Introduction 1
About This Book 1
My Assumptions about You 2
How This Book is Organized 3
Part I: It’s All in How You See It 3
Part II: Pick a Card, Any Card: A Guided Tour Through the Tarot Deck 4
Part III: The Tarot and You: The ABCs of Tarot Reading (And Then Some) 4
Part IV: The Tarot and Her Family: Seeing Through Other Eyes 4
Part V: The Part of Tens 4
Icons Used in the Book 4
Where to Go From Here 5
Part I: It’s All in How You See It 7
Chapter 1: Making Friends with the Tarot 9
Introducing the Tarot 9
Harnessing the Power of Symbols 10
Becoming aware of archetypes 11
Picturing a new perspective 13
What Does Your Name Mean, Tarot? 16
Looking it up 17
Creating anagrams 17
Putting it all together 18
Chapter 2: Who Uses the Tarot and Why? 21
Gypsy Fortune-Tellers, Psychics, and Mystics 22
Gypsies: Beating a bad rap 22
Psychics: Getting specific about the future 23
Mystics: Communicating with divine spirits 23
Using the Tarot in the Health Professions 24
Therapists: Tapping into the unconscious mind 24
Substance abuse counselors: Connecting tarot with the 12 steps 25
Taking Tarot into the Fortune 500 26
Touching Students with the Tarot 26
Improving reading skills 26
Helping youngsters express their feelings 27
Appealing to All 28
Chapter 3: Let’s Go Shopping! 29
Strolling through Tarot Candy Land 29
Decks, decks, and more decks 30
Habla Espanol? Parlez Vous Francais? Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Parla Italiano? 34
Deciding on Your First Deck 34
Choosing a classic 34
Following your eyes, hands, and heart 35
Shopping for Your Deck 36
Hitting the bookstores 36
Cataloging 36
Surfing the Net 37
Chapter 4: History and Mystery: Where Does the Tarot Come From? 39
Place by Place 39
Stringing the Theories Together 43
Taroting through Time 43
Decks of antiquity 44
Twelfth century 45
Fourteenth century 45
Fifteenth century 45
Sixteenth century 47
Seventeenth century 47
Eighteenth century 47
Nineteenth century 48
Twentieth century 48
Looking at the Tarot Today 50
Chapter 5: The Tarot and the Mystery School Tradition 51
Demystifying the Mystery School 52
The mystery school experience 52
Open and closed mystery schools 52
Mystery school guidelines 53
Looking for a Mystery School? 54
Connecting with Qabalah 54
Linking the Tarot and the Mystery School 55
Making the Historical Connection 56
The tarot’s tie to the mysteries 56
The tarot and the Qabalah 57
Part II: Pick a Card, Any Card: A Guided Tour Through the Tarot Deck 59
Chapter 6: A Magic Mirror: Preparing for the Tarot’s Possibilities 61
Getting Ready to Read 62
Reconciling positives and negatives 62
Amber’s approach to interpreting 62
Recognizing the role of memory 63
Wrestling with the Meaning of Reversals 64
Interpreting in black and white 65
Shifting into neutral 66
Guidelines for interpreting reversals 66
Differences between Tarot Decks 68
Justice before Strength 68
Strength before Justice 68
Limbo land 69
Chapter 7: Hitting the Big Time: The 22 Major Arcana Cards 71
Defining the Major Arcana 72
Preparing to read major arcana cards 73
Pulling the race card 74
Touring the Cards 74
Chapter 8: Certainly Not the Minor Leagues: The Minor Arcana Number Cards 99
Suit Yourself 100
Place Your Order Here! 100
Ordering the minor arcana by density 101
Ordering the minor arcana by direction 101
Connecting the Suits with Four Magic Letters 102
Amber’s New Car: The Four Suits in Action! 103
Ha Ha Ha Ha! Linking the Humors and Suits 104
Putting It All Together 105
Interpreting the Minor Arcana 106
Chapter 9: A Magic Kingdom: The 16 Court or Royalty Cards 147
Naming the Court Cards 147
Bringing the Court Cards to Life 148
Royal occupations 149
Stages of life 149
A balancing act 150
Filling in the Gaps 151
Introducing the Court 151
Part III: The Tarot and You: The ABCs of Tarot Reading (And Then Some) 169
Chapter 10: Experiencing the Tarot 171
Finding Your Soul and Personality Cards 172
Determining your soul card 173
Identifying your personality card 174
Having the same soul and personality card 175
A special case: Totaling 19 175
Finding Your Card for the Year 176
The Card for Today 177
Finding today’s general card 177
Pinpointing today’s personal card 178
Cards that Correspond to Weeks and Months 179
Week by week 179
Month by month 179
Cards for Special Occasions 179
Studying History with the Tarot 180
Locating Your Personal Court Card 181
Connecting a Court Card with Your Personal Development for the Year 182
