The Lovers Game

 

The Lover's Game

A Romantic Divination Game

This is meant to be a type of Dating Game where you ask questions and the cards tell whether their heart is true, so to speak. I was taught to play this by my best friend, Margaret, who, oddly enough, did not read tarot or do any other form of divination.

I learned to play this with a deck of ordinary playing cards, but you can use tarot cards. However, the pictures on the tarot tend to make things difficult to 'interpret'.

How to Play:

First, you lay out the four court cards and name each one after a potential lover you want to inquire about. Queens for females, and Kings for males.

Shuffle the rest of the deck three times.

Ask a question. For example; "Which one kisses the best?"

Take a card from the top of the deck, flip it over and lay one card face-up on each of the court cards.

The type of card gives you your answer. 

Traditionally:

• Red suits mean; Yes.
• Black suits mean; No. 

However, the individual suits have meanings too. 

Clubs: 

Communication, letters, messages, phone calls, the internet, rumors, school.

Hearts:

Affection, kindness, feelings, romance, love, caring, friendship.

Spades:

Aggression, military, police, fighting, anger, depression.

Diamonds:

Money, business, work, job, craftsman, finances.

Remember; every time you ask a question, lay a card down on each of the court cards.

The sillier the question, the more fun it can be.

Enjoy!

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Interested in a private webcam reading?

Make an appointment with me today.

Let me help with those tough questions.

Read Your Own Tarot

A Quick & Dirty Guide to
Interpreting the Cards
with Excerpts from The Vertigo Tarot by  Rachael Pollack - RP

Before one attempts to try their hand at interpretation, one should become familiar with the card suits and what they symbolize.

Just to set the record straight, the Tarot deck was invented well after the common deck of cards in use today.  

In fact, the very first Tarot deck created was never meant for fortune telling, but for playing a game called Tarocchi. In other words, the Major Arcana cards didn't actually have any sort of spiritual meaning, they were merely legendary allegorical characters. The spiritual symbolism was added much, much later. 

However, the modern decks do indeed have a ton of symbolism jammed into each and every one. The reader's job is to decide what those symbols mean to them and interpret the cards as they Feel.

If you want to go in-depth as to what each and every card means, I suggest visiting TarotWikipedia. They have fairly comprehensive interpretations for each card.

Note: If you do not have an actual Tarot deck of your own, you CAN use a Normal playing deck of cards! Basically the four suits are the same - yet with different symbols.

Hearts = Cups
Spades = Swords
Diamonds = Coins
Clubs = Wands

The Suit Cards

Cups
Water / Love, attraction, Romance, emotions.
Reverse: Emotional extremes, vindictive.

Characterized by Water, this suit represents love, fantasy, imagination, passivity, the unconscious, relationships, and friendship.

The element of cups is water, and the suit of cups pertains to situations and events of an emotional nature. As such, when the tarot is used in divination, many cups signify an emotional issue or love situation, or some event that affects the querent emotionally.

The watery astrological signs are Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. 

"Some historians believe that the four suits represent different classes of Medieval society. Cups would symbolize the Clergy since the blood of Christ is received from a chalice." - RP

Pentacles (or Coins)
Earth / Money, Business, Work
Reverse: High expectations, over work.

Characterized by Earth, this suit signifies work, nature, money, physical reality, home, stable relationships, routine activities. 

This suit is connected with the classical element of Earth, the physical body and possessions or wealth. Coins represent the feudal class of traders, and therefore to worldly matters in general. Associated physical characteristics include dark hair and eyes, dark complexion, and sturdy build.

The earth astrological signs are Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn.

"Pentacles, being derived from coins, would represent the merchant class." - RP

Swords
Air / Intelligence, Aggression, Physical activity
Reverse: Temperamental, judgmental, Hasty.

Characterized by Air, this suit symbolizes mind, mental activity, analysis, conflict, pain, quarrels, heroism, sadness, abstraction. 

In tarot, swords correspond to the element of Air, and as such signifies freedom but also quick change. The Swords suit also traditionally represented the military, which implies strength, power and authority, but also responsibility, violence and suffering.

The airy astrological signs are Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius.

"The suit Swords would represent nobility, as these are the tools of their warfare." - RP

Wands (or Staves)
Fire / Communication, writing, the Internet
Reverse: Thoughtless, forgetful, over-analyze.

