I asked myself one day, "Am I a Tarot purest?"
This was after reading a comment someone had made about 'not needing a book to learn to read tarot and to just look at the pictures and say what comes to mind'.
My knee jerk reaction to such comments, "Um, No." But I don't want to sound like a know it all or snob so I reflected upon that moment and my reaction.
So first, to understand where I am coming from, it might be helpful to know a little bit about how I came to tarot. I did NOT come by way of the traditional Rider Waite Smith deck. At the time, I did not even know it existed. I actually started back in 1991 with The Native American Tarot by Magda Weck Gonzalez and J. A. Gonzalez; published by U.S. Games (not affiliated, just sharing the link). I chose this deck because I very much relate to and identify with the culture in both philosophy and spirituality. This inclination I have for the Native ways has been with me from very early on in my life. I was that kid that had no clue the goings on in the story of a black and white western movie, but I was rooting for the Natives. Watching westerns turned into reading books. I learned and continue to learn as much as I can and have had the honor to be invited and introduced to ceremonies and rituals.
So when I picked up this deck, study came easy. All the stories and traditions used to create the cards were all things I was already very familiar with.
I knew NOTHING about tarot as a whole. I did not know that there were so many decks already on the market. I was a complete noob and totally in the dark. But then this thing called the internet happened. Being the occult nerd that I am, the first thing I did when I got plugged into the WWW, I searched ‘Tarot’ and that was when I found the Aeclectic Tarot Forums. A whole new world of tarot opened up to me and where I was a dabbler in the cards, Tarot became a serious study.
So having come this far in my tarot journey and seeing everything out there in the tarot learning circles and groups, I will make it ‘official’ and state it here and now about my perspective and approach to tarot...
I am a bit of a tarot purist but I am also an artist.
HUH? Let me explain. Be prepared, I am going to take the long way to get there....
There is a saying that you must first learn the rules if you want to break them. One of the rules for life supposedly given to us by the Dali Lama. But for sure Pablo Picassio said,
“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.
And then there was my mom who taught me, ‘Rules are meant to be bent’.
‘They’ Say ~
Start with the Rider Waite Smith deck - I say, “Only if you like it.”
There are so many other options out there. I am not at all attracted to the art of the original RWS deck, yes, I can appreciate it as an artist, but it's not in my taste. I’m also, as you may already know, not religious nor have I ever been. So this deck is not for me and if it’s not for you or anyone else, do not feel pressured into getting the deck because you feel that is what you need in order to be skilled at tarot.
‘They’ Say ~
You don’t need a book, just lay the cards out and use your intuition. - I say, “Do you really want to learn Tarot?”
Sure a picture is worth 1,000 words and with the gestalt approach you will find meaning in your cards. But that is not really learning how to read Tarot.
WITH THAT SAID ~
It’s a fact that one can come up with some fantastic insights when approaching the cards by just looking at them and never opening a book about tarot cards and their meanings. However, if you want to learn tarot, you are going to need to do some studying.
Tarot is built with a structure that is rooted in symbolism that is ages old. So when I say I am a tarot purist, I am talking about using the cards with the structure that they come with.
The suit of cups is focused on emotional parts of life. To apply some material definition such as finding employment, or some legal aspect like a court case would not be fitting. Those meanings belong to the suit of pentacles for material things and the suit of swords for the mental (legal) things.
Also worth mentioning is that knowing this structure makes learning the individual meanings of the cards a whole lot easier.
If you learn this structure and use a deck that is expressive with it’s imagery and is inline with the RWS tradition, you will find that you can read just about any deck. Some will be a little more difficult. Those that lack illustrated pips, those with limited scenery, those that stray from the traditional, and those that are of the ‘other tarot tradition’. By other tarot tradition, I mean those decks that are modeled after the Marseilles or Thoth decks.
But… I am not that snobby of a tarot purist. As an artist, I get that such things evolve. What was once a tradition known by few has become a fascination of the many and more and more independent and unique decks are being created and published. I’m sure there are over a dozen in development on kickstarter as I write this.
Now, while I am a strong proponent for knowing the bones of tarot, I also strongly encourage the intuitive aspect. For many, the psychic side is the harder 'study' compared to learning the card meanings. But the hard part in the psychic study is not so much learning as it's totally natural, it is trusting and discerning those impressions. Now, with that said, I had occasional clairaudient impressions as a child but when I started using the cards, my clair changed to clairvoyant, clairsentient and claircognizant and one reading when it was a clairalience experience, have not had another since.
If you take up a serious study of the cards learn the symbolism on a universal level and work within the perimeters of the system, you will find that the cards in combination with your intuition makes from some readings that will give you goosebumps... I am still in awe of how Spirit communicates when I start shuffling cards.
