Hello and welcome to Tarot Asks the Question! Over the last few years I have developed and nurtured a heart-felt passion for Tarot. I find it to be an excellent divination tool, as well as a healing guide for personal growth work. To intimately explore a tarot deck is to journey through the human condition. But when you utilize the mystical and archetypical wisdom of a tarot deck you are personally inviting transformation and enlightenment into your life. I use tarot in my work as a reader and have found that even over the phone my clients are able to establish their own personal relationship with the cards.
I believe that the tarot, when used mindfully, communicates from the vantage point of the Spirit. It takes on the conflicts, fears, hopes, and wounds of the human condition in a way that contemporary, insurance-driven psychology simply cannot. In my tarot work I have seen my own life and the lives of my clients shift and blossom in ways that would take therapy many sessions, if not years, to achieve. At first I gave much of the credit to the cards and the various deck creators, but it didn't take long to discover that the key to unlocking the magic of a tarot reading rests patiently in the reader asking the right question based on the cards present. That realization sparked a new direction in my tarot work...to discover essential questions within each of the 78 cards.
It's common for most people to use a tarot deck, whether they are reading for others or for themselves, to approach the reading with the seeker asking a question so the deck can provide an answer that consists of insight, guidance, or a likely outcome. I have certainly had a great deal of success with this approach, but I have also felt very limited by it, especially when reading for myself. I also feel that the ego can be very tricky and the interpretation of a tarot reading is always vulnerable to the projections of both the reader and the querent. These innate challenges have inspired me to create a whole new approach to using a tarot deck.
I'm developing a method of using a tarot deck that assigns to the traditional 78 cards 6 questions that mirror the core essence of that particular card. A seeker would then use the deck with their issue in mind, but rather than asking a question and trying to figure out the appropriate interpretation for each card, the card will ask the seeker a question. There are many ways to choose which question to assign to the card, but my preferred method is to roll a 6 sided dice because that allows for the most random synchronicity in the selection. If you do not have a dice handy you can download a free online electronical dice program at http://www.programsdb.com/program/654/28953/IP_Electronic_Dice.html. The pondering of and the answer to that synchronistically assigned question will then release the guidance that can lead the seeker to deeper knowing about the situation and the Self.
It's my belief that this kind of internal seeking and processing creates solutions that truly come from within, no matter how mundane or magical the issue, challenge, or opportunity you face. I have found that, even with the best of intentions from both the reader and the querent, it is unavoidable to not give at least a small amount of your personal power away when consulting a divination tool. My hope is that this approach to reading will lessen that amount by providing a form of divination that prompts a seeker to answer questions that will unlock the internal guidance of their Higher Self, which is always ready to be invoked and allowed to participate in one's life.
Tarot Asks the Question is now home to this quest of tarot exploration and personal revelation. I invite you to join me as I uncover what each of the 78 cards wish to ask of us. The format will develop organically over time, but you can expect to see traditional card meanings and symbols evolve into questions that will invite one's personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences into the reading process. I realize that there are varying schools of thought concerning how to interpret a tarot card. I will primarily be utilizing common knowledge of the tarot based on a lot of reading and study, along with my own personal and intuitive understanding of each of the cards. I consider myself to be a reader and healer, so my focus will be on transforming it's symbolic images and common meanings into useful, illustrious questions, more so than on it's historical roots or the "whys and how's" of tarot.
I invite you to start integrating these questions into your tarot experience right away. They can be applied to any of the traditional tarot decks that follow the numeric positioning of the major arcana and the elemental system attributed to the Waite-Smith deck. Feel free to apply them to a one card daily draw, readings you do for yourself, or even a reading that you receive from a professional tarot reader. All you need is to trust in your own ability to reveal what is true about your Self and your life at this time. I whole-heartedly believe that real and lasting transformation can occur by finding the answer to just the right question.
Peace and great care,
Amanda
