Hướng dẫn bói bài Tarot Touchstone tarot

No part of this book or the Touchstone Tarot deck of cards, including illustrations, may be used or reproduced in any manner whatever, including internet usage, without written permissi

Touchstone t a r o t

78 friends you hold in your hand

TM

Touchstone t a r o t

K A T B L A C K

TM

Touchstone Tarot

Copyright 2009 and Trademark Kat Black | All Rights Reserved

No part of this book or the Touchstone Tarot deck of cards,

including illustrations, may be used or reproduced in any manner whatever, including internet usage, without written permission from Kunati Inc., except brief quotations or use of images embodied in critical reviews This book is a component of a boxed set, including 200-page

book and 78-card Tarot deck, plus two special cards.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

FIRST EDITION ISBN 978-1-60164-190-8 Printed in China For information, contact Kunati Inc., Book Publishers in Canada USA: 13575 58th Street North, Suite 200, Clearwater, FL 33760-3721 USA Canada: 75 First Street, Suite 128, Orangeville, ON L9W 5B6 CANADA.

Kunati is a trademark owned by Kunati Inc.

Touchstone Tarot is a trademark owned by Kat Black.

U S A | C A N A D A

I don’t want to discuss how the Touchstone Tarot

fits my hand, or the symbolism, or the colors and the clothing

I want to briefly discuss the images

I know these people I know each and every one of them So do you We work and play with them, we went

to school with them; like the man in the Five of Cups,

he sat at the next table when we were out to dinner the other night, and spent the whole night making the waiter miserable

Since we identify with these people, the Touchstone

Tarot may be one of the most accessible decks to date We don’t have to think about meanings, or refer to a weighty tome telling us what the cards mean—the figures in the cards tell us everything we need to know

Where many decks go into the minutiae of symbolism, Kat Black took the faces and hands of ordinary people, and posed them in Baroque and Renaissance costumes, allowing the personas to shine through and provide us with meaning

Look at the Page of Coins This looks exactly like Adam, my best friend’s son Look at the expression on his face; this is Adam right after Cookie told him he’d have to get a job when he went back to college.

As I thumb through the cards, I can identify my whole circle of friends, past and present, I invite you to do the

same —Dan Pelletier

n Dan Pelletier has been reading Tarot for himself and others for over thirty years Dan is also co-owner of The Tarot Garden, a highly respected resource for tarot decks and related information

on the Internet He has written articles appearing on the Tarot for Life website newsletter, Seeker’s Journey, TheTarotSchool.com, and Tarot Passages, and he has published interviews with deck creators on the tarotgarden.com website library.

The Touchstone Tarot (by Kat Black, of Golden

Tarot fame) is a traditional 78-card deck, digitally collaged from the works of European masters of the Renaissance and Baroque periods Stunning costumes and backgrounds are accompanied by modern-looking faces Kat uses the tagline: 78 friends that you hold

in your hand, indicating that this deck deals not with esoteric symbolism and hidden secrets, but with real people who want to sit down, have a chat with us and offer advice and support

The structure of this deck is traditional: the Major Arcana carry traditional titles, with Strength as VIII and Justice as XI The suits are Wands, Cups, Swords, and Coins; the Court Cards are entitled Page, Knight, Queen and King Each of the Pages is depicted as a student, in black cap and gown, per the era reflected in the cards The Knights are all shown standing, while the Kings and Queens are shown in a seated position

The imagery in this deck reflects the heart of each card: the Fool is shown with a flute in his hands and his

loyal dog at this side The High Priestess stands between two pillars, holding both a scroll and a book in her hands The Chariot shows female imagery, great strength and intent with a hint of warrior The Hermit shares space with a lit lantern, an owl and a deer in a forest setting.

