The swords suit represents reasoning, honesty, ambition, confrontation, and communication. It is related to the air element. These cards emphasize the dual-edged capacity and force of intelligence in readings, which are similar to the swords themselves. Our greatest disputes typically result from this delicate balance since it can be utilized for good or evil, to serve or to damage. The swords can be cruel, nasty, and lack empathy at their worst.
In This Article...
What do the tarot cards represent?
What do tarot cards generally stand for? As shamans like to say, “medicine around what is happening in your particular orbit: love, money, work, aspirations, and general life path” is what tarot cards are there for.
How do tarot cards function spiritually?
According to her, “Tarot cards do not predict the future; rather, tarot is a tool for spiritual guidance and allows the reader to connect to his or her inner wisdom.” “Tarot readings assist a person in learning the information required to make sense of a specific circumstance. As readings provide a person with insight into past, present, and future occurrences based on their current path at the time of the reading, decks are best utilized as a tool of inner wisdom and guidance. The cards don’t always predict what will happen; rather, they help a person analyze a situation and choose the best course of action based on what is already known and what the cards indicate.”
Can you perform a self-tarot reading?
It’s normal to be a little clumsy when you first start practicing the tarot. Tarot study is similar to learning a new languageit takes time to become proficient. But what happens if you no longer require the booklet and have intimate familiarity with the deck? Are you able to read yourself? No, except for a few rare instances. Simply put, it’s a horrible idea.
You see, the majority of us turn to astrology or tarot when we’re looking for clarity amid a period of ambiguity. In contrast to astrology, which is quite technical, our consciousness restricts our capacity to read tarot cards. Working with your personal interpretation of the cards, you are not constrained by short- and long-term cycles like the planets’ orbits. It might be tricky to go beyond your current circumstances while utilizing the tarot to better understand a trying scenario. Even if all the cards are spread out in front of you, putting them together requires such a broad perspective that it is all but impossible to fully understand the meaning of each card. Basically, any biases you already have will always be reflected in your tarot reading!
After a breakup
Draw one card for each of the following inquiries if you’ve recently broken up with someone and want to know more about the reason or determine whether you’ll get back together:
- How energetic is the partnership right now?
- What caused the divide in the first place?
- What do they really think of me right now?
- What do they intend for me right now?
- What kind of relationship will this be in the future?
- Which action is ideal for me to take right now?
When job searching
You can use this spread to explore what kind of career guidance the tarot can offer if you’re feeling uncertain about your career path or thinking about a new employment. Draw one card once more for each query.
- How active am I in my career right now?
- What challenge must I overcome?
- What is my calling in life?
- How can I follow this calling more closely?
- What should I do to prepare for the upcoming month?
When deciding between two options
This spread can highlight the benefits and drawbacks of each option, guiding you toward the best decision if you’re using tarot to pick between two possibilities (two job offers, two apartments, perhaps a love triangle???). Getting the deal Per card, ask one question.
- What is the fundamental cause of this fork in the road?
- What is the likely result of choosing option A?
- What is the most likely result for option B?
- What more should I take into account that was overlooked?
- What’s the best thing I can do right now?
When something is off with a friend
If you’re concerned about the state of a friendship or feel like something is wrong but are unable to pinpoint the cause, you might be interested in seeing what conclusions and solutions this spread offers. Ask one question per card, once more, I repeat.
- What makes this friendship so crucial?
- What led to this sudden change in tone, and why?
- What has changed, in my friend’s opinion?
- What can I do to make this matter more urgent?
- What is the future of this friendship?
- What should I do at this moment?
How do you personally use tarot cards?
I discovered early on in my tarot excursions that knowing the meanings of each card isn’t necessary, even if there is much value and wisdom to be gained from them. Your intuition holds the key to learning how to interpret tarot cards. And this makes sense given that they are instruments for receiving and deciphering messages from the universe or our inner selves. Get the best advice from readers below to learn how to read tarot cards for yourself instinctively and without memorization.
How are Tarot cards charged?
Leave your deck in a sacred location where you can “knead (shuffle) it each hour, giving it your magical power with your hands, for one waking day, much as you would a loaf of rising bread.” The greatest time to use this charge is when you’re taking a day off at home or in a retreat.
How does my tarot spread make me feel?
This section is for you if you’ve ever wondered what a “three-card spread is. Tarot readings can be done in a variety of ways, and frequently the instructions that come with the cards will show images of the most common spreads. You’ll soon discover that there is a spread for any circumstance, and you can always come up with your own, too. These include the straightforward three-card spread, the Celtic cross, and a seven-day spread.
