Richard T. Kaser - Tarot in Ten Minutes

Tarot in Ten Minutes is not your typical Tarot book. You arent going to have to wade through this book from front to back and digest a lot of extraneous information before you begin to play with your cards. In fact, youll be conducting your first Readingasking your first question and getting your first answerin less than ten minutes, aided by the books prefabricated Answer sections.

These Answer sections are not your typical Tarot book answers, either. In other books, you have to struggle to relate general, all-purpose descriptions or heavy-duty mythological references to the question you asked. But with Tarot in Ten Minutes, if you ask about your love life, the book will answer in a way that talks about your love life. If you ask about your finances, the book will talk to you about money. There are 29 questions and 29 Answer sections in all. And they cover everything from your career prospects to your mission in life.

Within nine minutes you will be learning which Tarot card is your mascot in lifethat is if you choose to start with Reading #1. Or youll be exploring your employment situation, delving into your dreams, contemplating your lifes purpose, because there is a Reading for just about everything here, and there are no rules about how you should proceed through the book. Starting at the beginning and working your way through to the end will result in a complete experience with the cards and a complete look at your life. But if you dont want to start with Reading #1, dontjust consult the Contents or the Index to find the Reading that deals with the question you want to ask.

The method youll use as you follow this book is straightforward: Ask your questions; shuffle the cards; deal up the cards; and look up your answers.

To ask your question. The easiest thing to do is to ask one of the 29 questions listed in the Contents, or one of the 78 questions included in the Index. These lists will direct you to the Reading where your question is treated. If you dont find your exact question, pick the one closest to it. Most Readings allow you to tailor the question to your specific situation. Once you know what Reading youre going to do, consult its Tarot Tools section, which will tell you which cards to use. Many of the Readings use only the 10 or 20 cards that are best at answering the type of question you have asked. This is one way in which Tarot in Ten Minutes helps you get answers that are so relevant to your question.

To shuffle the cards. Some of the Readings in this book are so easy to do that they dont even require you to shuffle. And when it comes time to shuffle, the book will tell you how. But in general, there is absolutely no way you can shuffle the cards wrong. Ruffle them together. Shuffle them from front to back or back to front. Swirl them around on the table in front of you. With this book you do not have to cut the deck. You do not have to light candles or burn incense. You do not have to work on a black velvet cloth or keep your cards wrapped up in silk. You do not have to pick out a card to signify you or the person you are reading for. You can do these things if they make you feel more comfortable with the cards, but no complex rituals or extra procedures are required to get an answer. Just follow the instructions in the How To section in each Reading.

To deal up the cards. The cards are done shuffling when they dont want to go into one another, or when one leaps out of the deck. At this point stop shuffling, cut the deck if you are so inclined, and deal up the top card or cards. The How To section in each Reading will tell you how many cards to deal up and how to arrange them.

To look up your answers. The answers to each question are right with the Reading. When you are done dealing up your cards, just find the answers for the card or card combinations that have come up. The answers will relate directly to your question. Depending on the question you have asked and the type of layout you are using, some of the answers you receive will be detailed, and some will be short and snappy. Some Answer sections will trace your question back to its roots and look at the various aspects of a situation; other answers will read more like a single continuous thought. The How To sections will tell you what kind of answer to expect for each question. If you would like more detail on your question, shuffle and deal again. To find more information on the meaning of any card at any time, turn to the back of the book and consult the Quick Reference Guide.

In fact, if you prefer to follow a method you already know for shuffling, dealing, and reading the cards, use the Quick Reference Guide the same way you would consult any traditional Tarot book. The difference is, the answers you find here will be more down-to-earth, practical, and specific than what you are used to finding. And they will certainly add to your own understanding of the cards.

Either way, within six minutes, you will be reading your cards. To save six minutes, skip the rest of this preface. But if youd like to know how and why this book originated, read on

My first experience with the Tarot was a fiasco. I lit my incense. I had my bowl of water sitting by to keep the evil spirits away. I shuffled the deck, asked my question, dealt up my cards into a Celtic Cross formation, and then went to look up the answers. The book gave me 10 or 15 different answers for every card. Each card, it seemed, could stand for many different things. What was I to make of this? Which was my answer? What did my cards mean?

I tried other books. Some told me how the cards were about an allegorical journey or vision quest. Some told me how the cards represented figures from Greek and Roman mythology. Some told me how they related to the stars and astrological signs or to numbers and numerological theories. Some taught me colors. Some taught me symbols. Some told me how the cards embodied ancient Egyptian ideas or the religious traditions of Mother India, the pagan customs of Europe, or Hebrew mysticism. Some spoke only of the cards Christian symbols, some only of New Age spiritualism, and some of Jungian psychology. All of this was quite interestingbut when I dealt up my cards in a Celtic Cross, I still didnt know how to read them.

What I really wantedneeded, desiredwas a book that helped me out with the answers, that helped me figure out what the cards meant in the context of real-life questions. Tarot in Ten Minutes is my humble attempt to give you the book I could not find anywhere elsethe book with the answers.

How I finally learned to read the cards was by playing around with them and trying all different kinds of things. Through trial and errorand by borrowing techniques from other types of fortune-telling devicesI discovered that reading Tarot cards can be a lot easier than most Tarot experts admit. You simply do not need to spend a lifetime learning complex methods in order to enjoy the experience and learn something about yourself in the process. In fact, in less than four minutes youll be well on your way to using your cards to get real answers to real questions, by using simple techniques not found in other Tarot books.

To make things easy, many of the Readings in this book borrow their technique from the way in which Celtic runes are read. With runes, three engraved stones are selected from a bag of stones in order to get a reading of the current situation, an action that is required, and a result that can be expected. The same technique works well with the cards.

From the Chinese I Chinga rather philosophical method of reading fortunes by tossing coinsI have borrowed the idea of interpreting the cards as a continuous thought. Quite a few Readings in the book use this method in their Answer sections, where the first card that turns up is treated as the main idea, with each additional card supplying more detail. Readings conducted this way tend to answer your question more directly than traditional Tarot methods.