The Art of Tarot Reading

''Those are sort of archetypal ideas, of a differentiated nature, which mingle with the ordinary constituents of the flow of the unconscious, and therefore it is applicable for an intuitive method that has the purpose of understanding the flow of life, possibly even predicting future events, at all events lending itself to the reading of the conditions of the present moment. ''

 

Carl Jung.

March 1, 1933. Lecture commenting on the Tarot.

 

Tarot cards are very old. No one knows how old they are. No one knows where they come from. Every man that has written about them, has written different things and no one can disprove him simply because no one has any prove to bring forward. Of course there are some historical facts. The oldest tarot cards that have been found where in the private belongings of the most powerful men in Italy around the year 1444 A.D. These tarot cards where all handmade by the best artists of the time and had great value. Today this cards are all scattered around the world, mainly in private collections of the most rich and powerful families of our time.

 

Another deck, probably coming from Mamluk Egypt, and also dating back to the middle of the 14th century, was discovered in the residence of the Ottoman sultans (Topkapi Sarayi Museum in Instanbul) by L.A. Mayer in 1939. 

However, from letters that have been found, we can know that tarot cards were popular and used before they came in the hands of the wealthy Italian princes or the Ottoman sultans.

The earliest written document mentioning a tarot-like card set occurs as early as 1227, and it says that "Italian children are instructed in the knowledge of the virtues via sheets (cards) denominated carticellas".

We also know that the Catholic Church had banned the use of tarot cards in some cities in Spain, Italy and France around the year 1300 A. D.

 

At the end of the 20th century F. Fava discovered that in the Roman coinage of 2-300 b.c. there were some rectangular tiles coins called axis, specifically "aes signatum"; These coins contain the figures of the Ace of clubs, the Ace of spades and the Ace of disks, as well as the Ace of cups.

 

At the moment this are the known historical facts.

 

From the historical point of view, we just know that some kind of instruments where created by humans being for a certain purpose and that their use became more and more dangerous due to the ban imposed by the Catholic Church.

 

From this point on, there are many theories on the origin or purpose of this instruments.

I will not go into them now, be reassured. Some theories have had more success than others, but still everyone interested in tarot will have his personal believes and his personal approach. 

 

 

For me, the tarot is a system of symbolic images and, representing the universal archetypes, they can adapt on all the diverse cultural realities and languages.   

My approach to tarot reading is not one that you can call of future-telling. From my point of view, to use tarot cards to know what the future will bring is an enormous waste of energy and resources.

 

I take the tarot cards out of the realm of fortune telling and demonstrate their true potential.

This ancient system taps directly into the human "inner world" of the sub-conscious to reveal deep blocks and the information to clear them. I use this as a life changing transformative tool.

 

My method of tarot reading is centered on the individual path of evolution.  

The tarot cards, the archetypes that they symbolize, can connect with our sub-conscious mind and can help with their symbolic meaning to understand deeply why and for what reason certain obstacles or opportunities are put in front of us. They can help you meet whatever comes in the best possible way, preparing the conscious mind to what the unconscious already knows.

 

Even if the tarot cards can tell us what the obstacle will be, is not fruitful to know that, if we can not understand first the reason why the obstacle, or the trial, has been put there.  I do not believe in chance in life. Things happen always for a reason, and especially painfully things and so called accidents are there to teach us something. The tarot can help greatly to understand and accept what this something is. And also why certain opportunities open in front of us.

But they can not do all by them self. Tarot reading is not a mere technique that one can learn reading a book, but an Art, and as such it needs love and passion and pure intention to be fulfilled. After years of reading and practicing I can say that what i have learned from the tarot is a very simple but profound truth: To know who you are is far more important and rewarding that to know what will come in the future.

 

From my perspective The Art of Taroth reading is therefore the Art to know yourself, and as Aristotle has put it, knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. +

 

Me and my Taroth cards go back a long way.

We have met in Siena, a medieval city in the heart of Tuscany. 

