What is Tarot and how can I use it?

At its most basic, tarot is a set of seventy-eight cards that together represent both our everyday lived experiences and the forces that shape our lives. Carl Jung called these forces “archetypes”. These archetypes represent the different drives, patterns, and powers that impel us to behave in certain ways at certain times. Often, possibly more often than not, this is done unconsciously.

Before I go on though, I want to address one of the fears associated with Tarot. Tarot does not have the power to create or control these forces or our experiences. How can it? Tarot decks consist of seventy-eight pieces of art. It is us that ascribes and divines meaning from the images. Therefore we, the recipient of the reading, are always in control. Whether you are reading for yourself or receiving a reading from someone else – you are always in control.

Furthermore, you may decide to buy a tarot deck and never use it for a reading. Some people buy decks purely for the artwork. If you scroll through some of my deck write-ups you will quickly see why. But before I move on to talk about some of the many ways it can be used I want to talk further about what tarot is.

For me, tarot is simply a tool, a wonderful tool, but a tool nonetheless. Its power is in its ability to present us with different ways of looking at things. These new perspectives can help us find, see, and follow, what is true for us which in turn encourages us to live our best, most authentic lives. Sounds like a big wrap I know, but I have seen it do this on many, many, occasions both personally and for those I read for.

Oftentimes we don’t know what is lurking in our own shadow. Other times, we have told ourselves the same story over and over so often that we believe it is true for us, even when it is not. Tarot is a tool that can bring those subconscious stories into our conscious awareness. Then it is up to us to act on what we discover.

Breaking down a tarot deck

As already mentioned, for the most part, a tarot deck consists of seventy-eight cards. Those cards are divided into the Major and Minor Arcana. The twenty-two Major Arcana cards represent the archetypal forces that impact our lives. They represent significant life events and when they appear they ask you to consider the bigger picture of the situation you are facing. These are the cards such as 0 The Fool, IV The Emperor, XI Justice, and XX Judgement. However, while the archetypal energy remains consistent, the names can change. The Sufi Tarot renames most of the Major Arcana so as you can see below 0 The Fool has become Salik and XX Judgement is titled Mizaan.

The Minor Arcana reflects the everyday situations that we all encounter. They are further divided into suits which at the most basic level represent emotions; the physical world such as work, health and money; our passions and desires; and communication and intellect. These are generally associated with water (cups), earth (pentacles/coins), fire (wands) and air (swords) respectively. While the names may change here also and occasionally fire and air are swapped, this is consistent across most tarot decks.

As well as the pip cards of the Minor Arcana there is also the tarot court. Here you meet the different personalities in the deck. The Pages are more childlike and innocent . They are the curious students and messengers. The Knights are seekers, the Queens embody the energy of the suit, and the King has command of the energy. While they may be pictured as male or female, young or old, they reflect characteristics rather than gender or familial roles. Although, just to make it confusing, sometimes they can. That is up to the individual reader.

Personally I see them as describing our own nature or the nature of those around us. Sometimes they represent a personality-type that we would benefit from embracing in a particular situation. Others consider that they refer to actual people. Unless their position in the spread indicates that or other cards suggest that, I rarely read them that way.

Court cards are often considered tricky but, just as with the rest of the deck, they can be as complicated or as simple as you choose to make them. My tip, start simple and then build your knowledge and the way you view all the cards over time.

Look at the King of Athames (Swords) pictured below. What sort of person is he? What does he do? Do you imagine him to be light-hearted or more intense? Scatter-brained or intellectual? Does he remind you of anyone? I’ll be writing more posts about what to look for in the cards but for now you might be interested in reading a post that encourages you to look at the two cards side by side. I’ll put the link in at the end so you can finish this post first.

How you can use tarot

Clarity

I said earlier that tarot can be used in so many ways. Using it as a tool for self-awareness and self-improvement is just one way. Tarot is a great tool for problem-solving and for finding a way forward too. Whether you’re tossing up between multiple options, feeling lost altogether and have no idea what to do, or you know what you want but you have no idea how to get it, tarot’s ability to help you see things in a new light works really well to help remedy these situations.

Brainstorming

Tarot can be a great brainstorming tool as well. I regularly use it to help me with my general writing, including this post, but as a creative writing tool it excels. I’m not going to go into that aspect in detail here because I have written an article on that very topic. You’ll find a link to that article at the end too. Tarot goes way past just brainstorming for writing though. I have used it to help me come up with everything from Christmas and birthday present ideas, to new colour schemes. If you’re seeking inspiration for new products, new ways to structure things, a new slogan, etc the imagery on the cards combined with the themes they represent can really take the burden out of the process. They can show you options your rational mind might struggle to imagine on its own.

Conflict resolution and to help understand relationships better

It is a great tool for conflict resolution too. Various spreads focus on helping you to see situations from another person’s perspective. This works well for all types of relationships, not just our intimate ones. It can also be used to look at relationships in general. I have a particular spread I use that, among other things, looks at what each party brings to a relationship and what they each want from the relationship. This has been a real eye-opener for myself and for my clients.

Meditation, visualisation, and pathworking

Tarot can be used for meditation, visualisation and pathworking. While there is a crossover between all three methods I am going to suggest a possible approach for each one starting with meditation. Two possible options are to meditate on a particular theme you feel the card suggests or you could use meditation as a way to better understand the card.

Alternatively you could choose to visualise what a card or a series of cards represents in your life. For example for the 6 of Wands you could visualise what success looks like to you. Or, with the 3 of Pentacles and the 8 of Pentacles you might visualise yourself achieving mastery in your chosen profession and what that looks like. You might include the King of Pentacles and visualise going on to start your own successful business. The possibilities are endless.

