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People often ask me how to go about learning
to read the tarot. There are many decks available and often these have
very comprehensive books along with them. This is one way to go about
learning the traditional meanings of your deck, or the meanings the
authors intended, however there is another way to use the cards. This
involves stretching your intuitive muscles, learning to trust the little
nudges your inner voice directs to you, often through your imagination.
To learn your deck you can take each card
and travel into it allowing the deck image to trigger within you stories
and journeys that bring with them messages for your own inner
development as well as for your learning of what the card can mean and
say in a reading. I believe if you allow to let your deck talk to you,
then the learning you gain in your own life will be invaluable and the
practice in trusting your intuition and understanding your own symbols
will transform your ability to read the cards for others even with cards
you haven't traveled into. After a while of doing these specific
journeys for yourself, you will find you can look at a card and travel
within it, asking for its meaning, whilst doing a reading without
elaborate visualizations and meditation, thus gaining a way to hear your
own intuitive voice and knowing, as it relates to another's question.
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I will outline the way to go into a card
at first for your own development and the understanding of a card.
So take your deck of cards - having
chosen one that you just like and are drawn to, and find the first card,
0 the Fool, Look at it closely and make a note of anything that comes to
your mind just looking at it - the bits you like and the bits you don't
and why. When you have studied the card for a few mins and feel you can
roughly remember the image you are ready to begin the meditation. Don't
feel you need to remember the card in detail, anything you forget is
part of the intuition, you will see the images you need to. Try to leave
your judging mind behind and be open to experience whatever is there,
there isn't a right or wrong image to have, there is only your image.
Then get yourself in to a comfortable
position and close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths and as you breath
out allow yourself to let go of tension thoughts and worries, just
breath them out - for the time being you only need to focus inwards.
Then imagine brilliant white light coming from the center of the earth
up into your feet, slowly coming into your legs, hips, back, stomach,
chest and shoulders down your arms into your finger tips and then up
into your head so you are filled with light. Take your time over this
allow yourself to name each part of you as the light comes into it, see
the light as a supportive and gentle peaceful energy that slowly fills
you. Then imagine a star up in the sky sending you the most beautiful
light that enters your head and fills you body slowly until it reaches
your toes. Again speak each part of your body to yourself as it fills it
slowly and feel the loving healing energy that comes to you from this
starlight.
Once you are filled with light from both
star and ground, imagine a staircase in front of you going upwards and
walk up the stairs, getting lighter in weight as you do. At the top see
the card in front of you as a doorway, go through the door into the
card. Notice how you feel in the card - the temperature, the weather,
the emotional feel of the card. Look around and see what images are
there, and see them moving, being and doing what they do. As you take in
the scene allow it to develop into a story, unfolding into whatever it
does. You can walk up to any object, person or animal and ask it/them to
tell you what its meaning is in the card and what message it might have
for you.
Allow yourself to go to the places you
are drawn to in the card and explore them. Ask questions when you don't
understand or want to know something and allow the answer to come to
you. You may feel like you are making it all up and its just your
imagination - do not worry about this - just take things as they are
without judgment when you return from the journey you can discern what
you wish to take and what you wish to leave.
When you have journeyed enough thank the
characters in the card and see a doorway of light in front of you as you
walk through this doorway you find yourself at the top of the stairs,
which you walk down - feeling heavier and heavier as you do. When you
reach the bottom see yourself in a bubble of golden light and then
slowly bring your attention back to the room.
It is good to record your journey
straight away - either by drawing or writing or both so you have a
record of how the journey went and any message that were given to you.
Once done you can leave it and come back a read it a few days or a week
later and see how what you received had relevance in your life. Doing a
card a week is enough or even one a month to give each card a chance to
work with you in a personal way. You may find after a visualization such
as this things come to you while relaxing, or about to fall asleep at
night or in your dreams - make a note of anything that comes to you in
this way. A picture will be building of the scope of your card as well
as of what you need to be focusing on in your life at the time.
There is a more detailed account of the
light visualization on my website and I welcome any comments on this
article or the visualizations you do following this method, just send
them in an email
Also on my website
I offer a free sign up to 'card of the month' where you can receive the
full journeys I have completed into one of my decks the 'Sacred Circle'
each month by email.
About the Author
I have been using the tarot for 18 years,
developing my psychic and intuitive faculties along the way. I am an
endorsed member of the Tarot Association of the British Isles. I offer
tarot readings, face to face in North Wales also telephone, email and
distance readings. See my website for further details www.empowering-tarot-readings.co.uk
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