Tarot for Yourself, Mary K Greer, Chapter 3

Chapter three starts off by going a bit into why we read the cards and then into how by looking at the four suits and reversed cards. Before I move on with Chapter 3, though, I wanted to acknowledge that Chapter two ends with a discussion of patterns of year cards—Greer gives an excellent chart in which you can figure out what your year cards are for each year (both past and present) of your life and mentions the importance of years in which your soul cards match your year cards. Did anyone else chart their year cards? Did you find anything interesting in the intersections of major events and year cards? I’d love to hear! I hope to do this myself when things slow down, but haven’t gotten to yet.

Ok, back to chapter 3. In this chapter, Greer says that “The Tarot encourages you to look at life symbolically—to look deeply into its simultaneous levels of meaning” She argues that ideally, Tarot gives us opportunities and choices, not closed-down determinations about our futures or identities. She goes on to give the steps necessary to do a reading:

1. Deciding the purpose of the reading

2. Deciding the most appropriate spread

3. Recording the reading (on paper, recorder, etc.)

4. Dating the reading

5. Purifying your cards

6. Centering and grounding

7. shuffling, cutting, laying out the cards

Greer spends some time discussing how to ask a question of the Tarot, something that I personally find a bit difficult. Along with finding the right spread, asking a question in a way that can get an intelligible answer is sometimes difficult for me. I often avoid asking specific questions at all, which, though useful, is often just because I can’t think of a clear way to frame my thoughts. When it comes to questions, Greer breaks them down into 4 categories:

1. Questions about the most appropriate action

2. Questions of choice: which option is the best?

3. Questions asking “why”?, such as “What is this situation trying to teach me”?

4. Questions that can be answered yes or no

Greer says “It is worth spending as much time as necessary to clarify your questions, looking at its different aspects and deciding what you really need to know to resolve it”. As I mentioned above, this part is often difficult for me in my own personal readings. Although I feel I’m pretty good at re-framing querant questions, my own questions are often too complex and muddled to get me anywhere.

The book then goes through the four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles or Coins. Since I assume we are already pretty familiar with these suits and associations, I’ll just ask if any of these were interesting or surprising to you or if they reminded you of any aspect of the suit you had forgotten about or neglected. For me, I was reminded that the wands are “future oriented”, something that makes sense, but that I had not really considered deeply in my own readings.

So, what did you all learn from this chapter? I’d love to hear your thoughts, contentions, or anything that sparked your curiosity!

In this chapter, Greer discusses journaling in Tarot and why it is important. She suggest not only doing a daily reading, but also recording that daily reading in a journal to come back to later and reflect on. Greer suggests that you write down all readings and date them—this way, you can later see how certain patterns in your life have manifested during a particular time. This also seems like a good way to better understand the cards themselves: if you have some insight into a moment of your life and can see, in retrospect, how a card might fit that didn’t seem to at the time, you can gain some greater complexity in understanding that card. One thing she emphasizes, which seems very important, is to be sure to revisit “significant” readings to reflect on what those cards mean later in life. This, I must admit, is something that I don’t yet do often, but I want to start–I think parts of my life would be far more comprehensible if I stopped to take a tarot reading and then looked back!

Greer emphasizes the importance of paying attention to which cards come up often in a period of your life and seeing how the “message” that those cards is trying to give is not coming through. Have you ever had a card show up often in a reading? If so, was it a message that you weren’t getting or accepting? Did this repetition help you to gain some insight? In particular, I often have “The Hermit” come up in clumps–for my personality, this means one of two things:

The Hermet--Haindl Tarot

This question also made me think of a recent string of readings using the Osho Zen deck. I got the 3 of fire, also called “Experiencing”, several times in a row, as well as the “Slowing Down” card.

I tried to follow the “Experiencing” card advice, but ignored “Slowing Down”, which I’m now seeing led to a recent meltdown in which I felt completely out of control in my current situation. I hadn’t really made the connection between that card and things I’m “not accepting” before, but I can see that I was ignoring that message.

