Understanding and Interpreting Tarot Cards

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 ©Reanta,ThelemaDreamsArt

I find the aspect of tarot card interpretation fascinating. Tarot decks usually come with a guidebook of some sort listing the meanings of each card. But is that the only way to interpret them?
Technically, you could just do a card reading using that, interpreting the cards exactly from the definitions given. However those definitions are not set in stone and can be limiting (especially if the deck has only the barest minimum of definitions). At best, using the tarot is a combination of understanding what the imagery or symbolism on the card represents (and what it represents to you) together with your intuitive sense of what that implies for the given subject and context. You can or even replacing the given meanings with your own if that works better for you.

I like to think of tarot card imagery and symbolism in two ways. Firstly as as a kind of language, whether it be the more traditional tarot meanings or non-traditional ones. You can 'read' that language from the images.  For example we have the language of the elements in the cards - Fire, Air, Water, Earth - which symbolise various qualities at play such as energy or passion, thoughts and intellect, emotion, material things (to put it simplistically), experiences we all understand. Some cards include the language of astrology by depicting star signs or planetary symbols on the cards. Different decks may have a different language, especially if they are non-traditional decks.

Image by InspiredImages https://bit.ly/2OgCjRW

But whatever deck you use learning the most common and basic meanings allows us to have a language with which to work with (I discuss language this further in my blog post  Tarot 101 - What is Tarot? ).

Secondly I see the imagery and symbolism as acting as a  'filter' for the subconscious or our intuition through that language. Looking at them can not only tell us something in a defined way as described above, but allows us to connect to our intuition by stimulating it with that imagery and language. For example I find when I look at a card I might initially think of the conventional meaning for that particular deck from what I have learnt so far, but then as I focus more on the imagery the definition in the context of the question becomes more nuanced, and I may begin to receive further impressions of what that may mean, or a  more expanded understanding of what is happening concerning the subject or topic I am asking about.

I personally feel learning to read the cards intuitively is an important ability to have in Tarot in order to more successfully interpret them (and this is borne out by other readers experiences I have read about). You are the one doing the reading, so the answer to whatever question posed can only come through your mind via its associations with the imagery and symbology presented.

Recently I have discovered with a couple of decks I love to use that I read the cards by interpreting the images on the cards regardless of the given guidebook definition. This seems to have become my 'modus operandi'. Sometimes what I see will match the definition, other times not.  As you start using tarot cards more frequently I think you  naturally develop and understand your own way of reading them.  And that's fine. I don't think anyone should feel that have to read in specific way in order to read like other readers do. You just need to find your own personal way of doing it.

Do you have a unique way of understanding or interpreting the cards? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!