#tarot commentary

You know, for as many posts I have seen about Tarot on here, none that I have really seen talk about single card readings and how in truth you can actually get a lot from a single card alone.

If you ever worry that maybe you need more than one card for a reading or perhaps you aren't doing enough, please know that you should trust your intuition and that sometimes, one card can hold a lot of power in it.

Especially with the Minor Arcana. I feel like the Minor Arcana gets put on the back burner a lot. The Major Arcana is important of course, but the Minor Arcana has a lot of importance within it too. From the elements the suit of the card is involved with, to the Numerology behind the card, the imagery, and the definition itself. There just is so much that can be ready from it.

For example, I say we look at the Two of Swords card. Now, I'll use the Rider-Waite image for it since that's what mostly everyone knows, but take a look here:

Let's break this card down and show how it all comes together.

Imagery: Even before looking up the definition, the person in this photo has a blindfold on, and holds two swords across in a "x" formation in front of them. Both are held as evenly as the other in a similar fashion that perhaps a set of scales would be. What do scales represent to you? For me, it is a balance of some kind. Perhaps it can involve justice, but to me? There is one point and another being balanced carefully and impartially because the person cannot see. They have a blindfold. If Reversed, maybe this could be taken as the person being blind to the choices they may make and the consequences of the.

Swords Suit Meaning: Let's look at the meaning of the Swords Suit. Swords are involved with the element of Air which deals with choice. These involve your actions, words, and thoughts. Remember that action can be destructive or constructive, and neither is inherently good or bad. This asks for a balance of power and intuition. Remember that our actions have consequences. Air like choices can be like a gentle gale, or a strong and sharp tornado that may decimate everything around it. Consequences like action, is not inherently good or bad.

Numerology: A good little rule to note with Numerology? Even numbers usually are involved with the ideas of stability. The reason I believe involves the fact that Even numbers are more easily divisible and "balanced". Like the number four, in Numerology this is a number of stability and the way it was explained to me was that one should picture a table with four legs. The four legs keep the table stable (no pun intended here). Take one leg away, and while it still can be stable to a degree, it won't be quite like what the four legs were like. With the number two in the Two of Swords, this also is a balance once again. Should you ever need to confirm your suspicions on whether something may be correct in meaning, do some cross referencing! Of course you can look to the actual definition online or in a book, but don't be afraid to use other parts of the card to help. This helps check your intuition as well.

Actual Definition: Here we come to the actual definition. The actual definition of the Two of Swords talks of difficult decisions, weighing options, impasses and avoidance. This is the short and sweetened version of this card.

So how do we bring it all together?

Combine what we've learned! We can note that the idea of avoidance with this card stems from the blindfold the person is wearing in the picture. Whether this is willingly avoiding the matter at hand or not is something that can be checked upon, but it checks out! The impasse? Weighing options?

Let's check back in with the swords and the number two for a second. Of course, perhaps there is more than one matter needing a decision, but each decision usually has at least two choices no? Think of these swords to be like scales needing balance. The number two shows a need for stability, and the imagery backs this up. This shows us the impasse needing our attention. Of course, we defer to the fact that the suit for this card is the Swords suit. What element does it lie in? Air. The one of choices, actions, and thoughts.

My best tip I can give to help maybe not make this feel so intimidating, is to not be afraid of your intuition. Really feel into the energy of your deck and the questions at hand. Play the role of a detective solving a puzzle. Get a feel for the person you are reading for. It takes practice, but it can be done.

We all know that to be a good tarot reader, we should be able to at least identify the words or concepts associated with our tarot cards. It helps to remember the cards’ meanings- though it’s totally fine if you need to check your sources to jumpstart your memory!

What I’m going to show you in this blog post are some alternative ways in reading your tarot cards together. This is based from what I’ve learned with tarot reading sessions for close friends. I hope this helps my fellow beginners!

1.) First off, let’s read the cards the “classical” way.

And by classical, I mean “sticking-to-their-metaphorical-or-figurative-word-association-meanings”.

Here is one example:

The Devil + The Sun

This was part of a reading for someone who was having relationship troubles. In a nutshell, the person was in a pretty toxic relationship but seems hesitant to break it off.

 In this reading, The Devil is associated with bondage, attachments, restrictions or hopelessness. The Sun is associated with warmth, vitality, success, and confidence. Obviously, this is an opposing pair. Honestly, opposing pairs drive me crazy sometimes but this is where the “classical” way of reading comes in. 

This post will be partly about the importance of reading tarot cards in pairs. As a beginner, it was quite difficult for me to start out reading cards in pairs but it’s worth it after I started reading 3 card spreads and eventually delved into more complex ones. (Warning: Long-ass blog post)

This is a practice reading I did regarding a friend who met a guy online. The guy, let’s call him M, seems pretty sweet on her online and she hopes that they would meet each other in person soon. I won’t go into too much details about their relationship and mode of communication, but my friend is keen on him, she seems keen on him, but there are noteworthy details in their relationship that gives her reason to question his sincerity.

Below is the 6-card spread reading.

Major Arcana: The Hanged Man.

The first thing I do in a reading is look for the Major Arcana. In this case, it’s the Hanged Man. I am often perplexed with the meaning of the HM card; Does he represent voluntary sacrifice? Letting go? But in this reading, I learned that he is also associated with our overall perception of reality regarding a person or a situation and the ability to perceive others’ different points of view.

I can’t help but think of the tarot reading I did for her a couple of days ago as practice. I did the Spirit Guide spread reading for her and the Death card was in the 1st position (supposedly to indicate the nature/personality of the SG). I interpreted the card as a Spirit whose karmic ties with her is about to end and a new one will come along once there’s a new lesson to be learned or another life-altering challenge to overcome. The 10 of cups, which is associated with family or close connections, was in the 6th position and represented her spiritual strengths and gifts. If I knew this card was more literal than it let on, I should’ve told her to prepare for a difficult period involving someone in the family.