Welcome to my long-planned study of the symbolism and meanings of tarot! This is something I’ve been wanting to do for months, but due to depression and the fact that this is still a daunting project I just haven’t gotten to it till now. Dianite(a new friend) and I muddled through readings almost blind together, so I really want to dedicate my motivation to do this to them and our journey together. I love you dude, stay awesome! 

Now, I know I’ve talked about tarot before, so as a quick recap tarot is a form of cartomancy that is used by modern witches as a staple form of divination. There are 78 cards to a traditional deck, and each card has a specific meaning and symbolism, as well as a reversed meaning. Tarot readers rely on their intuition and psychic abilities to provide correct guidance for their clients(?). The picture on each card is supposed to be full of symbolism for the reader to be able to pick up on the meaning, more so than just memorizing meanings. Whatever symbolism jumps out for that particular reading is your intuition guiding you to the correct meaning for the individual.  

There are some ethics to discuss as well. Like don’t do a reading without consent, some say not to do one for someone under 18, and some don’t think you should read for yourself. To a point I agree with this. Consent 100%. But as for under 18 I believe it depends on the maturity. I did readings for my friends in high school, I was 18 at the time, but some of my friends I gave readings to weren’t. I also stand more towards the not giving yourself a reading. You are inherently biased to yourself, there’s no getting around that, sometimes it’s better for someone else to read for you to get the full picture. 

There are two parts of the tarot deck, the major arcana and the minor arcana. The major arcana has cards like the fool, the lovers, death, and justice. They are numbered from 0 to 21. The minor arcana is made up of four suits, like normal playing cards. They have 1-10, page, knight, queen, and king of Pentacles (Earth, coins), Swords(air), cups(water), and wands (fire, sticks). Sometimes fire is swords and air is wands, it’s confusing sometimes, but we’ll get it all cleared up as we go! 

Tarot was my original craft, the first piece of witchcraft and paganism I embraced whole heartedly. I’ve always loved doing readings, and I discovered I still do. We offer tarot and oracle readings in our shop! Check them out and help us make a living doing what we love! Help me learn and retain more tarot knowledge by doing it and working with it! (I know, shameless plug, but unfortunately bills need paid) 

And so, our journey begins! I will go through each card for the upright meaning first, then I think I’ll go back through for the reversed. Unless you all think it would be better for you to have both in one post together. Let me know what y’all think. And thank you in advance for joining me, one card at a time!