The Tarot: Connect With Your Intuition

I was given my first deck of Tarot cards by my mother back in 1990. Before that I had experienced several readings from my mother, her friends and professional card readers. I found the rich history which surrounded the cards to be quite interesting, and being a young woman just out of my teens, I was seeking my place in the world and was confused as to what paths to follow. Many of my first readings were based on my own personal confusion about my life path. And when I received my own cards, I began using them regularly to help find the direction I needed.

In my experience, even though having someone else do a reading for you can be eye-opening and fun it is always important to remember that they are just a guide. Viewing the reader as someone who has great mystical powers will keep you from evolving along your life path. Tarot readers, psychics and mediums are simply people who have developed their intuition more than you have. So it goes without saying to be alert to any Tarot reader who touts themselves as "all knowing and powerful".

As time went on, I began to notice that after the process of shuffling the cards and centering myself, the answer to my question would pop into my head. I would lay out the cards and carefully follow through with the spread and sure enough, when all the cards were out, their meanings would support the answer I had felt in my heart after shuffling. The Tarot then became more than a means to see hopefully into the future. This is when I began to realize the true power of the Tarot as a means to connect with my Higher Self. The inner wisdom that we have and have forgotten how to listen to.

The reality is, we already know the answers to all of the questions we may have about our love life, career path or financial situation. The problem is, we can't hear the answer because of all the mental chatter that occupies our minds. This chatter is a result of our coming into being in this world. We are taught to disregard our intuition the minute we arrive. Listening to parents, teachers and other authority figures is stressed over listening to the quiet, still place in our hearts.

Now, I'm not criticizing the way our parents raised us. It is important for our physical survival to learn to listen to authority figures and most parents don't have a developed intuition anyway, so they do not pass it on to their children. So, when our intuition, that gut feeling pops up, we disregard it because it is not a tangible authority. But, when looking back on situations where we made a choice that was not in our best interest, we can remember a gut reaction, or a voice in our head that tried to keep us from moving forward. So, the goal when learning to tap into intuition is to learn to listen the first time. The challenge is learning what to listen for. This is where the Tarot can be an important tool.

The first part of any reading, whether you are doing your own or paying to have one done, is to focus on your question or problem. This is done by clearing your mind of all outside thoughts. Then the next step is to move on to shuffling the cards. As you shuffle, you think about your query. When you feel ready, you stop shuffling and cut the cards. It is during this mental and physical process that the centering of our mind occurs. Once the mind is centered it is easier to hear your intuition. The simple process of preparing for a reading is an exercise for connecting with your intuition.

A traditional deck of tarot cards contains 78 cards. Made up of two sections, the major arcana and minor arcana, the cards display different levels of the human experience. Simply put, they represent a group of key experiences which interpret the basis of everything.

The major arcana represent universal conditions of the human adventure. These 22 cards are the archetypes that are life experiences, or themes of life that influence how we move along our path. The minor arcana translates the previous themes into the aspects that make up our everyday life. These last 56 cards represent how we react to the current life theme that is affecting our life. Each suit (pentacles, cups, wands and swords) depicts the apprehensions, actions and emotional reactions we have to situations that make up the experiences of our daily life.

Once the shuffling is complete and the cards are cut, you or the reader then go through a process of laying the cards in specific positions. The positions that make up each spread explain aspects of the query. For instance, the traditional Celtic Cross spread focuses on the past, present, potential future and how the querent and others view the situation. Taking all of this information together the interpreter is able to devise a possible answer and course of action.

There was a time in my life when I did a tarot spread every night as a means to reflect on my day and the choices I had made. Periodically I asked a specific question, but eventually I didn't need to consult the cards that often because I had become comfortable with listening to my intuition.