What is Tarot?

Our understanding of tarot has come from years and years of misuse and misrepresentation. Luckily for us, the age of Aquarius has opened people's minds to the unexplainable and the benefits of esoteric methodologies are being excepted more and more.

Tarot is a messaging tool. It can be used in many ways by different readers, and many psychics use the tarot as a tool to help channel messages for instance. It can and should however be used as a tool to simply give clarification on life's mysteries and our inner secrets. Not just by contexualising messages from the other side, but predominantly as clarification of all those churning thoughts and ideas inside ourselves.

The readings provided for by innermoo use this approach, and do not claim to have any psychic power other than an innate intuition!

So the tarot then is a message system, a set of cards which contain symbols that help give clarification and insight into certain inner problems that on the surface we just can't understand.

The tarot consists of 78 cards, divided into the 22 major arcana and 56 minor arcana, from the Latin word “Arcanum” meaning mystery or secret. The Major Arcana represent the major events and experiences which can occur throughout our lives. These are the events or lessons that are out of our control and happen to us, and as such are of major importance to our ongoing life journey. The Minor Arcana are further divided into four suits, and offer very specific information about day-to-day occurrences, feelings, attitudes, experiences and direction. As such these are within our control, can be managed, changed and adjusted to enable us to move on if necessary.

How does it work

As with the history of the tarot there are many interpretations as to how the tarot works, including the much used “not sure how… it just does!” – this is true, it does work, and it is also true that there is no scientific proof of exactly how it works and that this should not detract from its value in our lives.

Carl Jung believed in a principle known as synchronicity, which can be explained as meaningful coincidences. This goes some way to help explain how tarot works, synchronicity explains such phenomena as times when for instance you think about or dream about something and that same object suddenly appears, without explanation. This would then be a meaningful coincidence and one which you would take to have a meaning applicable to your specific preoccupation at the time.

By purposefully looking for symbols and answers to preoccupations we are therefore relying on synchronicity to deliver those symbols in the tarot.

The other pertinent factor with tarot is energy. Now this can be scientifically proven! Every object is made up of energy, including inanimate objects. Energy is around us all of the time and how we interact in our own energy field, and how other energy fields interact with us will have a specific outcome. Therefore the tarot have their own energy field, and when a reader taps into your queries, they are reaching into your energy field and mixing it to that of the tarot.

With synchronicity and the interaction of energy fields it is hardly surprising that the tarot works!