SynTAROTis

Tarot posts on SynTAROTis (updated 8 March 2019)

(SynTAROTis spreads and creativity techniques)

The structure of a tarot deck

Using tarot cards to explore a problem

What else can you do with a deck of cards?

Does the tarot work?

What do people believe about the tarot?

How does the tarot work? A skeptic's view

A tool of the devil?

Acquiring occult associations

What else can you do with a deck of cards?

A few recommended books on tarot

Too many meanings spoil the card?

Evocative tarot

Reversals--use them or lose them?

Favourite and recommended decks

Making meaning: Using numbers and their associations

Procrastination: An exercise with tarot cards

Making meaning: Take the wands from the fire

Making meaning: The wand as a symbol

Tarot spreads: Why some spreads may seem too focused on predicting the future

The "bias card"

Too many meanings spoil the card?

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

Why would a sceptic use Tarot cards?

Reading the cards in context: how the cards influence each other

Grieving: a sample reading

So, you drew the Ace of Wands in a reading?

First fruits: The Three of Wands (Part 1)

First fruits: The Three of Wands (Part 2)

Time out! The Four of Wands (Part 1)

Time out! The Four of Wands (Part 2)

Fighting fair: The Five of Wands (Part 1)

Fighting fair: The Five of Wands (Part 2)

Victory! The Six of Wands (Part 1)

Victory! The Six of Wands (Part 2)

7: Virtue or vice? (Part 1)

7: Virtue or vice? (Part 2)

Sceptic readings and divination: what is the difference?

Asking the question

Patterns in a spread: Predominance

 

 

Why use Tarot cards for creative problem solving?

Tarot cards are excellent tools for creative problem solving. Here is why.

Evocative images

The structure of a Tarot deck

A random element

Universality

Rich card meanings

Endless combinations

Reading the cards

Other creativity techniques

Playful and fun

Variety of decks

Evocative images

Images are more thought-provoking than words, although either could be used to stimulate creative thought. Tarot images are deliberately designed to get you imagination working. They present a scene, but without any context, which prods your brain to come up with one.

What is happening on this card?

When you looked at the card, what went through your mind? Are you looking at:

• A young man giving flowers to an older woman?
• A child giving flowers to another child?
• A brother giving flowers to his sister?
• A guest arriving with flowers for his hostess?
• A gardener receiving instructions?
• A lady’s maid collecting flowers for my lady’s bedroom?
• A boy asking a girl out?
• Two friends making up after a quarrel?
• A fan giving flowers to an actress?
• Something else?

Or is she giving the flowers to him? Whose coat of arms is on the pillar behind them? Who is the man with the spear walking away in the background? Why is she wearing a glove? What are the other flowers for? Are the two people standing in a garden, a park, a cemetery? Is it a memory, a scene from a book, something happening right now, or a metaphor for something else?

It is this ambiguity and power to evoke the imagination that helps you find creative solutions to a problem.

Some cards, like the Rider-Waite Six of Cups above, ‘tickle’ the imagination to come up with a context or a story. Other decks, like Crowley’s Thoth Tarot or Robert Place’s Alchemical Tarot, stimulate the associative mind with its many symbols.

 

But images from magazines have the same power to stimulate the imagination. Why not use them? Or any of the beautiful oracle decks available?

The structure of a Tarot deck

The answer lies in the structure of a Tarot deck.

A Tarot deck is divided into major and minor arcana cards. The major arcana cards are numbered from 0 to 21. The minor arcana cards are divided into four suits, each divided in turn into pip cards and court cards. The court cards are divided into kings, queens, knights, and pages (or some other, analogous configuration such as father, mother, son, daughter). The pip cards are numbered from 1 to 10.

These divisions place a card in a certain relation to the other cards in the deck, and these relationships add meaning to the cards in a spread, beyond the meaning of an individual card.

The division into major and minor arcana makes it possible for the cards to represent universal, archetypal forces (major arcana), and the mundane, everyday influences (minor arcana). Similarly, the four suits of the minor arcana reflect various spheres of life.

