Terry Donaldson - Step by Step Tarot

Once you have worked with this you will be able to open up a lot of modern fiction, especially fantasy, sword and sorcery books, and see how their authors actually did it! I actually know a number of writers who use this technique whenever they get stuck for some inspiration.

We are going to use it because it gets you to the point of working more intuitively and imaginatively with the images on a set of cards, without wondering how right or wrong you might be.

What you must do here is lay out a set of, say, three or four cards. That will be enough for the moment. When you get the hang of it, you might well want to lay out sets and rows of them.

Now, without even trying to remember ‘what they mean’, make up a story – a simple little children’s story or a fairy story – using the pictures on the row of cards as a source of inspiration.

It’s a lot simpler, I have found, for those that already have children, as they often get asked for stories at bedtime.

But even if you don’t have children, it is still part of your initiation to develop your story-telling technique. In the ancient Druid Order (and I believe the same still applies today), the first grade of initiation was that of the bard, the story-teller, whose role it would be to entertain, to enlighten, to teach, using songs and poetry, music and legends, in order to do so. They would travel around the land, teaching and learning as they went.

On the facing page, I have given you an example.

Just below, I have chosen for you at random the Knight of Wands, the Seven of Wands, the Ace of Coins and the King of Swords.

It isn’t a bad idea actually to use the words ‘Once upon a time…’ in starting off. Somehow it seems to set the little story up just right.

Once upon a time, there was a Knight of the Round Table, who became severely disillusioned with how his life was going. He wasn’t even sure what changes he wanted to make; all he knew was that he wanted to do some travelling.

One day he was travelling around the countryside when suddenly he saw a band of brigands setting upon a single traveller, attempting to rob him. The Knight went straight to the man’s rescue, and although the brigands didn’t run off immediately, they didn’t put up too much resistance either.

The traveller was greatly relieved to have received such assistance and gave the knight a coin with a special symbol engraved upon it.

‘Take it,’ he said, ‘and if ever you find yourself in the city of Hyperborea, give it to the Sheriff, who will know what to do with it.’

The Knight took the coin, took his leave and set off on his journey, and one day he arrived at the city of Hyperborea, famous for the great arch which marked the entrance to the city’s gates.

While the Knight was there, he got into some trouble and was hauled up before the city’s Sheriff. The Sheriff was known to be a very severe judge in these matters, but the Knight showed him the special coin and instead of being punished, he was welcomed into the Sheriff’s own household that very night.

As you can see, this kind of story could go on for ever and ever! But it is interesting to set the cards out in this way and just to let your imagination do the work.

The point of doing lots and lots of work on the story-telling technique is that it starts to exercise the muscles of your imagination. As this starts to grow, so does your ability to ‘tune in’ to what is going on in the life of the person in front of you.

Your imaginative faculty is what is going to be doing 90 per cent of the work in any reading. It is this – and this alone – which makes the difference between a mechanistic recital of the cards and a lively, living, breathing experience out of which your Querent is going to emerge suitably impressed. You don’t have to write these stories down. You can just let them run in your head, picking cards at random and letting them trigger imaginative tales that don’t have to lead anywhere in particular. You don’t have to make a big deal out of this. You can even take the cards out on the way to work on a bus or a train and go through them there.

You might like to copy the sheet entitled ‘ Tarot Worksheet’ and create a complete page for each of the cards, 78 in all. At this stage, I want you to start building up your selection of associated memories and experiences for each of the cards. I want you, when you look at any one card, to reach the point of being able to link the picture with a complete set of feelings, memories, recollections, etc. It is this attribute which makes a great Tarot reading. Once you have worked through the deck in this way, your readings will not just be two-dimensional recitals of ‘the meaning of the cards’, in the way that so many self-trained people’s readings are. They will actually resonate with emotional intensity; they will become three- dimensional. They will acquire depth.

The actual exercise is simple: take each card and place it on a Worksheet. Now allow your thoughts to flow around the images which surface in your mind as you look at it. As they start to appear I want you to quickly write down all the associations which come up.

There will be memories of people, places, experiences positive and negative. Be specific: name names, put down times when things happened. Be as specific as you can. The more accurately you can do this, the more you will be genuinely weaving your own life experience into the symbolism of the cards.

Thoughts, hopes, dreams, ambitions, fears, desires will be triggered as you do this, making associations and connections with each card. Sometimes some of the experiences you will be reminded of will not be happy ones, but in doing this exercise you will be clearing emotional debris out of your system. Better out than in!

The whole purpose of the Worksheets is to act quickly, to get the immediate psychological response which the image of each card triggers off, before the critical faculty has a chance to step in and create a blockage.

It is a good idea to cycle through the Worksheets, going through them fairly quickly at first, and then come back to them when you feel ready. Each time you go through a card, you will get something more from the exercise.

There will be some cards from which you get more than from others. Some will have a lot to say to you; others will have their say with you further along your path. Some of the experiences which come back to you will be very intense. With some of them you may laugh, with others you may well cry.

But to work with the Tarot is to work on yourself, in the sense of looking at your own limitations, your own blockages, and finding a way to clear them. After all, unless you’ve cleared these away for yourself, at least to some extent, how can you realistically expect to help others to do so?

You will notice that the sheet entitled ‘ Neighbouring Page’ gives you the chance to write up all of your own more intimate and detailed reactions to the specific memories thrown up by each of the cards as you move through this set of exercises. The more you put into these exercises, the more you will actively participate in your own growth process.