What could this card mean?
Whether you are an aspiring tarot reader or a creative thinker using tarot cards for inspiration, it's a good idea to get to know the cards well. Let's play a game.
You don't have to know anything about tarot cards or their traditional meanings to play this game, but it works best if you use only the Twos to Tens of a deck that has illustrated pips. (Some decks show only suit symbols on the minor arcana. Here are examples of decks that trigger stories.)
[This post first appeared on SynTAROTis.]
Shuffle the cards and draw one at random.
Ask yourself, "What could this card mean?"
Done?
Then ask yourself the question nineteen more times. Yes, I know 20 answers to this question is a lot, but do your best. You will find if you stretch yourself, your imagination really comes into play, and you notice details that you have missed before.
A sample exercise
Suppose we draw the Six of Cups from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.
What could this card mean? Here are my suggestions:
- Giving is better than receiving.
- A secure relationship (see the guard at the back?)
- The lady is picky (she discarded five other bouquets).
- Sweet memories of first love.
- Spring has sprung!
- The pleasures of childhood.
- Making the best of the situation. (Children playing during a time of war, perhaps.)
- The sixth suitor (the previous five also tried flowers).
- The tentative beginning of a relationship.
- Taking good care of someone.
- Kindness.
- Poisonous plants (see her glove?)
- Children pretending to be grown-up.
- Giving flowers to the hostess.
- Dwarfism. (Doesn't she look fully grown, instead of a child?)
- A scene from a play set in the middle ages.
- Taking flowers to put on a grave.
- Wanting to stay young forever.
- Making the best of imprisonment (the guard again).
- A giant courting the most beautiful girl in town.
- A fan giving flowers to an actress.
- Two friends making up after a quarrel.
- A gardener receiving instructions.
- An informal trader's roadside stall selling metal objects
Do you think some of these items could be possible interpretations for the card in a spread?
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