just the tarot – Just the Tarot

I just finished revising and publishing the new edition of my e-book, Just the Tarot, and, boy, THAT was a bitch. After weeks and weeks of writing and formatting, my immediate reaction is, “I’m so happy with how this turned out,” and also, “I’d rather chew on a cactus than do that again.”

There was also a little ambiguity about the content itself. I wrote the original edition during one of the most intense periods of my life. My life partner had just died, I was about an inch away from bankruptcy, and my entire world was crumbling around me.

In Tarot parlance: The Tower and Death.

During periods like that, we’re pulling in a LOT of spiritual assistance and living in heavy archetypes, so I was very pleased with the actual content. As I re-read it, I realized that I’d been channeling some pretty potent insights on the card definitions and really didn’t want to change much at all.

In addition to the longer, more expansive interpretations, I’ve added some quick reference charts for all 78 cards with one- or two-sentence definitions for upright and reversed meanings. I also threw in a couple more layouts, tweaked the writing here and there, and painted a spiffy new cover for the book.

So it remains pretty much what I set out to do when I wrote it eight years ago. It’s a basic, totally dependable, sturdy little book that continues to be a great reference for both new and more experienced readers. No metaphysics. No wild theories about what the Tarot really means. No decoding secret methods or unlocking hidden mystical maps.

Just a book that says:

“If you want to read Tarot cards, this is how you do it, and this is what the cards mean.”

You know… Just the Tarot.

Reflections on the Tarot

As I did the re-write, I inevitably pondered a bit on WHY we read Tarot cards. When we sit down and lay out a reading, what is it that we’re actually looking for?

When we’re young, of course, the two main topics are love and money.

Well… love, money, and sex.

When you’re reading the cards for anyone under 40, the questions usually sound something like:

• Does he/she find me attractive?

• Should we go out on another date?

• Should I go to bed with him/her?

• Should we move in together?

• Is he/she cheating on me?

And in the second category:

• I really hate my job. Should I look for another one?

• Am I going to get promoted?

• How can I make more money?

• Can I afford that new car?

• Should I go back to school?

In other words, the questions are mainly predictive. As in: What’s going to happen? Am I going to like it? And, by the way, am I going to get laid?

That’s where most of us start out in our Tarot adventure.

Synchronicity and Tarot

As the many years of reading Tarot have passed, though, I’ve come to realize that the most important part of a Tarot reading is synchronicity.

I once read a brilliant line in a Tarot forum that stuck with me:

“The Tarot is a synchronicity machine.”

Every time we sit down to do a reading, we engage the field of synchronicity.

I’m not going to get into a long rap here about synchronicity (though if you’re curious, check out my earlier post, Finding Meaning with Synchronicity). The main point I want to make is this:

WHEN WE TALK TO THE UNIVERSE, THE UNIVERSE TALKS BACK.

And that’s actually a big, fat deal.

We’re in a sort of post-religion, post-scientific-revolution phase of humanity. A lot of us have rejected the old, superstitious, patriarchal, hate-based formal religions. Those beliefs have been replaced by the scientific model, which basically says, “There are no gods or goddesses, no angels, no spirit guides, and certainly no magic.”

Which has left a great big hole in our hearts.

It’s left us feeling alone and isolated in what science tells us is essentially a dead universe.

But when we engage with the synchronistic field, the Universe starts giving us answers to our questions. We might ask, “What should I do about my job?” — and suddenly we’ve got clues dropping out of nowhere.

Maybe we get a surprise promotion.

Maybe the jobs section of the newspaper blows down the street and wraps around our ankles.

Maybe a friend opens a new business and hires us on the spot.

And underneath all of that is a HUGE shift away from the old idea of being all alone in a cold, impersonal cosmos. Suddenly we realize that not only is the Universe alive — it actually cares about us and is helping us. Personally.

The whole damn Universe cares about little old you and me.

What a trip!

If you scroll through the internet for a bit, you’ll find that there’s a massive industry dedicated to helping people reach that exact point — spiritually and psychologically. Books, videos, workshops, seminars — all trying to teach people how to establish a relationship with the Universe, their spirit guides, their angels.

But really?

All we need to do is pick up a deck of Tarot cards, ask a question, and lay out a reading.

It’s that simple.

You don’t have to be a psychic.

You don’t have to meditate for years.

You don’t need to channel, astral travel, or decode ancient texts.

Just pick up the cards, ask a question — and the Universe will talk back to you.

Yes, YOU.