All the cards of the same suit share characteristics, as do cards with the same number. The court cards share characteristics with their suit, but also with each other: all four kings have some things in common, as do the queens, knights,and pages. The 16 court cards can be related to personality type, each with its unique approach to life.

The cards can also be connected by repeating symbols in the images.

Some decks also offer an overarching structure into which the cards fit. A story such as Alice in Wonderland or the Lord of the Rings, for example, or a theme such as fairies, animals, specific cultures, flowers, herbs, or angels.

In a spread, all of these relationships can indicate themes and patterns that transcend the individual cards.

A random element

Many creativity techniques add a random element to the problem as a stimulus for creative thinking. The random element can be combined in some way with the problem, or used to evoke associations, which in turn are applied to the problem.

A Tarot card can play the role of several types of random element, as it offers both an image—which, because it is ambiguous, can be interpreted in many different ways—and keywords associated with the card.

The keywords can be in the form n of verbs, nouns, adverbs, and adjectives, all of which are useful to creative problem solving.

Universality

The images on a well-designed Tarot deck are not just arbitrary pictures. They represent archetypes, universal symbols that we all recognize, like the Mother, Father, Wise Old Man, Death, and the Devil of the major arcana.

The pictures on the minor arcana cards are of a wide range of universal situations that, again, we all know. They portray celebrations, grieving, moving on, struggles, success, doubt, heartbreak, defeat, and betrayal. Because we can identify with these situations, we find it easy to apply a card to our lives.

Rich card meanings

A long tradition

Unlike a random word from a dictionary or an image from a magazine, a Tarot card is rich in symbols and meaning.

Tarot cards have a long tradition behind them. The first Tarot decks, used for games, appeared in the 1450s in Italy, and in the late 18th century, the cards were given divinatory meanings to be used in divination. Since then, divinatory meanings have shifted as the card images changed to better fit the time, and as the cards became associated with esoteric systems such as astrology, alchemy, Hermeticism, and the Kabbalah. The cards have also been associated with Jung’s archetypes, Paganism, and various forms of number mysticism, all of which influenced the cads with their own sets of associations.

All of these have tended to add, rather than substitute, meaning, giving a wider range of possible interpretations to the card. The Magician, for example, started as the street entertainer, juggler, and conjurer, but in modern decks he (sometimes she) can also be trickster, sorcerer, wise wizard, animus, alchemist, harlequin, representative of the number 1 (unity, beginnings, will, intent, inspiration, potential, uniqueness, solitude), the Greek god Mercury, the Egyptian god Thoth, or the archetypal Self. He will also reflect the deck creator’s or artist’s concept of a magician, and of course all the you yourself associate with the image and the archetype.

The associative power of a Tarot card, in other words, is enormous. And the more associations we make with a card, the better our chances of coming up with original solutions.

Reversed cards

To add to the possible meanings a card can have, Tarot cards can be read reversed. Not all Tarot readers use reversals, believing that a card has such as range of meanings that reversals are superfluous. Others enjoy considering a reversed card in a different light. For creative problem solving, reversals and reversed meanings are useful in various ways.

There are many ways to interpret reversed cards, from the exact opposite of the upright meaning, to twisting the upright meaning in some way, to blocked energy, to referring to the inner rather than the outer world. The Magician can become conman, clown, comedian, evil sorcerer, or the ‘inner magician.’

Mary K Greer (The complete book of Tarot reversals, Llewellyn 2001) gives 12 different ways to interpret reversed cards. James Ricklef (Tarot tells the tale: Explore three-card readings through familiar stories, Llewellyn 2003) and Joan Bunning (Learning Tarot reversals, Red Wheel/Weiser 2003) have added even more ways. As a result, the meanings given for reversed cards are even richer and more varied than their upright counterparts, often contradicting each other and veering off in unexpected directions.

In a spread

The interpretation of a card is influenced by its position in a spread. The Three of Cups in the “Past” position will be read differently than in the “Outcome” position. The Devil in the “You” position will mean something different from the same card in the “Past” position.

