An observation on card reading

Cards do not have "meanings", they only have "significance in context." Context is always expressed as a relationship between one or more parameters. I identify four modes of context:

1. The correlation of numerical symbolism with the sphere of influence/elemental energy of the suit. (The basic "meaning" of a card.)

2. The correlation of individual cards with one another.

3. The correlation of the significance of cards and card groups with the area of concern of spread positions.

4. The correlation of these three layers of context with the particular context provided by the client, their questions and responses that guide the reading.

My Top Ten List

For what it's worth, these are ten books that I think every Tarot reader should study assiduously. In order of study:

1. Tarot with 'Tude-Dean Montalbano

` This is a great introductory text written by a very experienced reader. Though some of his correspondences are different from those I learned, I can't recommend it highly enough if you know nothing about Tarot and want to learn how to give readings.

2. Tarot Tells the Tale-James Ricklef

This book is a rare glimpse into actual (well, sort of) readings done by a professional. You learn to read by giving readings, and the opportunity to look over Ricklef's shoulder during the learning process is of tremendous value.

3. 78 Degrees of Wisdom- Rachel Pollack

As a post-graduate text on the fine points of Tarot symbolism and their divinatory use, there's nothing better.

4. The Only Tarot Book You'll Ever Need-Skye Alexander

It isn't by the way...There are a bunch of little books on Tarot written for the general public that you will find in any bookstore. They all say, more or less, the same things. This one is no different. I recommend it because I think it's good to carry a book around with you that you can glance through during the random bits of down time we find our selves in every day. This book is compact, printed on fairly good paper, and provides an adequate rundown of the basics of Tarot.

While I think there are better books to learn with, and better books for advanced study, to be a good reader, you have to know the basics of Tarot completely. You have to know them cold. Reading and re-reading a book like this in your spare minutes is a very good way to gain that "back of your hand" familiarity.

5. The Pictorial Key to the Tarot-A. E. Waite

In many ways, the text to which modern readers owe the most. While I don't think it's a great place to learn the Tarot, it is a classic and deserved to be studied on that basis alone. It is also easier than Paul Foster Case's writings as an introduction to the more esoteric side of Tarot, with which you should at least be familiar.

6. The Mystical Origins of the Tarot-Paul Huson

I'm always bothered by readers who seem to be dunces. Tarot is an intellectually substantive pursuit. You need a smattering of history, philosophy, iconography, psychology, and half a dozen other disciplines to really master it. Part of that mastery of your craft is knowing its history, and there is not a better, readily available text on the subject.

7. The Tarot: Key to the Wisdom of the Ages-Paul Foster Case

Since I am making this list in a suggested order of study, I am trying to stagger the difficulty of the material. Case's work is seminal in the field of the Esoteric Tarot, and, while you may not buy his theories, the symbolism you will learn will give texture to your readings.

Case wrote much on the Tarot, and a lot of it is in the public domain and available on the net, but real books are far easier to study, and this is material you will have to study, and study carefully, to absorb. Your diligence will be rewarded.

8. Pick a Title-Mary K. Greer

I don't want you to get so bogged down in esoteric theory that you become an occultist rather than a reader. Anything by Mary Greer is excellent. You might begin with "21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card."

9. Thursday Night Tarot-Jason Lotterhand

So important is Case's contribution to Tarot study and so important is your ability to transmit his ideas to your clients (in my opinion), that I have listed this charming book in addition to the one above. Essentially a lay-commentary on Case's system, it brings these ideas to bear on real life. I think you get more out of it by knowing the text he is talking about, the one listed at no. 7, otherwise I'd list this lighter text first. Lotterhand is a delightful guide, and this is an excellent read.

10. The Masks of Tarot-Scott Grossberg

This is simply the best book on Tarot I've read in a decade, and I've read many. Scott has taken sound psychological principles and applied them to the reading process to create a system that is nothing short of amazing. His approach is radically different from most other readers, but it is a powerhouse when understood and implemented. If you are an inexperienced reader, then you're not ready for this book; if you are an experienced reader, prepare to be astonished.

