Learn about tarot cards

Tarot card reading seems to tap into areas of the higher mind that we may not utilize. There is a theory that our ability to predict things through the cards may come through precognitive abilities, or through something like blindsight. Experiments at Brown University indicate that people were able to see a horizontal or vertical light despite being blind, and that scientists do not understand the vestigal ability that they are using. It is examples such as these that mystify science that are important when we consider how tarot cards might work. It may remain a mystery but none the less the cards and the process itself can be very helpful for insight and prediction. While traditionally the classic tarot card spread, known as the Cross and Staff, is quite popular, it contains 10 cards. However, this article will focus on a modification of that reading and look at how it can provide more information based upon 14 cards, what can be called a gypsy modification.

The layout is the same as the classic cross and staff, 5 cards laid out in a cross pattern with a sixth card crossing the center card, and four cards laid out in a line going up and down as in the shape of a staff beside the cross. The modification comes in when you lay out the cards in that fashion and then add four cards to fill in the corners of the cross and how you integrate those four cards with interpretations of the others.

Position one represents the person asking the question or the querent card and may either be dealt randomly or chosen by the person who is being read for or the reader. In addition the card in this position may be the energies surrounding that person or the environment, the atmosphere, or forces. The card in the second position is the one that crosses the first card or is laid across in the opposite direction of the first card or sideways. This card is the forces in opposition to the person, situation or question.

The next card dealt is placed directly to the north or above the two center cards, indicates a possible path of the future, and is looked at with the final outcome card later in the layout to determine another likely path or possible outcome. The card that follows dealing the third card, number four, is dealt to the south or below the center cards, and indicates the basis of the matter, what is going on in the subconscious of the questioner, or in the immediate past of the situation. The fifth card is dealt to the left of the center or the west and indicates the immediate present, although if the reading is done as a six month reading it can indicate the first two months of that reading. The sixth card is dealt to the right or the east of the center and indicates the immediate future or next two months if the reading has been assigned to be a six month reading. The seventh card is dealt to the far right of the sixth card and so will the eighth, ninth, and tenth cards, in what is classically called the staff pattern. Four cards going up and down, parallel to the first six, which then is the classic cross and staff pattern. The seventh card indicates the far future or the last two months of a six month reading. The eighth card which is dealt above the seventh card and indicates what other people see or the world sees about the question or the sitution. The ninth card indicates your hopes and fears on the question, or the querents. The tenth card dealt above the ninth is the final outcome card and indicates the final outcome for the matter or the question and is one of the most powerful cards of the whole reading. The eleventh card, twelveth card, thirteenth card and fourteenth cards are all dealt around the four cards that make up the arms of the cross pattern. The first one is dealt below the card in the east arm, the next below the card in the west arm, the next right next to the card in the north, to the left, and the final card to the right of the north card, not on the staff but on the cross. Then one looks at the first three cards in a row and interprets them as the present or first two months, the next set of three as the immediate future or next two months. This provides for more information about those time periods.