Cards in a spread are also influenced by other cards in the spread. If the Two of Cups is in the same spread as the Lovers card, it will be interpreted differently than if the Lovers appeared next to the Devil, with its portrayal of a couple in chains. Depending on the cards surrounding it, the Fool might appear innocent, foolish, wise, or mad.

 

The question you ask also determine which aspect of a card is emphasized. In a reading on romance the Lovers card will assume the obvious meaning. In a reading about career, however, the card might point to choices or a different type of relationship.

Your own meanings

Because these cards are so evocative, the meaning that jumps out at you will sometimes differ considerably from any book meanings. In the Rider-Waite Two of Wands, a man contemplates a world globe in his hands. The traditional meanings of the card have to do with power and mastery; to you, it might seem the man is thinking, “Is this all there is?”

Endless combinations

A Tarot deck with its 78 cards has more cards than most oracle decks, meaning more combinations and possibilities in spreads and any other configurations useful for creative problem solving. There are thousands of spreads alone, and you can create your own. They can involve anything between one and all 78 cards. You can imagine how unlikely it is that you will come across the same combination of cards in exactly the same positions. And even if you do, you are unlikely to interpret the cards in exactly the same way.

Reading the cards

Reading the cards is only one way of solving problems with Tarot cards (this blog contains many others), but it is a very effective way. Those of you who are familiar with Tarot readings will recognize the creativity inherent in a Tarot reading. It takes ingenuity to interpret a card in a specific position and under specific circumstances. The reader is also making meaning that does not yet exist.

A Tarot reading is a creative act in more than one way, incorporating several creative-thinking techniques. It starts with the input of random elements into the problem situation when you shuffle the cards and draw at random. The cards prompt associations, in a spread the cards are in specific combinations with each other and with the problem at hand, and in interpreting the cards, you are forcing connections between the situation, card position, and card. When you are asking yourself, “How is this card like my problem?” you are making use of the unusual juxtapositions created by analogical thinking.

If you create your own spread, with the cards laid out in a spread representing various aspects of a problem situation, you have created order and structure out of a complex situation. Now you can approach the problem piece by piece. In addition, you simultaneously get an overview of the problem and its breakdown into its discreet elements. Effective problem solving requires both ‘big picture’ and detailed views.

Reading a spread is also a calming exercise, which is valuable in a situation that seems chaotic and uncertain. It is a structured way to approach the problem, and requires your full attention (thereby serving to distract you from the full effects of the problem).

Other creativity techniques

Tarot cards can be used effectively in existing creativity techniques. Brainstorming, for example, works well with Tarot cards, as do techniques that incorporate images. The cards can be laid out in a spread to represent the 5W1H technique (five whys and one how), as well as staple creativity questions such as “what if?” A SWOT exercise (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) can be done with the cards, and the Appreciative Inquiry technique by laying out cards for appropriate questions.

Reading the cards can be a reflective exercise that helps to solve a problem, especially if you have created the spread to reflect your particular problem, or to reproduce a creativity technique (for example in Another way to look at the problem is … and Reverse the spread).

I have created my own techniques that use the unique properties of Tarot cards. These include combining cards, ‘adding’ a card to or ‘removing’ a card from a problem, and examining keywords in the problem statement.

I have also designed my own ways to read the cards for problem solving (such as I predict that …, Back to front, Inside out, and Set my place).

Playful and fun

Experts and researchers have long linked creativity with playfulness and fun¹.

A playful attitude is spontaneous, enthusiastic, and exploratory. It encourages adults to discard inhibitions, making them more likely to consider seemingly crazy ideas. And one or more of those crazy ideas may be adapted into effective solutions.

Play also encourages letting the imagination free, which is a prerequisite for finding effective solutions.

And of course, play is fun, and fun is a great motivator. Motivation has been identified as an important component of successful problem solving, because when you are motivated, you are more inclined to spend time and energy on a problem, and therefore more likely to find original solutions.

