Tarot Card Allegories
Part of my “Rookie rules” when someone sits down with me for a reading is this statement:
There are three cards that weird out rookies: Death, the Devil and the Tower. If they come up, I’ll tell you what they mean — ’cause it ain’t THAT.”
And THAT, of course, is the idea that they will be hit by a bus on Tuesday, or they are cursed and followed by Evil Beings, or that their lives are going to come crashing down in all aspects, leaving them in agony.
Oh, puh-LEEZ.
What reading Tarot for 50(!) years has shown me, is that Tarot is valuable for the STORIES it tells to my clients. And if all I had to do was parrot back the meanings I’d learned in the ’70s, then why continue to study? Why continue to explore those 78 cards of Wisdom and plumb their depths?
On top of that, I refuse to be a fortune teller — a Madame Hoohah that pronounces fates like God is on vacation and handed me the keys to the office.
Instead, I get my client to think about the deeper, more Enlightening meanings of those cards.
Death? Think of it as death of an old way of life… death of what you’ve outgrown… death of what was never you in the first place but you carried nonetheless.
The Devil? No, it does not literally mean Mr. Horns-and-a-Tail. It doesn’t even mean Jack Nicholson from the Witches of Eastwick. It means bedeviled by someone, something or some situation — or holding YOURSELF back from your best self through bad habits or self-conditioning.
The Tower? No, it isn’t necessarily doom-gloom-destruction. Think of it more like “the imploding sports stadium card” — if the Red Sox wanted to build a new stadium, they’d have to blow up Fenway, no? Then the ground would be cleared for building the new stadium.
Once my clients understand this level of thinking, they begin to see the possibilities, and they take charge of their own lives.
What about the Temperance Card? I point out that in Tarot, water often means emotion, so the Angel pouring water from cup to cup without spilling any is emotional mastery.
One foot is on land and one is in the water — the idea of keeping one foot where you are and one foot in the space of “where you want to go.”
And the idea of making new things? I tell them I also see it as the Third Grade Science Fair card: If I gave them a rubber boot, a fishing pole and five pounds of flour they would be able to make an experiment that wins the Science Fair. In other words, not only thinking outside the box, but thinking outside the room where the box is stored!
Tarot cards can have — do have — layers and layers of meaning. And people will retain stories faster than they will retain soundbites about card meanings, especially if they are new to the game.
When you read cards, really peruse the elements. What do they remind you of? What stories are there? Yes, it’s important to know the original, traditional meanings of the cards. But the world changes, and so does society. When the Eight of Wands was created, there was no electronic communication — the internet, faxes, texts, ZOOM meetings. Yet now that card can indicate that sort of experience.
When you partner with your cards in the 21st century, expand. Look at the allegory. Look at how to tell the stories to your clients so that they understand them, retain them — and feel safe in coming back to you because you can speak their language.
