Introduction 1

About This Book 1

My Assumptions about You 2

How This Book is Organized 3

Part I: It's All in How You See It 3

Part II: Pick a Card, Any Card: A Guided Tour Through the Tarot Deck 4

Part III: The Tarot and You: The ABCs of Tarot Reading (And Then Some) 4

Part IV: The Tarot and Her Family: Seeing Through Other Eyes 4

Part V: The Part of Tens 4

Icons Used in the Book 4

Where to Go From Here 5

Part I: It's All in How You See It 7

Chapter 1: Making Friends with the Tarot 9

Introducing the Tarot 9

Harnessing the Power of Symbols 10

Becoming aware of archetypes 11

Picturing a new perspective 13

What Does Your Name Mean, Tarot? 16

Looking it up 17

Creating anagrams 17

Putting it all together 18

Chapter 2: Who Uses the Tarot and Why? 21

Gypsy Fortune-Tellers, Psychics, and Mystics 22

Gypsies: Beating a bad rap 22

Psychics: Getting specific about the future 23

Mystics: Communicating with divine spirits 23

Using the Tarot in the Health Professions 24

Therapists: Tapping into the unconscious mind 24

Substance abuse counselors: Connecting tarot with the 12 steps 25

Taking Tarot into the Fortune 500 26

Touching Students with the Tarot 26

Improving reading skills 26

Helping youngsters express their feelings 27

Appealing to All 28

Chapter 3: Let's Go Shopping! 29

Strolling through Tarot Candy Land 29

Decks, decks, and more decks 30

Habla Español? Parlez Vous Francais? Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Parla Italiano? 34