Working with Tarot cards encourages a playful attitude, with the colourful images on the cards, the ‘magical’ quality of a Tarot reading (even for sceptics), and the imaginative attitude necessary to interpret the cards. The unexpected juxtapositions created by approaching the problem through the cards, also contribute.

Variety of decks

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Tarot decks. You will find a deck to suit you, whatever style you prefer: colourful decks, dark and gothic decks, child-like decks, storytelling decks, decks portraying a specific culture, round decks and decks with gilded edges, decks with animals or in the style of a famous painter, humorous decks, or decks with a medieval, Victorian, or steampunk look. You will find decks for Halloween and Christmas, and decks featuring dragons, fairies, angels, food, nature, and science.

An excellent place to read reviews and view cards from the decks is Aeclectic, which include several images of cards from decks they review.

Analogy and metaphor in creative problem solving

(This article includes a section that continues the series on problem definition.)

Analogical thinking

Analogies in creative problem solving

|| Analogies in problem definition ||

Analogies in creativity

Near and far analogies

Analogy, metaphor, and simile are powerful tools for both defining a problem and thinking up original ideas.

The terms are often used interchangeably, as all compare unrelated items. The difference is how closely the two unrelated objects or concepts are identified with each other.

Similes can be identified by the words like and as: “her cheeks are as red as ripe apples.” They present explicit comparisons of two unlike things.

Analogies focus on relationships, not superficial similarities: A is to B as C is to D. Remember those IQ tests where you had to complete sentences like “Fingers are to hands as toes are to …?” When you compare the heart with a pump, you are saying: “heart is to blood as pump is to water.” In other words, the heart moves blood round the body as a pump moves water round in pipes.

A metaphor, in turn, identifies one thing with another: “the heart pumps blood” indicates that the heart is a pump of some kind.

Metaphor is the most compelling of the three, but all are invaluable in problem solving.

Analogical thinking

Just to confuse things, the term “analogical thinking” refers to analogies, metaphors, and similes.

Analogical thinking is comparing two (usually unrelated) objects or elements with each other, to find similarities and differences. At least one of these elements is known (such as a pump), while the other can be known, less familiar, or unknown (the heart).

The goal of analogical thinking is to understand, explore, or explain the lesser-known element (called the target) by mapping the properties of the known element (the source) on it. The mapping implies that, if the two elements are similar in several respects, they might similar in others.

Let’s look at the heart and pump analogy again: to explain how the heart works, it can be compared with the more familiar pump. (Well, let’s assume we all know how a pump works). The relationship between heart and pump can be laid out as:

“the heart moves blood round the body the way a pump moves water through pipes.”

Simple enough, but are there more similarities that can be used to explain the action of a heart?

A pump works with pressure and uses one-way valves. If these qualities of the source can be mapped to the target, we have further information of how the heart works.

An atom can be described by comparing it with the solar system: electrons orbit the nucleus the way the planets orbit the sun.

Sound waves travel through air the way water waves do in shallow water.

Analogies can be used to “make the strange familiar.”**

Analogies and metaphors evoke more than the words on their own can. Comparing life with a rat race not only suggests speed and competitiveness, but evokes associations about rats (a low form of life, vermin to be exterminated, the dreariness of grey) and treadmills in a rat cage (suggesting something endless, relentless, repetitive, and meaningless).

Analogical thinking is handy to inventors. Alexander Graham Bell used the analogy of a human ear as inspiration when he invented the telephone: like the ear, the instrument had to transmit sound. (In fact, Bell used a real ear, from a dead person, in some of his experiments.)

Scientists map the similarities between Earth and newly discovered planets to speculate about life on other planets. The properties they are looking for, are those most likely to support life: temperature, the presence of liquid water, rockiness, orbit around a sun, distance from the sun, speed of rotation and orbit, and so on. They then go one step further: if there are all these similarities between Earth and the planet, and Earth supports life, perhaps so does the other planet?

Research suggests that the better you are at analogical thinking, the more creative you are.

