Tarot

Oracle’s Book – version 2.0

You can find me on YouTube, search for TarotOracle. This book and all of its contents (other than the pictures, where stated) are copyrighted by
me. Thank all of my viewers for their kind words and watching my videos for all these years. This version was edited in December 2018.

Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 2
Chapter 1 - Free form spreads..................................................................................................................... 5
Yes/No Spreads – without the yes … or the no ....................................................................................... 6
Chapter 2 - Cards can speak! ....................................................................................................................... 8
Planes, trains and automobiles ............................................................................................................... 8
Translating one card into a plethora of meaning .................................................................................. 18
Chapter 3 – Domination and spanking among suits.................................................................................. 19
Establishing trust and love, or choking the other guy out ..................................................................... 19
Who’s the boss? .................................................................................................................................... 20
Elemental Dignities – the easy way ....................................................................................................... 23
Only you can stop forest fires ............................................................................................................ 24
Only one thing better than money – and that’s more money ........................................................... 24
Police line-up example of dignities .................................................................................................... 25
Chapter 4 – Majors, minors and decorative penguins .............................................................................. 26
Elements and meanings – lack vs. spam of one means what? .............................................................. 27
Reversed vs. right side up cards ............................................................................................................ 27
Majors vs. minors and what they mean to the spread .......................................................................... 27
Chapter 5 - Numerology and the tarot ...................................................................................................... 27
Chapter 6 - Techniques to make your sitters swoon ................................................................................. 35
Combining Tarot with Oracles –your cards will explode with meaning ............................................ 35
Tarot Journaling – we know you’re not. Why you should. ............................................................... 36
Using shadow cards to bring depth to readings ................................................................................ 38
Pre-reading intuition spikes ............................................................................................................... 39
Chapter 7 – Human aspects in tarot.......................................................................................................... 40
Asking sitters to read their own cards ............................................................................................... 40
MBTI and Keirsey personality types .................................................................................................. 41

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Chapter 8 - Various Questions You Receive .............................................................................................. 43
Love and Relationships .......................................................................................................................... 43
“Do they like me?”............................................................................................................................. 43
“Love falling apart” ............................................................................................................................ 45
My Triple Soul Mate theory ............................................................................................................... 48
Soul Mate tarot spreads .................................................................................................................... 54
Money. I'm all right, Jack. Keep your hands off my stack. ................................................................... 55
Filler questions to pass the time............................................................................................................ 58
Chapter 10 - Miscellaneous rants .............................................................................................................. 58
Court Cards as “people you know” ........................................................................................................ 58
Court Cards and Meyers-Briggs ............................................................................................................. 59
Intuition vs. Memorization .................................................................................................................... 59
Chapter 11 - Bringing it all together with sample readings ....................................................................... 60
Will I meet a romantic partner? ............................................................................................................ 61
Will me and my ex-wife get back together? .......................................................................................... 62
How will my upcoming surgery go? ....................................................................................................... 62
Tarot Reading Cheat Sheet .................................................................................................................... 63
Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................. 64
Books ..................................................................................................................................................... 64
Tarot Decks and Kits .............................................................................................................................. 67

I NTRODUCTION

When I first began my journey into the illustrated world of tarot, I didn’t really know where to walk once I knew
the card meanings. Most people use intuition to read their cards, however mine wasn’t developed enough to
create the readings that I wanted to share with other people. So I purchased book after book trying to find a
deeper meaning within these cards that sat before me, yet none of them had the vital information I needed.

Even more frustrating was that most books had definitions and insight into only one deck: The RiderWaite-Smith
tarot. Yes everybody uses that deck in the beginning, but 90% of readers adopt different cards within a few

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months. So providing me only one view of what cards really meant was frustrating at best. I needed a system that
could be used with any picture cards!

Symbolism in tarot was another sticking point. You’re handed a list of objects to search for, like birds, angels or
flowers and would stare at your cards trying to identify all the 2,948,289,734 symbols you could remember from
that long list. And tarot reading suddenly transformed into Find Waldo.

Every heard of “not seeing the forest because of the trees”? Here’s a list of symbols in tarot from a site, that
contains a whopping 77 symbols to memorize the meanings of! Ouch… http://www.tarotteachings.com/symbol-
meanings-of-tarot-a-c.html

That gives me a headache. Sorry, but a bird inside a card comes a distant third place to:

- What does the card mean in the context of the others? -

What global symbolism exists within the spread?

Now you’re wondering, what is global symbolism? It applies to the entire spread instead of just that one focused
card. For example, that site lists the meaning of “brick wall”, but it’s like a stamp you only apply
to that card, without any context. The brick wall on the left two cards separates
these characters from different cards, giving a lot more meaning than just
“holding yourself back” from that site I listed.

Can’t you see the anticipation of that boy to the left? How he’s stacked up
boxes, almost ready to jump to the other side? There’s a lot more meaning here
than a boring sentence of “holding yourself back”.

So we need to back up, re-evaluate symbolism because clearly a brick wall separating two cards, or some guy from
more people, or a cloud from the sun – all have different contextual purposes. You cannot just stamp a “insert
generic sentence here” label on any card with a brick wall and move on with your reading. It’s not accurate. Rant
over!

Back to the story - now later on during my tarot journey, the cards began speaking to me in a most profound way.
Once they were laying on my table, the hermit began conversing with my 7 of Wands.

The Queen of Swords had some strong opinions to tell my 2 of Pentacles. They became like a family picnic, some
people talking to others nearby, little groups and cliques forming behind the park tree. They were alive!

As I began reading more with my method, people’s faces lit up with excitement when I showed them. They did
converse, cuss at each other and become obnoxiously opinionated. It made intuitive tarot reading a little beefier,
more fun for the average sitter. Plus, they could finally participate – no longer was tarot an esoteric labeling of
cards, it had transformed into a game that anyone could grasp.

So, I humbly present my system of card interactions. It’s nothing new, by any means. The cards have talked all
along, in fact many books contain something similar to what I’m showing but none to the detail I wanted to
experience.

I don’t pretend to be some tarot super-expert or guru by any means. It’s just me – a guy who reads a lot of tarot
books and loves to provide readings. But I hope you enjoy what’s hidden within these pages, although you
certainly won’t embrace everything. Please pick out what intrigues you, and keep an open mind.

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Special thanks to the following wonderful tarot authors for allowing me to use their beautiful card pictures in my
book:

Anna Klaffinger’s Anna K Tarot. You can purchase these beautiful cards from her site:

Mary Griffin’s Hezicos Tarot. Here’s her page for further information about this lovely, very vibrant deck
(The Hezicos Tarot ™ deck and all its contents including art and text copyright 1996-2010 Mary Griffin all right reserved and may
not be reproduced without permission):

And finally, Chanel Bayless’ A King’s Journey Tarot (Chanel Bayless owns the copyright for A King's
Journey Tarot Deck, as well as, all electronic reproduction rights. Electronic Reproduction includes uploading on websites,
included in emailed readings, software programs, scanning or any other form of distribution):

C HAPTER 1 - F REE FORM SPREADS

For smaller spreads, many times we get caught up in the positional meanings and lose track of
the bigger picture. When throwing down three cards for example, we’ll be so intently focused
on what card #1 means in that position that we’re blinded to conversation that’s happening
between the first and second cards. A hermit sitting next to a 2 of Cups for example could be
telling us something vital, yet we refuse to see it.

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For that reason, I have largely adopted a free-form type of spread when dealing with 3-5 cards. I like to step back
and analyze what that King of Cups is doing to the 5 of Wands. Why are there three 2’s in my spread, and what’s
the significance? In the upcoming chapters, I’ll show you many ways to drop down four cards and interpret them
as a group rather than as positions. That first card doesn’t really need to reflect the sitter’s challenge in upcoming
months, all the cards do.

If you examine the cards as a group, like a family sitting down at the dinner table having casual conversations,
they’ll happily give you the future obstacles. That family of four cards act as a unified voice, telling you details you
otherwise wouldn’t have noticed. And providing a peek into the sitter’s mind and future.

I’m not suggesting for you to completely discount card positions, many times these are important. Occasionally
when I lay down four cards, it’s really obvious that it’s a timeline. From the left is a negative feeling that gradually
gets better over time, and this should be noticed. However, I’m not imprisoned by constantly searching for a left-
to-right flow of the grandfather clock. In many spreads, it’s just not there, nor would it make any sense to force
that context (“Mary, you’ll have a great time, then hard time, then great time, then another hard time”). Just
won’t happen.

But again, by listening to the cards, they will forcefully tell you what the cards mean as a group, long before you
open your mouth to begin the reading. Viewing cards as freeform without assigning any meaning is the ideal
starting place, and will deliver everything you need to know.

I do provide plenty of spreads in this book, all of which are way over five cards. They also have interactions,
however it depends on the card positions. In my relationship spread for example, the three cards on the left will
sometimes have a combined message, maybe the two cards at opposite ends, etc.
I will show you some interaction examples in all larger spreads, to give you an idea of what to search for.

Y ES /N O S PREADS – WITHOUT THE YES … OR THE NO

Let’s do a yes/no spread by NOT counting how many cards are upright vs. reversed for our answer. Mostly, I’ll
point out obvious things about the cards and let her decide for herself. Some important factors in any 2-5 card
spread:

- General color and feel of the reading. Is it bright and happy? Sad and dark?
- Card interactions (Chapter 2)
- Which suits dominate (Chapter 3)
- Dependencies between cards (Chapter 4)
- etc

I shy away from 1 card readings, they just don’t have enough beef for me to answer any question adequately.
Let’s tackle an example:

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Susie from Idaho wants to know if she should accept Bob’s date offer, even though he smells like pickles. So we
pull three cards and get the following:

But she obviously wants something more than Yes or No since she’s giving you cash for your miraculous tarot
skills. Here we have a lot of valuable information for Susie regarding her date and Bob’s possible intentions. But
sticking with traditional, boring three card yes/no spread standards, we’d tell her yes since all cards are face up.
But that’s not the correct pathway here, nor what she’d want to hear.

The page is holding his fishy at arm’s length, more admiring it rather than embracing it. And the fish is peeking out
of his bowl to get the page’s attention, but he won’t hear any of it. Almost like love to this page is something cute
to admire, an immature view of passion.

Then we have movement in the 8 of Wands, a journey towards the 2 of Cups and a loving couple. But a fast
journey, possibly too quick for comfort. Some guys like to hurry a relationship along so they don’t have to deal
with the dating part. After all, spending money on a risk is … well … risky! But getting to know a girl progressively
over time is a stern requirement for any solid foundation.

Also notice the background changes from mountains to a pond, and finally settling back on land. Looks like a long
journey, one involving some travel and time commitments. Plus, the number eight is about renovation, changing
things from the past to accommodate what your goals are for the future.

So rather than “Yes”, Susie from Idaho has a lot to think about here. You can hand over a large chunk of
information about Bob and his potential downsides, plus tell her the 2 of Cups sitting at the end is a fantastic sign
for moving ahead with her steamy date.

As you can see, just reading cards as a whole will always provide a “maybe”, yet one filled with subtext and literal
meanings for the sitter to make their own decision. We’ll dive much deeper into this in upcoming chapters, along
with many more examples of talking to a group of cards as a family.

C HAPTER 2 - C ARDS CAN SPEAK !

This chapter is about intuitive card interactions and interdependencies. Or less formally – Cards
can speak! We’ll examine card movement, color separation, facings and other introductory topics.
All of which will help you bring your tarot to life for your sitters, and create excitement as you both
search for more clues as to the hidden meanings of their spread.

Like a game of Find Waldo, this is something your sitters can embrace, even with no previous tarot
knowledge. And trust me, they’ll notice things you’ve never thought of before, cool stuff you can add to your
journal and immediately incorporate into future readings. Increasing your rapport with customers and generating
fun for you both is what Chapter 2 is all about.

P LANES , TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES

Tarot cards with people facing one another can sometimes reveal some secrets about their relationship. And
many times, this is done via one card traveling to another. Here’s a knight riding comfortably home, for example.
And next to him, a group’s boat journey into hardship.

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As you can see, which direction the boat’s sailing or the Knight is riding towards will sometimes make a difference.
Speed also comes into play – a brisk Knight of Swords will be spiraling in towards his goal much faster than that 6
of Wands boat. Note how the boat driver is slightly hunched over, whereas the Knight of Cups has a confident
posture. That armored warrior holds his cup proudly up as he ventures home, possibly towards his family under
their small wreath. He has the air of victory in his lungs, awaiting a good meal and some rest back home.

Meanwhile the boat driver looks depressed, possibly even more than his passengers. Could he realize that once
he pushes to shore, he has yet more of a load to carry along? I wouldn’t rush either, seems violently demoralizing.
And there’s more interactions here – could that boater have carried all those swords to the boat? Almost like
double work to carry more loads at the destination!

Some cards aren’t fully in motion towards another, yet they appear to be ready to pounce. And
others are actually reaching towards each other.

Here’s a scene with a young girl getting handed some important goodies. So, you must wonder –
is the girl below the one handing it to him? Or could he be reaching out valiantly rescuing her
from falling?

If a card is in danger, certainly it would scream for help. But the question is, would anybody be
around to hear or does that crisis fall on deaf ears. Maybe some cards are too busy with
personal problems to sprint to this girl’s aid, or have their hands full because they’re trapped
with the Devil in Hades.

This young boy is eyeballing the festivities next door. He’s stacked some boxes beneath him,
stabilizing himself with a wand and is highly interested in that fun show! But will he hop over to have a seat
and join the audience? Or merely watch from afar?

These are more complex interactivity queries. We’ve seen defined movement, where a brave knight on his
stallion speed across to another card and potential motion – situations that could result in card crossings but have
no pre-determined meaning.

This is where your reading skills come in to further question the sitter – “would you hop over or watch from a
distance?” Both answers shed valuable light onto motivations, boundaries and how far a sitter is willing to take
her question.

