TAROT FAQ

Tarot is a divination system that uses a set of cards to gain insight and achieve greater control over issues involving relationships, opportunities, and life changes.

The Tarot deck is over 500 years old. With archetypal roots that go back almost 2000 years, Tarot has become a repository of ancient wisdom. Interestingly, our modern playing cards are a subset of the Tarot.

The history of Tarot symbolism is shrouded in mystery. Some of the Tarot symbols are thought to have originated in China, India or Egypt. Tarot cards date back to 15th century Spain, Italy and France.

A large enough Tarot spread can give you a very keen sense of the probabilities inherent in a situation, but the specific way that things turn out are, in the final analysis, up to you -- how well you adapt to the ever-changing conditions that your Tarot reading reflects. A Tarot reading gives a snapshot of what is going on in the Present, the time you are picking the cards. It can help you see aspects of a situation that have been invisible to your ego. In contrast to popular opinion, Tarot is a valuable form of meditation on the Present moment that returns insight and advice. Although it does reflect probabilities, it is NOT a form of fortune-telling.

Consult the Tarot as if you were asking the advice of a wise friend or teacher.

A tarot deck consists of 78 cards that you lay out in any one of a number of spreads. Each card is symbolic of an energy or spiritual truth, its relevance depending upon its position in the spread. There are so many possible outcomes that tarot readers spend decades mastering the meanings of all the cards in all the different combinations. Books are one resource, but can only help so much.

Using the power of Synchronicity, Tarot taps both the subconscious and the superconscious Mind, the center of our psychic abilities. Anyone can become a good tarot reader. But a gifted reader of Tarot is far more than someone exercising innate psychic abilities. An appreciation of the power of the archetypes contained in the images on the cards demands a classical understanding. By bringing you this element, Tarot.com lets you give yourself good readings right off the bat and will lead to more accurate intuitive abilities over time.

Tarot is excellent for receiving clarity on problems or issues that logic by itself simply can't handle (most of the important ones in life!). Relationships, negotiations, work dynamics, office politics, family matters, spiritual well-being.

Thanks to modern production and distribution technologies, there are hundreds of Tarot decks available to anyone today for a modest price. Tarot.com will soon offer over 50 choices of decks, which you will be able to flip between at will. Most people will come to choose a favorite deck. All the decks on Tarot.com are good, with a reasonable connection to classical tarot tradition, so you really can't go wrong.

It's largely a matter of taste. Use the Choose Your Deck or Select Another Deck menus to try out different ones until you find the one or two you like best. Even after that, it's fun to see what a special card might look like in other decks. This is hard to do in physical reality, no matter how many decks you own. Tarot.com lets you do this with ease.

There are hundreds of spreads too, with tarot experts creating new ones all the time. A spread is the layout of the cards, with a category of meaning assigned to each position. The creation of useful and powerful spreads is an art. Tarot.com offers two free spreads -- a three-card spread consisting of the first 3 positions of the Celtic Cross -- Self, Situation and Opportunities; and a 1-card spread wherein you can choose anyone of twelve positions to view the card in, including Advice which is the default.

The "Lookup any card in any position" feature lets you do exactly that. This ability to dial up any of the classical positions for any card is a powerful learning tool for anyone sincerely interested in Tarot. Tarot.com incorporates the world's only comprehensive encyclopedia of Tarot card meanings in any form that we know of. Nothing with the scope or depth of Tarot Magic exists in book form. It would be 1500 pages long and weigh a ton!

Because Tarot.com incorporates the world's only encyclopedia of Tarot meanings, it can deliver the specific meaning of any card in any position. In essence, Tarot.com delivers a classical Tarot reading by Tarot scholar Christine Payne-Towler, Tarot scholar and a bishop of the Gnostic Church. This clarity and depth of this Tarot knowledge is simply not available anywhere else -- and thanks to the skillful use of technology, it couldn't be easier to access in a self-service way!

The Tarot.com experience is energizing because, unlike other websites, it makes sure that YOU, not the computer, choose the cards. The energetic connection between you and the cards you pick is what creates "synchronicity." At Tarot.com the computer only helps; it doesn't take over or get in the way.

As often as you feel a need for insights or advice. Intelligent people have been known to use Tarot.com readings as a way of processing a relationship coming together or breaking up, or a dilemma in the career or family.

Some people do the Daily Reflection spread every morning as a kind of meditation to start their day. Many Tarot readers use Tarot.com because they feel they cannot give themselves an objective reading. How often you give yourself readings is totally up to you!

Tarot.com automatically saves all of the Expert-Level readings that are delivered to Tarot.com members. Any time you use Karma Coins or purchase an Expert reading, it is saved to your "Readings & Reports Journal" and kept for you -- protected by your ID and password -- on Tarot.com. Just go to the "About You" menu and click the selection "Your Readings & Reports Journal."

Since you are the one logged in on your computer, this is YOUR personal, private journal of Tarot readings, complete with whatever notes you have attached to that reading (Notes feature). Nobody else can ever see your journal, because it is protected by your password. And you can delete your readings any time you want. Tarot.com currently has literally millions of full-sized spreads saved for visitors with a password.

This is a great feature, because it gives you a way to analyze your progress through a difficult passage as recorded in Tarot symbols. This is very cool. Better yet, Tarot.com will offer members a little software feature to quickly analyze any set of saved readings in your Tarot.com Readings & Reports Journal.

Emailing a reading to a friend can be a doubly rewarding experience and Tarot.com makes it easy to do. If you get a reading that is highly meaningful, nothing is better than sharing it with a friend via email. And, if you do, Tarot.com automatically rewards you with 10 Karma Coins the minute your friend looks at it!