You can just read the section that is marked with an arrow >>> and printed in type like this.
We do suggest that you try the method described herein. It is a different method than you are accustomed to, a different style of conversation, a closer relationship between the querant and the cards. Your function with a client is to help them do their own reading. That is the main design feature of this set. This is full deep complete Tarot that almost anyone in our culture today can understand immediately. You mainly help them concentrate and also compound ideas from individual cards into a useful whole.
The Magic Mirror Tarot contains two complete decks. They are quite similar beneath the surface but they have two opposite styles of visual art. Some people prefer one style of visual art and some prefer the other. You should use the deck that seems to speak more strongly.
This is a life-improvement divination tool. If you use it properly it gives good advice for all kinds of situations. You can use it for yourself or others. We humans have used divination tools to help improve our lives all across the world through all our history. We constantly develop and adapt them to suit our place and time. Tarot is a great classic of Western culture, developed by many counselors through many generations. This version of it is adapted to fit the ways in which we see the world today.
Divination tools make use of mental abilities we all have, and yet there are profound theoretical questions about how they work. For example, the great psychologist Carl Jung studied Tarot and other systems deeply but only managed to offer well-informed conjectures about the basic questions. We can hope that science will come closer to the answers as it continues to investigate the nature of mind. But be that as it may, we know that if they are used properly, and for the purpose of understanding life, divination tools do work.
We now live in an atomized society where we are largely forced to live like isolated, ignorant and powerless "consumers". But we are actually strong and competent free beings. And that is the central truth that Tarot teaches. It gives the power of knowledge. My fondest hope is that this version of Tarot will give that power to many.
Let's do a reading for yourself. This is an ultra-simplified method originally inspired by one of Dr. Carl Jung's essays.
1. Think of a question or issue in your life. It doesn't need to be extremely important but it must be something for which you'd like to have some wise and helpful advice or just a friendly realistic observation.
Please note: Instead of asking "What is going to happen?" it is usually better to either ask "What is most likely to happen?" or else "What is the situation really like?" or else "What can be done to make things better?"
2. Choose one of the decks, the one whose pictures seem to speak to you most strongly. Take out the deck and hold it in your hands. Bring your question or issue very clearly to your mind.
3. Turn the cards face down and mix them up. Simply mix them around on the table top. Still face down, spread them neatly across to left and right. Keep your issue in mind.
4. Bring your issue or question very vividly to mind, until it is as vivid and real as it can be, then reach out and pick a card. Turn it over and look at it. Study this card and discuss it with yourself, trying to decide what it's saying about your issue.
Please note: Sometimes the whole meaning of a card will seem relevant but often just a single word in the printed verbiage or a single detail of the picture catches your attention. If so, grab hold of that and use it as a starting point. Give attention to whatever catches your attention.
5. You will often want a few more cards. Be sure to form a question very clearly every time and yet feel free to change the question. For example, you might ask for overall clarification of a previous card, zoom in on some particular detail or branch out to some related issue. Be sure to ask your questions clearly, even feeling free to speak out loud.
6. Try making patterns from the cards you have chosen. For example, they might be speaking about events in time. You could arrange them left to right from the past into the present and future. Or they might be describing some person and the situations and people around them. So you might put one card at the center and surround it with others. Do keep in mind the question that you asked to get each card.
7. When you feel the conversation is completed, you might want to ask this question: "Please tell me what else I should know." Then draw another card.
8. Finally stack the cards up neatly, thank them for the knowledge gained, and return them to their box. As you know, expressing thanks is often very helpful.
(You may wish to skip down now to "Reading For Others".)
The very first card will usually immediately seem to say something about your issue, provided that you have the issue vividly in mind. Many other times another card or two will seem to bring the message to your point. And yet occasionally several cards may be examined and still not seem related to it. This is usually because they are saying something you don't want to hear. They may be saying something that you fear or something different from your cherished hope.
But we cannot struggle constantly against luck, fate, the stupidity of others or etc. Life often fails to grant our wishes. The fact is that we live with mystery all the time - and the smallest mysteries in our lives are wrapped up with great profound ones too - so we might as well face up to it. Despite life's disappointments and real tragedies we might as well try for philosophical agility instead of getting stuck on our demands and fears. So if you find yourself refusing to listen, you might simply ask "What could this card be saying if I just go ahead and guess?"
On the other hand, you might be right to stop the reading. It is possible that you have conflicts in yourself that would not be resolved and might conceivably be worsened by bringing them out into the light of consciousness. This is quite rare in Tarot because it is such a gentle method, but use your judgment.
On the other hand, it does irritate me when someone balloons their personal insecurities up to universal size to loudly and persistently declare that Tarot is either anti-scientific or anti-God. (However, please see "Excellent Skepticism" below.)