In comparison, pathworking with tarot, while still a visualisation technique, involves stepping into the card and connecting with whoever/whatever is present. This is a great way to uncover what the card is trying to tell you. As you can see, while the approach is different, these techniques overlap.

Chris-Anne proposed a different take on pathworking in the guidebook for The Tarot of Curious Creatures. She suggests rather than going into the card, we can invite the animal into our environment to see what they have to say. This approach has yielded some surprising results and it goes to show that it is worth trying/creating different ways of doing things. It turns out the crocodile on the 10 of Pentacles had a lot to say about my office and the way I saw myself and my work at the time.

Spell work and positive triggers

For those of you that don’t identify with the idea of witchcraft and spells, (I don’t and you definitely don’t have to in order to be a successful reader), I’ll express it a different way. Using tarot in this way just means consciously choosing the cards that represent what you want to happen. The Modern Spellcaster’s Tarot and The Crystal Magic Tarot have some great examples of how to work with tarot in this way.

One suggestion is to place a card that represents something you want to overcome face down with what you want to replace it with face up on top of it. Another option is to choose a court card that represents you and then surround it with cards that represent what you want in your life and either leave it where you can see it or take a photo on your phone and look at it often.

I added here positive triggers because often we hear about negative triggers – every one seems to know what they are – but we don’t consider the alternative. You could select a card that reminds you of what you want, where you’re headed, who you are, or what is truly important to you, and you can draw upon that image when needed.

Tarot Journaling

You can journal about a reading, which I suggest is a wonderful habit to develop. Or, there are numerous ways you can journal about an individual card. You could write about an individual element in the card, what the card makes you think or feel, what you like about the card, what you dislike about the card, what the card means to you, or a memory it invokes. I could go on. But, put simply my suggestion is to incorporate journaling into any of the tarot uses presented in this article.

General knowledge

One of the things I love about the tarot is how it opens up a never ending network of learning opportunities. Through the Secrets of Paradise Tarot, amongst other things, I learned about Orishas, Bomba and Condumbra drums, and Vejigante masks. The Starman Tarot led me to research Chaos Theory and the Universal Celtic Tarot had me learning more about Celtic mythology. These are but a few of the examples I could have given. As someone with a curious mind and a tendency to jump around with my learning, the tarot gives me a focus that grounds what I learn while giving my intuition more to tap into.

Art Inspiration

This kicked in for me in several ways. Firstly, looking at so many wonderful pieces of art encouraged me to want to draw. Secondly, an exercise by Mary K Greer in 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card encourages you to draw your tarot card as a way of becoming more aware of each element in the card. This is a very powerful exercise by the way. Thirdly, recently, as a way to break up computer work, I started drawing elements from XXI The World card and then used them to focus my study. Finally, looking at tarot cards everyday led me to become more interested in art history and I started watching You Tube videos on the subject. Yes this taps into the previous point as well. Ultimately everything is interconnected.

Wrapping it all up

Since I had decided not to drown people in information when I set out to write this post I didn’t expect it to run so long. But, that’s tarot. There is so much to it. Albeit how you choose to work with it and the depths you choose to go to are totally up to you. That is part of its beauty. However, there’s another thing that tarot does that not many people may see as a direct use, but I believe it serves this purpose well.

Tarot reminds us that we are not alone. When you hold a tarot deck in your hands you are holding a series of artworks that represents our shared experiences. Sometimes we feel alone and as if we are facing situations that others can’t relate to. The tarot suggests otherwise. It is a humbling, beautiful and sometimes confronting reminder of our shared humanity. The “other” only exists in our way of seeing them and the labels we apply. Tarot reminds us of this often.

The magic of tarot isn’t in any “special” powers that it has. The magic is that it connects us with ourselves, others, and our place in the natural world. That is where true magic both exists and is created.

Publishing Details for Featured Tarot Decks

Forest of Enchantment Tarot created by Lunaea Weatherstone (author) and Meraylah Allwood (artist) and published by Llewellyn Publications (First edition, second printing) in 2019

Soul Cats Tarot created by Leeza Robertson (author) and Adam Oehlers (artist) and published by Llewellyn Publications in 2022

Light Seers Tarot created by Chris-Anne and published by Hay House in 2019

Sufi T arot created by Ayeda Husain with artwork by Hassaan Aftab and Momina Khan. Published by Hay House in 2022.

Pastoral Tarot created by Lynn Araujo and Lisa Hunt (illustrator) and published by U.S. Games Inc in 2022.

The Green Witch Tarot created by Ann Moura with art by Kiri Ostergaard Leonard. First Edition, Fifth Printing published by Llewellyn Publications in 2019

Modern Spellcaster’s Tarot Created by Melanie Marquis with artwork by Scott Murphy. First Edition, Sixth Printing published by Llewellyn Worldwide in 2021.

Radiant Wisdom Tarot Created by Laughing Womyn Ashonosheni and published by Sophronia Press in 2012.

Tarot of the Abyss created by Ana Tourian and published by U.S. Games Inc in 2021

The Tarot of Curious Creatures created by Chris-Anne and published by Hay House in 2021.

The Penumbra Tarot Created by Eris Elizabeth and Ethony published by Ethony Enterprises in 2021

Secrets of Paradise Tarot Created by Leticia Ferrer-Rivera with artwork by Laura Bello. Published by Hay House in 2023.

The Rider Tarot Deck Published by US Games Systems Inc (1/30/03 edition) in 2000.

Chrysalis Tarot Created by Toney Brooks and Holly Sierra (artist) and published by U.S. Games Inc in 2016.