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 An even stickier situation arises with involuntary motion. Here’s a large Wheel of Fortune card
with a party raging up top, oblivious to one of its party-goers falling off. Worse yet, he’s
plunging toward a rather negative card (3 of Swords) who unfortunately for him is reversed,
exposing both blades to his ass.

You also must wonder if the guy climbing onto the Wheel of Fortune from the left escaped the
heartbreak card and is climbing his way up to the party.

But let’s stick with the falling guy.

The Wheel of Fortune is seen as life cycles, opportunities, destiny – but in this context could it
be a chance at getting away from heartbreak or risking falling into it?

How would you interpret this card interaction for a love question vs. health concerns?

And finally, what about a rider’s journeying towards nothing? The void.

Here we have the Page of Cups, and 6 of Swords. Looks like a fun little boat ride, but only one problem: they’re
not going anywhere. Can we assume from this picture that these riders are trying to escape? I see several
potential meanings for the void.

§ Escaping, getting away from a bad situation (sometimes temporarily)

§ A very long journey, so far away that no card can represent it
§ Headed in the wrong direction due to misguided information, or losing your path

EXERCISE – WHERE ARE THESE CARDS TRAVELING, AND WHAT’S THE SIGNIFICANCE?

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SPYING ON YOUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR

Let’s tackle two more examples above, but this time instead of traveling, they’re only spying on their neighbor. On
the left, that Queen of Swords is really talking to that 7 of Cups. Her hand is outstretched, she’s motioning for him
to do something. What’s she saying?

If your sitter is a 22 year old girl, fresh out of college. Says she’s turned down like 50 guys in her passionate search
for Mr. Right… the queen is probably telling her “Be more realistic, stop dreaming so big for a young love”. Or she
could be motioning for that guy to pick a cup already, he’s been there for hours!

On the right, we have The Hermit shining a light onto this 4 of Pentacles. Could he be pointing out to that crowned
man, “You’ve got enough cash already, stop being greedy”? Or maybe your sitter has two relationships going at
once, and can’t decide between these lovely women. The Hermit in that case could be saying “enough already,
choose!”. Another aspect of the 4 of Pentacles is how much load he’s carrying. Certainly not as much as the 10 of
Wands, yet he’s still loaded up with a coin at every outlet. He couldn’t possibly hold more. So is your sitter taking
on too many tasks at once? A bit overloaded at work? She could need a break. The stress has spiraled into her
personality, causing anger at her kids, and making her poor husband a wreck. And thanks to The Hermit, a light is
shining towards this blind spot in her mind.

If a character is facing the void (lack of any cards), we must also consider the possibility that he’s ignoring another
card, or even trying to avoid facing the reality of it. Here’s our beloved Hermit shining a light into the distance,
facing away from home and family. Could he have some issues with embracing his siblings right now? Maybe
personal problems have crept in, clouding his judgment and distancing him from the ones he loves.

And this young boy in our 8 of Pentacles could be drowning himself in work to avoid thinking about a past
heartbreak. So when performing a reading, notice which cards are actively facing another and also which are not.

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I’m not suggesting that every directional card has some deep underlying meaning, but merely let your intuition
pickup on these qualities and tell you their significance.

Always trust your gut feeling, if a card feature jumps out at you and says “look at me!” then it’s probably worth
further investigation.

EXERCISE – WHY ARE THESE CARDS LOOKING AT EACH OTHER? HOW DOES THIS CHANGE THE READING?

Notes:

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OBSTACLES BETWEEN CARDS, BOTH PHYSICAL AND SPACIAL

Many books have already established why obstacles exist in certain cards. Take this 2 of Swords for
example, where she’s clearly cutting herself off from the world. Both with the swords, closed body
language and blindfold. She’s constructed a wealth of barriers between her and us, showing

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without a doubt that she doesn’t want to be disturbed. Can you imagine what would happen if you went over and
tapped her on the shoulder? You’d get stabbed pretty quick!

Yet some barriers separate two cards, bringing a whole new meaning than if the
card was by itself.

This kid looks pretty interested in that boat ride, don’t you think? But why is the
wall there? Could he possibly not want a journey just yet, maybe life is getting in
the way. Or he feels himself too immature just yet to embark on a serious trip,
especially one that looks so dark and mysterious.

There are so many built-in meanings to this group of two cards, all of which will
greatly depend upon your sitter’s question plus the cards
surrounding them. As I stated in the introduction, a wall is not always just a wall. You must evaluate the obstacle
in the context of the spread, rather than labeling it with a short sentence from a “Tarot and Symbolism” book.

I’m tossing a host of barriers to you at once, so let’s break them down. On the 2
of Swords, the man has formed a barrier between his little room and the
remainder of the world. I even see a ribbon, like a Crime Scene – Do Not Cross
yellow tape preventing anyone from getting in.

Plus, he’s intently staring at the evil card next door. This
could translate a variety of ways – blocking himself
off from evil, interested in his dark side but not yet ready to embrace it, wanting to help but
thinking he’s too weak, etc. So many definitions for that barrier at the door, yet again, all
dependent upon the context of the sitter’s question.

Here we have another brick wall, yet I get the feeling it’s totally different than the one with our
little boy and his boat fascination. Our man with his backpack of gold
clearly wants to be left alone, yet the general public has a fascination
with him.

Do they want the cash, or are they just wondering what he’s doing back there? And
although the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith version of this card already has a “barrier” with
the King holding his coins on his head and chest, this wall adds some extra umph to the
already closed in and protective meaning.

But what about spacial barriers? We already know the Fool’s ledge means something. He’s
venturing out into the unknown world, about to take a leap of faith. That huge gap between
himself, his poor dog and the remainder of the world has a significant theme.

So where does this girl fit in? She has seen a similar spacial barrier, but found a way around
it. Like the fool this Ace of Wands embarks upon her own personal journey, but not into the
unknown since she has created a bridge. She’s having the time of
her life up there, totally oblivious to how difficult that would be to balance across, the flimsy
nature of walking on a stick and other various hazards.

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The card to the right of her, plus the sitter’s question will fill in the gaps to what this mountain crevice truly means.
But it’s important to recognize that the barrier exists, and although she found a way across, if she had not found
that stick, where would she be today?

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EXERCISE – IDENTIFY THE OBSTACLES. HOW DO THEY CHANGE THE MEANING OF THE CARD?

If you removed the obstacle, how would it change the behavior of the card’s character?

Notes:

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Good vs. Evil

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Here’s a four card spread with mostly bright and positive cards, except for the ugly duckling Tower in the middle.
And since it’s so out of place between the others, you must ask yourself – what’s the importance? The sitter’s
question was “How will my relationship with Bob go?”. And as you can see, reading from left to right, the new
love has a good beginning, with an immediate connection (2C) and a start at some great beginnings and intimate
love (AS). The solid foundation of this relationship and all the cards before it will cause a drastic change in both of
your lives (Tower), but this will work itself out. In the end, you’ll be happy and content (Sun).

This rather by-the-book reading is fine, however we’re still neglecting to see the relevance the Tower has brought
to an otherwise great spread. Here we have it exploding from a lightning strike, and two people taking a nose
dive. The shattered pieces will affect anything close by, namely the Sun and Ace of Swords. So not only is there
drastic change, but the falling debris affects the sword’s communication power, and its beginnings. Plus the little
naked kid on the horse will probably take a brick to the head from the falling tower.

So now our brightly colored future gets a warning: Keep up your communication through these drastic changes,
and be wary of letting it affect your positive outlook. Sagely advice coming from understanding the interactions
between your cards. Plus take a look at the Ace of Swords. The cloud flows from the card to the left – not only is
it a new beginning, but one caused by the two lovers in our 2 of Cups. Their love, connection and bonding
created the bright future next door, and started a giant air sword full of communication. Channels not possible
before the smooches began.

The lesson? Don’t just read from left to right like it’s some forced timeline you must follow. Let the cards speak to
each other, the bricks fall, the riders head home, and the beautiful characters of the tarot blend as they were
meant to.

In our further study of Good vs. Evil, we have a big clump of bad news interrupted by a positive guy on a horse. A
boring, very traditional reading of this would be: You have a major life change approaching (Death), however it
looks like you’ll win over the obstacles ahead (6W) but then there’s more incoming. Possibly some poverty (5P)
and personal devastation (10S).

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So, let’s trash that, and look closer at the interactions of our four cards. Notice Mr. Death on the left head into our
6 of Wands. To me, I see a transformation from an iron clad guy on a horse into this festive fellow riding amongst
a large crowd. All the people dead on the ground in card 1 are now up and cheering in card 2. Sure, we can stick
to the classic meaning of the Death card, but not only is a change ahead, a huge transformation as well.

Notice too how high up the 6 of Wands horse is compared to the others cheering in his background. He’s riding
above them, he’s on higher ground. So, your sitter has done dramatically well considering their upheaval. Now
the real question: As Mr. Happy Six of Wands gallops across these other two cards to his right, does the events
knock him off his horse and create another victim of those two horrible scenes, or can he cleanly ride past the
tragedies?

Also – he’s a proud guy, getting cheered on by dozens of minions – what happens as he strolls into the 5 of
Pentacles? Here’s two people, cold and crippled. Will he give them a ride to safety?

As you can see here, we have so many choices and relationships between these simple cards that your head
should be swimming with ideas. What if Death didn’t transform and is planning on crashing the 6 of Wands party,
instead? Is that how those two people in the 5 of Pentacles become poor and homeless? And to leap into the
absurd, what if the two poor guys pull all those blades out of the 10 of Swords card? Would he come back to life?
Is he still breathing down there?

EXERCISE – IDENTIFY THE GOOD VS. EVIL CARDS. WHAT EFFECT DO THEY HAVE ON EACH OTHER IN THIS SPREAD?

Notes:

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T RANSLATING ONE CARD INTO A PLETHORA OF MEANING

While in my beginner tarot class with the lovely and talented Ferol Humphrey, I was
constantly amazed how she could pull a whole paragraph of information from a single
tarot card in the spread. In my mind back then, an 8 of Cups meant escaping. Yes –
getting away.

Yet she could easily rattle on intuitively for 20 minutes about just that card. It was pure
magic! And I wasn’t alone – many other people asked this question too. They were just
as confused as me, having only been spoon-fed one or two keywords per card.

So, I dug through countless books after that class trying to get more keywords
from the card, and was finally faced with a daunting task of memorizing 40 or so phrases
that represented each card. Plus, the built-in definitions contained within each of my deck’s little white books.
Not a pleasant sight.

And my biggest frustration, as mentioned in an earlier chapter, was that most printed books focus around the
Rider-Waite-Smith cards which I didn’t use very often. Too many great decks are on sale throughout the world to
limit yourself to that one (in my opinion).

Aeclectic Tarot forum has a section called “Intensive Deck Study” where they isolate one card from a particular
deck and then study it in great detail. The meanings behind symbolism, what’s happening in the card, who are the
people, why are they doing certain things… which is wonderful, but I needed more.

So, I created an intensive spread study! It’s focusing on those same things, but using an entire spread of cards.
With enough focused energy, you could use the techniques previously described in other chapters to pull several
paragraphs from your set of cards already on the table.

Perform your own Intensive Spread Study (ISS) – lay out four cards and clear your mind of all the meanings you’ve
learned over the years. Totally clear it all out, even the new stuff from this book.

Now just look at the cards and notice anything unusual that hasn’t been covered here, or in other books you’ve
read. See if a scene or interaction jumps out and grabs your arm, yelling LOOK! Do this with several spreads, and
write any insights you have into your journal.

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C HAPTER 3 – D OMINATION AND SPANKING AMONG SUITS

You’ve probably heard about Elemental Dignities, or the combination of earth, fire, water and
air. Certain elements don’t get along, say for example fire and water. How do you extinguish a
fire? With water of course. And technically the vacuum of space doesn’t bode well for fire
either, yet in all the movies you see these huge billowing flames when an explosion strikes
above planet Earth. So much for realism.

But you can add other factors into the cereal bowl to determine who hates whom. The cards can speak for
themselves!

E STABLISHING TRUST AND LOVE , OR CHOKING THE OTHER GUY OUT

On the left is fire and water. A happy homestead of four pillars and loving people behind it. Then a child giving to
his younger sister. Why wouldn’t these get along? Seems more like a match made in heaven than brewing conflict
that will result in war.

To the right we have water and earth, supposedly a great love match for future episodes of The Bachelor. Yet I
don’t predict those two will get along. A very happy entertainer juggles a couple pentacles in this bright
atmosphere while the other guy just finished kicking over half his cups. I predict Mr. Clown will receive a swift kick
in the face if he keeps trying to cheer up the depressed man.

Certain elements just don’t blend. Maybe that’s true in minor cards where no dramatic scenes decorate their
canvas, however if people are there, they have a voice. By assigning arbitrary conflicts where none exist, or
friendships for life where two guys are punching each other’s face, you silence the colorful characters that beg to
speak.

If you really need to insert conflict within those two happy family cards, I suppose you could use Facings from
Chapter 2. It’s two different villages with separate buildings and family structures. Maybe they had a falling out,
or possibly never met. Both could live far apart, even. And if you needed, add some light onto the second set of
cards. Could the juggler be trying to cheer up the caped crusader? Might he succeed?

But for relationships and interactions, that’s really stretching it. Those two cards won’t get along. There’s conflict
brewing, and your sitter will even notice it. So, my recommendation is to let the cards speak for themselves,
without you assigning meaning that doesn’t exist. Only then should you factor in Elemental Dignities, as a
combination of the types of cards that are next to each other, plus their elements.

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EXERCISE – IN THIS SPREAD, WHICH CARDS HAVE A CONFLICT WITH WHICH OTHER CARDS? EXPLAIN WHY.

Notes:

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W HO ’ S THE BOSS ?

Another factor to consider with a spread, is hierarchical structures. Who’s the leader and who’s following? Is he a
good leader, or a sadistic one piloting a large group into the closest ditch?

