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Tarot Reflections

  Jan. 15, 2003

Eva Yaa Asantewaa is a Tarot-based psychic counselor, healer, community educator, poet, and arts journalist who lives in New York City. She publishes the monthly eNewsletter DancingWorld and may be reached via email.

This article copyright (c) 2003, Eva Yaa Asantewaa. Used by permission. The material may not be reproduced in any way, either in part or in its entirety, without the express written permission of the author.

A new year invites new beginnings.  Many of us make commitments to ourselves–those infamous resolutions–that we end up pursuing with varying degrees of diligence, duration, and success.

In mid-November, I heard the exquisite poet Mark Doty read his work and answer audience questions at the New School University. Listening to him describe how he loved to do the scariest thing he could in each poem, I knew his words would reverberate in my mind long into the coming year. I resolved to ask myself whenever I thought I’d finished a poem or designed an efficient workshop or tied a neat little bow around a Tarot session: What more does this work ask of me?  Have I truly said all that can or must be said? Have I danced out to the edge and peered into the yet-to-be spoken, scary places?  Can I allow Spirit to astonish me and others?

Tarot readers–novices as well as veterans–often shy away from challenges that could push the work to new levels of excellence. Most of us have succumbed to our insecurities, fears, or biases and fallen into one or more of the traps outlined below at one time or another.  If you recognize yourself in this, spend a little time recalling how you got out of your trap.  Share your experience with a Tarot friend who seems to be struggling in a similar way.

I’ve bunched together traps that are related.  As you read the list, consider how clutching onto one or more of these beliefs hampers you and limits your effectiveness and pleasure in working with Tarot.

Newbies and Not-So-Newbies

1. In order to read the cards, I have to chain this Tarot book to my wrist.

2. I have to read every Tarot book in Barnes & Noble.

3. My teacher says (said) see it/do it this way.

4. My Official Training Program says (said) see it/do it this way.

Golden Dawn Tradition and Its Discontents

5. I can only read with Rider Waite or similar decks.

6. I won’t go near Rider Waite or similar decks.

7. I can/will only read with (fill in the blank) deck or decks.

Introverts and Extroverts

8. I’m only comfortable and confident reading Tarot for myself, not others.

9. I’m only comfortable and confident reading Tarot for others, not myself.

Purity, Thy Name is Tarot

10. One should only ask Tarot about (fill in the blank).

11. One should never ask Tarot about (fill in the blank).

Size Matters

12. I can only read small layouts.

13. I can only read large layouts.

14. I would never consider answering a question by drawing only one card.

15. I would never consider drawing an undefined number of cards and spontaneously whipping up a new layout pattern for a question.

16. I can only read layouts where every position has a well-defined meaning.

17. I’ll never be able to handle coordinating complex card meanings with complex position meanings.

Who Me?  Trust My Lying Eyes?

18. Individual cards and symbols always mean the same thing, no matter when, where, under what circumstances, and for whom I see them; they even have the same meaning from one deck to another.

19. I can’t trust intuitive information from outside the well-established meanings of the cards.  (Possible translations: “I’m not creative.”  “I’m not intuitive.”  “I’m not psychic.”  “What I’m sensing is not as valid as what I’ve been taught.”)

20. Every question requires that I actually use the cards and a layout, preferably one with well-defined meanings.

Stop The World!  I Want to Get Off!

21. I have too many decks, too little time.

22. I have one deck (or few decks) but still not enough time to develop a close relationship with it (them).

Now I must fess up to a creeping case of “I have too many decks, too little time,” although my deck inventory is puny compared with the truly mammoth collections of some Tarot aficionados.  I know you’re out there, nodding your heads and chuckling.

Perhaps you’ve found yourself staring at a card from a deck you’ve owned for some time and saying, “Jeeze!  I don’t remember ever seeing this card!”  If this happens often, it’s either time for a 12-Step recovery program or to reacquaint yourself with some of your decks. Take a page from Julia Cameron, creator of the artist's date ⁽¹⁾ and give you and your chosen deck–one deck at a time, please!--a proper Tarot date.

Coincidentally, I created a 22 item list, and there are 22 cards in the Major Arcana.  Don’t believe in coincidences?  Fine!  Let’s play!

Take one trap you’d like to work on this year and ask a question like, “How can I work my way free of this trap?”  Select a deck, shuffle it well, and keep drawing single cards at random until you come up with a Major Arcanum.  Sit with this card and see how it applies to your specific trap and your aspiration to be free of it. Make notes in your Tarot journal and keep returning to the image, adding thoughts about it as you go through the new year.

The Empress has been visiting me a lot lately and telling me that the way to deal with Trap #21 is to occasionally array my decks around me and survey the abundance of my Tarot garden, taking time to enjoy and compare the beauty of two or more decks at a time!

(1) Cameron, Julia.  The Artist’s Way:  A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity.  (NY: Tarcher/Putnam, 1992).

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