Just the Tarot, By Dan Adair – a kindle ebook available on Amazon.

This is, obviously, first and foremost a card denoting strength. It is, however, a quiet, gentle, enduring strength rather than a blustering, muscle flexing type of strength. Note how gently the woman is closing the lion’s mouth. She almost appears to be petting it, rather than subduing it.

The lemniscate hovering above her head indicates that she is channeling the Higher Power and the realm of spirit. This is very much the strength of the Goddess, loving and nurturing to all of her creatures and conquering with enduring love rather than brute force.

This card shows that the questioner will overcome challenges and be successful in the long term. The key to this is quiet perseverance rather than an all out frontal assault on the problems. The urge to fight – represented by the lion – is overcome and supplanted by the loving strength of her higher nature. So, too, the questioner should approach problems with loving kindness rather than aggression and will win out in the end.

On a simple physical level this card may show an individual who has been ill for some time but is slowly recovering and gaining strength.

REVERSED – A lack of strength and resolve. The questioner may be overcome by foes and enemies because he or she isn’t strong enough to stand up to them. If conflicts arise try to delay and retreat.

This may also show a person who is chronically ill or fatigued and is failing to get better. A long term, serious illness.

If you have questions about this card or its meaning in one of your readings, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

A FEW MORE THOUGHTS ABOUT STRENGTH:

Strength has some of the most cliched definitions attached to it of any card in the Major Arcana. It’s a woman closing a lion’s mouth. So the lion is an animal, right? And the woman is, well, a woman. And, hey, she’s got the symbol for eternity floating over her head! So . . . um . . . it must be about using our higher nature to control our animal instincts, right?

And, of course, the second someone mentions, “animal instincts,” being the good little puritans we are, we immediately think of . . . you know . . . S-E-X. And somehow this rather interesting portrayal of a woman quietly closing the mouth of a lion morphs into a morality play about being more spiritual and less sexual because, of course, sex and spirituality are opposites.

It’s my belief that Strength is actually about a state of being called, “Ahimsa.” For those of you who aren’t familiar with it Ahimsa is a phrase which basically means, “being harmless,” or, “doing no harm.” It’s practiced in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism and is mentioned prominently in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. And, yes, it’s usually described as a practice but it’s also a state of being. It’s a state of projecting absolutely no harmful or aggressive vibrations at all.

Let me give you an example. My life partner Carol had an old Persian cat who liked to lie out in the sunshine during the summer. I glanced out the kitchen window one day and was astonished to see this large, white cat stretched out on the ground and completely surrounded by birds. They were strolling around, pecking at the ground, grooming themselves, and literally within inches of one of their worst predators, a cat.

They had absolutely no fear of the cat because they somehow knew that the cat had absolutely no interest in harming them. The cat was practicing kitty-ahimsa and the birds were responding in kind.

You find similar scenarios in the tales from India. Ferocious tigers and snakes who become completely docile in the presence of a master practicing ahimsa.

Here’s what Swami Kriyananda said about it: “Ahimsa, rightly understood, becomes the ultimate weapon; it turns one’s enemy into one’s friend, thereby banishing the possibility of further conflict.”

You could call it the ultimate weapon, as he did, or the ultimate STRENGTH.

I told the story about the cat and the birds to a conservative friend of mine. He sneered and said, “Well, it’s a good thing that cat has someone to feed it or it would starve to death.”

He didn’t get it. The cat was fully capable of killing those birds in seconds but the cat chose not to. Instead of spreading blood and gore all over the back yard the cat chose to enjoy the sunny day and, perhaps, the songs of the birds. He projected peace and peace is what was projected back at him.

Violence, aggression, anger, fear, those are all ultimately choices that we make. If we put out those vibrations the beings around us respond on the same vibrational level. If we put out peace and harmlessness the beings around us respond with peace and harmlessness.

Ahimsa can be a difficult concept for Westerners to grasp. We tend to think of strength as something we’re doing, some positive action, or at least the ability to endure something unpleasant. Ahimsa, on the other hand, is not-doing. It’s a deliberate withdrawing from any actions that might cause harm, anger, or fear. It seems totally paradoxical: you are ARMING yourself with peace. And thus you overcome violence.

This card calls for taking a good, deep look at what we mean when we use the word, “Strength.” Is it aggression? Dominance? Walking over people who disagree with you? Or is it quite the opposite?

Tag: just the tarot

Tarot, Synchronicity, and Cactus Chewing: Notes on Revising My Book

The Strength Card in the Tarot