I believe I am one of the most curious people on Earth. I constantly ask questions about things I don’t understand or want to learn more about. So when my friend Caitlin told me that she reads tarot cards, I was immediately intrigued. I wanted to know what tarot readings are and how to do them. I wanted to learn more about her passion for reading tarot as well as what reading tarot means to her. This is what she said:
First, Must Know Terminology:
1. Tarot Cards
A form of divination that allows a person to reach all ‘corners’ of the person that they are, as well as their being. People who practice tarot can use it to learn about their past, present and future self.
2. Divination
Learning more about your future self and making predictions. Commonly practiced within Wicca— or witchcraft — but available for anyone to practice. It comes in many different forms: tarot readings, palm readings, crystal ball readings, tasseography (reading tea leaves), spell casting, etc. Every reader has a form of divination that they connect with; there is no universal best form of practice.
3. Tarot Readings
Tarot is all about a physical and emotional connection. The physical connection comes through the cards themselves and the emotional connection comes from the physical connection. Tarot is more about the exploration of the self and connecting with different parts of who you are, rather than connecting with spirits.
“It’s really interesting, the art form itself. I don’t use my tarot to connect with spirits, I don’t have that gift…I don’t think” said Caitlin.
In the Words of Caitlin Rowe: A Practicing Tarot Reader
Headshot by Christian Frederick Stevenson Photography
Before reading tarot and being more spiritual, I wasn’t happy. I was going through an intense change in personality, for the better, and tarot helped me through that. Tarot was a way for me to connect with who I was. It was a beautiful tunnel of self-love that I dove right into.
I started reading tarot after buying my first deck of cards during my sophomore year of college — so not that long ago. I bought the Rider-Waite tarot deck for $20 at a spirit shop in Appleton, Wisconsin called Angels Forever Windows of Light. When I started reading people, I told myself, that maybe I should trust my gut as opposed to reciting every extractable meaning from every card that I had memorized in advance. By trusting my gut, I started to love what I was doing a lot more, which fed into my self-love. It also made my readings far more accurate than before.
Everyone has a deck that they connect with the most. My deck, The Art of Shadowscapes, was a gift from my father. A legend in tarot is, if you are gifted a deck, that was the deck you were meant to receive. I gifted my Rider-Waite deck to a friend and she connects with it more than any other deck she has used in the past. What I find really interesting, is that the color of people’s decks typically matches the color of their aura. For example, my aura is purple and white, which actually matches the exact color scheme of my Shadowscapes deck. My friend, who now owns the Rider-Waite deck, has a golden aura, and the color scheme of her deck is yellow.
Out of all of the cards in my deck, the Fool is my favorite card (ride-side up) because, in my opinion, it is the most ambiguous and free-spirited of all of the cards. It deals with not knowing your direction but being okay with whatever journey you are about to go on. Not needing to know and being okay with that is refreshing. The High Priestess is my second favorite card because she represents temptation and feminine energy.
One thing you should know about me is that I am often wrong in my readings. I am not a perfect tarot card reader. Doing tarot has helped me to accept being wrong. Tarot, in general, has helped me love myself a lot more, and connect with others around me. In terms of frequency, I read my own cards often depending on how my life is going. It is much more draining to read other people’s cards, so I don’t do that as often. For example, I will not read someone else ’s cards if the energy between us is negative or if they want their cards to be read for the wrong reason. If the energy is not flowing the way that it should, I won’t be able to give a good reading. I do try to read everyone that I possibly can and am attempting to read more people now.
Reading tarot, to me, means connecting to myself and others on a deeper level. It allows me to express the self-love that I feel and connect with how others are feeling about themselves and their situations. My favorite thing is that it aligns with my goal as a human being to help people. I really love helping people. I also love telling stories. Tarot does both of those things.
Takeaways:
Reading tarot is personal. It is different for each and every person. I was blessed not only to interview my dear friend, Caitlin but afterward have a reading with her. From my experience, the tarot reading was everything that Caitlin described. I truly felt connected with her as she was reading me and delving deeper into who I am as a person. It was also very emotional at times but in a cleansing way. Everything Caitlin said was to help me as I make more decisions that impact my future. If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend partaking in a tarot reading. Who knows, it could really change you for the better.