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- Tarot Tip: Celtic Symbols in the Waite-Smith Tarot
- Wald's Words of Wisdom
- Mind Your Own Business: Cleaning Up
- Upcoming Events
This month you came from:Brazil, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States!
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Over the past few weeks, the deaths of celebrities and personal friends have been coming thick and fast. I have long observed that many people choose to leave this plane of existence when the veil between worlds is thinnest, but this year seems rather extreme. From comments I've seen online, I don't think I'm alone in that opinion.
This past Monday, we taught a class on the 10 of Swords. Tomorrow's class will be on the Death / Emperor Birth Card pair. This isn't the schedule we planned -- it changed after Wald's heart attack. The synchronicity is pretty strong. (At least I can say that we're in tune with the cycles of nature and the universe!)
Tomorrow is the Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos). I will do my best to honor the long and growing list of the dearly departed. What is remembered lives.
Spread the experience of tarot - share this newsletter with other Tarot Enthusiasts!
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CELTIC SYMBOLS IN THE WAITE-SMITH TAROT
Never Revealed Before!
By Sharon Anne Klingler
Pamela Colman Smith met poet and playwright W.B. Yeats at the end of the 19th century. He invited her to join his mystical group, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. There Arthur Waite would later ask her to illustrate this tarot deck. But it was Yeats to whom Colman Smith most strongly connected.
They were true kindred spirits. Besides the theater, the tarot, and the mystical rituals of the Dawn, they loved Irish folklore. They spent years in a Celtic Revival group discovering Celtic symbols, fairies, myths, and the entire Celtic Revival movement. Such powerful Celtic histories and meanings are present in her card designs most.
Though traditional meanings have been used for most symbols seen on the cards, those images also carry Celtic interpretations that often go back beyond 600 B.C.—adding greater meaning and a higher power to the cards.
The Fool Climbs to New Heights
At a glance, the components in Pamela’s Fool card are similar to the Marseilles (the Major Arcana cards that provided her models). But Pamela’s Fool stands at the mountain top, where others stand on flat ground. Those were considered the sacred places of peace and pure thought going back in Celtic lore to primeval times.
The important Celtic symbol in this card is the white dog. In ancient lore, dogs were the companions of the Celtic divinities. Of course, there are blue and brown dogs (and sometimes wolves) in the original Marseilles decks, but they are shown attacking the Fool and tearing holes in his pants.
This dog is different. He’s happy, and he’s white—for the Celts, white meant blessed. This blessed companion is merrily dancing beside the Fool.
Since he is a companion to the divine, the first message you get with this Celtic symbol is that the Fool represents the divine within you, too. It is the highest part of you—the being within, who is radiant, all trusting, and free.
Also, if your intuition is pulled strongly to this dog when the Fool card shows up, this divine companion can bring assistance in ways dogs can do on earth. First, this companion can help you find your way when you’re feeling lost. In a spread, look at the cards where he’s been—the cards behind the dog, or to the right of this card. They can give you a hint.
He can also help you find lost objects or hidden things, or even information yet to be discovered. Just look at the card where the dog’s nose is pointing. You’ll find some clues there!
Finally, this companion of the Celtic gods also helps to bring healing in the heightened areas of canine senses. So, if you’re feeling any desire for healing in sight, hearing, or smell, let yourself call to the Celtic divinities of healing and imagine this joyful companion carrying your message forth. (Also, if you’re doing an astrological card spread, the cards that fall in the Sixth House of Health can bring some insight.)
Two More Celtic Companions
The dog howling with a wolf near a crayfish in the Moon card (as in the Marseilles Moon) doesn’t represent a Divinity companion since there is no Celtic god shown there. But Pamela did paint two white dogs in the Ten of Pentacles, one of my favorite cards—Minor or Major.
This card is full of symbols in every corner and from every quarter—Celtic, Masonic, Theosophical, Cultural, and Heraldic. Just as the Fool card might not have an apparent Celtic Divinity, neither does this card, at first blush. But like the Greek gods, some Celtic divinities often lived and walked abroad among the mortals in the world.