Greer then goes on to give some ideas for daily 3-card readings, which she says is a “powerful tool for feeding back information about your own processes of making decisions and dealing with situations”. She suggests the past/present/future and mind/body/spirit, among others, to use for daily readings.

So, before we move on to the second half of the chapter, I’d like to ask, do you do a daily reading? If so, do you keep track of your readings and reflect on them later? Have you found any insights in doing so, and if so, would you share them?

I do a daily draw, but I do not always keep note of it—though I did for a time period and found it very useful. Like everything else that has now become a daily part of my life (exercise, meditation), I really have to commit to it and carve out time, and I haven’t done that yet, but Greer’s helpful charts make me think that I’m ready to do so.

Decks used in this post:

In the second half of chapter 1, focused on rituals, Greer says that “rituals are very important in establishing rapport with your cards” but that “you must have faith in them (the rituals); you must feel confident that he act will have significant results spiritually, psychologically, and/or physically”.

Among her suggested rituals for a newly received deck of cards, Greer suggests sleeping with the cards under your pillow and wrapping the cards in a cloth or bag that feels right.

Next, she has some suggestions for purification rituals, such as rhythmical shuffling, smoking the cards with sage or cedar, “filling the cards with light” through visualizations, burying them in the earth, or re-ordering the deck after use (there are just a few–she has other suggestions).

I have always personally had a bit of trouble understanding why I need a purification ritual, as I don’t think anything could possibly make my cards “unclean” (I tend not to believe in the conventional ideas about energy), so I have some trouble with this idea. I’d love to hear from you all, though. Greer later mentions the question of letting somebody else touch your cards or not–I always have clients and those I read with touch the cards. I still generally disbelieve that anyone or anything can “taint” the cards or make them “unclean”, but I do plan to think a bit more about energy and cards.

In the next section, titled “Active Imagination”, Greer goes into how to do grounding exercises and use active imagination to enter and explore the card. The grounding exercise involves sitting upright in a chair with the spine straight, feet flat on the ground, and shoes off. Here is a simplified version of the exercise:

Take three deep breathes (remember to breathe into the stomach) and hold for three counts, then exhale until the air is completely gone and your stomach is pulled in. Hold for three and then inhale again. Keep up this careful breathing for a few minutes. On every exhalation, “visualize all your cares and tensions leaving through the soles of your feet”. Greer suggests that on the in-breath, you imagine bringing in energy from earth. Please see the book for more detailed instructions.

After this basic grounding exercise, Greer gives a detailed, step-by-step visualization exercise of “entering” a card. I hope to “enter” my soul or personality card later this week and post the experience.

As always, I would absolutely love to hear from you! Please post any thoughts or experiences you have had with these exercises.

Life Journey Spread:
1. Where have I been?
2. Where am I now?
3. Where am I going?
4. How do I get there?

Where have I been: 9 of Rainbows (Ripeness). Until now, I’ve been “getting ready” for life, not really participating fully in it or seeing myself as having a clear place. This card indicates that I’ve been getting there, but slowly, and that though this time has paid off, I need to stop taking the easy way and really jump into something wholeheartedly

Where I am: Ace of Rainbows (Maturity): Well, this is a welcome card, and it feels right: considering the card above it, I am in a place in which I have made some decisions about what I’m going to be doing with the rest of my life. I am and always will be, first, a writer, but beyond that, I’ve decided to also pursue a degree in Transpersonal Psychology and continue working with tarot in a more in-depth way. The Maturity card reflects those decisions.

3. Where am I going?: 3 of Fire (Experiencing): So this marks the third time I’ve gotten this card this week–a strong sign that this card is a significant one, and it is: I’d say of all of the cards, this one is one of the top-five hardest for me. I’m a head person, not so much an experiencing person. I would rather read about something than do it, and I love intellectual pursuits. Experiencing is not my strong suit, and I know that I have to address this not only for the things I want to do in life, but for my own happiness and health. Also, I think I’ve been lacking this element of actual experience in my writing, which is a real loss & keeping me from completing some of the projects I want to complete.

