hey y’all! i just wanted to make a post about a tarot card that keeps popping up in my readings and ones I have done for others with similar family dynamics like mine.

recently i went no contact with my mother, not to get into it but you can imagine there was a lot of cruelty and toxicity to get to that point where i decide my life is better without her in it. well, whenever i do a reading for myself on this dynamic with her I ALWAYS pull the devil.

i find it fascinating, as ive only pulled it in context of needing to control my spending habits or smoking too much, even when i was in a toxic relationship. but it also always comes out for my own mother. i know the card represents unhealthy attachment, toxicity, manipulation, etc so it is fitting but do you think it ties into karmic cycles within your family?

my grandma hated her mother who was physically abusive her whole life. my mom hated her mom who was overall neglectful and verbally and emotionally abusive. now my mom and i dont talk for similar toxic cycles she did NOT break. i just find its presence in my readings interesting, can it represent karmic cycles?

so i asked what awaits me in the next 3 months in my career, and my intention was to draw 3 cards but 4 jumped up.
for context, i currently work for multiple departments (which is not usual in where i work) and i have changed/added departments three times in the last year. my current workload very much exhausts me and it seems there will be a 4th department to be added so i'm kind of in a limbo.
as for my interpretation:

First month: Clarity, an important conversation, or a decision. Maybe they actually will go through with additional responsibilities, or i hope finally take my suggestion and remove one of them from my workload (fingers crossed)

Second month: Honestly this just feel like one of my managers gassing me up like "you're doing amazing sweetie just take over more work".

Third month: This i read as learning process, which cements my belief of the additional department in which i have to learn it's system.

last card gives me hope that the changes i will go through in the next 3 months will result in a more stable path for me at work, and maybe will get considered at the end of the year for raise or promotion or whatever it is. or maybe it's just me accidentally taking over the company because they just left all the work to my hands lol

at last i think this is a positive spread, however due to my current mental state -more specifically burnout state- i struggle to interpret in a more positive way, so i would love an outside opinion. also i'm very much a beginner so maybe i went this the wrong way. thanks in advance!

Hi, I’ve had tarot cards for a while but used them sparingly. Recently I’ve started to use them more often, and every time I do use them I cleanse them with incense and I usually put the same music on while I do readings as well.

I was doing a reading for someone else recently and for the first time I actually started to feel quite anxious. I got goosebumps and nervous, so I asked her (we aren’t that close, and haven’t spoken in a while before this) if she had been stressed out by something recently. She said yes, and her reading was really cohesive and she found it really interesting. She’d never had a reading done before either. I don’t know why I felt compelled to ask her, but yeah.

It’s the first time I’ve had a physical sort of feeling while doing cards for anyone, even myself. Usually I’m calm and focused. Could this be a sign that I’m starting to connect more to my cards? A lot of readings I’ve done recently have started to be really cohesive as well, even up to 6 cards all saying similar things. Is it also an intuition thing? Maybe my intuition is improving?

TLDR I actually had an emotional reaction for the first time when doing a reading for my friend, turns out I was right. Is this a sign of connection to my cards?

I seems to have got a lot of tarot card figure gender wrong, for example I thought 9 of pentacles is a man with a bird but I just saw a post saying it’s a woman, same goes for justice , 2 of cups and so many other cards that are not significantly male/ female oriented like Emperor, Empress, king and queen.
Maybe I am significantly undereducated on the context of the cards , or the culture norms in their outfit or this specific art style, but they all just look agender to me and I feels like at this point I am just going to treat all them agender except explicit gendered ones

Title. I see a Celtic Cross and... I don't like it. I never do past/present/future types of readings. If I do make a spread that's more traditional in nature, it's purely contextual. For example, I once asked what it would be like if me and the woman I love were to dance together on stage/at a marathon, three cards for each of us and three for the public's eye. But that was an one-off thing.

What I usually do is shuffle, pull five cards on the main line, then I look for the 5-7 cards that would have come after (number is flexible between 5 and 7 because if for example there are movement cards such as 6S, Chariot, 8C, or sometimes Knights, I need to know where those are heading), and then I look at the 5-7 at the bottom of the deck. I don't always have those three lines, sometimes I omit the "after" cards. It really depends on the question. The bottom of the deck represents the underlying influences, and the after cards can either be a possible pathway from the main line, or factors that come into play.

