Introduction
I began working with a tarot deck in my mid-teens back in the 1970s.
It triggered an awakening to many things for me, both mystical and
magic. It is now forty-five years later, and tarot, along with the
broader concept of using cards for divination and mystical-magical
thought, have been constant life companions for me.
At this point in my life and work, I thought it was about time that I
wrote a guide to tarot, to cast a light on a path that can be far more
profound that it initially appears. I looked around first to see if there
was a guide that dug into the esoteric depths while also providing
shallow waters for the budding tarot reader to paddle in. I could find
no such book—which is not to say that one does not already exist,
just that I could not find it.
I decided to write a book that was not too long, and that would be
usable by both a beginning tarot reader and an experienced
everyday tarot reader—and also by an esoteric seeker of the
magical Mysteries. I will not know if I have succeeded in this quest,
or failed miserably, until this book is properly put to the test by its
readers.
I have laid out basic steps, mundane interpretations, esoteric and
magical technical explanations, and layouts both mundane and
esoteric; and I have also dipped briefly into the history behind the
Rider-Waite tarot, including some of the inspirations that Waite drew
on. His Rider-Waite deck has become the lingua franca of card
divination, the work on which numerous modern card divination
decks are based.
Since Waite’s day, many card designers have also drawn on the
deep well of learning that they have acquired from the Rider-Waite
tarot to develop new and exciting decks that move completely away
from its system. Some are simply artistically pleasing, and some are
astonishing in their reflection of magical evolution.
Hence though this book is designed for a card reader to use with any
type or design of deck, the Rider-Waite deck is used both to illustrate
the layouts, and as the reference point for the deep meanings of the
tarot cards as Waite envisaged them. Once you have learned this
universal language, you will have a foundation to launch from in your
divination and magical adventures. May you adventure well!
— Josephine McCarthy, May 2020
Alterius non sit, qui suus esse potest
Let he who can belong to himself belong to no other.
— The motto of Paracelsus
