What is Tarot

In a nutshell, tarot is…

…a deck of 78 cards that, over the centuries, absorbed the wisdom, the narratives, the philosophies, histories, moral and life lessons of many cultures. Synthesize that with the omnipotent human mind and we can use the tarot to gain insight into our lives, empower us to achieve, and strengthen us when we need to cope. Although some believe that the tarot can be used for fortunetelling, I don’t believe in fortunetelling. Rather, we know the answers to our own questions already, but the answers are latent within our subconscious. The tarot helps us extract that information from our own subconscious.

Cultural Influences

There are three prevailing tarot systems used today: the Marseille (circa 1440, give or take, since the fact is no one really knows when the Marseille was conceived), the Rider-Waite-Smith (circa 1909), and the Thoth (circa 1969). I’ve adopted the Rider-Waite-Smith and tend to adhere closely to the Golden Dawn interpretive method. The Rider-Waite-Smith system is influenced heavily by numerology, Judeo-Christian symbology, Greco-Roman mythos, Egyptian mythology, Hermeticism, Hermetic Kabbalah, Western astrology, alchemy, and Neo-Platonism. Some knowledge of all of the above is indispensable in reading tarot.

The Marseille system will call on Roman Catholicism and Judeo-Christian symbology. An historical understanding of the European Renaissance is also helpful. The Thoth will incorporate geometry, Thelema, and even Eastern philosophies like Taoism, along with the other -ologies and -isms for the Rider-Waite-Smith.

Some may try to tell you that you don’t need to know anything about anything to read tarot, just your “psychic intuition” or what not. I respectfully disagree. My approach to tarot is definitely more academic and inter-disciplinary. Critical theory is crucial to truly acquiring a holistic understanding of tarot.