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On the left, our Emperor would leap to the challenge of leading this three -card spread. Unless of course your
sitter asked questions about love or relationships, then maybe the 9 of Pentacles takes charge. It would be a
group decision based upon the type of concern on the table.

In many families, the husband will be sitting on the couch watching TV while his wife handles all the major
decision-making. Don’t assume just because the Emperor sits on his mighty throne that he’s automatically dealing
with every life affair.

Notice too, the different leaderships styles between our Emperor and woman. He would take a more hard-lined
approach to dealing with an odd situation. Grab a hammer, and whack at the problem until it goes away. She on
the other hand, would be more diplomatic and have concerns for other’s feelings while politely making it go away.

We do know the Page isn’t stepping up. He seems pre-occupied with that stick. If we needed him for a task, he
may run an errand, but the last thing he’d want is to try and manage those two other strong characters in the
spread.

To the right, we have a headstrong Knight, who’s flying through the air at full speed. Again, we have the
dichotomy of male vs. female, however Strength does seem entirely too occupied with her pet to be any good to
us. And our “apprentice card” the 8 of Pentacles has a big building project on his mind. Getting up, losing
concentration and forcing those two wild cards to the left of him won’t be pretty.

I know the leadership concept is an abstract principle, so let’s bring it home with a couple of examples.

Susie of Idaho wants to know, “How will my trip to New York go”, to which we draw the following three cards:

Our Queen of Pentacles is a Sagittarius, a very positive and extroverted zodiac sign. It also corresponds to the 9th
Astrology house, or “journeys” which indicates that she will be the leader in this spread. One of her roles as the
master of your trip is to watch over the earthly things, in other words the plane that’s taking you or the car you’re
driving. As well as the finances for your journey, which in this case is well spent.

As you can see, she’s cradling those earthly things tight to herself, ensuring all goes well. There’s some
defensiveness about this trip from someone else, possibly a friend who doesn’t want you to take it (7W), plus
some doubt as to the method of getting there (Moon rx). Maybe even some hesitation, as the Moon shows a crab
wandering from his safe home in the sea onto dry land. He’s following this roadway path into the distance with
the help of his two animal friends.

But reversed indicates some confusion, doubt or hesitation has burst through the door. If you can swim through
the obstacles, the leader of this spread (QP) will protect and guide you during your journey.

Now – note how the leadership quality of our spread eliminates some other potential readings. Such as “the
queen is facing that 7 of Wands, therefore she may have sent those violent attackers!” and other nonsense. It

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adds not only another level of depth to the cards, but also some peace. Our queen in this case serves as a
protector that can calm the unstable influences from the other two cards.

This of course won’t always be the case. We could easily have Death inserted into an otherwise happy family
spread, for which he’d obviously assume the lead card role.

So now that Susie is all excited about her trip, she also wants to know “will I meet any cute guys there?”

At first glance, we have two negative cards and one goodie. So, from a simplistic level, yes you’ll meet a guy
(thanks to the Ace of Wands), but you’ll be too busy to really connect well with him (4P). He may also be a little
too constrictive for your taste (or clingy, 8S). The ruler of this spread is easily identified as our ace, who’s positive
influence is actually facing the other two cards. Depending upon how sadistic you are, technically you could read
this as “you’ll meet a guy (AceW) who’s really greedy (4P) and will chain you up in his basement (8S)”.

Don’t laugh, I’m sure there’s a reader somewhere who would say exactly that. But our leader card
gently softens the negative cloud brought in by these other two. So, this cute guy you’ll find won’t
be a life changing encounter, but just a nice distraction from everyday boring life. Notice our ace
stands ready, facing these other characters, prepared to bonk one over the head like whack-a-
mole if they get out of line.

The lack of majors in this spread indicates it’ll be casual, rather than a soul mate or explosive one night stand. Plus
since there’s no court cards, he will have no lasting influence on your life. Nothing to tell the kid’s about, move
along!

You’ll notice I let our Queen of Pentacles and her astrology house assist me in the first example. When multiple
leaders drop on the table, and you have two or three competing cards, I’ll use further details about each card
surface to help sort the group out. A travel question would be led by a traveling court card sign. Or a love
question by a relationship sign, etc. In a pinch you could also use numerology if nothing else stood out for
comparison – a 4 (stability) would rule a home question.

There we have two examples of how a leader card can enhance your readings. Not required in every reading, but
many times will help clarify an otherwise confusing spread. Since my first few chapters are about allowing the
tarot cards to speak to you, a unified voice from within your spread, collecting opinions and modifying the actions
of others cards creates a helpful tool for all intuitive readers.

EXERCISE – WHO’S THE LEADER OF THESE SPREADS? EXPLAIN WHY.

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Notes:

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E LEMENTAL D IGNITIES – THE EASY WAY

I’m about to explain Elemental Dignities better than anyone has before. Everybody thinks it’s so complex, but it
really isn’t. For our purposes, we’ll be ignoring neutral elements, since – well, they really don’t affect each other
so why bother?

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O N L Y Y O U C A N S T O P F O RE S T F I R E S

Imagine you’re a raging forest fire, having a good time in the woods by yourself, eating up trees and dead brush.
Then along comes a fireman and ruins your whole day by squirting water all over you.

Well since the Wands suit represents Fire, and the Cups represent Water, when they’re right next to each other,
it’s never a good sign.

But if the water is a far, far away (like a pond) then I’m good since it’s not directly near me. But when we come in
contact, that’s bad. On the other hand, if a nice breeze came along and gave my fire some oxygen to make it even
stronger, I’d be pretty happy.

There are two kinds of interactions: Active and Passive.

The active type occurs when the blowing wind hits the fire. The flames grow, become very active and spread like
… wildfire. Of course, it’s Active!

Again, remember that only cards directly next to each other will have these positive or negative interactions. A
sword card that’s 3 cards distance away from a wand card won’t have a good elemental dignity associated with it.
Neither will the 10 of Wands and 2 of Cups when they’re on the opposite side of your spread.

O N L Y O N E T H I N G B E T T E R T HA N MO N E Y – A N D T H A T ’ S MO R E MO N E Y

Part two of Elemental Dignities involves some fat cash. There’s the good kind of money, where you hold it in a
container like a bank or tip jar. Then the bad type of currency, where you drop a $20 bill in a strong wind and have
to chase it into traffic.

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Let’s first examine the good cash. When you combine Pentacles with Cups, you have your money in a stable
environment where you can see it. A coffee cup and tip jar both suffice for holding it safely, where it cannot fly
away. Therefore Pentacles (earth) and Cups (water) blend well.

There are two kinds of interactions: Active and Passive.

The passive type occurs when Earth gets near Cups. Which makes sense, right? The money’s sitting in a tip jar, of
course it’s passive!

Unfortunately, when you drop money into the air, bad things always happen. A passerby may think it’s theirs and
pick it up. By the time you figure out who took it, you’ve already lost that paycheck. On a windy day, dropping
dollar bills cause them all to fly in different directions while you frantically run around scooping them up. For that
reason, Pentacles (earth) and Swords (air) don’t get along.

Let’s prepare for the difficult quiz with a much less graphical representation of these dignities:

§ Fire and Air are friendly and active

§ Water and Earth are friendly and passive
§ Fire and Water are enemies; they weaken each other
§ Air and Earth are enemies; they weaken each other

P O L I C E L I N E - U P E X A MP L E O F D I G N I T I E S

Two cards directly next to each other use elemental dignities. Ones that are farther apart and not touching don’t
utilize it.

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 Pop quiz – find the elemental dignities in this spread:

C HAPTER 4 – M AJORS , MINORS AND DECORATIVE PENGUINS

Every tarot reader has a totally different explanation for why two cups appear in a spread, or the lack of any major
cards. No two people interpret these signs the same. I think we can all agree on the fundamental definition of the
four suits, though:

- Wands / Fire – action, movement

- Swords / Air – thought, communication, conflict
- Pentacles / Earth – money, health, possessions
- Cups / Water – emotions, love

What happens when we encounter suit spam? Out of a 10 card reading, you notice 7 are swords. What’s the
significance?

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E LEMENTS AND MEANINGS – LACK VS . SPAM OF ONE MEANS WHAT ?
R EVERSED VS . RIGHT SIDE UP CARDS
M AJORS VS . MINORS AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO THE SPREAD

C HAPTER 5 - N UMEROLOGY AND THE TAROT

When I first learned about numerology and tarot, I had mistakenly assumed that all numbers
were defined the same. A 4 is a 4, right? No matter what numerology system you use? But I
quickly learned that every book I’d read would confuse me further by tossing out weird, new
definitions for a 4. This wouldn’t be a problem if every minor arcana card contained a vivid
picture I could read from, but many tarot have very few pictures.

= 4 means condensation, power of growth and stability

= 4 means practicality, endurance, ability

= 4 means foundation. Multiple 4’s shows you’ll keep your promises. Huh?

After 20 numerology books and 80+ tarot volumes I finally decided to just do it myself. Isn’t everything better
when you decide on your own? So here we go down the path of our grand tarot number theory. Made up on the
spot with precision accuracy! Now if we’re analyzing numerology, we must not only toss in the minor cards, but
the majors too. Any number that adds up to 2, 3, 4, etc must be represented, no matter how large the real
numeral. So, a 21 = 3, 20 = 2 and so on.

– NEW BEGINNINGS. I think we can all agree on a new beginning, without needing to post all the arms
popping out of clouds in our Rider-Waite-Smith deck.

Twos – balance, choices. These traditional meanings are adequate, but what else can we find in
common in these cards? The high priestess is guarding the pathway between Jachin and
Boaz—of the mystic Temple of Solomon. Justice is guarding the free will of others, handing
down decisions when needed. And the 2 of Swords is guarding herself with closed body
language and two huge blades to slice up any cute guys that try to pick her up.

If you examine the Anna K tarot, she has a unique twist on the two of swords. A guy is inside a
small building with two swords stuck into the ground, blocking anyone from entering.

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This further reinforces our isolation and need for protection in the two’s. We’ll add a sense of GUARDING to the
list.

I also see some communication between the high priestess and her moon. She’s the master of our subconscious,
able to speak to it with ease and understand meanings we don’t. Judgement is communicating with the risen as
they stare at her from below. The 2 of Wands could be speaking to his minions below, in an important speech as
he holds that globe. The 2 of Cups boy and girl are engaged in devout love, and the 2 of Swords has cut off all
contact with the outside world on purpose. And don’t forget the Anna K card, where he’s not listening at all and
wants to be alone. So, let’s add
COMMUNICATIONS to the list.

Final verdict: – BALANCE , CHOICES , GUARDIANSHIP , COMMUNICATIONS .

Threes: Creativity, new birth

I really don’t see the whole “new birth” concept here, except for obviously the Empress. We could step out on a
limb and claim the 3 of Cups is a new birth, but I still don’t see it. That’s more of a party or celebration.

I do see a lot of “creation” evidence here. Our Empress is creating life, the World is creating a space for all those
creatures and people on the fringe of his ring, and the 3 of Pentacles has created a building for people to admire.
CREATION stays, new birth is out (don’t argue semantics, just stay with me here!)

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I also see thinking within the Hanged Man, 3 of Wands, World and 3 of Pentacles. Brains are churning. Add
THINKING to our list. Lastly, a lot of social interactions are going on here. The Empress is a mother figure, able to
cradle her kids and manage fights between her two sons. The World is interacting with those characters around
the circle, while the people gathered around our 3 of Pentacles are discussing how cool this new building is. Then
of course our little party going on at that 3 of Cups, and the total loss of social interaction, wanting to be alone we
feel when heartbroken by a 3 of Swords. Thus, SOCIAL INTERACTIONS gets promoted onto the very active number
three.

Final verdict: – CREATION, THINKING, SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

Fours – foundation, security. Death is really out of place here. When I think of security and comfort, the last
person I’d expect to find is him riding in on a pale horse. But I do see security in spades. Emperor is the master of
his kingdom, people feel at home and secure when he’s around. 4 of Wands has a Jewish wedding Chuppah up
front with happy people behind. Our 4 of Pentacles king is loaded up with cash while 4 of Cups guy has plenty of
drinks, with even more on the way. And lastly the 4 of Swords rests peacefully on his brick slab. The Anna K
Tarot’s 4 of Pentacles goes one step further by hauling a brick wall between the greedy guy and his friends. Note
also that he’s tied down to a stack of wood with a rope, creating his own prison of weight.

So, SECURITY wins the day and stays into our definition. Looking closer, you can see prominent signs of SATIATION
as well. Everybody has enough Pentacles, happiness from the wedding, drinks from their Cups, sleep, leadership
and turmoil from Death.

I keep looking for Anna Cook’s Tarot Dynamics “incentive” within this stack, but just can’t find it. Swords has no
incentive to get up, Pentacles clearly sees no reason to hand out his cash. I guess you could argue that Cups has an
incentive to grab the one hanging out of that cloud. But does he? He’s got three more cups sitting there, and is
probably about to pee from his full bladder. Why would he need another cup full of beer or wine? Plus, the guy
doesn’t seem interested at all, he’s not even looking at it. His eyes gaze downward towards the other cups he has.
Sorry Anna, I just ain’t buying it.

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Final verdict: – SECURITY, SATIATION (HAVING ENOUGH)

Fives – freedom, change, adventure, chaos, conflicts. I don’t see a lot of freedom here. Clearly, everybody in the
pictures is free to choose or go where they want, but this holds true for most other cards (except the 8 of Swords).
Freedom doesn’t pop out for me. Adventure either, since walking in your bare feet in the snow isn’t much of an
exciting vacation, nor fighting with four other dudes with sticks (even if is IS for fun, as suggested by some
authors). I guess you could turn it into a great new venture if you stretched the limits of your imagination, but
meh.

I do see chaos in most pics, even though the Hierophant sticks out as the ugly duckling of this set. What’s he doing
here? There’s chaos as the liquid moves back and forth between cups in Temperance, bad news if you get a stick
in the eye from Wands, trying to find shelter in Pentacles and recovering from depressing in Cups. So, for me,
chaos and conflicts stay.

