***Tarot as Mental Exercise, as a Game Like Blackjack

Tarot is an exercise in creative thought. Quite apart from any messages or any use of messages it can produce, the act of simply figuring out language that arises from combinations of cards stretches one's mind: It is mental exercise like bridge or blackjack is.

There are 78 cards, and of course each card has many meanings by itself, and each combination of cards (3,003 possible two-card combinations exist) therefore has even more possible interpretations. This can be a fun game.

A fine exercise is to take one card, and put each of the other 77 cards with it one at a time, and say all the meanings you can imagine from each combination. Doing this process with a friend is double the fun. This is also a fine way to teach oneself to read Tarot to apply it to a subject or a question.

Another mental acrobatic is to put three or more cards down, apply a meaning to them as a group, then interpret as many two-card combinations as will arise out of them. This is interesting because the meaning of the full spread and the meanings of the double-card combinations are sometimes contradictory, sometimes unrelated (especially when one of the cards is a negative modifier, as Death is). Let's illustrate this process, shall we?

Our full spread means "not the lady he is looking for." Of course, these three can mean other things too; that does not matter right now. The three cards are:

The Page of Pentacles, who is thinking or believes...whatever. And he is male. The illustration shows him gazing intently at a disc with a star on it, thoughtful expression on his face.

The High Priestess, who is the lady. She is illustrated seated, looking sedate and passive.

The Four of Cups, who is refusing...in this case, an influence or experience. The illustration shows him with arms crossed, looking down. Three cups set in front of him and a fourth is being offered him by a hand coming from a gray cloud.

And here are the three two-card combinations they make:

Four of Cups + High Priestess = not the lady (as in not the lady he wants).

Four of Cups + Page of Pentacles = not what he is looking for, not what he wants, not the ___________ he wants.

High Priestess + Page of Pentacles = the lady he is looking for or at.

Notice "the lady he IS looking for" necessarily appears in a spread that means "not the lady he is looking for." Persons who read cards for meaning must attend to this!

It is that simple. Personally, I think it's fun, and am thrilled to be doing this for a living after 25 years of court reporting.

Where do you get the meanings, did you say? Eden Gray's 'The Tarot,' a Bantam paperback, is good enough—especially her full-page treatment of the Major Arcanae. Ignore reversed meanings, says me. Also, you can look at the illustrations on the RIDER WAITE deck, and glean your own impressions about what they mean to you, feeling your way. Other articles I have written expand on this thought. See you there, perhaps?