After the deck has been shuffled and divided in half by the client, a reader will pull three cards from it for a three-card spread (more on that in a moment). The past, present, and future are typically represented by the first call pulled, second call pulled, and third call pulled, respectively. Depending on the reading and the question being posed, the timeframes can be understood to indicate either tomorrow or ten years from now.
A daily card reading is another popular way to use tarot cards. In this practice, one card is chosen at random from the top of the shuffled deck and used as a reminder or a direction for the day. Anyone wishing to become more acquainted with the tarot deck and the meanings of the cards can find this to be a very beneficial practice.
As vital as it is to think about the specific meaning of each card, it is also crucial to think about the atmosphere and symbolism of the spread as a whole. There is just as much information to be learned from the whole picture as there is from its component parts, especially in bigger spreads. This is an opportunity to collaborate with them if you are reading for someone else. This will be more difficult the more pressure you put on yourself to mind-read. Tarot reading does not make you psychic, which is a relief: It’s acceptable to inquire about the cards with the audience and come up with ideas for how the cards might relate to their initial query collectively. When a customer asks about money, you might pick two cups cards and “the lovers,” but sometimes the cards won’t match up at all. This could imply that their love life was what they truly wanted to talk to you about. Doesn’t everyone?
Tarot reading can be done in many different methods, but they all require practice. It takes effort to learn 78 different cards, especially when many of them have numerous possible interpretations. However, the more you study and handle the cards, the more comfortable you’ll feel using them as a tool to better understand both yourself and others.
There are several books you can buy and classes (online and off) you can take to hone your interpretation abilities if you want to move up in the tarot world. Online courses are occasionally made available by Tarot for Change author and well-known tarot reader Jessica Dore. On a sliding rate, Little Red Tarot also provides an eight-week course. Free courses from teachers like John Ballantrae, who has a very relaxing accent, and spiritual advisor Mystic Rainn are also widely available on YouTube.
What do opposing cards in tarot represent?
Do you understand the fundamentals of Tarot cards? So you’re prepared for reversals now.
Tarot cards’ upright meanings might have a whole different meaning when they are turned over. A reversed Tarot card doesn’t necessarily portend negative news, contrary to popular belief. The main message of the upright card is frequently strengthened, weakened, or otherwise redirected by reversed Tarot cards.
You must trust your intuition and consider the cards around the reversed card in order to interpret what it is trying to tell you when it appears in your Tarot reading. It might be telling you a lesson you need to learn, whether it’s good or bad or neither.
The following are the top four methods for deciphering reversed Tarot cards:
Opposite meaning of the upright Tarot card
Many people who use reversals in Tarot merely think that the information conveyed by the reversed card is the exact opposite of that of the upright card. For instance, the Devil card can represent being trapped in a reading, while the Devil card reversed can represent being set free. Although it may not always be the greatest interpretation, this is the simplest approach to read reversed Tarot cards.
How many possible card combinations exist?
Consider the last card game you playedpoker, go fish, whatever. Would you think if each time you properly shuffled the entire deck, you were holding a run of cards that had never previously occurred in all of history? Think about all the card games that have undoubtedly been played since the dawn of civilization. No one has ever held or is expected to ever hold the exact same 52 cards in the same order as you did during that game.
A deck of cards can be sorted in somewhere between 8×1067 different ways, which may sound absurd. That consists of an 8 and 67 zeros. To put it in perspective, even if someone were to shuffle a deck of cards once every second throughout the course of the universe, they couldn’t locate a repeat before the cosmos collapsed. This is how probability with such large numbers operate. Even though a veteran blackjack dealer may feel they have shuffled hundreds of cards in their career, their arrangements are meaningless when compared to this many. There are simply too many different ways to arrange 52 cards for any set of cards that were shuffled at random to repeat itself.
You don’t trust me? Just think of all the combinations you can make with a deck of four aces.
Each following location in the row gets one fewer cards to choose from as the deck is dealt out. There are thus four alternatives in the first place, three in the next, and so on until just one card is left. By multiplying these figures together, it is possible to determine how many different ways a group of objects can be arranged using this mathematical pattern.
A factorial is the mathematical term for this genuinely exciting calculation, which is indicated by an exclamation mark.
Factorials often multiply the total number of items in a collection by successively lower amounts until they reach 1. Since our mini-deck contains 4 cards, there are 4 factorial, or 4!, possible arrangements, for a total of 24 possible configurations. Even though this might not seem like a particularly high number, until you reach the number 52 (or 52x51x50…), you end up with an integer that has 68 total digits, which is far larger than the estimated total number of atoms on Earth.
You might be thinking, “Wait, it can’t be unique,” considering that you’ve undoubtedly done it multiple times in your life while playing solitaire. You’d be correct, too. Decks in card games typically have a standard order, thus you need to shuffle really well (using the “riffle” approach, around seven times) before you have a deck that is truly unique.

