C..... ~~ ·J'8<: .fl ~) .~~~' :0 F(JftEWORD BY 1\tlARY K. GREER TAROT;TIPS 78 Practical Techniques to Enhance Your Tarot Reading Skills About the Authors Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone are cofounders of The Tarot School in New York City, offering Tarot instruction in several for mats and media. Together the Amberstones teach, write, and publish about Tarot on all levels from divination to psychology to esotericism and magical practice. They are perpetual pioneers of new Tarot techniques, and remain lifelong Tarot students. Between them, Ruth Ann and Wald have amassed more than seventy years of experience as Tarot practitioners. Ruth Ann began her career as a reader in 1974, and Wald began his Tarot studies in 1959. More than a thousand students have taken live classes at The Tarot School since it opened its doors in 1995. Hundreds more from around the country have participated in Tarot Teleclasses and Telecourses (a pioneering program of classes given entirely on the telephone), and students from all over the world have pur chased tapes from The Tarot School Audio Course Series and study The Tarot School Correspondence Course. Tarot Tips, the Tarot School's e-mail newsletter, has thousands of subscribers worldwide. The New York Tarot Festival, presented in June 2002 by Ruth Ann, Wald, and the students of The Tarot School, was the first national and international Tarot symposium to be held on the East Coast. The Readers Studio in April 2003 was the first Tarot conference targeted specifically to advanced students and profes sional readers. ,8, :j;pecial ~opics in ~arot TAROT TIPS RUTH ANN AMBERSTONE & WALD AMBERSTONE with FOREWORD BY MARY K. GREER Llewellyn Publications Woodbury, Minnesota Tarot Tips © 2003 by Ruth Ann Amberstone and Wald Amberstone. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner what soever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. FIRST EDITION Third Printing, 2006 Cover art© 2001 by Robert M. Place, background image© 2001 Photodisc Cover design by Kevin R. Brown Editing and interior design by Connie Hill Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Amberstone, Ruth Ann. Tarot tips / Ruth Ann Amberstone & Wald Amberstone : with foreword by Mary K. Greer. p. cm. - (Special topics in tarot) ISBN 13: 978-0-7387-0216-2 ISBN 10: 0-7387-0216-1 1. Tarot-Miscellanea. I. Amberstone, Wald. II. Title. III. Series. BF1879.T2A475 2003 133.3'337-dc22 2003060580 Llewellyn Worldwide does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business transactions between our authors and the public. All mail addressed to the author is forwarded but the publisher cannot, unless specifically instructed by the author, give out an address or phone number. Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific location will continue to be maintained. Please refer to the publisher's website for links to authors' websites and other sources. Llewellyn Publications A Division of Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. 2143 Wooddale Drive, Dept. 0-7387-0216-1 Woodbury, MN 55125-2989, U.S.A. http:/ /www.llewellyn.com Llewellyn is a registered trademark of Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. Printed in the United States of America To our family, friends, teachers, and students Table of Contents Acknowledgments X Foreword Xl Introduction xv One Decks, Cards & Card Handling I Tip #1: The Gift of Tarot 2 Tip #2: Choosing a New Tarot Deck 3 Tip #3: So Many Decks, So Little Time! 5 Tip #4: Protecting Your Deck 7 Tip #5: Cleansing Your Deck 8 Tip #6: Clearing Your Deck 9 Tip #7: Gentle Shuffling Methods 9 Tip #8: Pop-Outs 10 Tip #9: Blank Cards 11 Tip #10: Damaged Cards 11 Tip #11: Personal Decks 14 Tip #12: Non-Heterosexist Decks 14 Tip #13: Question-Specific Decks 15 Tip #14: Time for