CoNTENTS
COVER
ABOUT THE BOOK
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
INTRODUCTION
A Sense of Wonder
A Brief History of Time
The Starchild Tarot
The Tarot as a Mirror
Seeing Past the Veil
Finding Your Deck
WHAT’S IN THE CARDS?
The Major Arcana
The Minor Arcana
The Court Cards
The Wands
The Cups
The Swords
The Pentacles (Crystals)
PREPARING TO READ THE CARDS
Your Higher Self
Your Shadow Self
Asking the Cards
Shuffling
The First Step
Reversed Cards
Cleansing your Cards
THE MAJOR ARCANA
The Fool
The Magician
The High Priestess
The Empress
The Emperor
The Hierophant
The Lovers
The Chariot
Justice
The Hermit
The Wheel of Fortune
Strength
The Hanged Man
Death
Temperance
The Devil
The Tower
The Star
The Moon
The Sun
Judgement
The World
THE MINOR ARCANA
The Wands
The Cups
The Swords
The Crystals (Pentacles)
The Akashic Records
TAROT SPREADS
The Three-Card Spread
The Celtic Cross
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
MODEL CREDITS
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE BOOK
Unlock the magic of the Tarot, set goals and intentions with clarity and learn how to handle your deck with confidence as a tool for self-discovery.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Danielle Noel is a visual artist, writer, and designer currently based in Vancouver, Canada. She is the author and artist of The Starchild Tarot decks and upcoming Moonchild Tarot, and has been reading and studying the Tarot for almost twenty years. Danielle works full time creating new decks, oracles and books for Tarot enthusiasts and modern mystics around the world.
INTRoDUCTIoN
Today, a deeper reawakening of ancient wisdom seems to be stirring within many of our hearts, and as we seek out new ways to help us make sense of this crazy-beautiful thing called life, tools such as the Tarot are becoming part of an ever-expanding arsenal of magic and self-help.
Whether you are a newbie or a seasoned reader, the Tarot has much to offer. Perhaps you are seeking out answers, are at a crossroads or want to reconnect with your dreams or greater aspirations? Maybe you’ve had a desire to try the Tarot out, but have heard mixed reviews about what it actually does and how it all works? My hope with this book is to bring a gentle awareness to the incredible value of the Tarot as a device for self-discovery and intuitive foresight – for seeking the light you wish to share with the world, while also acting as a confidant, a teacher or a familiar friend who is always at hand.
A SENSE OF WONDER
What I love about the Tarot can be expressed in that same sense of wonder I often felt as a child. When I discovered my first deck, I knew I had a great mystery on my hands. The waxy veneer of the cards stuck together, the edges were frayed, and there was a faint familiar perfume lingering in the box. This encounter probably had the same effect on me as if I’d just unearthed some lost ancient relic. Up until that point, I’d always been the little girl who was constantly in search of that doorway to another world, whether in the form of the rabbit holes of my childhood garden or the dusty hardcover books in my local library (which to my youthful imagination must have contained obscure manuals for time travel).
Over the years, as I became more familiar with the Tarot, I gradually came to learn that somewhere, hidden within the pictures of the oddly positioned swords and overflowing cups, was the story of my own life reflected back – that the cards were miniature entry points into an unseen world. Suddenly a missing doorway appeared, and I was able to peer into a new space of sensitive, intuitive nuances and glimpse an unspoken wisdom that stretched far beyond my dreams.
With time, I came to realize that the Tarot is so much more than a simple deck of cards, and after slowly putting the pieces of this venerable puzzle together, I found myself wanting to create a deck of my own. I knew there were various opinions about where and how the Tarot actually originated, but for the sake of storytelling, I decided to celebrate some of its more controversial, mysterious chapters. I saw it as representing an encoded language steeped in sacred myth, with hidden clues woven throughout an ancient narrative. I imagined it being carried in secret, travelling over miles of dust, sand and sea, found in caves and dwellings of alchemists, mystics, witches and wizards. I saw it show up in classical paintings, worldly sacred sites, mystical, Biblical and gnostic symbols, and so many other sources that it was actually mind-boggling.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME
The Tarot is one of those mysterious items that has long been attributed with a rich and controversial history. For now, I am going to offer a very brief summary of this narrative, which barely begins to scratch the surface. This is a story that could take a lifetime to unearth if you were willing to dig deep enough – which just makes it all the more interesting and alluring.
The very word ‘Tarot’ suggests numerous possibilities as to the deck’s origins. There are those who associate it with the Hebrew word Torah, the Latin rota, meaning ‘wheel’, the Arabic Tarah or Turuq, which refers to ‘four ways’, as well as the Egyptian words Tar (‘path’) and Ro (‘royal’), which describe a ‘Royal Path’, perhaps translating into an allegorical journey similar to the oracle of the Tarot.
The strongest evidence connects the Tarot to the Italian Tarocchi or Tarocco, which refers to the original renditions of playing card games that appeared in Italy sometime during the fifteenth century. Not long after the cards spread from Italy into other parts of Europe, a new system of Tarot emerged in France, in Marseilles. This was the Tarot of Marseilles, which formed a new basis for many later decks. The Marseilles Tarot, rich with esoteric symbolism, reached a new wave of occultist practitioners.