Consider how much is happening in that beautiful covered garden—lots of color, people talking, even a child trying to play with the dog. But notice the unwavering attention that these two dogs have for that old man. It calls the on-looker to recognize that here, too, a divinity is present. And these blessed companions want nothing more than to attend him.
Yet, another message here is a big one: Recognize the holy ones in your older ones. Attend them. And learn what they have to share.
Of course, there are so many symbols in this card—Heraldic devices, Masonic, Theosophical, and more Irish symbols, too. Learning these interpretations will bring enormous information for you, too. That’s why I wanted to share them in my book The Truth About the Waite-Smith Tarot.
In the end, discovering the broadest meanings of symbols from the Celtic and other cultural sources can give you a deeply rich tarot experience. Yet, your intuition can also provide you with insights you didn’t even know you knew. (Intuition steps for tarot reading are in my book, too—with contributions by my friend, John Holland).
More Celtic Symbols To Be Found
Here are a few more of the other Celtic symbols in this deck.
- Irises (seen in the Temperance card) grow in profusion in Ireland, depicting the goddess Brigid for heightening divination and intuition; learning and memory; poetry and writing.
- The flowers beneath the Magician’s table, and in other cards, reflect ancient Irish mystical flowers. The Lilies of High Truth and the Roses of Far Sought Beauty help one to gain the highest wisdom and creativity.
- Wise and magical sea creatures, as in some Cup cards, can talk to humans and give sage advice. Can you find them?
- Grannus, the Celtic god of the Healing waters, pours that water in the Temperance card.
- Lugh, the Celtic god of Lightning and power for change, springs forth in the Tower.
- There was a magic talking sword (Page of Swords) that could tell the stories of all the great battles their King had won.
- The Celtic Sacred Grove is a place of honor, peace, and fertility in the Major Arcana. Can you find where it is?
To find out more about Celtic and Mystical symbols and the Collective Unconscious—and even how to learn the cards without studying the cards, get Sharon Anne Klingler’s book, The Truth of the Waite-Smith Tarot.
About the Author:
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Sharon Anne Klingler is an international best-selling author and Spiritualist minister. She is a registered medium with the Lily Dale Assembly, the world’s largest and oldest Spiritualist Institution. One of the world’s leading intuitives, Sharon has been featured in major media outlets worldwide, including The Huffington Post, CNN, OWN, ITV, and BBC. Sharon has worked with television news anchors; film writers and producers; Emmy, Tony, Oscar and Grammy winners; the FBI; and high-profile clients around the world. Some of her titles include Answers from the Ancestral Realms, The Akashic Tarot, the internationally best-selling book Power Words and her new book The Truth of the Waite-Smith Tarot.
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To submit a question to be answered in a future issue of Tarot Tips, send us an email at tarot@tarotschool.com
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Wald's Words of Wisdom
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Esoteric Insights
A TAROT CREATION STORY - Part 2
by Wald Amberstone
Read Part 1 here: https://tarotschool.com/TarotTips261001.html
In our continuing creation story according to tarot, One and Zero combine to make the number Ten.
In the esoteric community, Ten is the number that gives birth to the Tree of Life. This is the metaphysical state and all-inclusive set of magical relationships that explain the totality of the human form. The Tree of Life symbolizes the whole anthropomorphic universe and the deity in whose image everything was made.
So here we are, the incarnation of all the mysteries of creation, at least according to this story.
Let’s look a little bit further.
The Tree of Life incorporates the four states of human awareness, the ten numbers that provide the complete shape and power of the anthropomorphic universe, and finally, the twenty-two connecting paths that join the ten numbers together in the experience of a living self.
One and zero, four, ten and twenty-two, the symbols that create the whole world we know and experience, as well as the self that inherits it all, is beautifully and completely contained in the symbolic universe of tarot.
The four suits and courts, the ten numbers of each suit, and the twenty-two numbers of the Major Arcana that give each of us consciousness and a sense of self, are the complete universe of symbols that make a tarot deck.
The four suits are given names and images that define the visible steps whose order explains the four steps of completion, the steps that are needed to make anything real. And each of these four steps has a name and a number and an image.
First is the name and image of The Wand, the symbol of the Element of Fire. It gives purpose, direction, focus and intent to every action and energy.
