Aug 30
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.
Read moreCelebrating 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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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
Christiana Gaudet is my kind of tarot reader: concise, no-nonsense and practical. She gets right to the point without stalling for time; and knows immediately what aspect of a card to highlight. Her decades of full-time reading shines through her technique. She intuitively knows what the client needs: practical advice, compassion, reassurance, a kick in the pants – she can deliver any of that with any card. I’ve given an exercise below that will help you read just as fluently and quickly. Read more
This book is destined to become a classic, along with books on the same topic by the likes of Jodorowsky and Ben Dov (to whom the book is dedicated). Three kinds of people need this book:
Tarot Heritage 