Getting to Know the Tarot

An Overview of Tarot Structure

For those of you completely new to Tarot, let me briefly explain Tarotstructure. A typical Tarot deck contains seventy-eight cards. The Major Arcana(also known as Trumps) are twenty-two cards typically numbered from 0 to 21 andnamed to match the imagery they depict. Cards from the Majors include the Fool,the Magician, the Lovers, the Hermit, the Wheel of Fortune, the Moon, the Sun,and the World. Some deck creators rename the Trumps; for example, the OracleTarot substitutes a card called Tradition for the Hierophant and one calledBondage for the Devil.

The Minor Arcana consist of forty cards that are much like a deck of playingcards because they're organized in four suits numbered from ace to ten.

Wands, the suit usually associated with the element fire, may also be calledstaves, rods, batons, or clubs.

Cups, usually associated with the element water, may also be called chalices,vessels, cauldrons, or hearts.

Swords, usually associated with the element air, may also be called blades orspades.

Pentacles, usually associated with the element earth, may also be called coins,stones, crystals, disks, or diamonds.

Some deck designers get quite creative in naming the suits, especially withtheme decks. For example, the suits in the Halloween Tarot are imps (fire), bats(air), ghosts (water), and pumpkins (earth). Another example is the Osho ZenTarot, which names the earth suit rainbows and the air suit clouds. In the TrueLove Tarot deck, the fire suit is roses, the water suit shells, the air suitwings, and the earth suit gems.

The sixteen court cards (four for each suit) are often called pages, knights,queens, and kings. Some decks, such as the Quest Tarot, use attributions such assons, daughters, mothers, and fathers. The World Spirit Tarot labels them seers,seekers, sibyls, and sages. The Druid Craft Tarot and other decks haveprincesses, princes, queens, and kings. The Oracle Tarot forgoes court cardsaltogether.

Choosing a Tarot Deck

These days, there are literally thousands of Tarot decks on the market. Somechain bookstores carry Tarot decks, as do independent metaphysical bookstores.Most decks stocked at brick-and-mortar bookstores are sealed, preventing youfrom seeing the actual cards before you buy them. In this case, or if you livein a rural area like mine with nary a New Age bookstore in sight, you may haveto rely on the Internet for previewing cards and acquiring Tarot decks. Websites that provide deck reviews accompanied by card images (such as my own Website, www.JanetBoyer.com) can be especially valuable when you are searching fora Tarot deck. Amazon.com happens to be my favorite place on the Net to shop forboth Tarot decks and books.

For the Back in Time (BIT) Method, you'll want to use a deck that has anillustrated Minor Arcana. This means that the numbered cards of each suit depictpeople and scenes rather than just suit symbols, such as actual cups or swords.

Artist Pamela Colman Smith, under the direction of Arthur E. Waite, had anuncanny knack for capturing ambiguous situations and emotion when drawing theimages for the Rider-Waite Tarot. Rider and Sons was the company that originallypublished the deck in 1909, which is why the deck is referred to as the Rider-Waite.In homage to the previously oft-forgotten artist, many Tarotists nowrefer to the Rider-Waite deck as the RiderWaite-Smith Tarot, or RWS for short.Because the Rider-Waite is one of the most influential deck designs in the worldof Tarot, many artists and deck creators understandably use Rider-Waite imageryas a basis for their own designs. For example, just as the Rider-Waite shows theMagician standing before a table lined with symbols of the four elements, onearm raised with a finger pointing skyward and the other hand pointing downward,many deck artists portray similar imagery. Decks illustrated in the spirit ofthe Rider-Waite are often called Rider-Waite clones because of the card-for-cardresemblance. Two fine Rider-Waite—inspired decks are the lively Sharman CaselliTarot, conceived by Juliet Sharman-Burke and illustrated by Giovanni Caselli,and the gorgeous, gilt-edged Golden Tarot by Kat Black.

Interestingly, there are also several versions of the Rider-Waite deck; thedifferences between them are mostly based on coloring. For example, FrankieAlbano colored the Albano-Waite Tarot, while Mary HansonRoberts colored theUniversal Waite Tarot. With its soft tones, the Universal Waite deck happens tobe my personal favorite and the deck I used in most of my BIT Snapshots. Becauseof the ambiguity of the scenes and animated countenances of the figures, anyversion of the Rider-Waite deck that you're drawn to would be a good choice touse with the BIT Method, as would any of the Rider-Waite—inspired (or clone)decks.

Many other decks use images that bear little resemblance to RiderWaite imagery,instead drawing inspiration from a wide variety of cultures, religious paths,esoteric traditions, mythology, pastimes, art movements, works of literature,and even movies, rock music, or comic books. As long as a deck speaks to you anddepicts imagery that you can easily connect to memories and events, it would bea fine deck to use with the BIT Method.

In addition to the Sharman-Caselli Tarot, Universal Waite Tarot, and the GoldenTarot, a few of my favorite decks that work well with the BIT Method include theLisa Hunt Fairytale Tarot, Victorian Romantic Tarot, and Pictorial Key Tarot.

For other good choices that have the added bonus of benign renderings of theDevil and Death cards, here are some other favorites (for more information, see"Tarot Decks Referenced in This Book" in the bibliography):

* Baroque Bohemian Cats' Tarot

* Bright Idea Deck

* DruidCraft Tarot,

* Gilded Tarot

* Halloween Tarot

* Housewives Tarot

* Hudes Tarot

* Mystic Faerie Tarot

* Oracle Tarot

* Vanessa Tarot

* Whimsical Tarot

* WorldTree Tarot

The BIT Snapshots presented in The Back in Time Tarot Book use cards from morethan forty decks. To see the actual cards used for each BIT Snapshot, pleasevisit www.JanetBoyer.com and click on the "BIT Book" tab or the book's coverimage.

Reversed and Combined Cards

In addition to deriving meaning from upright cards, some Tarot enthusiasts readreversed cards, often interpreting upside-down images as:

* Opposite of the upright meaning

* The upright...