4. How to get there: 5 of water (Clinging to the Past): It makes sense that the only way to really experience fully–and not be afraid to be lost in experience for a while–is to let go of everything, but especially the past, which is the place where my habits of living in “the head” were created. Now, maybe I’ll do a spread to help me figure out exactly how to do this. I love the imagery here of the past as a blog on a person’s head, dense with memory, but blocking an individual’s movement forward. I can certainly see some parts of my past working in this way.

For more information about this fantastic deck, check out the Osho Zen Tarot Amazon page:

In the second section of the chapter, Greer gives instructions for how to create a “Tarot Profile” by finding your personality and soul cards, as well as many others. I’ll focus on the Personality, Soul, and Year cards, which might be good for discussion. These cards are determined through figuring your birth date and the current year. Here are the personality and soul card instructions:

Add together the month, day, and year of your birth. I’ll use mine as an example:
October 19th, 1981: 10 + 19 + 1981: 2010

Then, add each digit in the resulting number: 2 + 1: 3

Keep any number from 22 to 1. The resulting number is the personality number, which corresponds to one of the Major Arcana cards. For me, this results in the Empress Card. Your personality card, according to Greer, is the card that represents “what you have come in this particular lifetime to learn”. This is a challenging choice for me, as I must say, of the major female archetypes in Tarot, the Empress is the one I least identify with, and perhaps this is exactly why it’s my personality card: I need to connect with the nurturing, organic, and creative part of myself more.

For the soul card, add together any two digit numbers you might have. This card represents your “soul purpose”, meaning your purpose beyond just this lifetime (thought that’s a tricky one for people who don’t believe in reincarnation!) For example, if my birthdate was October 14th, 1947, my Personality number would be 18 (the moon), and adding together the two digits, I would get 9, The Hermit. Since my birth-date breaks down to a single-digit number, my personality card and soul card are the same card.

If you could, take a time to figure this out or revisit your card–it’s very interesting to come back to this after forgetting it, as I did when I went through these exercises again!

For the year card, take your birthdate and add it to the current year. Keep the highest number under 23. Remember that 22 equals The Fool. Here is  mine:

October 18th, 2011: 10 + 19 + 2011: 6 (The Lovers)
This card represents the tests, goals, and challenges for this year.

This card is interesting for me, as I’ll actually be separated from my partner starting in mid-2011 for almost a year, as he will be finishing a degree in Israel and I will be going home to the US. It’s not a separation I’m looking forward to–it’s mostly financial. It’s going to be challenging, but this card really makes me think about what partnership means beyond just physical contact (and the other meanings of this card beyond that).

Ok, I’d love to hear your soul, personality, and year cards, and what you think of this idea overall–does it help you to connect with the cards? Do any of them connect with you in particular?

I look forward to your thoughts!

*All card images taken from the wonderful Touchstone Tarot by Kat Black.

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“Deciding to work with Tarot is like embarking on a long journey, an inward journey that cannot be taken lightly.”

Mary K Greer, Tarot for Yourself

In Chapter 1, Greer gives a brief background information to the history of tarot, and though I find this interesting, I think I’ll hold off on a discussion of Tarot history until a future post. For now, I’d like to focus on the next exercise, in which Greer asks the reader to reflect on what Tarot means. She asks specifically What is Tarot? and What do you feel is the purpose of Tarot cards?
I think these two questions are incredibly important, so much so that I’m going to devote this whole post to them. What you think Tarot is will determine your relationship to tarot. If you think that tarot is a fortune telling or divination method primarily, then you will use tarot differently than a person who thinks of tarot as a system of occult information or as a representation of the Hero’s Journey or any other esoteric or spiritual interpretation of tarot. Obviously, many people combine many different methods of understanding Tarot, but the essential thing here is being able to boil down your beliefs about Tarot to the simplest terms: What, in a few sentences, does Tarot mean to you, and what it is for?

