Numerology and Astrology

It depends on who you are and what you're looking to achieve. For someone who knows and works with these things they are as essential as the images. You can imagine seeing a card as an iceberg with the image as the surface. It's what you see and it can be in itself quite profound since it is the externalized experience of the idea the card conveys. Many people choose to stay there and are quite successful in terms of readings they do.

But, beneath the surface you have the 90% that you can't see. It is the building blocks of the card and is why the image is what it is and not another. It introduces you to a deck's inner movements and interconnections. Many of the most important symbols pertaining to a card aren't even on it but have to do with its background or can even be found on other cards. Instead of a vaguely threaded narrative that you have when looking at the pictures you have complete connections and reasons and causes and effects, etc.

Plus, the material really isn't difficult. It does mean actual "study," though, the old-fashioned kind with book open and taking notes, working things out and stuff like that. Just reading a book can be bewildering because you have to work it to get it. But in terms of objective difficulty, it's actually much easier than many people think. As Barleywine said you're dealing with specific aspects of it, a kind of "Tarot-astrology" and "Tarot-Kabbalah," and it is all very relevant.

Now, many people feel that dealing with these technical aspects of Tarot robs it of its creative, intuitive sides. This isn't true because behind those kabbalistic diagrams and definitions lie powerful emotions, creativity and intuition. It is just written in shorthand so as to make connections, symbols to be used. But it really is a very creative process, an "informed intuition."

Much depends on the deck, though. A deck made by an artist who has no interest in kabbalah or astrology can be read without referring to either. Trying to read Alchemical or Holy Light tarot without alchemy, Saints Tarot without knowledge of saints etc would be a waste of time IMO.

I like the iceberg metaphor. I think part of this iceberg we have to build ourselves - over time, cards become "loaded" with our own interpretations and experiences.

Zephyros said:

Now, many people feel that dealing with these technical aspects of Tarot robs it of its creative, intuitive sides. This isn't true because behind those kabbalistic diagrams and definitions lie powerful emotions, creativity and intuition. It is just written in shorthand so as to make connections, symbols to be used. But it really is a very creative process, an "informed intuition."

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"Informed intuition" is a good way to put it. I find that having a deep well of background knowledge at my fingertips enables my insights to be less scattershot, more precise and timely, especially when, at first blush, card combinations don't seem to jell in any sensible fashion. Granted, if the cards "sing" in concert without such forensic deconstruction, I go there first and only incidentally (and purposefully) tap more complex veins of interpretation. But the numerical and astrological qualities can certainly stand out as luminous "threads of gold" to be unraveled when the overall impression is a murky one. It often helps to have more than one arrow in your quiver. Personally, I love this sort of challenge since it draws on all my resources, both intuitive and knowledge-based.

chongjasmine said:

To interpret a tarot card, is it necessary to know some numerology and astrology?
Or will it be perfectly fine to go into a tarot reading with no knowledge of them?

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This is a really good question, and one that I asked myself years ago when I started learning Tarot. I started with just learning the card meanings. The symbology can get a bit busy at times in some decks so I stuck to learning the cards and what they meant. basic numerology was an automatic since the cards are numbered. My readings were pretty good back then, but as I grew in understanding I found things missing, and cards that were virtually impossible for me to decipher because they seemed out of place. It was like calculus or philosophy, so haaaard.
What I have learned is that Tarot is comprised of different principles: elemental, numerological, Philosophical, Astrological.
I have found that the more I became familiar with these principles and how they apply to Tarot specifically, a deeper knowledge is achieved. So can you be good if you do not grasp these? sure, I still got great readings; however, numerology, Astrology as well as life experiences, and your understanding of the world around you, can really propel ones understanding at the quantum level where these concepts are in high definition. Check out the theory of entanglement. Tarot is science because it is consistent, never have I experienced Tarot to be inconsistent. You can ask a question and it will be answered, pick those cards up shuffle and again ask the same question, and again with different cards still get the same answer; you can do this many times, and every time the same answer in different card combinations is given. Science.
On a final note here I will say, if you at least become familiar with the astrological association of the cards this can significantly enhance your understanding of the most difficult cards that pop up as if to torture you at will until you unlock their meaning of why in the world they showed up to begin with. The Sun card is not always a happy card, it does not always mean little children like the books state. The cards with time will reveal to you what they mean and this takes time, patience, and a sincere quest for truth.

Nemia said:

Much depends on the deck, though. A deck made by an artist who has no interest in kabbalah or astrology can be read without referring to either. Trying to read Alchemical or Holy Light tarot without alchemy, Saints Tarot without knowledge of saints etc would be a waste of time IMO.

I like the iceberg metaphor. I think part of this iceberg we have to build ourselves - over time, cards become "loaded" with our own interpretations and experiences.

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This is so very true, I have experienced this first hand. I was so excited when I started reading cards that like all the things we love we tend to collect; so I got my hands on tarot decks that were so foreign in their symbology that it was like learning a new language! I was so lost, others scared the daylights out of me, and others were just incomprehensible incredibly busy and provoked actual headaches at how much harder I had to concentrate to understand them. Beautiful to look at, not so easy to interpret.
Tip, many people advise that you should throw away the booklet that comes with your deck. Dooooon't, not yet at least, because in order to understand most decks it is useful to understand where the artist was coming from when they created it, and what interpretation they felt appropriate for each card.

Nemia said:

There is no end to the layers of knowledge that help deepen your reading experience - mythology, alchemy, colour theory, herbalism, you name it. Depending on the deck you use, there are minimum requirements. If for example you use a deck that relies heavily on astrology, you rob yourself of deeper understanding if you don't learn at least the basics - zodiac, planets, houses, connection to elements, archetypes, Jungian psychology etc. .

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Really good, sensible advice from everyone. The layers concept is important. If my car overheats, I can look at the gauge and know it's overheated, and someone with a little more knowledge will know how to open the hood and where and how to add water. But a good mechanic will know the possibilities as to why that happened, how to check them out, where to look to see if it's damaged your engine, what needs to be done if it is, and what can help you to see that it doesn't happen again. The mechanics of engines are both simple and complex and very fascinating, but for most of us they simply serve to get us where we were going - more or less reliably.

The Tarot is a tremendously rich guide and map to the human condition and our journey through life. It has far more layers than are apparent on the surface. So, while Tarot can be read very simply, one is only accessing the surface layer of all of its rich and vital dimensions. Still, if it gets you where you want to go, more or less reliably, that may be all you need.

Teheuti said:

The mechanics of engines are both simple and complex and very fascinating, but for most of us they simply serve to get us where we were going

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I love this metaphor! All the more because I work on my own vintage cars and completely relate to that feeling when other people just think of cars as something from point A to B, but I think of them as all the different systems that go together to make them function. But I really love this metaphor because now I understand what I always intuitively knew: that astrology, etc. would one day creep into my working with the cards, as much as I eschewed all of those "gratuitous" layers. Numerology was always a given as I began with TdM, and to an earlier-mentioned point, "the cards are numbered", but I never studied anything else.

Now I get that deeper understanding of the cards. Just getting a plain reading is not enough for me anymore. Elemental and astrological understandings are the "why" and "how" in many cases. Not sure I ever plan to use the cards to cast spells or get into qabbala, but I do want to be the person that knows *why* the car overheated, not just that it did.