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A Spiritually Enlightening Online Magazine. September's Theme: "Inter-be"
Volume 8 Issue 6 ISSN# 1708-3265



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 		Let's Talk Tarot
~ The Scary Cards ~
with Marcia McCord

"I don't want a reading. I'm afraid I'll get the scary cards."

I hear this all the time from people who apparently are expecting that being kept in the dark about anything negative coming up is somehow an advantage. I can see their point. I can even feel their pain. Deep in the darkest recesses of my Gemini Moon, however, I can feel the opposite too. Usually the astrologers don't have too much good news for a Gemini Moon. It's one thing to be "of two minds" on a topic, but being "of two hearts" sounds like the old double-cross. Hey, that's not me! At least I have Mercury rising so I can talk about it and with an Aries Sun I'm less on the fence than some other combinations.

Those scary cards can be scary. But of course they don't have to be.

The way I see things in the Tarot all of the cards are the scary cards and all of them are the kind ones too. For a tarot reading, though, generally people are just worrying about finding the scary things right here or right around the corner. Once you start studying the tarot in a little more depth, you start to figure out that the cards that bother you have a lot to do with your own personality.

For instance, many tarot readers in particular have problems with the Emperor and/or the Hierophant. I don't want to pin it down to something as pigeonholed as issues with authority but that's one possibility.

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"I'd like to talk more about the Empress," my young tarot buddy said the other afternoon.

"Sure." I was glad for a chance to sit down. He was helping me tidy up the back yard for a set of readings with some new clients later that day. I wasn't surprised this would be the "scary" card for him. It's not that he's afraid of the Empress; she's just something of a blank, a cipher for him.

"Sometimes it's easier to figure out what something is by comparing it to something it isn't," I started. We talked about the ways the Empress isn't the High Priestess and the ways the Empress isn't the Emperor. What does the Empress love compared to those cards closest to her? What makes her angry? If she had a problem, how would she deal with it that would be different from the two cards on either side. What's her big flaw or weakness compared to the others? What's her strength?

As we talked, slowly a pattern of human behaviour became evident. We visualized the Fool through the Chariot, just to limit the concepts to the personal realm. We talked about our own issues, not by drawing cards to see what they said, but by visualizing these cards in order and discussing how each one is expressed in ourselves.

If you have a deck, lay those cards out in a row, just those eight cards, and describe yourself. Say that reversed the energy of that card is somehow blocked and that right side up it functions pretty freely. Do you stop yourself from trying new things, from just going for it? Maybe your Fool is reversed energy for you. Do you tell yourself constantly that you can't do whatever it is that is presented before you? Maybe your Magician is reversed, and so on.

Spontaneity, ability, pure knowledge, creativity and nurturing, temporal authority and decisions, spiritual authority and teaching, merging in harmony and self-control: Which of these might be blocked for you?

That afternoon became a discussion of deeper thought than simply how to read the cards.

"So, sure I like to challenge the Emperor but only to make him think; I still want to be his friend. So the Emperor isn't blocked exactly." The nuances continued.

All this good discussion with my friend was a byproduct of a great class I had attended a week or so earlier, one taught by my friend Thalassa who organizes BATS (Bay Area Tarot Symposium). Her class on those scary cards helped me see why Death, the Tower, the Devil and the 10 of Swords aren't as scary to me.

Temperance, though, now there's a card for the heebie-jeebies for me. But with this kind of view of the Tarot, I'm starting to understand why and how to deal with it.

Best wishes.


Marcia McCord joined us (2009) as an Associate Proofreading Editor here at Timeless Spirit Magazine and is a regular columnist. Marcia is a professional tarot reader and computer analyst. She lives with her husband, six cats and one very patient cocker spaniel near San Francisco. Be sure to check out her blog!

This just in! Marcia McCord's new tarot decks are now available for purchase, $25 USD plus postage. For more information, visit her blog: marciamccordtarotreader.blogspot.com

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