Happy new year beloved readers! We have finally left behind 2020. We are entering a new phase of awakening! Have you felt it yet? We are currently moving towards karmic returns and rewards. Plan ahead and plan accordingly. That’s what my intuition tells me anyway. This blog post, as promised in the previous, is about Tarot! What a time to discuss it as we move into a mystical year. This is the year of the Hierophant. 2+0+2+1=5. Key 5 in the Major Arcana is the Hierophant. The Hierophant traditionally refers to orthodoxy or tradition and has a spiritual connotation. I interpret it for 2021 to have a deeper, inner meaning for each of us. We can develop our own traditions and spiritual practices as well as utilize what we already know. To delve into our blog topic, I want to first begin with an amazing experience on the Winter Solstice Great Conjunction day last month. I was privileged, humbled, and honored to do a group Tarot reading as a 2021 forecast live on Zoom! So, why was it such a big deal? Well, because this was not something that I have done in a group setting or had even thought about doing publicly. And it absolutely set my soul on fire! Let me add to that statement. It reignited the embers of my passion for Tarot that were simmering away inside all this time. I remember when I got my first Tarot deck. I received it as a gift during high school: The Love Tarot deck by Sarah Bartlett and illustrated by Nancy Tolford. It is an unusual deck in that it does not contain the full seventy-eight cards, just the Major Arcana. At that time, I wasn’t sure if it was going to have the same effect as a full Tarot deck, but I used it, nevertheless. It even went to college with me! I used the Love Tarot my freshman year to gain insight into a “Victorian era” style romance that I was unsure of, and the wisdom through it proved helpful. Thus, began my “secret love affair” with Tarot.
Tarot is a riveting study because of the numerous benefits it offers from a psychological perspective as well as the spiritual guidance side of it. But before we get into that, let us peek a little into the origins of Tarot. To do that, we need to first look at the concept of divination. Divination by itself is nothing new. Many cultures have had methods that predated the inception of paper. They used stones, shells, leaves, tree barks, to name a few, and some continue to do so, and others with modifications. We humans have always had a fascination with divining knowledge and learning about specific outcomes to predict our own futures better. I believe the reason for this lies mainly in the fear of our mortality and in our desire to be happy. These two factors influence our decision-making daily whether we actively think about them or not. It is hard to pinpoint the exact origins of divination in terms of place and the time period, but I think we can relatively assume that it was a natural progression after we gained awareness of our existence within the scope of the world and the universe as our early ancestors understood it. So, that makes divination an ancient study that endures to the present day! This brings us to the subject of Tarot as a divinatory practice today.
I want to briefly discuss the history of Tarot. I know, I know “Why the history lesson, Foxy Witch?”—but this is incredibly interesting and something I believe adds to the mystique of Tarot. I’ll be succinct, because I’m merely presenting a humble overview of what I understand with works I cite at the end as well as in-text of this blog. So, let’s begin! Tarot as we know it can trace its existence back to the late medieval/early Renaissance era in Europe, most notably in Italy. It was not used for divination at that time. Tarot was a card game. You may note the similarities with the Tarot and playing cards used today. There are a few origin stories with regards to the divinatory nature of Tarot—some claim it can be traced back to Egypt. There are other theories as well, however, the most-well known and evidential explanation of the Tarot itself dates back to the fifteenth century. The Visconti Tarot, Sola Busca Tarot, and the Visconti-Sforza are among the earliest decks. But it wasn’t until the 1700s when Jean-Batpiste Alliette also known as Etteilla, ascribed meanings to the cards and created spreads that enabled divinatory interpretations that changed how Tarot was viewed. Occult societies began to gain momentum around that time and well into the 1800s, most notably the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. (Wen 8). That brings us to the modern Tarot deck that popularized Tarot for the twentieth century: the Waite-Smith deck. It is the work of Arthur Edward Waite and artist Pamela Colman Smith who were both members of the Golden Dawn. Smith’s art could be considered the standard that inspired other modern decks. A lot of decks publish it as Rider-Waite Tarot—but I will use Waite-Smith. She is an intriguing woman to study, and I will be making a post dedicated just to her. I’ll explain more towards the end of this blog.
The Waite-Smith deck is modern in nature because it captures both esoteric elements as well as Christian symbology. The Tarot decks in existence today are plentiful with a variety of interpretations. The early decks seem to have strong Christian, Hebrew, and Greek influences. They are more classical and allegorical in terms of the artwork, which is reflective of the Renaissance period. The emergence of the modern Tarot did not discard this completely as we see in the Waite-Smith deck. (“History of Tarot”). However, the more occultist approach became popular. This brings us to the main point of the blog: Tarot for divination. The Tarot deck by itself may seem just a set of images with meanings attached to them. To the mystic, there is an intuitive approach to divining. We meditate, set up sacred space, and cleanse and shuffle the deck. We let our intuition guide us to the cards. Either we let the cards jump out as we shuffle, or we pull them based on how we want to lay them out. But we are guided to the cards, however we do them. The messages are contained in our impressions of the cards as we scrutinize the images. We use the knowledge of the meanings of the cards as well as our reactions. Then we notice them in the context of a spread. There is an art and science to the Tarot. In terms of magick, we can use the cards to help us manifest, connect with deity or guides. We may lay them on our altars or use them in a specific ritual or during a new moon or holiday. There are astrological and elemental associations we utilize to help us divine. It supports us in terms of our understanding of ourselves and our relationship to environments and people around us. There is much more to be said on the Tarot. I will make another blog post on it as this is already quite long!
I want to end on a note about my decks. I communicate with them regularly. I pick them up and meditate. Each one has a different vibrational feel to it. The Archeon deck practically hums in my hands. This deck holds special meaning to me. I did not get it by accident. I’ll discuss that more in the next post! I also use the Universal Waite-Smith deck frequently. I feel Pamela Colman Smith’s essence permeate the deck. It actually seems infused with her energy! I want to say much, much more on this. So, my next post will discuss my decks and Tarot magick, Pamela Colman Smith, and end with a current forecast for the collective for 2021. If you made it this far, thank you! Until next time, happy new year readers. Namaste. With love, the Foxy Witch.
Works Cited
Wen, Benebell. Holistic Tarot: An Integrative Approach to Using Tarot for Personal Growth. North Atlantic Books, 2015.
Payne-Towler, Christine. “History of Tarot” Tarot.com, 24th May. 2018, https://www.tarot.com/tarot/christine-payne-towler/history-of-tarot. Accessed 6 January 2021.
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