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Welcome to Beltane/May 1/hopefully spring for you in the northern hemisphere! Happy fall for those down under; enjoy the cooler weather.
Beltane is about sun gods and therefore fire, and our blog wrangler, Morgan Drake Eckstein, has called upon us to simply name our enflamed calling to teach the world. And relate that to Tarot.
In my case, it means directly teaching Tarot reading methods and interpretation. I do have a fire burning inside of me to allow the messages from the Cosmos to flow like stories out of the cards themselves, and this, for me, means to start by using more than one.
Not a big fan of the card of the day or of pulling a message from a single card at all. I understand how that can work, since each card has a multitude of symbols and potential variations on the standard meanings. But…
Since I’ve been learning the Lenormand linguistic method of predictive reading, though, I’ve come to the conclusion that in our desire to tap into purely intuitive interpretations of the cards’ symbolism, we have neglected the power of pulling multiple cards together into a single message. I like the idea of Tarot interpretation as linguistic channeling, I suppose.
So, here’s the method I want to use and teach for Tarot: Take at least three cards and find a single sentence that brings together the symbolism in all those cards to apply to a question (doesn’t have to be predictively oriented, just a specific question). Now, this method is not so great for a simple daily draw; like the Lenormand and other predictive methods, it needs a specific question to allow one to choose an interpretation of each card that brings them all together in one message.
Here’s an example three-card Tarot draw we can use to illustrate:
I used this draw on April 11 for a WithinWithoutAdvice series started on Instagram by Patrick Fogarty in 2016. A question for this one would be: “What’s inside of me that needs expressing in the world today, and how best to express that?”
The Mary-el Tarot is almost always about inner deepness stuff; that’s what I like about it for questions like this. Lots of neat mythological symbolism here, from Odin/Wotan’s ravens that see the whole world for him (Q ofS) through the duality of Moon and Sun, inner and outer, in the silver and gold eyes of the Two of Disks, to the emotionally charged energy of Poseidon/Neptune (calm or stormy, who knows on any given day?) as the King of Cups.
We could talk about these richly symbolic images for hours, but right now, we need a single sentence that gives advice. Here’s what I came up with when I did the original post:
“Access your own winged messenger within to see the play of dark and light, sun and moon in the gold and silver of the green Earth manifested, then feel the real beneath the surface of your dreams.”
Another more practical example from a new series I started on YouTube (kinda liking this way of presenting):
https://youtu.be/2OsmG6rIRAo
Let me know what you think of this method. I hope to continue fine-tuning and turning it into a course by next year.
Don’t forget my blog hop neighbors while you are here. We are all connected by links and have all written on the same theme and published at the same time. Just head off in one direction or another to partake of more Tarot wisdom and fun!
YouTube suits you well. I look forward to seeing more of you on there.
Thanks, Karen. Also looking to take a cue from your life and head out to the festivals this year to see if I can get a reading job…
Go for it!
Here’s my reading of the cards: Look (QSw) with inner eye (2 Disks) to cross the waters (2 Disks as Charon plus Neptune). I stopped reading to do this before seeing what you wrote–I’ll look now! Fun!
Very cool interpretation, Joy!
More youtube!!!! Mary El is such a great deck. I don’t utilise it nearly enough! <3
Ali, the mythological breadth and psychological depth of Marie White’s images and text is mind-boggling. I love it for “inner work” sort of readings. I do hope you get inspired to check it out again.
I’m a huge and long time fan of the “summarise in one sentence” form of reading. My take on your first set of cards is:
“It’s all very well swanning about being the centre of everything, as long as you are managing the demands and not just frantically paddling away below the surface where you think nobody can see.”
Great grounded perspective, Ania. I need to remember to use that for these as well.
I hadn’t been drawn to the Lenormand in the past, but recently listened to a podcast during which someone explained how these cards are used in harmony to create simple predictive statements like you’re using here. I was intrigued! Now I’m called again by your blog post here to look into doing this type of card combination reading. It really is interesting and exciting! Thanks for your post 🙂
You have just inspired me to draw three cards for myself and match them with a sentence – that sounds brilliant! Thank you so much for your thoughts and also for sharing your Youtube Channel with us, Joanne, I have subscribed! 🙂