CHANGE doesn’t take a back seat either as Pentacles tries to alter their environment and find someplace warm.
The water changes places in Temperance, those monks are changed by the Hierophant’s speech, and the Cups
switch from spilled drinks to full. Note he also has a bridge leading to a city in the background for a change in
scenery if he chooses to make that short journey.

Final verdict: – CHAOS, CONFLICTS, CHANGE.

Sixes – equilibrium, commitment, harmony, balance. Now this is a cool number with a lot of meaning outside of
these standard book definitions. The first thing you’ll notice is that there’s always one person above the others.
Devil sits in his chair looking down on his two slaves, angel floats above the two lovers, man is standing while
giving out gold, sister is taller than her sibling, and the boat driver stands above his passengers. We almost have a
HIGHER GROUND theme in all these cards – some people are superior to others.

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Maybe not on purpose, since the older sister probably won’t slap little sis and yell “Respect my authoritah!”, yet
she’s still the superior in that relationship. And for all we know the boat passengers could be royalty or rich, yet in
this situation the driver is superior since he knows where they’re going. Plus, he’s doing all the work.

Kinda like in a smoke-filled dark club on a Saturday night where the bartender is everybody’s main focus.
You probably make more money than him, have a higher social status yet in this bar, that boy is KING. Everybody
wants something from the bartender, and HE is the commander of his environment.

I’m also willing to buy into the COMMITMENT aspect. The lovers have made a commitment, sealed by an angel
herself. Notice the chains on the two minions of the Devil? They’re very loose, and could easily be slipped over
the head for a rapid escape:

Yet those two are committed to staying there, and the bonds are merely voluntarily rather than handcuffs to the
service of his evil majesty. Meanwhile big sister is showing her loyalty to her sibling by providing gifts, and ditto
with Mr. Pentacles. Wands are showing their support for the newfound hero riding in on his horse while Swords
fulfills his promise to guide his two passengers across the lake.

HARMONY stays for the same reasons, although I’m not totally sold on balance. We could probably argue about
giving, but that’s only prevalent in two cards and isn’t a theme that blankets every scene.

Final verdict: – HIGHER GROUND, COMMITMENT, HARMONY.

Sevens – spirituality, associations with others, solitude, seeking answers. I refuse to see what’s so spiritual about
six guys trying to poke you in the balls with their sticks. Nor stealing a stack of swords or falling from a huge tower
because of a lightning strike explosion. So, we’re tossing the whole spirituality idea into the trash.

Not convinced about associations with others, although I do find some downfall from choices. Let’s call this
concept “REPERCUSSIONS FROM DECISIONS”. Our well-dressed Chariot guy chose to sit upon this particular vehicle
and quickly discovered it ain’t moving. The texture looks the same as the brick building behind him, so I’m curious
if that would ever be in motion. Especially being dragged by two phoenixes who aren’t budging.

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Our Tower couple made a bad move when deciding to hang out upstairs during a bad lightning storm, and Mr.
Wands definitely pissed a few people off and is forced to defend himself. 7 of Pentacles did a little better by
planting some seeds, and now is enjoying his crop. Meanwhile, 7 of Cups needs to pick one, and they look like
serious business. Those are not just chalices of wine, they contain personalities and decisions of major
consequence. Plus, his friend with the swords next door will pay dearly once the other camp notices he stole a
few of their weapons.

I also agree with SOLITUDE, since every picture shows a single person doing his own thing. Sans the Tower of
course, but since they’re married I’ll call it close enough.

Are they seeking answers? I just don’t see it – maybe our 7 of Cups, but everybody else looks pretty focused with
their own activities.

Final verdict: – R EPERCUSSIONS FROM D ECISIONS , SOLITUDE .

Eights – renovation, making choices / decisions, recognition, power, responsibility. That’s a lot of words for a
single number, and the only common theme I see here is that everybody is hunched over. But fear not, I won’t
create a Unified Tarot Posture Theory or other such nonsense.

But I see where RENOVATION could be popular. Strength is taming the beast plus changing her confidence level
(and possibly losing a limb), and our Star is spreading water between land and river. The wands are making their
move while pentacles is slowly building some decoration to the side of his house. Meanwhile cups is tossing aside
his existing possessions and moving away to a brighter future.

This is more pronounced in the Anna K version, where a man is literally moving out of a house.

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DECISIONS play a huge factor in this spread as well, even for swords who may have consciously agreed to be tied
up. Similar to our Hanged Man, this could represent a defined choice, again as shown in the Anna K where the
woman is gazing into a more sinister version of herself.

I also agree with POWER, since the courage to hold a lion’s mouth open (no matter how gently), abandon all you
know and move forward, and the other scenes do represent some degree of it. Responsibility? Not so much.

Final verdict: – RENOVATION, DECISIONS, POWER.

The nines – compassion, patience, understanding, third perfection. Although I don’t see outward signs of
compassion in these pictures, it could very well still exist. Certainly the 9 of Pentacles has compassion with a bird
perched on her hand, some great patience to hold still while it rests, and a level of understanding to attract it.

But the Hermit has no signs of compassion, short of shining his light to guide someone nearby because he felt the
emotion. The Moon dogs could very well be guarding that crab as he makes his way up to shore, with a deep
understanding of the unconscious of at least how the moon should work.

9 of Cups and Wands could hold this as well, I may be persuaded. However, if these traits did exist in the 9 of
Swords, it’s long been replaced by frustration. Possibly the nightmare man has lost his sense of compassion and
understanding. He is fed up with it all, and just wants to go back to sleep.

Seen frequently as a perseverance card, 9 of Wands indeed has patience as he stands there waiting to heal, then
fight once more. And indeed compassion for his fellow soldiers that are not shown, but surely waiting to assist.
Overall, I agree with most of these definitions.

Final verdict: – COMPASSION, PATIENCE, UNDERSTANDING.

So, there you have a re-evaluation of tarot numerology based upon looking at the pictures.

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Theoretically, yes the number 4 could mean all those things plus thousands more. But to simplify it for readings
and spreads, this list is good enough to apply into most picture-based card sets. Generic enough as well to read
decks without scenery, but probably illogical since we just created the definitions from graphical cards.

EXERCISE – USE THE NUMEROLOGY DEFINITIONS YOU JUST LEARNED TO ADD MEANING TO THIS SPREAD

HINTS:

– CREATION, THINKING, SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

– NEW BEGINNINGS

– SECURITY, SATIATION (HAVING ENOUGH)

– COMPASSION, PATIENCE, UNDERSTANDING

Notes:

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C HAPTER 6 - T ECHNIQUES TO MAKE YOUR SITTERS SWOON

These are my humble ideas for enhancing your tarot sessions. Some are rather odd, like combining oracle cards
into your tarot sessions, however I’ve found it to bump up my performance and enjoyment of readings. It is rather
difficult at first since there’s a few more cards on the table, but I believe it’s worth the effort to practice, learn and
finally master.

C O MB I N I N G T A R O T WI T H O R A C L E S – Y O U R C A R D S WI L L E X P L O D E WI T H ME A N I N G

I originally got this idea from a YouTube user named Talonclaws. Before him, I had seen two pathways to reading
cards: All tarot or all oracle. If you’re not familiar with oracles, they are a freeform divination card with no set
standards. And although they look like tarot (graphical cards with many colors), there’s no structure. You could
have an oracle deck with 20 cards, 100 cards or maybe 45. It all depends on the creator.

Like tarot, oracles normally come with a book explaining the various meanings for each card. Plus, they also have
a short phrase or saying on the front. Here’s a card from the Oracle of Shadows and Light by Lucy Cavendish,
Artwork by Jasmine Becket-Griffith:

You can see the character’s name on the front, along with her catchphrase “Please don't lose hope!” Some cards
make no sense and leave you scratching your head, like the toilet fairy who’s all about passion. What the hell does
taking a shit have to do with sex? But you can recover from those and get some type of meaning given the sitter’s
context.

Although I wasn’t sure if I liked combining these two divination cards, my sitters loved it. And over time I found it
less confusing and was shocked at how much extra meaning it gave to a reading. My oracle ratio is: 1 oracle card
for every 4 tarot cards. So, in a 4 card spread, I’ll drop one to the left (or sometimes on both sides, depends on the
sitter’s question).

Here’s a sample 4 card spread with 1 oracle:

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In a recent reading for my friend Joanna, she asked about her love life. The tarot cards hinted at some emotional
guarding, where a relationship would complicate her already busy life. And the oracle was a lantern wielding girl
who enhanced this idea by telling her that she knew she wasn’t open to a new man in her life. The oracle
character was pointing directly at the other cards in this spread, providing some illumination and reinforcing those
tarot cards. For timeline readings, where 3-4 cards indicate a start and finish, I’ll toss another oracle at the end.

In another reading for a YouTube user, all her tarot cards pointed to her intuition as the solution to some trust
issues with her husband. She was relying too heavily on external clues to what he was doing, and this guy was well
practiced enough to disguise all the major signs.

The left oracle was about her relationship diving into the toilet. Then some tarot cards about his cheating, another
woman, her feeling betrayed. Then the last oracle pointed at intuition. Had I just used tarot cards alone for this
reading, we’d lose the relationship issues card plus intuition, both of which chimed in as valuable to her reading.

You can also sprinkle a few oracles around my 10-card relationship spread. I’ll toss one down in the “forces
between you” section, and maybe one on the left for the sitter’s wants/needs/views. One person noticed a
bookworm card over in her section of a love reading and got all excited – because she was indeed a book fanatic.

Blending these extra cards into your spread may seem daunting at first, but you’ll adjust quickly. Soon you’ll have
very robust readings with paragraphs of information spewing forth from all the cards. Just visit amazon.com and
search for “oracle” to find one that fits your style.

T A R O T J O U R N A L I N G – WE K N O W Y O U ’ R E N O T . W H Y Y O U S H O U L D .

During your tarot path to enlightenment, one of the most difficult things to do is journal
your progress. I had original started out promising myself to write down every tarot
reading I had done, and lessons learned from it. But as the months passed, like everybody
else I just couldn’t find the spare time to keep my own promise.

I altered my plan to jot down only lessons learned, any new ideas or spreads that came to
mind along with thoughts from major tarot readings that really stuck in my head. This
book is largely the result of those notes.

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For example, one night I was catching up on readings and suddenly stuck a card at the top of this spread, which
later became the sitter’s shadow card. It was watching over her progress. The original question was about her
future love life, which appeared to have some promise for later in the year. But the shadow card was presenting a
minor obstacle, one that she had known about for a long time yet never addressed.

She later wrote me a long, two page letter explaining that she was finally doing something about her issue, and
wanted me to know. This was worth picking up my journal and writing about!

In order for you to break out your journal and begin the thought-to-paper progress, you need to create one.
Similar to a “Book of Shadows” I suggest that you make your own. Of course there are several types online that
you can just buy, however they are excessively expensive, upwards of $200 for a couple hundred pages of
parchment wrapped in leather.

You can find tutorials on YouTube detailing how to sew up a book, and I highly suggest using parchment instead of
notebook paper.

In theory, yes you can go to Wal-Mart and just buy a five dollar spiral school notebook. But that doesn’t draw you
in, entice your interest enough to sit down and write import thoughts about your tarot readings. If I’m wrong, and
it works for you then sure – go ahead. But for me, and many others it’s just not unique and cool enough to bring
us back to the table with a pen for some notes.

Depending upon how much money you have to spend on this project, you can layer the outside of your journal
with leather or other cool materials. For more ideas, see YouTube or Google for “scrapbooking creation” where
dozens of older ladies will happily show you hundreds of their custom designs.

Assuming you’re lazy and just want to buy a journal, 13moons.com offers some unique ones. Go to Book of
Shadows / Blank Books section to see:

Most of their leather bound books are $35 plus $10 shipping. It says these contain 300 pages, but what you’re
getting are 3 clumps of 100 pages of parchment folded over, then bound onto the book with leather straps. Looks
kinda ugly at first, but you get used to it. They do offer larger sized books with less pages, like 150 page 9” x 11”,
however these are upwards of $250.

Again, making your own is much cheaper.

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One of the biggest advantages to journaling is how your mind starts to churn out ideas. Similar to dream
journaling, where you keep a pen and paper beside your bed. As you wake up, you quickly grab the pen and start
writing down all the details you can remember from last night’s dreams.

After a few days, your subconscious mind notices that you’re paying attention to your dreams and you’ll start
remembering more details. You’ve told it that dreams are important, an aspect of your brain that it needs to feed
you more information about. Within a couple of weeks, you start recalling almost every last detail, from what you
were wearing, to the people all around, even insignificant details pop into your head naturally.

Tarot journaling follows the same path. If you have a great idea for a new spread and you ignore it, you’re less
likely to have more new ideas in the future. However, when there’s a significance stamped onto new spreads,
they’ll come to you effortlessly throughout the day.

So these books are less about keeping a mundane log, but a valiant effort to expand your tarot knowledge and
keep your intuition in tune. After all, you’re reading this book to develop your tarot skills further, so get back on
track with your journal and share all your new revelations with the world.

U S I N G S H A D O W C A R D S T O B R I NG D E P T H T O R E A D I N G S

There are several definitions of what a shadow card is floating around various books and boards. They all stem
from Carl Jung’s shadow personality aspect:
In Jungian psychology, the shadow or "shadow aspect" is a part of the unconscious mind consisting of repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and
instincts. It is one of the three most recognizable archetypes, the others being the anima and animus and the persona.

The most recent theory claims that a shadow card is the one nesting at the bottom of your freshly shuffled tarot
deck. Which is a much easier definition compared to finding your personality-soul card, then if it’s a certain type
or number choosing which card shadows it. Yeah no thanks, I’ll go with bottom card!