In my opinion it is nonsense to declare that Tarot is anti-God. A universal deity could not desire us to abide in ignorance because ignorance is against our nature. Indeed, the realistic humane context provided by Tarot is precisely what we need to grow mere knowledge into wisdom, and no universal deity could want us to abide in folly. That would be against its nature. Furthermore, if we venture into talk which has us say that God exists, then we ought, in inquiring of its nature, look to those of humanity's worthy saints who have been the clearest poets and philosophers. They all speak of something that is aptly called "tremendous mystery". And, as you know by now if you have done a reading, that is the very kind of thing that is encountered in systems like Tarot. Indeed, that's why this is called "divination".
And in my opinion a proper scientific attitude demands that we give the thing a try, fairly on its proper terms, so as to gain experience for use as data. Especially considering that helping people live good lives is such a worthy goal. (If work must wait on theory, how far would medicine have gotten?) This has been precisely my scientific scheme in this project for almost thirty years. And finally, the inquiry into how we can live well is indeed a noble branch of high philosophy and that is what this is. This is extremely educational.
And, to put the thing in concrete terms, the most common scientific objection to Tarot is demonstrably untrue. It is often said the cards are all extremely vague and all pretty much alike and so you only seem to get realistic answers by letting the reader fool you and by pretending. In fact, there are (and there should be) some cards with big vague ideas but most give pretty specific descriptions of people and situations. And with the Magic Mirror set this fact is easily demonstrated. Just let people examine all the cards for themselves.
Successful usage of Tarot does not require that you believe it works as advertised. Definitely not. It does require that you restrain your disbelief for long enough to give the thing a proper try, even if another part of you stands aside like at a magic show and spies to catch the sleight of hand. Doing that is fine because skepticism, if it's genuine, includes a lively dose of curiosity. In fact, I advise you to keep your skepticism going for as long as possible. I kept mine going several years and it made a very interesting discussion partner until it just collapsed beneath the evidence.
Your experience having serious conversations with people about their lives will be far more helpful than any prior experience or training specifically with Tarot. After all, the main idea here is that the person (the querant) is supposed to have a serious conversation with the cards about some significant issue in their life. Your function is to help them do that, to facilitate the conversation, through use of this handy tool. Here are some tips.
1. Be prepared to discuss the process. To many people this seems like "spooky" work and it does in fact involve some genuine mysteries. The material I wrote above in "Introduction" may give some ideas for addressing overall questions and concerns. In extreme cases, where the person wants a reading but also voices strong objections, the "Prejudice" section might be useful too.
2. It's best to sit beside the client, not across the table from them. If the table is too small for that, you might sit with them at a corner.
3. Sometimes two or several people want a reading all together. Why not? The more, the merrier. You know that this can work from ordinary conversations. With two the reading will usually focus their relationship. With three or more it's apt to be quite lighthearted.
4. It is the querant's reading, not yours. Talk them through the process described above in "A Simple Reading" and yet be flexible. If they want to do something differently, even after you explain the method I suggest, then certainly let them try.
5. When you ask the client to choose some specific question or issue in their life, they will sometimes say they do not have a specific issue. They are lying. Humans always have specific issues. They do not trust you enough to tell you what their issues are. But this is probably good. Why would a self-respecting person trust you yet? Do this: Say "Well, then, shall we do a general reading?" Then instead of asking them to vividly imagine "your issue" ask them to vividly imagine "the current situation". At some later moment, if they seem confused, you should probably suggest: "Can you separate the situation into separate issues, and approach them one at a time?"
6. I don't like to ask a client to explain their issue to me. Most often they explain it voluntarily but otherwise I like to put off asking for as long as possible, until and unless confusion forces me to. This is an opportunity for me to earn their trust. But on the other hand, I know that long practice has strengthened my ability to do this.
7. Show the client both decks and let them choose. Perhaps you strongly prefer the Simple Tarot or else the Spirit Hill but you'll be surprised how many people strongly prefer the other one.
8. Help the client feel free in handling the cards. When you ask them to choose a deck, put them in their hands and let them look. Demonstrate how to mix them around on the table top, stack them up and spread them out, and yet indicate that the client should do most of this or at least participate.
9. If your client has had other Tarot readings, they may become impatient when you ask them to choose one card. If so, I ask them: "How many would you like to start with? Don't choose too many." Three or four cards is usually plenty to start. Then after they pick the cards and study for a moment; "So what do you think? Like, maybe these represent the past, present and future. Or what?"
10. If your client talks too much, it often helps to simply interrupt. "Excuse me; I don't understand; what are you getting at?" Or perhaps: "But what is this card here saying about that?" The process will not work unless they clarify and focus their imagination. Be courteous but do insist on this.
11. If your client scarcely speaks at all, respect their silence. Simply lead them through the process with a kind and friendly manner.
12. After the first card is drawn and the client has looked at it for a moment, I usually ask: "You can do more cards, of course, but does this one seem to say something about your issue?" This helps them step into the intensive portion of the process.
13. Remember that a single word or phrase of the printed verbiage, or a single detail of the picture, will often be the key to further understanding. Give attention to whatever catches your attention.
14. When you don't know what to say, feel free to draw a card or two yourself, asking "What should I tell this person?" I sometimes even make a little show of hiding my cards from the client and just speak up loud with something my cards have said, even if I don't know why they said it. This little playful hint of an argument may jog the conversation.
