Meditations on the Tarot

I’m planning to carefully work my way through “Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism” as part of an attempt to expand my relationship with my tarot cards. It’s a very dense and very interesting book I picked up a few months back but haven’t yet had the time to sit down and go through it with the focus it requires.

I was wondering: has anybody else on here worked through this book, or have any recommendations for doing so? Or, if you’ve worked through this book, what was your general experience with it?

My only recommendation is that Tarot in and of itself is solely based on personal interpretation of the cards. Yes, there are some general interpretations on the 22 cards, however even these are still personally implemented based on your own personal interpretation and connection to your own deck.

Take one to two cards and seriously focus on it/them daily, not any more. Study color, the images, the layout, the feel, the angle of the scene, the variations of how the images portray the complete visualization to your personality, etc. From here, continue until you have gone through the entire deck. Take Notes! Once you have a familiarity and a personal feel, then I suggest to read the book or pamphlet that came with your deck to see what the author/artist’s personal interpretation is, and implement where you feel you may have fallen short. This is just another suggestion.

Otherwise, enjoy the whole adventure into cartomancy.

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Totally! When I read, the first thing I take in is the overall appearance of the cards and how they’re arranged and usually I can get the sort of vibe of the reading from how the picture as a whole hits me. And then from there it’s easier to piece together and pick out what sort of meanings each card is trying to get across in the context of the reading. I’ve also noticed decks tend to have their own “personalities”. My Thoth deck, Rider-Waite deck, and Enochian deck all have their differences in both the way I read them and the topics I read about with them.

And taking notes is a good idea which I definitely plan on doing! I’m thinking I’m gonna start a whole journal specifically dedicated to it. Maybe even a small journal for each deck I have if I need the room. :thinking:

Limiting myself to probably one card a day for the major arcana sounds like a good plan of action too. And then I can just sort of take myself through simply looking at the card itself and breaking down what it seems to say to me, in addition reading the corresponding section in the Mediations on the Tarot book.

It’s going to be an extensive journey but certainly a rewarding and enjoyable one. :slightly_smiling_face: