Reading tip: A card can have more than one message for you

Sometimes you will find that a card can have several unrelated meanings that are appropriate in the spread that you are reading. If more than one interpretation fits, note them all, even if they do not necessarily dovetail.

In a Celtic Cross spread, in the "recent past" position, for example, my first thought on seeing the Fool reversed was that I'm no longer a beginner. I decided to look at a few "book meanings," and decided that Arthur Edward Waite's take on the Fool reversed was also appropriate: that recently I had been plagued by apathy and have been negligent in my work. Stephen Walter Sterling's Tarot Awareness added that I had had to regain my enthusiasm, and from Mary K Greer's Tarot for Your Self I picked "lazy and irresponsible." All of these statements were true, and valuable for the problem I was exploring, even though my first thought on seeing the card ("no longer a beginner") seemed unrelated to the other interpretations.

**The image of the Fool is from the Modern Medieval Tarot.