Deciding on Your First Deck 34

Choosing a classic 34

Following your eyes, hands, and heart 35

Shopping for Your Deck 36

Hitting the bookstores 36

Cataloging 36

Surfing the Net 37

Chapter 4: History and Mystery: Where Does the Tarot Come From? 39

Place by Place 39

Stringing the Theories Together 43

Taroting through Time 43

Decks of antiquity 44

Twelfth century 45

Fourteenth century 45

Fifteenth century 45

Sixteenth century 47

Seventeenth century 47

Eighteenth century 47

Nineteenth century 48

Twentieth century 48

Looking at the Tarot Today 50

Chapter 5: The Tarot and the Mystery School Tradition 51

Demystifying the Mystery School 52

The mystery school experience 52

Open and closed mystery schools 52

Mystery school guidelines 53

Looking for a Mystery School? 54

Connecting with Qabalah 54

Linking the Tarot and the Mystery School 55

Making the Historical Connection 56

The tarot's tie to the mysteries 56

The tarot and the Qabalah 57

Part II: Pick a Card, Any Card: A Guided Tour Through the Tarot Deck 59

Chapter 6: A Magic Mirror: Preparing for the Tarot's Possibilities 61

Getting Ready to Read 62

Reconciling positives and negatives 62

Amber's approach to interpreting 62

Recognizing the role of memory 63

Wrestling with the Meaning of Reversals 64

Interpreting in black and white 65

Shifting into neutral 66

Guidelines for interpreting reversals 66

Differences between Tarot Decks 68

Justice before Strength 68

Strength before Justice 68

Limbo land 69

Chapter 7: Hitting the Big Time: The 22 Major Arcana Cards 71

Defining the Major Arcana 72

Preparing to read major arcana cards 73

Pulling the race card 74

Touring the Cards 74

Chapter 8: Certainly Not the Minor Leagues: The Minor Arcana Number Cards 99

Suit Yourself 100

Place Your Order Here! 100

Ordering the minor arcana by density 101

Ordering the minor arcana by direction 101

Connecting the Suits with Four Magic Letters 102

Amber's New Car: The Four Suits in Action! 103

Ha Ha Ha Ha! Linking the Humors and Suits 104

Putting It All Together 105

Interpreting the Minor Arcana 106

Chapter 9: A Magic Kingdom: The 16 Court or Royalty Cards 147

Naming the Court Cards 147

Bringing the Court Cards to Life 148

Royal occupations 149

Stages of life 149

A balancing act 150

Filling in the Gaps 151

Introducing the Court 151

Part III: The Tarot and You: The ABCs of Tarot Reading (And Then Some) 169

Chapter 10: Experiencing the Tarot 171

Finding Your Soul and Personality Cards 172

Determining your soul card 173

Identifying your personality card 174

Having the same soul and personality card 175

A special case: Totaling 19 175

Finding Your Card for the Year 176

The Card for Today 177

Finding today's general card 177

Pinpointing today's personal card 178

Cards that Correspond to Weeks and Months 179

Week by week 179

Month by month 179

Cards for Special Occasions 179

Studying History with the Tarot 180

Locating Your Personal Court Card 181

Connecting a Court Card with Your Personal Development for the Year 182

Chapter 11: Handling, Mixing, and Interpreting the Cards 185

Special Handling Required 185

Storing, wrapping, and protecting 186

Setting your intention 186

Requesting divine protection 188

Adopting orphans and retiring older cards 189

But I Can't Shuffle! 190

Why, When, and Where? 190

Asking Questions and Getting Answers 191

When Will I Meet the Love of My Life? Win the Lottery? Become Enlightened? 193

Predicting probabilities 193

Trusting in divine time 194

Comparing Tarot Reading with Tarot Consultation 194

Chapter 12: Going Deeper: Meditating with the Tarot 197

Exploring Color and Sound 198

Meditating with color 198

Tuning in 201

Tasting the Tarot 203

Composing Affirmations 204

Becoming a Beautiful Dreamer 205

Meditating through Writing 207

The Best Form of Meditation 207

Chapter 13: Tarot Spreads Aren't for Sandwiches! 209

How Tarot Spreads Work 210

Starting small 210

Preparing your intention 211

Seeing into the magic mirrors 212

Interpreting a spread's meaning 213

Spreading the cards: From A to Z 214

Taking Precautions When You Read for Others 215

The Touchstone Spread 216

Pulling a Touchstone card 217

Sample spread 217

Amber's All-Purpose Tarot Spread 218

Laying out the cards 218

Sample spread 221

Between Extremes Spread 224

Laying out the cards 224

Sample spread 225

Psychological Spread 226

Laying out the cards 227

Sample spread 227

Astrological Spread 229

Picking cards 229

Sample spread 230

Relationship Spread 231

Laying out the cards 231

Sample spread 234

The Chakra Spread 236

The chakras 236

Laying out the cards 238

Sample spread 238

Tarot Games 241

For you 241

For two 242

For any number of you 242

Getting a Professional Tarot Reading 242

Finding a reader 243

Interviewing 243

Show me the money! 243

Chapter 14: Help Wanted! 245

Thinking About Going Pro? 245

Quitting Your Day Job 246

Becoming a master of all trades 246

Seeking professional opportunities 247

Spreading the word 248

Getting paid 249

Setting up shop 250

Working for tarot hotlines 250

Buyer Beware: The Limits of Tarot Certification 251

Part IV: The Tarot and Her Family: Seeing Through Other Eyes 253

Chapter 15: Connecting the Tarot to the Qabalistic Tree of Life 255

Diagramming Your Spiritual Journey 256

Fruits of the Tree 256

Thirty-two paths 257

Branching out 261

The Minor Arcana and the Tree of Life 262

Tapping into the Qabalistic Intelligences 263

Decoding the Qabalistic Tree of Life 266

Linking the Tree of Life to Your Chakras 268

Chapter 16: Connecting the Tarot to Astrology and Numerology 271

Linking Signs, Planets, Luminaries, and the Major Arcana 272

Zodiac signs and the major arcana 272

Planets, luminaries, and the major arcana 276

Wheeling through the Zodiac and the Tarot's Number Cards 278

Dividing the zodiac pie 278

Finding your number card 279

Matching the Court Cards to the Zodiac 282

Reslicing the zodiac pie 282

Finding your court card 283

Running the Numbers 285

Numbering the major arcana 286

Adding up the minor arcana and court cards 289

Chapter 17: Connecting the Tarot to Alchemy and Your Life Journey 291

The Elements of Alchemy 292

The Refiner's Fire 292

Breaking Down and Building Up 293

Traveling from Childhood to Old Sage 295

On being a child 296

On being an adolescent 297

On being an adult 298

On being an elder or sage 299

Part V: The Part of Tens 301

Chapter 18: Top Ten Tarot Misconceptions 303

The Tarot is a Form of Devil Worship (If I Use It, I'll Go to Hell!) 303

The Tarot is a Religion 304

You Must be Psychic to Work with the Tarot 304

The Purpose of a Tarot Reading is to Find Out About Your Future 304

The Future is Set in Stone 305

Dear Tarot Reader, Please Fix Me! 305

Your Wife's Having an Affair 305

Curses and Love Spells 306

Reversed Means the Opposite 306

My Life's This Way...