Tarot for Skeptics. How to be a Gypsy Fortune Teller for Fun and Profit (and without the hard work) By J.J. Mojo Rising

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1 Tarot for Skeptics or How to be a Gypsy Fortune Teller for Fun and Profit (and without the hard work) By J.J. Mojo Rising

2 J.J. Rising / Tarot for Skeptics Page 2 Chapter 2 Hocus Pocus Focus: How Tarot Works Demystifying the Tarot OK, time for some brutal truths: the real secret behind the power of the Tarot. Are you ready? It's a little more than just a card game; it s a card trick. Tarot cannot and does not predict the future. It cannot and does not reveal hidden truths. It cannot and does not illuminate any paths, roadmaps or secrets. Reading the Tarot is not the same as reading someone s diary. It is not the same as reading their mind. The cards are not guided by gods or goddesses, or any of their little godlings. There are no angels or spirit guides involved. Nor are there any hidden forces, collective unconsciousness, quantum mechanics, psychic entities, metaphysics, or little green men. There is no magic. There is no mystery. It s a card trick performed by a talented and charismatic reader. Tarot readers can do lots of amazing and wonderful things. But there isn t anything magical or mystical to it. It's a combination of intuition, chutzpah, tale telling, interpretation of inflection and body language, and gift of gab. Tarot readers (notice I say readers and not enthusiasts, taroholics, tarot students, or any of the other myriad of terms people use to describe their obsession, um, I mean hobby) get a little thrill out of the fact that someone will actually pay them, or otherwise give over control to them because of this uncanny ability to look at pictures on pieces of cardboard and tell them things that should be pretty obvious to them anyway. Deep down, I think every Tarot reader knows this, whether they'll admit it or not. Tarot purists will decry the blatant charlatans, saying that they cast Tarot in a negative light. But in truth, these fakirs are the very essence of Tarot. They represent the true origins of the art. Does this make Tarot, as an art, any less valuable? In my not-so-humble opinion, the answer is no. Does this diminish the Tarot reader into some sub-class or fringe element? No. If anything, this sets the Tarot reader aside as an excellent source of entertainment, enlightenment and fun. Does this mean that studying Tarot is a waste of time? Again, the answer is no. I believe that knowledge is always a good thing. Understanding history, superstition, beliefsystems, symbology, the significance of colors, the magic of numbers and mathematics, mythology, and mysticism will not only make you a better Tarot reader, but a better person overall. Does this mean that people who put their money on the table are basically throwing it away? Well, sort of. If they think they're getting the inside track then they're probably fooling themselves. If they just enjoy the experience and are entertained by the process, then it's worth their investment.

3 J.J. Rising / Tarot for Skeptics Page 3 Traditional systems for learning the Tarot There are many different systems for learning the Tarot. Every author, every Tarot organization, and every publisher of Tarot decks will offer you a method for learning how to read the cards. Most of these systems involve a lot of memorization, require you to keep a journal or diary and refer to it often, and take many months or even years to master to a level where you can start offering Tarot readers to others. Millions of people purchase these books or sign up for these classes only to lose interest because it is too complicated or takes too long. Traditionally, most of these systems involve learning a series of keywords or traditional meanings for each of the 78 cards. For each card, there may be as many as a dozen of these keywords or meanings, as well as other keywords or meanings that would apply if the card were reversed appearing upside down when placed in a spread. To master these learning systems, you need to memorize these hundreds of possible meanings and be able to recall them at a glance when doing a reading. In addition to this, these learning systems require you to try to remember elemental connections (fire, air, water and earth) for each suit and each of the Major Arcana cards, as well as numerological definitions, astrological relationships, kabalistic references, and even obscure meanings of the Hebrew and Greek alphabets. Once you have all of these card meanings memorized, then you have to start learning their Tarot spreads or the way that cards are laid out for a reading. Almost all will include the traditional Celtic Cross spread, but each teacher s version of this classic Tarot spread will be a little bit different from everyone else s. Some of these spreads can use as many as cards, with each position in the spread having three or four possible meanings. You now have 78 cards with a couple dozen possible interpretations for each of them and spreads with multiple positions and multiple meanings for each position and you re supposed to makes sense out of these thousands of possible interpretations while sitting there with the querent staring at you expectantly. Does this sound like fun to you? If you ask me, this is far too much work. There has to be a simpler way. My system for learning the Tarot Fortunately, there is a much simpler way, and that is what you are about to learn. Using this system, you can be reading cards with confidence in a matter of weeks instead of years. My system for learning the Tarot does not require you to memorize anything. There are no complicated rules or disciplines to learn. You are going to use your own robust imagination to look at the pictures on the cards and tell a story about what you see. Of course, this will take a little bit of advance work on your part. You will need to look closely at each and every one of those 78 cards and come up with a story about that card which makes sense to you. If you take the time to do this, each card will mean something to you as soon as it is pulled out of the deck without having to memorize someone else s interpretation of it. I will even give you a sample story for each card later in this book. You could try to memorize my stories, but that wouldn t be any better than trying to

4 J.J. Rising / Tarot for Skeptics Page 4 memorize thousands of keywords. You need to come up with your own stories if you are going to learn the Tarot. Fortunately, telling stories about the cards is fun. There are no right or wrong answers, so whatever you come up with is right for you. After all, you are going to be the person interpreting the cards later, so you have to come up with meanings for the cards which make sense to you and which come easily into mind. As you gain more experience you can change your stories or add new ones any time you want. Hopefully, each card will motivate you to come up with several stories, which you can switch between, based on your mood, the question asked, or the disposition of your querent. In this system of learning, the meanings you give the cards will actually account for less than half of the skills you will call upon in doing actual readings. The good news is that you already possess all of the other skills, so after you come up with your card stories, the rest is easy. So, what does it take to be a Tarot reader? I ve shared my recipe below: Recipe for a Good Tarot Reader 1 Part familiarity with the cards 1 Part familiarity with Tarot spreads 4 Parts storytelling 2 Parts intuition 3 Parts active listening 1 Part arcane knowledge 1 Part empathy 1 Part pure showmanship A healthy dose of pure B.S. Mix thoroughly. Apply vast amounts of patience while the mixture ages and settles. Serve on public display with a splash of showmanship. Tip often. As you can see, the majority of Tarot reading is actually reading the person and the situation. The cards are really only props or tools that are used to generate conversation and prompt the reader for possible interpretations. Most of the meat of a Tarot reading will come from a combination of your intuition and your ability to listen to and read the querent. Whether you realize it or not, you already know how to do it and you practice it unconsciously every day. In the chapters that follow, we will look at each of these skills in detail, starting with some basics about the cards and ending with the creation of stories for each of them and a discussion about spreads. In between, you will learn how to read the querent in addition to the cards. Along the way, I ll also throw in some tricks of the trade that can

5 J.J. Rising / Tarot for Skeptics Page 5 aid you in putting it all together. Some of these I have learned from actual gypsies. Others just came to me naturally (my Grandmother was 1/8 Romany). So it will be a combination of skills and tricks that you will use to amaze your friends and convince total strangers to part with their money. This is the true secret of reading the Tarot!