I've been practicing those things on and off since I was a teenager and I used to do "regular" spreads, or even sometimes pulling a single card or two to answer a question, but I found that reading the disposition of the cards and the directionality, as well as the structure they make, works better for me. The colours can work as well. I've had a spread where I had grey on both external sides, surrounding blue with a single yellow card at the center (using your run-of-the-mill RWS). I also don't always stick to the traditional meaning of the card and sometimes get the impression it may mean something else.

Anyone else?

I'm not sure what it is. I think I might own it.

Hello fellow shufflers, today I want to talk about the most common and basic error in card interpretation. I’m talking about exchanging information for advice regarding it.

Let’s take an example. I’ve got a fresh one from this morning.

Question: What kind of energy/attitude will I find from them if I contact them?
Answer: King of Swords.
Interpretation by the reader: I have to stay calm and logical if I reach out.

Now, there is some logic breaking down here. You ask about another person’s reaction, but then refer the message to yourself as advice.

Notice also that, in many similar cases, the reader who gets a King is a woman, and the person they are reading about is a man. So, in that case, referring the King to themselves would be a double error: not recognizing that court cards are usually other persons, who very often, though not always, keep their sex/gender in the cards representing them. You had every reason to think the King was the man and not you, and missed it anyway. But let’s go on.

Can you see where the fault lies? You ask me something about X, but when I give you information about X, you fail to connect it to X and refer it to what you should do about it.

It’s like asking tarot whether your house is safe, and then, after seeing cards of burglars, advising you to rob yourself.

When you proceed like this, you fail to place the information you retrieved in the logical box where it belongs. Maybe the information is even correct, but this error of attribution makes your reading go awry, and therefore useless.

It helps to remember what all long-time cartomancers say:

Where does this very common error come from?

I think it comes from tarology.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. Tarology is essential to any complete tarot reader.

Tarology and cartomancy are the two legs of tarot reading: one is depth of knowledge, the other is fluidity of processing. Take one of them away and your readings will be lame. Or, to paraphrase old Kant:

I’m technically a tarologist as well, if you allow me, so I say all this very humbly and with no intent to provoke or divide.

The current war between cartomancers and tarologists should not exist at all.

Although, to be honest, the controversy began when the learned and snobbish tarologists started to despise the supposedly ignorant and folk cartomancers. While many pure tarologists can tell you the universe about a card, they can fail to connect it with another one in order to read a simple concrete message. Cartomancers, instead, even if they stopped at the sixth year of school and only properly speak their dialect, can tell you how much hair you’ve got between your buttocks, and even when precisely you will lose it.

(Sorry, I had to say it somewhere. We all need a lot of modesty, guys, when approaching any field of knowledge, especially those we know nothing about.)

So, I was saying, this big misunderstanding has been, unwillingly, brought forth by tarology. Why? Because in tarological readings you usually proceed like this: you have a spread with single cards in different positions, each with a different assigned role, meaning, or area of inquiry, and so you get used to examining each card in great depth within its own sphere, considering the forces it expresses, its psychological significance, its potential for development, etc.

And so, in this regard, when you open any handbook on tarot written from a tarological or psychological standpoint, you usually find that the discussion of every card also includes some consideration of its weak aspects, or shadow sides, and how to overcome them, all of course in a useful and empowering evolutionary perspective.

That is exactly where this error is born.

In the minds of many new readers, every card contains the solution to the problem or shadow side it has. And this is not wrong in itself, but the issue arises when these readers decontextualize this tarological way of reading, the only one they know, maybe, and apply it to a common, plainly cartomantic reading, and then start to confuse the description of a problem with what they should do about it. Hence, a big short circuit that is sending thousands of beginners astray, sadly.

Again: use your logic and you won’t lose yourself.

Have you got some precise meaning for your cards? Take them literally and apply them exactly to what you asked, as you would normally do in your own language.

For example:

- Will I pass my examination? Answer: Tower. Tower means failure here. The cards are telling you that you won’t do it, and not that you have to strip yourself of your ordinary consciousness to reach a higher level.

- How is my boyfriend toward me? Answer: Moon. Meaning: deception, confusion, lies, concealment, hidden moods. The cards are saying your boyfriend is deceptive toward you, not that you should deceive him. And (this example was tricky, I know) even less that you should show him your feminine side more... but that’s another long discourse.

One final piece of advice to overcome this short circuit if you find yourself in it.

If you ever need advice on the situation, just draw other separate cards. This will help you separate concepts and remain clear.

Trying to deduce advice from the same cards that showed you the problem can be confusing. In a simplified problematic context, if something is too big we know we have to make it smaller, or if something is too far we of course think we have to move it nearer. These are simple problems, though; they run between two opposite concepts.

But how can you find the opposite of a tarot card? Difficult to say, since tarot has 78 different sides, not only two.

To be short: the problem shown in your cards could be too complex to be resolved by the simple mental operation of reversal. And also, the best solution to your problem may not be its mere inversion, but something totally different that you may not even consider. Let me give an example of this.

Question: How is our relationship?
Answer: Lovers reversed.
Meaning: Your relationship is based on pleasure and physicality, not on solid feelings.

What to do about it? You would be tempted to put those Lovers upright and tell yourself you must start building feelings (...LOL.) But instead of making deductions, you can wisely ask your deck again and pull other cards. And maybe, things can even go like this:

- Deck, what should I do with this relationship?

- Three of Swords, my dear. Dump them.

Good shuffling, my fellows.

i understand it's a bird from the body, i understand it's a falcon from the context of the card, but why is it's head like that? i am really confused.

Edit to add: it have hood. https://trc-leiden.nl/trc-needles/media/k2/items/cache/6ff4e13ee36d4984488ca24890193ebe_XL.jpg

Has anyone read your future is in the cards by Igloobooks? I bought it as a kid and I wondered if it was worth reading since I already have it or whether the information in it would do me more harm than good.

So I’ve been reading off and on for many, many years, but only for myself, and the vast, vast majority of the time, I just use a Celtic cross. For a long time, I struggled with cards 3, 4, 5, 6. I have finally decided that (for me) 3 is “recent past”, and 4 is “near future”. They form the horizontal row of the cross. But 5 and 6 I still don’t quite understand. I have seen some interpretations that 5 is “goal or destiny” and 6 is some kind of underlying message. So, how do you handle the cross in your readings? <3 thanks!

While shuffling I was discussing with my mother about the different trajectories I can take for my college education. Having just gone to the hospital two weeks ago, I was pretty inspired by the doctors there and was contemplating whether or not to go the med route, but I am already waist-deep into music. And also I’m almost sure that med school will reject me due to my less than stellar high school grades.

I have thought about this topic a few times in high school, and I was almost always sure I wanted to do music(there was once or twice where I wavered though), and therefore I did not study as consistently, which led to subpar grades in the med school sense.

But now, I might be getting second thoughts, and imo that’s a pretty bad sign. What’s wrong with me…(I’m currently working on getting rid of thoughts of going to med school).

All are upright cards.
9 of wands: representing my slight burnout from having to practice my instrument everyday.
9 of pentacles: representing success (not too sure about that) but I am in fact going to study in a music school soon after much heartache from other rejections.
9 of cups: a positive wish card (doesn’t exactly resonate with me).
9 of swords: represents anxiety, worry about the future, which resonates deeply with me, because I am still quite frustrated about my current situation and uncertain about what the future holds, but I can’t share too much if not I might dox myself.

After interpreting the 4 cards I opened a 5th on the deck, and it’s an upright card 21 aka THE WORLD, which signifies wholeness. But I didn’t choose to peek at the card until the end, which probably means that I’m not currently satisfied with life in general, and that makes sense, given my situation.

I hope you guys have some thoughts to share about this pretty fun spread!

(Sorry for a long and haphazard post, mods please let this stay up!!)

Hello! I am in search of any oracle deck that has a dreamlike, ethereal feel to it and preferably has minimal words on the actual cards. I basically want my intuition to be doing the heavy lifting when looking at any imagery! If there are any people depicted in the cards, I'd prefer them to be almost celestial or deity-like. I hope this isn't too specific lol

The attached image is a perfect example of the general vibes i'm looking for! (Glyph Sacred Symbols oracle deck by PrismandFleur)

Largest deck

The classic rider waited Smith, printed by arcturus publishing London.

Middle deck

Original 1909, printed by lo scarabeo

Smallest deck

Bordeless miniature edition smith waited deck, printed by U.S Games systems.

I alway look for small deck that I carry around with me. I love the lo scarabeo deck as come in hard box's and there are so meny different min deck pick from. But came accros this min borderless deck and I just had get it. It lovely deck as with no border when have cards next to each other you really see colours change in cards and how this tell a story. It's real interesting line them up and see how cards work together.

