The Numinous - The Numinous Tarot Guide: A new way to read the cards

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This book is for you.

And you.

And, hey, over there you too.

The Numinous Guide to Tarot offers a modern, real-life take on the meaning of each card in your deck. But it is also about you and how you can use the insights ushered in by the 78 cards that make up the Major and Minor Arcanas to better see yourself and your experiences of daily life.

Yes, the tarot can be of service to the forlorn lover wondering if their paramour will return. But how about the artist trying to land gallery representation? , so often misunderstood, tells her to trust her intuition and just go for it.

The point is that everything we experience in our daily lives can be viewed through the lens of tarot. And rather than turning to the cards for answers, this book is a guide to using your deck to reflect the truths that already live inside you. Tarot has long been thought of as a tool for divination, but it is also about using the hidden codes and messages of the cards as keys to unlock your individual relationship to whatever events are unfolding in your life. Its about using the language of tarot to ask the conscious and unconscious parts of yourself questions and receiving answers that will help both sides of your psyche work together seamlessly. Rather than a tool for predicting future outcomes, the Numinous approach to the tarot is about applying the meaning of the cards to your needs and your life now.

A tarot deck usually consists of 78 cards and is divided into two parts: the Major Arcana, which has 22 cards; and the Minor Arcana, which has 56. The Major Arcana cards, such as the Fool, the Magician, the High Priestess and so on, introduce the archetypes connected to life overall, its seasons and transitions.

The cards of the Minor Arcana reflect our day-to-day situations, revelations and struggles. These cards are divided into suits, each of which has their own elemental correspondences and properties.

Swords (sometimes called Knives): connected to the element of Air. Properties include intelligence, decision-making and logic.

Wands: connected to the element of Fire. Properties include creativity, action and ideas.

Cups: connected to the element of Water. Properties include emotions, relationships and desires.

Pentacles (sometimes called Coins or Discs): connected to the element of Earth. Properties include security, practicalities and the material world.

Each suit of the Minor Arcana has 14 cards, with each card designated a number or a court name, like a deck of playing cards: Ace, 210, Page, Knight, Queen and King.

Dont let the word Minor fool you. This grouping may be connected to the small stuff of our everyday lives, the things we encounter on a daily basis rather than the big, overarching life themes of the Major Arcana, but sometimes something minor can be what sparks a major shift.

S o where did tarot come from? And how did it become what we know it as today? Depending on whom you believe, tarot is either a gift from the ancient Egyptians and/or Kabbalists, or the descendant of an old Italian card game. Feel free to do your own research, but for the purposes of this book, lets go with the latter.

According to many sources, whats known as tarot today started as a game called tarocchi in the 15th century. Many decks were created for aristocratic families on special occasions and featured family members as characters in scenes depicted on the cards. As the Church played a major role in society during these times, the images on the cards had predominantly Christian symbolism and themes. Use of tarot as an actual divination tool seemed to start in the 16th century, but it wasnt until around the 1900s that the version of tarot we know today appeared.

The most well-known deck, the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS), debuted in 1910. It was commissioned by A. E. Waite and realized by the artist Pamela Colman Smith, both members of a secret society called the Golden Dawn. The deck contained the same card numbers, suits and structure as older decks, but some of the card names in the Major Arcana were changed. For example, the Pope became the Hierophant, and the Papess became the High Priestess, both of the former names reflecting the previous influence of the Church. The deck was published by the William Rider & Son company in the UK, which eventually gave the deck the Rider part of its name.

At this time, tarot cards were relegated to occult groups, alternative shops and fortune-teller booths at amusement parks. It wasnt until the 1970s, when the New Age brought about a resurgence of interest in the esoteric and spiritual worlds, that the practice resurfaced in a more mainstream way.

T he RWS deck has spawned many derivatives and systems since its launch in 1910. Now there are esoteric decks, pagan decks, angel decks, LGBTQIA+-centred decks, BIPOC-centred decks and many others. Perhaps you own one or more of these. Many of them come with their own guidebook about how to interpret the cards. This is where The Numinous Guide to Tarot comes in. This book is written to be your companion with any tarot deck, no matter the genre or the style of imagery.

And it isnt just about how to decipher the tarot. Instead, the text for each card connects its meaning to a different life situation, using a story to help you embody the message of the card. The invitation is to put yourself in the shoes of each character you meet along the way. A general meaning of the card follows the story, along with journal prompts you can use to strengthen your relationship to the message of the card and to dig deeply into what it means for you. Capture your thoughts about each card and create your own compendium of intimately personal tarot meanings.

The Numinous Guide to Tarot honours the original meanings of the cards, as established decades ago, but it also acknowledges life in the world we inhabit today. This book invites you to connect your story to the examples given to discover the whys behind the events of daily life. Perhaps youll want to ask a question, then pull a card. Or maybe youll want to pull a card and then ask a question. Or perhaps you dont have a specific question to ask. If thats the case, dont worry; just pull a card and see what comes up.

Its up to you.

This book is written for any reader of the tarot, at any level of experience or skill. Whether youre a complete newbie whos just starting your tarot journey, or an expert with decades of experience, this book contains insights, inspiration and perhaps some surprising plot twists that will help you further your understanding of tarot, yourself and your life. We wrote it for you and its about each and every aspect of the humanity that makes you the unique individual that you are.