1.2 Trillion Possibilities

why I love Tarot

Aug 24, 2023

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Do you know what I love? Tarot.

I have so much respect for the Tarot, and here's why. The symbols and archetypes of the Tarot are a true treasure of Western culture, yet they are universal. They can slice through inner conflict and confusion and offer insights and solutions to complex personal and situational problems.

A talented reader can use the Tarot to put past experiences and influence into perspective, sometimes highlighting their importance and other times pointing out the past's unhealthy grip on you. When reading Tarot, you detect archetypal influences and day-to-day effects and challenges. A Tarot reading brings much-needed clarity to your dilemma.

The Tarot can probe causes and illuminate opportunities. A reading often pulls the veil back and exposes what's at work in the unconscious and, occasionally, what may be ready to manifest in the future.

Centuries of thought, experience, study, and use have imbued the symbols on the cards with profound meaning. A morphic field surrounds each Tarot card. This field holds all the information, understanding, wisdom, and insight people have ascribed to them. We tap into that accumulated knowledge through morphic resonance when reading the cards. Using skill and intuition, we can apply the correct meaning of each card in relationship to the other cards to draw out the appropriate message for that moment.

Rupert Sheldrake, the biologist who first proposed the idea of morphic fields, says morphic resonance is "mysterious telepathy-type interconnections between organisms and of collective memories within species."

The Tarot is an Imbued Object

Each Tarot card, especially the archetypal cards of the major arcana, functions similarly to religious icons. For example, an icon of the Virgin that has hung in a cathedral for a thousand years has been imbued with prayers, tears, fears, sorrows, joys, praises, and supplications poured out to it by thousands and thousands of people. That emotional, psychological, and psychic energy creates a morphic field. When you encounter that icon, you will experience morphic resonance. You will, in whole or in part, feel the collective memory of all those prayers, sorrows, supplications, etc. You will know and understand the power imbued in the icon. If your heart is open, you will receive from that icon exactly what you desperately need at that moment because what you need has already been encoded into that icon by someone before you. Remember, we're all human and share the same trials, tribulations, hopes, and joys of this life. Someone before you has knelt in that exact spot and asked the same question or unburdened the same grief, and the soothing balm, cure, or clarity you need, is already present within the morphic field of the icon.

This is very similar to coming to the Tarot for a reading. While the specifics of your situation are unique to you, the type of question, whether it be about career, finance, family, love, or health, is universal. Every answer, including your answer, is already present within the possible combinations of the cards.

It's been said that there's no such thing as an accidental oracle.

According to Marcus Katz, founder of The Tarot Association and author of over thirty books on Tarot...

There are 1.2 Trillion possible combinations of 78 Cards in 10 Positions of the Celtic Cross. (NB - The Celtic Cross is a commonly used Tarot spread.)
To put that in perspective, if you worked through one unique combination of the Celtic Cross every SECOND without repeating yourself, it would take approximately 32,000 YEARS to lay all possible combinations out.
Think about that.
It is likely when you perform a Celtic Cross 10-card reading with 78 cards, not one human being – ever – will come across that exact spread of 10 cards. Not ever.
Your selection and card layout is probably a truly unique moment in the universe. Really.

A Tarot reading is a genuinely unique moment when we look at a series of images on the cards and, through the invisible reality of the morphic field, we sense the various meanings attached to the card, and with skill and inspiration from above, we feel the morphic resonance and perceive the correct meaning, which produces the proper revelation for the person and their question.

I love the Tarot because I respect it. I honor its place in Western culture and its evolution. The symbolism on the cards touches all the way back to Hellenistic and Roman times; it even gives a brief nod further back to the ancient Egyptians. It travels and transforms through the early Renaissance, solidifying Judeo-Christian imagery and meanings. It continues its journey and collects Alchemical, Kabbalistic, and Rosicrucian elements. The Tarot is a repository for Western Mysticism, Classical, and Christian thought. All those elements rolled up in a deck of cards hold great power for helping and healing when used correctly.

Becoming a Sybil

In ancient Greece the Sybil was a prophetess who spoke at the holy site of Delphi. Phrygian, Erythraean, and Hellespontine Sybils existed by the fourth century BC. By the first century BC, Sibyls were located in Greece, Italy, the Levant, and Asia Minor.

The etymology of the word Sybil is debated, but at least one Roman source, Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC), a polymath and a prolific author, traced the origins of Sybil through a dialect of Greek known as Aeolic and equated Sybil with divine council.

