Published 17/09/2024 by Sarah Lutterloch

What Is Tarot?

What is tarot? Divination, self-inquiry, spiritual enlightenment, and glimpses of the past, present and future are presented through a card reading. A typical deck has 78 numbered cards, each with an image and symbolism that creates a story.

A standard tarot deck is separated into two classifications:

• Major Arcana (the significant life events and spiritual lessons in life.)
• Minor Arcana (the day-to-day challenges and pleasures of life.)

In a tarot reading, the card reader usually draws and interprets one or more cards based on the situation or question being asked. For example, you might ask about your career, your love life, or a specific decision you're facing. Additional cards may be drawn for deeper understanding, allowing for more accurate readings.

There is a growing demand for online tarot readings, whether for guidance, personal growth, uncovering your subconscious mind, or helping you better understand your inner self, thoughts, emotions, and the energies surrounding you.

The Meaning of Tarot

What is the meaning of tarot? Tarot is frequently used as an instrument for reflection, guidance, and personal evolution. The true meaning of tarot is to use the cards for divination purposes.

The tarot cards are mirrors of the soul, images or energies that reflect us, illustrating our inner life and complexities or contradictions. This reflection includes what has been forgotten, made invisible by fear or shame, and what has been suppressed or denied.

Each card reflects universal themes of human experiences, so when they come up in a tarot reading, they will become relevant and symbolic to the personal experiences of the seeker.

Tarot offers different perspectives on a situation. By being aware of different positions and energies, this helps the querent to make a more conscious choice of how to respond.

Tarot creates a space for the intuitive mind, for the divine, to speak, and to aid the seekers learning. Tarot provides information, insight, and understanding. It is often used as a tool for personal evolution, to enlighten parts of yourself you knew were already there but buried deep within, including those subconscious thoughts and feelings that often go unnoticed.

Read our guide on Can Anyone Learn How to Read Tarot Cards?

Types of Tarot Card Spreads

Tarot card spreads are also called layouts, which are how the cards are laid out during a tarot session. Each spread is tailored for a different purpose, so you might use a relationship spread to seek advice on romantic issues or the Yes/No spread if you want a simple answer to a question.

For accurate tarot card interpretations, consider using online tarot reading services where many of the most experienced and highly recommended readers are listed with excellent customer reviews.

The following are the most well-loved tarot spreads you can perform with your deck of cards.

Celtic Spread

Performing the Celtic Cross spread is an art form, as it has more cards and a more complex layout.

The Celtic Cross spread a ten-card spread with 10 cards laid out in a cross-shaped pattern. It works by providing an in-depth overview of a given situation or question.

The traditional Celtic Cross spread addresses a wide spectrum of issues, such as the central question, the cross of obstacles, the unconscious hidden motivations in play, past influences, and future outcomes.

A skilled tarot reader needs to have an immense knowledge of the card's meanings so an accurate interpretation can be provided. This spread is ideal for exploring a full range of topics and finding an in-depth understanding of the situation so clear guidance and support can be offered.

General Love Spread

The General Love Spread is the most popular layout for a love tarot reading online. It helps unveil matters of the heart related to your romantic life.

This card spread can be a five to seven-card spread, and it helps unravel what a relationship is like now, how your partner feels, the challenges you might face on your current path, and what your relationship will look like in the future.

Whether you’re single and looking for love or your relationship faces difficult challenges, a general love spread is a popular choice for love-related readings.

Daily Tarot Spreads

Many people find daily tarot card readings helpful for guiding them through the day ahead. Daily Tarot Spreads, whether single-card or common three-card spreads are great for gaining insight and direction in your daily life.

The single card spread gives a quick, daily message, theme, or answer to a central question. A three-card spread can provide insight into past, present, and future influences or the influences of energy, mind, body, and spirit that affect the day before you. These spreads are designed to be quick and easy, helping you align your actions and thoughts with the day's energies.

Five Card Relationship Cross

The Five Card Relationship Cross is designed to examine the dynamics of a specific type of relationship.

Most commonly, the five cards are placed on a cross with one card per leg of the cross to represent the seekers' perception, the partner's perception, the dynamics of the relationship, the challenges of the relationship, and the likely outcome of the relationship.

The five-card relationship cross is often used to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of a relationship and for healing rifts between two people based on misconceptions.

Friendship Spread

What is tarot for friendships? The tarot Friendship Spread enables you to discover how you are as friends, whether the friendship can continue to thrive, or whether challenges may lie ahead.

This spread consists of a series of five cards; each card relates to one aspect of the friendship, such as the feeling behind the friendship, how you communicate with each other, the things you share, the outside influences that affect the friendship, and how all these elements combine.

The Friendship Spread can reveal things about your friendship that you did not know; it's a fantastic way to find out the strengths of the relationship and what issues need to be addressed to maintain a healthy and supportive friendship.

Relationship Tarot Spread

The tarot Relationship Spread Is a more general, detailed examination of a romantic relationship. It is often a few cards, usually relating to specific facets of the relationship, such as how the partners emotionally relate, relate sexually, or relate spiritually.

A tarot relationship reading can help you see the subtext of a relationship, the obstacles to its success, and the promise that could lie there. This spread is for someone who wants to see the greater workings of their romantic relationship and for anyone who wants to work on their relationship to make it stronger.

The Horseshoe Spread

The well-known Horseshoe Spread is very popular with experienced tarot readers as it provides overall insights into past, present, and future life challenges.

