A People's Guide To Tarot: A Primer for Everyone

My latest book is now available to the world.

I’m happy to announce that my guidebook to Tarot has now been published!

As you may remember, I decided to write this book after a friend asked me to teach him Tarot. I had sketched out a really brief collection of notes for him, and then soon realized I had the outline for a book. And that’s what became A People’s Guide to Tarot.

The book has two parts. The first is an overview of Tarot and ways to approach it. This part also offers suggestions on how to understand the relationships between the cards, how to ask helpful questions, and also what to do when it doesn’t make sense. And the second part contains guides to interpreting each card, with an emphasis on their meanings as parts of cycles within the Tarot itself.

Here’s an excerpt from the first part:

Even though you can read books about Tarot like this one, you cannot read Tarot like a book. Instead, it’s a lot more like reading a poem or like reading a person. You have to approach it with a playful curiosity, an openness to the world more common in children than in adults.

Of course, you’re probably going to read Tarot to try to find out something, and you’re going to be bringing a lot of emotions into the reading. Maybe you’re worried about the future, or about a relationship situation. Maybe you’re in a moment of confusion, or of sadness, or of great excitement. And no matter how hard you try, all these emotions are going to color the way you interpret the cards.

That’s okay. Our emotions also inform how we interpret art. We’ll experience a song that makes us feel really good, or that seems to speak to exactly the sadness we’re feeling at the moment, in a profoundly different way than we would if there were no emotions involved. So, there’s no need to try to suppress what you’re feeling. Instead, it’s much better to acknowledge those feelings and see what they want to teach you. In fact, there’s an entire suit of cards, the cups, that’s about learning how to do this.

Also, you’re probably going to use Tarot to try to understand situations, relationships, and others around you. That’s fine, too. More than fine, actually, because the Tarot is particularly good at teaching us how to understand those things.

And Tarot is particularly useful as a method of self-development. Reading Tarot helps you learn how the processes of your own mind, your memories, your surroundings, and those around you shape the way you see the world, yourself, and others. This kind of self-development is an essential skill for other spiritual frameworks, too. If you don’t know how your mind works, if you don’t understand your own tendencies, biases, or fears, and especially if you don’t know how to listen to your own instincts and intuition, then you’ll have a difficult time telling the difference between spiritual experiences and wishful thinking.

When you use Tarot this way, think of the cards like the mirrored surface of a still lake. Your thoughts will reflect back to you, as will your hopes, fears, biases, and everything else. Some of that stuff will appear to be at the bottom of the lake, some of it will be behind you in the sky, some of it will be on your own face. And sometimes, something else will be in your vision that you couldn’t see when you tried to look directly.

Now, many people develop all kinds of interesting rituals and beliefs around the cards themselves. Some people think that the cards are spirits, or that to be a good Tarot reader you need to summon a spirit to live in them. Others develop interesting taboos around them — for instance, keeping them stored in a black cloth bag to prevent them from picking up negative energies, or cleansing them under a new moon if someone else touched them. Some claim that only certain people can truly read Tarot, and they come up with interesting ideas about psychic powers. And during the readings, they use interesting things like crystals and incense and candles, or they say certain interesting prayers, and they especially focus on interesting ways to shuffle and pull the cards.

All these ideas and rituals and props are definitely … interesting. And that’s all I should really say about them, because I’m trying to be polite. But you won’t see any of these things in this guide.

Whenever we learn or start a new practice, magical or otherwise, we often over-complicate everything. People just beginning a gym or fitness program, for example, tend to spend a lot of money on branded athletic clothing and shoes, on supplements, on over-priced water bottles, and all kinds of other things they don’t actually need. The same goes for those starting a garden for the first time — we purchase too many seeds and plant starts, as well as more tools than we could possibly use. And while all that enthusiasm is a really important part in starting any practice (that’s what the aces are about!), we can make things so complicated for ourselves that we soon give up.

When many people start reading Tarot, they do the same thing. I certainly did, making everything far more complicated than it needed to be. But I’m going to try to help you avoid that mistake.

What you actually need to read Tarot is the Tarot itself. That’s it. No spells, no prayers, no special incense or candles or anything else. You don’t even need this book. Other things (including this book) can certainly help, while other things can get in the way. Don’t stress too much about any of this, and try not to overcomplicate this stuff.

And here’s one of the entries:

Queen of Cups

Imagine the kind of emotional security and certainty you would need to feel free to love and to be loved without getting tripped up by your own self-conscious doubts and fears.

You don’t actually have to imagine this, because it’s always available to you. And that’s what the Queen of Cups is here to remind you.

In the Major Arcana, The Star signifies a deep connection to the sources of inspiration that flow through us. The Queen of Cups says something similar, except the connection and flow in this card is between our own hearts and the hearts of others.

One of the classic associations of this card is with acting, and this is a really useful way of understanding it. The best actors are able not just to convince us that they are someone else, but they are also able to make us feel what their character is feeling. And then, when the play or the film is over, those actors then return to who they really are, without ever losing sight of their true nature.

This is the kind of being in the world that the Queen of Cups describes. We can move through life, encountering and even taking on the emotions of others, and then also still remain ourselves. Much like putting on a costume or a fancy outfit, we can be many things and feel many ways and yet always keep in touch with our core being.

Appearing in a reading, the Queen of Cups often calls you to this kind of confident flow. Especially if you’ve been unsure of yourself or your intuitions about a situation, maybe you need to put your doubts aside for a while. Try on a new trust or a new attitude towards things in the same way you might try on a new outfit. See how it makes you feel, if it fits well, and what kind of confidence it brings to you.

Also, if you are often afraid of becoming overwhelmed by your own emotions or those of others, this card could be pointing you toward a new way of experiencing them. Perhaps imagine them as waves in the sea, passing through the ocean without affecting what is deep underneath.

On the other hand, if you are very often caught up in the emotions of others or your own, the Queen of Cups’ appearance could be a suggestion that you have been too long in this state and your heart is getting waterlogged. In such cases, try to dry out a bit before delving into the emotional world again.

A People’s Guide to Tarot: A Primer For Everyone was RITONA’s largest pre-sale ever, and it has now begun shipping (pre-orders are being fulfilled first). You can order your print edition (perfectbound or hardcover) at this link, or get the digital editions (a combined package of the EPUB and the PDF) at this link. The Kindle version should be available in a few days.

Thanks for celebrating its release with me! And do please tell me what you think. I really, really enjoyed writing it for you.

Much love,

—Rhyd