Tarot

Maddy Elruna

Description

Most tarot books explain the meaning of the cards and how to read spreads. In Tarot: A Life Guided by the Cards, I go one step further - using events from my life to illustrate the rich symbolism of each card and helping the reader see how they relate to their own life and circumstances.I have an extended section on the court cards, which are the characters of Tarot. Understanding these cards is a fascinating way to better know yourself, other people, and to add real colour to your readings.I also cover some big tarot questions:What is fate? Can the future be predicted?How to read for yourself in difficult times.How to adjust a Tarot spread to ensure accuracy and reflect any situation.Safeguarding - what you need to consider when reading Tarot for others.How to guideyourlife with the tarot.Think of my book as a long chat with a Tarot expert, shared over a cup of coffee. As I share memories, answer your questions, and offer you practical guidance to support your Tarot journey.

Sujets

• Tarot

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 28 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 15
• EAN13: 9781803139333
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Copyright © 2022 Maddy Elruna

The moral right of the author has been asserted.


Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.


Matador
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Leicestershire. LE16 7UL
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Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador
Twitter: @matadorbooks


ISBN 978 1803139 333

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.


Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd


Contents
Introduction

Section One My Tarot Journey

Section Two Tarot Basics
So, as a complete beginner, how do I start?
What does ‘psychic’ really mean?

Section Three The Court Cards
Page of Wands
Knight of Wands
Queen of Wands
King of Wands
Page of Cups
Knight of Cups
Queen of Cups
King of Cups
Page of Swords
Knight of Swords
Queen of Swords
King of Swords
Page of Pentacles
Knight of Pentacles
Queen of Pentacles
King of Pentacles

Section Four The Major Arcana
The Magician
The High Priestess
The Empress
The Emperor
The Hierophant
The Lovers
The Chariot
Strength
The Hermit
Wheel of Fortune
Justice
The Hanged Man
Death
Temperance
The Devil
The Tower
The Star
The Moon
The Sun
Judgement
The World
The Fool O

Section Five The Minor Arcana
Ace of Wands
2 of Wands
3 of Wands
4 of Wands
5 of Wands
6 of Wands
7 of Wands
8 of Wands
9 of Wands
10 of Wands
Ace of Cups
2 of Cups
3 of Cups
4 of Cups
5 of Cups
6 of Cups
7 of Cups
8 of Cups
9 of Cups
10 of Cups
Ace of Swords
2 of Swords
3 of Swords
4 of Swords
5 of Swords
6 of Swords
7 of Swords
8 of Swords
9 of Swords
10 of Swords
Ace of Pentacles
2 of Pentacles
3 of Pentacles
4 of Pentacles
5 of Pentacles
6 of Pentacles
7 of Pentacles
8 of Pentacles
9 of Pentacles
10 of Pentacles

Section Six Tarot Spreads
Different types of Tarot spreads, and how to do them

Section Seven Your Personal Tarot Journey

Section Eight It’s Complicated

Section Nine Bibliography and Glossary


Introduction
This book started out as my teaching notes for my first “formal” group of students in Lewes. Over the past eight years I have continued to teach Tarot and build a busy life reading professionally. This book is based on my experience of the cards, both as a teacher and as a reader.
I have used my life as a reflection of the cards, which is very much how I teach; the cards come to life with real examples. This book is designed to work with the Rider–Waite Tarot deck (imagery by Pamela Colman Smith). It is helpful to have a deck to hand to really look at the cards while reading the book, which also will hopefully help you understand many of the modern decks inspired by the Rider–Waite–Smith deck. You can also pick the book up to research the cards as you read Tarot.
My Tarot classes are always designed for the complete beginner through to the experienced pro; we never stop learning, especially when it comes to Tarot . So hopefully there is something in this book for the total beginner as well as the more experienced reader.
This book was compiled during covid, as I struggled to adjust to the difficult end of my seventeen-year marriage. As I edited the notes I wrote roughly eight years ago, I added a personal reflection on my experiences at the time.
This is a Tarot guidebook, but woven through is my story – my personal connection with the cards and how I use them to guide my life . Where you see passages in italics, I am sharing my perspective now, as a seasoned Tarot pro – with the younger me who wrote these notes with the genuine hope of building a life based on the wisdom of Tarot.
I hope you enjoy the book – both the Tarot experience I have shared with you, as well as some of the more personal insights about how I came to be a Tarot reader, Norse shaman, and single working mum.
If you are looking for more Tarot resources, I have plenty on my website, including printable crib-sheets. As well as some free recordings of my led shamanic mediations. Just head to my website at www.maddyelruna.co.uk