To me, Tarot is a system of culturally significant and intuitively evocative images that show us possible levels of human development (the Major Arcana) and all possible ways of interacting with the world (Minor Arcana). Tarot images tap into the collective unconscious and draw on archetypal images to give us higher insight.

The purpose of tarot is to use this intuitive and collective imagery to sharpen our own personal intuition and problem-solve. When the reader and the querent are both focused on the cards and the questions, Tarot can unfold unforeseen possibilities (or, maybe possibilities we aren’t willing to see, but know about already) and give insight.

So, that’s my simplest, boiling-down-tarot answer. What do you think? What is Tarot, and what is it for? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Stay tuned for part two of a very interesting chapter one next week (sooner than later, I’m hoping).

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When I first started learning tarot, one of the things that appealed to me most was the idea of using it for personal readings and self-reflections. I’m a writer, so I’ve always been a storyteller, and the great strength of Tarot, in my opinion, is the way that you can used the cards, in the context of a spread or alone, to find a story or narrative from which to glean important clues and find symbols that connect to your life. I was surprised to learn later that readers are often told not to read for themselves. I understand the basic idea behind this recommendation (that we will see what we want to see–or what we think we already know–in the cards), but I’ve always found that the cards really make me work to understand problems in a new and different way.

Those recommendations about not reading for yourself also come from a divination perspective. Although Greer is certainly interested in tarot as divination in Tarot for Yourself, my favorite aspect of the book is its focus on tarot as a tool for understanding myself and my place in the world. In the introduction, Greer says that the book is “a tool for achieving self-knowledge” as well as a way to apply tarot to real-life situations: to really live tarot, not just memorize meanings and symbols.

Greer says that tarot should be considered “not just a means of divination, but as a potentially dynamic tool for personal growth”. This view of tarot endows these 78 cards with a potential significance that your average non-reader might not understand: tarot isn’t just a way to see into the future, but it’s a way to help you understand your present more deeply.

Greer also emphasizes that this book is focused on helping to build intuition through exercises. The exercises are primarily writing ones, but Greer says that visual or auditory responses (such as drawing or reading aloud into a tape recorder) are also a good option. Since I’m a writer, I’ll be writing out all of mine & sharing them with you, though I might indulge in an audio post or two at some point.

The first exercise, just a taste of what’s to come, asks the reader to write every thought, association, and idea around the word “rose”. The emphasis here is on spontaneity and intutive thought–so if you are following along, try not to cross out anything or revise as you write!

Here’s my exercise of associations for “Rose”:

Rose. Red, velvet petals, though they’re sold in the grocery stores in a single unit, wrapped in crackling plastic. On Valentines Day, people give them to each other in heavy bunches, held in vases on workdesks and living room tables.  Roses are tightly bound in their buds, petals overlapping, until they open and display the softer inner petals. They have thorns, I’m sure, but I can never remember being cut by one.
So there it is! No great writing here, but I’m interested in how I really focused on the positive side of roses, sexuality and roses, as well as the commercial–the plastic-wrapped roses in the grocery store and the focus on petals. I must admit I didn’t have many ideas about roses before I wrote this up: I’ve never been much of a rose girl. But the exercise makes me want to go and look up all of the possible symbolic uses of roses beyond the obvious association with Valentines Day here in the US.

Ok, up next week, I’ll be delving into Chapter One, Getting Acquainted With the Cards.

I’ve had a bit of a break from my blog due to uncontrollable circumstances: a very close family member (in-law) fell ill about three weeks ago and, sadly, succumbed to her injuries two weeks ago. My husband and I flew into the States (we currently live in Israel) to see her again before she died and spend time with family. This was an incredible shock to us all, and a terrible time, full of waiting in hospital rooms, and moments of breakdown, but it was also, in some ways, a healing time: being with family and people who you have a rich, long history with can make times like this, as gut-wrenching and impossible to describe as they are, into something profound and moving.

