Interviewing Your Deck

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Amethyst Mahoney, Tarot Goddess

Today’s cards come from Legacy of the Divine Tarot by Ciro Marcetti. I love the Gilded Tarot by Ciro, and used it as my main “go-to” deck for over 7 years. The Legacy and I though, we never could quite connect.

Today I did a short interview with the deck. This is a fun practice to get into any time you get a new deck, or if you just want to go back and get reacquainted with a deck.

I asked the deck three questions.

1. What is your Strength? 5 of Cups. This deck won’t pull any punches when it comes to readings. However, even if the message is clear that things aren’t going the way you’d like them to in your life right now, and there are shattered and broken glasses all around you, you’ve still got 2 cups to hold onto. In other words, there is always a silver lining and a way out.

2. What is your greatest weakness? 10 of Cups. It is easy for a reader to get complacent with this deck. Rather than face the problems head-on, you may be tempted to cozy up by the fire and ignore the issues.

3. What is the outcome of our relationship? XX Judgment. I’m pretty sure this was the outcome the last two times I tried to interview this deck. Am I still judging it? Probably. Judgement is about new beginnings, too. Maybe it’s time for me to pass this deck on to somebody else who will appreciate it more.

There are tons of ways to interview your Tarot deck. Are there questions you use? What do you most want to know about your current deck? If it’s just not working, is there any way to repair that relationship, or is it just not the right deck for you? I’d love to hear what you find out!

Posted in 5 of Cups, Legacy of the Divine Tarot, XX Judgement | Leave a comment

Halloween Already?

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Amethyst Mahoney, Tarot Goddess

There are Tarot decks on practically any subject you can think of, and new ones coming out all the time! These cards are from the Halloween Tarot by Kipling West.

I love this deck, and actually use it from time to time all year round. Sometimes you might be skeptical about buying a “themed” or “cutesy” deck, but this one reads really well. I do get a little confused as to the suits sometimes. They use pumpkins, ghosts, imps, and bats. But it’s still pretty easy to figure out the meanings just from the pictures on the cards.

Do you have any themed or fun decks? Have you had the chance to play with the Halloween Tarot? I’d love to hear about it!

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Second Act – Reinventing Life

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Amethyst Mahoney, Tarot Goddess

Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore and Aly Fell

Today’s post is all about reinventing yourself.

Many of the people in the Blogathon 2012 challenge are writing on how they have recreated their lives after the age of 40 for SecondAct.com.

Well, I may have  only just turned 35, but I’ve already done a stint in the Army and spent 10 years in the mental health field. I also spent 2 years in a wheelchair due to injuries from the Army, and I be somewhat disabled the rest of my life, even if you can’t really tell. Eventually I quit it all to become a full-time Tarot reader and now business coach.

One of the best ways I have found to reinvent myself is to use the Tarot cards. Find a Court Card with qualities that you would like to emulate. Last year I chose the Queen of Wands and listed the following qualities:

- she can write a book

- lead workshops and classes without worry or fear

- write and publish magazine articles

- step up in her business community and ask people to be a part of something bigger

- talk to her heroes

- take on one-on-one clients

- believe in herself

These are some of the qualities and things that I wanted to do, and honestly I thought it would take me YEARS to get there. But with the help of some exercises and some hard work, I feel like I can honestly say that I have accomplished many of these goals in just the past year!

In fact, I just released my second book in less than a year! You can find it at 50 Places Your Clients are Hiding in Plain Sight.

How can you use the power of the Court Card to reinvent your life?

Find the court card you most want to be like. Write down all of the qualities that person possesses. Write down all of the things they do, like public speaking, writing, or networking. Write down some real, tangible things that person can do: write and publish 3 magazine articles, meet 4 new possible clients, attend a network lunch, or any examples that you think are important. Many of these things will seem very scary and beyond your reach.

Then start taking steps toward those things. Pretty soon, you will look back and be amazed at how far you have come.

Now some people ask me, how do you get from where you are to where you want to be? When you are really scared, and that future seems so distant and so far away, how can you really get there?

The answer for me is simple: I use a Transition Knight Card. I’m a big fan of King Arthur and the whole Knights of the Round Table thing, so this is what I do: I find a Knight card that I CAN be right now, and I expand on those qualities until I can have enough courage to become that future court card that I want to be.

