What Are The Real Meanings of the Tarot Cards

by | Jun 18, 2018 | Divination

Or put another way, does the meaning of the card have the same meaning for each person?

[perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Card Interpretation is perscriptive to the moment.[/perfectpullquote] Meaning includes the intention of the reading. Then you layer in the moment and the person the cards that are drawn for. That’s a lot of factors that inform a card interpretation. I think what people get hung up on, and I did this, people get hung up on what the card means instead of what the card means in the moment.

Know the Meaning of the Card.

Knowing what the card means historically is important. That’s where reading tarot books by Papus & Pollack are useful. Besides every other book that indicates, “this is what these cards mean,” when they say, “this is what these cards mean,” that comes from two things:

  1. Meaning comes from the meaning they memorized at one point in their lives
  2. Meaning comes from their experience. They augment what they memorized with the experience of what they learned and then they write a book.

Whichever tarot book you read is full of what they say the card means based on what they memorized and what they’ve experienced as a reader. Anytime anybody writes a book about what a tarot card means or they tell you what a tarot card means, they’re telling you based on their education and experience. It’s not the actual moment of the interpretation of the card.

History is in the Hand of the Person with the Pen.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The “meaning” of the card is good to know.[/perfectpullquote] For hundreds of years, a single card has repeatedly meant “x.” Once you know the base, then you’re at a jumping off point to decide, based on rational thought or intuition, that the traditional meaning of the card is meant for that reading at that point in time. Or it could be pointing you to some other interpretation that isn’t traditional.

Your experience will tell you which one to pay attention to. I’ve learned that paying attention to my intuition is more important than the base meaning of the card. That’s when my readings go to a whole new level.

Meaning is attributed to cards because someone passed them on orally and then someone wrote them down.