I feel very much at home with this deck While it

is new to me, it is also an “old companion.” This is an elegant deck that connects to the reader (and the Seeker) without a problem Any level of Tarot student would find

it easy to work with this deck

Many thanks to Kat and her wonderful Tarot vision, and to the benefactor who made the development of this

deck possible — Bonnie Cehovet

n Bonnie Cehovet is a Certified Tarot Grand Master, a professional Tarot reader with over ten years’ experience, a Reiki Master/ Teacher and a writer Bonnie has served in various capacities with the American Tarot Association, is co-founder of the World Tarot Network, and Vice President (as well as Director of Certification) for the American Board For Tarot Certification She has published articles in the 2004 and 2005 Llewellyn Tarot Reader.

Touchstone Tarot,

tell me true,

this is what I ask of you.

Dedication

by Mary K Greer

Kat Black, creator of the Golden Tarot, has done it again with the Touchstone Tarot This is no

ordinary deck of collaged artwork Instead, it

is a masterpiece in its own right, seamlessly combining historical portraits and backgrounds from the Baroque and Renaissance into easily recognizable tarot scenes of luminous color and clarity of detail This is a magical deck Personalities dominate each card, and the perception in their eyes becomes a test—the touchstone—by which your sincerity and truth is measured Gazing out from the cards, each demands you accept the hard won wisdom and knowledge depicted therein The past speaks, and it knows your secrets

I highly recommend this as a deck you’ll have to not just own but use—frequently

Foreword

by Secret Benefactor

It is with great pleasure that I bring you the Touchstone Tarot As the Provider of Pentacles (Coins), I literally

did play a part in bringing you the Touchstone, much

as the many personages you will be meeting played their parts in funding their own portraits!

What can I say but that it has been huge fun and money more than wisely spent I have been a student and reader of Tarot for over thirty years, and yes, that includes for business and investment decisions I am an

admirer of Kat’s Golden Tarot, and to be told that no

publisher would finance the development of her second deck struck me as, well, dreadfully silly of them It turns out that for Tarot Artistes, apparently that is Just Not Done It tickles my sense of artistic congruence therefore that this deck be funded through the system of patronage, and I consider this opportunity to be an honor

And now, an instructive tale: Since the completion of the masterpiece you now hold, I attended an investment pitch session held by the European representative of a mysterious eccentric Doctor Cook in the eastern half of united Germany He was soliciting funds for a process that converts any form of garbage into high-quality diesel fuel, via secret processes of boiling, stirring, and separating common ingredients Of course, close questioning

revealed that no one had actually been permitted to see the interior of this wonderful construction of crucibles, alembecs, turbines, etc They were raising $16 million dollars, and had investors lining up.

In the Tudor period, Edward Kelley presented

Dr John Dee with a secret process of turning lead into gold, and was hired as Dee’s assistant They travelled Europe (or escaped from Elizabeth) seeking patrons (aka investors) for their process Emperor Rudolf II in Prague believed Kelley’s claims and made him a baron Upon Kelley’s failure to provide return on the investment, Rudolf had him arrested in 1591 and imprisoned in Křivoklát Castle near Prague in order to force Kelley to produce Kelley stayed there for three years, until 1594, until he promised to make gold

in return for his freedom He was released and still withheld his talents Again he was imprisoned and legend says he died while attempting to escape his tower at Hněvín Castle

It was just too bad I had no castles free at the moment

May the 78 Friends help you, in your Emperor Moments, to discern the Edward Kelleys of the world truly; and may you delight in the celebration of magic and timeless human nature that is Kat Black’s work