I like to use the Knights from the Gilded Tarot (yes, it’s okay to “mix” decks!):

 

 

When I have to do something scary, I just throw on my suit of armor so nobody can hurt me. Yes, seriously, metaphorically this is what I do. And this is what I recommend to people. Your Knight can help you take baby steps to reach your goal. If you can’t be the Queen or the King yet, you can still be a Knight, and start making your way there.

What Court Card do you want to be more like? Which Knight card can you use to help you get there? I’d love to hear about it!

 

 

Posted in Gilded Tarot, King of Pentacles, Queen of Cups, Queen of Wands, Steampunk Tarot | 2 Comments

How to Choose Your Tarot Deck

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Amethyst Mahoney, Tarot Goddess

2 of Swords from the Cosmic Tarot

With all of the thousands of Tarot decks out there, how do you choose the one that’s right for you?

Some people will tell you that you can’t buy decks. There is an old wives’ tale that your decks must be given to you.

Puh-leez. What a bunch of hogwash!

You can certainly buy your own decks, and I suggest that you do. Tarot decks can now be found in many mainstream book stores such as Barnes and Nobles. In fact, they will often have a notebook that pictures cards from each of the decks they sale so you can see what the cards look like.

Before you go heading off to the store, though, there’s a great site where you can see many of the cards and their pictures.

It’s called Aeclectic. Now some people get upset and say that they only feature the prettiest cards in the deck. So, what can you do? Here are my tips on how to choose your Tarot deck:

1. Look for Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) clone decks that have interactive pip cards. You want to make sure there are people or animals doing something on the cards, not just 4 swords, 3 cups, or 7 coins sitting there.

2. Check out Aeclectic to see what you might like. There are thousands of decks you can browse through alphabetically or by subject matter, plus reviews (though in general the reviews all tend to be positive with little constructive criticism). Make sure you are looking at Tarot decks, not just Oracle decks. Oracle decks do not follow the 78-card structure of Tarot decks.

3. Google the deck or decks you like or are interested in. Click on “image” in the search window so that you can browse even more pictures of the cards in your deck.

4. If you still are at a loss, hit up some Tarot groups. Tarotholics Anonymous on Facebook is a great way to get more info about a deck you are considering purchasing. People are very honest there about what they like and don’t like, without being overly mean. There are close to 1,000 people in that group, and it’s very active – and opinionated in a good way!

You can also visit metaphysical stores, fairs, and events and browse the Tarot decks there. Be warned, though – most readers will not let you touch their decks! If you ever catch me at an event, I bring over 30 decks just so you can look at them, play with them, and see what you might like.

Don’t forget you can also sign up for my Free Beginner’s Guide to Learning Tarot. Just fill out the box on the right-hand side of the page. You’ll get more information as well as a great exercise to do with your deck that will put you years ahead of other readers!

What about you? Have you chosen a deck yet? Do you have any advice for new Tarot readers or those who are just curious? I’d love to hear about it!

Posted in Cosmic Tarot | 1 Comment

First Exercise with Your Deck

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Amethyst Mahoney, Tarot Goddess

Knight of Swords, Gilded Tarot

Many people believe that the first thing they should do when they get a deck of Tarot cards is to read the LWB (Little White Book) or the Companion Book that comes with the deck.

This is actually the opposite of what you should do, and is a great way to hold yourself back in your Tarot practice.

Instead of looking to others for information on what the cards mean, it is more important for you to find your own meanings to the cards. In fact, this exercise alone could put you years ahead of other readers!

How do you do this? Follow these steps:

1. Get a journal, notebook, or just some loose paper and some pens or pencils. You’re going to be writing for a bit!

2. Go through your cards one by one. I like to start with the lowest card in the Major Arcana (usually 0 The Fool). Look at the card. Forget what it is “supposed” to mean. Write down anything that catches your eye, or any thoughts and meanings that come up for you. Pretend you are the person in the card. What are you doing? Who else is there? Act out the scene on the card. How do you feel (besides a little silly at first)?

