An Introduction - The Fool's Journey

Hello and welcome to all who have ventured here!

This little corner of the Internet will be my contribution to the fascinating world of the Tarot. It's going to be a constant work in progress and you will probably see some changes take place on a regular basis.

The Tarot has been a part of my life for a very long time. The better part of 30 years, in fact. It has been a trusted companion through the happy moments; a comforting source of wisdom through the most painful events and a surprisingly honest oracle tool.

As you can see on my Instagram page, I own a ridiculous number of Tarot decks. I'm not only a Tarot student and reader, I'm also an avid, passionate collector. Each deck possesses a different vibe that awakens my intuition as a reader. The incredible artwork and unique vision in some of these decks is truly awe-inspiring. I feel extremely privileged to be able to hold these amazing works of art in my hands and to further develop my reading abilities with them. I am so grateful to all the incredible artists who have poured their hearts and souls into creating these masterpieces. 

If you have found your way here, you most likely are a Tarot student or enthusiast like me. We are all perpetual students on The Fool's journey. Some of us may be a little further along the path and may feel confident enough to take on the role of tutor, but none of us ever reaches the point where we feel we have learned everything there is to know about the Tarot. It's a lifelong quest. 

Wherever you happen to be on your Tarot adventure, I invite you to follow along on my new project of rewriting my Tarot Card Meanings and Interpretations guide. It is my humble hope that I can contribute a little something to your studies and that my personal experience and passion will help you develop and expand your own. We'll start on the week of January 4th, 2021 with 'The Fool' and work our way through the Major Arcana by the end of June. Then we'll tackle the Minor Arcana and the Court cards through the second half of the year. I'm looking forward to sharing my progress with you all. 

My interpretations on the Majors will include traditional meanings; shadow (or reverse) meanings, see below for more details; mundane, literal meanings and finally a more scholarly, academic approach to the cards' symbology. Every weekly blog entry will follow up and expand on a corresponding Instagram post.  

I'm an intuitive reader. As such, I must confess that I don't rigidly follow these interpretations. What I see and feel in the cards can vary greatly from one reading to the next. It all depends on the situation, the deck being used or the person I'm reading for. Sometimes, certain heavy or dark cards will come up in the most unexpected places in a spread to indicate very mundane, innocuous things. 

Remember that these interpretations are just guidelines. Ultimately, your intuition will be a much better teacher than any book or any individual when it comes to interpreting what the cards are telling you. You will at times find that the scariest cards in your deck are not always the harbingers of doom and gloom and that the happy, shiny ones aren't necessarily promising positive outcomes. 

I must also add that I rarely use reversals. I've seldom felt the need to. 78 cards are perfectly capable of conveying any message, good or bad, without the need to add another 78 set of reverse interpretations. I tune into what I like to call each card's 'shadow' aspect instead. Happy cards like The Sun or The Star can give out a very dark vibe in some readings; similarly, more painful cards such as Death or The Tower all possess a surprisingly positive side. 

Tarot cards tell stories; life stories. It's therefore not surprising that, as life itself, they can be unpredictable, full of twists and turns; they can be ironic, stubborn, cruel, kind, compassionate, funny or simply indifferent. Sometimes, they just don't make any sense at all and seem to purposefully obfuscate the situation. In such rare cases, I would strongly advise postponing the reading to a later time. 

It's always a good idea to learn the traditional meanings of the cards. Whether you choose to learn with the Rider-Waite system, the more complicated Thoth or Marseille, or even all three as I did, knowledge is never a waste. As you study my interpretations, always remember that your deck is speaking your language and no one else's. Just use my experience as a tool to fine tune your own intuition. 

May this quest bring you as much joy and excitement as it has brought me. Trust yourself, trust your deck. Always.