Fascinated by Tarot? How to Make the Tarot Personalized to Your Life

The tarot is indeed a fascinating study that can be used in a variety of magical ways. Tarot spreads can be thrown for divination purposes to address just about any situation or question you have. You can also pick a card each day as a daily ritual to learn tarot card meanings, "wear" the card for the day to take on the characteristics it represents or as a way of getting messages from the Universe by studying the tarot card meanings you select daily. Tarot can also be used in creating Tarot spells to bring about changes and co-creations in your life.

Personalized Divination
Using the Tarot for divination gives you a direct method of obtaining information not available to the physical five senses by psychic or magical means. Magical divination is mainly used to direct our fates. By throwing tarot spreads for various situations in your life and interpreting tarot card meanings, you can discover the influences, energies and probability lines active in your life that pertain to the specific situation the tarot spreads are about. Having this information allows you to see what influences are affecting your situation and know where you can make changes to affect the outcomes in your future lines if you so desire. This is why the Tarot is such a valuable tool. Since the future is not pre-destined, you can change the future any time before it happens and using tarot spreads gives you the information you need to decide if and what you want to change.

Personalized Signifier
Many people using the Tarot today do not use signifiers. In our classes, we teach throwing Tarot spreads using a signifier. We feel this makes the reading more precise as well as more personalized to a particular person. The signifier card is a card selected to represent a person or a specific issue, question or situation. Signifiers are keyed to the person the tarot spread reading is for or to the situation or issue. This serves to make it even more personalized in addition to picking a signifier card for people based on chronological age and sun sign. Below are some guidelines for picking a signifier for a person, but you can't always pick a signifier based on the chronological age of the person. Also take into consideration how they act or behave. If you are doing a tarot reading for a child for instance who is particularly mature for his or her age, then you might want to use the knight instead of the page. We use the Waite Rider deck in our classes, but for those who use a Crowley deck, instead of using the page card, you can break it down further into sex by using the prince or princess. That deck also uses the knight as the adult male because according to Crowley there are no adult males as males never reach maturity.

Sun Sign Signifier Selection Guidelines:
Air (Wands):
Gemini
Libra
Aquarius

Fire (Swords):
Aries
Leo
Saggitarius

Water (Cups):
Cancer
Scorpio
Pisces

Earth (Discs):
Taurus
Virgo
Capricorn

Age Signifier Selection Guidelines:
Page – Conception to teenager
Knight – Teenager
Queen – Adult female
King – Adult male

So for example, if you are a Taurus who is an adult female, you're signifier might be the Queen of Discs and if you are a teenager whose sun sign is Leo then the Knight of Swords might be a good signifier for you.

Personalizing Your Tarot Deck
Another thing that makes the Tarot personalized to you and your life is taking the time to key each of the cards and the other magical tools you use to key the cards and in doing tarot spreads. Keying your own Tarot deck attunes it to your own personal energies. To key the cards in your deck you need a keyed Plate and to key the plate you need a keyed Chalice. That's a lot of keying admittedly, but taking the extra time to do these magical steps will make your Tarot experiences much more personal and create a connection between you and the cards. Using a keyed plate to key the cards sets up a magical shield for each one to protect tarot spreads from any outside interference including any doubt or negative factors you might have about a particular reading.

If you find you are fascinated with the Tarot and its many uses, you can learn more about it in our Tarot homestudy course or as a part of our Basic Magic class. Divination can empower you to take control of the direction your life is taking and give you the information you need to make decisions about where you want your life path to lead and what you want to attract to your life. And after all isn't that one of the many great reasons we choose to have magic in our lives?

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The Tarot: Judgment

In this new era, the world of the 6th Sun, we are being asked to use our own spiritual judgment more than ever. We can no longer rely on authority figures or gurus. We have to look back at our own history and ask ourselves if we are manifesting what we want. If not, what errors are we making over and over again? In what ways are we NOT using our spiritual experience and wisdom? One way to find out how we are doing in this aspect is to use the Tarot and in particular the Judgment card in a Tarot spread or reading. Here's why.