And although most people allude to using this shadowy side to analyze your own personality, I believe it can be
extended to your sitters as well. Here’s an immediate use for this new idea – on top of a three card spread:

The shadow card is above and away from the other cards, serving as a guide that watches over them. Possibly a
hidden aspect of the sitter’s mind, or some obvious personality trait that they refuse to acknowledge. Either way,

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it falls into the Jungian psychology as a “part of the unconscious mind consisting of repressed weaknesses,
shortcomings, and instincts.”

One of my best friends growing up was named Sara. She had some major father issues going on, yet would refuse
to acknowledge them until they surfaced during difficult times in her life. He worked overseas and never bothered
flying over to see her. In fact, the only picture of herself with her real dad was at age 6 (and she was now 17).
Although she refused to admit that not seeing him affected her, when something bad came down in her life, she’d
call me in tears, barely able to talk. And the first thing she’d say, no matter what the actual problem was that
upset her, was that she missed her dad. And why did he abandon her like that.

All of us have buried memories and fears that we don’t let the most people know about. And these manifest
themselves in our own shadow cards.

PRE-READING INTUITION SPIKES

I’m unsure what to even call these, so I’ll go with the title above. In a reading long
ago, I had the sudden urge to take a moment before I laid down the cards and begin
talking about the sitter’s question. This girl named Amanda had inquired about a six
month forecast, and somehow I knew she was having health issues. And her last year
of school was starting, but she would receive a decent job offer before the academic
year had ended.

Once I had written a good paragraph of intuitive insights concerning her wants, needs,
desires and life issues, I just read them aloud as I tossed down a 4 card spread. She
later told me that I was dead on in 90% of what I said, plus she enjoyed the reading.

It’s quite simple to achieve, just clear your mind and look at your sitter (or concentrate
on them if you’re performing a phone or internet reading). With no thoughts
interrupting your flow of communication, what are your initial impressions of this person?

Are they gentle and kind, or a little rough around the edges.

What’s more important to them: school, work or family relationships?

How many close friends do they have?

An easy method to summarize a person’s focus is to cover all the elements in a pre-reading intuition burst.

– the sitter’s work, school or general social presence during the day. Are they a hard worker, or just kinda
get by? A leader or follower? How do you think they did in school, one of the class geniuses who broke the
grading curve or a troublemaker who spent half their life in detention?

– do they have a boyfriend or girlfriend? Married happily or banging the secretary in the nearby motel?
How many kids do you think they have? What’s their emotional stability level – ready to explode at the first sign of
bad news, or easily rides out even the worst storm?

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 – Are they a natural talker, or very closed up and private? When they do talk, is it more information based
speech or emotional? How much small talk compared to real information?

– Do they wreak of bad health or seem strong and stable? How do you think their home life is, a peaceful
haven where everybody gets along or a war zone? And how successful with money are they? Do you think they
spend their entire paycheck immediately?

At first of course, you’ll be wrong sometimes. But then after a while, once your intuition actually knows that
you’re listening, it will fill your head with excruciating details about almost everything in a person’s life. Combine
this with a little cold reading, and you’ll take charge of the sitter and produce a top quality spread and overall
experience. They’ll go home and recommend you to every friend they can call on their cell phone.

After using this technique enough times, you become so good that you start using it as a crutch to ride through the
remainder of your sitter’s tarot reading. I know this seems like an odd warning, but once you become proficient
enough at pre-reading intuitive spikes, be sure to separate that from the actual spread. If not, you’ll repeat back
the paragraph of information you gleamed initially and use the cards on the your table as evidence.

It’s much better to have the cards speak to you, rather than you telling the spread what it means based upon
earlier feelings. I know this concept doesn’t make sense to you yet, but once you become very adept at your pre-
reading skills, it’ll all come together and make more sense. Remember to separate your readings and be in tune
with the cards.

Also combine this with journaling. When you write things down, your subconscious will register that YOU think it’s
important and assist in improving your skills. If you learn nothing else from this book, please absorb these two
important points that will skyrocket your intuitive skills:

- Pre-reading psychic feelings about the sitter and their question

- Journaling what you receive

C HAPTER 7 – H UMAN ASPECTS IN TAROT

This chapter covers the extra stuff in a tarot reading, when you’re sitting across from somebody and you need to
break good or bad news. Just saying what the spread means to you is fine, but leaves a dry taste to anyone who’s
had a really good tarot reading before.

With a little tint towards empathy and understanding, we can turn a standard tarot reading into something
extraordinary, that your sitter will remember and tell all their friends (who may become future clients!).

A SKI NG SI TTERS TO READ THEIR OWN CARDS

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One of the coolest books I’ve read when first starting out was The Original Tarot and You by Richard Roberts. It
contains several transcripts of readings he did, and includes a very different aspect of tarot reading I had not
encountered before – letting the sitter analyze cards for you.

I had never seen that depth of rapport with sitters in any previous texts, no less real life. And although I didn’t
embrace the idea fully, since much of the text was just chatting for hours with your sitter, I loved the idea of
allowing people to interpret a card.

So, I adopted this strategy in three situations:

- When a sitter disagrees with what I’m saying

- When they get bored and start checking their phone, or texting friends
- When I have no idea what a card means because it’s totally out of place

A couple of weeks ago, I had a very positive love spread containing Strength as the “Forces between you” card. So,
I took this to mean that these two people already had some type of relationship going, maybe a friendship or they
saw each other a lot.

Then the sitter said they just met, so I asked what she thought of the Strength card in this spot, and she said he
was a very stable, confident man. My intuition totally dropped the ball on that one – signals of them having a firm
foundation already was a false clue. But she knew the truth, and immediately corrected me!

You can also see body clues that you’re headed down the wrong garden path. They’ll suddenly smile real big like
they know a secret and you don’t. Or shake their head, roll their eyes – hints you took a wrong turn during your
interpretation.

Then you can ask, “Why do you think the Fool is staring at this other card?” and let their imagination run wild.
Thanks to card interactions, your whole spread becomes a storybook they can insert their own beliefs and ideas
into.

I encourage you to pick up Richard Roberts’ book to find a deeper level of practicing this techniques. You’ll find it
fascinating, and certainly a method you’ll adopt quickly into your own tarot readings.

MBTI A N D K E I R S E Y P E R S O N A L I T Y T Y P E S

From Wikipedia:

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is a questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how
people perceive the world and make decisions. These preferences were compiled from the typological theories proposed by
Carl Gustav Jung and first published in his 1921 book Psychological Types.

The original developers of the personality inventory were Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. They
began creating the indicator during World War II, believing that a knowledge of personality preferences would help women
who were entering the industrial workforce for the first time to identify the sort of war-time jobs where they would be "most
comfortable and effective". The initial questionnaire grew into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which was first published in
1962. The MBTI focuses on normal populations and emphasizes the value of naturally occurring differences.

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CPP Inc., the publisher of the MBTI instrument, calls it "the world’s most widely used personality assessment", with as many as
two million assessments administered annually.

Now that you know the history, another man adopted this and turned it into pure gold. His name is
David Keirsey, author of Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence. That book is a 350 page
secret stash explaining all the various behavioral types, how to recognize them, what makes them tick, and even
which other personality type would be their best love partners and friends.

If you find psychology a bit dull and boring, you definitely won’t after reading his text. Most people I explain the
personality types to are totally fascinated and lust to learn more. Plus, several people at work have become adept
enough at recognizing people’s behaviors that they can judge a type by just interacting with a new person for a
few minutes.

And you can too with sufficient practice.

So back to the question – how’s this related to my tarot? In my opinion, it’s important to determine someone’s
personality type and what their common beliefs, habits and general view of the world is. Not only will your
accuracy increase, but you can also understand where that person is coming from.

A Guardian for example is very rules based. Things needs to be in order. If he asks you a question about his wife
not talking to him, you know that this will affect him much more than an Artisan, who’ll just roll with the punches.
And that will help you decipher the cards in front of you, since to you his problem may not seem like a big deal,
but he desperately wants things back in order so he can focus on other aspects of his life.

If an Artisan (Promoter in particular) asks you about love falling apart and says he doesn’t feel connected to his
partner, you know that he probably doesn’t open up much and show his deep feelings. Sure he’s an outgoing guy
with tons of friends surrounding him, but he’s really guarded about his true emotions. So, you can encourage him
to open up more to her, and see the signs in his card reading when they show up. Because you understand his
personality type.

Rather than me quoting general facts about guardians, artisans and such, please visit Keirsey’s page where he
details out everything. Just click the tabs up top that say “The Guardians, the Idealists” and so on.

Click here for all the exciting info about MBTI

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C HAPTER 8 - V ARIOUS Q UESTIONS Y OU R ECEIVE

I’ve found that most people ask the same types of questions, always revolving around hope or despair.

Hope: A cute guy asked her on a date, how will it go? Will my new job be fun or slave labor?

Despair: They’ve lost their job and looking for a new one, having a hard time in school, their lover is cheating with
the secretary, or they’re getting sued by someone.

Filler questions: Everything in life is going smoothly, but they need to ask you something based upon negative
feelings. Many people believe that life can’t be perfect. We need bad things to happen, in order to balance out all
the wonderful events. Which is totally false, but you’d be surprised how many people hold onto this notion and
actually cause the bad events they were hoping to avoid.

We can group the hope and despair into three categories:

- Love
- Money
- Work
- Health

With love being the most popular, since that whole are is so complex. He likes me, but then he left me, eventually
coming back into my life but with another woman. Ugh. Money is much less complex – you have enough or not.
Same with work, even when it’s going bad, you know what to expect.

At the best of times, love is still totally unpredictable. So, we’ll spend most of our time dealing with relationships
and the types of questions you get. Then touch on the other subjects, followed by a discussion about filler queries
and how to deal with those.

L OVE AND R ELATIONSHIPS

“D O T H E Y L I K E ME ?”

You’ll get many relationship questions, mostly from women. Although most girls have a built in intuition meter for
guys, sometimes it’s clouded from personal feelings or they simply can’t see the truth. My friend Jessi for
example, had an abusive boyfriend a few years back. He would use her for sex, immediately get dressed and hit
the door. For a younger guy, this was a dream relationship.

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Any outside observer would instantly tag what’s happening between these two lovers, however her mind is
clouded with ideas of a long term relationship, maybe she can talk him into more committed couple activities, and
other fruitless thoughts. So, she wanders over to a table at the fair for a tarot reading – “Does Jeff like me?”

This is why you need background questions for “Does he like me” category. There’s no good spread to cover the
query, especially going in dry. If your reader has a crush on a guy that she’s been eyeballing from afar for many
months, then your spread will be drastically different than the situation described above. In fact, that would fall
more into “Relationships going downhill” than “Does he like me”, since the terms of their love has already been
established by Jeff, and she’s not too pleased with it.

The fear of rejection rears its ugly head on this query as well, since most people will only take action based upon a
guaranteed response. This is why forcing your best friend to ask “Do you like Susan?” is so popular. It provides a
more favorable outcome to your approach without having to actually take the risk. If he says yes, then her
approach will go well. Or it’ll clue him into the crush, and he’ll seize the initiative to come talk to her instead. So,
your key question should for this query needs to be:

“Have you already talked to him?”

Since that makes a huge difference. A cold greeting from some random guy she’s seen a few times on the elevator
is much more likely to fail in comparison with a smiling handsome man she works with. Once you have the context
in place, it’s easier to read the spread that rolls out.

Another factor to consider is the underlying questions within that query. Not only does he like me, but will this
potential relationship turn into a thriving romance?

For that reason, here’s my spread:

If you toss down three cards about his interest, and deliver good news about him being very receptive and so on,
then the follow-up question will be “How will our relationship go?”. Which is already covered in this simple six
card spread.

As you can see, there’s no set meanings to every position for every card. As stated earlier in Chapter 1, spreads
need to be more free-formed by allowing the cards to relate to each other.

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A Page or Knight in the first three-card section will indicate this girl needs to send a friend over. Many times, a
third person can safely ascertain if there’s a love connection. A King or Queen however will suggest the more
direct approach.

You will probably be able to decipher how well it’s going by the overall color of your spread. Many dark cards or
reversed won’t forecast good things. Some majors would point to their relationship growing them on many levels,
however all minors could mean this is a less significant step in their daily lives – just a fling. Personally, I’ve never
liked the Wheel of Fortune in any relationship spread. When it falls, all I can see is a revolving door for love.

Let’s grab an example:

and then …

You can see the approach will go well, but then the relationship will be worse than a dental surgery gone awry.
We have a small challenge in our 5W, possibly even some other romantic interests that she’s competing against in
his life. However, if she plants the seeds of romance in his head (7P), it’ll cultivate over time into some genuine
love interest. But the second set of cards really needs little explanation, it’s just no bueno. So now your reader
has more insight into the repercussions of her crush, and additional information she can use for the decision to
approach.

“L O V E F A L L I N G A P A R T ”

By far, the most popular question you’ll encounter. The divorce rate in the USA is upwards of 38%. Here’s a 2010
chart from divorcerate.org:

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Once the bonds of trust begin to crumble, they’re difficult if not impossible to restore. I believe it’s vital for a love-
dive reading to include certain factors from both sides:

- What do they want vs. need. A woman may want a dreamy relationship, but in reality loves the spice
(drama, excitement). So one of these stable, read a book and goto bed kinda guys may be too dull to
handle. Figuring out the differences between want vs need clears this up.
- How each partner sees the other. Are there some expectations, hatred, true romantic love hidden inside
their heads?
- Forces in between them. Any obstacle, hindrance or even odd revelation can draw itself from the Tarot
cards and surprise you.

So, from these requirements, I have my basic love spread:

It’s not as complicated as it seems, you can optionally toss out the “future months” cards.