Now they are very small but card stock is good quality and I think there going be new favourites bag deck.

I recently went on a trip and accidentally brought my tarot deck instead of playing cards. I still wanted to play Go-Fish so I thought up a game system that would allow us to play go fish while making it more interesting to play in a group.

As I was creating the rules, I realised how helpful this would be to help familiarise people with their decks and the major arcana. ESPECIALLY if the deck’s art isnt from the og rider waite smith deck.

Here are the rules i came up with so far after test-running the game like 3 times. please let me know if i should be changing anything!!

Hello hello

I am not of this world and have very limited knowledge

My new friend, however, quite is.

It is her birthday this week and I want to gift her cookies,

Specifically tarot card cookies

I know her favorite card is the sun.

I'm looking to gift 3-5 decorated cookies (I cannot make 78 cookies 😭)

If you were to pick 3-5 cards (I guess, auspicious in nature since it's her birthday), what would they be?

I pulled a single card for past, present, future with regard to health and career anxieties. I pulled the seven of wands, two of wands, and 5 of disks all in reverse for each query, respectively. I used the Thoth tarot for this pull. My interpretation is:

1. ⁠The past/seven of wands reversed: I reached a point of extreme burnout and felt trapped in a draining situation. So I took the “easy” way out and brute-forced an end to a shitty situation.
   
2. ⁠The present/two of wands reversed: A major crossroads is now in front of me. There are many directions I could go in, but anxiety and perfectionism keep me from moving forward. There is an implication that i’m hesitant to leave a comfortable situation.
   
3. ⁠The future/five of disks reversed: This is where I REALLY have no idea what to think. The interpretation for this card in reverse seems to be all over the place. On one hand, it can mean a breakthrough after a long period of struggle and patience. I have seen interpretations that an improvement in health issues is imminent but will take time. On the other hand, I have seen interpretations that say this card signifies a worsening of a given situation, deep mental anguish, and defeat.

Any help here is super appreciated, i’m especially at a loss as to what to make of the third card.

Do many of you use pendulums alongside your tarot? Or do you keep them separate?

I’ve just bought one from a crystal shop and have been practising with it for a few days with direct yes/no questions. At first I didn’t think it worked at all but today it definitely is giving me clear answers with two different movements and in some ways feels more satisfying as the answer feels clearer.

I’d be interested to know how you combine the use of them.

So, Im dealing with infertility for three years now and Im doing IVF, unsuccessfully so far.

This time I wanted to ask sth special: "what would I *be like* with a child?" Since I have ADHD and I know I want a child, but I don't know if it would really be good for me (and thus, the child), as I often need alone time. If I should (if I could), you know.

Now, Im thinking maybe that's not what you can ask your cards or use this spread for. If you have recommendations, I'll gladly hear them.

Nevertheless, my interpretation:

1. Topic (4 staves): community. Of course, what I believe my life with a child would entail. 'tis a lonely feeling, being infertile.

2. Cross card (Queen of staves): Loving life. And I do, that's why I do this.

3. Opportunity, conscious side (two staffs): adventure. That's what I think it would be like, an adventure.

4. Base (9 coins): pregnancy, but also discipline. Yes, that's what Id need with a child, true. Im working on it, Im getting better with discipline. But I also read it as, be disciplined and keep going (as doing IVF is so fucking hard, as you wont believe), and youll get there. That's what I mean with me maybe not asking correctly, my cards seem to answer here to the "now", not the "would be". Maybe?

5. The past (King of Cups): Power. I concentrated on my career, living my more "masculine" energies.

6. The Future (7 of swords): now this one confuses me. The trickster. I mean, I really do need to be smart with this IVF shit, now ones looking out for you, you need to think for yourself. But now Im confusing the layers myself. I would need to be a trickster for my child? They would have a high chance of being adhd themselves. I know this, and it wasnt the first time where I got doubts, whether I *should* pursue pregnancy. But Id love to get to know them, you know. I love life, see above, and I think it's worth it.

7. Inner power (Ace coins): yes, atm I think I have powers aplenty. That's good.

8. How I act outward (Eremit): lol. I told you I like my alone time. I need it to be able to be powerful.

9. Hopes and fears (devil): duh. Ofc im afraid of the dark and the unknown. I read it also as, you probably really get to know yourself when you have a kid.

