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Tarot card readings are often portrayed in movies and books as fortune telling tools. However, tarot cards are not for fortune telling. They are for inspiring the mind and massaging the intuition. Tarot practitioners say what we need to shape our destiny lies within us and that all we need to find our path is a key or a tool. Tarot is the tool, these practitioners say.
Reading tarot cards is reading people, their personalities, their probable behavior under certain conditions and the various paths that could be taken given certain conditions that exist and desired outcomes.
This is also true when doing your own reading. - A deck of tarot cards is made up of 78 cards. Cards numbered from 0 to 21 are called the Major Arcana, which stands for profound secrets or mysteries. They stand for the major lessons to be mastered on the road of life. The balance of the deck is known as the Minor Arcana, which is made up of 4 suits. The traditional suits are cups, pentacles, swords and wands. Different names may be used depending on the style of the deck. For example, in the Voyager Tarot, the suits are cups, crystals, worlds and wands. There are many tarot decks to choose from. Some avid practitioners create their own decks.
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Just as there are many different tarot decks, there are also many layouts for readings. All cards have a meaning, and a different meaning if they are reversed when drawn.
In traditional tarot decks, cups deal with matters of love, emotion, and relationships.
Pentacles deal with matters of money, work, careers and material concerns.
Swords are related to intellectual and social interactions and matters of aggression.
The wands suit is related to physical energy, growth and personal matters.
Layouts are generally suggested with every deck. Most suggest beginning by shuffling the cards face down and then placing them according to the suggested layout pattern for the reading you are doing.
A simple reading for a beginner might be to shuffle the cards and then to place the pile face down. As you think of a concern or a question you can turn the top card over and then look up the meaning of the card you pulled and think about how that card and its meaning might apply to your concern.
This is a good way to learn the meanings of the cards and to begin to massage your intuition. As you become comfortable with the cards refer to the book or instructional information for the tarot deck you are using to progress to other layouts for specific readings.