C O N T E N T S

Introduction 21

FAQs 27

Reading 33

Reversals 34

Significators 35

Spreads 36

Journaling and other creative pursuits 44

Other uses for the deck 45

The Touchstone Deck 45

The Major Arcana 46

0 The Fool 46

I The Magician 48

II The High Priestess 50

III The Empress 52

IV The Emperor 54

V The Hierophant 55

VI The Lovers 56

VII The Chariot 58

VIII Strength 59

IX The Hermit 60

X The Wheel of Fortune 62

XI Justice 63

XII The Hanged Man 64

XIII Death 66

XIV Temperance 67

XV The Devil 69

XVI The Tower 70

XVII The Star 71

XVIII The Moon 73

XIX The Sun 74

XX Judgement .76

XXI The World 77

The Minor Arcana 79

Suit of Wands 79

Ace of Wands 80

Two of Wands 82

Three of Wands 83

Four of Wands 85

Five of Wands 87

Six of Wands 88

Seven of Wands 90

Eight of Wands 91

Nine of Wands 93

Ten of Wands 95

Page of Wands 97

Knight of Wands 99

Queen of Wands 100

King of Wands 103

Suit of Cups 105

Ace of Cups 105

Two of Cups 107

Three of Cups 108

Four of Cups 110

Five of Cups 112

Six of Cups 113

Seven of Cups 115

Eight of Cups 117

Nine of Cups 118

Ten of Cups 120

Page of Cups 122

Knight of Cups 123

Queen of Cups 125

King of Cups 126

Suit of Swords 128

Ace of Swords 128

Two of Swords 130

Three of Swords 132

Four of Swords 134

Five of Swords 136

Six of Swords 138

Seven of Swords 140

Eight of Swords 141

Nine of Swords 143

Ten of Swords 145

Page of Swords 146

Knight of Swords 148

Queen of Swords 150

King of Swords 151

Suit of Coins 154

Ace of Coins 154

Two of Coins 156

Three of Coins 157

Four of Coins 159

Five of Coins 160

Six of Coins 162

Seven of Coins 163

Eight of Coins 165

Nine of Coins 166

Ten of Coins 168

Page of Coins 170

Knight of Coins 171

Queen of Coins 173

King of Coins 174

Bonus Cards 176

Appendix: Love Knot Sample Readings 179

When I created my first deck, Golden Tarot,

in 2000, I wanted to make an easy-to-read Rider-Waite-Smith–style deck that looked convincingly Early Renaissance in tribute to both the art and symbolism of tarot’s traditions and heritage Luckily for me, a lot of other people wanted such a hybrid too and it became a popular deck

Since then, a huge number of other tarot decks have flooded the market, filling all manner of niches both mainstream and obscure Economically, the chances

of a new deck’s being a financial success are very low Production costs for quality decks are much higher than books, and in such a crowded market it’s certainly no way to make a living

All of this would tend to suggest that my making another deck would be a bit pointless Logically, that’s true But then, art transcends logic, and once the seeds

of Touchstone were set in my mind, they began to

grow I wanted to make a deck for use in digital media, something that could communicate well, even on the small screen of a mobile phone I wanted it to be a deck

of oil portraits, richer and darker than the soft frescoes

of Golden.

I posted a few cards online at Aeclectic Tarot Forum for feedback I didn’t say much about what was special about the deck, but I received some enthusiastic support for the cards posted After doing about a dozen draft

cards though, I realised that it wasn’t viable to commit the time to completing the deck I have to make a living and my main livelihood as a VJ (Visual Jockey) is both creatively fulfilling and very time-consuming So, the deck was put on hold.

A few months later, I received a message from a stranger on the forum The person asked me if I was willing to complete the deck, no strings attached, if they gave me an arts grant All I had to do was to supply my bank details and then get to work Not having a tradition

of private benefactorship here in Australia, I was a little suspicious Nigerian bank internet scams sprang to mind The person was very understanding though, and gave me details of their identity that I could confirm with others

in the Tarot community They insisted on their identity being kept a secret for obvious reasons, but they were well known and respected in the field Once I confirmed who they were, of course I agreed immediately To be paid to do a project that I was passionate about—what a fairy tale! The money went into my account within a few days, and I got to work

Apart from the financial support, the other wonderful thing about having a private benefactor is the feeling of sharing the development of the deck with someone else who is intellectually and emotionally invested in the project The feedback I got along the way as I worked on drafts of the cards was invaluable The deck evolved as

I was encouraged to really follow my own path, and that suggested by the source artwork

Funnily enough, most of the original source

artworks I’ve used were painted by artists who were supported by private benefactors during the trade-fueled economic boom in Western Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, so the fact that I also had a patron supporting my work on this deck seemed terribly appropriate.

At a certain point, it became obvious that a name change for the deck was needed I’d started out with the name of Tarot Cielo, which means “of the heavens” or

“of the sky” in Italian While that’s a lovely name for a

deck, it’s not the name for this deck I was using more

and more English, Dutch, Flemish and German faces, and fewer Italian The character of the deck and what

I wanted to convey was far better expressed by the intense, emotional faces of the Mannerist and Baroque genres than the somewhat vacuous and stylized faces of the Renaissance

I canvassed my circle of tarot colleagues about the name Many good suggestions were made, but none struck me as “it.” As I worked on the deck, looking at thousands of paintings for elements to use, suddenly I saw “it.” A young jeweler leans from a window In one hand, he holds a ring, and in the other, a touchstone A touchstone is a small, textured stone used to assay the quality of metals Immediately it struck me: something small enough to hold in your hand that tells you the truth—sounds just like tarot to me!

I had my name, and with it an even deeper conviction about what the deck would be It was always intended to

be a deck of portraits, and now I was convinced that the

portraits would do the talking While there would still be Rider-Waite-Smith symbolism where I could squeeze it

in, the main voice of the deck would be their voices.

I take no credit for the intensity in these faces, and their ability to communicate I’ve acted more as a curator, assembling them into a context that fits traditional tarot The true talent was that of the artists four hundred years ago, men and women who could capture that human spark on canvas My benefactor said of the Two of Cups

“I’d love to have that couple round to dinner.” How magical is that? These people lived and died hundreds

of years ago, and yet still they can give us pleasure, joy and insight Art is a wonder, a miracle, a maker of the immortal

I felt like a casting agent, seeking the perfect candidate for each role within the deck The archetypes

of the Majors, the characters of the Courts, the players of the scenic Minors: I hunted again and again through my body of collected source material looking for just the right face for each card Every one of the faces I chose spoke to me I felt I could know them, that they were friends I could trust to tell me the truth.The Rider-Waite-Smith deck turned out to be a powerful force though If I took one step away from

bit-“Pixie” (Pamela Colman Smith), I ended up taking two steps back toward her Even if I had a main character whose face said everything I wanted the card to say, I missed basic RWS elements if they weren’t included In the final stages of the deck, I opened it up for feedback from a small focus group of tarot experts This helped me

to work out just which aspects of RWS meant the most, and to include them where possible without detracting from the main portrait The result is that there will be familiarity in the deck for RWS readers, but it’s not a

“clone” to the extent that Golden Tarot was

Once the characters were cast, the rest of my job was relatively easy, pushing pixels There’s more detailed discussion of the digital collage technique I use in the

book with my first deck, Golden Tarot In summary,

basically I cut up old paintings on my computer and stick them back together to make new compositions I’ve always been a cut ‘n paster

While most collagists put disparate elements together, my style is to try to make the collages look as seamless and consistent as possible, to make each card look like a whole, real painting If I’ve done my job well, you won’t be able to tell they’re collages

I encourage you to look at some of the original source paintings online, or ideally to see them in real life The artwork is so key to what the cards are that I’ve included references to every component used, and noted where it can be seen A trip to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is high on my things-to-do-before-I-die list There’s nothing like seeing these luminous paintings in real life Apart from the support of my benefactor, another person who encouraged me to follow my instincts and create the deck as I truly felt it should be was Mary K Greer I was very lucky to meet Ms Greer in person

at the International Tarot Conference in Melbourne in

2005, and very surprised to find she used Golden as

one of her regular reading decks I remember reading

her groundbreaking Tarot for Your Self many years

after getting my first deck as a teenager, and thinking, Wow, it’s okay to read the cards the way I do I was very nervous about meeting Ms Greer, but she turned out to be just as warm, open, welcoming and downright sensible

as her books would suggest Her insightful feedback on

the draft of Touchstone Tarot was greatly appreciated.

