October has arrived and it typically means a busy season
for readers. For many of us during this month we celebrate
Halloween/Samhaim. If you’ll be reading at parties, you
might be interested in an article on the Tarot School
website: 22 Suggestions for Offering Readings at Parties,
Expos & Psychic Fairs. It’s full of great tips! 

We have two special guests participating in this month’s
newsletter. Arwen Lynch-Poe has contributed a Tip on
busting popular myths around the tarot, and Monica
Bodirsky takes a loving look at Lenormand. The Best
Practices column talks about putting your best face forward
in your marketing efforts, and we have news of an upcoming
Tarot School Intensive on the Court Card Array.

Psych-Wise is taking a break this month as Elinor has been
overseas teaching at a major Gestalt conference in Taormina,
Sicily. But be sure to check out the What’s Gnu? column
for news of her brand new book! 

              

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13 (BUSTED) TAROT MYTHS

by Arwen Lynch-Poe

Here’s an Arwen secret. I do not like the rules that I
can’t understand. To that end, I never liked all the
do’s and don’ts of Tarot that I kept hearing.

Such as:
• Do wrap your cards in black silk ONLY.
• Don’t buy your own cards.

In fact, I wrote up thirteen Tarot myths and busted them.


MYTH #1: The Age of Tarot

Tarot has been rumored to be as old as the pyramids and
connected to Egypt but there is no solid fact for that. This
rumor seems to have begun along with the first mention of
Tarot as a mystical tool by Antoine Court de Gebelin. De
Gebelin was a French occultist who linked Tarot to ancient
Egypt in his book published in 1781. Many other major
influences in Tarot also followed de Gebelin. This included
names like Eliphas Levi, Arthur Edward Waite and even
Aleister Crowley. There simply is no factual basis to this
thought. There is evidence of cards being used for
divination as early as 1540 in a book called The Oracles of
Francesco Marcolino da Forli. And Casanova noted in his
infamous diary that his Russian mistress often did
divination with a deck of playing cards.

What we do know is that the first deck can be traced to
Italy in the 15th century, between 1410 and 1430 in Milan,
Ferrera or Bologna. This first deck was when an artist added
trump cards, “carte de trionfi” or “triumph cards”
featuring faces of the Visconti and Sforza families as a
wedding gift.
 
 
MYTH #2: The Gypsies invented Tarot

Historical evidence and Gypsy tradition indicates that their
point of origin was somewhere in India or Egypt which
precludes them from inventing Tarot. However the nomadic
nature of the Romany did help spread the Tarot. 

An interesting Romany timeline can be found here: 
http://grthm.natt.org.uk/timeline.php .


MYTH #3: Church banned Tarot cards

This is somewhat the truth. The Catholic Church actually
banned Tarot cards, along with playing cards (known as the
“Devil’s Picturebook”), dice and board games in the
16th century primarily because they could all be used for
gambling, and not because of some magical secrets. The
Christian Bible has passages against divination of any type.
A much used passage is Deuteronomy 18:10-12.


MYTH #4: You must be psychic to be a Tarot reader

Patently false. I happen to be a psychic reader but I know
plenty who are not who are excellent readers. I believe that
everyone has some psychic abilities but most of us close
ourselves off to them early in life due to the popular but
oppressive thought that it is of the occult. I also think
this myth has basis in others trying to keep others out or
make Tarot some ooky-spooky mystery cult.


MYTH #5: You are doomed by what the Tarot cards say.

Again, a falsehood-- a very very dangerous one in my
opinion. If you go to a Tarot consultant who tells you
something the cards say is set in stone, I want you to do
two things. One, laugh in his or her face. Two get up and
walk away and never go back. The cards are a way of looking
at patterns in our lives and tendencies. Think of them as a
map for the journey of life. If you were in your car and the
roadmap said “Bridge out ahead” would you keep driving?

I didn’t think so.

It is the same for the cards. If something dire is in the
future, you have all the tools to make changes now to
redirect that energy. Certainly if a Tower event is in front
of you, you may not be able to completely alleviate that
eventual collapse, but you can certainly start climbing down
so you don’t have quite as far to fall. 