Two key figures who redefined the Tarot as a tool of divination and cartomancy were French occultists Jean-Baptiste Alliette, known as Etteilla (1738–1791), and Antoine Court de Gébelin (1719–1784). Gébelin postulated the ancient Egyptian origins of the Tarot, seeing it as a vast language of esoteric wisdom transcribed by the Egyptian god Thoth, subsequently to be preserved by the priests of Alexandria. Later, groups such as the Order of the Golden Dawn in Great Britain developed this idea. Established in 1887, this magical society sourced its information from numerous spiritual teachings and philosophies such as the Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism and Hermeticism (and more). Among its members were Arthur Edward Waite, Pamela Colman Smith, the notorious Aleister Crowley, the poet W. B. Yeats, and writers Bram Stoker and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (to name a few).
In 1909, Pamela Colman Smith was hired by Arthur Edward Waite to illustrate the deck we know best today – the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot. Both Pamela and Arthur were avid practitioners of magic and Kabbalism, translating their refined wisdom into this revolutionary deck, which used colourful renditions of characters for the Minor Arcana as well as the Major and added a whole new mystical symbology. While most Tarot decks today follow the format of the Rider-Waite deck, many are the work of incredible artists and writers.
THE STARCHILD TAROT
The Starchild Tarot that you will see illustrated throughout this book is a modern take on the classic framework of the Rider-Waite and Tarot of Marseilles decks. It is traditional in the sense that it builds upon the skeleton of the major archetypes and meanings of the cards – but beyond this, it wears a new exterior.
Importantly, this book can be used with other decks, as you will find all of the original cards in the Rider-Waite order; with the exception of the Justice and Strength cards, which follow the format of the traditional Tarot of Marseilles. This includes Justice as the eighth card and Strength as the eleventh, corresponding to their numerological associations. The Rider-Waite order later reversed these for their astrological correspondences, as the eighth card is associated with Leo and the eleventh with Libra. Feel free to use the cards in this book in whatever order works for you.
Some of my cards also have new takes on their traditional meanings. For example, in the Starchild Tarot, the Death card becomes ‘Transformation’, and the Hanged Man is ‘Perspective’; both new titles correspond with their actual definitions – only in a slightly lighter way. The Pentacles suit has also been renamed ‘Crystals’ as a more modern take on its original meaning. This suit symbolizes the physical aspects of our lives (such as home, health, possessions, prosperity), while highlighting our connections to these themes as metaphoric, energetic structures for change. Crystals in this deck also resemble the traditional circular pentacles we often see depicted throughout this suit.
Since crystals play such a large role throughout this story, I have added some correlating gems that align with the Major Arcana. For example, if you were to pull the Lovers card for the day, connect with its significant stone ‘Rose Quartz’ to help further your focus.
As an added bonus, you will find a seventy-ninth card in this deck entitled ‘the Akashic Records’. This card has been included to shift beyond the traditional Tarot into a new realm of enquiry. This realm is ancient, wise and connected to how we can access our subconscious in order to navigate new insight through our readings.
THE TAROT AS A MIRROR
The Tarot is nothing short of magic, because you are magic. As a spiritual being, living and breathing as a human on this planet, you are beautifully complex and multifaceted, and are constantly moving along a path of endless potential.
In essence, the Tarot works as a mirror of our subconscious or shadow self – but this is not to say that what it reflects is written in stone. As we become active observers of the cards, the outcomes they point towards have the potential to change with our thinking. Sometimes it’s good to have an outside voice to help us mull things over, and the Tarot can be just that.
At its core, the Tarot reflects the key stages of life, and its language is encoded throughout our own personal stories. The archetypes of the Major Arcana are constantly unfolding around us: in the people we meet, the pains we endure, the highs we bliss out on, and the greatest loves and spiritual insights we encounter.
SEEING PAST THE VEIL
If you are reading this book, chances are you have heard of the Tarot as being a source of divination. These days, it’s revered with a much more supportive, lighthearted understanding, yet in the past the Tarot was often stereotyped with stigma as the tool of fortune-tellers and charlatans, conjuring up images of smoky rooms, crystal balls, and someone beckoning you forward to pick a card and reveal your fate. As much as this may seem to be the common assertion, the cards won’t necessarily tell you your future. Acting more as a reflective tool, the Tarot allows us instead to see how we can consciously build our own futures, and envision the paths which lie before us.
FINDING YOUR DECK
Finding a deck that resonates with you is a great way to start working with the Tarot. There are versions out there that are very much traditional in that they do not deviate from the established language and symbols of the Tarot, while other decks are completely abstract and seem to have a mind of their own. If you can pick up the guidebook that comes with the deck you buy, this will help you make sense of the intention behind its own unique language.
Some people believe they must be gifted their first deck. But if you want to go buy one, that’s fine. There is no right or wrong way to start your journey and, with time, each new deck will open up a new chapter in your story.