Spend some time with the card before moving on to the next one. Note down any colors you see. You may also catch sounds or even smells based on what is going on in the card. This is normal and just means that you are really in touch with a variety of ways to experience intuition (everyone is different).

3. Be sure to take breaks when you need to. It can take a week or more to go through a deck in this way. Do this for every new Tarot deck you get.

The first time I did this exercise it took me 3 days to go through the cards in this manner. The last few decks I have gotten, I started reading with right away,  but I plan to go back to this exercise. This is especially true for the Gratitude Tarot by Teresa Deak. I have not given it my full attention yet, and am dying to really get into it!

After you’ve gone through this exercise with all 78 cards, go back and compare your meanings and what you’ve noticed to the definitions given in the LWB or companion book. See where they match and where they are different. Make a note to add the definitions from the LWB to your possible meanings for the cards.

The truth is the most important meanings are the ones that develop for you. Some cards may come up for certain circumstances. For instance, the Knight of Swords in the Gilded Tarot (above) comes up for me every single time someone is going back to school. They must be taking university courses that will lead to a degree – not a certification course or something that will not lead to a degree. This is only true for this card in the Gilded Tarot.

What meanings do you get from your cards? Over time, certain cards will develop special meanings just for you. This is why it is important to really get into a deck, not just keep buying new ones all the time.

What fun and cool meanings do your cards hold? Were you okay with this, or did you want to stick to the Little White Book meanings? I’d love to hear about it!

Posted in Gilded Tarot, Knight of Swords | 1 Comment

History of Tarot and Why I Don’t Care

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Amethyst Mahoney, Tarot Goddess

A 15th-century Tarot Deck

I get a lot of flak for this particular topic, but that really isn’t too important to me these days.

Many people want to find out where Tarot came from and talk about and argue about its history all the time.

There are theories that it came from the 1400′s and 1500′s in medieval Europe. There are theories that it spread throughout Eastern Europe and Asia from traveling gypsies. There are people who believe it is based on games and drawings from Ancient Egypt.

There was a time when I was incredibly serious about learning the history of things. I was determined to learn the “Truth.” This, in fact, is what destroyed my faith in Christianity. I have found that most ex-Christians know more about the history of the Bible and the faith than current Christians. Go figure. Knowledge is a dangerous thing, indeed.

Over time, Truths change. History is rewritten. Accounts are written from the point of view of the winners. A lot of things are kept secret for many years. In short, there is no real way to know the Truth.

For many years this plagued me. I agonized over not being able to find the Truth. Then I started to realize something: it doesn’t matter.

The Truth is that Tarot works. Knowing where it came from will not make it work any better than it works now. The point is to USE Tarot, not to sit around and argue about its inception.

It’s the same as going to the bathroom. If I wake up in the middle of the night, turn on the light, and use the toilet, I don’t need to know where the electricity comes from or how the water will be flushed through the pipe system to our water treatment plant. I just need to turn on the light and use the bathroom.

It’s not important to know the history of something in order to use it fully. Because honestly you will never get the real history of anything anyway – just look at that recent movie about Facebook’s Mark Zimmerman and his response to it.

The importance of the Tarot is not the history or the truth of where the cards came from. The importance is to help people see their own Truths and to choose what Truths they want to embrace in their lives.

What do you think? Do you want to know the full history of the Tarot? Does it even matter? I’d love to hear about it!

Posted in History of Tarot | Leave a comment

How to Shuffle Your Tarot Deck

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Amethyst Mahoney, Tarot Goddess

You’d think you could just open a deck of Tarot cards and start reading right away. But there are some things to consider – like how to shuffle the cards.

I get asked this question so frequently that I finally just made a video on it. I do not “riffle” shuffle the cards ever. While some people state that they can do that without bending the cards, I’ve never been able to do that. Plus, I’ve worked in a casino and talked to professional card dealers a lot. Card decks are retired very frequently no matter what the skill level, so I personally see no reason to take this chance.

Here’s my version on how to easily shuffle the cards for any reading.

Posted in How to Shuffle the Cards | 2 Comments

Lucky Sevens

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Amethyst Mahoney, Tarot Goddess

Sevens from the Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore and Aly Fell

A lot of people like to use numerology in their Tarot readings. I tried this for many years before it finally made sense.