This booklet will not teach you to read tarot It is intended just as a small companion volume to the deck While it includes some basic layouts and meanings, it’s

intended more to tell you about this deck, with some

insights and background regarding each card

I recommend if you’re new to tarot to get a proper introductory book There are many excellent tarot books I’d suggest starting with some by Mary K Greer and Rachel Pollack If you’re interested in the history

of tarot, Stuart Kaplan’s Tarot Encyclopedias are the

definitive resource on that subject

I think of deck companion books as a bit like a user manual on a new appliance I read them once and then just start using the deck If I have questions—for example, I suddenly notice something unusual in a card when doing a reading—I’ll fish out the book and refer

to it again That’s how I’m hoping you’ll use this book,

as something to read and then refer to now and then as needed Starting a tarot journal will help you get used

to the cards much more quickly and deeply than relying

on a book to interpret meanings I’ll cover that in more detail later

FAQs

n Should a deck be a gift?

I don’t personally believe it has to be, but a deck sure does make a wonderful gift as it’s not just an object, it’s a set of possibilities

I bought my first deck when I was fifteen I gave the money to a friend and got her to walk into the store and buy it for me as I’d heard the “rule” that you shouldn’t buy a deck for yourself In retrospect that seems supremely silly, as it misses the point of why a gifted deck is so much better than one you buy yourself.Ideally, someone gives you a deck because they care about you enough to want you to make your own decisions, and they think tarot can help you to do that

Or perhaps they think you’re great at counseling and that you might make a good tarot reader

Or they see a particular deck and know you’re into tarot but don’t have this one, and they think it’s very

“you.”

I treasure the decks that have been gifted to me, and I’ve given many more decks to other people than I could sensibly afford Most of the people I’ve given a deck to have never had a deck before, and say they’re not into tarot, but if just a few of them get curious and end up finding it a useful tool in their life, I’m very happy If not, perhaps they will give it to someone else I suspect that tarot decks keep moving until they find their true home

n Should you let other people touch your cards?

I think this is a matter of personal taste Personally I’m happy with people handling my cards Especially if I’m reading for others, I want them to feel an empowered part of the process, and so I encourage them to shuffle and cut, and to pick the cards up from the spread to look

at details in the cards themselves

If someone particularly creepy handled my cards though, I’d probably want to do a cleansing ritual

n Should they be stored in something special?

Storing your cards in a box or bag is a good idea

if they don’t come with a protective box Some people believe they should be stored in silk or wood, but others disagree just as emphatically! Keeping a few heads of dried lavender or a chip of cedar with them to discourage pests could be a good idea, although I have to say in over

20 years, not one of my decks has ever suffered from bug attack

Some of my favorite decks have their own special home, a collection of antique cigar and jewelry boxes and lush handmade bags trimmed to match the deck For the deck I carry in my handbag, I have a well-padded, lined bag that ties securely closed and protects the deck from keys and anything else that’s kicking around in there

n Are there any important rituals?

