame a new question based upon that. “What else do we need to know about this card?” or “What is the root cause of this part of my trouble?” for example.

Reading is exhausting. Quit when you have had enough.

When the reading is done, archive it. Take a picture, if you have camera/phone, or write down the formation in a journal. Encourage a revisit of the reading over the week. If the Querant has tarot at home, lay the same cards out to ponder in passing. At some point, the scary image loses its power, the peaceful one seems more attainable, the poverty card makes way as personal prosperity rises. You’ll see the same handful of cards repeating over time for each person, and then phase out as particular life issues are resolved. As we live in free will, we change our outcomes. The tarot reminds us to level up to reach our potential. Tarot has no absolute answers, and gives homework every time!

Tips on Reading for Others

Tarot is a game of sorts, and has its roots in a game, but reading for others carries real responsibility. Be focused, brave, and honest about your level of skill. Don’t read more than three cards in a ‘party style’ setting. Big spreads are for deep questions, and unless you really want to talk to someone at the martini bar about the probable loss of their job or their philandering husband, keep it short and light.

Also, don’t apologize for your efforts. I’ve drawn an absolute blank on just a few readings over the years. In one case, they were in absolute denial about the ‘elephant in the reading’, their obvious addiction. A few times, the cards were clearly reading for previous clients! I can’t account for that without sounding overly mystical, but suffice it to say that there are more mysteries in heaven and Earth than I will solve on this lifetime. If Tesla, Jung and Steven Hawkings don’t know everything about the universe, I don’t expect to either. If you are being paid to read, refund the money of the sceptic as soon as its apparent that nothing can be learned. And just let them know, good-naturedly, that the Mysteries of the Universe have ‘Gone Fishin’.

For nothing is written!

Tarot for Dancers, a new series by Madame Onça O’Leary

Welcome to the first of a series of articles for Zaghareet on the long-lived tradition of self-knowledge through tarot. In the months to come, I invite you to join me in exploring everything from how-to to history, interpreting specific cards and using creative spreads, trends and traditions.

What IS the Tarot?

The tarot is a group of images, presented in card form, passed down and transmuted for generations across the western world since at least 1440 C.E. Variously used over the centuries as a parlor game and as an oracle, they have endured and evolved because they provide an enjoyable and informative tool for self-discovery. Every culture seems to have a native form of divination, from the I Ching in China (correlating the patterns of thrown stalks or coins with ancient proverbs) to haruspicy in Rome (reading patterns in the entrails of animals), and cartomancy, or card-reading, thrives world-wide in the modern era in part because it is compact, convenient… and clean. Through a seemingly random selection of cards, seekers find wisdom, warning and wonder.

The source of their wisdom is ascribed to everything imaginable, from the powers of the subconscious mind to the far-fetched temples of sunken Atlantis. Though the cards are both celebrated as angelic and reviled as diabolical, I can speak from experience as a tarot author and artist when I say that neither angels nor devils were involved in the creation of my cards. Rather, every deck of tarot is the result of long hours of research, artistic craft, and intuition, coupled with a serious work ethic, as most decks in this century are comprised of 78 cards. My own ‘World Spirit Tarot’ book and deck took seven years of steady reading, comparative studies, and time knuckled down over an artist’s chisel, block-printing press, and pigment.

Even with all the work involved in such an ambitious undertaking, more variations of the deck have been created in the past 50 years than in all the previous centuries combined. This reflects several powerful modern forces. The technological advance of the printing press and the world wide web have made the tarot widely available. Forward-thinking society now encourages wellness and wholeness as essential to a good work/life balance, and tarot can support self-knowledge. Lastly, contemporary tarot practitioners tend to view it as a useful therapeutic tool rather than as an occult mystery. Used this way, tarot is freed from the stigma of being nefarious hokum. In the words of Jung, honored for his pivotal role in the development of the science of psychology, “They are psychological images… the unconscious seems to play with its contents. They combine in certain ways, and the different combinations correspond to the playful development of events.”