Like many people, I would read books or websites about numbers and what they meant. I tried to learn definitions – many of which just didn’t make any sense to me, but were “supposed” to be right.

These days I look at (and teach) numerology a slightly different way. We all have thoughts about what numbers are supposed to mean and how they can relate to our lives. Often we don’t even realize it.

Let’s take a look at the Sevens above from the Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore. First of all, what do 7′s mean to you?

Many people talk about the “lucky” number 7. There are 7 days of the week. 7 comes up a lot in the Bible (7 seals, 7 trumpets, 7 virtues, 7 deadly sins, etc.), especially in Matthew (which also contains 7 letters and is one of the most common names in the Western World).

Even in non-Christian circles, 7 is often considered a Holy, spiritual, or even “perfect” number. Don’t forget that it is also a prime number, which makes it even more special.

Given these definitions, it puts another twist on possible meanings for the “7″ cards. For example, the woman in VII The Chariot from the Major Arcana is quite lucky. However, look at her posture on the card. She is in control. She is riding off to embrace her destiny.

The reality is there isn’t any such thing as luck. You create “lucky” circumstances by your own actions and beliefs. Even Thomas Edison said, “We often miss opportunity because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like hard work.” Opportunity is just another form of luck.

All of the 7′s in the Steampunk Tarot seem to echo this sentiment to me. The person on each card is choosing to take their luck into their own hands. The situation may vary and the results also vary, but it is by acting and making a choice that they are able to embrace their luck.

What do you think about the number 7? Is it lucky for you? Do you see 7′s as more of a spiritual quest or turning point? I’d love to hear about it!

 

Posted in 7 of Cups, 7 of Pentacles, 7 of Swords, 7 of Wands, Steampunk Tarot, VII The Chariot | 1 Comment

Structure of a Tarot Deck

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Amethyst Mahoney, Tarot Goddess

You may have noticed that I’ve said before that I didn’t really like any non-Tarot Oracle decks until this year.

What’s the difference between an Oracle deck and a Tarot deck? Structure.

The picture to the left is of some of the cards from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. The Rider-Waite-Smith deck, also known as the RWS, was published in 1909 and is the first deck with interactive pictures on all of the cards. This means that instead of just showing 5 swords or 6 cups, people were actually interacting with objects on all of the cards.

Many Tarot decks are based on the RWS and follow the same structure. There are 56 cards with four suits. Each suit contains the cards Ace through 10 as well as 4 court cards. This part of the deck is just like a modern set of playing cards.

In addition to the 56 cards there are another 22 cards known as the Major Arcana. These are often labeled 0 through 21.

Most RWS decks follow this same pattern and contain a total of 78 cards. This makes it easy for newer readers to pick up many decks and read right away – they will be familiar with the structure and basic meanings behind the cards. This is why it is so easy for me to teach people to learn to read in less than an hour.

These days you may find a few extra cards in an RWS clone deck, but in general the structure is the same.

What do you think about decks that break the “rules” of 78? Is it helpful or does it hurt the meaning behind Tarot? I’d love to hear about it.

Posted in Rider-Waite-Smith | Leave a comment

Getting People out of the Way

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Amethyst Mahoney, Tarot Goddess

Sometimes when you are reading the Tarot it is very easy to get caught up in the pictures of the people on the card.

You may interpret the cards differently if someone on them looks like someone you know or looks like you.

Many people start off reading the court cards especially by giving them specific physical attributes such as, “a young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes,” or “an older man with dark hair and brown eyes.”

It can be easy to get thrown off by the real meaning of the card by placing too much emphasis on physical appearance. What can you do when you find this happening? I suggest getting a deck with animals or other non-humans on it.

My favorite animal deck is Tarot of the Magical Forest (pictured above). I bought this deck on a whim and was pleasantly surprised that it reads really well.

It’s difficult to mistake different animals for specific people in this deck (although I must admit I got a lot of pigs when reading about my ex-husband years ago).

Do you own animal animal or non-human decks? How else can you take the specific humans out of it to get to the deeper meanings? I’d love to hear about it!

Posted in Tarot of the Magical Forest | Leave a comment