reactions or non-reactions can either lead us back to the start or down a new and exciting life path.
All becomes possible with the tarot deck as our mobile future tap, including predicting the outcome of a meeting, how a particularly tricky client, or the markets, will react, and whether a stock or project is worth a punt. We can also be poised and prepared when something is about to have its moment, and foresee financial, business or fashion trends – and so, in a sense, make them. The liquid modern world often requires an ultra-open and fluid response, and tarot reading helps generate new neural pathways and allows us to be continually reassessing and reinventing. In today’s fast-moving and ever-changing world, in this era of quick-fixes and information, the tarot can keep us ahead of the ever-pacier game.
In addition to its honest and transparent approach to problem-solving, when used as a form of pocket guru, wisdom teacher or counsellor, the tarot can help reclaim our misplaced power. We can misplace our power by becoming too reliant on others for our own psycho-emotional care or support. They then become like props or crutches, and we are not given the opportunity to grow and mature through our own self-reliance. Using the tarot as a psycho-emotional map offers us a way of reclaiming any unnecessary drains on our personal power, leading to ever-greater self-esteem and emotional security.
When we are stuck, facing a problem or lacking perspective, the symbolic imagery of the tarot can also stimulate our latent intuition, allowing us to overcome the obstacle of ignorance and reorient ourselves in a positive and constructive direction. Tarot can be used in any unclear situation when there’s a decision to be made or problem to be solved: no valley is too deep and no mountain too high for the divinely inspired. Yet, paradoxically, we need not climb, jump, leap or even fly to the highest ground, for the teleporting tarot-freed mind, which recognizes no such material limitations, can take us there instantaneously. Pure intuition – those anomalous thoughts that drop in from nowhere – are the lateral mind’s innate way of avoiding the queue of slower-moving logical, rational and reasoning lines of thought. Intuition relies on the fastest part of the brain – the limbic system – and is considered to be 80,000 times faster than our cognitive thought processes. The limbic system quickly and easily communicates feelings and bits of information to our conscious intelligence to maximize our chances of survival in a threatening context. Artists know how to access and use their intuition, but they need many years of studio practice to hone it. For those who don’t have the time or inclination for artistic practices, the tarot offers another ‘in-house’ mind-tapping option. So this book is, in a sense, simply a user’s guide to the mind, to help access as yet untapped aspects of intuitive brain functioning.
The tarot also provides a sacred space in which we can examine and observe the phenomena that arise or are constructed in our mind. Many ancient and modern minds agree, be they teachers, preachers, scientists, philosophers, heads of state or business moguls, that our thoughts create our reality. So, by knowing ourselves and the inner workings of our own mind, we can make the very best of life and positively augment our reality.
For me, the most exciting, relevant and contemporary use of the tarot is as a psychological tool to render us more effective, balanced and constructive individuals in our own lives and society. Most tarot books give an explanation of what’s happening on the outside, but rarely do they answer this all-important ‘Why me?’ question. So these books, like a quick-fix doctor offering curative but not preventative treatments, are the sort that will keep seeing their readers again and again, always with the same complaint. By identifying our own psychology or life philosophy as the root cause of our external life experience, however, we are able to effect lasting change. So, rather than write another quick-fix tarot book, I decided to take a more holistic and preventative approach, to serve my readers’ prospects better in the long term.
By proper use of the tarot for the purpose of deeper self-reflective enquiry, we can thoroughly examine and judge our words, deeds and actions, and weigh their consequences. This process teaches us to pay more attention, to know our uncultivated selves better, to look inwardly in order to successfully enrich our outer lives. In so doing, we can also recognize and appreciate the moral and noble qualities of our spirit and character, as well as those qualities that aren’t serving us and need to be transcended. In seeing ourselves clearly, we are able to draw back the veil that conceals our destiny.
The tarot also helps us process the conflict we as humans face in the duality of our personal impulses – the material, physical body drawn towards sensual pleasure and the ethereal higher-dimensional body drawn towards the elevated mind and spirit. The tarot helps us recover our truest, purest, most shining expression of being, so we can finally attain the perfect sense of our spirit belonging, or at-one-ment in our physical body. There really is no greater gift we can give ourselves than the use of this ultimate self-realization tool, for, like those who love us, the divinely inspired tarot wants only the very best for us.
With so many possibilities, it is not surprising that in all the years I have been reading and teaching tarot card reading, the one question I am asked again and again by clients and students is: ‘How do you know which interpretation to choose?’ When you look at the various tarot books available, each gives a myriad of options for interpretation, but none a system of how to navigate the labyrinth of possibilities and get transparent, straightforward answers. So this is also a book that addresses this issue.
I have found the reading of tarot cards becomes inefficient when we focus too much on the individual elements of each card. Fragmenting the images in this way only serves to slow our mental processing of the cards’ bigger picture; intuition works twice as quickly as logical analysis, so I have created a book that doesn’t spend pages breaking down the images into their component parts, but synthesizes the information to provide conclusive, resolved and up-to-date statements. When learning tarot, I found clarity, quick referencing and go-to statements far more useful than reams of outdated and impedimental image analysis. Remembering that the figure in the Eight of Cups wears a red cape to denote action, when half the cards in the deck denote some form of action, did not serve to increase my proficiency as a tarot reader. In this book I haven’t shunned symbol analysis completely, but I’ve used it sparingly, and only if relevant or accessible to modern-day conditions.
This is a book for beginners, improvers and those looking to add a level of professionalism to their readings. It works for those who are right-brain dominated, relying on instinct and intuition, and those who are left-brain dominated, with strong logical and reasoning abilities. With the aid of this book you don’t need to be the all-seeing eye to give a profound, accurate and discerning card reading. Jump from amateur straight to professional standard – this fast-track guide will take you quickly and efficiently to the highest level of competence in your tarot readings.
The Power of Symbols and Imagery
The tarot is a centuries-old tradition that relies on the power of imagery. We tend to remember images better than concepts; we see images around us and our brain responds. The visual aspect of movies, television, picture books and magazines speaks to us on a deep level that doesn’t require the explanation of words alone. The images of the tarot are particularly powerful, being made up of symbols rooted in ancient traditions. The information they carry is deeply embedded in our subconscious mind without us even cognitively realizing it, making the tarot a particularly powerful set of images. Through its triggering of specific unconscious responses, it stretches our cognitive legs, and thus, via this divinely heightened and wider-striding perspective, we can leap all cognitive mind hurdles to access whatever information is needed. The answer to any question is always there, buried in our own mind.
Putting Ourselves in the Picture
A common question people often ask themselves during a difficult, challenging or crisis situation is ‘Why me?’ Knowing the answer to this question can be invaluable to getting ahead and leading a life filled with triumphs, successes and abundance.
To know the exact role our mental processes are playing in our situation is of paramount importance. Our frame of mind can be fertile and expansive,