There you have it. A number of wonderful names are missing from this list, but my goal is to present a broad, yet focused curriculum for mastery of the cards.

Why Tarot?

While the phrase "life change" is fairly self explanatory, setting aside the possible ambiguity of what were three of the more interesting years of my life (when Mother's time came), the question could be posed, and indeed has-in the subject heading above, "why Tarot."

Well, it works. Once you get past the various ideological notions that have been superimposed upon the Tarot for the previous two centuries, you have, at heart, a set of 22 symbols, each a common image and idea in the culture out of which the Tarot arose, and which are deeply ingrained in the patrimony of Western thought. Even outside the Christ-haunted South, the Christian Humanism which energized the Renaissance, in many ways an attempt to re-connect with the classical past, is part of our intellectual heritage, though the Christian element is often obscured.

Put simply, to study and contemplate the images of the Tarot is to get in touch with the big ideas which inspired the giants upon whose shoulders we stand today. You tend to do what you think about and become what you do; Aristotle will tell you as much. Thinking about the virtues, the Four Last Things, love, death, etc. is certainly an effective means of transforming yourself.

Some would counter that the Tarot is evil, or at least "new-age mumbo jumbo." The Tarot isn't evil. The thing itself is a game, nothing more, a set of cards used for amusement. Their use as a divinatory tool is quite recent; the use which I advocate, as a tool of meditation, reflection, and self-discovery, even more so. A good or neutral thing used for a bad purpose does not become bad itself.

The recent (last thirty years or so) trend of the Tarot as a self-help device is, more than anything else, an application of the structures of psychotherapy, in particular Rogerian therapy, to the symbols. This structural similarity lends a certain credibility to this approach to Tarot, in fact, a number of professional readers are also clinical psychologists. The upshot of all this: when the associations with witchery and devils is set aside, an association which is, in my opinion, wholly manufactured, there is no reason why Tarot may not be accepted in its new found role as a source of wisdom and guidance.

C. Affholter

Reading Ordinary Cards

Though my primary focus is the Tarot, I first learned to read ordinary playing cards. If anyone is interested, here is a link to lulu.com where my fourth manuscript on the subject is available for purchase. As noted in the intro, it is a revision, condensation, and clarification of the three previous manuscripts.

My first text on card reading was written for professional readers who wanted to learn to read playing cards, followed by a sort of introductory text geared towards a more general audience. Finally, I edited the two texts, with some added material, into "Cartomancy for the Non-Cartomancer", still available at lybrary.com under a pseudonym I've used for many years, John Wells. "Cartomancy for the Non-Cartomancer" had the distinction of being referenced by master reader Ron Martin in his own text on card reading. If you're into Tarot, Ron's name is one with which you will want to be familiar.

"A Cartomancer's Chapbook" was the result of about ten week's worth of tweaking and editing. It has everything you need to know to actually learn to give readings with cards, something many books written for the new-age market fall short on.

http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/chapbook/11026391/

C. Affholter

Hi there and hello...

Hi. My name is Charles Affholter and I'm a Tarot reader. I've been reading Tarot (among other things) for more than a decade, but, thanks to my living in the dark-soiled heart of the Bible Belt, I have tended to keep that on the down low. As I near completion of a fairly large monograph on the subject of Tarot, I am making my reading skills a larger part of my public life.

This blog is the internet presence of my reading practice, Tarot for Life-Change. I will provide info on where I am appearing (I do readings at coffee shops in the Mobile area occasionally, for example), workshops I'm offering, and whatever else comes to mind. Some excerpts from my upcoming book will appear here. Feel free to leave a comment or drop me an email.

Charles Affholter

Tarot for Life-Change

251-751-3478

bellbrokenpleaseknock@yahoo.com

Call or email for a list of available services and rates. Ask how to win a free copy of my introductory text, "How to Learn the Tarot in 3 Easy Steps."