Spirit Bear Dreaming Tarot

I find the process of writing to be something that teaches me what I am thinking. I find the mass of beliefs, feelings, intuitions, and passing thoughts to be too fleeting and insubstantial to commit to any of them firmly. But the process of writing to make statements about what I'm thinking helps me nail down those things and test them against a reader, I imagine, who is coming upon them for the first time.

In addition, I have come to understand that this next part of my life is about putting some of the things I've learned in front of the public, even if that public is a small group of readers who have stumbled upon my writing in accidental or roundabout ways. I make my little paper boats, put a light on them, and set them on the lake at night to watch them move on. I watch them and wonder where they might end up. Perhaps they'll participate in adventures that I cannot see. I find the thought pleasant.

I just did two single card readings, and that prompted me to think about what I'd say to people learning Tarot or expanding their repertoire. And what could be simpler than a single card?

I tend to think of cards this way, the foundation of meaning is cultural, the common meanings and known symbols on the cards themselves. Above this I see the personal layer that you build up over time. And on top of this is the context layer that applies during a reading. I didn't think this ten years ago, and who knows what I will think in ten more years? But I've found that thinking about card meaning in these three layers is useful.

When we are starting with Tarot, we read about the cards, we study what others have said about them, and maybe we read some history. This gives us a foundation to build on. What we build then comes from our personal experience from working with the cards and probably from doing readings. A single card is a good approach for building these two layers.

If you pull a card every day, record it in a journal, put some basic meaning down (looking it up if needed), and then later add in how it showed that day, you have a daily exercise that will build your understanding of the cards. People post daily cards on social media all the time, but I usually ignore them if they don't include some writing about the card itself. I like reading the meanings, which sometimes bring out new details for me, but I don't take them as a reading for me. I can pull a card for myself, thank you, and have done so for many years.

So that's a very basic way to do single card readings. Do this every day and keep track of the card, and perhaps add some notes about how you saw the card appear that day, if you did. You will see that some cards appear more often for you, and some never show at all. If you have an extra deck, you can even pull a card every day and set it aside until you have done each card. This assures that you visit every card. I've done it both ways and depended on that daily journal for years to look up meanings and experiences when I read for myself. At this point, I've memorized all of my writing, so I don't have to look up my words very often. I think this is a good practice for many people to help them develop their Tarot skills.

But the third layer I've mentioned, the context layer, shows up best when you do readings. And I want to show the two single card readings I just did to illustrate this.

First, the actual context. I had a dream about a teacher that I used to study with. In the dream, they were having me play a tape of a lecture they had made a while ago. There was actually a lot going on in the dream, but I wanted to act on the dream and decided that I'd write to this person and express my gratitude for their teaching me, and their work in general. What they taught me had been very important in my life since then, and I felt grateful that I had those teachings and was able to apply them over and over for my own benefit, for myself and others.

And since I make it a rule to always express gratitude when I feel it, and since they are getting very old and would not likely see me again, I wrote them a letter expressing myself directly, warmly, and thankfully.

But what I haven't mentioned is that this person can be prickly sometimes and might not like this kind of missive. And so I did a one-card reading to check if this should be sent and would it be received correctly. Here it is:

This is the Page of Cups from The Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery, where Lady is used instead of Page and Vessels are used instead of Cups. I immediately knew that I should send the message. This Page/Lady is about bringing real feelings to the situation and about being open to situations where real feelings arise. So that was clear to me. Also, in this deck, the Three of Cups/Vessels shows three women with Cups on their heads, each marked with the symbols for Fire, Air and Earth, and this card brings the Water Cup to that joyful meeting, so I knew that it would be accepted in the right way.

And it was.

So the context of our relationship and the story the deck author had created made the reading plain. I received an answer back in short order inviting me to a meeting online.

After this, I was thinking about the other thing I felt grateful for, some teaching from a friend that had helped me through a difficult time and which supports me even today. I was grateful, but we'd become estranged over some triviality. I wondered if I should try the same thing with this other teacher. Were we at the point where we could have a reunion? Was the timing right? Had the feeling evolved past the problem area? Time for a second reading:

This is the XV Satan from The Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery, commonly called XV The Devil in many decks. I immediately knew that this was not the time. The Devil suggests that there is too much entanglement and that we are locked into very “low” sorts of behavior. And the card shows us un-awake and labeled Will and Appetite, which describes the contention, all under the aegis of Unreason.

No, this was not going to work out. I'd just spent an entire Tarot Meeting discussing The Devil, and it was very clear that the problem is mainly that I'm not sincere. I am not the Lady bringing her Water to the meeting, I'm mired in my shadow realm of feeling like I have been wronged or overlooked. That's me, the Willful one. Clearly I need to work on my stuff in this situation. I look forward to reaching a point where we can have some kind of reconciliation and get back to a nice place of friendship and learning.

That's about all I have to say at this point. I'll look at some larger readings next time. Thanks for reading!

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