Characterized by Fire, this suit represents the experience of energy, action, optimism, creative impulse, adventure, sexuality, movement, beginnings. 

The suit of wands, staves, or rods represents the element of fire and gives information relating to the traits of the fire element in astrology. It represents the peasant or farmer class of feudal society and relates to simplicity and to nature, as well as to poverty and submission.

In the Vertigo Tarot the Wands appear like torches, and sometimes paintbrushes.

The airy astrological signs are Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius..

"Wands would represent peasants since the peasants grew staves." - RP

The Court Cards

King

Mature adult, Control, Command.
Traditionally male.
Someone you look to for Instruction.

Reverse: Judgmental, bossy, controlling.

Queen

Mature adult, Management, Sympathy.
Traditionally female.
Someone you look to for Advice.

Reverse: Emotional extremes, smothering, vindictive.

Knight (Jack.)

Physically active adult, Aggression, Achievement, Focus.
Traditionally male, but can mean an Aggressive Female.
Someone you look to for Action.

Reverse: Temperamental, aggressive, Leaps before looking.

Page

Young person, chatting, phone calls, education.
Teen-aged Male or Female.
Someone you look to as a friend.

Reverse: Immature, emotional extremes, silliness.

1 The Magician

The Major Arcana

There are twenty-two Major Arcana, or Trumps in the tarot deck, and each one has their own separate meaning. To compare it to the ordinary playing deck of cards, that's twenty-two Jokers. 

If you're interested in the individual meanings, Google.com is your friend. There are literally thousands of sites that have each card defined in exquisite detail for your perusal.

For your first foray into tarot interpretation, I'm going to ask you to toss all that out the window and simply look at the images that show up in your spread. Instead I want you to GUESS. Literally, follow your intuition and say the first thing that pops into your head. 

Consider it an exercise in learning to trust yourself.

Ready to try your hand?

Simple Tarot Reading:
One Direct Question

Have the Questioner choose their question wisely! Just like magic, Tarot tends to answer by taking the shortest route, pretty much like a Fortune-cookie. The clearer your question, the clearer the answer.  

Short-cut: Have your questioner Write Down the question they want answered!

A Reader does Not need to know the Question!
Merely if the question involves: A person, a place or a situation.

Directions:

• Shuffle your cards as you feel comfortable. Three times is the normal limit.

• Spread the deck out in a fan.

• Have your questioner choose 3 cards.

• Push the rest of the cards back together and place the rest of your deck to one side.

• Lay the first card in the center. This is the Focus - the direct answer.

• Lay the other two cards to either side in a fan. These are the details supporting the answer.

• LOOK at the center card.

The best way to interpret your cards is to say the first thing that pops into your head. Think in terms of the Rorschach Inkblot Test. The hardest part is allowing yourself to say what you actually Feel.

• Interpret the two cards to either side as extra details that support what the center card means. 

Example:

• The Sun is the center card. This can mean release from captivity, or release from something that has been holding you down. 
• To the right you have The Ace of Coins which means an influx of money, or a solid business venture. 
• To the left you have The Empress which can mean bounty through hard work, windfall, or fruition. 

With the center card; The Sun, as the focus,  I would say: release from money worries; the Ace of Coins, by way of an investment or hard work that finally pays off; The Empress.

"What if I get three Court Cards?"
(King/Queen/Knight Page)

Court cards don't always signify people. They can just as easily represent ideas.

For example, the Queen of Cups can mean "romantic advice." If the card is reversed, however it can mean "romantic rivalry".

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Interested in a private reading?

Make an appointment with me today.

Let me help with those tough questions.

The Vertigo Tarot
Illustrated by Dave McKean
Text by Rachael Pollack
Inspired by: 'The Sandman' by Vertigo Comics

Sandman written by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg.

Death, Desire and Despair created by Neil Gaiman and Mike Dringenberg.
Sandman and all related characters copyright DC comics.

Tarot Layouts

 Tarot Layouts

Before one even learns what the individual cards mean, the new reader learns the how to lay their cards out.

The Cross and Staff

or Celtic Cross

This  is the most common layout one learns, and in fact is normally the first layout most learn. Mainly because this layout is featured in almost all the books on tarot, including the booklets found with most decks. 