When dealing with confusing choices and difficult decisions, the Horseshoe spread offers many advantages over other basic card spreads, providing clear directions and resolutions to navigate the best way forward.

The Horseshoe Spread is a 7-card spread covering past, present, hidden influences, obstacles and challenges, external influences, guidance on the best path to follow, and the situation's outcome. It is an excellent versatile spread when needing clarity in diverse situations.

Yes and No Tarot Spread

The Yes/No Tarot Spread is a direct and clear way of answering questions that call for a simple yes or no answer, typically using one to three cards, in which the card's placement indicates the answer.

Upright cards or cards faceup might indicate a 'yes', while cards in reverse might indicate a 'no'. This is an excellent spread for looking for quick and clear direction regarding a decision or situation. It can help you to confidently make decisions based on the wisdom of the tarot cards.

The Career Path Spread

Are you looking to understand your professional life and the direction in which your career is headed? This is where you'll want to try the Career Path Spread. This spread involves reading six to eight cards covering a different aspect of your career.

You might read a card that speaks to your desires for your job and how you are feeling right now, another card that talks about opportunities coming your way, and so on.

A typical Career Path spread will help you get a sense of your current situation in your career life and help you identify where opportunities lie and what skills you need to develop. This spread is ideal for anyone looking to make a career or wanting to know where their career path is heading.

Tarot Card Meanings

Tarot cards hold many divinatory meanings and symbolic messages. Every tarot card holds a special meaning deciphered through the images, archetypes and traditional symbolism conjured by and enclosed in the card.

Seasoned readers have an excellent knowledge of the card meanings, which enables them to provide a unique explanation of the querent's situation, the possible outcome of a problem, and the energies surrounding that situation.

The meanings we attach to each card can vary greatly depending on which cards are drawn and the card combinations that lay beside them.

Expert live psychic readers and tarot specialists will have the advantage of using their strong intuition and other abilities to derive a further level of meaning to any card in a tarot reading, which often comes with the most truth and insight.

Tarot Readings

Choose accurate divination readings with Trusted Psychics. Tarot readings can jump-start your journey to true self-evolution, predict future events and help you find solutions to the most complex life situations.

You already have the answers and the solutions, and a tarot session with a live psychic reader can help you bridge the path to your subconscious mind and find what is hidden and needs to be unlocked.

Tarot reading benefits include identifying challenges, gaining clarity and insights into past, present, and future situations, gaining insight into external influences, making decisions, and discovering new opportunities.

Millions of Australians contact Trusted Psychics Australia every year for a tarot reading online, hoping to uncover the knowledge, clarity, and guidance needed to tackle challenges big or small.

Trusted Psychics has earned a badge of honour in the love and relationships department. Our professional Live Messenger advisors have successfully helped thousands of committed couples get past the difficulties that naturally occur in relationships through detailed love tarot readings.

Anyone can learn to read tarot cards, but the live psychic readers at Trusted Psychics Australia have a genuine ability and a wealth of knowledge to discover the deeper tarot card meanings.

Call a live psychic reader today to learn more about how tarot works and how we can use it to enlighten your life and illuminate your spiritual pathway.

Read our guide on How Tarot Card Readings Work.

FAQs

What Is Tarot Used for?

What is tarot? It is a form of divination, self-discovery, and spiritual counselling that answers life's questions and uncovers those seeking to understand their past, present and future circumstances, including career, relationships, life path, decision-making and personal growth.

It can serve as a form of meditation and self-reflection that bypasses the conscious mind to connect to the subconscious or divine. Tarot readings are used to answer specific questions, facilitate spiritual growth, find direction, or provide guidance regarding changes. It can also help with issues or situations the individual might be navigating on their life path.

What Is the Meaning of Tarot Reading?

Individual cards or sequences of cards are laid out and then interpreted by a tarot reader to find the answers the seeker wants to know.

A tarot reading seeks to reveal an understanding of what's occurring around a person, giving insights and revealing hidden information collected through the symbols on the cards and the reader's intuition.

The function of the tarot is to access the subconscious mind and the energetic field surrounding the person being read and connect to the greater cosmos.

Tarot card interpretations offer insight, point to patterns, and suggest what transpires among the energies surrounding the querent. They're meant to give power to the querent through informed insight and guidance that can be applied to real-world acquisitions.

What Religion Do Tarot Cards Come From?

Though they are not from any religion, tarot has roots in all the major spiritual and esoteric thought traditions. It can be used by people of faith and those who equate 'religion' with 'dogma'.

What is tarot? Tarot began its life in Europe as a set of playing cards to play card games in the mid-15th century. It wasn't until the 18th-20th century that they began to be used for divination and magic.

You can find many elements of the tarot deck in alchemy, astrology, and the Kabbalah, as well as within Christian iconography. Tarot is a very flexible medium to use as a mirror into your psyche.

What Does a Tarot Reading Tell You?

A tarot reading tells you what energies or influences affect your life or specific situation. A tarot reading can reflect your emotional and mental state, as well as your challenges and opportunities in life.

It usually points to symmetries in your behaviour and may raise awareness of underlying or subconscious knowledge. A tarot reading can reveal all hidden aspects of your life, find solutions to problems, and give advice about difficult decisions or essential issues on your life path.

Tarot readings are a powerful tool for enlightening you on love and relationship issues, choosing a career path, financial guidance, emotions, and spiritual growth, and finding answers to difficult decisions.

Contact Trusted Psychics' skilled tarot readers when feeling lost or confused. We are always here to offer insight and guidance when you may need answers and support.

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