Human beings love ritual It’s existed in every culture In fact, even some non-human species use ritual

Male bowerbirds of my native Australia build elaborate twig structures and then decorate them with blue objects

to attract mates This structure isn’t even used as a nest, just to “score.” Once he gets the female interested with his fashionable décor, he does an impressive little song and dance to really seal the deal What is it about all this that makes him so popular with the lady bowerbirds? Who knows, but it’s a ritual that will make or break his chances of passing on his genes

I think of rituals as a way of making something seem

special

I love to do a “proper” reading, clearing off the kitchen table and laying out a nice cloth, lighting some candles and incense and putting on my favorite Hildegard of Bingen album Transporting yourself away from your everyday life by taking the time to set all this

up really helps to make the reading feel more significant It’s a time-out from my work and life in general, which

I find helps me to step back and be more objective when doing a reading for myself

On the other hand, I’m also a fan of online readings and can’t wait to be able to do a reading on my phone (especially being able to shuffle with a motion-detecting phone by shaking it) Not all readings have to be special

I also feel comfortable with tarot being part of my everyday life

I wonder if the “proper” reading would still seem special if I did it every day? Maybe, maybe not For

me personally, it’s an optional extra for when I have something important to ask the cards

I think that whatever feels right for you is the way

to go

n Is it wrong to read cards for a third party?

I can understand why some people, especially those with psychic abilities, have an ethical problem in talking about someone who isn’t present at the reading Whether it’s your sitter’s friend, sister, partner, or even

a celebrity, telling things about other people that they haven’t consented to reveal can be seen as an invasion

of privacy

On the other hand, I believe that part of who we are

is defined by our relationships and the people we choose

to have around us Their behavior and their issues affect

us very deeply They are part of who we are It’s not a cut and dried case of “us” and “them.”

In the classic ethical dilemma, a reader is asked by

a sitter if her husband is having an affair If the reader

has a strong conviction that it is the case, do they tell the

sitter? Do they hint at it? Do they deny that they see it

in the cards? Do they try to reframe the question so it’s about the sitter and her relationship with her husband rather than his behavior, or will that make her feel she’s responsible for her husband’s affair?

I’m not going to tell you what’s right and wrong I think our emotions and responses are so complex that any ethical decisions need to be based on the actual situation in hand and the context of the reading It’s up

to you to decide

n Divination or intuition?

Ah, the old debate Is tarot reading fortune telling?

It can be, but it doesn’t need to be A tarot deck is a tool that can be used in many ways, depending on the reader

I use tarot myself as a form of counseling and to help

me work out solutions to problems I think it’s helped

me over the past decades to be more self-aware than I otherwise would have been

Personally, I don’t believe in predetermination I don’t think our fates are fixed When I read “Future” cards, I see it as a likely outcome given current potential and direction, i.e., something that can be easily changed

by active intervention

I don’t consider myself to be psychic I prefer

to think I’m just intuitive Over the years though, the cards have come up with some readings that do their best to challenge my “psychic agnosticism.” Once at a Renaissance Faire, I was doing three-card readings, and

a woman was emphatic that the cards laid were “wrong.”

I collected them up, gave the deck back to her and got her to shuffle again I’d never normally do that, but she was being such a pain about it, and I just couldn’t be bothered arguing She cut the cards and then from the

top of the deck I laid the exact same three cards out We

were both so shocked we just looked at them After a while I said the obvious: “I don’t think they’re the wrong cards.”

n I’m a Christian Isn’t reading tarot wrong?

I’ve been asked this a few times, probably because

Golden Tarot contained a lot of Renaissance Christian imagery Touchstone doesn’t contain nearly as much religious imagery because by the Baroque era, most art was being commissioned by wealthy individuals rather than churches, but this is still a question that I get asked

The earliest tarot decks were commissioned by Catholic families, including families with members who became popes

Branding tarot, fortune telling and even dice and playing cards as “the work of the devil” came much later

I’m not a Christian, but I know of a number of high profile tarot experts who are Biblical references

to divination are mixed, and as with other aspects of your religion, I’d encourage you to research the issue and make your own decision You might have noticed, I’m pretty big on people making their own decisions Personal responsibility is very important to me

n Do I need to ask a specific question when I do a

reading?