Second is The Cup, symbol of the heart and the Element of Water. It gives shape, image and quality, beauty, love, trust and truth to the primal energy of The Wand.
Third is The Sword, symbol of the mind and the Element of Air. It gives the gifts of measure, limit, order and hierarchy to every experience of the power of The Wand and the beauty of The Cup.
Finally, The Pentacle, symbol of the body and the Element of Earth, gives all that preceded it the final gifts of substance, manifestation and reality.
Each of the ten numbers of the Tree of Life is the specific symbol whose location on the Tree has a name, a depth, a color, a sound, a metal, an astrological attribution of planet or zodiac sign, and the significance of its order on the Tree in relation to the beginning and ending of creation.
The twenty-two numbers of the Major Arcana are an orderly succession of the qualities of consciousness that reveal and explain the nature of the self.
All of this is contained in the numbers 1, 0, 4, 10 and 22. And all of this is the precise content of a tarot deck.
The whole world, with all of its forces and forms with nothing superfluous are contained and expressed with a deck of cards!
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Mind Your Own Business
CLEANING UP
How a little tidying can help your tarot business
By Patti Woods
Every now and then it’s a great idea to do an energetic cleanse on your business. I was reminded of this recently when I ordered a mini consultation from a feng shui practitioner. She asked about certain things I’d like to see in my business and I replied that I’d like to attract new clients. Her advice, in part, was to clean my front door and
walkway and to go through any files (real or digital) and delete the ones that are no longer relevant. I did those two things and promptly put it out of my mind … until the other day when I realized that I had seven new clients in the past week!
This was a reminder to me that the space we work in holds energy and often we can shift the vibe of our business by tidying up. I love when my desk is clean because I feel more free and creative. Some of my best offers were created after straightening my desk. The same goes for my altar, which is also in my office. I like to strip it down, clean the wood, and then rebuild it according to the season.
One area that often gets cluttered are my shelves where I store my decks. Like most tarot readers, I have
too many decks (at last count it was over 100), but I really only use four or five. Occasionally, I like to go through them and take out any I don’t use. I trade them, stick them in Little Free Libraries or use them for tarot crafts.
Once my space is neat and tidy, I like to refresh the crystals– selenite over the door, pyrite in the “money corner,” – and give the room a good misting
of my favorite sage spray.
I appreciated the suggestions from the feng shui practitioner because it made me consider my business from an energetic and physical perspective. It’s not just marketing and social media strategy that matters. Sometimes it’s as simple as a clean doorway.
About Patti:
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Patti Woods is a writer and tarot reader with over 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. Having served as an editor for both newspapers and magazines, she transitioned into freelance writing, contributing hundreds of articles to major publications such as The Boston Globe, Business Insider, Wine Spectator, Parade Magazine, The Week, Christian Science Monitor, Vegetarian Times, and Health, among many others.
In addition to her writing career, Patti is the founder of Mind, Body & Tarot, a business featured in Business Insider, Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, Fodor's Travel, and more.
She is also the author of Lost Restaurants of Fairfield, published by Arcadia/The History Press, and has contributed to several anthologies, including Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Learn more about her services and offerings at www.pattiwoods.com.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/boozytarot
IG: boozy_tarot
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Upcoming Events: 
Tarot Salon on Zoom!
7:00 – 9:00 pm EDT
Our popular Monday night classes are held over Zoom so you can attend no matter where you live.
Classes are recorded and all levels of experience are welcome!
NOVEMBER 2026:
2: Birth Cards: Death/Emperor
9: Page Swords
16: Knight Swords
23: Queen
Swords
30: King Swords
Get on the notification list to see what we'll be teaching each week.
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Readings with Ruth Ann
Running The Tarot School with Wald keeps me pretty busy, but I still love giving readings! My specialty is using your Birth Cards
and Elemental Array (techniques Wald and I have developed) in conjunction with random draws to give you an extremely personalized and powerful reading.
If you are familiar with the Tree of Life, you may request a Birth Cards Synastry Reading. I will compare your Birth Cards with those of one or two others to give you a deeper understanding of your relationship with them.
I excel at giving Readings for Readers so if you're always giving readings to others, let me help you with some self-care for a change!
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