In a previous post, titled ‘Are you aware of or ignoring your shadow self?’ I talked about embracing the more hidden parts of your psyche — or the parts that you’re not yet comfortable with or are ashamed of. In this post, I’d like to explain what my deck of tarot cards has to do with all of this — particularly the Devil card that went missing.
For the last eight years I’ve been informally reading tarot cards — mainly for myself and friends. However, perhaps only six months after receiving the cards as a Birthday present from my brother, I lost my major arcana Devil card, which was perhaps my least favourite in the deck. Just staring at the picture made me feel uneasy, so I wasn’t too upset that it had disappeared.
I continued to use the deck without the Devil card and figured that it didn’t matter because no one really wants the Devil card to come up anyway. In hindsight, it’s crazy that I never really looked into the true meaning of it — all the tarot cards after all have both positive and negative sides.
A trip to the Zentist in York
Over the last week, I had a real urge to just get a new tarot deck so I’d have the full set again. Yesterday, I travelled back up to York which is close to where my parents live. I mentioned that I was looking for a new deck of tarot cards, and my parents kindly offered to buy some for me as a late Birthday present. So, after googling ‘Tarot cards York’, we went to a little shop with such friendly staff, called the Zentist.
I picked a deck called ‘The New Mythic Tarot’ which is based on Greek mythology. I thought the illustrations were beautiful and was instantly drawn to them.
Tarot card reading
Before I continue, I should probably go into a little bit more detail about tarot reading. Whenever I read cards for myself or someone else, they usually help in some way or seem to make sense. In some respects, you could say that it’s what you read into the cards that gives them significance or your response to the cards. With this in mind, you could almost pick any card and draw meaning from it in one way or another.
But, personally, I feel that there’s more to the tarot than this — because more often than not, people seem to pick just the right cards for them or there are lots of seemingly meaningful coincidences.
Ace of Pentacles
For example, after visiting the Zentist shop, my parents and I went to a cafe for some tea. My Dad who isn’t really into tarot reading, opened the book at random and started reading about the Ace of Pentacles and what it represented. Later on after the cards had been shuffled, I asked him to choose a card at random. He picked the Ace of Pentacles. When he looked up the meaning in the book he realised that he’d picked the one card he’d already read about which was a 1 in 78 chance.
Celtic cross layout
When we got back home that evening, I thought I’d do my first reading for myself with the new cards. I chose to do a traditional celtic cross spread. As I was shuffling them, for a brief moment, I thought, ‘The missing Devil card will show up’.
Right on cue, as I turned over the first card, it was the Devil. However, this time I just smiled and was actually strangely relieved to see it. I thought, this couldn’t be more accurate, especially as the Devil is all about embracing the shadow aspects of your personality.
In my mythic tarot book, the following description is given for the Devil card.
“On a divinatory level, the card of Pan, the Devil, implies the necessity of a confrontation with all that is shadowy, shameful, and base in the personality. The fool must free himself by gaining knowledge and honest, humble acceptance of Pan, for then he can release the creative power that is held in chains by his own darkness in the essential darkness of his body, in order to become what he always was — merely natural.” — The new mythic tarot by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene
A card for my dog
The next day, I thought it’d be amusing to draw a card for my dog Meg’s current state of mind. Out of all the cards in the deck, I drew the Moon — the only card in the mythic tarot deck with a dog featured on the front.
Considering that I’ve only used these cards three times since buying them, I’m impressed and really pleased with them. While I wholeheartedly believe that we all have the freedom and power to shape our lives how we see fit, I do think tarot cards can be used to help make sense of problems and give you an idea of your current frame of mind.
Please get in touch if you would like me to give you a remote tarot card reading. Pay what you think it’s worth.
