Phyllis Vega - Power Tarot: More Than 100 Spreads That Give Specific Answers to Your Most Important Question

Spreads form the heart of tarot. They create the stories the cards tell and depict recurring patterns that are both visible and invisible, known and unknown, obvious and hidden.

Some spreads work best for specific questions, others describe general situations and conditions, and still others answer questions that havent been asked yet. The collection of spreads given in this book covers a spectrum broad enough to fit most peoples needs.

Weve designed these spreads to obtain concrete, direct answers to the questions most people ask about their daily lives: romance, work, finances, health, and spirituality. You wont have to wade through pages of mythological associations, historical data about the tarot, or esoteric information. Just get out your deck, find a spread that seems to fit your question, and lay out the cards.

Although weve included the traditional spreads you find in most tarot booksthe Celtic Cross, the Horoscope, the Magic Starthe majority are nontraditional spreads that grew out of our personal questions and those of the people for whom weve read. We have arranged them from the simplest spread (one card) to the most complex (twenty-four cards).

As you work with these spreads, remember that you create your reality, the cards merely reflect it. If you dont like a situation the cards describe, then you can change it by working with your beliefs. That is the essence of Power Tarot.

The tarot has entered an unprecedented boom period, with more than three hundred decks now on the market. Their motifs range from angels to legends, the Middle Ages to the millennium.

The lure of a particular deck lies as much in the artwork as it does in how the deck feels when you handle it. Favorite decks usually speak to something private and sacred within you; they are like old friends you havent visited for a long time. They feel right.

If youre just beginning your work with the tarot, the best deck you can use is either the Rider-Waite or any Waite-Smith clone. The latter includes: Universal Waite, Albano Waite, Golden Rider, Morgan Greer, Hanson Roberts, Tarot of the Cloisters, Robin Wood, and The Aquarian Tarot.

Learn the textbook definitions of the seventy-eight cards, practice the traditional spreads, read for yourself, your family, your friends, whoever will sit still long enough. Practice until the definitions become as familiar to you as your name. And then read for strangers.

The first time you read for someone you dont know, all kinds of emotions will wash through you: exhilaration, nervousness, triumph, uncertainty. Youll quickly discover which cards demand more of your attention, which ones you know by heart, which ones pertain most strongly to a particular individual. Whether you stumble through the reading or glide through it smoothly, youll have a much clearer sense of the tarots voiceand the voice of the deck youre using.

As you work with the tarot, youll find that some cards recur; no matter how you shuffle the deck or what spread you use, the same cards keep coming up. These usually depict patterns in your life or in the life of the person for whom youre reading. They assume a personal meaning that may not be in line with the textbook definition. If youre relentless, youll eventually have highly personal definitions for all of the seventy-eight cards. And thats what the tarot is really about: What does this card mean to me?

There are certain cards you will love and welcome; there are others you will detest and dread. The Tower stands out as an excellent example.

Its image from deck to deck doesnt vary much. The Tower stands tall against a darkened, ugly sky that looms with menace. Lightning strikes its ancient walls, objects or people or both tumble from its windows, the water below it seems to bubble and writhe like a primal sea. Things are not in good shape.

In the beginning, this card will send chills up your spine, youll be expecting the absolute worst: a pink slip in the mail, a legal judgment that isnt in your favor, car problems, electrical problems, problems, problems, problems.

But as you work with the Tower, youll realize that its also about breaking old routines and patterns that limit who and what you are. The card is the equivalent of the planet Uranus in astrology in that it symbolizes the breaking apart of structures that tend to restrict you. The Tower puts you on notice that change is required. If you dont change voluntarily, then change will be imposed on you by some external force.

As with any language, your grasp of the tarot will change, evolve, and deepen the more you use it.

The typical Tarot deck has seventy-eight cards that are divided into the major arcana (22) and the minor arcana (56). Think of the majors as archetypal events, big issues that concern character and destiny. Minors are concerned with circumstances and behavior and illustrate how the energy of the majors manifests in your daily life.

The majors, numbered from zero to twenty-one, are ports in a journey that begins with the wildly innocent enthusiasm of the Fool and ends with the sophistication and knowledge of the World. They are the most powerful cards in the deck. Sometimes, the majors tell you all you need to know to understand the dynamics in a persons life.

The minors are divided into four suits: wands, cups, swords, and pentacles. They correspond to the four elements, the four personality types, the four seasons. The suits are the DNA of the minor arcana, the building blocks.

Each suit is numbered from one through ten and has four court cards. The pips, or numbered cards, represent the patterns which the archetypes weave in our lives; the court cards usually represent people or behavior patterns. In some decks, youll find the court cards called something elsethe page and knight, for instance, are a prince and princess. But if youre just beginning with the tarot, its easiest to work with decks that have traditional names for the court cards.

The mundane and esoteric meanings for the cards will vary, depending on which decks you use and which books you read. Once you become familiar with the cards, youll supplement and expand the meanings from your own experience. Our meanings began with the traditional definitions, then grew and expanded through trial and error. So will yours.

In the beginning, a journal can be an invaluable aid. It doesnt have to be anything complicated; a notebook or a file in your computer will do. Since youll be reading mostly for yourself at first, jot down the date, your question, the cards you pulled, and your interpretation. Check back periodically to see how accurate the reading was.