Talking Tarot

You often hear tarot readers refer to how their cards talk to them. If you look and listen closely, cards are like a group of reliable old friends you have gathered around your table to discuss the subject at hand.

Picture this. When you are walking through a museum or art gallery, some of the pictures you see don't move you at all. Others you can feel right at home with. With a picture you like, you can easily imagine yourself going inside the picture and looking around, moving around. You can imagine yourself as part of the scene.

Some decks speak to us right away and some do not. It may have everything to do with how appealing we find the artwork, as to whether they speak to us or not. That is why there are so many designs available to us today. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of artists have created new versions of the classic decks and others gave birth to some decks that are totally new. In so doing, they are expanding their own abilities and finding satisfaction in their creativity, while at the same time providing us more choices for our personal use.

The expressive characters speak to us telepathically. Those of us who read develop a dialogue with our cards, and the art of the reader is intuitively selecting the appropriate interpretation of each card for each reading. Every picture tells a story, and when the cards are selected and shown, the way they come together tells a new story each time.

They tell you things like: Today, I represent this person's father. Or in this reading I represent this person's boss. Or in this reading, I represent the boyfriend. In this reading, I am a mentor. In this reading I am a good friend. In this reading, I am a teacher. In this reading, I am an old lover, who has come back into the picture. This time, I represent a stranger bringing new opportunities. In another layout, this card can represent an important person still to be met. The picture also tells when the person has something else to say, such as "I am angry, I am compassionate, I am easygoing, I am an expert, I am playful, I am soft spoken. And so on."

The characters on the cards can be familiar friends, advisors, and characters from our home territory. They can be new friends and lovers we have encountered on our journey through this life. They can be new people we will meet. They are traveling companions and partners. They are adversaries. They are people who will figure into our lives. We feel a comfort with them. We may feel familiar because when we see this image today, it immediately reminds us of a specific person.

Yes, every picture tells a story, and by constantly shuffling and reordering the pictures in a deck, the little pictures become parts of a bigger picture that tells a different story for each person, for each reading.

Getting familiar with a deck of cards and studying them until they speak to you is the art of the reader. Anyone can buy a deck and book and read what it says, but what the author and artist have to say are only part of what the images can mean, can do, can say, in a given situation.

It really takes a person working with a deck for a long time before the reader trusts their instincts and trusts the deck to bring up pertinent information. It is a constant process that is part of the dialogue. When you do not follow your instincts, you will be corrected immediately. For example, you feel an urge to say something, but for whatever reason, you censor yourself and hold back. within moments, the person you are reading for will say something to verify that instinct, prompting the reader to stay on track and trust the information the cards are telling them.

When you discover a deck that you can relate to immediately, do you jump in right away and pay attention to the dialogue, or do you put it off? Do you get a buzz that information is being passed to you quickly? Or do you let your skeptical self take over? Do you set aside what you are getting and take the position that you can really be sure of these messages until after you read the book? Or that you cannot have a different opinion from the person who drew the deck or wrote the book? well guess what? You can, and what you get can be every bit as valid.

When an artist paints a picture they have their own ideas about it. When you see it, you may very well get different ideas. The way you enter the picture may be different than the way they entered it. They are both ways in.

As the cards get turned face up on the table, do your thoughts connect immediately? Do you start getting feedback as soon as one or more of the images come into view? Or does it take a while until the story forms into words? Do you pick up a couple of viable options from the sequence?

The art of the reader is this ability to pick up messages intended for the person requesting a reading and relay them in a way that the person can understand. The spirit guides the reader works with, and the deck the reader works with becomes very fluid in this dialogue after a while. Different people take different amounts of time to tune in. Once the connection is made, you will always recognize it.

I always remind a person asking for a reading that their free will choices are always the final word. I just see the progress of events and the energy at play and then present it to them after talking with the tarot. The cards love to show themselves to people, and they are always willing to speak. How much or how well do we listen?