The first known Greek writer to mention a sibyl is (based on the testimony of Plutarch) Heraclitus, who wrote...

The Sibyl, with frenzied mouth uttering things not to be laughed at, unadorned and unperfumed, yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice by aid of the god.

To understand Heraclitus's insight into what a Sybil is, I first had to embrace the working of the Sybil Archetype within me. Allowing an archetypal force to be present and work in and through you is sometimes dangerous and definitely humbling. Archetypes are powerful, and they can be oppressive taskmasters. Look at artists, poets, and actors driven to the brink of madness, exhausted and literally possessed by the creative work that seeks to move through them. They are in service to an archetype and have little choice once that happens. They must create under any circumstances and in any way available to them. The creative task must be accomplished. This is one of the reasons the line between genius and madness is a fine one.

And so it is with the Sybil archetype. When it begins to stir in you, its powerful psychic and behavioral pattern influences your life. It also provides you with a rare gift, the gift of divination.

What is the Tarot Really?

In the most materialistic and fundamental way, the Tarot is a group of cardboard rectangles containing pictures printed on them with ink. Earlier, we explored how the Tarot is an imbued object with collective meaning and memories. The images on the major arcana cards are archetypal, and those on the minor arcana are typical of everyday life. But more is needed to answer the question of what the Tarot is. Indeed, it's a tool for divination, but it feels like something more.

I've spent much time thinking about this and my relationship to the Tarot. Personification is always a pitfall to guard against; therefore, the Tarot isn't a being, person, or personality. Although it holds archetypes, it's not one itself. The closest I've come to crafting a plausible definition is that the Tarot is an energy field designed to communicate information that is not accessible in any other way.

When I read Tarot for myself or others, I open to the Sybil archetype and touch into a field of knowledge that I believe the Divine speaks through. Heraclitus wrote that the Sybil spoke with a "frenzied mouth." I wonder what the word for "frenzied" is really trying to get at. "Frenzied" might mean pouring out words automatically as if compelled by "the gods." He also notes the impeccable nature of the messages, telling us they are "not to be laughed at." I believe this is true. Tarot is not a game, a parlor trick, or a joke. It is a divine communication, a sacrosanct moment. We're also told her words are "unadorned and unperfumed." I can say with absolute certainty that this is true. The Tarot tells it like it is and never lies. The message might be incomprehensible for a time, but once the meaning breaks into your awareness, it's true.

The Sybil Provides an Oracle

One of the most amazing things about Tarot is the kind of substantial help it offers people. We can think of the Sybil as the Tarot reader and the Oracle as the message she conveys to the one inquiring. There are many ways to do this.

First, there's the psychological reading. Taking the cards in the reading and applying a psychological lens to their interpretation. Having been trained as a Jungian Tarot Reader, that's my basic approach.

However, there are also the predictive, psychic, scientific, oracular, and poetic styles of reading the Tarot. Any of these may be applied depending on the situation. Just like the "frenzied mouth" of the Sybil, psychic insight or predictive information may suddenly be spoken because we're compelled by the force of the Tarot to talk about that truth unadorned.

Smith-Waite Tarot Cards laid out on a field of images.

Working with The Field

Perhaps the most potent reason for loving the Tarot so much, even more than the help I can offer during a reading, is the amazing experience of working with an energy field that emanates from the unseen realm. This is such a powerful and humbling experience. Developing a way to dip your hand in and touch that energy and then learning how to use it in a safe, positive, beneficial way is hard to describe. It's immensely satisfying on many levels.

Now that I've shared some of my journey with Tarot, tell me about yours. Do you read for yourself or others? Have you ever had a Tarot reading? What did you think about it?

I use Tarot with many of my coaching clients and do stand-alone readings, too. If you've ever had a reading from me, did you notice that I use a Jungian psychological model? Did you find something else cropped up, like an amazing psychic insight or prediction that later materialized?

Do you have questions about Tarot? Ask in the comments, and I will do my best to answer you.

I have another article on Tarot HERE, and you can check out my Red Book Tarot page HERE.

The comments section is a safe and welcoming space to share your insights and experiences.

Comments and conversation are always appreciated and enjoyed, so feel free to let your voice be heard. I read them all and try to respond to each one.

Thank you for reading Hedge Mystic and participating in this vibrant and growing community of creative, spiritual humans. You are always welcome here, appreciated, and loved.