How Do Tarot Cards Work - from the source ...

Though I’ve been using Tarot cards for a long time now – abut 17 years, I still can’t say that I know how they work. I know they do, but ‘how’ remains a mystery. I have lots of ideas, and have read and listened to many other people’s ideas, but so far, no answer has been completely satisfying.

So today I decided to go to the source itself. It seems sort of obvious – why haven’t I done this before!? What do my own Tarot Cards have to say about how they work?

Their answer - the Three of Cups. Three women dancing in a circle raising their golden chalices to the sky in praise of something they’re very pleased about. They wear dresses of pink, red and blue. Flowers bloom below them.



A beautiful card – ruled by the ‘grand-mother’ herself – the Empress. This card makes me think of the three dancing ladies in the 70's animated movie The Point . Little Oblio and his dog Arrow discover the ladies in a meadow by the Pointless Forest. When the ladies see them, they bring them into the fun, tossing them around from one happy belly to the next.

Is this card saying that Tarot works through an interchange between humans and dancing angels? If they catch you peeking they’ll play with you? Or could it be that the Tarot is for ‘entertainment’ purposes only – as must be specified by all readers in the UK?

There's lots of good feeling here, and a general sense of joyousness pervading the whole scene. Could it simply be that the cards work through joy? Through the abundant love of the goddesses? I think I need another card for clarification ….

And it’s the Knight of Pentacles. This knight sits on a brown horse, wearing his silver armour. In his hand he holds a golden disk. He looks over a fertile field.



The seeds have been planted, The Knight of Disks tends his fields, watches them grow and does the work necessary to change the potential of a seed into something tangible. This knight represents building and movement. But it's steady, practical, careful and well-planned. He’s not into rushing in with the fools. He wants things to be clear, rational and unemotional.

Quite frankly, I think the cards are skirting my question. It seems to me, that instead of telling me 'how Tarot Cards work', they’re telling me 'how to work with Tarot Cards'.

The Three of Cups points to the joyousness inherent in connecting with the divine – even if it’s just through some cardboard pictures. And it’s true, if you approach readings with joy and love and sharing, they pay you back in kind.

And the Knight of Pentacles – that’s how I think the Tarot, or any serious subject, should be approached. Steady, practically, carefully and with patient thought. It’s a topic to be learnt, not just felt. Time and effort must be expended as one develops as a reader.

Intuition is natural, but in order to use it on a regular and ‘on-call’ basis, one has to practice. If there was ever someone willing to put in the work of practice, it’s the Knight of Pentacles.

So …. I got an answer, maybe not the one I was looking for, but useful none the less. “How the Tarot works’ remains a mystery. And maybe it always will. ‘How to Work the Tarot’ however, at least from an attitudinal perspective, has been answered. And that’s probably all that matters.

For now anyway …. ☺