a New Deck? 16 Two Interpretation & Meaning 19 Tip #15: Getting to Know the Cards 20 Tip #16: Close Observation 21 Tip #17: Card Meanings 23 Tip #18: Card Meanings and Context 27 Tip #19: Interpretation Systems 29 Tip #20: Attributions and Imagery 31 Tip #21: Contradictory Interpretations 32 Tip #22: Card Combinations 34 Tip #23: Difficult Cards 37 Tip #24: Court Cards 39 Tip #25: Reversals 42 Tip #26: Stage Cards 44 vm Contents Tip #27: Suits and Creativity 45 Tip #28: Suits and Strategic Capability 47 Tip #29: Health Readings 50 Tip #30: Secret Paths 54 Three Reading Techniques 59 Tip #31: Expectations 60 Tip #32: Asking a Question 62 Tip #33: Clarifying the Question 64 Tip #34: Ten Practical Questions to Ask the Tarot 65 Tip #35: Quiet Querents 66 Tip #36: Paying Attention! 68 Tip #37: Ten Ways to Pick a Card 70 Tip #38: Deck Orientation 72 Tip #39: Going With Your Gut 73 Tip #40: Drawing a Blank 74 Tip #41: Reading Numbers 75 Tip #42: Timing in a Reading 76 Tip #43: Astrology in a Tarot Reading 78 Tip #44: Using Esotericism in a Reading 82 Tip #45: Complex Reading Technique 84 Tip #46: Bottoms Up! 85 Tip #47: Reversed Readings 85 Tip #48: Many Majors in a Spread 86 Tip #49: Contradictory Cards 88 Tip #50: Repeated Readings 91 Tip #51: Cold Reading 91 Tip #52: Reading for Yourself 93 Tip #53: Tarot and Discipline 94 Four Spreads 99 Tip #54: A Powerful One-Card Reading 100 Tip #55: Yes/No Spread 101 Tip #56: Reading Spreads Without Assigned Positions 104 Tip #57: The Double-Edged Sword Spread 105 Tip #58: Relationship Spreads 107 Contents IX Tip #59: New Year's Spread 108 Tip #60: Year-Long Spread 108 Tip #61: Yule Reading 113 Tip #62: Spread Sources 114 Tip #63: Designing Your Own Layout 116 Five Other Things You Can Do With Tarot 119 Tip #64: Meditation Made Easy 120 Tip #65: Tarot and Meditation 122 Tip #66: Contemplation 124 Tip #67: Tarot and Creative Writing 125 Tip #68: Story Circle 127 Tip #69: Determining Your Birth Cards 128 Tip #70: Tarot Persona 130 Tip #71: Tarot and Coping 131 Six Ethics 135 Tip #72: Bad News 136 Tip #73: The Death Card 137 Tip #7 4: Asking About Others 139 Tip #75: Reading for Children 140 Tip #76: Predicting Life Span 141 Tip #77: Going Pro 143 Afterword 151 Tip #78: Heretical Musings 151 Appendix I: Recommended Books 155 Appendix II The Tarot School Story 159 Index 187 Acknowledgments We offer our heartfelt love, respect, and gratitude to: Our students and Tarot enthusiasts around the world for ask ing the questions that form the basis of this book. Jo and Norman H. Kass, for their unwavering love and sup port, which has enabled The Tarot School to exist. Rachel Eve Brauser, my dearest daughter, for her love and pa tience with me through the endless deadlines of publishing a week ly newsletter, and the challenges of running my own business. Lelia Dickerson and Irene Kendall, for helping us envision and start The Tarot School, and for their continued support. John Rozsa, Ivy Beloff, and the staff of the SLC Conference Center, for providing the perfect place to hold our classes. David Heizer, for his eagle eye, encouragement, good cheer, and for being our technical lifeline. Judith Zweiman and Johanna Gargiulo-Sherman, for their enduring friendship and willingness to listen to us talk shop ad nauseam. Our esteemed colleagues in the Tarot community, from whom we continue to learn and draw inspiration. Barbara Moore at Llewellyn for her vision, hard work, enthusi asm, and friendship-and for nudging us to write. Connie Hill, our editor, for all the special magic that editors do to bring this book to the Pentacles stage of creation. Robert M. Place, for his stunning rendition of the 8 of Penta cles, which graces the cover and captures the spirit of our work. The beautiful people at SYDA for their Love, Trust, and Truth. X