TAROT: THE ART OF DIVINATION

Call into the void, and your questions will be answered.

WHAT IS DIVINATION?

Divination is the art of calling out to that which you cannot see (spirits, deities, or perhaps even wiser versions of yourself) to gain knowledge. In essence, it is contacting the supernatural, whether to have your questions answered or to simply speak to someone in a different world from yours (whether they be living or dead). The most commercialized form of divination is the usage of an Ouija Board, though other forms of divination aren't as in-depth, don't require as many people, and none of them include the same drama that gets shown in the theaters.

Other forms of divination include more traditional methods, such as using a pendulum or tarot cards, or more modern methods, such as shufflemancy, the practice of creating a music playlist to shuffle in lieu of a card deck. However, forms of divination can also be created by an individual to fit their needs. So long as you have a way for whatever decides to answer you to communicate, you're set!

All in all, divination is a spiritual art—though, don't take this to mean that you must be a religious person to practice divination. Spirituality focuses on the self and one's own journey through life, and does not require rigid practices nor a centralized belief system like religion does. It's about you, and how you decide to navigate the metaphysical world around you. That being said, there are many ways to interact with each form of divination, even outside of the method you choose!

WHAT IS TAROT?

Tarot, or more specifically, tarot cards, are a set of playing cards that date back to the 1400s, though their usage in divination only became popular in the 1700s. The most significant trait of a tarot deck is the fact that each and every card has its own specific meaning, written and dissected over countless years by countless people. No matter how many different tarot decks are created, these 78 cards retain the same meanings, only accented by the symbolism of the art put on the cards.

The process of using a tarot deck is simple, and there are a variety of ways to do it. I, personally, will close my eyes as I loosely shuffle my cards with my question in mind. Once I feel that I've shuffled enough, I run my fingers along the cards in my hands until I pull one out on impulse, and repeat the process for however many cards I'd like to pull for that reading. If one is divining for another person, the common practice is to allow them to pull their own card while their question is in mind, as their connection to the question will be stronger than the diviner's (one who practices divination).

[Pictured: Death, the Queen of Cups, and the Three of Swords from the Hermetic Tarot.]
(Picture taken by myself of my personal deck, the Hermetic Tarot. Click for more information about this deck!)

THE CARDS THEMSELVES

The cards of a tarot deck are separated into two sets: the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana contains the cards most used by fortune-tellers in media, which is completely fair! These are the trump cards of the deck—the cards that mark the major parts of one's journey through life, or on a smaller scale, through situations in one's life. As they are seen in sequence, The Fool (0) begins his journey, naive and willing, and he ends his journey as a fully-realized, satisfied person at The World (XXII). There are 22 Major Arcana in total, and while they don't make up the majority of the deck, they hold the biggest presence.

The Minor Arcana encompasses the other 56 cards within a full tarot deck. These are minor steps in one's journey throughout life, but that doesn't mean they lack importance. If you were on a cross-country road trip, the Major Arcana would be the states you pass through, while the Minor Arcana would be the cities.

All 78 cards in a tarot deck are given one of four elements:

While the Minor Arcana is separated, based on the above, into these suits with the same meanings:

[Pictured: The Ace of Cups, the Ace of Wands, the Ace of Swords, and the Ace of Pentacles from the Hermetic Tarot.]
(Picture taken by myself.)

The cards are further divided by the essentials of each Minor Arcana suit, organized much like a deck of regular playing cards:

[Pictured: The Knight of Swords, the King of Cups, the Queen of Wands, and the Princess of Pentacles from the Hermetic Tarot.]
(Picture taken by myself. Note: The Princess of Pentacles has been censored due to graphic nudity.)

Fun fact: If you were to remove the Page of each suit, you would be left with a Minor Arcana of 52 cards, matching the number of cards in a standard playing card deck!

The meanings of each suit and each number (the King, Queen, and Page included) pair together to produce new, unique meanings for each Minor Arcana card. This both allows the cards to be individuals when drawn alone and stronger when linked together in a reading. For example, if you were to draw the Knight of Wands and the Knight of Swords, you would be able to ascertain that the Knight, associated with travel and delivery, is especially important to the message you're being sent.

It's also important to note that, while not all diviners will use them, reversed cards carry their own unique meanings as well. A reversed card will invert the meaning of the original card. For example, while the Page of Swords represents starting a new intellectual pursuit with optimism, the Page of Swords reversed represents this optimism fizzling out, due to poor planning or impulse decisions—decisions made without the intellect the suit represents.

To reverse a card, one simply flips it upside-down while shuffling their deck. If we include reversed cards, that expands our library of interpretations to a whopping 156 cards to pull! Let's say you were laying out a spread of 5 cards for a reading, and in your deck, you were shuffling in such a way to include reversed cards. There would be 721,656,936 different combinations that you could pull from those 156 cards alone!

That concludes this introduction to divination and tarot! On additional pages, I'll be talking about the individual suits and cards in more detail, as well as walking you through a reading I've personally done!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES