By Gary Meister
A person can spend a lifetime studying the Tarot, and still never know all there is to know. But – you don’t have to spend a lifetime before you can start doing meaningful Tarot card readings for yourself and your friends and relatives. You don’t even have to memorize all the meanings in the Little White Book (LWB) that comes with each new deck of Tarot cards. All you really need to know to get started is one meaning for each card and know it well. This series of articles will show you an easy way to do that, with Numerology.
But, this series isn’t only for beginners. I didn’t learn this system until I had received two Tarot Master Certificates from two different sources, and after nearly 30 years of Tarot study. And, along with some other systems, I use it to this day. So – if you are a newcomer to Tarot, this might make your learning curve a little faster. If you’re a veteran reader, this could be a new technique to add to your arsenal.
Okay—a quick review of where we are right now:
Secrets of Tarot Numerology Tables
Table of Elements:
Major Arcana = Spirit = spiritual growth
Pentacles = Earth = finances, money, material things
Swords = Air = thoughts, ideas, attitudes
Wands = Fire = imagination, creativity, intuition
Water = Cups = love, relationships, the emotions
Primary Number Tables
0. Infinite potential
1. Action, Beginnings
2. Cooperation, Coming together
3. Creativity, Expansion
4. Reason, Practicality
5. Changes, sometimes crises
6. Peace, Harmony
7. Success, Learning from one’s mistakes
8. Success through hard work
9. End of a cycle of life
10. Completion, Perfection, Endings leading to new beginnings
11. Extreme creative action on important new beginnings
12. Creative, Cooperative beginnings
13. New beginnings, Creativity, with reason and practicality
14. Practical beginnings—watch out for big changes
15. Begin making big changes away from materiality, toward spirituality
A quick reminder: the adding I’ve been doing, and continue to do, is numerology’s way of rendering a compound number into a single number value. For example, the number 16 would be reduced to the number 7, as 1 + 6 = 7. This is called the Fadic System.
Now:
Number 16, The Tower: Action + Harmony + Success
First—let’s look at the picture and see what that tells us. A tall stone tower is being struck by lightning; its crowned top is blown clear off the building. Two people are seen falling to the rocks below. A pretty scary picture. But let’s not forget Tarot’s symbolism... As I’ve said before, the pictures on the Tarot cards stimulate the subconscious mind to connect to psychic impressions. The Tower is no exception.
Basically, The Tower reflects the material edifice we tend to build in this world—a hard, solid image in our minds. This tends to blind us to the fact that we are spiritual beings using a material body to learn and grow spiritually, and not physical beings who happen to have a soul! The Tower symbolizes a big shake-up in our lives that can open our eyes to the illusion we have created for ourselves. When this happens—if we’re paying attention—it can lead us to a greater awareness of our spiritual selves and lead us into an attempt to begin a spiritual program of some kind.
Now: Number 16: Action + Harmony + Success When we have experienced this shake-up, it is time to take action to make the spiritual changes we need to make.
This will lead us to trying to bring more harmony into our lives. Harmony with all there Is, and harmony with the other people in our lives—those close to us, and even our acquaintances—after all, they are spiritual beings, too! In the sight of Universal Mind, Infinite Intelligence, God, The Goddess—or whatever title you give to the Divine, we are all a part of the One Great Whole. Lack of harmony between any parts of the Whole throws all of the whole out of balance. Justice has to go to work and fix it—then karma takes over.
1+6=7 Seven is the number of success through learning through our mistakes. We need to look at ourselves honestly and openly—identify our mistakes of either thinking or doing—and make an effort to learn from them. In this lies spiritual success—and, most often, material success as well! The parts are all oiled and in working order, and it can be unbelievable how much we can accomplish when we are in balance with the universe...
That’s how I read it—what do you think? You’re the reader. ;o)
Number 17, The Star: Action + Success through learning from one’s mistakes + All around success
On The Star we see a female figure kneeling beside a pool of water. Water in a Tarot image represents spirit. The woman is nude, showing she is hiding nothing, symbolizing that the universe hides nothing from us if we really work on our spiritual program. She pours water from two pitchers—one onto the land, and one into the water. Again, symbolizing necessity of balance between the spiritual and the material. We may be spiritual beings, but we still have to live in this material world until we have learned what we came here for. Then, and only then, we’ll pass from this world into the next, where we’ll decide where and when to incarnate again, and what lessons we need to learn this time around. The Star is another card which calls for this balance.
Okay: Action + Success through learning from one’s mistakes + All around success
Here’s how I see it—The Star intensifies the meaning of the previous card. If we take action to work on our spiritual selves, while maintaining a balance between our two selves, spiritual and material, it brings about all around success for us. Remember—we create our own reality—and there are really no limits as to what we can accomplish! If we can believe it, we can achieve it!
Until next time, I’d like you to work with these two cards. Choose what meanings feel right to you. Practice them out loud and expand upon them. And then write them into your Tarot notebook while saying them aloud again. During the month, you may have other meanings or nuances of meanings pop into your mind. This is Spirit at work. You may even have very interesting dreams come to you in your sleep—again, Spirit! Write it all down in your notebook. As time goes on, your success with Tarot will grow by leaps and bounds!
Every reading helps you to better work with the Tarot. You can easily do readings with the cards you have studied up to now. There are only four more cards to go, and you can do meaningful readings without them, for practice purposes. I’d like to hear from you—let me know how you are coming along with your study.
See ya next time. :o)
Bright Blessings ~ Gary Meister, CTM