Most of the Tarot books I have read go into great detail about how to read the tarot. There’s always an explanation of the standard spreads, the Celtic Cross and others… So called “experts” go on endlessly about the merits of this and that school of tarot… They talk and talk and talk about how and why we should do this and not do that when reading cards.
I am not about to do that.
Instead, all I will try to do in this chapter is give the card reader an overview of what I do when I read cards and why. I feel the Tarot is a very personal tool that has to be explored by each reader individually. Since reading tarot is a lifelong experience with a great deal of ins and outs outside the scope of any book, all I can really do to help someone trying to read cards is to share my experiences with each card individually and especially in what concerns the meaning. Spreads are the least important aspect of a card reading for me. I have a standard spread that I like to use, but I am willing and able to read in any form or spread the client chooses.
I feel that the cards have a specific meaning that cannot be “modified” to fit the psychological needs of each client. I don’t use upside-down meaning. Each card has a dual meaning. In fact, each card has a many-faceted meaning. But at it’s core, death is death, justice is justice, the lovers are the lovers. This is the magic, the truth behind the tarot, that once we pull a card out of the spread, we can’t really say it isn’t so.
If we are going to play the devil’s game, we must first and foremost give the devil his due.
1. Payment
In reading cards, I count only successful readings as worthwhile experiences. The only successful readings I have ever made, meaning, readings where I actually found out something about the future events relating to my client are those readings where I was paid for my service. I cannot explain this mojo. I wish I could. But I do know, beyond a certainty that it works because I have tried both, reading for money and reading without payment and I can guarantee on my word that only readings where I was actually paid money in a fair and reasonable exchange worked.
Since I work primarily in poor Mexico, I am willing to take less money from certain clients in need of help. I am interested in reading cards only to HELP PEOPLE, and never, ever, ever, to profit from my readings. I am absolutely convinced beyond any doubt in my heart that if I ever were to try and benefit financially from my talent as a tarot reader, I would incur a horrible punishment. I am, in truth, fearful of this punishment, so I am very careful to whom, how and why I read tarot cards.
Call me a superstitious fool if you wish. But I would never, ever want to become rich (or famous) from reading tarot cards. This is as good a place as any to add a disclaimer to this book and this deck. This work is a not-for-profit work, and any revenues that I might acquire from the sale or reproduction of this work will be gifted immediately to charity. I will under no circumstances be left holding a lot of tarot-cursed-gold.
Lets talk about dollars and cents:
I developed my standard spread through practice and trial and error. In the six years that I have been reading the Tarot professionally, this spread seems to work best for me with a variety of clients. As of this date, May 2009, I charge $20 pesos, which is about 2 dollars, US, which means, in Mexico about a couple hour’s wages for ordinary working people. In the US and Europe I charge more, usually $20-50 dollars.
The basic rule of thumb here is: as a tarot card reader, you are an hourly wage-earner for ordinary wages. That means, if a plumber earns $25 bucks an hour, that’s what you should be charging as a tarot reader. In Mexico, working folks make about 100 pesos a day, so 20 pesos is not a terribly high price to pay for a good reading, but lets remember what I said before: when the chips are down, nobody wants to be holding the cursed tarot gold coins. Real practitioners of the craft will know and respect the fact that service to others is the only reason to pull the cards out. If you are looking to become rich and famous for your craft, go learn it from somebody else..
2. The White, Red and Black Robes.
Tarot is a form of divinatory magic. There are many schools of magic such as necromancy, transmutation, divination and such. Divinatory magic has to do with informing the present in order to see into the future. Looking into the future is powerful shit. Big Mojo. Adolf Hitler and Genghist Kahn kinda stuff, that can move mountains, change destinies of nations and decide the course of history. Because with great power comes great responsibility, I want to mention the three schools of magic of the Dungeons & Dragons series called Dragonlance. If you do not know about the white, red and black robes, then you are not a fan of Dragonlance, and that’s okay, because that’s an extremely obscure fantasy series based on a slightly less obscure role-playing game.
In the Dragonlance novels, magicians must choose between one of three different guilds of magic: basically, white robes are good magicians, red robes are neutral magicians and black robes are evil magicians. Any magician who does not belong to one of these guilds is an outlaw and is hunted down and destroyed by all the others.
Concerning the tarot and the ability to predict future events, nothing could be closer to the truth. Folks who are gifted in some way to see into the future events can have a powerful impact on their world. Some of these folks, Rasputin and Aleister Crowley worked principally in the black robes, making their own interests more important than the interests of the rest of us. Others like Nostradamus and Edgar Cryce were more neutral in their approach to seeing future events. The white robes are not well represented in our present Kali Yuga, or “age of discord” but they are there as well, and we know them from the work they left behind: the Koran, the Bible.. The Buddhist Sutras.
Understanding that there are three kinds guilds of magicians out there makes it a little easier to choose the white robes. I would never stop anybody from taking on the black robes. Selfishness is just as necessary in the universal dance as is compassion. The vedas actually speak of three causes of nature called “gunas”: ignorance, passion and goodness. The black robes in this case represent ignorance, the red passion and the white goodness.