MYTH #6: Only you can touch your cards.

This is not true, but some consultants prefer to be the only
ones to handle their cards. This is due to the energies a
person has. It can also be due to the fact that some people
are very hard on the cards physically. And sorry, but some
folks don’t think about what was on their hands before
they touch the cards. Jelly and butter do not go well with
pasteboard. I normally let others handle my cards, but I
also have specific decks relegated to public use. I also
cleanse and clear my cards on a regular basis.


MYTH #7: You must wrap your cards in black silk and keep
them hidden away.

This myth probably comes from a practical teaching from the
Dark Ages when you could be burned at the stake for being a
heretic and a witch. There is no basis in fact for this. I
have over 450 decks and none of them are wrapped in black
silk.  Well some are wrapped in silk but I prefer colors.
True story, my mother’s scarf is in use as a Tarot wrap.
She would have loved that! Some of them are hidden away but
that is because I can’t figure out which box they are
currently packed in.


MYTH #8 You must receive the cards as a gift.

This one makes me laugh. I’d be a sad Tarot collector if
this were true. This, I think, ties into the Wiccan tenet of
not haggling for your tools. However, I have bought the
majority of my decks (although I am always open to receiving
gifts hint hint wink wink) and have not had any problems
other than when I bought a deck I simply didn’t like.


MYTH #9: You should not read your own cards.

This has basis in truth but not because it is bad luck.
Truthfully, reading for yourself is difficult because it is
hard to remove yourself from what you want the cards to say.
I often have others read for me because of this. Getting out
of your own way is not easy.

However I can and do read for myself! I would recommend
using the cards for self-introspection rather than
divination. I have spreads specifically designed for that
use.


MYTH #10: The Tarot is always right.

Wouldn’t this be fabulous if it were true! Sadly, just
like the fishing tales, not everything you hear is fact. As
I said before, the Tarot predicts possibilities and points
out tendencies. Free will comes into play as does informed
choice. The minute you lay the cards out, you are changing
your future because you are looking ahead. Go back to that
driving analogy. When you look at a map, you are changing
your path because you are making informed decisions about
which way to go. 


MYTH #11: You must have set rituals to read properly.

I actually do have a few set rituals but that is for my own
benefit, not the cards. I have a set way I shuffle and cut
as well as a set way I read. The only need for this is my
own need to do things a certain way. In my chat with other
readers, it seems many of us have rituals that put us into
the right frame of mind to do a reading.


MYTH #12: There is only one way to interpret the cards.

And it would be so nice if this were true! Everyone would
have one meaning. Then again, that’s not such a good
thing. Groupthink is a dangerous thing. Not only does it
takes away diversity, it also eliminates the personal touch.
Luckily for us, the Tarot cards are tools that help you
access your intuition or, perhaps, the collective
unconscious. Each card’s meaning comes into play with the
card next to it which can alter the interpretation. I can
read the same card for six different people and depending on
what is around that card, the meaning will change.
One thing I teach my students is that symbols don’t mean
the same to everyone. A dog may mean companionship and
unconditional love to you while someone who was attacked by
a dog could see it as a danger sign.


MYTH #13: The Death card means someone is going to die!

Absolutely not. It *can* mean physical death, but in my
thirty plus years of reading, Death usually means painful
change in the querent’s life. This is actually one of the
few cards that I consider unavoidable because when change is
necessary, you have to do it or suffer the consequences.
Have I actually seen death in a Tarot reading? Yes, but it
was not the person I was reading for. It was a relative they
needed to visit—an elderly relative.
 

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About the Author:

Arwen Lynch-Poe is the past president of the American Tarot
Association. The Fairy Tale Lenormand (art by Lisa Hunt)
has recently been realeased by US Games. She is presently
working on an oracle deck by another artist for US Games.
Check out her blog and YouTube channel.

Blog: http://tarotbyarwen.com/blog/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/arwen61 
          

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