| FAQ |
Some tarot packs like the Rider - Waite place Strength at number 8 and Justice at number 11. Crowley's Thoth pack places Strength at number 11 and Justice at number 8. This is very confusing for beginners, especially if trying to do numerology exercises. The option you choose can be determined by how you see the tarot system. I personally work with Strength as the number 8 card because it fits with my astrological sign, Leo, and August is the 8th month of the year.
Mary Greer's book Tarot Constellations (1987) has a section on this debate in Appendix A on page 195.
How does one interpret reversed cards? One can see them as meaning the opposite of what they meant upright, or as a blockage or disruption of the energy represented by the upright card, or as a warning that the card is working at its negative polarity. I don't use reversals because each card has a positive and negative polarity and I usually start off viewing each card as an issue, rather than taking it literally, so I don't feel the need to use reversals. That doesn't mean that they aren't useful. As a beginner I used reversals, and if I want very definite confirmation on how the energy of a card is manifesting I might use reversals. After all, the tarot can give ambiguous answers sometimes. I remember a woman asking me whether she would get a job she had applied for. The card she received was the Star. On the surface of things this seemed to indicate that she would get the job. But as I use the cards as a counseling tool I had picked up that the people offering the job to her were problematic and the Star in that context might mean that they were stringing her along by keeping her hopes up. It turned out that my caution was justified, they were stringing her along.
Court cards often present difficulties to beginners for a variety of reasons. Court cards can represent the querent or people the querent knows, or describe a situation or represent an event. Methods to establish which of these the card represents include: getting the querent to describe the personality of the character in the card - if the description fits him/her then the card probably refers to the querent, if not it may refer to someone else; or ask whether the card reminds the querent of anyone, if it does then a way forward presents itself. Sometimes I just treat it like any other picture that tells a story in the context of its position. If I have created a position for whether a person is going to be successful in a business enterprise, and get the King of Pentacles, then it seems fairly safe to say that success is on the cards.
Mary Greer has useful information on the topic in her books e.g. in Tarot Constellations, chapter 16 discusses the court cards as aspects of personality, her web site also has useful information.
Rachel Pollack also includes some useful information in The complete illustrated guide to tarot.
The book by Rose Gwain (1994), Discovering your self through the tarot, emphasizes the connection between the court cards and Jung's typology of personality types. Publisher : Destiny.
Please see the suggestions section of the workshop menu.
Yes, tarot can provide a pathway to self-knowledge that is exciting, challenging and creative. Mary Greer's book Tarot for yourself is essential if you are attracted to using tarot in this way. Publisher : Newcastle.
No, its a pack of cards.
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