Table Of ContentA Beginner’s Guide to the Cards,
Spreads, and Revealing the Mystery of
the Tarot
LIZ DEAN
author of The Art of Tarot and The Golden Tarot
Contents
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCING THE TAROT
CHAPTER 2
HOW TO BEGIN
CHAPTER 3
CARD LAYOUTS
CHAPTER 4
CARD INTERPRETATIONS: The Major Arcana
0, The Fool
I, The Magician
II, The High Priestess
III, The Empress
IV, The Emperor
V, The Hierophant
VI, The Lovers
VII, The Chariot
VIII, Strength
IX, The Hermit
X, The Wheel of Fortune
XI, Justice
XII, The Hanged Man
XIII, Death
XIV, Temperance
XV, The Devil
XVI, The Tower
XVII, The Star
XVIII, The Moon
XIX, The Sun
XX, Judgment
XXI, The World
CHAPTER 5
CARD INTERPRETATIONS: The Minor Arcana
The Suit of Cups
Ace of Cups
Two of Cups
Three of Cups
Four of Cups
Five of Cups
Six of Cups
Seven of Cups
Eight of Cups
Nine of Cups
Ten of Cups
Page of Cups
Knight of Cups
Queen of Cups
King of Cups
The Suit of Pentacles
Ace of Pentacles
Two of Pentacles
Three of Pentacles
Four of Pentacles
Five of Pentacles
Six of Pentacles
Seven of Pentacles
Eight of Pentacles
Nine of Pentacles
Ten of Pentacles
Page of Pentacles
Knight of Pentacles
Queen of Pentacles
King of Pentacles
The Suit of Swords
Ace of Swords
Two of Swords
Three of Swords
Four of Swords
Five of Swords
Six of Swords
Seven of Swords
Eight of Swords
Nine of Swords
Ten of Swords
Page of Swords
Knight of Swords
Queen of Swords
King of Swords
The Suit of Wands
Ace of Wands
Two of Wands
Three of Wands
Four of Wands
Five of Wands
Six of Wands
Seven of Wands
Eight of Wands
Nine of Wands
Ten of Wands
Page of Wands
Knight of Wands
Queen of Wands
King of Wands
Afterword
Appendices
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
1
INTRODUCING THE TAROT
HOW TO WORK WITH THIS BOOK
This book offers everything you need to know to read tarot cards for daily
affirmation, prediction, and intuitive and spiritual development. Anyone can
learn to work with tarot and can benefit greatly from its insights; all you need is
an open mind and a willingness to trust the impressions you sense during a
reading.
We begin with the basics—the structure of a tarot deck, and how the cards
link with astrology, Kabbala, and numbers (see pages 10 and 19). Next, you’ll
learn how to lay out the cards for a reading. You can try the traditional spreads
on pages 20–28, and the mini-layouts given for each major arcana card—a total
of thirty. The mini-layouts are all original to this book, and I invite you to share
them and use them as inspiration for devising your own spreads; the aim is to
help you be creative with tarot, to experiment and find ways to read the cards
that work for you. There’s no right or wrong way to lay out cards just the way
that’s right for you.
The interpretations chapters follow from page 29 on. To begin with, you
might like to use the key words for the card meanings shown on pages 29 and
118 as a quick reference. In the detailed major arcana card interpretations, you
will see listed the card’s alternative names, number, and numerological
association—this is the number that the card’s number reduces to, which gives
additional insight. For example, XXI, The World, reduces as follows: 2 + 1 = 3,
or III, The Empress. Also listed is the card’s astrological sign or planet, element,
Hebrew letter and Tree of Life pathway, chakra, and key meanings. I also
highlight and explain the key symbols of each card, along with each major
arcana card’s “Reflection” in the minor arcana, which guides you toward the
minor cards that hold similar meanings to the major card. For example, major
card IV, The Emperor, is reflected in the four kings of the minor arcana because
as kings they reflect the “father” aspect of the Emperor.