WHAT’S IN THE CARDS?
Traditionally, the Tarot contains 78 cards; 56 belong to the Minor Arcana and 22 to the Major Arcana. The Latin word arcana translates into a ‘mysterious or specialized knowledge or language’, which can also be used in reference to the spiritual and physical worlds around us – the realms of our mind, body and spirit.
THE MAJOR ARCANA
These are the juicy, potent keys in life that shake us to the core and fuel our hearts. Also known as trump cards, the Majors are numbered 0 (the Fool) to 21 (the World). These indicate universal archetypes found on the path to spiritual self-awareness, highlighting stages in life that we might encounter as we search for the meaning of it all. These lessons are traditionally reflected in the Fool’s Journey of the Majors as he meets each oracle and transitions through the three major planes of existence that show up in this Arcana:
The Physical/Material Plane: The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot
The Mental/Psychological Plane: Justice, The Hermit, The Wheel of Fortune, Strength, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance
The Spiritual/Astral Plane: The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, The World.
These connect to the journey of our spirit and the powerful forces that come into play. When these cards show up in readings, it is important to pay attention. Cards in the Major Arcana act as signposts to events, energies or people that are, or will be, significant in your life and story.
THE MINOR ARCANA
These are the important minutiae of our journey, which support the larger, overarching themes of the Major Arcana. In these Minors, there are 56 cards that are divided into four main suits: Pentacles (aka Crystals), Swords, Wands and Cups. Each suit represents a specific theme within your life, is connected to an element (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) and is numbered 1 (the ace) through to 10. Cards 11 to 14 of each suit are the court cards. While the Major Arcana represent strong, long-term or deeply rooted themes, the Minor Arcana tap into the lighter aspects of the day-to-day arena. The suits connect to the thoughts and feelings we experience and the relationships we have with others.
SWORDS (Air) (Mental):
The Swords rule the power of the mind and our internal ethical principles. They identify our ego, as well as our destructive actions or tendencies. Swords may represent turmoil or power struggles within our life or with others. Aspects of reason, change or intellect may surface with this suit. The element of air is projective, dynamic and transitional.
PENTACLES (Crystals) (Earth) (Physical):
The Pentacles rule the physical realm and deal with issues that involve security and material concerns. Aspects of home, health, possessions, wealth or prosperity may be highlighted. The element of Earth is grounding, nurturing and stable.
WANDS (Fire) (Spiritual):
The Wands rule our creativity, confidence and determination throughout life. They are related to our ambitions and dreams, and connect to our spiritual nature and Higher Self. The element of Fire is transformative, expansive and inventive.
CUPS (Water) (Emotional):
The Cups rule our Emotions and deal with love and spiritual consciousness. They tap into our subconscious mind, psychic abilities, relationships and internal forces. The element of water is mutable and ever-changing, which reflects the flow of our emotions and feelings.
THE COURT CARDS
The court cards form cards 11 to 14 of each suit in the Minor Arcana and are represented by the characters of the Page, Knight, Queen and King. Typically, the court cards are symbolic of people in our lives; however, they may also highlight aspects of our own personalities, whether these are subconscious or expressed.
Traditionally, the imagery used for court cards and characters in the Higher Arcana is gendered, which is why these cards are very often quite complex to read. Although you may choose to associate the cards with specific genders, the Tarot does not need to be viewed through a gender-binary lens. For instance, a Knight may be seen as adventurous and risk-taking, yet need not always refer to a person who is male, just as a King is not always male, nor a Queen female.
I have always regarded the courts as metaphors for traits or personas within my readings. To do this, you may want to look to your surrounding cards to expand on these keys. Finding a consistent method of interpreting these cards will ultimately be up to you.
To help shed light on some of the energies and qualities associated with the court cards, here are a few more insights into their characteristics:
The Wands
Correspond with:
Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
The Fire Element
Ambitious, Inspirational, Innovative, Exuberant, Impulsive, Adventurous, Fiery
The Cups
Correspond with:
Pisces, Cancer, Scorpio
The Water Element
Psychic, Mysterious, Dramatic, Melancholic, Credulous, Creative, Emotional
The SwOrds
Correspond with:
Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
The Air Element
Analytical, Curious, Inflexible, Honest, Communicative, Perceptive, Logical
The Pentacles (Crystals)
Correspond with:
Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
The Earth Element
Cautious, Stable, Practical, Generous, Grounded, Loyal, Independent
PREPARING To READ THE CARDS
YOUR HIGHER SELF
Throughout this book, you will notice references to the ‘Higher Self’. This is an energy that connects with each of us, but which is essentially you in your highest form. When you tap into the loving guidance of your Higher Self, you may be more aware of visions, synchronistic events or feelings that let you know you are on the right path. The Higher Self speaks through that little inner voice which helps you set your internal compass.
With the emergence of your Higher Self, you may have bursts of inspiration and ideas, or increasingly find yourself in the right place at the right time. In acknowledging this light, and being mindful of your heart, you may find that wonderful things begin to happen.
YOUR SHADOW SELF