Wednesday, April 11, 2012

PREDICTIVE TAROT VERSUS PROGRESSIVE TAROT

After last weeks escapade into Easter Eggs and how they find their way into tarot as well, I would like to dwell on a more serious topic today. There are two main ways of interpreting Tarot: In the following I will call these styles Predictive Tarot and Progressive Tarot.

Predictive Tarot


Some tarot readers interpret the cards as a clear and unchangeable prediction of the future or the current situation: "Will my husband leave me for another woman?" "Yes!". "Will I get the Job I am aiming for?" "No!" or even "Yes, but you will not like it".

While cards do give answers, depending on how the energies fall, this is not a very useful way of interpreting the cards. It is partly, because the questions are drafted in a not helpful way, giving the tarot reader the opportunity to be slightly lazy and not actually support the client.

A good tarot reader who wants to show the future, needs to allow for some choice explain to the client that questions must be drafted in a way that the unchangeable truth can still guide the client through life.  A tarot reader who believes in this first philosophy might prefer the answer "there are bad energies over your husband" and therefore still allow for some choice of the client, rather than a "yes" or "no" answer.

Progressive Tarot

There is in my honest opinion another and better way, which starts with asking a different type of question: "Where am I and my husband heading", or "Is this job good for me, if I take it?". Then, the answer can be  what I call "progressive". The cards can show an in-depth behavioural pattern, that, if followed, leads to a certain result. The psychic intuition of the reader is more challenged, because suddenly there are patterns that can be broken, interrupted, problems that can be solved. And just by asking the right kind of question, the client unblocks the problem mentally, and the reader can show a way out of the bad situation.

Effectively, the cards are being divided in current situation, and if the current pattern and attitudes are followed, how the future could look like. If there is a negative card, other cards will be drawn to give direct advise what should be changed. The spread is less fixed, because the "advise cards" can sit on top of negative cards.

It requires for the tarot reader to direct the client to the right questions, speak to the client and find out where the problem is and discuss the options with him/her. It makes for a far more intuitive and interesting reading.

However, sometimes, clear answers are simply required. The cards will give the right answers, even when there is no resolution. Sometimes, a simple "yes" or "no" is all it takes to unblock the situation by itself.

The purpose of tarot is not only to speak about the problems, but to offer solutions. This is only one way of adding value to a tarot session, and to allow the client to leave the session with a positive feeling and new energy to tackle the problems.

In my course, I speak about the different ways of reading tarot, and when they can be appropriate for the situation. Please leave comments!


Sunday, April 1, 2012

THE EGG IN TAROT AND EASTER TIME

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Easter is approaching, and children will find lots of joy hunting for easter eggs, and adults will find lots of joy eating the ones that are left – let's hope there are lots left!

For Tarot, the symbol of the egg is increasingly popular in decks, and egg shapes are re-discovered and made more prominent by Marseille decks. Especially the Tarot Aurotriz, Camoin and Le Mat found joy in hiding eggs in a few cards. I would like to encourage you to look through your Marseille deck and find the eggs. Unfortunately, they are not made of chocolate.

In the major arcana of some of the Tarot de Marseille decks we can see several eggs. The Papesse/Priestess has an egg on her left side. The egg seems to have just been laid by a chicken. The Papesse represents this time of fecundation, this time of thinking and deepening inside oneself. If you have a religion you will share the silence, feelings, knowledge and sufferance of Christ. The egg will represent the Resurrection of Christ, because it contains a new life inside.

There are a lot of pictures of Saint Mary Magdalene with an egg. In Eastern Christianity and orthodoxy, there is a story that Mary Magdalene, went to the tomb where Jesus was buried and brought some cooked eggs for the other women that were with her. Suddenly the eggs turned red, when she saw the resurrected Christ.

Tarot de Marseille, which picks up on the iconography of the Orthodox tradition, is the ideal place for hiding eggs. Since the Vatican declared that Mary Magdalene was in fact not a prostitute, and the Mary Magdalene cult became more and more popular – not only after the DaVinci Code – it is likely we see more and more eggs in future religious iconography. The Priestess or Papesse is the ideal place, because she is often related to Mary Magdalene. But there are more eggs to be found, so please feel free to comment below what those eggs might mean, and what it means to you!

Think about what you want with your Easter Eggs. Easter is a time of reflexion about the future, the Papesse tells us to use our mental facilities and intuition, to wait and find in books and in ourselves the answer of what we want to know. Easter is a time of contemplating what we want in life. The Priestess has intuition and has a lot of answers in her memory, in herself. With the Papesse it seems that nothing is happening, but that's a very good moment to invest your time to plant all your ideas. After that card, the Empress will arrive with her creativity, that will be materialised by her husband the Emperor.  

Enjoy Easter! And if you see an egg, think about what you want in life, wait and when you have really decided go ahead.