Contemplation: What Is Tarot?

Deck pictured: Mahogany Tarot

Tarot for me, at this moment, is a tool for introspection and contemplation. It is predictive in as much as the wisdom of my heart extends beyond temporal knowing, surpassing my mind’s radial scope. I say this with all due respect to traditions, such as that of Romani people, who have applied the tarot for predictive purposes for centuries.

Tarot is for everyone. Meaning, it doesn’t turn anyone away. Some people might not be in a place to connect with it at any given time, and that’s perfectly fine. I was like that for a while, conditioned by a sense of taboo and fear. Yet tarot, despite its mystique is also logical. There are clues within its arcana. Explanations follow interpretations of symbols that humans have anointed with meaning.

Reading tarot is essentially like reading a dream, working with symbols, textures, archetypes, colors. When a notable dream takes root in my waking memory, awareness becomes expansive and heightened. I might go around, looking for synchronicities in waking life, mining my memory for associations to attach to dreams in attempts to figure out what they mean or if they have prophetic relevance. Dreams can set us on a treasure hunt, reminding us to play with phenomena, rather than take on a flawed position that we’re above nature in some way. I perceive tarot’s potential similarly. Tarot extends an invitation to play, to mine our psyche, memories, what’s important to us. It leaves clues to riddles we’re confronted with behind structures, in shadows, and at times in plain sight. Again, inviting us to play and leave the assumed safety of what we think we know, to run into the field and risk getting caught in the elements, risk remembering we’re not done grieving, risk making a decision we’ve been avoiding, risk giving something away, risk asking for help, risk meeting rainbows.

I’ve been the kind of person who feels like I need to know all objective aspects of a matter in order to have an opinion about it that is worth speaking. In certain cases, that holds true. Yet when it comes to matters of the heart, the mind, and human nature, imagination, creativity, and curiosity are more valuable than objective supposition. To explore is to discover, to question is to poke through the thick curtain of hegemony, revealing the tired, worn-out, dusty condition of its fabric.

Tarot is for everyone, therefore it does not inherently exclude. Tarot provokes, drawing out what has been waiting in the wings, giving context, color, and depth of meaning to the unfolding story we’re each living, the myth we’re collectively creating. Tarot is an art form, a channeled technology assembled by humans to remind us of our mysterious origins, our birthright to play and pluck the notes to nature’s paradoxical song.