Check out tumblr! There are a lot of brilliant alternative blogs on tumblr, so it’s a great way to find like-minded people. within the first hour, I was liking and following many different blogs. This particular piece really struck me, it’s a commission from http://spring-forth-from-my-mind.tumblr.com. I hope you all like it! Be sure to follow us too. If you send us a message, we’ll be sure to follow you back!
(Permission was gained from the artist to share her work)
This spread shows a tarot card which represents each of the zodiacal star signs for the coming year, January 2018 to December 2018. One card per star sign, they should give you the general theme of how the year is going to progress and end. To use this Zodiacal reading, scroll to your Star sign, and read what is in store. Click the card for more information. If you would like a more in-depth personal reading, or you’d like to expand on this, considering a reading from Tarot-Explained.
The Six of Wands. This will be a good year. Expect goals to be completed. Go out of your way to make good memories this year.
Eight of Cups. You might give up on a long held belief this year, but remember it is for the best. Something might go wrong this year to change you, but you will recover and grow.
The Fool. New beginnings and new starts. Come into this year with a fresh perspective; New Year, New you. You’re only at the start of your journey.
Nine of Pentacles. It’s likely that things are coming to a happy ending. All that which you’ve worked for is going to pay off in the coming year. Be sure to congratulate yourself as you ascend to a better state of being.
Ace of Swords. If you’re willing to put the effort in, this will be your best year yet. Be strong and decisive. There’s no need to rush, you’re only at the start of it.
The World. You’ll accomplish much this year. If you believe you have a life goal, then 2018 is going to be either completing it, or getting very close. If you have set new years resolutions, then you’re sure to complete them in 2018.
The Emperor. You will take charge of your life this year. If you are feeling stifled and constrained, then 2018 is the year when you will break free.
The Devil. Be sure to look out for traps and pitfalls this year. There will be many choices presented to you which are not the right thing to do. Try not to give into past weakness,
The Moon.You might be feeling lost and directionless right now, but 2018 is the year when things pick up if you make them. Stop worrying about the little things.
The Magician. Don’t lose sight of your goals. You have a lot of ambition and there are many ways to apply your skills, don’t get overwhelmed, just focus.
Ten of Pentacles. Money might be tough this year, but you will end the year in a good state. You’re going to mature and grow a lot this year in an area you weren’t aware of.
Five of Swords. This will be a tough year for you. Expect adversity. Be prepared for it, what are people going to challenge you over this year?
Happy Autumn, and now that the autumn equinox has passed, it’s all downhill from here! I’m only joking. Autumn is a time to calm down and start finishing the things you started earlier in the year. In this case, I wanted to write about tarot in popular culture months ago, and I’ve only really just gotten around to it. To start with, we’ll briefly discuss the tarot symbolism of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ‘The Holy Mountain’.
If you are one for spotting hidden symbolism and meanings, the Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ‘The Holy Mountain’ is a brilliant film to watch. Tarot plays a prominent role in the film both as an element of the story as well as clearly inspiring the designs of the characters. To try and actually describe The Holy Mountain is difficult; as a surrealist film the narrative is rather disjointed and sometimes difficult to watch, but it’s sprinkled with extremely memorable scenes which you’ll think about for days.
In the above scene, The Alchemist character uses the tarot deck as an allegorical tool of transformation for the story of the fool figure, whom eventually grows into a Christ-like figure, following the journey of the fool. The meaning of the Magician card and Hermetic concepts are described effortlessly in one line, with the bull and the vulture. This is one of the earlier scenes in the film, and forms a basis for the following story, introducing ten characters that are all essentially aspects of the whole main character.
Alejandro Jodorowsky still studies the tarot; he wrote a book on it and saw it differently to how it is usually portrayed. Not happy with the tarots use as a divination tool, he treated it more as a psychological aid. Interestingly, he combine cards in order to better understand them. Jodorowsky considers only one deck to be pure, the Tarot de Marseille, and all others to be derivative, each new tarot deck release losing the original meaning of the cards, until you end up with something like a tarot deck based off a TV show. It’s true that this opinion is shared by many, but as with many aspects of tarot, there is no objective truth.