I was studying there and they unexpectedly came to me.

 

They came to me as a not so attractive girl that you meet in one occasion, but as time passes and you keep seeing her, you start feeling you have fallen in love with her and you don't even know how that could possibly had happened to you.

But sometimes it does happen.

And that what's happened to me with my taroth cards.

 

At first, like many others, I did not believe at all in the possibility of knowing more about myself with the assistance of some pieces of paper that no one knew where they come from.

At that time I was studying astrology and its connections to the human body and, although astrology requires knowledge of metaphysical concepts and an innate intuition, it remains what you may call an intuitive science, with his mathematical and geometrical background.

I did not know, at the time, that the tarot had the same basic structure founded on the same principles of astrology.

So what I did with my cards was to put them on hard tests.

But of course the only way I could be sure of whatever they were telling some kind of truth was to test them on myself, about things that only I could have known.

And that is when I was shocked and amazed. I could not believe that some pieces of paper could tell me very personal things about myself from my past, my present and some times even about my future. But that is what I have experienced.

 

I discovered, so to say, that A. Einstein was right in saying that “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” 

At this point I stopped touching them. I must say, I was quite scared by them. I could feel that they  "worked" but I could not understand how !

So I have started studying them very seriously, beginning from their history, and their meanings, and then i compared them with my astrological and metaphysical knowledge.

Card by card, I searched in libraries all the books about tarot cards that I could find. I talked to many people that had confidence with them and exchanged thoughts and methods with them. But still there was something I felt I could not grasp.

 

I continued for some time to use my taroth cards only for personal growth and understanding.

They helped me a lot understanding myself, my desires and my fears, the strong points of my character and my weak points. Using the cards as an instrument for personal and spiritual growth I came to the idea that they were a real good and powerful tool for understanding some immediate conflicts in me, that if inspected with astrology techniques could take a lot of time and some complicated calculations.

 

Finally I have met two women that now have become two of my best friends. And watching them I envisioned what was the thing that i could still not grasp.

You see, I am a man, and because of this I was trying to reach the secrets of the cards mainly with my intellectual mind, putting aside the feelings and perceptions of other senses. Senses in witch women are masters.

So I tried to open myself to this other feelings, putting aside all the things that I had learned from books, but of course it was not a simple task, and I could have never done it without the precious help of my two friends I have talked to you about and to whom I will be forever gracious.

They initiated me to the Sacred Art of Taroth reading and encouraged me to read them to other people.

The only way to learn more is practicing, they told me.

And so I went, like the fool in the tarot card, without number and with all numbers.

 

For me, the tarot are symbolic images and, representing the archetypes, the building blocks of the Universe, they can adapt on all the diverse cultural realities and languages.

My approach to tarot reading is not one that you can call of future-telling. From my point of view, to use the tarot to know what the future will bring is an enormous waste of energy and resources.

On the contrary, my method of reading is all centered on the individual path of evolution. And that is the reason why I call my cards Taroth, in honor to the Egyptian god Toth or, as Italians like to call him, Hermis Trimegistus.

 

In the town where I started practicing, Siena, there was and still is, a beautiful spot near the city cathedral dedicated to Mother Mary and Hermis Trimegistus. So I placed myself there and asked people for a free offer in exchange of a reading session. Of course i was a little afraid at the beginning. What if i will have to tell something bad, something they rather not hear?

But many many wonderful people that I have met on the streets, in festivals, in cafes or in their homes have surprised me and encouraged me even more. Because even when there is something not working in our lives, the only way to adjust it is first of all getting conscious of it. Seeing the problem is the first step to solve it. And the tarot cards are nothing else then images. The magic power of images acts on ourself in the most awkward and strange manners sometimes; For example they can let us buy an object that we don't really need or they can cure an illness we don't even know we have.

But I must say in all sincerity that even if many people have thanked me after the readings I do not consider myself  a psychologist, a psychic or a magician, but just a most humble servant of a most ancient Art, The Art of Taroth Reading. +