15. Read the client too. Read their body language and their tone of voice.
16. Experience will help. You will eventually posses a rich store of insights which the cards have previously given.
17. Reading Tarot will strengthen your psychic powers. If you are new to divination, you should be very cautious in depending on your intuitions because you need to learn to distinguish true imagination from fantasy. There is a subtle difference in the texture of the flow of consciousness. Most people need a lot of experiment to learn this. But Tarot gives you that opportunity. Let the client tell you if your intuitions are correct.
18. I very strongly recommend that when it's finished you should always tell the client this: "Thank you for your trust."
There are many books, good and bad, about Tarot but I strongly recommend that you study the deck itself. At the start of every week choose a few cards to carry in your pocket. Look at them often. Watch for things shown on these cards to appear in your life and in the world. The essence of the thing is this: We should learn to read the pictures real life presents to us. At some point in this practice you may want to read a book or two about the subject.
The Simple Tarot, the deck that's black and white, is an execution of Taoist aesthetic through American Arts and Crafts design. It is supposed to seem so "normal" as to be almost invisible, inspiring an imaginatively colored visual impression in the mind rather like a vignette of verbal storytelling or a sound effect can do. It is true that the pictures are derived from a wide variety of styles - cubism, deco, film noir, Romantic sculpture, ikebana, iron wire and much more - but the sources are so extremely simplified and miniaturized into the tiny drawings as to be, in general, no more unruly than the stress manipulation in Robert Frost's poetry. In general the pictures look as though a painted tile were set into a blank surround or as though a thumbnail display of animated video were halted on the card. In general, a mannered simplicity comfortably contains the visual experience. In Jungian terms this is a very "Apollonian" mode. And it fits the way many people see.
The Spirit Hill Tarot, the colored deck, is a massive demonstration of a theory of painting called "New Modern Art". According to this theory, we can now create a visual language with immense communicative power by merging the genres of Modern art. For example symbolist, minimalist and color field techniques - or any other combinations - can be used together in a picture. The more that can be managed well, the better. The painter can thereby offer a hip viewer multiple simultaneous dissonant or harmonic voices, rather like a chamber orchestra or jazz ensemble does, and thus convey a deeper richer meta-message. (Human visual perception is regarded in the theory as a complex process with many sub-processes; the major Modern genres are regarded as dialects native in the various sub-processes.) This is the non-linear multi-channel "Dionysian" mode of visual perception that is now becoming dominant in our culture. It fits the way more and more people see.
In order to work properly, a Tarot deck must contain a complete description of human life. This presents a considerable artistic challenge. Some artists simply abandon hope of making a practical deck, and use it merely as a set of hooks to hang some fancy pictures on. But others approach the task by deeply incorporating Tarot into their life. That is the way to get a good result.
Many thoughtful people in the arts today use the word "magic" with a specific meaning. How does our imagination build vast palaces of thought from smears of paint, or from the notes of a tune, or the movements of a dance or the syllables of a story? How do we communicate so well through such thin and ghostly apparatus? It seems as though we all participate in some common vocabulary - some universal treasury of knowledge - toward which the gestures of an artist point. They call that magic.
How do you choose the right cards in a Tarot reading? Obviously the process of a reading invites us to become both artist and audience. We paint a picture while we see it. We tell a story while we hear it. And I can tell you that we are living in the same mental space when creating a true work of art, when beholding one, and while performing a reading. I can tell you that the artist, when the work of art is true, experiences the same vast sensation of their inspiration that you experience while gesturing your hand to turn a card.
We are not prisoners inside our skulls. We are participants in universal creativity.
You are a being of compassion. You understand that all is one. You understand that all is life and all who live, or ever lived, or ever shall, are all together in one life. Through all the tumult of our lives, this understanding is the universal medicine for pain and the universal joy that shines within our finest hopes. So strive your best to always hold compassion as your goal and guide. That is the way to seek reality. That is the way to live in truth.
This is a fortune telling system, a magic book,
a diagram of human life and soul wherein your intuition
speaks the truth your self can never know or soon forgets.
Here is the classic deck of picture cards,
the old city of 78 squares, the ancient map drawn
up as though life were an ever-shifting game of 78
tiles whereon each human token at each moment falls.
In this book of pictures, poetry and prose
you will come upon a certain numbering of roads,
a careful survey of the gods and men in their abodes,
a full accounting of the ancestor odes.
Naked, clothe your self in daring
and simply touch the flow of an infinite
and ever-present moment which you know is now;
feel at once the night and morning; thus come to be
like a dolphin touching echoes in the ever-present sea.
Ask a question, touch a page; there study what
good fortune and your own eye have to say. To learn of
life just ask for guidance; your own hand can point the way.
If you wish now, come with me; stand upon
my shoulders as I walk the sea. Repeat the journey
trod when you were young; hearken to the tale from
your own tongue. At every marker stone embrace the view;
Comprehend the truth and speak it new.