21 Ways To Read A Tarot Card -- step ONE

Step one: The Marseilles Tarot , VII de coupe = VII of cups

There are three rows of cups. The upper and lower row have three cups each, The middle row has one central cup. They are linked by a red and blue bush sprouting for the central lower cup. It's a symmetrical card.

For jaled

I don't have the Marseilles deck as I enjoy using the decks that have the pip cards illustrated. However, without being any kind of expert on those decks, it would seem to me that perhaps this card isn't that easy to dismiss as being just "symmetrical." If anything has sunken into my head from following the many steps of Mary Greer's book, it is to stop, pause, look and think again.

What would you think of these numbers: Three. One. Three.

Not seven, but three, one and three ---- four numbers here. I'm treating the two sets of three cards as not being necessarily the same thing. Now, I'm out of my depth here, but I bravely go on.

Three; symbolizing newness, fruitfulness, progress and change resulting from "twoness" or coupleness. So, we might assume that their is an element here of something being born or coming of age as a result of previous circumstances.

One; symbolizing unity, singleness, will, intent, potential leading to decision. Here I would sense a "direction" or an action, perhaps coming from the one that had come from the two (that is what the prior three symbolized).

Three (again); This "three", being on top of the one, suggests that the one (or the person it symbolizes) has now become much like the first "three" in that he/she is witnessing the fruits of what he/she (the one) had become.

I would see this as maturing awareness, the gain of experience and the lessons taken from it. Seven; spiritualism being practiced, self-honesty as one seeks growth along the path. Being that CUPS are involved, this card might then suggest facing one's emotions, feelings, unconscious expectations of others and seeking to understand how this kind of inter-personal transaction between the one, the group, the other can be dealt with. Now that I have put myself out on a limb with my suggestions, perhaps we both should refer to our reference books or to Thirteen's card interpretations to see what this card has traditionally meant. Both of us, and others on our list, can learn from our exercise here. Do keep up with your journey. Dave

DadsNook: ....Being that CUPS are involved, this card might then suggest facing one's emotions, feelings,...<snip>....perhaps we both should refer to our reference books or to Thirteen's card interpretations to see what this card has traditionally meant.

Click to expand...

By 'traditionally' do you mean RW or cartomancy? Just enquiring because the marseille deck is neither.......... and the association of Cups with Water isn't universal.

I love the deduction that results in 'maturing awareness'. An insightfull meaning.


Bee

For Bernice

You said, "By 'traditionally' do you mean RW or cartomancy? Just enquiring because the marseille deck is neither.......... and the association of Cups with Water isn't universal." And this question took me right out of any possibilities of slight "expertise." In terms of tarot history, I really am a lightweight. I can't even casually address the issues related to RW versus cartomancy versus the place of the Marseille deck relative to those two approaches.

Although I've had an interest in Tarot since the early 70's, most of my activity has occurred in the past decade and focused on the RW and more recent decks. So, I can't answer your question. Perhaps you could expand on it for the benefit of the rest of us. Dave

Hi Dadsnook ,

Not really the place to expand on the time-line of card-decks. I only posted because jaled was using a marseille deck card. I believe the title of this thread is referring to Mary Greers' book - mainly aimed at Rider Waite decks (I think.....I could be very wrong).

But your thoughtful deductions for the 3 Cups in the marseille deck was quite masterly, especially considering your admission that you don't use non-senic decks!

So Marys' book, whichever decks it was aimed at, has 'come through' for you............and possibly me, after seeing your museings based on it

Bee

Step One: Faerie Tarot; VII The Chariot

Under the sea is a lovely, long-haired blonde woman wearing a green seaweed bikini top, with the bottom of her outfit being a flowing type material. She has a seaweed bracelet on her upper left arm, and a seaweed garland flowing through her hair. She's sitting comfortably, and seems confident, in a brown and white conch shell. Attached to the shell she's in are two long, red reigns, and they're attached to two large seahorses. One black, the other green. The seahorses seem to be pulling her up, toward the rays of sunlight streaming into the water. The green seahorse looks like he might be giving her a bit of a hard time.

21 Ways - Step One

Step One: The Gilded Tarot – Five of Wands

You are shown five men in a field in some sort of conflict with wands; you can also see small mammals and butterflies at the bottom of the image seemingly keeping out of the way of the action. There is tall grass at the bottom of the image and a tree trunk running diagonally across the bottom right hand corner. Leaf covered tree branches show at the top right and left framing clouds of purple and cream above mountains outlined in dark purple in the distance.

For Makani and PaulTina

Both of you had very nice descriptions of your cards. As you go through the various exercises, these descriptions will prove valuable in looking deeper into the meaning of the cards in various positions of a spread. The "21 Ways" book will introduce you to many challenges, but you'll end up having a tarot toolkit that will always be useful in any reading. Stick with it, you'll benefit greatly, and there will always be a helping hand here on the list. Dave

Thank you for the encouragement Dave. I'm about to start step 7, and I see this step takes you into the nitty gritty Tarot stuff! I will work on it and post under the Step Seven thread. And I know I'll be asking tons of questions.

Thanks for the support Dave, this looks like the first step in a very enjoyable path of discovery, I am really looking forwards to the journey.

I am not sure whether this is the right place and time to bring this up but as I am contacting you I have decided to go ahead. I am interested in using the Astrological spread, and noticed that you and Lunalafey produced a couple of methods that could be used, and way back in 2003 mentioned you would like to do a trial to see how the different spreads performed, were the trials actually done and were the result encouraging.
Paul