But what do analogies have to do with creative problem solving?

Analogies in creative problem solving

Solved problems

Analogies can be used to solve problems in several ways. The simplest, but also the most conservative (that is, non-creative), is using previously solved problems as analogies for new problems. If a new problem has several similarities to an old problem, maybe the two problems have one further similarity: the solution.

With complex problems, however, you are less likely to find a good analogy among old problems to solve a new one. A way round this might be to deliberately construct a problem structurally similar to the one you are trying to solve, find solutions for the imaginary problem, then transfer those solutions to the current problem as possible solutions.

Analogies as ‘ticklers’

Part of the value of analogies and metaphors in creative problem solving lies in the unusual juxtapositions they create. These unexpected combinations stimulate the imagination, serving as ‘ticklers’ for new ideas.

If you compare customers with water in a leaky pipe, you can imagine your customers “leaking away,” and focus on ways to “plug the leak.”

Change perspective

Analogies “make the familiar strange” by comparing something familiar with an unrelated element. Losing customers is (unfortunately) familiar; comparing it with a leaky pipe makes you look at the problem differently. Shakespeare gives us a different perspective when he compares the world with a stage and life to a play.

Biases and assumptions

A good analogy presents a structural relationship between the source and the target (like the analogy between the heart and a pump). To find a suitable analogy, you need to identify the crux of the problem. When you do that, an additional advantage is that biases and assumptions are exposed.

Analogies in problem definition

By now you should know that the way you define a problem has an enormous influence on how you solve the problem. How, then, would you use analogies for problem definition?

Let’s go back to the example problem we used when discussing problem definition. Defining the ill-defined: Part 4(a) and Part 4(b) list possible definitions for the problem. To use analogies to find even more definitions, we need to pick an analogy structurally similar to the problem. Suppose we decide the essence of the problem is the way the arguments follow the same pattern, with each time the same result. We pick the analogy of a bee trying to fly through a closed window.

We can identify the similarities between the analogy and the problem as:

• failure
• frustration
• a barrier that can be felt, but not seen
• a sense of being trapped
• monotony, repetition
• both you and the bee can see where you want to go, but not how to get there
• someone might get stung
• escape lies elsewhere.

Possible definitions include:

What, in the interactions between my brother and me, is a barrier?

How can I communicate with my brother without making him feel trapped?

How can I remove the ‘sting’ from my conversations with my brother?

What pattern in my arguments with my brother needs to be broken?

How can we escape the trap of arguing, but not getting anywhere?

Let’s use another analogy to find definitions. Suppose you see the arguments with your brother as getting stuck in a game with seemingly no way forward.

How can I identify which move is making us argue like this?

What would be a good move to make when we’re arguing?

What strategy can I employ to resolve these arguments?

How can I make sure both players are on the same board?

Which rule did I break that is upsetting him so much?

Psychological distance

Finding analogies and looking at a problem through them creates a psychological distance between you and the problem. In creative problem solving, this distance is valuable in dealing with complexities and threats in your situation, and to let you stand back to gain a broader perspective.

Communication and persuasion

A brilliant idea is useless unless it can be implemented. This might require communication with a team, a client, or someone in authority. You may also need to ‘sell’ the idea to someone. Analogies, when used to explain or illustrate an idea, make these processes easier.

In marketing and advertising, analogies are used to persuade. A product could, for example, be compared with a car (sleek and fast), a cat (elegant, exclusive), chocolate (delicious, desirable), air (essential), a chameleon (adaptable), or a diamond (expensive, glamorous, durable).

Analogies in creativity

Expressive and generative

Metaphors and analogies are essential elements in creative art. They brilliantly convey images and feelings that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to express. They can also evoke a response in the reader. Consider, for example, the intensity of the emotion conveyed in “fear churns his stomach,” or the disgust evoked by “as appropriate as anchovies on a jam tart.”