The minor arcana interpretations are divided by suit and list for cards Ace
The minor arcana interpretations are divided by suit and list for cards Ace
through Ten each card’s suit, element, astrological association, number, and Tree
of Life position and key meaning. Page and Knight court cards list just their
element and key meaning, while the Queens and Kings also include zodiac signs
and associated chakras. You’ll find further information on chakras’ and crystals’
association with tarot in the Appendicies, along with a glossary of terms.
When you are reading your cards, or reading about them, you may be drawn
to particular aspects, from astrology to Kabbala or numerology to an individual
card’s fascinating history or symbols. While all these areas are research subjects
in themselves, this book aims to give you a foundation from which to begin; if
you’re a seasoned reader, my hope is that you will find something in these pages
that sparks your imagination and offers a new perspective.
However you work with this book, I invite you to share with me the journey
of tarot and benefit from greater insight into yourself and others.
HOW READING TAROT CAN BENEFIT YOU
Tarot is a system of archetypes, a picture-book of the human condition,
reflecting our states of mind and stages of life. Over the past six hundred years,
people have consulted the cards for religious instruction, spiritual insight, self-
knowledge, and divining the future. The ancient symbols we see on the cards are
designed to stimulate our intuition, connecting us with our higher selves or our
divine or spiritual aspect.
Regular tarot practice has many personal benefits, including the following:
Increased self-awareness: Tarot gives you space to focus on yourself.
Enhanced creativity: A tarot reading can offer a different perspective on a
problem and innovative ways forward.
Better-honed intuition and psychic ability: Tarot helps you see probable
future events and influences.
The ability to empower others to find their spiritual path
A NOTE ON THE RIDER-WAITE TAROT
Myriad versions and styles of tarot decks have been created through the years.
The tarot deck shown throughout this book is the Universal Waite, an enhanced
Rider-Waite deck. The original Rider-Waite was devised by A. E. Waite, one of
the key members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (see page 10), and
published by Rider, London. It is considered the most influential contemporary
deck and has inspired many variants. The deck should properly be known as the
Rider-Waite Smith, to honor the illustrator, Pamela Colman Smith, a fellow
member of the Golden Dawn.
EARLY CARDS: COURT AND CLERGY
The earliest surviving tarot cards date to the fifteenth century, probably created
in Northern Italy. (It’s likely that the word tarot derives from tarocchi, an Italian
card game that preceded tarot.) These cards, known as the Visconti-Sforza tarots,
were commissioned by the Duke of Milan, Franceso Visconti, as early as 1415.
Although the Church called early cards “the devil’s picture book”—possibly
because some printed versions were used for gaming purposes—these original,
hand-painted cards have predominantly Christian themes and imagery. Their
sequence tells a story of a youth who symbolically dies and is reborn, embodied
in 0, The Fool, and XXI, The World (see pages 30 and 114; for this reason, the
sequence of cards known as the major arcana is often referred to as “The Fool’s
Journey”). The cards feature angels, the four virtues, the Devil, and a male and
female Pope, along with other characters we would associate more with
fairytales than a satanic manifesto: the wise woman, the mother, father, the
innocent youth, old man, lovers, kings, queens, knights, and a magician. Yet
knowledge of the tarot may have preceded even the Duke, as in 1377 a German
monk, brother Johannes von Rheinfield, described a series of painted cards that
worked as an allegorical journey of life and the soul. It’s also believed that
gnostic sects may have used the cards to teach illiterate people about dualism, or
the interplay of opposites—which we see in many of the card’s meanings. In this
way, the cards may have been used to express and possibly teach Christian
beliefs.
HIDDEN KNOWLEDGE: ASTROLOGY AND KABBALA
The word occult may have dark connotations, but it actually means hidden
knowledge. The tarot’s reputation as an occult practice crept in during the
eighteenth century, with the French Freemason Antoine Court de Gébelin’s
treatise Monde Primitif (1781) in which he claimed tarot cards were in effect an