Most of the tarot sets of this century spring from the inspiration of a few seminal works, the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) and the Thoth (or Crowley) deck, and those in turn flow out of older historic packs. As bellydance and flamenco are cousins with shared roots, tarot scholars tell us that modern playing cards and tarot share a much older parent form, tarocchi. That game developed over time into two distinct packs. One deck of 52 cards with four suits thrives as the playing cards we know so well. The other is the tarot, and is now typically comprised of 78 cards in four suits, with the additional cards known as the Major Arcana. According to brilliant tarot writers Mary K. Greer and Tom Little, the history of the cards may stretch even further back along the Silk Road we dancers love. In addition to the decks made in the traditional model, we now have many other divergent forms of cartomancy, including round decks and sets with many more, and many fewer, cards.

The Tarot and I

As part of a spiritual initiation undertaken in the early 1990’s, I was charged with becoming familiar with a form of divination. Being a visual person, I opted for the inviting imagery of the tarot. I struggled to learn how to use the cards from the accompanying little white booklet, but as a lifelong learner, I needed a deeper path. I started a hands-on fabrication of my own deck paired with a study of the imagery, meaning, and history. It resulted in the publication in 2001 of my tarot deck of linoleum block-printed cards, in conjunction with a book of the same name. Translated into Spanish, it is still in print as the ‘Tarot Mystico Universal’. The original English edition is now a collector’s item. I have since had the pleasure of teaching many workshops on tarot and reading for clients in a healing capacity.

As an aside for the dancers, I began studying bellydance seriously mid-project, and as the turbans and global couture crept into the work, the publisher asked me if there was a secret bellydance theme here!

The Pieces and Parts of a Deck

Within the traditional deck, there are essentially three families of cards, four suits and four ranks. The families include the Minors, Majors and Court, or People, Cards. The Minor Trumps, or Minor Arcana, progress in pictures from Ace to Ten, describing the day to day challenges that unfold in the human experience. The Major Trumps, or Major Arcana, are those dramatic images that pop up in film, such as the Lighting-Struck Tower, Death, and the Lovers. They illustrate those large events and forces that move our lives in unexpected ways. And the People Cards, or Court Cards, portray the diverse personalities that make up both our outer lives and our inner qualities; the 16 personality types described in the Meyers-Briggs test provide an excellent analogy for understanding them. Their ranks are typically depict aspects of mastery and development: King or Sage, Queen or Sibyl, Knight or Seeker, and Page or Seer.

The suits are similar to what we know from Poker, and each have a poetic association with one of the classical Four Elements, as well as with an arena of life.

Wands = Clubs = Fire = Creativity and Will-power

Cups = Hearts = Water = Emotions and Love

Swords = Spades = Air = Intellect and Boundaries

Pentacles = Diamonds = Earth = Health and Wealth

The Cards Get Read How?

There are many ways to select and lay the cards out. A typical reading begins with the deck being shuffled, the querent posing a question, a limited number of cards being laid out for viewing, and the images being interpreted according to a blend of intuition and acquired knowledge of the symbolism of the cards. The story told in the cards offers a mirror displaying habits, challenges and choices from an outside perspective. From there, we can take action to effect positive change. Repeated readings over time reveal patterns, unfolding in ways unique to each person. Tarot aficionados also use the cards in journalling and in guided meditations, which we will explore more in further installment of this series.

Tarot, You, and the ‘Gypsy Mystique’

Here’s a special tarot-related caveat just for the bellydancer. In the popular imagination, the images of the ‘Gypsy’ tarot reader and the ‘Gypsy’ dancer are nearly inseparable. The multi-skilled artist can certainly package their dance and divination skills together in a fantasy persona, but please be aware that the term ‘Gypsy’ is a loaded one and widely considered racist. As a result, our dance community struggles with branding when working in theatrical venues such as renaissance festivals and corporate gigs where the ‘G word’ is thrown around. Make marketing choices you can live with, and if necessary, be prepared to explain your position from a view of cultural sensitivity.

Learn More!

There are many dedicated scholars and artists exploring and expanding the tarot genre, which has a subculture and workshop circuit of its own. The interested reader is encouraged to especially study the works of, and bow down to, my idols Mary K. Greer and the venerable Rachel Pollack (who I was honored to get my picture taken with). I can also recommend as a favorite supplementary text in doing readings the book for the Mythic Tarot by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene. Visual artists meriting special attention for either their place in the history of tarot (or just because I like their work) include Pamela Coleman Smith (Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot), Lady Frieda Harris (Book of Thoth Tarot)), Stevee Postman (Cosmic Tribe Tarot) and Brian Williams (Light & Shadow Tarot).