Today, I got the Wheel of Fortune card as my daily draw. It reminded me of the cycle of things: times like what just happened will happen again and again, and they will also pass, as everything else, and happier times will come.

Finally, here is a card for D, who I think would have loved the Paulina Tarot. This card makes me think of you:

Here is what I would call a “narrative” card, from the 1001 Nights Tarot:

This card has a very “busy”, rich scene, one that invites the reader to really figure out what is happening, what those two figures in the front of the scene are talking about, and what the overall tone is of the conversation. If I were doing a reading, this is the kind of card I would really linger on, asking the client to tell me how they understand the scene, what they feel the figures are talking about, how the background characters are reacting, etc. To me, this card represents a lot of narrative possibility. Although there is a great deal of symbol here–musical instruments, cups and pitchers, as well as rich wall hangings–the narrative seems to dominate the symbolic.

Here is what I would call a symbolic card, from the Hermetic Tarot:

Although the Hermetic Tarot is obviously calling back to the tradition of un-illustrated pips, there are some illustrations here to hang onto: This card has various symbols, details, and words that point to an overall feel–the wilted flowers, “material trouble”, and the rocks at the bottom–but there is no story present.

Many decks are primarily symbolic and not narrative. The Osho Zen would fall under that category, in my opinion, as well as the Runic Tarot. When doing a reading with these decks, I find that they lend to a more direct, decisive reading, though I sometimes have trouble getting out nuances with these cards. For example, compare the five of pentacles above to this more narrative five of pentacles, this one from the Victoria Regina Tarot:

For me, this card contains more richness of possibility in reading. But then again, my reading style is heavily influenced by Mary K Greer’s ideas of reading a Tarot card through story, metaphor, and emotional “snapshots”, though I do love looking at things such as numbers, elements, etc. I often wonder if I’m missing something in how I do not connect with the more stark, symbolic decks and cards. I don’t have this problem with Major Arcana cards in general, which are usually not all that narrative in any deck.

Do you have a preference for “narrative” or “symbolic” cards, or do these categories seem too narrow? What are your methods of reading? I’d really love to hear from experienced and new readers alike–I can never hear too much about how people are using tarot!

So, I have never done this drawing before, but it seems like a good one. I framed the spread by asking “What do I need to know about my relationship to myself, those close to me, and the world?” For this reading, I used the Paulina tarot, a beautiful deck that you can find more information about here.

My relationship to myself: The Magician.

What a beautiful, blooming card! The first thing I notice about this Magician is that she (a female Magician! I like it) moves alone through a growing landscape. The Magician is about creation. The Empress is also associated with creation, but she is more about the nurturing, organic side of creation–the Magician means creating something new out of your imagination or dreams using the tools and skills at your disposal. To me, this card indicates that I need to be creating things. I already know this, but when things get busy, my creative time is what gets cut out. I need to understand that creating things is essential to who I am.

My relationship to those close to me: Knight of Cups.

I usually think of this card as a the “fickle lover” card, as representing a person who can never stay still and never be emotionally satisfied. In a positive position in a reading, though, this makes me think of flexibility and movement. I need to be able to move skillfully through relationships and not allow myself to get comfortable with only one or two close emotional connections. This is hard for me. I’m introverted, which makes me less likely to make an effort to reach out.

My Relationship to the World: Temperance.

This card is about mixing together opposites and creating a whole. This card indicates that I need to figure out how to mix my desire to make a change in the world with my introverted tendencies as well as the lifelong anxiety I’ve felt. This card makes me think of how I can think of this as a mixing of opposites instead of shoving myself into a role that isn’t comfortable–is there a way that I can keep what is good about introversion while being a force in the world? How can both exist simultaneously in the same space?

I like this spread, though I must say that examining my relationships is my least favorite thing in the world. I’m happy to delve into emotions, darkness, spiritual questions, etc, but examining different levels of relationships is tough for me, which is exactly why I need to be doing more with it.