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Posts from the ‘Tarot Reading Tips’ Category

Sep 10

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A Guide to Reading with the Tarot de Marseille

One of my favorite tarot bloggers, Wayne Limberger at ParsifalsWheelDivination.org, has come out with a guide to reading with the Tarot de Marseille (available at Lulu.Com). The author has been reading tarot for the public with the Thoth and Waite Smith decks for forty years, and has been blogging for nearly a decade. He knows how disorienting it can be to try reading with a deck that not only has no scenes on forty cards, but was created for playing a game with no reference to astrology, Qabala, or any other esoteric framework the reader might be familiar with. If you want to experiment with the Tarot de Marseille, Limberger provides a practical handbook filled with advice from an experienced reader who understands the struggle to read with those strange and abstract Tarot de Marseille cards.

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Jul 23

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A Yes-No-Maybe Tarot Technique

I generally use tarot for diving into the murky depths of my psyche. But sometimes I just want to be told what to do! I’ve tried various Yes/No spreads with dismal results, so I just gave up on the whole idea. Then the other day, while sorting through some old papers, I found notes on a technique I learned in a workshop with Mary Greer and Rachel Pollock at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. This technique provides a nice balance between getting a cut-and-dried Yes/No answer and gaining insight into the situation. I’ve tweaked it a bit and it’s been giving me solid advice ever since I started experimenting with it a few years ago.

This spread answers one question: “Should I …..?”
Should I send out for pizza? Should I tell my boss where to shove the job? Should I get a puppy?

It doesn’t help you evaluate pros and cons. It advises you on whether to do the proposed action or not, then tells you the consequences of following the card’s advice.

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Aug 30

Tarot-Heritage Tenth Anniversary Roundup: Odds and Ends

Winding down my website’s tenth anniversary summer celebration. Even here in sunny Santa Barbara, where weather rarely happens, I can feel a subtle shift in the air as we head toward autumn. To finish up the series, here’s a grab bag of articles that don’t fit into any category.

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Jul 26

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Tarot-Heritage Tenth Anniversary Roundup: Spreads and Techniques

Celebrating my website’s tenth anniversary: 174 blog articles and 42 website pages on tarot history, reading with non-scenic pips, and decks of historic significance. Throughout the summer, I’m going to group the most useful articles by topic and send out links in a series of blog posts. Today’s links are all about reading techniques.

The Spreads page of the Cartomancy section of this website gives simple techniques for reading with two and three cards.

I rarely use spreads, but the following articles describe ones I like, plus a few of my favorite techniques.

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Jul 12

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Tarot-Heritage Tenth Anniversary Roundup: Reading Tips

Celebrating my website’s tenth anniversary: 174 blog articles and 42 website pages on tarot history, reading with non-scenic pips, and decks of historic significance. Throughout the summer, I’m going to group the most useful articles by topic and send out links in a series of blog posts.

We’ll start the series with tips to get you started reading cards with non-scenic pips.

If you’re new to reading with the Tarot de Marseille and other non-scenic pip decks (NSPs), if you feel intimidated, don’t know where to start, or would like some structure to your studies – there’s an entire section of this website just for you. Rather than spoon-feeding you card meanings, I’ve created a structured set of exercises in the Cartomancy Section to help you develop a personal relationship with the cards and devise card meanings relevant to your deck.

Below are some articles to inspire your daily tarot practice.

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Mar 27

Le bateleur card from the Jodorowsky tarot

Jodorowsky Card Selection Technique

I’ve been watching Alejandro Jodorowski read cards on Youtube. He has a unique method of picking the cards for his three-card line. I’ve described it below and demonstrate with two readings. You’ll need two sets of trump cards to try his method. He uses two identical sets of trumps from the TdM he created with Philippe Camoin. I see this as a chance to use a variety of trumps-only decks that rarely come off the shelf and are too precious to shuffle. Read more

Jan 28

Cover of The Tarot:A Strange and Wondrous Thing
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A Tarot de Marseille Book for Everyone

The Tarot: A Strange and Wondrous Thing by Annette Wakulenko will give you a solid foundation for reading cards with the Tarot de Marseille (TdM). The card meanings, spreads and exercises in this book are the result of the author’s many years of devoted study. The author’s mission is to introduce tarot readers to the TdM and show a method for interpreting the cards, especially the pips, that does not rely on the Golden Dawn system. The book is written in a conversational style that feels like receiving one-on-one mentoring from an experienced teacher. Read more

Nov 21

Spread using Tarocchi Lando
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Spread and Reading with I Tarocchi Lando

I discovered this spread in a booklet by Giulia Orsini included in the Lando Tarocchi produced by Giordano Berti. It works best for providing an overview of a situation and for advice on how to get the outcome you want. I don’t often use spreads, but I was attracted to this one because it has features I like: The trumps are separated from the suit cards; only one suit is used – whichever fits the question best; and it resembles the Tirage à Croix (fancy name for the Cross Spread). Read more

Nov 7

Four cards from the Triadic deck

The Triadic Tarot

A square Tarot de Marseille with cards that can be turned in any direction! Pips arranged in triads according to a system described by the French occultist Papus. This radically unique deck will spark your intuition and give you a solid system for interpreting the pips. The sixty-page booklet that comes with the deck gives you everything you need to read with it. It’s great fun playing with the possibilities in these cards, which can only be obtained directly from the creator at http://www.ArcanaPress.net. See a sample reading at the end of this article. Let’s look at each component of the deck in detail. Read more

Oct 17

Rereading the Classics: Yoav Ben-Dov

About this series:

If you want to read with the Tarot de Marseille (or any deck with non-illustrated pips) and only know English, get acquainted with these six essential authors: Yoav Ben-Dov, Jean-Michel David, Camelia Elias, Enrique Enriquez, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Caitlín Matthews. I plan to spend the winter rereading them and reporting on a few tips or exercises from each author that strike me as especially interesting. Stay tuned for J-M David in a few months. Here’s what stood out for me in Yoav’s book, Tarot: The Open Reading. Read more

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