Want to Learn Tarot? "Wear" The Cards to Gain Personal Knowledge

Tarot is a fascinating magic study that can give you a powerful tool to gather information and use for divination. When you first begin to learn tarot, you must of course understand the meaning of each of the cards. A good way to do this is to become personally involved with them instead of just memorizing descriptions. The meaning of the card can vary according to the reading you are doing, so developing a personal relationship and understanding of the cards can help them come alive for you in readings thus giving you the meaning in that reading in that situation. Before you can become personally involved with the cards however, you first need to key your deck. This ties the deck into your own energies and the energies from the Universe itself.

Natural Order
The first step to keying the Tarot deck is putting the deck in natural order. Following is the order the cards need to be put in for natural order. These should be placed with the first card listed face down on the top of the deck.
2-10, Page, Knight, Queen, King, Ace of Wands
2-10, Page, Knight, Queen, King, Ace of Swords
2-10, Page, Knight, Queen, King, Ace of Cups
2-10, Page, Knight, Queen, King, Ace of Discs
1-21 of the Major Arcana with the Fool being the last card

Keying The Deck
Sit in the South facing North with your keyed Plate (Earth tool) and Tarot deck arranged in natural order in front of you.

Put two candles that are either Sun Yellow, White, or Sky Blue on either side of the Plate. The candle on the right is the Wisdom candle and the one on the left is the Protection candle. Light the Wisdom candle with a wooden match, then keeping the match lit, sweep it down in an arc over the Plate to the Protection candle and light it. Finish up by moving the lit match in a sweeping arc back over the Plate to touch the flame of the Wisdom candle that is already lit. This process creates a connection between the two candles.

Now take your Tarot deck and put the first card on top of the deck, which should be the 2 of Wands, face up on your Plate.

Look at the card noticing the color, flatness, dimensions of it without focusing on any particular detail. Continue looking at the card, not with a hard stare but rather a soft gaze and start asking questions such as "What time of day is it?" or "Is that a town in the background?" or "Is that an ocean or a lake?" You aren't looking for answers to these questions; they are simply to create curiosity about the card. Continue asking questions until the card "windows". When the card "windows" it will become clearer, more alive, three dimensional, more colorful or brighter. It will feel like you are looking through a window at the scene on the card.

The card is now keyed and you can take it off the Plate and put it face down to start a pile next to the Plate. Then do the process with the next card.

Since this process takes a while, you don't have to do it all at once. You can do a few at a time. If you have a card that you can't get to "window", just put it to the side and try again later. This can happen if you have some type of issue about that card.

Wearing Tarot Cards 
After keying all your Tarot cards you are ready to learn Tarot card meanings. Wearing a different card each day will help you gain personal knowledge about the cards. You will experience how the card feels and get messages from the Universe about the card that you put on for the day. Here's how you "wear" a Tarot card:

Pick one of the Tarot cards from the deck and spend several minutes just really looking at it. Look at the symbols on the card, the pictures on it and the number of each. Think about what you know about the 4 elements in relation to the symbols. For example, if the card has cups in it then you know it is associated with the Water element since the magical tool for this element is the Chalice. The Water element deals with emotions and feelings so you'll also know that the card deals with these areas. Focus all your intention on the card and listen for it to "speak" to you. This might happen by you seeing or feeling it come alive by seeing movement in it, hearing words in your mind associated with it or that you notice changes in the brightness of the colors. Absorb the energies you feel from the card and take this energy with you the rest of the day. At the end of the day make notes about what you observed and how your thoughts, feelings, behaviors and interactions were affected that day.

Really getting to know the cards and creating a personal experience with them and what they mean will help you develop a deeper understanding of them. That way when you do readings you don't just have a memorized definition that you have to try to fit into the reading, you'll have a whole new perspective on the card meaning and the relationship with it to understand what it is saying in any particular Tarot reading you do. If you're ready to move on and develop a deeper understanding of the Tarot and how to work with it, check out our online Tarot Course.

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Want a Tarot Reading But Don't Want to Learn the Tarot?

You can certainly learn tarot and do your own tarot spreads anytime you want. We have an online course that walks you through how to learn Tarot and there are a lot of advantages to being able to do your own readings whenever you want. But if you don't want to take the time and effort to learn Tarot yourself, but have a particular issue a reading could help with, we have a trained Tarot reader available to help you with that. With this option you can get one or more readings done on the topic of your choice and just pay per reading. Readings also include any progression or regression readings needed to get to the root of the issue and you can also follow-up with questions by email if you come up needing more clarification on any point later.

What Tarot Can Do For You
Doing Tarot readings gives you a look at possible futures for any situation you can find yourself in. Relationships, where to live, career choices, health issues, travel plans, just about anything you can think of can be guided by a tarot spread. Since the future is not pre-destined, the Tarot shows you various flow lines going from past to present to future possibilities of what can happen if you continue on the same path. To change those future possibilities all you have to do is make a small change in the present to what you are currently doing and you can change the outcome. You can see how useful a magical tool this is in avoiding pitfalls and catastrophe in a variety of situations. The Tarot can point out influences affecting your situation, energies and probability lines that are active in your life and help you make important decisions from seeing the future probable outcomes. With all this you can direct your own fate and leave nothing to chance. 

So the next time you need help determining which path to take, finding out what the future may hold for you, or in making a big decision think Tarot. Learn it yourself or hire one of our Tarot reader experts to help you out. Since cost for individual readings are based on the number of readings needed for a specific situation, email info@shamanschool.com for an estimate. Either way, the Tarot is a tool that can use real magic in a real way in your life. 

Image courtesy of  Stuart Miles  / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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3 Things You Probably Didn't Know About the Tarot

If you are familiar at all with Tarot, then you probably know it offers you a form of divination to foresee future obstacles if you continue on your present path in a situation. By making a change however in your present, you can change the future outcome. It gives you a direct method of obtaining information not available to the physical five senses. But here are three things you may be surprised to find out about the Tarot. 

1. A properly keyed tarot deck is an actual model and reflection of the Universe. Taking the time to key each of the cards attunes it to your own personal energies which will make your Tarot spreads personal and create a connection between you and the cards. During 12-card readings your tarot spread will show you the past and present for any situation you are reading that you will recognize from your own past conditions and where you are at presently. Then flow lines will show you what future conditions you can expect if you continue in the same manner or what changes can occur if you make changes in the present. The success of these type readings depends on picking signifiers for the person and situation being read.

2. Since your deck is keyed to represent a model of the Universe you can change the universe by changing a tarot reading using a tarot spell. Once you have the tarot spread laid out that you have decided needs a change in the present to change the future, you can set up a spell matrix using candles and spell verses around the spread. Making the card changes in the tarot spread within a spell matrix creates that change in real life.

3. The proper interpretation of the cards has to be done through keying and studying the cards of certain decks, such as the Thoth deck and Waite-Ryder (other decks have their purpose, but truly useful tarot decks reflect their true meanings with their images and thus lead to proper interpretation). Just memorizing meanings of cards or going by standard book definitions is really restricting. By keying the cards and "wearing" them around to get the feel of each, you become personally connected and are able to see enhanced meanings of them.

Find any surprises there? If you are interested in becoming adept at using the Tarot and learning to do tarot spreads and readings, our online Tarot Couse is for you. It will take you through how to key your deck, how to pick appropriate signifiers for people and situations and how to do Celtic Cross and 12-card readings. Make the Tarot come alive for you and help you use magic to get the results you want in your life.

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