I thought about this quite a lot then finally asked "what is the core of Tarot" and drew three cards from different decks:
2 of Wands, King of Wands, 10 of Wands.
At the most obvious, basic level they all agree on Wands which in these decks, as most of you would probably expect, represent fire, spirit, life, illumination, energy, growth, will, creativity, vision, transformation, passion, drive, action, destiny and adventure. Perhaps they could all be suggesting that at the core is a spiritual energy promoting growth, illumination and transformation.
I have previously tried the "intuitive" approach of just looking at the card images but am not very good at it and found I was missing much wisdom and stimulating ideas in certain books. The words and phrases can also resonate with each other just as the card images do. In this case the commentary for the 2 talks of finding tolerance and that for the King of intolerance, suggesting that the three cards are not all going to merge to provide a single answer. They possibly describe three different aspects of, or approaches to, the wisdom of the Tarot, although they may not be mutually exclusive:
2 of Wands "Purity" in the Voyager Tarot is very different to the RWS and Thoth cards. It speaks of the clarity of self realisation attained through honest self observation, living free of conditioning, following one's own intuitive path and creating one's own destiny. The end result is to live authentically in accordance with one's true untainted nature.
King of Wands "Fire" in the Sacred Circle Tarot is more standard, representing the Lord of the Powers of Fire which include creativity, life energy, the will and spiritual illumination. The background of the image is Stonehenge, which may suggest ancient wisdom, but the commentary talks of a strong, determined and reliable leader with noble ideals and the belief that people should fulfill their potential to grow and become more than they currently are.
10 of Wands in the Mystic Dreamer Tarot is very closely based on the RWS image (the artist went too far and ended up with two versions). I previously got this card when burning out reading Thoth books, so the meaning of overload and taking on too much work is associated by me with studying the big explanatory systems found in Tarot. As this works very well for some people, I think the more general message is that the core of Tarot also includes deep and complex systems that can provide insight into the interrelationships between the objects and events in the Universe for those with the time and capacity to understand them.