• Section One: My Tarot Journey. How Tarot found me, and my journey to becoming a Tarot professional.
The 6 of Cups: my childhood.
• Section Two: Tarot Basics. Answering numerous odd questions about how to shuffle, when to read, how to phrase the question, how to get started, how Tarot works, and how to read accurately.
The Hierophant: my school education.
• Section Three: The Court Cards. My favourite group of Tarot cards, so this is quite an in-depth section!
The Chariot: and the madness of being twenty.
• Section Four: The Major Arcana . What’s not to love about the Major Arcana? Twenty-two ‘ big’ cards, and each one has so much to say.
The Tower: moving to Orkney and learning Stav.
• Section Five: The Minor Arcana. The magic of mundane life.
The Empress: on becoming a mother.
• Section Six: Tarot Spreads. Not just a list of spreads, but exploring how to create the right spread.
The Emperor: and becoming a Tarot pro .
• Section Seven: Your Personal Tarot Journey . A few ideas for journaling and personal spreads.
The Hanged Man: Chanting in the Barns
• Section Eight: It’s Complicated . Covering safeguarding, communiction and problems.
The Devil: difficult times.
• Section Nine: Bibliography and Glossary.
The World: starting afresh

I have no idea how to start thanking those who have helped me to write this book. I am mighty lucky with the level of support I have received from students, clients, friends and fellow professionals.
This book is dedicated to Odin (much of my life seems to involve him somewhere along the line), and to those who have helped me find my path – Darren, Shaun and Mads. To all those who chant with me in the Barns, and even on Zoom. And to Peter; you helped me to step back into Seidr even when I didn’t want to.
I would struggle to name all of those who have supported my Tarot journey, from the earliest workshops in Uckfield, to Lewes, the Barns, and then Zoom. I never tire of teaching Tarot. Huge thanks to Ali, Sara, Jenny, Saira, Nicola and Evelyn for feedback on the book. Thanks to Michele for helping me to blend shamanism and Tarot, and to Rachel for helping me to find my voice.
And to my lovely children, marni sky (lower case requested), Elwood Fox, Arthur Leaf and Stanley Bear, for understanding how much time this project has needed.


Section One
My Tarot Journey
This book was always meant to be a straight-up Tarot guide. But like many things, it got a bit mixed, a bit chaotic, and has evolved into a guidebook with my story interwoven around the cards. So, if you are curious about how I stumbled into Tarot, this bit is for you. If not, carry on to more Tarot-focused sections…

The 6 of Cups: my childhood
I have never understood why the 6 of Cups is so linked with nostalgia and rose-tinted glasses. Maybe I’m more pessimistic than others, maybe it’s a British thing, but when I think about my past, it is a patchwork of the good and the bad that I remember. And when I become trapped by my past, it is my wounds that trap me far more than my happy memories.
We are all, initially, created by our childhood, for good or bad, so rather than nostalgia I have come to see the 6 of Cups as a symbol of looking back; of being trapped in a backward glance, if you like. That is why the card shows no path out, no glimpse of a further landscape, and why it can feel scary, out of proportion, and claustrophobic. The 6 of Cups is the dreamlike (happy or downright nightmarish) landscape of our past.
My childhood was a strange time, and not always the happiest. My insecurity was with me from an early age, when my father left to start another family and I became a mistake best forgotten about. By the time I was five my mother had remarried. First we moved from the busy suburbs of Birmingham to an isolated village in Norfolk, then on again to Bedfordshire, where family life was centred around my stepfather’s dream of running a horticultural smallholding. Life there felt like being trapped forever on a small plot of land, with no real escape. Plants need tending 365 days of the year. There was always too much work to be done, and little time left for the family adventures I dreamed about.
For a long time, I was haunted by my childhood wounds, trapped in the 6 of Cups. I carried my childhood feelings of rejection and loneliness with me. Over the years, though, I’ve changed my perspective a lot, trying to be more focused on the now, the day I am living, and the future I am creating. I try not to gaze too long at the past; not to linger in the 6 of Cups.

The past is a foreign country;
they do things differently there.
(L. P. Hartley)

Why Tarot? My personal journey
I know the exact time I really ‘f