Tarot

Cards that are used mainly for fortunetelling, sometimes called ?the book of divination of the Gypsies.? It is generally believed that the cards were introduced into Western Europe by the Gypsies in the mid-15th century. There is much conjecture about their origin. The pack of 78 cards is divided into the minor arcana, or 56 pictorial cards that roughly resemble the modern deck of 52 cards: wands (clubs), cups (hearts), swords (spades), and pentacles (diamonds). Each of the four suits comprises 14 cards, 10 numbered from ace to 10 and 4 court cards—king, queen, knight, and page. The 22 additional pictorial cards, called the major arcana, are numbered from zero to 21. The pictures on the 78 cards are allegorical, representing forces of nature and the virtues or vices of man. Interpretations and ways of determining the meanings of the cards vary greatly.

A Tarot reading is not a fortune telling session as that is from an outdated paradigm, a more deterministic view of the world. Foretelling the future is never certain. Future projections are only that: projections. Reading the future is assessing odds and probabilities. Once the probable future has been foreseen through the cards, it has already begun to change. The consciousness of the viewer of the future naturally alters the future. In physics this is called the "Heisenberg Principle" - to get close to and see an object is to change it through our own energy.

A deterministic reading that supposedly tells the future with absolute certainty is the "old tarot." It is akin to the "old physics" - before Einstein. We now know that reality is relative to the point of view of the viewer. It is our choice as to how we view it. There is choice.

"The only phenomena that can be foretold with certainty are the universal principles of life that are represented in the cards. A reading can never be wrong if it is couched in these principles, such as growth, change, creativity, love, learning, etc. Tarot readers go wrong in predicting material, worldly events and their time frames. That a 'tall, dark stranger will enter your live on X date' is taking a real chance with the odds of probability. Just as we cannot predict the future with certainty, we cannot control our outward worldly life with absolute predictability. However, we can control our attitude toward the material events of our life and understand more fully our issues through the use of the ORACULAR WAY!" (from Voyager Tarot, Way of the Great Oracle, James Wanless, Ph.D..)