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Confessions of a Tarot Card Reader

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A few of my friends know that some years ago I became a Tarot Card Reader.  Like most men and many women, I was skeptical about the process at first, but I have come to understand the value of doing and having readings for archetypal and mental health reasons.  

As a result, I am today formally launching an ongoing Tarot reading, for myself and for my followers on my Pinterest™ Account.  You will find it beginning at the 5th row of Boards on that account, and continuing through the next 22 Boards, each representing a Tarot Card from the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck.    This reading is limited to the “Major Arcana”, which amount to the main Jungian archetypes for the Round of Life.  

Have you ever wondered why Tarot is so persistently popular, and some form of it has lasted for thousands of years?  The secret is in the power of archetype.  There is nothing particularly mystical or "magical" about this, except to be a good Tarot reader you must at least intuitively understand the archetypes, which reside in the psyches of each and every human being.   Tarot developed over millennia of tradition, and amount to a distillation of the primary archetypes found in all human beings, and first described in detail by Dr. Carl Jung.  These insights came from the projections of untold numbers “mystics” over thousands of years.  

I can enter an auditorium with 1,000 people present.  As long as they will give me the benefit of the doubt that Tarot might work and might mean something to them, I can throw the Tarot cards across the stage (without any particular layout) and do a reading.  Everyone in the room will think that I did the reading specifically for them.  

The reason is that Tarot relies on some of the most fundamental archetypes in our subconscious minds, like "Mother" "Father" "Teacher" "Wise Old Man" etc.
 As I do my reading, the subconscious mind of each of my listeners will relate to some things I say and disregard the rest.  Astrology works in the same manner.  You can read your horoscope in the newspaper day in and day out.  You will remember the times the Astrologer got the prediction right, and forget those where s/he was wrong.  

So it is with my Tarot audience. Everyone will "hear" a different reading, one tailored especially to them, because their subconscious minds will latch onto some of my observations and disregard the rest.  In the reading of the cards strewn across the stage, the object for the Tarot reader is to give enough of a reading so that everyone will connect to it.  It doesn't take that much.

The numerical progression of the Major Arcana covers the sequence of life’s events.  While each of these events may constellate in our lives in multiple ways and at numerous times, they all happen to every one of us at some point in a full life.  The “0” card, for example, represents new birth.  The infant is called “The Fool”, because she doesn’t know anything about the world into which she is entering.  She steps off a cliff into the unknown.  In later life, “The Fool” can represent entering into a new job or relationship, or failing to enter into those situations, if the card is reversed.  

I normally do not read with reversed cards, as my subject will know in their own heart whether the archetype is reversed (opposite) in his or her own life, without me presenting that explicitly in the layout.

The reading I am presenting will be ongoing and continuous.  As I select “pins” for my Pinterest™ Boards, I am expressing for myself something that is meaningful enough to me in my subconscious to cause me to feel the need to choose it.   For followers of my Boards, some of my selections may resonate with you, and some may not.  This is a normal process in a Tarot reading.  

Those that resonate with you will expose to you (and only you) something about what is happening in your subconscious mind at this given point of time.  Since my layout of the Major Arcana will be constantly changing, although always in the Round of Life order, you will benefit by coming back to the layout time after time, to see what is posted there.  It is absolutely unnecessary for you to look at each Board each time.  Whatever Board you study is the Board of importance to you at that time.  

Several other talented Tarot readers will be adding to these Boards over time.  If you are a Tarot reader, whether professional or amateur, you are invited to participate.  You should know, though, that if you do participate, the Boards will also appear on your own Pinterest™ account, just as they appear on mine.  I make no claim to infinite wisdom, and you may disagree with some of my selections and categorizations of my pins (or those of others).  That is fine, as it is a part of the process.  My pins are first and foremost my attempt to communicate with my own subconscious mind.  To the extent that my selections resonate with you, they may offer your untold benefits, that I cannot predict and which I will never know.  

The subconscious mind of each of us tends to calcify (metaphorically), if it lacks adequate stimulation.  This can cause a failure of our psyche to move appropriately through the passages of life.  I think of this process as “moving the furniture around” in my personal unconscious.  I look for it to reveal Truths to me about what my Soul (or Jungian “Self”) needs me to work with in my conscious life.  If I react to something posted by another, it may mean something different to me and to the poster, but it can be meaningful to both of us nonetheless—in very different ways.  

This is NOT intended as a full Tarot reading for anyone.  One would have to add the “Minor Arcana” and perform certain styles of layouts in order to achieve that—something I think too cumbersome for this process.  If you develop an interest in the Tarot, you can certainly find highly competent readers anywhere in the world. You may find some of them as participants on these Boards.  

I hope you will enjoy this exercise as much or as little as you may wish to participate.  Your comments on what it means to you will be very welcome via Twitter @skip_conover, or directly in the comment spaces for each of the pins.  

Skip Conover is an international businessman, author and artist. He is a Founder of this organization.  You can follow him and his work on Twitter using @skip_conover.  "Just Askin'" is a regular feature on this site.

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