Tarot
4 August 2024
I am not an expert on Tarot, let's start with that. I dabble, I practice, I do it for me. I'm spiritual but slacking. I value Tarot and readings and card pulling, I think it's a great way to help sort my thoughts out and a great guid for my intuition. Most of the time I use Tarot as a way to meditate (like journaling), and I've found it's a great translator for my intuition.
Today I participated in a Tarot class with one of my favorite teachers (she was my former teacher in undergrad for many many classes because I love her and her classes were always so interesting and education AND FUN). Now, she teaches at another college (one I will be applying to for my Masters lol), and through her business, Divine Discourse Learning, she tutors, does private readings, teaches classes (like the Tarot classes I've been taking with her), and more.
I was so happy when she texted me inviting me to join her Major Arcana class. She walked us through the Fool's journey and how he met the other faces in the Major Arcana. For the rest of the deck, she split the Minor Arcana into two classes. Today we focused on Wands and Cups, next Sunday we'll be focused on Swords and Pentacles.
As a water sign, I am more fond of (or maybe more drawn to) the suit of cups which has the element of water, so learning more about the cards I love so much was amazing. After going through the symbols in each what the card represents, or who/what the card is relating to in our life, and what it would mean if that card were to appear in a reading (reversed and upright), we each putlled cards of our own.
Note: my favorite tarot deck (and the one I used today) is The Halloween Tarot by Karin Lee and Art by Kipling West. In this deck the suits are changed so the wands are imps and the cups are ghosts.
I did a simple, three card spread (past, present, future), and while shuffling another card popped out so I kept that to the side as a single card pull. My past present and future came out as the Five of Imps, the Page of Ghosts (reversed), and the Nine of Ghosts. I gave my instructor the spread and together we worked through what the reading meant for me (the whole class was given the opportunity to do this and it was a fun way to practice what we just learned and also to end the class).
My Reading: Past: Five of Imps (Wands) - Upright this can mean: people fighting or arguing. Conflict, aggression, tension For me, this immediately resonated as my situation with my roommates. There was a bad night, a fight, followed by a lot of tension. This officially started at the end of December 2023, but if I'm honest with myself, there had been tension for a lot longer. Present: Page of Ghosts (Cups) Reversed - Reversed this card can mean doubting intuition, an emotional immaturity, and creative roadblocks I admitted to my prof that because of how my roommates (who became my best friends after we moved in together and who had become two of the people I trusted most in my life) had been lying to me and messing with my mind for over a year prior to our falling out, and the lies and gaslighting had made me doubt myself, doubt my intuition, and doubt my memory. I trust my professor academically, professionally, and personally so having her jump right in and say that it sounds like I've been dealing a lot with emotional immaturity from my roommates (who blamed me for things I should not have been blamed for because they couldn't face the truth that they messed up) and doubting myself and intuition is understandable made me feel a lot better. Future: Nine of Ghosts (Cups) - Upright this card means contentment, satisfaction, gratitude, and a wish coming true. This hard also represents a cycle being almost complete. My lease is almost up. I have less than four months until the lease is over and I can officially be moved out. So that part stood out to me first when I looked at this card. After a while of sitting with this card and talking to my prof, I came to the realization that I am, surprisingly, grateful for the conflict and the tension and the fighting. I'm grateful because without it I would still be living in those lies and the doubt, I'd still be begging them to love me, trying to change myself so they would love me, going out of my mind to figure out what I did wrong and feeling like I was literally going insane when they repeatedly said "until someone tells you there is a problem, there's no problem" but then acted like they were mad at me. Without the fallout, I wouldn't have this independence. Without the yearning for being free of them, I wouldn't have considered my options. Without the fighting the truth wouldn't have come out, and I would still be listening to them when they discouraged me from going to grad school. Without all of the shit I've been through, I would not be able to be content in the future. And that's what that card means. (At least for me in this reading) The single card that jumped out at me was the King of Ghosts (Cups) which, when I told my prof this she got excited for me because it means I'm coming into my power and recognizing my worth. Which I am, more and more everyday I am.
Tarot isn't for everyone, I know a lot of people have reservations on the craft or the practice, my sister loves to hear about it and gets excited for me but doesn't want to dabble in it herself. It's understandable. I grew up religious (or surrounded by the religious) and I learned the doctrine, and endured the lectures (which is a big part of the reason I avoid organized religion), so I completely understand weariness when it comes to anything close to "witch craft". But personally, Tarot helps me and it's important to me, and this reading really just solidified how important it is for me and my life.
here are some bad pics of the spread I took during class:
past, present, future:
single card pull:
