learning tarot – Page 14 – True Tarot Tales

Tarot For Travel. Off We Go! Or Do We?

I have found that the Tarot‘s predictive abilities will help with travel plans, and I’ve made use of this when booking holidays etc.

This was how I first discovered the potential.

Planning to drive from Lancashire to Tewkesbury one Saturday, a round trip of 330 miles that had to be done in a day, in a two car convoy delivering a car to my elder daughter, we were dreading the M6.

I thought I’d ask the Tarot to suggest the optimal time for setting off, that would enable us to avoid traffic trouble.

To do this I drew cards to represent a range of logical departure times, drawing one card per time slot. In the card slot representing a 1.00 pm departure I drew a very positive ‘travel’ card…the Page of Wands.

Here is the Rider-Waite’s Page of Wands card for anyone not familiar with it. (U.S. Games)

He’s warmly dressed for the desert, isn’t he? His tunic is decorated with little salamanders, an amphibian magically symbolic of the element of fire. Wands is the fire suit in Tarot, and symbolises the South. Pages in the Tarot represent starts/beginnings, amongst other things, and Wands is the suit of flickering flames, movement and travel. The card therefore represented a relevant fit to the question.

We set off at 1.00 pm and the Page didn’t let us down.

Heading south we passed an horrendous jam on the northbound carriageway just north of Stafford. It was the length of two junctions. There had been an accident. We carried on, crossing our fingers for the injured people, and the poor souls stuck in the jam, getting desperate by now surely, and wanting drinks or the loo.

We dreaded returning that way within the next few hours. Having to avoid the jam by changing route was not a good option. The Page of Wands was being put on his mettle.

But he proved reliable. Heading north again, nothing remained of the jam but some debris swept into the central reservation. Arriving home free of further worry, what could I say but ‘Thank you.’ Here was the Tarot showing, yet again, that it’s a fully adaptable tool for the modern world.

What’s this all about? Forecasting or magic, or tuning into instinct and trying to programme the will? Are all three one and the same? Very likely. Will it always work?

The most confident and expert reader in the world (and this is not me) is only human and frail, so, I would say not. Interesting potential here though, do you think?

Other positive travel cards in the Tarot: The Ace of Wands, the 8 of Wands, the 6 of Swords, The Chariot, The Wheel of Fortune, The Sun, and The World.

Equally of course, the Tarot may warn against travel or foresee problems.

Travel is risky. We live in a bubble of illusion, forgetting this. Marco Polo would be astonished at our blase statements that we will be arriving here or there at a certain time on a certain day….To travel is to gamble…here the Tarot’s Wheel of Fortune card is symbolising the blind forces of luck, fate, chance…If you draw it right way up, it’s good news for travel. Drawn upside down? Uh Oh. Questions need to be asked. Identify the problem that the Tarot is sensing, you may be able to get that card to appear again, right way up, and then you’ll know it’s sorted.

Medieval Image of The Wheel Of Fortune

If you draw The Moon card you’d be wise to double- check the arrangements, tickets, passport, car hire, E111 cards and any other travel documents.The Moon can also warn of illness, poisoning or infection so it’s appearance is a reminder to take protective steps against malaria, travellers tummy etc. The Moon is paranoid at times, but here it is trying to help you, and actually it’s common sense. It’s just that The Moon is detecting an increased risk of problems at present. Be vigilant.

The Rider-Waite’s Moon card

Runes are used for advice about travel too, or to invoke ‘magical’ protection. Auspicious runes for travel include Rad or Raitho. (Journeys, Riding) as shown below…

… and The Horse, Ehwaz (vehicle, a unit of travel, such as a carriage, shank’s pony)

(Images source sacreddivination.com)

My experience, having used these alongside Tarot, is such that I would not neglect their study for this work, either. For ‘luck’ a prospective traveller might for instance, copy out their symbols, investing positive, respectful and appreciative expectation into the act of drawing. The symbol might then be carried on the person, in a pocket or wallet, or in the vehicle but it needs to kept upright, not carried or stored in such a way it might turn upside down and reverse the ‘luck’.

Magical thinking?

A bit bonkers?

Perhaps. But the human mind is eons older than human language and:-

‘If the mind will trust the body, the body will trust the mind, then the spirit of a thing can become greater than one thing.‘

I don’t know who said it..but really, I think it says it all.

An Outing for The Justice Card

Injustice eats at people.

Sometimes in a Tarot reading, the issue being detected is literally a legal matter. For a true story about that see my later blog ‘Manpower. The Emperor Card.’

Very often though, it refers to our sense of natural justice, our wish to see fair play done. The Tarot may then kick in as a kind of agony aunt. When we draw it in a reading for ourselves, the advice is to remember to play fair, to try and keep a balanced view, to deal in facts and to keep a cool, calm head.

I recently drew a card, Justice Reversed (meaning injustice or delayed justice) in a tarot sitting with a new client. The client had explained that she didn’t really know why she had come. There was no specific problem to be addressed, she said, but she had a weight on her mind and would welcome a little help in getting free of it. The Tarot adores doing this sort of work.

The Justice Card (Rider Waite, U.S Games)

Justice Reversed was the first card drawn, the keynote card of the reading. Because it’s a Major Card and because of the lack of a clear single theme shown in the other 7 cards of the spread, I felt its influence was working on her in more than one respect.

