Tarot has always been a fascination of mine. Every year, my friends and I receive horrifyingly accurate insights from the Renaissance Fair’s professional tarot card readers. I’m amazed at how the readers derived meaning from the images on the cards in ways that I couldn’t intuit myself. They would read through the cards with such ease and certainty, and it didn’t appear to be just memorization.
Tarot appeared to be a complex puzzle to me. One where a single insight could bring everything in altogether. Perhaps that’s also why I was drawn to counseling, making sense of the thoughts, feelings, images, relationships, and memories clients came in with. Tarot appeared to be an extension of meaning making, direction, and insight into one’s life.
I began my tarot journey with the Shadowland deck. At first, I was just drawn to the creepy, yet whimsical artwork depicted on the sides of the box. As a fan of horror and creepy things in general, I felt that this deck was calling to me.
Upon reading more about it, I found that the Shadowland deck doesn’t utilize the reversal meanings like other tarot cards do. Instead, it relies on the “shadows” of the card, or the opposite meaning of the card, a concept derived from Carl Jung’s work. Shadows are the hidden or repressed part of people, which can be positive traits or negative traits. So, including concepts that I studied in my psych/counseling classes, it really was a great starter deck for me.
I also got the oracle deck companion to the Shadowlands tarot deck called Shadowlands Lenormand. Although the artwork is the same, I was not as drawn to it as the tarot version. My readings didn’t feel as accurate with the oracle deck compared to the tarot.
I did like that both decks included the guidebooks, which have the intended interpretations of the cards and different spreads. Both decks can be mixed and matched with other tarot or oracle decks for further clarification or insight into the question posed. Each card from both decks contains reflection questions that are reminiscent of therapeutic questions.
- What steps could you take to make your home a sanctuary? (Lenormand, House)
- What role models do you have for effective leadership? (Lenormand, Tower)
- What old habits or patterns would I like to break? (Shadowland Tarot, Death)
- How do I cope with stress or competition (Shadowland Tarot, 5 of Wands)
These two decks were the starting point of my journey. I’m learning how to follow my intuition and read the cards using the images provided. I still lean on the guidebooks for support, but every day I feel more confident in my interpretations. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and I’m still learning more and more with each draw of the card.
Links to decks here:
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