This layout is generally taught with only one card per position. However, I was taught to use from  three to five cards per position. The idea being that more cards makes it easier to be narrow down what each position is trying to express.

Do it Your Way...

Experiment with your layouts and change things around to suit yourself. In fact, you don't actually have to use any of the 'classic' layouts. You can make one up and it'll work just as well, if not better.

The Basic Iris

What I did was expand a very simple, very classic three-card layout into a fifteen-card card layout. 

I call it the Iris because see the five cards in each position as a flower. The first card laid out being the bloom, the next two are the leaves that support and frame the bloom. The cross-card below the first three are the soil that influenced the flower's growth, and the bottom-most card being the root that caused the flower to grow in the first place. 

This is the layout I use most often professionally because it gives the querent, or seeker; the person the reading is for, a fairly specific overview of what's going on in their lives. 

The Diamond

The Diamond is an example of a layout entirely made-up from scratch. 

This layout came into being when I was asked to add details to a specific question about a rather complicated relationship. I have since used it to go into detail on a great many situations from personal and professional relationship to business ventures. 

The way to use this layout is by reading the 'connections' according to what cards touch what corners. This can be as simple as reading the cards purely as they lay, but I like use the bottom corners to indicate the Reverse of the card as it lays. 

For example...

If the card is laid out Upside-Down:

 -- The Top corners of the card have a Reverse influence on the cards that touch their top corners, and are read Right-side-Up against the cards that touch the bottom corners. 

If the card is laid out in Right-side-Up:

 -- The Top corners of the card have an Upright influence on the cards that touch their top corners, and are read in Reverse against the cards that touch their bottom corners.

This is Not an easy layout to use because it can get really complicated, really fast. You need to know your cards extremely well to get an accurate reading with it. However, I have yet to find another layout that goes into the detail this one will.

In Conclusion...

How you choose to lay out your cards is essentially, entirely up to you. Whether you use a classic, tried-and-true layout, or one of your own invention, the truth is, only You know what will work for you. 

Experimentation is the key.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interested in a private reading?
Make an appointment with me today.
Let me help with those tough questions.

Choosing Your Own Deck

Choosing Your Own
TAROT DECK

If you are an experienced Reader, (meaning that you already have the different interpretations of the cards memorized right-side-up and upside-down,) just about any deck will do. You are free to choose any deck whose art and subject matter pleases you the most.

However, if you are new to Tarot or still need the book occasionally, then you need to look closely at the different decks available BEFORE you make your possibly expensive, investment.

Try to avoid buying decks that you can't examine. 

Some decks that are labeled as Tarot decks don't possess a Minor Arcana, only the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana. These decks are Oracles. You would use these decks in addition to a tarot reading in progress. Your Querent pulls a card from your Oracle to add meaning and depth to the cards already laid out during their actual Tarot Reading. 

Before you buy...!

Look at the cards and see if their picture or illustration are monotonous or repeat.

Far too many Tarot decks have beautifully illustrated Major Arcana or Trumps but the Minor Arcana cards have a picture of two coins on the Two of Coins, three coins on the Three of Coins, etc. and that's all. Maybe they have a pretty background, but not a whole lot of anything else.

Unless you are very familiar with the meanings of the different cards, this repetition could cause a lot of frustration when you go to do Readings at the local coffee shoppe. If you have to pull out the book for each and every card, you will end up taking up a lot of time flipping through pages. Nor is this conducive to the questioner's confidence in their Reader.

Look at the pictures and see if you can deduce the meanings of the cards by the pictures alone. 

THIS is what you are looking for. 

If you've found a deck you can easily read, but the art or subject matter isn't quite to your liking, or the price is just a little too steep, keep looking!

Each deck has it's own flavor; whether it's Kabbalistic, Pagan, Christian, based on fantasy novels by a beloved author or based on Feminism and Folklore. There are almost unlimited types of Tarot decks out there to suit anyone's taste and level of experience.

Just keep looking! You'll thank yourself in the long run. 

Or...

You could make your own by drawing on some index cards. This is something I did, twice now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interested in a private reading?
Make an appointment with me today.
Let me help with those tough questions.