Chapter 11: Handling, Mixing, and Interpreting the Cards 185
Special Handling Required 185
Storing, wrapping, and protecting 186
Setting your intention 186
Requesting divine protection 188
Adopting orphans and retiring older cards 189
But I Can’t Shuffle! 190
Why, When, and Where? 190
Asking Questions and Getting Answers 191
When Will I Meet the Love of My Life? Win the Lottery? Become Enlightened? 193
Predicting probabilities 193
Trusting in divine time 194
Comparing Tarot Reading with Tarot Consultation 194
Chapter 12: Going Deeper: Meditating with the Tarot 197
Exploring Color and Sound 198
Meditating with color 198
Tuning in 201
Tasting the Tarot 203
Composing Affirmations 204
Becoming a Beautiful Dreamer 205
Meditating through Writing 207
The Best Form of Meditation 207
Chapter 13: Tarot Spreads Aren’t for Sandwiches! 209
How Tarot Spreads Work 210
Starting small 210
Preparing your intention 211
Seeing into the magic mirrors 212
Interpreting a spread’s meaning 213
Spreading the cards: From A to Z 214
Taking Precautions When You Read for Others 215
The Touchstone Spread 216
Pulling a Touchstone card 217
Sample spread 217
Amber’s All-Purpose Tarot Spread 218
Laying out the cards 218
Sample spread 221
Between Extremes Spread 224
Laying out the cards 224
Sample spread 225
Psychological Spread 226
Laying out the cards 227
Sample spread 227
Astrological Spread 229
Picking cards 229
Sample spread 230
Relationship Spread 231
Laying out the cards 231
Sample spread 234
The Chakra Spread 236
The chakras 236
Laying out the cards 238
Sample spread 238
Tarot Games 241
For you 241
For two 242
For any number of you 242
Getting a Professional Tarot Reading 242
Finding a reader 243
Interviewing 243
Show me the money! 243
Chapter 14: Help Wanted! 245
Thinking About Going Pro? 245
Quitting Your Day Job 246
Becoming a master of all trades 246
Seeking professional opportunities 247
Spreading the word 248
Getting paid 249
Setting up shop 250
Working for tarot hotlines 250
Buyer Beware: The Limits of Tarot Certification 251
Part IV: The Tarot and Her Family: Seeing Through Other Eyes 253
Chapter 15: Connecting the Tarot to the Qabalistic Tree of Life 255
Diagramming Your Spiritual Journey 256
Fruits of the Tree 256
Thirty-two paths 257
Branching out 261
The Minor Arcana and the Tree of Life 262
Tapping into the Qabalistic Intelligences 263
Decoding the Qabalistic Tree of Life 266
Linking the Tree of Life to Your Chakras 268
Chapter 16: Connecting the Tarot to Astrology and Numerology 271
Linking Signs, Planets, Luminaries, and the Major Arcana 272
Zodiac signs and the major arcana 272
Planets, luminaries, and the major arcana 276
Wheeling through the Zodiac and the Tarot’s Number Cards 278
Dividing the zodiac pie 278
Finding your number card 279
Matching the Court Cards to the Zodiac 282
Reslicing the zodiac pie 282
Finding your court card 283
Running the Numbers 285
Numbering the major arcana 286
Adding up the minor arcana and court cards 289
Chapter 17: Connecting the Tarot to Alchemy and Your Life Journey 291
The Elements of Alchemy 292
The Refiner’s Fire 292
Breaking Down and Building Up 293
Traveling from Childhood to Old Sage 295
On being a child 296
On being an adolescent 297
On being an adult 298
On being an elder or sage 299
Part V: The Part of Tens 301
Chapter 18: Top Ten Tarot Misconceptions 303
The Tarot is a Form of Devil Worship (If I Use It, I’ll Go to Hell!) 303
The Tarot is a Religion 304
You Must be Psychic to Work with the Tarot 304
The Purpose of a Tarot Reading is to Find Out About Your Future 304
The Future is Set in Stone 305
Dear Tarot Reader, Please Fix Me! 305
Your Wife’s Having an Affair 305
Curses and Love Spells 306
Reversed Means the Opposite 306
My Life’s This Way Because 306
A Few Extras 307
The tarot is dangerous 307
Each tarot card has a specific, predetermined meaning (how boring!) 307
A tarot reading a day can keep the doctor away 307
Who needs investment counseling? 308
The tarot has no practical use 308
Chapter 19: The Ten Cards Most Likely to Cause a Freak-Out 309
The Tower 310
The Nine of Swords 311
Death 311
Three of Swords 312
The Devil 312
Five of Pentacles 313
The Eight of Swords 313
The Ten of Swords 314
The Hanged Man 314
The Hierophant 315
Appendix: Seeking Additional Resources 317
Books 317
Comic Books 317
Electronic Media 318
Teachers and Schools 318
Correspondence Courses 319
Community Programs 319
Institutes 320
Tarot Organizations 320
Index 321
