it's in the cards

Have you ever thought about having a tarot reading, but thought it was all about gypsies in headscarves and crystal balls? Deborah Durbin explodes the myths around tarot and explains how a simple reading can help you make positive decisions...

The art of reading tarot cards has been around for thousands of years and is an ideal tool as a means to answer questions and find guidance in your life.

I first encountered tarot reading when I was a teenager and watched my dad shuffle a pack of cards that had the most wonderful pictures on them. Being an inquisitive sort, I demanded to know what the pictures meant and thus my interest in tarot reading began.

The basics

A pack of tarot cards is made up of 78 cards in total – 22 of these are known as Major Arcana cards and the remaining 56 are known as Minor Arcana cards.

The Major Arcana cards are picture cards and are considered to be the most important cards in a reading. The Minor Arcana cards are similar to a pack of playing cards in that they have four sets of suits – coins, staves, cups and swords and as with a pack of playing cards, the Minor Arcana cards also have pages, knights, kings and queens within each suit.

There is a bit of misconception surrounding tarot readings in that many people believe that a reading is set in stone and that whatever you have been told WILL happen no matter what. This is a bit of an urban myth.

Free will

Tarot cards are merely a tool from which a professional tarot reader will use to help them foresee what MIGHT happen given a certain set of circumstances. We all have free will. For example; if you asked me what the outcome would be for an interview you were attending and I told you that it would be successful and that you would get the job, it would only be successful if you actually attended the interview.

If you decided for whatever reason not to attend that particular interview, it would not be a successful outcome, because you have the free will to decide whether you want to attend that interview or not.

Bad readings

Having read tarot cards now for 25 years I have found that there is no such thing as a ‘bad’ reading and anyone who tells you that they were told bad news in a reading has not dealt with a professional. No professional tarot reader would ever tell someone anything so as to worry or scare them. A tarot reading can only forewarn you of a likely outcome. You still have freedom of choice and always will.

I gave a reading to an elderly gentleman once and although there were many positive cards in his reading, there was one which depicted a hospital. I asked him if he lived near a hospital and he said no. Because the rest of the cards were so positive, I could see no reason to worry about the hospital card, but I mentioned that he might be visiting a hospital in the near future.
Sure enough, a few weeks later, the gentleman called me to say that he had heard that his local hospital were looking for volunteers and he had volunteered himself for the role of hospital DJ!

Insight

A tarot reading can give you an insight as to which road you should be taking or what the outcome would be if you took a particular course of action. It can help you with decisions and give you hope when you’re feeling low. It can help you make everything from career decisions to guiding you to finding that Mr Right. In short, a tarot reading can answer all those unanswerable questions you have and help to guide you to a more positive and happy way of living.

If you would like a tarot reading from Deborah please contact her by e-mail and put tarot reading in the subject line. Prices are £10 for a simple three question reading, £15 for a more in depth 3 question reading and £25 for a yearly reading.

Deborah Durbin is a freelance writer and professional tarot reader.