Lesson 1: my deck

I have a Rider-Waite-Smith deck that has been stored away for years. My renewed interest in tarot led me on an online search during the lockdown for a new deck.

I came across the Ethereal Visions deck by Matt Hughes and was drawn to it immediately. Firstly, it seems to be largely based off the RWS, meaning the images are familiar and the symbolism is similar. Secondly, the imagery is quite beautiful - reminiscent of Pre-Raphaelite artwork - and features lovely gold-foil illumination.

Introduction to tarot - image 1 - student project

Lesson 2: getting to know my deck

So far I have pulled four cards (one a day) to learn more about. The card that has stood out to me most is the Page of Wands.

At first glance I wasn't sure what it meant. I felt like the character was surveying her surroundings, perhaps cautiously. When I dug into some research I learnt that the card referred to confidence and courage. At a second glance, this makes sense. The Page is looking out at a rocky desert, almost like she knows she could make something of it.

I really like that this deck depicts all the Pages as female. It helps to balance out the minor arcana, because otherwise the court cards are almost all male - this way, there is a spread of feminine and masculine energies.

Introduction to tarot - image 2 - student project

Lesson 3: simple spread

I tried the three-card past/present/future spread. This one made the most sense to me, as I didn't really have a specific question for the tarot. I figured this could give me general insight into the recent past, the present, and the future. The cards I pulled are below - Page of Cups, Five of Pentacles, and Seven of Wands.

Introduction to tarot - image 3 - student project

Past - Page of Cups

I took this to refer to the creative energy of the first part of this year, including at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown. I was able to use some of this time to delve further into music, and to reconnect with the tarot, even hatching some plans for creative outlets when quarantine lifted.

Present - Five of Pentacles

This one made sense right away (and probably does to a lot of people right now). This card implies hard times, insecurity and isolation. As with many others, the virus has taken some security away from my job, and the lockdown has led to a sense of isolation from the world. Making new friends in a new town has become difficult, and money worries are on everybody's mind.

Future - Seven of Wands

I assumed this meant that after the challenges of this time, I will have attained a sense of security, but that I will need to battle to maintain it. Or perhaps that I will need to fight to follow my creative endeavours as lockdown ends and the world begins returning to a sense of normality.

This was the first reading I have done in 18 years, and the biggest challenge was working out how to apply the card meaning (and choosing which of several meanings) to the particular time frame. I realised that you are really building a narrative in a reading, they are not just three stand-alone meanings that don't interrelate. I look forward to trying a more complex spread soon.

Lesson 4: complex spread

I decided to try the Celtic Cross spread, but I was a little daunted by the challenge. As I have only just started actually reading with my deck, it hasn't been shuffled much, and this meant that my spread came up with way too many Cups and Major Arcana cards, which I don't think would generally happen. Nevertheless, I stuck with it as a chance to learn more about the cards and the spread.

Introduction to tarot - image 4 - student project
I found this experience fascinating. In some ways I was able to make a lot of sense out of parts of it (e.g. the past, present and future cards flow quite well). However, I did find it hard to build a cohesive narrative, and also to understand how to interpret certain cards in certain positions. I tried not to get bogged down, and just kept moving to the next card if I struggled.

Like most things, I think practice is the only way to get better. I now want to do a few more readings for myself to build up my card knowledge, and then try doing some readings for those close to me.

Luke James

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