Literature is chock full of analogies and metaphors. Shakespeare’s beloved is not only good looking, but more beautiful than a summer’s day. Groucho Marx’s disgust with the costs associated with health care is vividly conveyed by “A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running.” Joanne Harris paints a picture with words when she writes, “The air smelled sharp as new-cut wood, slicing low and sly around the angles of buildings.” (Chocolat)

New information

Analogies and metaphors draw connections between elements that did not exist before, resulting in new understandings and new knowledge. This transfer of knowledge between a source and a target is a two-way process, however. We also learn more about the source by studying the target.

The brain is often compared with a computer, an analogy that has resulted in much new information about the brain. By studying the brain, however, we also learned more about computers.

On the other hand, as we worked with this analogy, the differences between a brain and a computer also became clear, leading to even more new knowledge and avenues for exploration.

Near and far analogies

Using an older problem to solve a new problem is an example of using near analogies. A near analogy is one where the source and target are closely related. To explain the working of the heart, for example, a teacher can refer to similarities between the human heart and the heart of a chimpanzee (if, of course, the working of a chimpanzee heart is already known). Scientists can often predict the behaviour of something new by referring to something known.

Near analogies are valuable when the new requires a mental leap that might be too difficult for people to make. E-books and e-readers, for example, are modelled on print books, including familiar abilities such as marking your place with a bookmark and ‘turning’ pages.

Research suggests, however, that the old can influence people so much they cannot be original, even when they are expressly told to create something unique. E-books and e-readers have possibilities that do not exist for printed books; it is necessary to move beyond the analogy of the printed book if these possibilities are to be explored.

When the source and the target are unrelated (far analogies), the unusual juxtaposition might be exactly what is needed to stimulate the mind. In creative problem solving, in particular, far analogies have the potential to jog the thinking beyond the conventional. Using the analogy of the trapped bee, you might arrive at solutions that you otherwise might not have thought of, such as using ‘honeyed’ words to approach your brother, or arranging a trip in a hot-air balloon where the two of you can communicate undisturbed and in an offbeat environment.

Unlike near analogies, far analogies can result in mental leaps and highly original ideas, but the danger is that these solutions might be too different, difficult, or impractical to apply. Near analogies, on the other hand, might result in practical suggestions, but not original ones.

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Related articles

Defining the ill-defined: Part 1

Defining the ill-defined: Part 2

Defining the ill-defined: Part 3

Defining the ill-defined: Part 4(a)

Defining the ill-defined: Part 4(b)

___________________________________________

** William Gordon, co-designer of the problem-solving method called Synectics, said that analogies make the strange familiar, and the familiar strange.

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.

The structure of a Tarot deck

A Tarot deck consists of 78 cards, divided into two groups, usually called major arcana (or trumps) and minor arcana. The 22 cards in the major arcana set are numbered from 1 to 21, with one unnumbered card (The Fool). The major arcana cards are usually given more weight in a Tarot reading, and are seen as embodying universal themes. In contrast, the minor arcana cards represent more everyday concerns. Like ordinary playing cards, these cards are divided into four suits. Each suit has a series of cards numbered from Ace to 10, and four court cards (whereas ordinary playing cards have only three).

The four suits have changed over time. Today, many decks use the convention established by Arthur Edward Waite, who designed the Rider-Waite pack (together with artist Pamela Colman Smith). Waite changed the name of Coins to Pentacles. The Rider-Waite deck adopted the following convention:

    Wands (associated with the element Fire)
    Cups (associated with Water)
    Swords (associated with Air)
    Pentacles (associated with Earth)

Wands are also called Batons, Sceptres, Rods, Clubs, Staffs and Staves, and can be associated with Air in some decks. Cups are sometimes Vessels, Rivers, Cauldrons, Chalices and Hearts. Most decks associated Cups with Water. Swords can be Birds, Blades, Daggers, Knives or Spades, and some decks associate this suit with Fire. Pentacles are often Coins, but can also be Stones, Discs, and Diamonds. Most decks associate this suit with Earth.

