Tarot Reading Techniques

So, let’s start with an idea:

Tarot reading is a lot like that conversation between Shrek and the Donkey - it’s all about layers, and peeling them off like an onion (or possibly a parfait).

There’s the meaning of the cards themselves, and then there’s the direction of the card (upright or inverted), and then there’s the position of the card in the reading (in positional readings), but then there can also be the type of card - Major, Minor, Court, the element of the card - Air, Fire, Water, Earth - and how they interact with each other, the number and distribution of cards in a reading, the direction of a card (in card walking readings), and more.

All of these different techniques can be used as additional layers of meaning that can be applied to a reading, often way before we look at the actual card meaning itself, providing a context that is many times hard to see at a first glance.

These techniques are generally useful in all readings, but they come in especially handy when using decks that don’t have a lot of imagery on them to help interpretation. Really, this whole website came about because a friend showed me a deck that they love (it has hemp on it, how cool is that!), but they aren’t confortable using it because it’s a deck in the traditional pre-1900s (pre-Rider-Waite-Smith) Tarot design style that only has symbolic imagery for the Major Arcana, with the Minor Arcana having the normal playing card design. Not having the full imagery of the Minor Arcana available makes readings slightly more challenging, but it’s doable if you have some extra little tricks up your sleeve!

Let’s take a look at what some hypothetical readings would look like, if the only thing we have is a deck with major arcana and a bunch of playing cards for minor arcana…

Three card draw

Air - Water - Fire

Let’s say I drew these three cards - the 10 of Swords (or spades in normal playing cards), the 5 of Cups (or hearts), the 2 of Wands (or clubs). ED (elemental dignities) tells me that:

• Swords -> Air (Yellow)
• Cups -> Water (Blue)
• Wands -> Fire (Red)

The basic rules for ED tell me that:

• Air and Fire are friendly, augmenting each other
• Air and Water are neutral
• Fire and Water are opposites, cancelling each other

The elemental attributions tell me that:

• Cups (Water) is a somewhat passive element, represents emotions, feeling, intuition, the unspoken, unknown depths, connections, relationships.
• Swords (Air) is an somewhat active element, represents thoughts, the mind, logic, reason, knowledge, ideas, work, the spoken, clarity.
• Wands (Fire) is all active, represents passion, drive, energy, ambition, willpower, creativity, speed, motion.

So what can we tell from all of this? The center card, Water, is the Principal card, and it represents an emotional matter. On one side, it’s being supported by Air, and on the other, it’s being hindered by Fire. Fire and Air are supporting each other, and each provide a different direction to Water, but both lean towards action - this is a weak situation for Water, being pulled in two directions, not really comfortable with either, and very conflicted. This won’t resolve itself quickly - Water is passive and lacking strong support, not going anywhere fast.

What if we switch the cards around and look again?

Water - Air - Fire

Now Air, in the center, is the Principal in this reading. It’s friendly with Fire, so it’s strengthened, and neutral with Water, so it has support from both sides. Air is active, so this situation is much more likely to happen, or go somewhere significant, than the previous one. Fire and Water are “enemies” and cancel each other out, therefore making Air even stronger - whatever opposition it would have is not happening, Water and Fire are probably bickering at each other, letting Air do its thing. This is a thought or idea trying to reconcile conflicting feelings and actions, but Air is much more empowered to succeed here than Water was in its position in the previous reading.

Let’s switch it up again!

Water - Fire - Air

Fire in the center, we’re back in a situation where the Principal is supported on the one side and hindered on the other, just like Water was when it was in the center. This time, however, there’s no call to conflicting action from the sides to the center - Air strongly supports Fire’s actions, and Water is a friendly neutral support of Air. This is more like an event likely to happen despite emotions, where feelings might get ignored and trampled upon.

The imbalance of the triple

We’ve done three different readings with the same three cards and a few basic rules, only swapping their positions and examining their interactions. Since there are four elements and we only had three cards, there is definitely an inbalance in all of these combinations - Earth is missing from all of them, therefore increasing the volatility on all of the three combinations, and Water is always the weakest element regardless of position. When Earth is missing, we can expect a lack of practicality, situations that don’t last (because of the lack of stability of Earth).

This gives us some other hints for additional layers of interpretation in a reading

• Which element is strongest? Is it active, or passive?
• Which element is weakest?
• Is there an excess of an element?
• Is there a lack of an element?

Running a quick tally of the relative representation of each element in a reading is a useful thing to do up front before looking at what the cards are. More active elements indicates things that are more likely to happen, passive hints at situations that won’t resolve themselves quickly, if at all. A complete lack of an element can hint at what is missing from the situation. If the reading is about relationships, where you would expect Cups to make a strong appearance, but Water is the weakest element in it, that can tell you something about what’s really going on.

An elemental base

If you know what the goal of the reading is, if there’s a question to be answered, you can assign one of the elements to the question, and use it as an additional elemental base on which all the other cards are, and that can dramatically change the relative strengths and weaknesses of the cards.

Let’s say, for example, that our Air - Water - Fire reading was actually answering a question about financial stability - an Earth question.

Now the Principal - Water - is sitting atop its very best friend Earth! Air is now the weakest element, being neutralized by Earth, and Water is considerably strengthened. If before we had a situation where Water was being pulled in two undesirable directions, now it’s in a much more comfortable and stable situation. This is not a situation that is likely to resolve itself quickly, given that both the Principal and the Base are passive elements. It could be a new opportunity presenting itself, but whoever we’re reading this feels comfortable in their current situation and prefer not to stir the waters. There is an interesting spark from Fire, but logical arguments are not likely to change their mind, reason is weakest here and not action won’t come from that front.

And look, we haven’t even tried to think of what the actual card meanings are, and already we have a lot of insight into the question.