In future we’ll be looking at more tarot inspired films, music and books! Have you read a book or seen a good film that features Tarot symbology? Comment below!
I recently read an article on the telegraph about the financial situation in Italy, and how many are now consulting the tarot to get a glimpse of their potential financial future. In this case, the situation has gotten so bad that people are turning to Tarot and other divinationary methods to try and find hope in what looks like a bleak future. It seems around a quarter of Italians re now using the services of Tarot readers and other similar practitioners. For any country, that’s quite a lot! Is this a good idea though?
You should treat the Tarot as a message form something greater than you; the Universe. You don’t necessarily have to bend to the will of the messages presented, they are just given as a potential outcome if you continue what you are doing. If you draw a good card in relation to finances, say, The Ace of Pentacles, you should always analyse it yourself rather than take it at face value. You may very likely have to put some action in place to make this eventuality come around. Have you been losing money hand over fist recently? Don’t expect this to change if you don’t change.
The important part here is the free will you possess. Even though it might feel like it, life isn’t a roller-coaster than you are strapped into. You are driving, and you can choose to go the wrong direction that your sat-nav takes you. Take the advice of the tarot cards and use them if they feel they will help you, and this applies to any aspect of your life.
If you are having trouble with your finances; Money is mundane, so a more mundane approach is likely going to be more useful than a spiritual one. Divide your expenses into wants and needs and then analyse it. Are your needs actually needs, or are they just disguised wants? You’ll be surprised how easy it is to save money and fix financial problems if you can see the benefit and overall positive impact that comes from sacrifice.
For some further information on using tarot for finances, check out Ten tips for Interpreting the Tarot and the ‘Life Aspects‘ spread :)
Doing a tarot reading for yourself can seem quite daunting; how do you know you aren’t going to be biased and interpret the cards wrong, especially if you’re considering a reading for the future. There are a few things to keep in mind when doing a tarot reading for yourself to ensure that you take the most unbiased answer that the cards are giving you. In the following post I’m going to detail some ways you can use tarot alone, as well as some mistakes to avoid!
It’s best to start simple when you read tarot cards for yourself. A single card spread can be an exciting new addition to your daily life when you are unsure what to do for example. Just draw a card and treat it as a friend giving you advice. You don’t even have to take the advice if you don’t want to, just consider the possibility and go with it if it sounds good. There, you’ve successfully performed a tarot reading alone. Well done!
Moving on, you can start to perform a more complex reading for yourself as you would for somebody else. This is where things can get difficult, so watch out for the following mistakes!
I think we’re all guilty of this, you keep dealing a new spread until you get the answer that you want. This isn’t going to work at all! You may as well choose the cards yourself if this is what you do. Remember to be strict with yourself here, it’s only the first spread that will work as it should, any others will have too much of your personal influence.
It’s no use to just interpret the cards in a whole new way just because you want them to. This ties in with the above. Don’t ignore the reading if it isn’t the result you want. Use the spread to understand why it isn’t giving you the right answer. The results of the tarot spread are just symptoms, but the actual worldly events occurring in the background are the cause. Changing the meanings of the cards will not change anything!
You have to be clear and level headed when you perform a tarot reading. It’s tempting to perform a tarot reading for yourself when you’re in a very low state in order to see a good potential outcome in the future but I wouldn’t advise this at all. If you don’t get the answer you seek it could push you even lower. Perform tarot readings only when you can deal with a bad outcome.
Tarot reading for yourself is as good a skill to learn as reading for others, and is good practice when you have nobody else to read for. Performing a daily or weekly reading will help you learn the card meanings if you’re still in the process of learning. If you’re a more advanced student, then it’ll keep you fresh and you’ll learn how the cards connect. The more readings you perform, the more connections and relations you’ll see between the cards.
If you’ve performed a tarot card reading for yourself recently, leave a comment below and tell us what happened!