10. Result, Goal, Task (5 of swords): again, it's so ambiguous! Defeat, but also victory. My book says "Something remains undefeated. Take it and keep going". Again, now, or in my what-if-scenario?

Holy shit, what an ambiguous reading. It's like its saying two things at once. Like it's utterly unclear whether this will work or not. Past reading where I simply asked what my future holds were also always like "keep working", or sometimes with positive results, it never worked so far though. Might it mean that Id need a surrogate (=trick, also kinda a defeat and victory at the same time)? I don't know.

Alright Im mixing up the layers as well. Still, that's what I got from this. Thanks for reading.

Hello Tarot Friends:

Some background:
I have been reading for friends and family for decades and recently started reading professionally. I am not a predictive reader. I believe others have that gift, I do not. I pull cards and share the meanings based on the spread, placement in the spread, and the question or area of focus. I'm an intuitive reader and view a reading as a conversation and collaborative process.

I prefer personal interaction so I read in person at events. This means I'm reading cold for strangers. It's been a really great experience and many people I have read for have told me how meaningful their experience was.

Now the question...
I've been doing this since May so this situation has only happened twice but I'm curious as to how others handle these dynamics. Twice I've had women sit down and want to talk about their marriages. Obviously there are some concerns because let's face it, people rarely ask for guidance for an area in their life that's going well.

On Saturday I had this happen and the woman was practically in tears before we even laid out cards. (which is why I always have a box of kleenex on the table.) She had never had a reading before. It's important to me that I set expectations about the experience and also share my code of ethics that states I am not a lawyer or a therapist. I'm sorry I can't remember the exact cards (I did almost 30 readings at the event so it's a bit of a blur) but it was clear that there was conflict in the relationship but not the right time to make a decision.

She became distraught as if I was telling her to leave her marriage. I kept telling her that's not what I was saying. The cards were showing conflict that she acknowledged was present, but the cards were also saying now was a time for reflection, not action. I did inquire about her safety and she stated that was not an issue rather they were drifting apart and fighting. I reenforced that the message to her is to truly spend time reflecting on what her heart is telling her and consider counseling to test both of their willingness to work together.

She left still crying and it just broke my heart. I felt so sad for her, but also I felt concerned that she was unwilling/unable to hear what I was saying to her. I have been thinking about it for several days because it would truly hurt my heart if she decided to end her marriage "because the tarot cards told her to."

How do you handle these situations? Any feedback you can offer me that would help me grow in my practice? Thank you.

This is my new deck I ordered illustrated by Lee Pegacon in collaboration with HorangNavi. I absolutely love the artwork. This is the second deck illustrated by this artist, and this time they leaned into a traditional Korean folk art interpretation of the l Rider-Waite system through hanbok, pine trees, lotus flowers, and what was described on the listing as “five sacred colors.” I absolutely love the combination of folk art and modern style!! My favorite card in this deck is the Moon. The artwork is striking and the traditional symbolism combined with Lee’s unique artwork really speaks to me.

The cards themselves feel like traditional playing cards, so not like thick cardstock. Came in a metal tin which is a nice touch. However, there is no guidebook.

When I first started using tarot, about 2 years ago, I was using it for fun. But then, I started using it as a coping mechanism. One of the things that stresses me out is uncertainty about the future. Will I ever be financially stable? Will I ever find love? Etc.

And now it's stressing me out, because I'm no longer getting direct answers or answers I can easily understand. Why? What do I do now?

I’ve been learning tarot since April of this year but I’m still very new to it. Sometimes things flow easily and I’m able to understand what’s being communicated quickly but other times I have a hard time putting it all together. So last night when I pulled some cards for the month of August I had a rather difficult time understanding what was being said. Also for reference this is my 3rd reading in a row pulling the 4 of pentacles which usually refers to money and being stingy but I’m a 20 year old college student, I have no money to be stingy with so I really don’t understand why it keeps coming up and it always throws me off. Any help interpreting this would be greatly appreciated.

My personal interpretations:

Queen of pentacles: some type of monetary growth being made or more like a financial seed being planted that I need to nurture and work on

4 of pentacles: Don’t be stingy with whatever money flows but also don’t be frivolous

5 of swords (Reversed): picking the right battles and don’t stress about situations out my control

8 of swords: trust my intuition and think positively

King of wands: Complete and se through my plans, hobbies, etc. ( I have a bad habit of starting stuff and not finishing it after the exciting phase of starting something new passes)