The suit names are sometimes changed to fit with a particular theme, while the element associations depend largely on the system used, or simply on the personal associations of the designer. Gardnerian Wicca, for example, associates Wands with Fire, while other traditions associate Wands with Air.

Court card names can be rather confusing. Just like people, court cards have a reputation for being a little difficult, and not only when it comes to what they are called! The Rider-Waite  deck uses King, Queen, Knight and Page. Crowley’s Thoth Tarot deck follows the Golden Dawn convention of Knight, Queen, Prince and Princess. Confusing? Some decks have opted to rename the court cards to Father, Mother, Son, Daughter (Quest Tarot, Elemental Tarot); Lord, Lady, Knight, Maiden (Tarot of Jane Austen); Master, Mistress, Warrior, Slave (Ibis Tarot); Speaker, Gift, Knower, Place (Shining Tribe Tarot); or even Controlling, Feeling, Doing, Learning (Bright Idea Deck).

The order and names of the 22 Major Arcana cards have also changed considerably over the centuries, and you will find decks that call Trump XIII (Death) Transformation, or Trump XIV (Temperance) Art, for example. Older decks might have The Pope ass Trump V, and Jupiter and Juno as Trumps IV and II respectively. Waite swopped the then-conventional use of VIII as Justice and XI as Strength. Aleister Crowley, who designed the Thoth Tarot (with artist Lady Frieda Harris), kept the original order. Since these two decks are considered “standards”, many other modern decks follow either of the two conventions. The Rider-Waite pack uses the following:

Unnumbered or 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—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

A tool of the devil?

Sir Michael Dummett
Image from Wikipedia

Tarot has an evil reputation. Some people even call it a tool of the Devil. Most of this reputation stems from the Tarot being associated with fortune telling and “divination” (the art of discovering hidden knowledge by supernatural means).

Apart from gypsies and other psychics predicting the future, Tarot cards have also been associated with “magicians”, with various esoteric societies, and with occult systems such as the Kabbalah, astrology, and numerology.

According to Tarot historian Michael Dummett, the truth is that Tarot cards were originally devised for playing a card game similar to Bridge, and that the occult associations were added roughly 350 years after the first recorded Tarot decks appeared.

However, as Tarot historian Dr Robert O'Neill points out, the milieu within which the Tarot was created was steeped in magic and esotericism, and early Tarot symbols seem consistent with other contemporary esoteric systems. It is possible that these systems may have influenced the design of these cards. Jim Revak, author of the Tarot-related website Villa Revak, comments: “Although it should be remembered that all of the symbolism of the tarot has close analogs in the conventional Christian culture of the time, many scholars today believe that these philosophies [Hermeticism, astrology, Neoplatonism, Pythagorean philosophy and heterodox Christianity], which are foundations of occultism, were important in the design of the tarot.”

Revak also notes that although records from a trial in Venice in 1589 suggest that some may have associated Tarot with witchcraft at this date—about 150 years after the appearance of the Tarot—there are no other references linking Tarot cards with magic or divination until the 18th century.

Tarot usage today includes divination, but this is by no means the only application for Tarot cards. As SynTAROTis and many other Tarot websites show, Tarot cards are used for self-exploration, psychotherapy, decision-making, brainstorming, problem solving and more. My view is that Tarot cards are simply too useful as an instrument for these applications to be thrown out merely because they are also being used for purposes that religious people may find uncomfortable or even evil.

How does the Tarot work? A skeptic’s view

Image by Elena Rego via Flickr

Having looked at what most Tarotists believe about the Tarot, I will now inflict my own views on you :-) In the process I will also try to explain why the cards work so well for creative thinking.

Please note that, as a skeptic, I do not deny that any of the possibilities I mentioned in my previous post could be true. I am merely skeptic, not a complete atheist!