It’s time to go over the site and update, fix problems and tinker. Maintaining a website such as this requires constant updating, refreshing and fixing. Over the coming weeks we’ll be adding to each card page, updating the spreads and adding new features to make tarot-explained.com even better than before. It’s unlikely that there will be any downtime, but if there is any, it’ll only be for a very short while!
This round of updates is to make sure that the current definitions of each card and spread are as good as they can be, before new content is added.
There’s a new spread to check out; the Spring clean. There are a number of reasons we try to reinvent ourselves, hopefully this spread will help you understand the ways your life is changing. Check it out.
One of the simplest spreads you can do with a set of tarot cards is a ‘Yes or No’ spread. Most cards have more positive or negative meaning, and from this you can simply determine the answer to a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ question. Some cards are a bit more ambiguous, and the answer may change depending on the question.
Let’s run through an example!
Jane wonders if she’s ever going to go on the holiday of her dreams. She consults the tarot and draws a single card; The Page of Swords. The Page of Swords is quite a positive card, so from this, Jane can determine that the answer is going to be yes. It’s as simple as that. The whole reading was over in less than a minute.
Lets have another example, where things aren’t so clear cut.
Jane wants to see if her weekend is going to be a good one or not. She draws a single card; The Moon. The Moon isn’t as positive as the Page of Swords, and the answer here is No. Jane might wonder why her weekend isn’t going to be a positive one, so she draws another card, or two cards for each day (Saturday and Sunday). The Yes and No tarot spread can open up this way, you may want to explore the initial answer by chaining your spreads together.
The Yes or No spread is best used to get a different perspective on a decision you need to make. Do you want to go to the cinema? Do you want to talk to this person? Always treat the spread as a separate person giving you an opinion. You don’t have to do what it tells you, where’s the fun in that!
Have you wondered what the next year might bring? A new spread has been added; a 12 month Spread. Now that it’s coming up to the end of the year, it’s a perfect time to think about what the next year will bring for you.
There are also some other exciting features for Tarot-Explained in the new year. January 1st is the celebration of our second birthday, and with this comes a review and update of the card meanings. Recently, we added a numerology section to each card, and more card meanings will be added over the next year.
Have a happy holiday season everybody.
Tarot is a complex system to learn and work with, that’s why Tarot-Explained.com exists! Tarot is not all for show and isn’t fully intuitive or ‘made up’; there are basic universal meanings to cards that you’ll need to learn to read effectively. Have a look at these steps for some good tips on learning to read Tarot for yourself and others.
Each card has a meaning. Combinations of cards have meanings. Learn the meanings of each card. While you’re learning, it’s helpful to look through each meaning as you draw a card. on Tarot-Explained.com, each card has a page full of meanings so you can quickly look up how to interpret it. Soon, you’ll begin to learn the meanings by heart, and you won’t have to look them up to get a general idea. It’s still helpful if you are doing a more in depth reading, however. Card meanings will soon become second nature to you. Learning the basic meanings of each card first will help you in your Tarot journey.
For your first few readings, try simple yes and No questions. Each card meaning on Tarot-Explained.com has a Yes and No section. You can easily draw a Single card spread for this. Simple draw a card and look for the Yes/No section on the card meaning page. If you’d like to delve deeper, consider the meanings of the cards in relation to your question. Have you drawn the Ten of Swords for example? The answer is ‘No’, but the symbology of the card and the meanings it carries may help you further understand the question. Extrapolate and understand what you’re asking yourself.
Tarot is a personal journey. Cards have universal meanings but it is up to you to interpret them. This can carry some weight, especially if you’re asking questions with difficult answers. Tarot is objective in meaning, but you will use your intuition to understand what it is telling you. Will you get that new job? You might read the the cards to say no, but you can still achieve what you wanted. This comes out best when you are doing a reading for a close friend. You don’t want to promise good news, but you don’t want to hide bad news simply not to hurt their feelings. Remember; you’re reading Tarot to understand and get a new perspective; don’t kid yourself if you see something bad.
As the adage says ‘Practice makes perfect’. Consistent practice will help you further understand the card meanings and relations between them. Do lots of readings on lots of different subjects. Try to do one reading a day if you can.