How I Do Tarot

(Updated April 2009.)

From pop culture, you would think that divination—fortune-telling—is the dominant way tarot cards are used today. But there is also a growing population of tarot readers who take a psychological, practical approach. I’m proud to be part of that crowd.



When I read tarot for a client, it’s very collaborative. What I bring to the tarot table is my knowledge of the cards' traditional meanings, and an ability to connect the cards’ images and meanings to the client's life. What my client brings is an open mind and a desire to get some clarity and focus on their life questions.

Tarot cards are designed to be universal and applicable to a wide range of questions and situations. In one sense, it doesn't really matter which cards a client chooses in a reading, since any cards they pick should resonate for them on some level.

However, I don't mean to imply that tarot cards work the same way that your average weekly horoscope does, where any sign that you read is general enough to be applied to your life. Tarot cards are not general at all. Each one is highly specific, but also subtle in its meanings. Every card has a range of possible messages, and when you lay tarot cards out in a spread, they amplify, modify, and reflect each other's meanings.



Some people tell me they are afraid to get a tarot reading because it might tell them something bad is going to happen. This would be a reasonable fear if the future were set in stone—but that's simply never the case. We all have free will, and make choices every day that wind up directing our “fate.” Tarot simply helps us get the perspective we need to make better choices.

There are certainly cards that serve as warnings, that point out behavior patterns that are not useful or are even destructive.
One helpful metaphor I've read about the cards—I think it was in a Tom Robbins book—is that the tarot can't tell you you're going to crash your car, but it can tell you you're driving with a blindfold on.

In other words, the cards provide a vivid snapshot of where you are in your life at the moment you get the reading. They also give a sense of where you’re headed presently—where you are on your life map. And that gives you the power to stay on that route, or to take a detour, or to get out of the car entirely and continue on back roads by bicycle. Whatever you want.