Left column (starting from top): What you want, need and how you see your partner

Middle column: Forces between you two

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Right column (starting from top): What your partner wants, needs and how they see you

About half the time you’ll see a clear difference between what the sitter wants and actually needs. I’ve had major
cards fall into WANT and a minor in the NEED. She possibly wants this grand soul mate love ideal guy, but in
reality just needs a regular dude that will support her during hard times. Once I had the Sun appear in WANT but
then a 2 of cups in NEED. You’ve seen these dreamy people chasing their soul mate, comparing all new
acquaintances against their perfect ideal image. Then disappointment streams across their face as they discover
he’s just a normal guy, so they move onto the next target.

WANT: NEED:

One sitter WANTED a Knight of Pentacles yet NEEDED a 7 of cups. Here we have a stable but adventurous, down
to earth guy compared to one that would broaden her horizons. Possibly even teach her some new skills or
talents. Many times a relationship is a merging of hobbies, where you’ll learn piano, skydiving, tarot or even flying
a plane from your mate. In this case, she needed someone not too boring – or at least more exciting than this
Knight of Pentacles.

How you see your mate is also critical. Is he greedy like the 4 of Pentacles, or too emotionally childish like the
Page of Cups? Is he not very good at what he does, like a 8 of Pentacles? Or unjustly and unfair like Justice
reversed? Again, I think a major card is more critical and places more meaning on a position in this spread, and
the court cards show the level of advancement in character or charisma.

The last column is a three month forecast, starting at the bottom and moving upwards. Although this is optional, I
recommend using this for love readings. From all the relationship spreads I’ve seen, this is by far my favorite. And
when in doubt about what to use for a love query, I normally end up using it every time.

You’ll notice that I don’t cover “Newly forming relationships”, since this is a honeymoon period for most couples
and it’s really hard to go wrong. The only time you’ll receive a question about this magical time is from someone
who’s begging for even more good news to add to her already great news. They’re smiling, full of life and eyes
wide open when asking about their lovely new honey. I’ll usually just toss a few cards down and repeat the
wonderful reading they’re expecting. The last thing you want is a serious, melancholy spread to throw them into a
panic.

And don’t forget card interactions within your spread!

Here we have “What your sitter thinks about her” and “What she thinks about him”, obviously the two bottom
cards in the spread.

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You can see his childlike enthusiasm for her, wanting to be a significant part of her life. The page and young girl
juggling represent their pure emotional attachment, the passionate kind you had when you were younger and
everything was so simple. You loved the girl, she loved you back. No drama or skeletons in the closet yet, just fun
times of singing and dancing all night.

Here we have what she wants vs. needs actually communicating with each other. On the top is a young boy
receiving a message, apparently given to him by the girl below.

That very adventurous and outgoing Ace of Wands has a lot to say. She wants to bridge the gap between them as
a couple, so much that she’s willing to toss over a stick she found near the trees and balance herself across.

And although risky, look at her face! It’s totally fun to her in this moment, regardless of how big a drop lies below.
She refuses to look down and see the negative. Her only goal is to get across and become one with her boyfriend.
And she’s handing up this feeling to “What you want”, like a virus that will soon infect it with positive thoughts.

So, I ask you – will she make it across? If so, how will this glorious message be perceived by what your sitter
wants?

Even better, do you think the boy up top can reach far enough to grab this girl’s hand and pull her up into his
home?

MY TRIPLE SOUL MATE THEORY

I’ve been sitting on this theory for about 30 years, and have never encountered any analysis quite like mine. Since
it’s unique, I want to share it with you for your readings, along with a special spread I created to extract people’s
proximity to their own set.

When asked about soul mates in a reading, I’ll always explain that we have three distinct types of soul mates:

- Emotional
- Physical
- Mental

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Along with the various rules associated with either three. A soul mate as most people think about it is a
combination of all three to create an overwhelming mutual connection, something that 90% of the world never
experiences. And although they constantly search, or see people find theirs magically in the movies, they have
probably experienced at least one of their soul mates already yet didn’t know it.

A soul mate can be your friend, the same sex, much older or younger than you, in fact all the romantic stipulations
that have been arbitrarily placed around these encounters are false. The universe has no rules, it just is. And
when a soul mate appears, they do so under their own set of expectations, not something created for us on
television.

You can have multiple soul mates at any time. One friend could be your emotional, while another your
mental, and yet another your physical.

Soul mates are about growing, experiencing lessons that you require during certain parts of your
existence on Earth. Once you’ve learned the teachings, the soul mate will either vanish or become distant
to you (an old friend you just don’t call anymore).

You can have one type of soul mate, then another of the same type years later.
One soul mate could have two traits, or even three. This is very rare, and not likely to happen within your
lifetime. A triple soul mate is what you see in the movies – one person who can connect to you physically,
emotionally and mentally like no one else has ever done before. However, this is largely unrealistic, and
sometimes we compensate for weaker mental bonds by imagining our physical bonds expand into the mental
realm (for example). When in reality, we’re totally out of touch mentally with this person.
Soul mates appear when you need them, not when you want them. It’s all about being prepared to
accept them into your life, then they will arrive if you’re ready.
You cannot force a soul mate to appear by frantically searching. It’s a destiny thing.

So, let’s take a look at the three different types, how they manifest themselves and suddenly appear in our lives:

Emotional soul mates – these are the most powerful and moving encounters of your life. Many times it can be so
overwhelming that you lose track of who you are, and drown yourself inside the other person. Since emotions are
a slow moving target and it takes time to share yours fully with other people, it takes a while to recognize an
emotional mate.

One day you’ll be talking about different topics, blurt out an opinion or frustration and they will have the same
one. Then as you open up more, a smile hits your face as your realize they are literally in your head and know all
about you. Every emotion is in tune, bouncing back and forth as you talk. And after a while feel a strong love
connection with them.

You can also sense when they’re angry, sad, upset – even from a great distance.

F L O O D I N G E MO T I O N S A N D T I D A L WA V E S – A L O V I N G C O N N E C T I O N

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I remember my own emotional soul mate very clearly. We met when I was younger, and had this instant
connection. She would constantly call me, telling me emotional things about her (rather than factual events, her
emotional response to it). Maybe deep down she recognized the emotional connection between us, one that
would manifest itself into long phone conversations for years, and a bond that could change us forever.

We began being “alone together” a lot. This is a trait with emotional soul mates, the lack of anybody else being
around. If you go to dinner with a friend, it’s common to drag along some other friends to spice up the chat.
Unless it’s your soul mate, then any extra people won’t fully understand the conversation, since it’ll be VERY
intense and you’ll most likely tune out the other people.

Plus, half the topics will be inside jokes or knowledge that only both of you understand, since you’ve never shared
that intimate of detail about your life with the other people. Even worse, most spectators will assume you have a
relationship and get the wrong idea, although you’re just best of friends.

This lady and I did have a short term relationship, but the physical connection just wasn’t there. She felt the same
way, so we parted paths and spent most of our time conversing over the phone.

We could talk about nonsense, and it still felt good. She would call after breaking up with her latest boyfriend, Air
Supply playing loudly in the background and her voice breaking up from crying. And I’d guide her through yet
another round of troubled times. Because we had that emotional connection that nobody else shared.

So, was she my “soul mate” as referred to in the movies? Of course not, any relationship between us would have
sank worse than the Titanic. I hated her ideas about politics, life, her crap choice in boyfriends, her drug use, etc.

But we were best friends. Of course, as I stated in the rules, soul mates don’t last forever. She expanded my life
greatly, opened my eyes to parts of me I never shared with anyone nor knew existed. But when I got married later
in life, my wife absolutely hated her (obviously). And refused to let me talk to her, or she would bail.

I’ve had one other emotional soul mate in my life since then, and a few close calls. Distinguishing between an
actual soul mate and someone that you just really connect with is extremely difficult. But the bottom line will
always be – is this person here to teach me something?

A gutted, empty feeling connection between you and an awesome person could easily be the result of their
personality. Or if they’re experienced with NLP and other forms of surface bonding. You must distinguish these
candy-flavored people from ones bringing a full three-course dinner.

The other intricate clue is – are both of you contributing equally? If the connection is very one-sided, in other
words you do all the emotional outpouring and the other person is “meh”, then this is definitely NOT a soul mate.
Sure, it’s a great relationship as far as you’re concerned, but not a life changing encounter.

M A L E B O N D I N G I N T H E N O R T H WE S T – Y O U R T H O U G H T S A R E MI N E

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My best friend through high school was named Dan. No matter what the situation, I always somehow knew what
he was thinking. After teaming up on some science projects, putting our heads together created some of the best
ideas in the school.

Eventually we started hanging out after school, playing video games and chilling near the television. Several
summers we both worked at his parent’s store and would constantly joke about every little event in the store.
Both of us had near photographic memory, and would quiz each other on silly facts or events that would happen
in a game.

As we grew older, I realized quickly that he was much more emotionally mature than I was. He was planning out
his marriage to the most intricate detail inside his head, while I chased every lady in a five mile radius. But we
really never talked about emotions or feelings. Our idea of male bonding was to punch each other in the arm,
then go for some beer.

Several dozen times throughout childhood, I would pick up the phone to call him and there wasn’t a dial tone. So,
I’d say “hello” and it was him already on the line. He had dialed my number at the exact same time I was about to
dial his. Weird events like this were prevalent every month. I’d plan a vacation somewhere, and he’d invite me to
the same destination a few minutes later.

He could literally read my mind. We always went to Dennys together for lunch, did the same hobbies, liked the
same movies, even listened to the same music. He actually introduced me to an album I had never heard before,
one that would eventually become my favorite of all time.

Clearly, this guy breaks the stereotype of a movie soul mate. He’s the same sex, there’s no love relationship, but
we both impacted each other’s lives in dramatic ways. Yet he was my mental soul mate.

I have had two “cloner mental soul mates” (discussed later in this chapter), but neither of them were the genuine
article.

M A R R Y ME R I G H T N O W – T H E MO S T P A S S I O N A T E S O U L MA T E O F Y O U R L I F E

If you want to be swept off your feet, prepare for your final soul mate type – the physical. These are the most
prominent ones you’ll meet, since many times throughout your life you just need a break from work, school,
politics, drama, and just get some great sex.

Sex with a physical will be epic. You’ll think about it for days afterwards and use up most of your cell phone time
calling them later. Their conversation is not top notch, nothing compared to a mental or emotional soul mate, but
you don’t really care because it’s all foreplay until the next time you can get each other in bed. Sometimes you’ll
hate everything they say, disagree with most topics out of their mouth and feel totally oblivious to their emotions.

But you’ll never kick them out of the bedroom.

The easiest method to distinguish between a passionate lover and a physical soul mate is – do you still think about
them years later?

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I certainly think about mine – in fact I married her for a brief two years. Then she came to live with me three more
times throughout the next 25 years, and we even had a daughter together. But she had the strangest thoughts
and ideas, and wouldn’t open up to me emotionally.

I couldn’t stop touching her when she was around. Hold her hand, hug closely at night and have sex every time it
was humanly possible. It was like I had known her in a past life, maybe several dozen, and touching her was a
natural thing that never felt wrong or out of place.

If you’re likely to marry someone WAY too soon, it’ll be a physical soul mate. Because we value sexual connection
or chemistry so much, even to the neglect of emotions and thoughts. Most of the time, you’ll back-rationalize the
relationship and think your partner is a great mental match, even if you both argue constantly.

Ditto for emotional connections. Frequently you’ll toss out little breadcrumbs of what’s deep inside yourself just
to keep the other person happy. And this is plenty, so long as that physical chemistry is popping. Like all things,
however, the excitement fades, sex gets dull and you’re stuck trying to innovate in the bedroom.

Physical soul mates die – then are re-born at a later date. Seeing them 8 years later at some awkward school
reunion will instantly ignite the fire once more, and cause you to speed frantically to the nearest Motel 6 for yet
another refresher session. Then you’ll both lay awkwardly in bed facing each other, justifying why it never worked
out, all the while staring at the clock to see when you can escape.

People that get married, divorced, married again, divorced again, etc are frequently physical soul mates. It’s a
natural progression to want sex with someone new, thus why we have high divorce rates.

But they are awesome while you’re caught up in the magic.

C L O N E R MA T E S – WE WO N ’ T B E F O O L E D A G A I N

Cloners – watch out! These are relationship hijackers who will draw you into their world until they get bored, then
leave you for the next, more interesting mate. Luckily, they’re easy to recognize:

Cloners are hyper-intelligent and learn new skills quickly

They will adopt all your hobbies and interests, even when they’ve never done these activities before
They mimic your life
They spend a lot of time with you, ask a ton of questions
They’ll leave once you become boring, and they have drained all they can

You will fall totally and completely in love with them

Cloner mates are the most fascinating people I’ve encountered in my life. Period. And although I’ve only seen
about three in total, they always get my attention. Luckily, I never fell victim to any, but merely seen how they
work from the outside. Always being a people watcher, I met my first one when I was working retail at 17.

Her name was Marissa, I remember because it was so unusual at the time. She was a very pretty brunette with
almost glowing green eyes. Beautiful body, every guy in the store was chasing her like a feral rabbit.

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But she eventually fell in love with my best friend at the time, Daniel. Now he wasn’t the most eligible bachelor
back then, this guy had a homely look, and rarely showered. But he was nice, was always smiling and most girls
found him cute. In a Clark Kent kinda way.

He also had some unusual hobbies, from building model trains to listening to hard, hard core punk rock. I had
never heard of ANY bands displayed all over his apartment walls, and listening to some of them was interesting, to
say the least.

And then came Marissa.

They met on a Saturday, and by that Wednesday he was proclaiming his love for her. Every time I saw Dan, they
were arm in arm talking privately about something and kissing like long lost lovers. The sad part is – he actually
had a girlfriend at the time, but would ditch his first love several months later as Marissa demanded it.

Within a few weeks, she knew the album names of every band on his wall, and could hum a few bars. Her favorite
songs matched his – exactly. She was already playing several of those same songs on the guitar he had, even
though she never touched a stringed instrument before.

She liked the same foods he did, went to bed at 4am just like him. And could build models trains probably better
than even Dan.