This is what I believe happens during a Tarot reading─one that you are doing for yourself, or where you have a great deal of input to give:

“Tarot is a great tool for digging around the cobwebbed parts of your subconscious. It can reveal your own assiness to yourself as well as remind you of dreams you've tucked in long forgotten drawers.”
Quote from 78 Notes to Self: A Tarot Journal

You have an issue, a concern, a problem, a situation or simply a desire to explore. You choose (or design) a spread that seems applicable, and if you have a choice, you select a deck to use. You shuffle the cards, turning some of them upside down while shuffling if you want to use reversals. You carefully lay them out in the pattern or layout that you have chosen.

What you now see in front of you is an arbitrary selection of cards, arranged in the pattern you have chosen. The “hidden” information that you will try to uncover from this spread concerns yourself only: your thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and values. These might be thoughts you have suppressed or denied, or have simply been ignoring because you have not had time to reflect on them. While you are studying the pattern of cards before you, their images will serve the purpose of focusing your thoughts and prodding your memory.

What do people believe about the Tarot?

Image by chrisjohnbeckett via Flickr

You will find a great deal of variation in personal beliefs around the Tarot and how it works, but the following sets of belief broadly covers the ground:

• Tarot cards have some intrinsic supernatural or magical power which can be invoked to discover what is hidden, whether this is the future, your lover's heart or the depths of your own soul.


• Tarot does not have any intrinsic power in itself, but some power or supernatural force ensures that you receive exactly the right cards in the right positions to help you decipher the answer. This "power" can be represented by spirit guides, guardian angels, your inner guide, higher self, Spirit (also called Source, the source of everything in the universe), or even the universe itself.


• The cards have no intrinsic power, but you use them to guide and focus your own intuition and/or psychic sense to arrive at an answer or solution. Some believe that you are aided in this by forces or beings such as those mentioned in the previous point. The power is within you, in other words.


• Tarot cards have no intrinsic power, but synchronicity assures that, when you need it, the cards will be able to offer you a “snapshot” of your life. The “meaningful coincidence” occurs when that specific moment in your life and the cards you choose reflect each other.


• Whether the cards can actually predict the future or not is a contentious point. Most often even those who believe the cards can be used for future-telling will point out that the future is malleable, that every day we act in a way that will have an influence on our future. Practitioners sometimes change the “outcome” card to “probable outcome”, i.e. the outcome most likely if current conditions prevail.


• What almost all Tarot practitioners have in common, is the assumption that the cards can be used for “divination”, which can be defined as uncovering hidden information, whether this is about the future, a situation, a relationship or what your spirit guides want you to know.

The "bias card"

An interesting technique which I find very useful when reading for myself, is to use what Theresa Michelsen calls a "bias card" in your spread. This card shows you any possible bias that the querent (or you, if you are reading for yourself), may be introducing into the reading. The bias card can be an additional card that you draw before or after you have laid out the spread.

[T]hink of the card as a pair of glasses you are looking through that colors everything you see. For example, if the bias card is the Two of Cups, you may be missing the fact that some of the cards in the reading actually have to do with work and not your recent engagement. (Theresa Michelsen, Designing your own Tarot spreads)

Tarot spreads: Why some spreads may seem too focused on predicting the future

This quote is from Theresa Michelsen's Designing your own Tarot spreads:

Discomfort with doing predictive readings relates to the question of whether we have at least some control over our future. Some people believe that we can affect almost anything about our future, that we create our own reality. This is a relatively modern idea, and is one reason that older spreads often tend to look overly definite to readers today. In earlier times, the idea that one's destiny or fate was preordained was much more prevalent, and still prevails in some religions and cultures. Many people felt truly powerless against the church, nobility, powerful landowners, disease, nature, and other forces that seemed to determine the course of their lives, apparently at a whim.

Today the concepts of empowerment and using the tarot as a tool for spiritual enlightenment and direction have gained credence. In addition, Jungian psychological concepts have made their way into tarot work and moved many readers to use the tarot as a tool for self-awareness and personal development. These approaches have given rise to a different reading style---one in which the client is not given all the answers and the reader is not an all-knowing authority. Instead, the reader uses the tarot to help provide a deeper understanding of the situation; the client's motivations, goals, and feelings; the alternatives open to the client; and possible plans of action to obtain a desired result.