She wasn’t depressed, I didn’t think. Not as such. (No Star card Reversed) There was illness in the family though. I drew The 4 of Swords nicknamed ‘the hospital’ card. There was great anxiety and conflicted feelings connected to the forming of a new relationship (The Devil) There was a much loved mother on her mind (The Empress)

My client hadn’t mentioned her job. She hadn’t told me anything, only that she had a baby son.

But drawing the Justice card, though Reversed, prompted me to tell her that she could discuss work if she wished, because I had experience of reading for commercial lawyers. She then said she was a commercial lawyer.

Now the Justice card, as with any predominance of Swords cards, can indicate that a client works in the legal profession. However, there are many more occasions when when there’ll be no such connection. So a reader seeing this card cannot assume the client’s job is in Law. But on this occasion the card had served to prompt a hunch. Thisis the bridge between intuition and clairvoyancy.

The client had been harbouring a sense of injustice following a promotion disappointment the previous year. She did not trust the reasons she had been given for not getting the promotion. The Tarot however said that justice had been done. She was still very young, had been in practice 4 years and had been judged not quite ready..it was no more worrying or sinister than that, and so letting go would serve her best now. Promotion looked as if it was in the offing in the not too distant future…positive developments were indicated for July-September.

This the client said she could imagine, as she was aware of activities in the pipeline around that time.

There were other, less easily resolvable issues attached to Justice Reversed, relating to difficulties with a father who had ‘disowned’ her because he hadn’t agreed with her choice of husband. The Tarot had things to tell her and she left saying she felt much better, calmer in herself. She had formulated a strategy now for handling the problem with her father, and other issues

The Tarot is economical. It has to be able to talk about any human experience at all, using a toolbox of only 78 cards. Each card is a plump and shiny-coated workhorse, and will do multiple jobs in the course of a single reading. Especially if it is a Major card – this can really ‘up the ante’.

Comments or questions welcome. See the comment tag below.

Tarot’s Helicopter View…The Elemental Spread.

Simple Tarot Spread, getting a snapshot reading by using the major points of the compass.

Wheel of Fortune (Photo credit: vpickering)

Tarot ‘s Helicopter Hover

I often use a 5 card spread to get a quick sense of how someone is doing in general. It’s useful when I haven’t been given any question, in which case I use it to help to identify the question.

To go up in my tarot helicopter I shuffle blind and draw 5 cards.

Card 1 EARTH/ the North stands the Suit of Coins (also called Pentacles or Discs.) I Look here to see how my querent is faring in terms of home, job, money, health, stability and security.

Card 2 WATER / West stands the Suit of Cups: I look here for insights into matters of the heart, what’s going on in their personal relationships. How’s their mood? I look out here also for issues to do with health, healing and recovery, and for creative and spiritual preoccupations or questions.

Card 3 FIRE/ South stands for the Suit of Wands: here I’m asking myself via the Tarot, what’s driving them? What’s the dream right now? Travel and relocation plans may also show up here, and social aspects, and levels of inspiration and energy.

Card 4 AIR/ East stands for the Suit of Swords: here I’m looking for a sense of, what’s going on in their head right now? (apart from the reading, obviously) I look here for their plans, pending decisions, exercising choice and power, and any legal, medical or intellectual matters.

A fifth card is drawn for the centre of the cross, and here I am explicitly asking, what is the priority to be addressed in this reading session? What is THE Question?

A recent client drew

Card 1 (N) Coins Four of Wands Reversed (dissatisfaction at work and at home. A home feeling incomplete
Card 2 Cups The Emperor Reversed (Bureaucracy, overbearing or absent male figure)
Card 3 (S) Wands The Three of Cups (Friendships, celebrations)
Card 4 (E) Swords The Wheel of Fortune (Thinking of making major changes, this being indicated as a good idea)
Question Card: Judgement

The Four of Wands Reversed

Client Response: This Card correctly indicated dissatisfaction connected to a home/property and/or a professional matter. The client had a flat on the market, no offers as yet, and had just bought a new house, but didn’t feel settled and was feeling anxious that she had made a false step. She liked her work but had been unsettled there recently, having difficulty with a new manager’s communication style. She was thinking of retirement (and this card when reversed means a LACK or ENDING or a NON-STARTING of a professional activity or satisfaction.)

The Emperor Reversed

Client Response: This card rang true. She confirmed both as concerns that were preoccupying her at this time.

The 3 of Cups

Client response. She wanted, not a husband necessarily, but a proper companion. The man in her life would not entertain the thought of marriage, nor would he court her, nor even come to visit her in her new home. She was beginning to feel, not only sad but angry about this (the growing anger shown again to me later by the 5 of Swords) Her new house did not feel like home…she felt she hadn’t had a ‘house warming’…

The Wheel of Fortune

Client Response: She was ready for change, beginning to think very hard about what she wanted and needed after retirement. She felt she wanted life to continue opening up…she didn’t want it to narrow, she dreaded the idea of a dead-end.

The Question Card Judgement: Retirement was approaching, the end of a major life chapter. A kind of Judgement Day. Her essential question was, What would her life be like after it?

There were strong signs of happiness in retirement, indicated as being about eighteen months down the line. The relationship problem wasn’t going to be an obstacle to this. If the man chose not to opt in more actively, I sensed she was going on to sail on regardless, and if he didn’t respond, he was likely to be left behind.

Until next time 🙂