No, you can just do a general reading I personally find tarot more helpful when you do ask a specific question, although sometimes even though you’re asking about something specific, the cards can very insistently tell you that there’s another, more important issue that you should be considering

I’ve always laid and read the cards one at a time to reduce the temptation to rush ahead and read the final card/s Dan Pelletier suggested in his wonderful audio

book The Process to lay the full layout down but with

the cards face-down, then to turn them over one at a time

as you read them I think that sounds like a very sensible option

If you’re reading for another person, you will need

to decide who shuffles, you or them Usually after shuffling, the cards are cut into three piles then put back together and laid from the top of the deck This can be done by the sitter, although that will depend on how you feel about others touching your deck

There’s no right way to shuffle—whatever feels right for you

In tarot a “reversal” means a card that is laid down Whether or not you get reversals depends on how you shuffle your cards, and how you handle them when not doing readings If you’re the only one who ever handles your deck and you shuffle in a straight manner, you probably won’t ever get a reversal

upside-Many readers, myself included, don’t use reversals

I always lay the cards right way up All cards have both positive and negative meanings, and are interpreted in terms of context, their position in a spread I don’t feel the need to basically double the number of meanings in

a deck when I’m doing my readings

As many people do read reversals though, I’ve included reversed meanings for each card in this book For some cards, traditionally reversed meanings can be the opposite of the upright meaning For other cards, the meaning can be the same, but with less emphasis.I’m hoping that you only use this small book as a guide if you’re first starting in tarot I’m a firm adherent

of the “make your own meanings” school, and since reversed meanings aren’t really evident from looking

at the cards, I wouldn’t recommend using reversals if you prefer to use your intuition in reading the cards An

exception to this is Zach Wong’s fascinating Revelations

deck, where the images were designed to be read differently upright or reversed

Multiple reversals in a spread: Confusion, conflicting

Reading with a Significator, like reading with reversals, is optional I sometimes use a Significator Mine is the Queen of Wands of course, since in many decks it includes a black cat

A spread or layout is a pattern in which you lay tarot cards, assigning meanings to the positions in which they appear

I like small spreads personally From time to time

I use the full Celtic Cross, and I’ll include that most common of spreads here in case you don’t know it already, but mostly I use small spreads

I have one larger spread designed specially for

Touchstone, the Love Knot Spread It’s not a large spread

so much as two small spreads with a pair of extra cards that relate to the relationship between the two spreads.We’ll start with the most basic of spreads, if you can call one card a spread

One-Card Spread

Card of the Day

Choosing a card (either deliberately or by drawing

at random) and thinking about it throughout the day is a great way to familiarize yourself with a new deck Does the card perhaps remind you of something happening in your life right now? Does it suggest some new idea or project? Perhaps it reminds you of someone in your life:

do they need your support right now?

Choosing a Card of the Day ties in very well with journaling Throughout the day, think about the card, what it means and how that could apply in your life Can you think of people—friends, family, fictional characters, historical or contemporary public figures—who the card makes you think of?

Because I’m a bit of a geek, I set my Card of the Day as the wallpaper on my computer and cell phone If you’re not that way inclined, you could just sit the actual card somewhere that you’ll see it throughout the day

Three-Card Spreads

Past Present Future

The cards are shuffled, cut and laid left to right I find it helpful to ask a specific question, especially in relation to a simple spread

There are many other options for three-card spreads such as: Within, Without, Beyond; and Body, Mind, Spirit (from Mary K Greer’s Tarot for Your Self)

1 2 3

Larger Spreads

Celtic Cross

This is probably the most popular spread It comes

from the Pictorial Key to the Tarot, A.E Waite’s book

that was written as a companion to the Smith tarot deck There are many different variations of the Celtic Cross, mainly in the names of the cards and the order in which they are laid

Rider-Waite-I won’t go into much detail; it’s such a standard and will probably be covered in detail in any book you buy if you’re a beginner If you’re not a beginner, the last thing you need is another long and detailed coverage of the Celtic Cross So here it is…

Fears

Cover2 Cr