Judgment
The Judgment card is all about the spirit or you as a spiritual being. It is not about being judged from outside sources. If you wanted to look at that aspect then Justice or in the Crowley deck, Adjustment, would be the cards to use. Judgment relates to the spirit's own judgment as a spiritual being. Think of it as your spirit raising the ghosts of your past and passing judgment on them. In a reading of this type, spirit is accessing its entire life path and judging itself according to its own experiences. It is how you are dealing with your specific conditions as a spiritual being based on your past. This would be the card to use for questions such as:

• What kind of judgments have I passed on my own past experience?

• How good is my judgment as a spirit?

• How much am I paying attention to what I know as a spirit from the past?

If the Judgment card is upright in your reading, it tells you that you are doing well as a spiritual being in integrating past experiences and using good judgment as a spirit. This is not what is according to what outside sources such as man's laws, cultures or social systems say, but rather how your own spirit judges you and your past experiences. When Judgment is being used properly, it is compassion that you can shift, choose, and change. An upright card in your reading can imply that you have a spiritual balance going on and your ability to manifest is very high.

Of course, if you have a reverse Judgment card show up in your reading, then you get good information on what you need to consider changing. The experience of all our lifetimes is there for us to have and use if we ask for it. The Tarot and in particular the Judgment card can help in checking how we are doing in this role and give ideas of how we can do better. If you are interested in learning more about how to do Tarot card readings and what the cards mean then our online Basic Tarot Course can help you get started in this fascinating magical study.

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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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What Will Your New Year Bring?

Do you know what the new year will bring for you? Not sure? Itching to know? Then a Tarot reading might be just the thing. The Tarot, as practiced at the Esoteric School, connects the entire Universe to the Tarot deck, in essence shrinking the pertinent factors of the Universe's effect on your life to a manageable size--a reading. Don't know how to throw a Tarot reading? Then give yourself the gift of our Tarot Course this holiday. It's simple, fun, effective, and, best of all, will give you a heads up on what to expect in the coming year.

How Tarot Works
The Tarot is a method of divination that gives you a direct way of obtaining information by psychic or magical means that are not available to the physical five senses. Magical divination can be used to direct our fates. By throwing tarot spreads for various situations in your life and interpreting tarot card meanings, you can discover the influences, energies and probability lines active in your life that pertain to the specific situation. With this information you can see what influences are affecting your situation and know where to make changes to affect the outcomes in your future lines if you want to. This is why the Tarot is such a valuable tool. Since the future is not pre-destined, you can change the future any time before it happens and using tarot spreads gives you the information you need to decide if and what you want to change.

Making the Tarot Personalized
One of the ways we make Tarot readings more precise and more personalized to a particular person is to use a signifier card that represents and is keyed to a specific person or a specific issue, question or situation. Some of the information we use to select a signifier for a person are the Sun sign and the age of the person. There are exceptions to this method of selection, but it is a place to start. Here are the signs that correspond to the suit of card and age that relates to cards.

Sun Sign Signifier Selection Guidelines:
Air (Wands):
Gemini
Libra
Aquarius

Fire (Swords):
Aries
Leo
Saggitarius

Water (Cups):
Cancer
Scorpio
Pisces

Earth (Discs):
Taurus
Virgo
Capricorn

Age Signifier Selection Guidelines:
Page – Conception to teenager
Knight – Teenager
Queen – Adult female
King – Adult male

Situational Signifiers
Signifier cards can also be selected for situations and conditions. Some examples of signifiers for situations include:

Ace of Discs – money, the economy, body health
Ace of Swords – spirit vitality
Ace of Wands – mental health
Sun – general health (spiritual, mental, emotional and physical)
Justice – legal matters, lawsuits, legislation
Devil – large or long term material contracts, birth vision, spiritual contracts
8 Discs – job, work, business
10 Cups – marriage – emotional, family
4 Wands – marriage – mental
2 Cups – lovers, relationships, intimate emotional or passionate couple relationships
8 Wands – travel by air
3 Discs – career plans
3 Cups – friendships, emotional sharing among friends

As you can tell there is a lot involved in learning the Tarot, but it is a fascinating and fun magical study that can really pay off in giving you a way to take control of your future and your life. What a great gift to give yourself! Make it your New Year's resolution to learn the Tarot this year. It's easy to work into your own time and at your own pace with our online course.

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