How do Tarot Cards Work? Tarot Cards are merely the tools professional readers use to tap into a special state of mind consciousness -- a state where the reader has learned to turn off their imagination and tune into their intuition. When a seeker poses a question to a reader, they are consciously and subconsciously opening a doorway or opportunity for shared consciousness. Dr. Carl G. Jung (1875-1962) a noted Swiss psychologist dedicate most of his life to this shared consciousness research. His work showed that our subconscious mind has the ability to not only absorb and retain ideas, impressions, and events around us but can also share thoughts or impressions with others through a Universal Consciousness. His theories under pin many aspects of modern prediction. We are all familiar with our subconscious mind's ability to recall past events and details that our conscious mind has blocked or forgotten. This is the basis of modern hypnotherapy or hypnosis. Hypnosis works because our subconscious mind is like a huge image library that is receptive to our conscious mind and environment. But how do we communicate between our subconscious and conscious minds? One clue can be found in our dreams where we experience images, impressions and carry on conversations without ever uttering a word or opening our eyes to the conscious world. When we dream our conscious and subconscious minds communicate through an informal language of images and impressions. Tarot formalizes this process. By committing to memory specific meanings associated with the images of the Tarot and through the formal practice of tuning-in to their intuition to develop impressions, the professional Tarot reader is able to bridge this gap between the conscious world and that of a universal consciousness. The Language of the Tarot It is through the highly symbolic language of the Tarot that professional Tarot reader's communicate with and through their subconscious mind. Professional readers have committed to conscious and subconscious memory, several hundred meanings associated with various types of questions and the images and impressions the Tarot inspires. Between the variations of question categories (prosperity, spiritual, social, wellness, transition, et. al.) and the seventy eight (78) separate and distinct images of the Tarot, a rich and robust pictorial language emerges. While the seventy eight Tarot cards are the basic alphabet of a reader's language, to add even more variety similar to the capitalization, underlining, italicizing, or strike-out found in the written language of the conscious mind, Tarot cards take on new meanings and variations depending upon the card's orientation (upright or reversed). This symbolic alphabet is one part of the language, the next part is the sentence structure and grammar of the Tarot -- card spreads and layouts. Tarot Spreads and Layouts To pull this symbolic conscious-subconscious alphabet together and form meaningful words and sentences that enables reader's to convey meaningful messages from this shared consciousness requires knowledge and skill in using several card spreads or card layouts. Tarot spreads vary in size (number of cards), layout, and intent. A professional Tarot reader has not only committed to memory an arsenal of spreads, each designed to address specific types of questions and situations within the seeker's life, but has also practiced and demonstrated this ability before a community of peers. Certified professional Tarot readers must not only demonstrate that they can recall from memory meanings for each card in both the upright and reversed orientations, but must also demonstrate skill and excellence in using various types of spreads. |
