Announcements:
Upcoming Tarot Advice Column
Tarot advice column will be beginning soon, so send me your questions!
Tarot Readings
I’ll be doing in-person Mini Tarot Readings 10 am – 12 noon, Saturday Aug 12, at Remedy Apothecary 21 Kentucky Street, Petaluma, CA. $25 for 15 minutes makes it the perfect way to try out Tarot!
Your Brain on Tarot
Did you know that watching a movie fires up different parts of your brain than when you are reading a book? It’s because in human cultures, reading and writing emerged much later than imagery. Consequently, we learned to communicate first through images, and with a different part of the brain.
In European history, before the advent of the printing press, which kicked off the Renaissance, communication in Europe was verbal, intuitive, or rooted in imagery. (China, the Americas, and everyone else were on the same trajectory, but on different timelines.)
Back to the Primitive Brain
The Tarot was originally a card game in Europe and probably used for gambling too. Without getting too far into the history of it, cards in general were originally game pieces, and eventually the game itself.
The original game of Tarot became a divination tool sometime in the 1700’s. This was after the printing press initiated the Renaissance and printed words became widespread in Europe.
It was as if we wanted a way to tap back into that part of our brain that makes connections via imagery and stories.
The imagery of the Tarot is rooted in an older part of our brain, where the universal human languages of symbols and storytelling reside.
Images, poetry, and stories illuminate connections to feelings and events in our own lives, even (and especially) if they are not directly about us.
Individual Magic
Interpretations of Tarot cards in a reading are individualized to some extent for each person, based on their own experiences. When I look at the Magician card, my love of the magical in life causes me to identify with the character in that card.
The potentialities, the delight, and even the risk of creative possibilities is inherent in my interpretation of the Magician. Someone else might read that card as giving up control to the universe itself.
Or one might emphasize the trickster aspect of the Magician, especially if one is averse to “magic”. Others still may ascribe all-knowing properties to the person or question at hand.
But the core interpretation of the Magician remains the same: Open-Ended Creative Capacity.
It’s important to be open to your own internal symbology and consciously overlay it on the Tarot’s symbology. Because let’s face it, the universe is collaborating with you through your own lens (and brain!) when you use a divination tool.
And when you do a reading for another person, all the energies and symbologies combine — You, the Seeker, and the “Universe”.
This might also explain how the “right” cards come up. But that part is the real mystery and magic behind it all. I don’t think science has even attempted to explain these kinds of questions.
It might have something to do with mirror neurons, or even what we simply call “intentions”. There are seemingly magical connections and synchronicities happening all the time that we can’t explain, and the Tarot seems to be a vortex for this kind of activity.
In our current culture of literalism, and day-to-day consciousness, it’s helpful to relax into the unconscious sometimes, especially when we need to rediscover something deeper or true about ourselves.