During all this, he began isolating his other friends. It was Marissa this, that, don’t have time for you guys now. I
heard he was shopping for a wedding ring, which would have been tough considering they were never apart.

Then Marissa got bored of her new toy, and just left him. Dan was crushed. He came to all of us in tears
wondering why she left – was it his fault? It had to be something he did. But in reality, no, she was just a user. A
very good one – the Cloner Mate.

I later heard she fell for another guy we knew named Rick, who’s dad owned a
skydiving business. Within a few weeks she was named the skydiver of the month of
their club, and spent every hour together. She was probably into his music, had
mastered most of his hobbies already, and agreed with everything he said. All for
the sake of her entertainment. Rick probably even bought a wedding ring.

So now that I’ve explained how my triple soul mate theory works, and all the dirty
details behind this lifetime fascination of mine – you’re wondering … what can I do
with it?

You can give soul mate readings!

Every time I do one of these spreads, people’s whole face lights up. They’ve never heard of a triple soul mate
before, nor all the cool things associated with meeting one. Most people will start rewinding in their head to think

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of any physical or emotional soul mates, and rattle off some names with a big grin. It’s a cool concept, and people
love hearing about it.

Doing a spread really brings it down to earth, showing them which they’re most likely to get next, and what’s
waiting for them around the love corner. Don’t forget that your sitter may have a different favorites than you, or
misinterpret the information. That’s ok too, just ride with whatever they’re thinking and throw down your cards.

SOUL MATE TAROT SPREADS

Most readers will want to focus on a particular soul mate they’re interested in. Susie from Idaho may be working
80 hour weeks, have responsibilities with volunteer groups, and just wants a casual encounter.

In this case, you can throw down four cards and see blockages and lessons learned from within. This spread
however covers all three, and is like a general soul mate reading.

On the physical side, our lessons card is Wheel and blockages are harshly represented by 3 of Swords.
Whenever I see the Wheel in any love spread, I always associate it with short term relationships. A fling. Reversed
means longer term, possibly a marriage or more lasting commitment. So, in this case, I’ll translate it to say all the
things we DO get from short bed visits – a quick fix, taking your mind off work or stress, walking a mile closer to
steady long-lasting love.

A major in the physical column tells me this particular connection is important to her, but the lack of court cards
says he isn’t in her life just yet.

On the emotional side however, we have TWO courts. A young and immature Page of Cups and the older but not
always wiser Knight of Wands. Our knight brings a very positive light to the lessons spot, and notice too that he’s
walking towards the Mental side. Whereas the page is staring over at our physical spot and the heartbreak card.
Could she be staying a page and not graduating to a higher court position BECAUSE of a broken heart? Surely
those events aren’t so powerful that even the page is thinking about them, still. Yet her immaturity and resistance
to moving forward seems related.

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Many times as lovers we must not only move on from a bad physical relationship, but allow the emotional wounds
to heal. Sure, you can get over a person in a few weeks but those scars hurt for much longer and require many
bandages (chocolate ice cream at 2am, a rebound lover).

I don’t spend much time on the Mental column, since 90% of my readers don’t care much for the thought of a
mental match. I’ve tried in the past to express how cool they are, but the hook never sets.

We have two 6’s (remember your numerology definitions from the previous chapter), a reversed giving card for
lessons plus the boating journey as an obstacle. How would you interpret this?

Remember card interactions! That boat is not traveling anywhere, but instead floating into a void where no other
cards exist.

Why are emotional lessons cards moving towards mental lessons?

Why are emotional and mental obstacles facing away from each other, is this on purpose?

M ONEY . I' M ALL RIGHT , J ACK . K EEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY STACK .

Maslow's hierarchy of needs always takes priority when

you’re running low on cash. Any reader that’s
independently wealthy may ask some cursory questions
about investing to a tarot reader, but probably won’t
bother with the same questions that a jobless guy would.

Two main things that any job hunter wants to know is

obviously when will he get a new job, and how much does
it pay. Actually enjoying his work, hours, benefits and
these other concerns come much later after he’s married
to a steady income.

Money also affects things like getting sued or divorce,

where you have a potential black hole your cash may start leaking out of, and are desperate to plug it.
Foreclosures, health emergencies, bankruptcy, car accidents and other major life events are a reality from which
money must be spent.

So we must tackle financial questions by looking at them from a 10,000 foot view:

v Money arriving
v Money leaving

But tarot is much too abstract to pull numbers from reliably, especially larger digits like “you will lose $14,567.82
in this upcoming lawsuit”. We must reframe it to phrases such as – what life lessons will I learn from this lawsuit?

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For me, pentacle cards represent how much cash is invested in the question. The more coins rolling along the
spread, the bigger the overall outcome. Whether it be cash coming in from a new job or promotion, or cash going
out from an overnight hospital stay.

Wands show the amount of action or movement happening, so an 8 of Wands indicates fast movement towards
your new job (quick hire) vs. not a single wand card to be seen, in which it slows to a snail’s pace.

Swords is all about competition. Blades and blood splattered through my spread tells me you have some serious
uphill climbing to win this lawsuit, or many other job applicants fighting for your position. And obviously a
complete vacancy of swords is a great sign.

Finally, cups shows how emotionally invested the sitter is in her question. You can also see this in her face,
although obviously not over YouTube or phone readings.

So many factors are involved when looking for a job. A high demand nurse in a city full of hospitals will have an
easier time than an unemployed car factory worker where there’s no factories. And a seasoned professional in any
field will have a smoother experience compared with a college student who graduated two weeks ago.

Most job hunting queries need to be reframed into “What do I need to know in order to find a job” rather than
“Where do I go to find a job”. Of course you can pop down a three card spread to answer the first question, but
then where DO you tell your sitter to go if the Tower, Devil and Ace fall down onto the table? Sir, take your job
hunting to a tall building?

I could dazzle you with several job spreads, however you’ve already read my treatise on free-form spreads at the
beginning of this book. The answer doesn’t lie in “Position 1 – the type of job you’d enjoy”, instead it’s all about
ISS (Intensive Spread Study).

Do you see education in there? Possibly he needs to change careers, go back to school, which would apply to our
car factory worker who’s living now in a big city without any factories nearby.

Moving to a more thriving community, taking a lower paying job until the economy improves, a lateral change into
management – all of these are possibilities that may pan out in your spread.

It’s difficult to generate a new steady source of income. You need to have an established hobby that you’re good
at, and one which other people want to give you money for. But even the best invention takes time to fully
develop into a good source of cash, since you need advertising and building a customer base.

Don’t say it’s hard to make money off the internet though, here’s a lady selling dog feces. Notice I put a shadow
around the dog crap page pic? See, now that’s first class:

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I know the PooPoo Platter sounds pretty good right now, but hold yourself back.

Another way to make fat cash is to scream and act wild on YouTube for partnership dollars. So the money is out
there, but it’s all about having the right inspiration and ideas. Thus our reframing “How can I make more money”
into “What do I need to know to increase my income”.

Shadow cards may apply to these spreads – what if your sitter has a fatal blockage that is preventing them from
making more money? The ideas may already be in her head (like selling dog poo), but they just don’t seem logical
at the time.

But common sense applies here. If they’re in a dead-end job making no money, it could be time to go back to
school or find a new job for more cash. People that can’t find a job occasionally aren’t really looking very hard
because they’ve filled their lives with meaningless chores.

You must read between the lines.

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F ILLER QUESTIONS TO PASS THE TIME

I’m not a huge fan of the “general reading”. Most of those end up telling people what they
already know, with a very high risk of getting it wrong unless the actual positions are SO
generic that they could apply to their dog or cat.

Plus, there’s no added value to the meanings – health/home category = 3 of Swords rx.
“Looks like some conflict at home, maybe a loss of communications”. Ok, so how does that
help the sitter? It feels more like you’re tossing darts at the wall while wearing a blindfold.

Conflict at home? Loss of communications? That applies to everybody’s home, and I’m
unsure how this benefits them compared to a more specific reading on a topic that’s actually important. They
would probably much rather hear about this cute lady they just met, don’t you think?

I’ve noticed too that general readings generate much less focused attention, where the sitter will actually stare at
the cards and contribute. They’ll look, but just to be nice. In my view – a generic reading is too … well … generic.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many tarot readers who make a great living off doing nothing but general spreads.
Dean Montalbano for example, does ONLY generic readings for people unless they insist upon something else, yet
he has lines in his restaurant miles long.

But in my opinion, if you are going to build rapport with a sitter and create something magical, I’d rather embrace
a topic that’s important to them.

C HAPTER 10 - M ISCELLANEOUS RANTS

Don’t hate me, but I need to rant.

C OURT C ARDS AS “ PEOPLE YOU KNOW ”

I keep hearing this definition for court cards. They are supposed to represent people you know,
yet I think we should refine this further. I know quite a few people, probably a hundred. This
includes Sally the Starbucks grey-haired lady who serves me a hot coffee on weekday mornings.
And my neighbor Belinda who I wave to when her son is mowing the yard. And the list stretches
on.

But if you dropped a Queen of Swords on the table, I wouldn’t think “DUDE that’s Richelle from
accounting!” Instead if you embrace this definition, it should be people you know … that influence your life.

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Obviously this filters out Starbucks checkout girls, the mailman, weird looking guy from UPS that delivered your
last tarot deck, etc.

But we’re left with family members, close relatives, mentors, husbands and other people whom we rely on for
advice and counsel. Not a huge difference to most people, but enough refinement to clear up any confusion.

Still, remember to apply what you’ve learned from previous chapters into court cards. So that cute little Queen of
Cups represents your sitter’s grandma Wilma. Ok then, how is she interacting with these other cards in your
spread? If she was the queen from earlier who was pointing at the dreamy 7 of Cups card, what is SHE saying
while motioning to the flying cups?

C OURT C ARDS AND M EYERS -B RIGGS

Yes I know I just raved about Meyers-Briggs two chapters ago. And yes I was excited when I
first learned that court cards could be married to Meyers-Briggs personality types. After all,
court cards are so confusing to new readers that even some seasoned ones end up stacking
non-court cards into the pile to get further clarification. So you end up with a bloody mess
of 17 cards for what was supposed to be a 10 card reading. After using the MBTI for a long
time for courts, I finally tossed the whole concept into the trash.

Sure you can marry court members with their personality archetypes, but loading up the
deck with that much additional information is overwhelming. Plus I’ve visited three different sources telling me
which cards represent which type, and all three were different. Is there not a standard by now, considering how
old Meyers-Briggs is and thousands of years tarot has been around?

So I’m ignoring the whole MBTI court card relationship. Ok it may be interesting after 40 years of tarot reading,
when I’m totally bored and really need something new to absorb. But seriously …

You already know that a King is a leader, who takes initiative and barks out commands. And the Queen could also
be the leader, making the King her supporting role, organizing parties and bringing together minions with his
charm. The Knight rides out along the long drawbridge from his castle, intent on getting things done and going
places. And meanwhile the Page runs messages back and forth, dreaming of one day becoming the armored, shiny
Knight.

Given that context, you’re all set. In my experience, loading down the Knight of Wands as an obsessive compulsive
disorder doesn’t add any real value. So the dude washes his hands too much, big deal. That doesn’t provide
enough extra insight to someone’s reading to justify the memorization.

If you’re a member of Netflix, you can stream a great documentary called The Dark Ages by Christopher Cassel that
dives into what knights did back then, before the plush renaissance came along.

I NTUITION VS . M EMORIZATION

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 So much emphasis is placed on “intuitive reading”, when in reality it takes time to actually
develop your intuition. Of course some people are naturally psychic – I had a lady tell me I was
adopted during a tarot reading which freaked me out. She hadn’t even laid out any cards yet.

But the majority of people aren’t in tune to their intuition, especially not enough to read cards
well. And for that reason, millions of tarot keyword books are sold per
year. So don’t knock the good old sentence-per-card approach, right? But to some people,
intuitive reading methods are the only way to go at the exclusion of all else. They adamantly refuse to give in a
little and let students memorize some keywords, almost slapping their little white book out of their hand.

I think this is unreasonable, since people enjoy learning their own way. A few choice definitions assigned to our
Temperance card won’t kill anyone, especially for the absolute beginner. Especially since the “intuitive-only”
readers do actually spit out formal book text occasionally. Yes, I’ve heard these hard-liners say “life cycles” when
pushing a Wheel of Fortune my direction, but of course didn’t say anything at the time.

Let’s take a look at some “intuitive tarot reading” books, shall we?

“The Intuitive Tarot: Unlock the Power of Your Creative Subconscious” by Cilla Conway

Sounds like an awesome book, right? We’re gonna open it up, read the methods to gaining intuitive power tarot
skills and rock our friends out! Well, not really. What’s it contain? TAROT DEFINITIONS!

Please don’t sue me, I got that passage from Google Books, I swear. So my question is – how does knowing a
card’s keywords get me to this “power of my creative subconscious”? Cause I ain’t seeing it. I don’t own this
book, so I’m sure it gets to pumping my brain eventually but even for a beginner, aren’t we counteracting the
book’s purpose by cramming keywords down their throat?

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not slamming Ms. Conway’s book, I’m sure it’s a great read. I just want to point out that
intuitive reading need not be mutually exclusive to standard book definitions. Both of these schools of thought
can co-exist quite well, and there’s no need for strict rules applied to tarot cards.

Intuition indeed grows and develops over time. Once you’re more comfortable with the tarot cards, and they
don’t look as daunting, you can relax and let your mind wander. Then the sudden sparks of meaning come to your
head that weren’t present before. And you’re off to great reading successes!

C HAPTER 11 - B RINGING IT ALL TOGETHER WITH SAMPLE READINGS

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Now it’s time to bring everything you’ve just learned together with some example readings I did for people on
YouTube. You can find the video versions of them by visiting my YouTube channel, but this section will provide
more intricate detail. All names have been changed to protect the innocent.

W ILL I MEET A ROMANTIC PARTNER ?

