Tarot (pronounced Tar-Rho) has been around for ages and ages. It's been around so long that no one is exactly sure when it started although readers believe it was around the 1400s in Italy. Tarot was a wonderful colorful tool for telling stories, the pictures had to be spectacularly detailed because no one really knew how to read then and beautiful pictures telling your story was a wonder indeed.
Today Tarot has pretty much gone mainstream. We have evolved so much that you can find decks in almost any bookstore. I've even seen beautiful decks in Barnes & Noble and on Amazon. Back when I was first learning the Tarot one had to travel a good ways to a specialty shop that hid itself amongst the other stores trying not to draw too much attention to itself. Those in the know, knew where to go.
Readers spent hours learning and feeling the cards. We slept with them under our pillows, tucked them into our handbags and took them everywhere we went and we wrote pages and pages of journals feeling out the symbolism in each card and what it meant. The little booklet that came with the deck was dogeared because we used it as a guide rather than a dictionary. We developed a relationship with our decks, we knew their personality and we knew that the stories they told were real.
Going to a talented reader was an enlightening experience. A good reader reads the cards not the person, and other than what the question being put to the cards is; won't ask you anything more than 'does that resonate with you?' if at all.
I invite you to find a deck that you can develop a relationship with. Learn the cards by feel and yes use the little guide book as a guidebook, but your own personal intuition is where the magic really is so get yourself a notebook or journal and begin your journey.
The first 22 cards are the Major Arcana. These cards represent different aspects of our persona. From 0-The Fool to 21-The World each card represents a different consciousness on our path through life. Over the course of the next 22 weeks I will share my over 45 years of Tarot knowledge & experience to help others learn about how to use Tarot beyond the usual spreads to become more conscious and more aware of ourselves, and the Universe.
