As I often find myself compelled to say when teaching or simply discussing the tarot to or with others, there are no rules in the tarot. There is a structure, a history, there are many, many books defining the tarot, but when it comes down to the individual and their relationship to the cards, and the way that they personally read the cards, there really are no rules.
Having said that, I’m now going to do a simple breakdown of my personal ideas of the three types of tarot readers. I know that there are types of readers out there that I am not including, but the three I am addressing make up the majority of the tarot readers one might encounter today.
The Psychic Reader: this is a person who believes that they are gifted with a supernatural gift that allows them certain insight into the person they are doing a reading for. The cards merely guide them through the reading.
The Intuitive Reader: like the psychic reader, the intuitive reader depends on their own intuitive capabilities to perform a reading. They take cues from the imagery of the tarot deck to work through a reading, often ending up making connections that have very little to do with the intended meaning of the cards before them.
The By-The-Book Reader: The by the book reader uses the definitions of the cards provided to them by the creators of the deck they are using to perform their readings. They supplement that with study of the Tarot and its many readings, and typically do not stray from the ‘gold standard’ as defined in the Rider-Waite structure that the majority of 78-card Tarot decks are based upon. They use common sense, and contextual clues to perform a reading and connect the dots between the cards before them to tell a story about their client.
Next blog: Wheel of the Year/Twelve Months Spread
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