The magic in the tarot is neutral and can be used by all three robes equally. I recommend using the tarot for service to others and I call that “the white robes”. Unfortunately for me, I cannot determine what robes my students will wear. I can only give them the right tools and try to show them the path of service. Here, we can make a parallel between the tarot and medicine. In the hands of a doctor, opiates are medicine. In the hands of a junky, they are a reason to party. In the hands of a dealer, they are money in the bank.
Service to others is a very practical thing that the tarot can really help with and it means, for instance, finding out who stole money from a closed room, or finding missing people, or helping in a murder investigation. At some time or another I did all of these things with my cards. If I can continue to do so, I will.
Most clients have smaller problems to deal with. For instance, most folks in my village are worried if their wife is cheating on them. It is a reasonable yes or no question that demands a reasonable yes or no answer from a card reader who has faith in his craft. Psychology does help a little. But first and foremost, one has to answer the question directly based on what the card says. Nobody who reads cards wants to lie to cause marital troubles between two people. But a real card reader is willing to take a chance on his or her magic working to resolve if someone is being unfaithful.
The successful tarot reader requires faith in his craft. The reward for this faith is his client’s trust and a clear and very obvious indication that magic works and that the universe is much more mysterious than what scientists allow for.
Here a warning: The “white robed” card reader is someone who solves other people’s problems and makes their lives a little better sometimes with a well placed warning, sometimes with a dire prediction, sometimes with just a good ear that is willing to hear a confession. Red Robes might decide that some folks are worthy of their readings and others not. Black robes will want to control and manipulate their clients to his own benefit. But even the black robes will have faith in their abilities to snare their victim. Black robes will have just as much success in his craft as white robes, but at the end of their lives, black robes might have a higher bill to pay their maker than white robes.
When we read tarot cards for others we are willingly assuming the karma of the client onto ourselves. That means if we screw up, we have to pay up. Not something to be done lightly, especially for any kind of mundane benefits.
Writing of this book is actually my way of helping my students; (all you precious young girls and boys who have blessed me with your confidence and trust over the years). I am in the business of training good witches and warlocks of the white robes. I have worn the black in the past, and I am ashamed about it. But now, I wear the white (although, oddly enough, I am wearing black clothes today, as I write this!).
I hope you learn that the wearing the white robes is always preferable to wearing the black ones
3. My Standard 22 Card Spread.
With no further ado, this is how I read tarot cards.
a. I ask for my payment. The payment has to be fair trade for my service.
Here, fair trade means what you need from each client to know that you are not cheating them. I will not charge my dad the same I will charge a total stranger. I will not charge a poor person the same I charge a rich one.
b. I tell the client to take the cards and shuffle them or cut them as they wish, but as they are shuffling or cutting the cards, they must say a prayer. The prayer is the most important part of the reading.
The prayer is usually said in their heads. Some clients choose to pray out loud, but most don’t. It really doesn’t matter. The most important thing is to make sure they pray. It is their protection from the powerful mojo they are about to unleash.
c. Once the client hands the cards back to me, I ask them again if they have said their prayer.
Some folks will say they havent’. Give them time to pray. Get them in the mood. Make them remember that they are messing with weird, otherworldly magic. Also, if you clients happen to be Christians or Muslims remember them that the act of divination is forbidden by their holy book and give them the right place in their Bible or Koran to refresh their memories. When I say that the “prayer is the most important part of the reading” I mean it. I don’t really think most folks need to know the future. They can’t really change it anyhow. What folks need to do with their lives is learn how to pray. My tarot readings are mostly to remind them of that. In fact, I think of each reading as a kind of prayer, but I empty myself of myself and let whatever spirits friendly and otherwise hang out near that person enter into my words so the most benefit can be achieved from the other side.
d. I set down 22 cards face down on the table in 3 rows of seven with one cards left out.
22 Cards for each one of the major arcana. More on this later. I find that the 22 card spread covers most possible clients best. I do know a number of other spreads, from 1 and 3 cards to the Celtic Cross and many more in-between. For groups with a time constraint, I prefer the use of the “poker tarot” – another of my nefarious inventions. I’ll go into the “poker tarot” later. But the 22 card spread is far better and much less risky. I also like to remind my clients to ask questions. If you go to an oracle, you don’t go there without at least one important question in mind.
e. I ask the client what do they want to know and then let the client turn the cards over, one by one to answer each question. If they have no questions, I ask them to turn 8 cards over one by one and tell them what I see.
In Mexico, I usually keep my readings to eight questions for twenty pesos. Then, if the client has more questions, each additional question costs five pesos more. This prevents folks from turning cards over just do see what’s underneath. Also, twenty pesos is a fair trade for a few minutes, but an entire 22 card reading might take me a couple of hours. In the USA where folks spend more money, I usually only do the 22 card reading and I charge 15 to 25 dollars per reading. I will gladly answer eight questions for ten dollars. Again, the key word here is fair. What is a fair price for my service? Am I making too much money from any one client? Am I becoming too rich? In Tarot is best to be humble and under the radar.