Donna from Nebraska wants to know about cute guys. She’s dated a few of them, but never really found anyone
she truly loved. At the ripe age of 23, she finds herself a little lonely, pondering how to get a true, faithful person
in her life rather than these emotional baggage kinda guys.

We can immediately rule out Elemental Dignities since both of our minor cards are pentacles. And we have two
majors, so this is a moderately important topic to her. On the left is the juggler facing a Devil who looks rather
busy. His minions don’t exactly seem like slaves, since they’re having an orgy and seemingly a good time.

But reversed seems to indicate her need for a “good time break”, and transition into more serious love. The seed
planter is looking over at the Wheel of Fortune, which in a relationship spread always means a quickie love to me,
more short term rather than an extended marriage. You can see a guy trying to climb up to the party at the back,
and another one falling face first. And notice both are young people, staring into oppositions. The juggler sees a
fun, devilish side turning around and maturing, seeking more out of life than a one night stand. While the seed
planter sees the status quo, a revolving door of cute guys.

But could the 7 of Pentacles RX indicate that he can’t plant seeds that will later evolve into beautiful orchids?
Because of the revolving door? An indicator of a first love developing and evolving into something more, yet
upside down to never growing to maturity. And from our numerology lesson, the 7 is also about repercussions
from decisions, or living with what you’ve already done.

I do see Donna meeting yet another cute guy (probably cause she’s 23 and also cute, that’s just how it works),
however the first two cards represent pathway 1: forming a real, solid foundational relationship with this person or
pathway 2 (second set of cards): doing another guy-fling.

Which decision is the best one? That’s up to her, there’s no real pressure from anybody other than herself to form
more stable love connections. But our reading shows the answer is yes to her question (based on the Wheel of
Fortune), and this is her chance for a choice.

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W ILL ME AND MY EX - WIFE GET BACK TOGETHER ?

Fred misses his ex-wife, and desperately wants her back (even though she ditched him 2 years ago). So we pull a
four card spread and get this.

Now we do have two Elemental Dignities here, the page and 8 (money and air are bad, it flies away), plus 8 and 6
(air helps fire spread). Let’s do the conflicts first:

Conflict! The immature page is fishing up something from the deep pond, but seems patient enough to wait all
day. Little does that page know that the conflicting woman on the right of him has two sides. One’s normal, but
the other looks pretty beaten up and ragged. Plus he’s facing away, almost refusing to acknowledge those sides of
her, maybe only seeing the fantasy version from his head.

Good juju! Our 8 is also next to that 6 of Swords, who’s riding away with all her belongings to somewhere else
(and taking a couple friends). Remember that fire and air are active? So that boat is really moving away, at a good
clip. Could this represent that grabbing his stuff and leaving her duality is probably a good, active choice to make
at this time?

Card interactions: We have several facings, as already mentioned. Everybody seems to be moving away from that
8 of Swords (and probably for good reason), and the boat is actually traveling to a brighter future Ace of Wands.
But her stick is connecting two large cliffs, and doesn’t look very stable. So leaving his ex-wife behind could be a
venture into territory unknown, with shaky ground. But the good news is that the little girl seems to be having a
fun time walking across.

From a numerology perspective, the 8 is a number of power. Although she’s dual natured in personality, she still
wields some type of control over this guy and could probably get him back if she wished. Since it’s also about
renovations, maybe his ex is trying to get a new life going with another man, or at least one without him in it. And
our 6 of Swords being “higher ground” and also the active card shows he needs to re-think his desire and indeed,
move to a higher ground mentally, where he’s free of her.

So overall, my answer is maybe. You probably COULD get back with her, but do you really want to? Following the
active boat ride leads to a new beginning (Ace of Wa,nds), one with fire and drive, lots of good movement and a
very bright card. The pathway to the right seems a lot better choice than sitting there like an immature Page,
fishing for a past relationship that’s already dead in the water.

H OW WILL MY UPCOMING SURGERY GO ?

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Doug is having knee surgery next month, and is nervous about it. He is convinced that he’ll never walk again, but
since his procedure is so common, his fears are probably not justified. So again, we slam down another five cards
and get:

Just intuitively reading the cards, Doug thinks that the surgery is taking something away (7 Swords), yet also giving
him a new chance at being normal by having a new knee (6 Cups). He sees the surgeon as fully capable and
knowledgeable enough (3 Wands), but he realizes there’s a serious recovery time needed, where he’ll be even
worse off than today (7 Cups).

Conflict! We have a bad Elemental Dignity between the cups (water) and wands (fire), so there’s a negative
influence on the right. 7 is for repercussions from decisions and solitude, and both apply here. 6 is harmony, and
3 is creation/thinking. We also have one card interaction – the thief leaving with those swords.

Putting it all together, Doug feels a sense of loss going into surgery, rightfully so because he’ll lose mobility for
several months until it heals. Plus he’s losing his natural knee, which is being taken away by our 7 of Swords. That
thief is also walking into the 7 of Cups RX, who’s lack of choices and imagination will collide. He’s confident in the
surgeon’s abilities, and thinks this doctor can give him back a normal life with no leg pain, but realizes the huge
recovery effort involved. Most likely some physical therapy and lots of television for a while. (insert friends and
family for support statements here)

T AROT R EADING C HEAT S HEET

King – Leadership, delegation, power / Queen – Charisma, organization, calming / Knight – Action, getting things done / Page – immaturity, growth

Wands = Action, change / Swords = Communication, conflicts / Pentacles = Ambition, home, health / Cups = Love, relationships, emotions

2 – BALANCE, CHOICES, GUARDIANSHIP, COMMUNICATIONS (N E P T U N E )

Level of passion to achieve goals, self-interest/preservation.

Chochmah (Male) – wisdom, beginning of thought.

3 – CREATION, THINKING, SOCIAL INTERACTIONS (S A T U R N )

How u react to events (home/work), rationalize them.

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Binah (Female) – understanding, logical analysis. Interprets the meaning from Chochmah, ability to make distinctions.

4 – SECURITY, SATIATION (HAVING ENOUGH) (J U P I T E R )

Handle security issues, incentive to start projects

Chesed (Male) – grace, greatness. Associated with Right Arm, giving. First emotional sefirot.

5 – CHAOS, CONFLICTS, CHANGE (M A R S )

Desire to be noticed/loved, conflicts

Gevurah (Female) – justment, justice, law. Fear, control, awe. Balances out Chesed (the giver) by taking, accepting.

6 – HIGHER GROUND, COMMITMENT, HARMONY (S U N )

Health, daily routine running smoothly, harmoniously

Tiferet – harmony, truth and compassion. Compassion and mercy. Balances Chesed and Gevurah.

7 – REPERCUSSIONS FROM DECISIONS, SOLITUDE (V E N U S )

How u handle personal/work relationships

Netzach (Male) – victory, overcoming, getting shit done. Overenthusiasm, putting things out before they’re ready.

8 – RENOVATION, DECISIONS, POWER (M E R C U R Y )

Past decisions affect today, time to clean up

Hod (Female) – glory, splendor. Holding on, persistence. Inner thrust to carry on.

9 – COMPASSION, PATIENCE, UNDERSTANDING (M O O N )

Beliefs, goals, values. Re-examine yourself and others.

Yesod – foundation. Carrying one thing to another, building bridges and contacts. Penis (connect, receive, give).

10 – ACHIEVEMENT (E A R T H )

Rewards and penalties for recent efforts.

Malchut – realization of all potential, fruit of all your labors. Manifestation of ideas as they merge into reality.

B IBLIOGRAPHY

B OOKS

I have marked my favorite books in red. These are the “must haves” in my personal opinion, although all these
books are wonderful.

A Magical Course in Tarot: Reading the Cards in a Whole New Way - Michele Morgan, Rebecca Richards

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An Introduction to Tarot (Flexi cover series) - Cassandra Bee

Beyond the Celtic Cross: Secret Techniques for Taking Tarot to an Exciting New Level - Paul HughesBarlow and
Catherine Chapman

Discover Your Psychic Type: Developing and Using Your Natural Intuition - Sherrie Dillard

Easy Tarot: Learn to Read the Cards Once and For All! - Josephine Ellershaw and Ciro Marchetti

How to Use Tarot Spreads - Sylvia Abraham

Inner Pathways to the Divine: Exploring Your Spirit - SunShine Press Publications

Intuitive Tarot: Discovering and Reinforcing the Power of Your Intuition : Using the Tarot As a Tool - Richard
Prosapio, Elizabeth Prosapio

K A B B A L A H F O R D U MMI E S - A R T H U R K U R Z WE I L

Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners - Joan Bunning

Living the Tarot - Amber Jayanti

Meditations on the Tarot - Anonymous, Robert Powell, and Hans Urs von Balthasar

Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Ancient Roots to Modern Usage - Paul Huson

Mythic Astrology: Internalizing the Planetary Powers - Ariel Guttman and Kenneth Johnson

Nancy Shavick's Tarot Universe - Nancy Shavick

N U ME R O L O G Y A N D T H E D I V I N E T R I A N G L E - F A I T H J A V A N E , E T A L

Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence by David Keirsey

Power Tarot: More Than 100 Spreads That Give Specific Answers to Your Most Important Question - Trish
Macgregor

Quiet Your Mind: An Easy-to-Use Guide to Ending Chronic Worry and Negative Thoughts and Living a Calmer Life -
John Selby

Rachel Pollack's Tarot Wisdom: Spiritual Teachings and Deeper Meanings - Rachel Pollack

Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom: The Minor Arcana - Rachel Pollack

Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom : A Book of Tarot - Rachel Pollack

Simple Fortunetelling with Tarot Cards - Corrine Kenner

Tarot and the Magus: Opening the Key to Divination, Magick and the Holy Guardian Angel - Paul Hughes-Barlow

Tarot and the Tree of Life : Finding Everyday Wisdom in the Minor Arcana - Isabel Radow Kliegman

Tarot as a Way of Life: A Jungian Approach to the Tarot - Karen Hamaker-Zondag

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Tarot Card Combinations - Dorothy Kelly

Tarot Decoded: Understanding and Using Dignities and Correspondences - Elizabeth Hazel

Tarot Dictionary and Compendium - Jana Riley, Samuel Weiser

Tarot Dynamics: Learn to read any spread - Anna Burroughs Cook

Tarot for a New Generation - Janina Renee

Tarot for Writers - Corrine Kenner

Tarot for Your Self: A Workbook for Personal Transformation - Rachel Pollack

Tarot Made Easy - Nancy Garen

Tarot Outside the Box - Valerie Sim

Tarot Plain and Simple - Anthony Louis

Tarot Readings and Meditations - Rachel Pollack

Tarot Tells the Tale: Explore Three Card Readings - James Ricklef

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Kabbalah - Rav. Michael Laitman, Collin Canright

The Crowley Tarot: The Handbook to the Cards - Akron

The Intuitive Tarot: A Metaphysical Approach to Reading the Tarot Cards The Intuitive Tarot: A
Metaphysical Approach to Reading the Tarot Cards - Richard Gordon, Dixie Taylor

The Intuitive Way: The Definitive Guide to Increasing Your Awareness - Penney Peirce

The Kabbalah Experience: The Practical Guide to Kabbalistic Wisdom - Naomi Ozaniec

The Original Tarot and You - Richard Roberts

The Royal Road: A Manual of Kabalistic Meditations on the Tarot - Stephan A. Hoeller

The Tarot - Nancy Shavick

The Tarot Court Cards: Archetypal Patterns of Relationships in the Minor Arcana - Kate Warwick-Smith

The Tarot Guide to Love and Relationships - Nancy Shavick

The Tarot of Perfection: A Book of Tarot Tales - Rachel Pollack

The Tarot Reader - Nancy Shavick

The Tarot: History, Mystery and Lore - Cynthia Giles

The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination - Robert Michael Place

The Tarot: Methods, Mastery, and More - Giles, Cynthia

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The Thoth Companion: The Key to the True Symbolic Meaning of the Thoth Tarot - Michael Osiris Snuffin

The Truth About the Tarot: A Manual of Practice - Gerald Suster

Traveling the Royal Road: Mastering the Tarot - Nancy Shavick

Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot - Lon Milo Duquette

T AROT D ECKS AND K ITS

Animals Divine Tarot - Lisa Hunt

Anna K Tarot (2nd edition) – Anna Klaffinger

Bohemian Gothic Tarot (2nd edition) - Alex Ukolov and Karen Mahony
Celtic Dragon Tarot - Lisa Hunt
Dark Grimoire Tarot - Michele Penco
Deviant Moon Tarot - Patrick Valenza
DruidCraft Tarot - Philip Carr-Gomm and Bill Worthington
Fairy Tale Tarot - Lisa Hunt
Froud Faeries Oracle - Brian Froud and Jessica Macbeth
Golden Tarot – Kat Black
Hanson-Roberts Tarot - Mary Hanson-Roberts
Harmonious Tarot - Lo Scarabeo
Hezicos Tarot – Mary Griffin
Legacy of the Divine Tarot - Ciro Marchetti
Liber T Tarot - Lo Scarabeo
Llewellyn Tarot - Anna-Marie Ferguson
Lovers Path Tarot - Kris Waldherr
Mystic Dreamer Tarot - Heidi Darras and Barbara Moore
Oracle of Shadows and Light - Lucy Cavendish and Jasmine Becket-Griffith
Oracle of the Dragonfae - Lucy Cavendish
Quest Tarot - Joseph Ernest Martin
Shadowscapes Tarot - Stephanie Pui-Mun Law and Barbara Moore
Tao Oracle: An Illuminated New Approach to the I Ching - Ma Deva Padma

Tarot Lenormand - Lo Scarabeo

Thoth Tarot - Aleister Crowley
Universal Fantasy Tarot - Lo Scarabeo
Victorian Flower Oracle - Alex Ukolov and Karen Mahony
Wild Wisdom of the Faery Oracle - Lucy Cavendish and Selina Fenech
Zerner Farber Tarot - Monte Farber and Amy Zerner

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